Part II of my snake draft strategy.

The discussion that began in the comments of my last post on snake draft strategy encouraged me to write an article about points leagues. Although my previous article focused mainly on how to use your rankings to draft, this one will concentrate on the actual ranking process.

Points leagues are a completely different animal than roto leagues. If you are in a points league, never use generic ranking lists that are aimed at roto leagues, as rankings could differ immensely. The most important point to get across is you must know your scoring system. I see a lot of message board posts describing their league as a “typical points league”. Unless I’m mistaken, I don’t believe there is a “typical” points system like there are the typical 10 categories used in roto leagues. I think people drastically underestimate the effect their league’s specific scoring system has on rankings. Without laying out the specifics of the scoring system on a message board post asking to rank players, any responses should be taken with a grain of salt, since it’s impossible to rank players without knowing how the scoring works.

So how exactly do you create points league rankings? The good news is it’s a whole lot easier than making roto league rankings, since you don’t need to generate dollar values. Using Excel, or any spreadsheet program, here is a step-by-step guide:

1) Project player stats in each category your league rewards or deducts points for. You should project at least the number of players at each position your league will draft, including several more at each position for replacement level. Since projecting all these categories for so many players could be time consuming, taking projections from another source is perfectly fine. You could always make adjustments to the projections as you copy them.

2) In the next column, after your projected stats, calculate the total points using your projections. Simply multiply each stat by the point value your league assigns it and add up the total. This is the total points you project each player to produce. Most people would stop right here, sort, and voilà, a master cheat sheet. This, however, would be wrong!

3) Look over how many active players your league will be drafting at each position. For example, a 12-team league requiring 2 catchers means 24 starters will be drafted. In leagues using a CI and MI position, lump the 1B and 3B together, as well as SS and 2B, giving you 36 for each pair. To take care of the Utility position, the best advice I have would be to increase the number of active players for OF, 1B and 3B, maybe 4 of each for a 12-team league, to allow an extra 12 players to have positive value to be used at Utility. Also, don’t forget about DH-only players, who you could either lump in with 1B or include them with the utility players.

4) In the column next to the total points column, subtract the point total of the next highest player at each position (1st replacement level) from each player at that position. For example, based on the roster requirements in #3 above, you would subtract the 25th catcher’s point total from every catcher, the 37th 1B/3B from every 1B/3B, etc. If you use the Utility position, you might decide to use the 45th 1B/3B so you also value 8 players to be used at Utility.

5) The reason for this adjustment is because you want to acquire point totals above what you could pick up for free through free agency. If the 25th catcher is projected for 250 points, you don’t want to pay for those points, only those points in excess of the 250 this replacement level catcher would provide. This adjustment now provides a surefire way to incorporate position scarcity into your points league rankings. And if you were wondering, yes, pitchers are done the exact same way.

6) Once you finish calculating this new points total (I like to call it PAR, or Points Above Replacement), combine all the positions and sort in descending order by PAR.

7) You can now go into your drafts with confidence knowing your rankings are perfectly customized to your scoring system, even taking into account position scarcity. Come draft time, you could now use my Snake Draft Strategy article to draft, replacing the dollar value talk with PAR.

Remember that in points leagues, balance is not necessary. In a roto league, you usually try to balance speed and power, however in a points league all that matters is points, no matter how you accrue them. You don’t even need a closer, since again, you’re just trying to draft the most points, or PAR, with your pitching staff. As always, if you need further clarification on anything I described above or want some personal advice, shoot me an e-mail.

Questions, comments, criticisms, praise, expert league invitations? Email me at FBGeneralsMike@gmail.com.<!– div