Welcome back to Jarsday on a Thursday. At least this week. I’m really loving contests so far. And soon, contest sprints will be here. Without knowledge of how these are scored and ranked, it’s fairly obvious that some managers are better than others and have a better shot to win.
I handpicked a few of the ladies and gentlemen, mostly gentlemen, that are at the top of the leaderboard and playing in most of the contests, here are their average finish place:
| zubaz | 9.3 |
| Gingerface | 12.3 |
| cardboardtube | 20.3 |
| trempk | 21.5 |
| Clayton_Kershaw | 23 |
| wfn | 23.4 |
| dbacksfan | 27.5 |
| snowwind | 30.1 |
| orangecat | 30.7 |
| citizenclone | 89.99 |
These are the guys that have been beating everyone every week.
How are they doing it? Their picks are public knowledge. Let’s take a look at zubaz’ SCS8 team. He finished in 19th place, but had a very strong team throughout the contest.
Like most people, he had 2B Thompson, who was the most picked player. Thompson was on the winning team, 6 of 9 final round teams. He was a $4.5M 2B with 90s in DI, CN, BA and SP. His bad rating was EN at 42.
Next most popular was 3B Sterner, and he was on zubaz’ team as well. Sterner was also on the winning team (CK btw) and 4 of 9 final teams. He was selected on 44 of 88 rosters and 22 of those made the final 35. That means if a roster didn’t include Sterner, it only had a 30% of being in the top half of the contest. Sterner was a $3.1M offensive star with a 79 DI, 84 BA and 86 SL and only a 58 for RA and 54 for EN
At 1B, zubaz had the next most popular pick, Thomson. Despite his 42% selection rate, he was on 78% of final day teams, including the winning team. He cost $2.8M and his best ratings were 83 DI, 93 BA and 69 SL. His lowest rating was 41 EN.
Sticking with his IF, zubaz’ SS was Griffin. Griffin was the 20th most popular selection, but he was the most popular SS. He was selected on 19 teams, but 5 of those teams made the final 9, including the winning team again. He cost $4.9M and had a 83 DI, 90 BA, 86 SP mix with a 51 RA.
To recap, zubaz and CK had the exact same infield. Dbacksfan, Gingerface & orangecat had the same 1B, 2B & SS. CBT, trempk & wfn had the same 1B, 2B & 3B. Snowwind had the same 1B and 2B. GC had only the 3B. These were nearly essential players for achieving the final group.
In the OF, zubaz had Erickson, the most popular RF selection. He was a value selection at $1.2M while providing 86 SL and 85 SP. In CF, he again saved money, going with Lowe, who only cost $1.6 and had 85 SL and 99 AR, although I’d guess the AR wasn’t a deciding factor. In LF he saved even more money with Batts, who cost 609K and had 87 SL and 75 DI. Definitely a theme.
At catcher, zubaz had the most common selection with Robinson, a $1.8M 64 DI, 91 BA, 63 SL option.
He had 3 options for DH and bench, with SS Albert, SS Roberts, & LF Tiner. These guys were not cheap, costing $3.7, $2.3 and $1.8M respectively. With only looking at ratings, Albert probably started a SS pushing Griffin to DH. Tiner was the likely LF starter and perhaps a platoon. Roberts was a $2.3M utility guy with 80s in DI and SL.
As much as he had popular choices in position players, his pitching not the most popular, but he did spend money thriftly here, avoiding the expensive $4M+ pitchers. Hough was the 2nd most chosen pitcher. Costing $3.3M and have a 99 PO, 80 SY and 74 EN. Glover was the 4th most common, but was a value guy at $819K who had a 78 FI, 87 SY and 62 EN. Eskew was the 8th most selected, but definitely a rotation guy at $3.1M and 77 FI, 70 CO, 94 SY and 58 EN. Next in commonly selected order was Huff at 20th overall, he cost $3.8M and had 80s in PO, CO and SY with a 57 EN. Next was Scott at $2.7M who relied on a 77 PO and 94 SY. Foster at $3.1M had 74 PO, 75 FI, 60 CO and 88 SY. Johnston also made the roster with 80s in PO, CO, SY and a $3.5M salary.
In summary, zubaz, and many others that made the last day, spent heavily on infield. Found value in the second tier of pitchers in the sub $3-4M range and used cap on 3 bench players and 7 total pitchers. His approach was heavy on SL and light on RA. His park was likely small given zubaz’ history and his manager settings were probably untouched due to not being able to find them. Ok, I’m certain he adjusted manager settings but I don’t know A) what he prefers or B) if my understanding of the settings is great enough to explain what he or you should do.
Good luck to all in the contest of contests. I hope everybody copies zubaz and grows a huge beard and a love for Basehit.