tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75757421687039150932024-02-20T03:18:16.371-05:00The Rotohog BlogThis blog is dedicated to the new fantasy baseball game Rotohog. I'll be posting strategy tips, as well as some news and gossip about the game.
One quarter of anything I earn from this blog will be donated to Save the Children.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-21004612228309621122008-12-21T08:01:00.001-05:002008-12-21T08:02:42.267-05:00UpdateI've revived my main fantasy baseball blog: <a href="http://waiverwire.blogspot.com">The Waiver Wire</a>.<br /><br />Also thought it worth mentioning that I won Rotohog's 2008 contest!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-56883707916645861812007-07-26T06:39:00.000-05:002007-07-26T06:40:43.830-05:00Daily ProjectionsUnfortunately (or maybe it's fortunately) I've discovered that I like playing Rotohog so much that I don't have time to write about it. Luckily, there's a new fantasy baseball website that focuses on daily transactions leagues including Rotohog: <a href="http://www.dailyprojections.com">Daily Projections</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-8341845614617936702007-04-10T19:53:00.000-05:002007-04-10T19:54:35.170-05:00ApologiesApologies for the lack of recent posts. Real life collided with blogging in a big way, between getting busy at work and then getting really sick for a couple days. I should start doing regular posts again in the next day or two. Lots of updates on Rotohog news, strategy, and more.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-51689907260218110782007-04-03T06:02:00.000-05:002007-04-03T06:11:54.697-05:00Responses & CommentsOther than George's comments on my previous post, seems like customer service has been excellent. While I may get special attention as a blogger, I've heard that the support has been good from lots of sources. In fact, maybe TOO responsive - the last minute trading floor hours change appears to have been in response to complaints from just a few people.<br /><br />Clearly the biggest flaw in the game is that the current transaction rules will make it impossible to win without treating Rotohog as a nearly full time job. I'm sure they'll fix this for next season. I'm trying to work out some slightly less time intesive strategies for myself, but doubt those will allow me to do better than top 50 or so.<br /><br />The Rotohog guys set out to find the best fantasy baseball player in the world, and I believe they've created a game where the best person will win almost every time. The only problem is that right now some of the required 'skills'are not what they should be.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-10746181258260995472007-04-02T06:17:00.000-05:002007-04-02T06:21:57.729-05:00UpdateJust got this from David Wu: "Phil and the guys are correcting this as we speak. <br />Your point total should show up soon. Sorry about that."<br /><br />These guys are awesome. I report a problem at 3am their time and they're working on it already at 4:10am their time!<br /><br />I'd be interested to hear more about people's experiences the first weekend of trading. I'm currently around $395 (down from about $435 at my highest). I was about five minutes too slow selling my Mets and Cards...the run-up and then crash in their prices was even stronger than I expected...I guess we should be ready for that whenever there's only one game on a given day. We'll see what happens when there are more games today. Luckily for me, I wasn't at my computer for the IPO or I would have lost out on that. The other big surprise for me is that so far, it doesn't seem like people realize the importance of closers...their prices haven't really gone up much except ones who clearly were underpriced.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-90021160504456414302007-04-02T06:00:00.000-05:002007-04-02T06:05:53.745-05:00Opening DayIf you followed the strategy of stocking up on Mets and Cardinals for yesterdays game and then sold immediately after the lineups locked into place for Rotohog (10 minutes before game time) you may have noticed a problem. You have 0 points this morning, and your lineup for yesterday doesn't show the players who you sold! I reported this problem around 6am Eastern and got a reply back from David Wu at Rotohog that he forwarded the email to their technology team and he will get back to me as soon as their technology manager wakes up. Pretty quick response considing it was 3am David's time. For those of you who haven't figured this out yet, the 'David' who sometimes comments here is David Wu - the founder and CEO of Rotohog. So far I've found him to be extremely responsive to questions and comments about the game. I'm sure some of you who sold Carpenter right after lineups locked in are hoping he won't be quite so responsive this time! But no fear...I'm confident they can fix things, because all the transactions are timestamped, so it should be easy to tell what everyone's correct lineups were last night.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-68564526725156151832007-03-30T12:45:00.000-05:002007-03-30T12:48:00.315-05:00Trading UpdateAnother quick update on trading...<br /><br />Looks like the Delmon Young/Howie Kendrick 'bubble' is over, as prices on both have dropped down to more reasonable levels.<br /><br />Overall, it looks like there's some mild inflation for now.