2005 Reflection (What did it take to win last year?)

Last year, it was an exciting race to the finish, with Kyle’s Bombers and Crazy Carl making nice stretch runs before Mike’s Sting was able to pull away. Also, Kris’ Duds made a nice showing in 4th place despite having no closers for most of the season.

This week, we’ll look at how offensive categories influence roto baseball. Next week, we’ll look at pitching. Here are how the offensive stats “stacked” up:

Home runs: 336 was the top home run count (Texas)
That averaged 26 homers / player (13 players total)

Steals: 194 was the top steals count (NY K9’s)
That averaged about 15 steals / player

RBI: 1174 was the top rbi’s count (Texas again)
That averaged 90 rbi / player

*If you look at the home run rankings and the rbi rankings, each teams rankings in the 2 categories were similar and didn’t deviate too much… for instance, the team that ranked 1 in homers also ranked 1 in rbi’s… and the most any team deviated in these were just 2 points… for instance another team ranked 7th in homers and 9th in rbis…

Batting average:
This is a category where having guys (like Ichiro) with huge at-bat numbers and with high batting averages can help a team. Others like Lugo and Furcal helped the Duds win this category. It’s nice having power hitters with good batting averages, but often times it’s the speedsters with huge at-bats and high averages that make the most difference in this category.

Runs:
This is a category that can have many different factors and variables… Having base-stealers can help in runs, but you have to also factor in on-base percentage… Guys who walk a lot, even if they are clean-up hitters, do score a lot of runs. Guys like Pujols and A-Rod not only have monster rbi numbers, they also score a bunch of runs (they score off homers, they get on base through walks, they hit a lot of doubles and score from there, and they have power guys behind them in the lineup). Sure, Damon, Jeter, Rollins, and Figgins (classic leadoff guys who can steal) scored a whole bunch of runs last year… but it was Pujols who led the league in runs (as a #3 hitter).

ROTO POINTS /RANKING

Sting Runs (8) HR (9) RBI (8) Steals (5) Batting average (3)
Duds Runs (9) HR (8) RBI (7) Steals (8) Batting average (10)


Last year, the Sting did pretty well… scoring nicely in all the categories except for batting average. On his team, Beltran, Carlos Lee, Thome, Nevin, and even Sizemore did not hit for hefty averages, thus leading to the #3 ranking in average.
Interestingly, the team that did the best combining batting average, power and speed was the Duds… led by Ortiz, M. Cabrera, Ichiro, Furcal, and Lugo. Lastly, this team had NO 20steal/20homer players… NONE… the Duds had the best offense by having a nice blend of power guys with speed guys…