If you're getting ready to play some fantasy baseball, ESPN has got you covered. We've got rankings, salary-cap values and cheat sheets for rotisserie, head-to-head categories and head-to-head points leagues. But what about if you play in a league with settings different from those three popular offerings?
In this sabermetric age, it's not uncommon to find a league that uses on-base percentage instead of batting average, quality starts in place of wins, or even includes as many as 10 categories on either side of the ball. For one of these custom formats, there's no simpler way to craft yourself a set of rankings than by using ESPN's Fantasy Baseball Custom Value Generator.
Let's illustrate the process, using the rotisserie 6x6 format that I've written about many times on these pages. In this format, I've taken the traditional 5x5 categories, added a sixth on each of the hitting and pitching sides, and made some categorical adjustments to keep up with the sabermetric times. Batting average, for instance, has been replaced by on-base percentage, and stolen bases has been replaced by net stolen bases, with slugging percentage added as the sixth hitting category. On the pitching side, wins has been replaced by quality starts, and strikeouts by the K/9 ratio, with innings pitched added as the sixth pitching category.
To generate a quick set of rankings for this particular 6x6 format, select these settings in the Generator and hit submit. The league I run which uses these categories is a 12-team league. I always calculate values using a $260 salary cap and using cents, and I find that 68% is the ideal percentage spent on hitting.
As you can see, the three most valuable players in 6x6 scoring are Mike Trout ($43.99), Juan Soto ($41.19) and Freddie Freeman ($37.97), with Jacob deGrom ($35.40) being the highest-rated pitcher and the fourth highest-rated overall. This differs dramatically from the traditional 5x5 (even using the same 68% hitting split) where Fernando Tatis Jr. ($37.57), Ronald Acuna Jr. ($37.52) and Trout ($37.39) are the three most valuable players. Checking in again as the No. 1 pitcher is deGrom ($36.55).
That's still a different order than I've listed in my head-to-head categories rankings, and it's an important wrinkle to the Generator. It only uses the ESPN projections and Rotowire.com's player valuation formula to rate players. It doesn't weigh things like the author's opinions, where a player's statistical ceiling and/or floor and how far his median projection resides from either often comes into play. Instead, it strictly goes by the numbers.
So how could someone quickly adapt the Generator's output to account for their own player opinions?
One way I do that is to run my league's specs through the Generator, then pull the outputs into an Excel sheet for easy adjustments. To do that, select the "Print" button on each of the hitters and pitchers pages and copy-and-paste the data into your spreadsheet. Then, do the same for your traditional 5x5 rankings. In this case, I used my head-to-head categories top 300 rankings. Then, using a series of either VLOOKUP or SUMIF formulas, compare the valuations between 5x5 and your chosen format.
Among the players who benefit the most due to the shift from 5x5 to 6x6 scoring are Robbie Ray (+$7.61), Brandon Nimmo (+$6.87), Trout (+$6.60), Matthew Boyd (+$6.29), Joey Votto (+$6.27), Brandon Belt (+$6.12), Josh Donaldson (+$5.76) and Juan Soto (+$5.72). Among those who suffer the greatest drop-off in value are Adalberto Mondesi (-$9.45), Starling Marte (-$6.72), Luis Robert (-$6.45), Javier Baez (-$5.46), Tim Anderson (-$4.99), Liam Hendriks (-$4.81), Tommy Edman (-$4.81) and Josh Hader (-$4.69). Walkers and high-strikeout arms, naturally, enjoy the greatest benefit, while speedsters with modest slugging percentages are the most negatively impacted.
Using those value comparisons, you can then more easily manually adjust your own rankings to account for the new scoring system. For those interested in how these 6x6 comparisons impacted mine, you can jump down to the end of this column's end to see my full, top 150 overall players for 6x6 formats.
Now, let's take a look at which players benefit from two other common formats:
On-base percentage in place of batting average: This is Tout Wars' primary format, with the change made to reward hitters for earning walks. It corrects a flaw in the original 5x5 scoring system. It should be noted that the league's best OBP last year was .490 and the worst was .238. That's a much larger gap than in batting average, where the range was only .364 to .176. As a result, hitters with better on-base percentages do tend to get a more noticeable boost. Sure enough, Soto (+$9.51), Trout (+$9.45), Nimmo (+$8.64), Bryce Harper (+$8.44), Cavan Biggio (+$8.18), Carlos Santana (+$8.16), Votto (+$7.88) and Donaldson (+$6.55) enjoy the biggest gains in this format. Baez (-$7.68), Mondesi (-$6.77), Salvador Perez (-$6.46), Anderson (-$6.23), Eddie Rosario (-$6.21), Anthony Santander (-$6.05), Marte (-$5.90) and Jose Abreu (-$5.47), meanwhile, are the hitters who lose the most value switching these two hitting categories.
Holds as the sixth category, with on-base percentage and slugging percentage replacing batting average in a 6x6: Naturally, it's the hold-getting middle relievers who benefit the most in this format, in addition to some of the names boosted by the aforementioned 6x6, like Nimmo, Trout and Votto. Devin Williams (+$15.67), Tyler Duffey (+$15.01), Jake Diekman (+$14.76), Drew Pomeranz (+$13.86) and Ryan Brasier (+$10.97) are the five players with the biggest overall surge.
Now, give your own league settings a try! There are 23 hitting categories and 21 pitching categories from which to choose, meaning that almost any combination your league uses is likely to be an option.