<br /><br />I'd be curious to hear how much $ worth of players people have accumulated so far. I'm around $360, and the one person I've compared notes with is about $30 ahead of me.<br /><br />Still many underpriced players (especially closers) as well as obviously overpriced ones. In fact, if there's one area where the pricing mechanism doesn't seem to work perfectly so far, its guys who were overpriced and barely drafted at all. For example, Keith Foulke's price has barely dropped.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-81317059090546177612007-03-30T08:46:00.000-05:002007-03-30T08:50:14.581-05:00Trading Floor OpensQuick update now that the trading floor has been open 45 minutes. It looks like the pricing mechanism is working great...nothing weird or out of line so far. The obviously underpriced players are moving up a lot.<br /><br />Two things that most people don't seem to have realized so far (based on price action):<br /><br />1. Only the Mets and Cardinals play opening day. If you don't want your roster spots to go to waste Sunday, but guys like Carpenter, Pujols, Reyes, Wright, Beltran, Isringhausen, and Wagner. So far, only Pujols is up much out of that group.<br /><br />2. You are going to NEED to carry as many closers in your lineup as you can. If you have 2 closers and I have 4, then you're going to be basically giving me a 2,000 point head start. Read the Aaron Brown guest article in my archives if you don't understand why. So far, only the really obviously underpriced closers have gone up much.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-42903945382303152862007-03-30T05:54:00.000-05:002007-03-30T06:18:23.161-05:00Rotohog News & NotesSome news and notes on a variety of topics:<br /><br />1. Don't forget that trading starts today at 9am Eastern.<br /><br />2. You may have noticed that there doesn't seem to be any way to add players to the 'Watch List'. I haven't gotten to ask about this yet, but I'm guessing that it's a trading floor function, and so won't be available until 9am this morning. Somebody else suggested that the issue may be that the watch list is a premium service, but I think we all have premium service for the first two weeks of the season, so I doubt that's the problem.<br /><br />3. I sent an email to the Rotohog people asking their opinion on whether my proposed 'Rotohog assistant' arrangement is allowed. They basically said 'no', so I won't be doing it. Their feeling is that the goal (for them) is to identify "the best fantasy baseball player in the world" and working with someone would provide an unfair advantage. They don't have any problem with asking someone to fill in for you if you're on vacation or something.<br /><br />4. Somebody asked about my draft. Keep in mind that my goal was price appreciation...not getting players I'll necessarily want during the season. Here's my current roster: Papelbon, Dotel, R. Hill, Huff, Salas, Valverde, Isringhausen, Dempster, Hermanson, B. Wagner, Lidge, Owens, Gregg, Orvella, and Carpenter. Obviously some of the more speculative picks haven't really worked out but they cost me almost nothing. The only players on that list who are likely to be in my lineup by Sunday are Papelbon, Isringhausen, Wagner, and and Carpenter. The only one who will make to Monday is Papelbon.<br /><br />5. Also, I've been saying that Rotohog sign-ups were ending this week. It turns out that isn't true. They will remain open thoughout the season. Late entrants just won't get to participate in a draft, and obviously they won't have much chance of winning the overall competition. But there will be monthly and/or weekly contents that they'll be eligible for.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-51447271104876567072007-03-28T06:24:00.000-05:002007-03-28T06:32:50.023-05:00Some Good QuestionsSomebody asked a few good questions in the comments a couple days ago:<br /><br /><em>1. How did your draft go?</em><br />It went well. I'll probably share the details on Friday, but I got all but two of the bargains that I was targeting and had about $80 to spare. I suspect I may be the only person in the Rotohog universe who only drafted one hitter.<br /><br /><em>2. You may have explained this before, but why do you think that the player prices will decline as soon as the market opens? I think that all players (well ok, most) might go up in value becuase each owner will have about 10% more money to work with. Sure, 3 additional players may be added to each roster, but those who want to have a strong starting lineup will have more money to spend such players.</em><br />Actually, I'm not so sure what will happen anymore. I agree that there will be some initial inflation from the extra $25 that we'll each get on Friday. And I'm positive that there will be long run deflation as money disappears from the Rotohog universe in the form of transaction costs. But I don't know what will happen in between, and don't think that anyone does until we learn more about how trading and pricing work. My original assumption of deflation was based on what is likely to be an incorrect assumption that prices would drop on players who aren't 100% owned.<br /><br /><br /><em>3. Finally, I like your idea of rotating players, but how feasible do you think this will be? Do you think there will be "transaction costs" (much higher buy prices than sell prices) that will prohibit one from turning his/her lineup over every day/week/etc.? Also, do you think a player will be cheaper (and therefore, also have a low sell price) on his off day than on a day when he will play 5 or 6 straight days?