Although I’ve only played fantasy football a couple of times, hate it, and am not playing this year, I still sometimes enjoy reading rankings, projections, and articles because I’m just such a fantasy sports fanatic that apparently any sport will catch my attention. Anyway, I just wanted to quickly rant about the rankings that are sure to pop up on at least 500 sites by the end of August. Yes, this is a fantasy football article on a fantasy baseball site, but this could be applied to pre-season fantasy baseball rankings as well.
What motivated me to write this article was having just skimmed through a post on a popular message board that gave a preview of its rankings from the site’s draft kit. The rankings were preceded by no mention of what scoring system or roster requirements the lists were based on, which I notice far too often when checking out rankings on various sites. Though, I should give this specific site the benefit of the doubt since it was just a preview and the actual draft kit could very well provide the information I was looking for, but that just makes one site that provides the info, as compared to the many that don’t.
Do people really not understand how much of an effect the specific scoring system and even the roster requirements have on a player’s value? In fantasy football leagues, doesn’t the addition of points-per-reception impact a player’s value? Did the rankings I looked at assume PPR or not? How about the points a QB receives for a touchdown? I know some leagues award 6 points, while others award 4. What if your league has a Flex position allowing you to play either a WR, RB, or TE in the slot? Is there even a “standard” fantasy football scoring system and roster that all rankings should be assumed to be based on if it’s not specifically noted?
While on the subject of ranting about fantasy football, what’s the deal with the so-called great conventional wisdom of “handcuffing” your starting RB with his backup? If you’re reading about the strategy for your first time, you’d think it was the greatest idea since the MLB Extra Innings package was introduced. I’m not sure that I’ve ever read what the real underlying benefit of this strategy was. It’s not simply “damn, my RB got hurt and is now out for the year! It’s a good thing I was smart enough to draft his back up so my team isn’t completely screwed.” It really comes down to a basic principle from the stock market and that is risk vs. reward. In the stock market, you could purchase a stock, but hedge your position by buying a put option (a contract that allows you to sell the underlying equity at a specific price and by a specified day). That way, you don’t lose as much if the stock goes down. However, you also limit your potential reward since the cost of the option must be factored in when calculating your net profit if the stock goes up.
In fantasy football, handcuffing your RB certainly does reduce your risk, but it also limits your reward. Instead of potentially having 3 starting RBs if you decide to draft the backup from a team you don’t own the starting RB for, you will only end up with 2 starting RBs with the handcuff strategy. So really, it’s a matter of preference and your own fantasy football playing skills to determine which way is best for you, meaning handcuffing is NOT the automatic best and smartest strategy.
Questions, comments, criticisms, praise, expert league invitations? Email me at FBGeneralsMike@gmail.com.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Paul Greco // Aug 10, 2008 at 9:57 am
Mike,
Great article,but unfortunately I think your analysis is completely off when discussing handcuffing. Your comments on handcuffing are way off based and shows that risk/reward of handcuffing your star RB’s is truly not understand.
When using Handcuffing in Fantasy Football I use this as the definition ““Handcuffing” is used to describe the selection of a starter and his backup on draft day in order to provide your Fantasy Football Team insurance in case your starter goes down for an extended period of time. As we all know, injures happen, but some running backs have a tendency to get injured more than others. It’s important that you can identify those players and have an insurance plan in place by drafting their backup.”, you’re not selected the backup, or number 2 RB, in the middle of the round. You are selecting them later in your draft where the risk and reward will be greater for your Fantasy Football team. For instance there are several key players that you’d want to hancuff because these running backs chosen in first round, LT, AP, Clinton Portis for example all have had significant injuries in their careers, LT for example was last year. By selecting their backup in the 13th/14th round for example is a smart move and will reduce your risk of possibly losing out on your first rounder, “Franchise Player.”
The same is true in baseball when we are looking at closer who potential may lose their jobs to the next guy in line. What do we do, we select them as well just in case. The big name this off season were Hoffman and Heath, Lidge and Gordan, Lyons and Pena. No different than handcuffing in football.
Just my 2 cents on the article.
–PAUL
2 Mike Podhorzer // Aug 11, 2008 at 5:39 am
Hey Paul, thanks for the comments. I think I did describe handcuffing and it’s purpose exactly the way you did. I agree it reduces risk, however, it reduces your reward as well.
Think about the tradeoff here. Instead of drafting the backup to someone else’s RB, you draft the backup to your own. If your opponent’s RB gets injured, and you own his backup, suddenly you have 3 starters. If you handcuffed your own RB instead, you can never have 3 starters (since now your handcuff is the starter with your starter injued, keeping you at 2 starters) so your reward now is less.
Also, how many weeks do you sit there clogging up a bench spot with a backup RB who might never play? The only point of holding him is in case your RB is injured, but that roster spot is valuable, and using it on a guy who might never play, instead of taking a shot on a WR or QB who might actually provide some value, might not be the best strategy.
It’s just like baseball, exactly. How many weeks do you sit there holding onto Heath Bell, waiting and waiting for Hoffman to lose his job, until you realize you just wasted 2 months with him on your bench when that slot could have been better used on someone who could actually help your team?
3 Patrick DiCaprio // Aug 11, 2008 at 7:00 am
you both have valid points. As with everything else it comes down to risk tolerance. Last year in a football leageu I drafted Braylon Edwards in a late round as well as a few other receivers. If I picked up mystarters’ backup in one of those rounds, I might have lost Braylon or one of the other guys that did nothing. So in exchange for that cost certainty with the RB position I trade off the potential for a Braylon Edwards but also the potential of getting nothing.
I think this was Mike’s point Paul, and I am not 100% sure you got it. So you both have it right! I would expect no less by the way….
4 jim diamond // Aug 19, 2008 at 9:00 pm
I thought ALL y’all had great points and explanations! Thanks.
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