Tag Archives: draft buddy

Fantasy Baseball Update, Fantasy Football Work In-progress

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Two and a half weeks into the Major League Baseball season, and the Toronto Blue Jays are not where fans like myself hoped they’d be so far, sitting two games below .500 after a win tonight at home to the Chicago White Sox. It is still very early. I held my expectations in check even while the Jays skyrocketed up the Vegas odds list to win the World Series, but it is still a little disappointing thanks to some ugly pitching performances, lack of consistent hitting and a mostly absentee Jose Bautista through almost 10% of the season (16 games played / 162).

Losing Jose Reyes for three months with a twisted ankle is an extra tough pill to swallow. He looked absolutely awesome, especially as many of the other new Jays and old Jays alike struggled. I feel like the value of my Jays tickets over the next three months dropped somewhat knowing we won’t see him out there manning short. Come back healthy, Jose.

Okay, so as you can see from the sudden decline in updates since the season started, not much is going on here for fantasy baseball for the time being. Our main annual contribution to fantasy baseball is the Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy, but once the season starts, it did its job and we essentially pack it away until next season. Thanks once again to everyone who used it this year.

I thought about adding regularly updated player stats, but given the cost to purchase the stats and time parsing and inserting them into the database, that hasn’t happened. It may still, but other projects are taking higher priority currently. I updated the team rosters and depth charts today, and will continue to try to keep them updated on roughly a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

The projects that are taking all of my time are all about, fantasy football. The NFL just announced its 2013 schedule tonight. The NFL Draft is one week away. My dynasty leagues are starting to buzz with a little more action. Yep, time to get ready for fantasy football draft season. June will be here faster than I want to think about it.

Most of the work I’m doing is all behind the scenes right now, updating my football database, getting Draft Buddy ready and thinking about my own rankings. As I have updates to give, I’ll give them, but I wanted to write this now because the site was getting a bit stale since our previous baseball update as the season started.

Here is hoping your fantasy baseball season is looking up the way the Blue Jays season was expected to go, and even if its not, there is still a long season ahead, and not to mention, fantasy football to look forward to.

Draft Buddy 1.2 Fixes Missing Players in Drop-downs

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As you may have noticed in the comments of my prior post, member bigcntry7879 told me that some players in Draft Buddy were not appearing in the available drop-downs. Specifically, players very early in the lists sorted alphabetically, like Adrian Beltre or Adam Wainwright, were missing.

Related to this, if you managed to select these players by other means, then their team was not appearing properly, and instead throwing a miserable looking #REF error.

What was happening is the hidden worksheet in Draft Buddy that creates all the alphabetical players lists by position during setup, was not counting down far enough to catch these players. It is a bit complex, the steps, and no need to get too deep into the technical details, but the important thing is, Draft Buddy 1.1 needed a fix.

Now available from our download page, Draft Buddy version 1.2. You can simply go there, download it and use it going forward, replacing version 1.1 if you already downloaded that previously.

If you already did a fair amount of work in version 1.1 and don’t want to replace it, it is possible to fix the problem yourself following a few steps. I’ll try to detail them here:

1. Open Draft Buddy and unhide the sheet titled “Sheet1″ using Format > Sheet > Unhide.*

2. There is a lot of data here, but across the top row there are some formulas that sort of go in a pattern starting with cell S1. The S1 formula is this:

=COUNT(S3:S1001)+COUNTIF(S3:S1001,"AddHitter*")

A similar formula is repeated in cells X1, AC1, AH1, etc. for each hitter position, and then a slightly changed formula for pitchers in cells BX1 and CC1.

For the hitters formula in cell S1, we are going to change it from the above to this:

=COUNT(S3:S1021)+COUNTIF(S3:S1021,"AddHitter*")

That is it, just two characters, changing “1001″ to “1021″.