</em><br />Transaction costs are a concern, but I think there will be plenty of opportunities for good players to make money through trading, so it shouldn't prevent a strategy of rotating...plus rotating makes it possible to get by with fewer players in the lineup at the same time. I'm not sure that the pricing pattern will be as simple 'cheaper on day off', but I believe that there will be some fairly regular patterns based on playing schedules, and that exploiting these will be one of the biggest edges that the best Rotohog players will have over the rest.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-2479912264255721822007-03-26T04:38:00.000-05:002007-03-26T09:28:49.177-05:00Draft DayToday is my Rotohog draft day. I'm still considering whether I want to spend all my money or not. I've got a list of players that I'd like to get if they're available, but would basically be spending all my money to get them. That could be a risky strategy if there is the kind of deflation I think is likely, although I think these are all players who should go up in price, or at least retain their value well, even if there's deflation. I also may not be faced with the decision, since some of these guys will probably be drafted before I can get them anyway. I'm also a little nervous about everything going smoothly. I'm using Internet Explorer 6, which Rotohog has suggested may have some problems. It worked fine during the mock draft I did, but it's still something to worry about.<br /><br />Some helpful tips if you're preparing for your draft:<br />1. Think about what players you want to pick because of their potential for quick price appreciation.<br /><br />2. Think about what players you will want in your lineup for opening day, and whether you can get them cheaper in the draft or via trades once the market opens.<br /><br />3. Pre-rank your players to allow you to make your picks faster.<br /><br />4. In case #3 didn't persuade you, pre-rank your players in case technical problems or an emergency prevent you from being online during the draft.<br /><br />NOTE: I just posted something on <a href="http://waiverwire.blogspot.com">The Waiver Wire</a> about closer usage patterns that should be directly applicable to Rotohog.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-19708562266609506702007-03-23T06:24:00.000-05:002007-03-23T06:43:17.247-05:00Answering Some QuestionsFirst two quick answers to questions people have posted in the comments section recently:<br /><br />1. Players (like Alex Gordon) who aren't currently in the Rotohog 'universe' will be added shortly after drafts end at a price determined by the Rotohog staff to be 'fair'.<br /><br />2. The folks at Rotohog have been very careful NOT to answer my questions about the spread and other details of the trading and pricing mechanism. We're just going to have to wait and see. If I had to guess, I would think the spread will be larger on highr priced players, but obviously my strategy depends on it not being too large. That said, I think there will be lots of trading opportunities to make money, so some variation of my strategy should work regardless.<br /><br />Now, onto a couple things that somebody said in the comments yesterday that I think may represent common misconceptions:<br /><br /><em><blockquote>Had there been a pitcher whose cost was $100, the cost per anticipated point would be points/100. Each start should account for approximately 3.5% of the year's production. (It's obviously not a smooth curve, but over the course of the season...) For the second game, if there were no change in the price, the value would be points (.965)/100.<br /></blockquote></em><br /><br />That's not right. At any given time, the total value of all players in the Rotohog universe by definition is equal to the total amount of Rotohog dollars. Since you don't get bonus points for having money at the end of the season, there's no reason to 'hoard' money. You spend whatever you have to get productive players. So all else being equal, player values would be the same at the end of the season as at the beginning. Of course, all else is not equal, because each time there's a transaction some money will disappear from circulation forever (the transaction fee/spread)...so there will be some deflation, but not as extreme as what happybooker is implying, and I believe it will have the least impact on star players...if anything their prices may increase as more people become aware of the strategy of rotating players.<br /><br />The other part of his comment that I wanted to address is this:<br /><br /><em><blockquote>If a top performer, say Santana, has a great opening game, the price should fall the day after. If he has a normal deviation relatively weak start, the price should stay the same or rise marginally. </blockquote></em><br /><br />That's not how things work. If you project Santana for a 2.50 ERA for the season and he get bombed for 10 runs on opening day, you don't assume he'll now pitch 2.20 ERA baseball for the rest of the season to get him to 2.50 for the season. You have to assume that he'll pitch 2.50 ERA ball and end up somewhere around 2.80 for the season. To give an example of the same principal...when you flip a coin and it comes up heads three times in a row, is it more likely to come up heads or tails on the next flip? His comment suggests that he might say 'tails, since it needs to end up 50/50 overall'. That would wrong though - its still 50/50 on all future flips. <br /><br />By the way, I now know who I will selecting with the first pick in the Rotohog draft. If you've been reading this blog carefully, you should know too. If not, I'm willing to let you know if you send me an email at zelvin30@hotmail.com telling me that you'd like to be added to my blog mailing list (which is for this blog and my other blog <a href="http://waiverwire.blogspot.com">The Waiver Wire</a>. Let me just say that if you're drafting next Monday at noon Eastern and you end up in my draft, you're going to have to be very, very fast with your first pick if you want the same player I do. So you may want to steer clear of that time for your draft.