Tristan H. Cockcroft 9y

2015 rankings for 6x6 leagues

Fantasy MLB

Time changes everything ... even baseball.

Thirty-five years ago, we were navigating Pac-Man through a maze of dots and power pellets while fiddling with our Rubik's Cubes ... and in the fantasy baseball realm, we were playing Rotisserie 4x4 (with batting average, home runs, RBIs, stolen bases, wins, saves, ERA and WHIP as our categories).

Twenty years ago, we were listening to Hootie and the Blowfish while glued to our original PlayStations ... and in fantasy we were finally embracing Rotisserie 5x5 (adding runs scored and strikeouts to 4x4's mix).

Now it's 2015, it's the era of smart phones, live streaming and social networking, where everything is a mere click away. Aren't we overdue for another revision, a "modernization," if you will, of Rotisserie baseball?

The advent of sabermetrics supports it, and in recent years, we've come to the realization that such widely cited statistics as wins and batting average aren't the indicators of player skill that we once thought. For three seasons now, I've pitched fantasy leagues moving to a 6x6 scoring system, replacing such categories with ones that better exemplify a player's own ability, rather than team- or luck-influenced measures. Perhaps you've already migrated your league to this new system. If you haven't and might consider it now, you can read my detailed pitches from the past two years here: 2013 and 2014.

This "modernized" scoring system, six categories apiece for hitters and pitchers -- one I originally proposed as far back as 2010 -- uses the following statistics. All of these are available on ESPN as custom league categories.

Why these new categories, in brief

On-base percentage (OBP): It rewards walks, perhaps the most glaring omission from the original Rotisserie baseball rules.

Slugging percentage (SLG): It gives value to doubles and triples, things that were also overlooked in the original rulebook.

Quality starts (QS): Regardless of your opinion of the category, it remains a better indicator of pitching success over a singular game than wins. You've surely heard its critics' lazy argument against it: "But a quality start means a 4.50 ERA!" I reply: That's the minimum qualification, the only three quality start-eligible stat lines that qualify which result in a four-plus ERA are the ones with three earned runs allowed and either six, 6 1/3 or 6 2/3 innings pitched, and in 2014, there were nearly as many non-quality start wins (289) as there were four-plus-ERA quality starts (318).

Innings pitched (IP): To put it simply, innings pitched equals outs ... or at least multiplying by three gets you to a pitcher's out total. And aren't outs one of a pitcher's two primary functions (the other being the prevention of runs)? In fantasy terms, innings pitched also acts to counterbalance a relief pitcher-heavy strategy, especially when adding the next category to the mix.

Strikeouts per nine innings ratio (K/9): Some might think keeping strikeouts a counting category might be simpler, and that's true, it would be simpler, but it'd also depress relief pitcher value plus further encourage the streaming strategy. Migrating to a ratio targets skill as well as more detailed selection of matchups. It also makes those middle relievers more appealing.

The case to change stolen bases

Critics of the 6x6 plan astutely point out that there's no natural symmetry in the ratio of counting versus ratio categories in the above plan -- though as an aside, neither Rotisserie 4x4 nor 5x5 had that, either.

Addressing that, as I did in last year's edition, migrating the 6x6 plan to three counting and three ratio categories on either side -- three apiece for hitting, three apiece for pitching -- has perfect symmetry. To do that, I'd prefer to add stolen base percentage -- successful stolen bases divided by total attempts (steals plus caught stealing) -- if your league supports it.

In an ESPN league, however, I'd recommend net stolen bases (SBN). Net stolen bases avoids crediting players for mere volume of attempts; Elvis Andrus stole 27 bases in 2014, ranking 20th, but he had only 12 net stolen bases (27 steals minus 15 times caught), to rank 43rd in that category. Those 15 times caught stealing represented 15 outs, a negative for an offensive player.

No, it's not a ratio, but the negative component does bring us a step closer, at least. And it increases the value of smart base running decisions.

Rankings for Rotisserie 6x6 leagues

In order to help owners, both old and new, to Rotisserie 6x6 leagues, listed below are adjusted top 250 rankings for this scoring system (though using stolen bases rather than net stolen bases).

For additional help in your player valuation in Rotisserie 6x6 scoring, I highly recommend entering the specs into our Custom Dollar Value Generator, perhaps even using it to make comparisons between 5x5 and 6x6 scoring in your league.

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