Well here is the update that I promised everyone. I basically compared the stats from last year’s fantasy baseball season to this years. The stats are as of June 13, 2001.
There has been a total of 72 days within this period. Notice there has been 7 individuals who have been in first and 7 individuals who have been in last.
First Place Days In First % of Time Last Place Days In Last % of Time Gary 41 56.95% Chris K. 33 45.83% Josh 11 15.28% Brian 26 36.11% Dante 7 9.72% Burr 16 22.22% Dave 7 9.72% Chris T. 1 1.39% Chris T. 5 6.94% Jim 1 1.39% Marc 1 1.39% Josh 1 1.39%Here is a comparison of this year’s stats and last year’s stats. I calculated the averages, listed the Highs and Lows of each category, and the individual with that record.
2001 BA HR RBI R SB ERA K S WHIP W Avg .2786 117.5 433 447.2 62.1 3.706 513.9 33 1.307 40.5 High .2921 GB 149 DP 517 DP 484 GB/DG 75 CT 4.878 CK 631 CT 55 RV 1.425 JF 48 MP Low .2552 BL 92 MP 350 MP 393 BL 47 DP 3.526 BM 400 JM 6 CT 1.197 CT 30 BM 2000 BA HR RBI R SB ERA K S WHIP W Avg .2905 134 464.1 485.5 66.9 4.318 456 36.6 1.38 35.4 High .323 RV 157 MP 519 DG 519 RV 85 RV 3.69 BM 550 GB 62 RV 1.50 JM 43 BM Low .276 JM 105 AK 399 AK 432 AK 45 CK 5.15 JM 350 MP 19 MP 1.29 GB 28 JMBATTING AVERAGE
Last year Rishi had the highest batting average at this point in the season. His team batted .323. This year no one is close to the .300 mark. This year Gary has the highest batting average with .292. Last season six out of the ten teams batted over .290, with no one lower than .276. This year four teams are batting below .276.HOME RUNS
The home run average is down by 17. Looks like the big three (McGwire, Sosa, And Griffey) not playing to their potential and being plagued by injuries for the majority of the season has hurt the home run output. I still can’t believe that Bonds may beat the home run record in the season. I still think he sucks and so do most of the Giants. No one was there to greet him after he hit his 500th home run. That is so sad that the only one who was there was the bat girl. None of his teammates came out, that shows you something about Bonds.......he is an ass. Last year two teams had over 150 home runs, Dave with 153 and Marc with 157. This year no one is over 150 home runs, the closest is Chris Taylor with 149. Last year Marc led in home runs and this year he is dead last. The lowest last year was 105 home runs. This year three teams equal that mark or are lower. Over 50 home runs separate first and last place this year.RBI’s
The RBI average is down by 30. This year four out of the twelve teams have over 450 RBIs. Surprisingly all of the teams that have over 450 RBIs are in the top four places. Last year six out of the ten teams had over 450 RBIs. Those six teams were spread out over the ten places. Last year 120 RBIs separated first and last place in this category. This year 150 RBIs separates first and last place.RUNS
This year scoring is down. The average is down from last year by 40 runs. Last year four teams had over 500 Runs. This year no one has over 500 Runs. The closest this year are Gary and Dave, tied with 484 runs scored. Last year the lowest was 432 Runs. This year four teams are below that mark from last year.
STOLEN BASES
Stolen bases are slightly down. In 2000, 50% of the teams had over 70 steals. This year three out of the twelve teams have over 70 steals with the leader, Chris Taylor, having 85 successful robberies.There seems to be a correlation between between a low batting average and runs scored. My brother batted .277 last year. That was the second lowest batting average only to Josh who batted .276. My brother only scored 432 runs at this point in the season last year. This year Burr has the lowest batting average, a dismal .2552, and has scored the fewest runs (393). Gary has the highest batting average this year (.2921) and is tied for the lead in runs scored with 484. Last year Rishi led the league in batting average with .323 and also lead the league in runs with 519. Ironically I have one of the higher batting averages in our league this year and I am close to the bottom in runs scored. The other correlation is between home runs and runs driven in. Last year Marc lead the league with 517 Long Dingers and was in second with 508 RBIs. This year Dante has gone yard 149 times while driving in 517 base runners. Last year my brother came in dead last in dingers with 105 and 399 RBIs. This year Marc gets the cap labeled least production with 92 round trippers and 350 RBIs. How does one go from the best offense to the worst offense in one year?
ERA
The ERA average is down from 4.318 to 3.706. That is just a tad over half a run. Once again Brian dominates the category of ERA again. Last year Brian had an ERA of 3.69. This year his pitching staff is doing better than that with an ERA of 3.526. Could it be that he has only closers? Last year two teams had an ERA under 4. This year half the teams have an ERA under 4.Ks
Strikeouts are up by 60 from last year. With no start limit teams have a staff of eight. In 2000, three individuals had fanned over 500 hitters. This year seven of the twelve teams have over 500 Ks and two of those teams have fanned 600.Saves
Saves are slightly down. This could be because 30 closers divided over eleven teams (just pointing out the fact that Chris Taylor has given up saves) instead of ten. Rishi led the league last year with 62 saves and he dominates this year again with 55. I would have had my money on Brian to lead the whole entire year in saves with the way he drafted closers.WHIP
The average WHIP ratio dropped from 1.38 to 1.307. Last year the lowest WHIP ratio was 1.29 by Gary. This year five teams are lower than that mark from last year with the best being 1.197. That category being held by Chris Taylor. Last year the worst WHIP ratio was held by Josh with 1.50. Thankfully no one has topped that record.We can look at the numbers in several ways. We can say that this year we have twelve teams instead of ten teams and that’s why the offensive numbers are down so much. Expansion has caused less offensive weapons to be found in the free agent pool. But that does not explain why all of the pitching categories are reaching record highs. We can say that this is caused by not having a start limitation in out league this year and individuals are making lucky pick ups for those spot starts. I would have to say I have not been as lucky as some when it has come to picking up pitchers for spot starts. If I had to take a guess, I would have to say the new strike zone has tremendously impacted the fantasy baseball world. Is this a good thing? I have always favored pitching over offense. I enjoy those 1-0 games. The only routs I like to see are the Mets kicking the shit out of the Yankees. The Mets and Yanks series aren’t interesting because it’s a subway series, they are interesting because they are so close. All the games they have played over the last two years have been decided by two runs or less. It fucking sucks because they have always favored the Yanks. But who really cars for a game that is 15-2 in the 3rd inning....I don’t.
I will reexamine the stats again in September. In that edition I will focus mainly on how teams have performed during the stretch runs and who have been the biggest flops.