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-88264788066444279652007-03-22T08:17:00.000-05:002007-03-22T08:23:34.411-05:00Not So Easy, But Worth the EffortSo I just mapped out my strategy for the first 3 days of the season. This stuff is not so easy. Despite there being only 1 game on the 1st, it took me almost 1/2 hour to plan things out through day 3. The process involved looking at the MLB schedule for each day, and figuring out how good a lineup I could realistically expect to put together by rotating players on and off of my team throughout each day. <br /><br />Going through this process for the first time made me realize two things:<br />1. Very few people are going to put this kind of effort into Rotohog.<br />2. Its going to be possible to put together some incredibly good lineups on a daily basis.<br /><br />In other words, those who put in the hard work are going to absolutely CRUSH everyone else at this game. The folks at Rotohog are marketing the game as putting the skill back into fantasy baseball...and I think they're going to succeed beyond their wildest expectations. There is no chance at all that whoever wins this thing is anything but an excellent player. On the other hand, I expect a LOT of complaining after the fact that the game rewards the wrong skills...and expect that for 2008 some adjustments will be made to the rules.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-55439232160528157542007-03-20T06:25:00.000-05:002007-03-20T06:38:29.841-05:00Introducing the 2007 Rotohog MVP......Byung-Hyun Kim! What?!?!?! Well, maybe not. But there's actually a pretty realistic scenario where Kim ccould be the single most valuable player to have on your team for Rotohog this year. <br /><br />I've talked before about how valuable closers with starter eligibility are. Because we're able to 'platoon' playwers who aren't scheduled to play at the same time of day, we can effectively re-use our money...which makes the cost of players much less of a constraint on the total amount of points we can accumulate. So for pitchers, we're face with two main constraints: roster spots and the 1300 innings pitched limmit. Because of the innings pitched limit, we want to get as many innings as possible pitched by closers, because they're going to have a much higher points per innings pitched ratio. The main constraint on our ability to get closer innings is that we only have four roster spots per day to devote to closers - the two relief pitcher slots and the two pitcher slots. The only exception where we can have more than four closers pitch in one day is if there are closers with starter eligibility. Up until now, it appeared that there could be two: Joel Pineiro and Seth McClung. A quick look at their K/BB ratios shows that these guys are both awful pitchers. In a normal league I wouldn't even consider having them on my team, but the unique rules of Rotohog could make them VERY valuable. Except that one or both of them may not actually win their team's job as closer. <br /><br />Which brings us back to Kim. According to multiple sources yesterday, Florida is one of three teams interested in trading for him. And if they did, he 'would be in the mix for the closer role' (one site actually said he'd be the frontrunner). I know some people have doubts about whether Kim has the mental toughness for long term success as a closer, but I think he can do a good job. And unlike Pineiro and McClung, Kim is a pretty good pitcher. His ERA the past few years disguises that pretty well, but he had 129K and only 61BB in 155IP last year in Colorado, which is really exceptional. If he wins the Florida closer role, I think he'll do well, and his starter eligibility will make him the single most valuable player in Rotohog.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-86789333550022023732007-03-19T14:10:00.000-05:002007-03-19T14:11:42.873-05:00Another Draft Result DiscussionThere's another useful discussion of the results of a Rotohog draft over at <a href="http://crookedpitch.com/47/my-rotohog-team/">The Crooked Pitch</a>. My opinion is that the more of these we get a chance to look at, the more we'll know what to expect when we do our drafts.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-76580644497340148922007-03-19T06:04:00.000-05:002007-03-19T06:11:58.283-05:00Rotohog Draft StrategyUnlike most fantasy baseball drafts, your goal in the Rotohog draft should NOT be to assemble the best team possible for you $275. Because the trading floor will open several days before the season starts and the open market will allow you to get whatever players you need later on, you can focus your draft on achieving two goals:<br /><br />1. Make as much profit as possible, so that when you do assemble your team for the regular season, you can afford the best possible team.