3. Copy the formula in cell S1 (CTRL-C) and paste it (CTRL-V) in each of the similar cells for each hitter position, X1, AC1, AH1, AM1, AR1, AW1, BB1, BG1 and BL1.

4. The pitchers formula in cell BX1 was this:

=COUNT(BX3:BX1001)+COUNTIF(BX3:BX1001,"AddPitcher*")

Change it to this:

=COUNT(BX3:BX1051)+COUNTIF(BX3:BX1051,"AddPitcher*")

In this case we changed “1001″ to “1051″.

5. Copy the formula in cell BX1 and paste it in cell CC1.

6. Since you’ve already done work in Draft Buddy, such as inputting keepers, draft pick trades or maybe even some draft picks, you do not want to lose this work. Go to the setup tab and make sure to uncheck the “Clear Keepers and Draft Picks During Setup” option.

7. Now open your copy of the Cheatsheet Compiler, and go back to Draft Buddy and click the Setup Draft Buddy button. Buddy will recreate the drop-downs and they should now include all the players at each position.

* method for unhiding sheets will vary in different versions of Microsoft Excel

Zeile Projections Update To The Update

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It is a tricky business relying on fantasy baseball projections from other sources, and trying to stay up to date all the time, especially when they have a seemingly random update schedule. After finalizing the update yesterday for the Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy, I woke up this morning and, after noticing one small mistake I wanted to correct, I checked the Zeile consensus projections over at FantasyPros and they updated them again, late last night, after our last update. Darn it.

It is the weekend and many of you might be drafting today or tomorrow, so lets get everyone up to date with the latest projections, even though it is difficult to decipher exactly what changed from the last version to the current version. Okay, as of typing this I updated the Zeile projections again. You’ll see even if you already hit Update Projections after yesterday’s update (Friday ~ 7:00pm Eastern), the Compiler will tell you once again this morning (Saturday ~ 8:00am) that there is an update available.

As for the small mistake, I noticed in the Cheatsheet Compiler that Reid Brignac was still on his old team, Tampa Bay, even though I know I switched him in our depth charts weeks ago. I finally realized the issue.

The Compiler update pages I create were pulling the team and position information from the Zeile projections instead of the depth charts. Zeile still shows Brignac on Tampa. Steamer, by the way, shows him as a free agent. You’ll notice this on his player page where each of those projections are shown below his historic season stats.

Now I am pulling the team and position data from the right spot, our depth charts, so the Compiler properly shows his current team, the Colorado Rockies, after running the aforementioned update. This would apply to any other player who switched teams recently where our projection source haven’t quite caught up yet.

Fantasy Baseball Projections, ADP and Depth Chart Update

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That took some time – longer than I expected (per usual) – but the projections, average draft position and depth charts are now updated for the Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy. Open your copy of the Cheatsheet Compiler, go to the update tab, make sure the Zeile (FantasyPros) option is selected for projections source, and click Update Projections.

No update to the Steamer-Razzball projections this week, only the Zeile projections. I updated the ADP from all three of our sources, FantasyPros, Mock Draft Central and National Fantasy Baseball Championship. Thanks once again to each of our partners for their contributions to the CC/DB.

I also ran through every team to update our depth charts too. In terms of other online features, the projections update creates new updated player rankings for our cheatsheets and player pages, like Bryce Harper.

We had some questions the last few days about the projections, including a discussion on our Facebook page when member smackie1970 noticed there are way too many at-bats going to the Tampa Bay shortstops. Make sure to check that out to understand the reasoning behind it.

Commenting on a previous blog post, member prnichols7807 asked why Holds (and I noticed, Quality Starts too) aren’t included in our Steamer-Razzball projections when they are over at Razzball. It seems that Razzball adds those to Steamer, and they want to keep them proprietary, which is certainly understandable considering HLD and QS are not as commonly projected by fantasy baseball prognosticators across the inter webs. My suggestion if you really want these in your copy of the Cheatsheet Compiler would be to do so using Projection Pal. If I have time then I will revisit that topic next week to show how I would do it.

