Here are Jeremy’s Preditions for the 2011 Season;
Division Winners

-AL East, Rays
-AL Central, Tigers
-AL West, Rangers
-AL Wild Card, Red Sox
-NL East, Phillies
-NL Central, Cardinals
-NL West, Rockies
-NL Wild Card, Brewers

LCS Series Matchups
-ALCS, Tigers vs. Red Sox
-NLCS, Cardinals vs. Rockies

World Series

-Cardinals over Red Sox

 
Cy Young

-AL Cy Young, Jon Lester
-NL Cy Young, Calyton Kershaw

MVP

-AL MVP, Miguel Cabrera
-NL MVP, Ryan Braun

Rookie of the Year

-AL Rookie of the Year, Chris …

Blair liked my post comparing the three expert leagues, but asked if it would be possible if I could provide an earnings column as well.

I’m only too happy to oblige.

2010 A.L. Expert League Bids: Hitters

CBS

LABR

TW

$

Tier #1

$447

$394

$377

$400

Tier #2

$351

$311

$307

$309

Tier #3

$300

$273

$277

$268

Tier #4

$243

$233

$248

$230

Tier #5

$200

$197

$204

$200

Tier #6

$168

$179

$178

$171

Tier #7

$132

$154

$156

$150

Tier #8

$101

$129

$138

$133

Tier #9

$69

$95

$119

$100

Tier #10

$55

$69

$79

$72

Tier #11

$41

$45

$45

$48

Tier #12

$27

$32

$29

$23

Tier #13

$14

$20

$15

$3

Tier #14

$12

$12

$12

-$11

Totals

$2,160

$2,143

$2,184

$2,095

The earnings are not tied to the bid columns, but rather ranked the same way the bid columns are. For Tier …

For the seventh year in a row, I will be participating in one of the CBSsports.com Analyst League auctions, representing the Patton and Company website.

My erstwhile blogging partner John Toczydlowski will tee things off on Monday, February 7 at 1 p.m. in the N.L.-only auction. I will then be competing in the A.L.-only auction on Wednesday, February 9 at 1 p.m.

Regular readers are familiar with these leagues, but for you …

Looking for something a little different than the constant rankings and projections that are coming out everywhere right now? The guys over at Razzball took a look at 21 Razzball Commenter Leagues (RCL) to get an idea of how some typical debates actually play out.

Wondering if missing on your early picks will doom you throughout the entire year? Does it matter where you draft in a snake draft? When …

After reading my post on valuation, Rob wants to know if you can use OBP instead of batting average.

Sure. If you are using auction calculations like I did, you could simply take your pool of 168 or 182 hitters purchased and figure out their OBP. Since I don’t use OBP, I don’t have plate appearances or walks in my spreadsheet.

Since there are more plate appearances than walks, I would start …

NSH wonders if it’s possible to use valuation to gain a slight advantage in Roto.
It is fascinating (at least to me, an old masochist) to compare denominators presumably not league specific with those in any given league (such as our AL 5×5). Horseshoe close (that is, similar ranges) but enough different to make me wonder if it reveals some play I could leverage in my league. That is, will the …

Division Winners

-AL East, Red Sox                         -NL East, Phillies
-AL Central, Tigers                         -NL Central, Brewers
-AL West, Rangers                         -NL West, Dodgers
-AL Wild Card, Athletics                -NL Wild Card, Reds

LCS Series Matchups

-ALCS, Red Sox vs. Rangers

-NLCS, Brewers vs. Phillies

World Series

-Brewers over Red Sox

Cy Young

-AL Cy Young, Justin Verlander

-NL Cy Young, Zach Grienke

MVP

-AL MVP, Adrian Gonzalez

-NL MVP, Joey Votto

Rookie of the Year

-AL Rookie of the Year, Jeremy Hellickson

-NL Rookie of the Year, Domonic Brown

Along with our February Rankings, be sure to check out our Draft Tools Page. This is chalk full of great info. to help you with your upcoming draft!

I don’t often write about how the dollar values I use are derived because I don’t want to give my readers an ice cream headache. But my post on how I do derive my formulas has generated a lot of interest. Eugene asks:
I would like to know if you derive your ERA/Ratio/BAvg numbers based upon league averages or rotisserie league averages and where you get the IP and AB factors …

LA Dodgers
Depth Chart/Project Lineup1. Rafael Furcal – SS2. James Loney – 1st3. Matt Kemp – CF4. Andre Ethier – RF5. Juan Uribe – 2nd6. Casey Blake – 3rd7. Jay Gibbons/Marcus Thames – LF8. Rod Barajas – C9. *Starting Pitcher*
Rotation1. C. Kershaw2. J. Garland3. T. Lilly4. C. Billingsley5. H. Kuroda/V. PadillaCL – J. BroxtonHandcuff – H. Kuo
Top 5 Prospects1. Dee Gordon, ss2. Zach Lee, rhp3. Rubby de la Rosa, rhp4. Chris …