<br /><br />2. Avoid any mistakes that would cause you to fall substantially behind the other good players competing in the game.<br /><br />In some cases, trying to accomplish one or both of these goals will cause you to pick (or avoid picking) very different players than you plan to have on your team to accumulate points.<br /><br />For example, I think three players that should yield a nice profit if you draft them and then sell them shortly after trading opens are Delmon Young ($2), Rich Hill ($4), and John Patterson ($.50). None of the three fits well with my strategy for the season, but I'll be targeting all three during the draft in an attempt to make a quick profit...which will help me trade for more of the players that I really want on my team.<br /><br />An example of something I would do to avoid the risk of any big mistakes that could cause me to fall behind early in the season is that I won't draft Felix Hernandez at $18. In a normal league I think this would be a bargain. But in Rotohog I think there's a pretty good chance that 2nd tier starting pitchers are not going to be in high demand. I'm not risking much by picking cheap guys like Hill and Patterson, even if their price drops to $0, but picking Hernandez represents too much of a risk for me to take before we see how things began to play out once the trading floor opens.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-90590414281675182912007-03-16T17:39:00.000-05:002007-03-16T17:42:05.083-05:00Some Good ValuesA few players that appear to be among the best values at their Rotohog draft prices, worthwhile targetting on your draft day:<br /><br />Delmon Young<br />Rich Hill<br />Octavio Dotel<br /><br />Also, keep a close eye on competitive closer situations in Tampa, Floria, Boston, and Cincinnatie...as well as those in Philadelphia, Seattle, and San Francisco which could all be impacted by injury or tradesUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-76719333045846948572007-03-15T10:07:00.000-05:002007-03-15T16:26:43.637-05:00Looking for a Rotohog 'Assistant'I'm pretty confident that nobody on earth has spent as much time thinking about the strategy for Rotohog as I have. I don't think that very many of the best fantasy baseball players are really making this game their top priority. And I think that there are a lot of subtleties to the strategy that nobody (including me) has been talking about yet. <br /><br />Add all that up, and I believe that I will have a good chance of winning a top prize. The only problem is that it will be very 'high maintenance' to execute the correct strategy, requiring a bunch of transactions every day...some of them at very specific times of day, and not always at times when I'll be able to get online easily.<br /><br />So I'm looking for an 'assistant' or partner to help win this thing. Obviously you'd get a nice cut of the money (we can negotiate what a fair amount is).<br /><br />You don't need to have much fantasy baseball experience for this...I'll be giving some pretty specific guidance on what to do. The main things I'm looking for are:<br />1. Someone who is reliable and honest (obviously I'll have to make a judgement call based on my impressions of you).<br />2. Someone who will generally be able to be online for as much time as possible between 1pm-1am, and particularly from about 6pm-2am on weekdays and 1pm-1am on weekends. <br />3. Someone who won't mind following my instructions on this to the letter.<br /><br />If you think you might be interested, send me an email at zelvin30@hotmail.com to let me know, and we can talk more about it.<br /><br />P.S. As far as I know this is in no way against Rotohog's rules. But I have sent them an email to confirm that they don't have anything equivalent to the 'one player per hand rule' that some poker sites theoretically have. If its against the rules, then this offer is obviously off the table.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-86532899102095106712007-03-13T13:44:00.000-05:002007-03-13T13:46:04.608-05:00Some Draft FeedbackHere's a link to some interesting <a href="http://mlbfo.blogspot.com/2007/03/rotto-hog-quick-hits.html">comments</a> on an early Rotohog draft by Brad Stewart at the MLB Front Office blog. Judging by some of the results he mentioned, it sounds like people were smarter than I would have expected!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-32506056825449012632007-03-13T09:28:00.000-05:002007-03-13T09:35:33.972-05:00Good NewsIt looks like the technical problems at Rotohog have been addressed. After a brief period last night when neither of my computers could access the site, everything has been working fine this morning. And this appears to be a permanent fix, rather than the temporary workaround that they had talked about implementing.<br /><br />If you'd like me to send you some player valuations I'm putting together for hitters in Rotohog, sign up for my blog mailing list by emailing me at zelvin30@hotmail.com. Note that I have one mailing list that includes both of my blogs - this one and <a href="http://waiverwire.blogspot.com">The Waiver Wire</a>.<br /><br />I will also be sending the mailing list valuations for another free fantasy baseball game with cash prizes - Game Day Draft, which I talked about at The Waiver Wire <a href="http://waiverwire.blogspot.com/2007/03/next-wave-in-fantasy-baseball.html">here</a>.