Rotisserie pitching (winning with WINS)

Looking at last year’s final standings, it’s easy to attribute Mike(Sting)’s league victory to his superior talent and his steady managing of his daily lineup. But as I looked deeper at the 2nd place team (Kyle’s Bombers), I found some interesting developments.

The Bombers had an awesome pitching stat line: 1st in wins, 1st in K’s, 1st in ERA, 3rd in WHIP, and 5th in saves. Now, it would be easy to attribute his team’s 2nd place finish to Sting to the Bomber’s mediocre offense. Sure he had Pujols, Chone Figgins, and half a season of Miguel Cabrera… but that was pretty much it. There are 13 players that need to pull their weight on offense. But the thing that amazed me was that he was a closer or two away from having the PERFECT pitching stat line.

The PERFECT pitching stat line is so hard to achieve because the WINS category is SO unpredictable. Good ERA and WHIP can be achieved by solid starters (no mystery). High strikeout pitchers are also predictable (R.Johnson… Jake Peavy… Pedro…), and of course, we know 80 percent of the closers… Did you know that Kyle’s Bombers could have attained 1.5 more points (in the standings) if they got 2 more SAVES??? A closer would have done the trick… These 4 elements are usually predictable. What you see is what you get with K's, ERA/WHIP, and saves.

Wins… now that’s one category that’s hard to figure out. Chris Carpenter’s a wins machine… but who knew until this year? You would think that Peavy’s a win machine… but he hasn’t proved it yet…

Now… back to the Bombers… did you know that despite starting only 171 games (the LEAST amount of starts in the WHOLE LEAGUE), the Bombers WON the wins category???? That was NUTZ!!!

How did he do it? Roy Oswalt, Closers and middle relief… 23 of his wins came through relievers… That’s more than Oswalt (who had 22)!!! Let’s put it this way… NO starter last year had more than 22 wins… Kyle’s relief crew beat every starting pitcher in the league in WINS.

Lesson… Using Kyle’s example, perhaps the recipe for success in winning the pitching stat line in rotisserie baseball is this: 1) Get 3 solid starters who will help you in ERA/WHIP and strikeouts, 2) Have at least 3 closers that can give you 30 or more saves, and 3) Don’t be afraid to use 2 or even 3 middle relief or set-up men to complement your staff. Remember, solid set-up men can ALSO help in wins and strikeouts too… (look at Scott Shields)