Okay, that is it for the update. Have a good one, and good luck if your draft is on this weekend.

Another Update, Plus Baseball Player Rankings

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A new week and yet another update for the Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy. The Zeile Consensus Projections and ADP each received an update, which you can obtain by simply opening your copy of the Cheatsheet Compiler, going to the update tab, and hitting the Update Projections button, making sure you are asking for the Zeile (FantasyPros) projections from the available drop-down.

Don’t have the Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy yet? They are free, including updates from now to Opening Day. All you need to do is register a member account (or login with your old one and renew access) and go to the download page to get the CC/DB, fantasy baseball version for 2013. Testimonials and/or donations to help pay for our web hosting and time are appreciated.

The CC/DB is in Microsoft Excel, which is software that some of you maybe don’t have on your computer, or don’t use currently or very often, or don’t care to try. I’ve tried to make the Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy as user-friendly as possible, but it is within the confines of Excel which isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time. As a (former) accountant, it was a natural for me, but I understand some reluctance or even frustration using a Microsoft product.

Overall
Rank
Player
 Team 5X5 ADP
1
Ryan Braun, OF
 MIL $46 1.01
2
Miguel Cabrera, 3B
 DET $46 1.02
3
Mike Trout, OF
 LAA $44 1.03
4
Robinson Cano, 2B
 NYY $36 1.07
5
Matt Kemp, OF
 LAD $35 1.04
6
Albert Pujols, DH|1B
 LAA $35 1.06
7
Clayton Kershaw, SP
 LAD $33 2.02

To help bridge the gap by providing something beneficial to non-Excel users, I posted new player ranking pages on the website. Print and go, with the old pencil and paper draft method. Nothing wrong with that, and you are certain to not spill beer on your laptop at the draft. The rankings are based on standard 5X5 roto scoring with a typical $260 salary cap (i.e. same format as you see in outdated magazines on the racks at the book store), pulled from the Cheatsheet Compiler. There are overall rankings and rankings by position. I’ll update these each time we update the projections in the Compiler.

I hope you find that helpful. Feedback is welcome either here in the blog comments, or on Twitter or Facebook.

Big Baseball Update To End The Week

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Where did the week go? Better question: Why do I find myself asking that same question every week?

Not to worry, I’m not expecting an answer to either question, but I do have good news in that we are going to finish the week just like it started, with an update to the Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy.

This time the update is to both sets of fantasy baseball projections – Steamer-Razzball and Zeile – plus the average draft position (ADP) data from all three sources – FantasyPros, Mock Draft Central and NFBC. Our depth charts are still in good shape, except the Chicago Cubs who got missed last time, so they got updated.

Since we have two sets of projections to update, and the Cheatsheet Compiler only does them one at a time, here are the steps you should follow, keeping in mind that from the default download file, Zeile projections are in Site A and Steamer projections are in Site B.

1. Update Steamer. Go to the update tab in the Compiler and change the Projections source drop-down to “Steamer-Razzball”. Click the Update Projections button.

2. Move Steamer. After you just updated, Steamer overwrote the prior projections in Site A. Lets move them to Site B so we don’t lose them from the Zeile update. Go to the update tab in the Compiler and near the top of the tab click the Move to Site B button.

3. Update Zeile. Repeat step 1 but change the Projections source drop-down to “Zeile (FantasyPros)”.

After that you are up to date.

For some added reading on the projections we are using in the Cheatsheet Compiler, check out Where Steamer and ZIPS Disagree by Dave Cameron over at FanGraphs. Then read Jared Cross’ response at the Steamer Projections Blog and adjustments made to Steamer as a result (and which led to the above noted update).

Longtime Draft Buddy member, BeanTown, did some sleuthing to find out if projections that are averages of a bunch of single sets of projections tended to be more or less accurate in general than single sets of projections. He found this article by Wil Larson over at FanGraphs, and mentioned similar findings from sabermetrician (is that a word?) Tom Tango. The findings? Average projections are good for hitters, but less good for pitchers. Interesting.