<br /><br />And finally, I'm interested in hearing as much as possible from people who have already drafted. Did any positions seem to go quickly? Who were the best undrafted players? Did everyone show up for the drafts, or were there lots of no shows? Anything and everything that you can share with us will be appreciated.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-41599461724361929492007-03-12T10:21:00.000-05:002007-03-12T10:25:22.819-05:00WorkaroundFor those of you who (like me) have been having a problem accessing the Rotohog web site...good news. They know about the problem, and while the full solution is currently out of their hands (needs to be taken care of by their service provider), they are currently working on a 'workaround' to give us access to the site in the meantime.<br /><br />Also, if anyone does their Rotohog draft early, I'd love to hear whatever feedback on it you can share with us...did it go smoothly, what kinds of strategies did people seems to use, etc.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-36707859433189350132007-03-11T15:40:00.001-05:002007-03-12T13:19:15.673-05:00Closers Listed As StartersIf you've read the guest article that Aaron Brown wrote here a few days ago, you know how valuable closers will be in Rotohog. One side-effect of that is that closers with starter eligibility will be extremely valuable. Keep an eye on whether Joel Pineiro ends up as Boston's closer...even really bad closers will be worth more than any starter. If he doesn't win the role, watch whether Papelbon is moved back to the role. And watch closely to see if other teams end up with someone listed as a starter in the closer's role at any point this season.<br /><br />EDIT: I just went through the entire list of players listed as starting pitchers, and found another one who may be a closer this season: Seth McClung is the frontrunner to be Tampa Bay's closer, although there are reports today that that is far from a sure thing.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-15528024922385972062007-03-11T15:33:00.000-05:002007-03-11T15:37:24.100-05:00Rules ClarificationMaybe it explains this somewhere in the Rotohog rules, but if so, I wasn't able to find it. Luckily, the guys at Rotohog are very responsive and answered my question about it. The easiest way to explain this is with an example.<br /><br />Billy Wagner and Mariano Rivera are both trading at $45. Wagner has a day game today and Rivera has a night game. I have Wagner in my 'lineup' until the end of his game, and then sell him and buy Rivera with the money.<br /><br />Question 1: Can I have Rivera play tonight, effectively re-using the same money for a second player in the same day? Yes.<br /><br />Question 2: Can Rivera fill the same roster slot that Wagner was in, effectively letting me have more than 15 players play for me each day. No. I need to use a different roster slot for Rivera if I want him to play today.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-88803051767775072692007-03-09T15:35:00.000-05:002007-03-09T15:41:38.010-05:00Don't Draft Too EarlyThis may be obvious, but you should avoid drafting your Rotohog team until the last few days of drafts for a number of reasons:<br /><br />1. Because prices will be fixed after March 11th, the later you draft the better your knowledge will be of which players are injured, which have won more playing time, etc.<br /><br />2. With any new software (like Rotohog) technical glitches that could ruin your draft are going to be most likely in the first few days.<br /><br />3. Waiting until there have been a few days of drafts will allow you to gain some insight into how the drafts are proceeding. Knowing which players are getting drafted early or late, and what kinds of draft strategy people are using should be valuable information.<br /><br />That said, I won't be waiting until the very last day of drafts...I'm paranoid that I would risk missing the draft if there was an emergency at home or at work.<br /><br />On another note, has anyone else had problems accessing www.rotohog.com the past couple days? I've had problems with it, but only from one of my computers. The odd thing is I haven't had problems accessing any other web sites from that computer.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7575742168703915093.post-63731061241750130942007-03-08T17:09:00.000-05:002007-03-08T17:13:27.241-05:00I've gotten confirmation from the folks at Rotohog that the valuation are intentional and that they were made high deliberately to prevent the entire available supply of good players from being drafted, because it was felt this would prevent the 'market' from being liquid enough. <br /><br />I think their logic makes sense, but I do think that this is going to lead to some pretty serious deflation initially, although one thing to keep in mind with any speculation about how the market will react is that we don't actually know the mechanism that will drive prices...its not a bid/ask spread like a true stock market. So there's definitely some uncertainty in any prediction about it. It is clear though that prices won't be adjusted drastically prior to the 11th, and that many good players will go undrafted. There also appears to be a LOT of risk if you don't draft well...you could find yourself in a substantially worse position than if you didn't participate in the draft at all!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0