Fantasy Baseball Manager of the Year

MOTY Subscriber Question #3

April 4, 2006 — Subscribers are always encouraged and free to submit questions, thoughts or anecdotes to MOTY Talk. Periodically, when we feel a subscriber’s email would be helpful to other fantasy baseball fans, we’ll post it and MOTY’s response for all to read.

RPS

More than a few people have emailed us asking about the “RPS” designation in the MOTY projection tables — specifically, “What in the heck is it?” So, we’ll cover off all the questions we’ve received in one answer:

“RPS” is a MOTY-specific abbreviation for “Relative Position Strength,” which measures how much “more valuable” or “less valuable” a player is relative to the average player – defined by “average MOTY#” – at his particular position.

For example, an outfielder with a 2.27 RPS is worth 2.27x more than the average outfielder. Put another way, he is 127% more valuable than the average guy roaming the “big green lawn.” Whereas, a starting pitcher with a 0.83 RPS is deemed less valuable than the average sp, worth only 83% of the average hurler.

Admittedly, RPS is a “deviation from average” factor — BUT it is the only time MOTY uses a deviation from average method in determining a player’s value, and only used for pre-season rankings … but we’ll explain that in a minute.

First, it’s important to recall that each player’s MOTY# is determined by his stat line – and his stat line alone – with no bearing on any other players’ stats or production. Once the MOTY# is generated for every player at a particular position, we can find the average MOTY# for that position. Only then can we determine each player’s RPS — simple math really, no trade secret algorithms revealed*, just divide each guy’s MOTY# by his position’s average MOTY# and you discover how strong a player he is at his position in relative terms — his “Relative Position Strength.”

“That’s all good and fine, but why have an RPS at all?”

For pre-season draft rankings. Namely, the RPS helps us take “position scarcity” into account when creating the adjusted pre-season draft rankings … which, you probably now suspect, we call “Adjusted MOTY#s.”

As you most likely realize, players at some positions, such as “catcher,” simply don't put up stats like other positions, i.e. outfielders. By and large, guys behind the dish simply aren’t as valuable, fantasy-wise. But you still have to draft a catcher or two.

For drafting purposes, Adj. MOTY# accounts for position scarcity by raising more-valuable players at thinner positions above less-valuable players at other positions in the overall draft rankings. Like RPS, Adj. MOTY#s are arrived at using simple math* — MOTY# × RPS.

For example, V. Martinez, the #1 catcher, has a 49.37 MOTY#, which is 4.48x (RPS) better than the average catcher. On the other hand, Pat Burrell, the #21 outfielder, has a 49.45 MOTY#, and is only 2.45x better than the average outfielder.

By MOTY#, Burrell ranks higher … barely. But by Adj. MOTY#, you want to pick Martinez (221.3) before Burrell (121.4) and have the best catcher in baseball on your team.

Of course, most people will base their rankings by Adj. MOTY# — overall fantasy value × Relative Position Strength (accounting for position scarcity). But for those of you who don’t buy into position scarcity, go ahead and sort your lists by MOTY#. Then again, if you want to draft list based solely on position scarcity, rank your cheat sheets by RPS.

Whichever you choose, just click that category header in the tables and you’ll instantly order the players accordingly.

Or, here’s an idea: Do a MOTY Scope™ Advanced Filter search for players who are at least 1.5x better than average – “RPS greater than 2.49” – and start setting up your draft list from the resulting pool of players.

Hmm, interesting … we might try that one ourselves …

* But don’t go thinking MOTY#s are generated by simple math — far, far from it. Which is why we protect them as trade secrets. Or, you know … “Hey, ’Fredo, wanna go fishing on Lake Tahoe?”