Pitchers and catchers haven’t even reported yet, but it’s never too early to begin thinking about keepers.
A.L 5×5 keeper league, my SPs are (John) Danks $12, Clay Buchholz $20 and Brett Anderson $20(or $15 depending on how long want to keep them), (Dallas) Braden $8 and (Joel) Pineiro $3. Pretty good, right?  
My good buddy and constant source of creative ideas thinks I should try and deal Anderson for someone …

Over the many years I have played fantasy baseball (FBB), the importance of closer has changed. From the early years it was all about locking up a solid closer. I once drafted a closer in the 2nd round! Some people would draft 4 closers! What a great idea we thought. Draft a bunch of 1 category guys and lock up that position for good, and that’s how the value of …

Howard wanted to know how the average salary was derived for the series of articles I just completed recapping 2010.

The salary column is a combination of three expert leagues: the League of Alternate Baseball Reality (LABR), Tout Wars, and the CBS Analysts League.

As I’ve pointed out before, the CBS league spends more on the top players than LABR and Tout Wars. How much more they spend is worthy of review.

2010 …

After (presumably) reading through my 2010 position-by-position recaps, Howard asks:
Can you confirm/remind that all your $s are 5×5? Have you posted your formulae?

I decided to shift my pricing from 4×4 to 5×5 after the 2009 season. Most of my readers use 5×5 and just about every expert league I can find uses the 5×5 format. I’m still in one 4×4 league, but since my audience continues to grow, I thought …

Not a ton seemed to go well for the New York Mets on the field in 2010 but they did manage to have some fantasy-relevant players and some of those performances translate into keeper selections.
A lot has been made of 3B David Wright‘s increasing strikeout numbers and decreasing walk numbers but he still managed to finish the season as the 20th-ranked fantasy player overall and the 2nd-ranked third baseman …

Pittsburgh was the destination. Fun was our mission. With us 4 cruising on the I-80 and I-79, nothing else seemed to matter. Spirits were high and money was plentiful. Nothing could stop us! We rolled into Pittsburgh a couple hours before the game, which was genius on our parts. If any of you are familiar with Chicago Cubs’ games, Wrigleyville, then you will understand the scene I am about to …

(In a COSFBA first, this article is coming to you by someone other than me. A unique opportunity presented itself to me via Twitter and I pounced. Writer Paul Boyé offered up his services to compose this edition of Finding Keepers and I couldn’t be happier with the results. Paul currently writes for PhilliesNation.com. Be sure to check out his body of work there and follow him on Twitter @Phrontiersman.)

In …

Atlanta Braves

Depth Chart/Project Lineup1. Nate Mclouth – CF2. Martin Prado – LF3. Chipper Jones – 3rd4. Dan Uggla – 2nd5. Brian McCann – C6. Jason Heyward – RF7. Alex Gonzalez – SS8. Freddie Freeman – 1st9. *Starting Pitcher*
Rotation1. D. Lowe2. T. Hudson3. T. Hanson4. J. Jurrjens5. M. MinorCL – KimbrelHandcuff – Venters
Top 5 Prospects1. Julio Teheran, rhp2. Freddie Freeman, 1b3. Randall Delgado, rhp4. Mike Minor, lhp5. Matt Lipka, …

Last year’s best National League pitchers were hit or miss. This year’s crop was pretty reliable.

Top 10 Salaries, N.L. Pitchers

#

Player

$

Sal

+/-

PK

SW

’09

1

Tim Lincecum

$22

$36

-14

$36

$39

$38

2

Roy Halladay

$38

$31

+7

$35

$38

$37

3

Dan Haren

$6

$29

-22

$33

$29

$33

4

Jonathan Broxton

$10

$26

-16

$25

$26

$26

5

Adam Wainwright

$35

$25

+11

$28

$26

$32

6

Johan Santana

$20

$25

-5

$32

$22

$21

7

Josh Johnson

$26

$23

+3

$23

$21

$26

8

Tommy Hanson

$19

$23

-4

$18

$22

$18

9

Chris Carpenter

$24

$23

+1

$28

$23

$33

10

Cole Hamels

$23

$23

-0

$23

$17

$13

Average

$22

$26

-4

$28

$26

$28

The only single-digit earner was Haren. Seven of the 10 pitchers here earned $20 or more, compared only four $20+ earners the year before. There were fewer “superstars” ($30+ earners) on this chart in 2010, but as a whole this …

As my regular readers know, I don’t make predictions. Something I do attempt to do is analyze earning versus spending trends from one year to the next. 

This is what I wrote at the end of last year’s version of this column:
I anticipate prices will go up in expert auctions next year for the best pitchers. Whether or not this new crop of aces is worth it is why we play …