From that, BeanTown asked me how he could set the allocation keys in the Cheatsheet Compiler to use Zeile projections for hitters, and Steamer projections for pitchers. No problem I told him. Here is how:

1. First, set the default allocation on the setup tab to 100% Zeile (Site A). That we will use for hitters.

2. Then, go to the pitchers tab and do you notice just above the spreadsheet but below the toolbars a “+” sign. Click that and it will unhide some columns. In the yellow column under “Non-Default % Key” you can put a different allocation key for an individual player. Unless you’ve changed it, “8″ should be the 100% Steamer (Site B) key. Put 8 for the first player, copy it, and paste it all the way down for all players on the pitchers tab.

3. Hit Compile Cheatsheets.

After step 3, the cheatsheets are now generated based on Zeile for hitters, Steamer for pitchers. Hopefully that provides the best of both worlds.

Big Baseball Update To Start The Week

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Okay, I know it is Tuesday, but that was supposed to be the lead headline yesterday on the website. It was a marathon session to get as much updated as possible for the fantasy baseball Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy since our prior update, last week.

I noticed the Zeile Consensus Projections from FantasyPros got updated over the weekend, plus our depth charts were getting a bit stale. So I started first thing Monday morning updating those projections, all of our depth charts (except the Chicago Cubs – nothing personal, there was no new roster info on them from our stats provider), and the Average Draft Position data from each of our sources, Mock Draft Central, FantasyPros and National Fantasy Baseball Championship.

That sounds like a pretty good update, right? I thought so, and I had that all finished Monday afternoon. You should have heard about it then (and if you clicked the “Check for Update” button in the Cheatsheet Compiler it would have told you there was an update).

However… before I announced the update, I got tinkering around with some of our pages on the website. Mainly the player pages, like this one for Joey Votto, or if you prefer a pitcher, how about David Price. I added player rankings, by position and overall, to the players pages. The rankings are highlighted in the upper-right, and also there is a short rankings box below the stats and projections showing not only the player’s ranking, but the players ranked right around that player.

I was pretty happy with the results. Then I continued tinkering on some of the formatting of our tables to give them a sharper look and feel. By the time all of this tinkering got done, it was late, I was tired, so I figured I would start first thing Tuesday properly announcing the update.

Lo and behold, this morning I wake up and FantasyPros updated the Zeile projections again, so back to work I go. And it was quite an update. For those who like deep, deep fantasy baseball projections, you should like this. The number of hitter projections expanded from 407 players to a whopping 702. On the pitchers side, they increased from 283 to 690.

Finally my day and half journey is finished so I can announce the projections update. Open your copy of the Cheatsheet Compiler, make sure on the update tab the projection source is set to Zeile (FantasyPros), and hit Update Projections. This will also bring in updated ADP and depth charts. The latest download file – make sure you are updated to version 1.1 – includes this latest update.

Have fun prepping for your fantasy drafts.

Baseball Compiler 1.1 Plus Draft Buddy Released

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After an extensive update to the depth charts, enough players changed from version 1.0 of the Cheatsheet Compiler that I needed to release a version 1.1. It is now ready and available from our download page.

For those new to the website, the 2013 Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy for fantasy baseball is completely free. It is free to download, use and update right up to Opening Day, no strings attached. You just need to register an account to get access to download. Existing members can login to download again this season.

If you already downloaded the earlier available Cheatsheet Compiler 1.0, then you must replace it with version 1.1 to ensure the update pages and Draft Buddy work properly. There are no other feature changes since 1.0, but 1.1 includes updated Steamer and Zeile projections, updated Average Draft Position data from each of FantasyPros and Mock Draft Central, plus ADP from National Fantasy Baseball Championship and the depth charts.

Oh, and that little gem called Draft Buddy is also now available. Not a bad update, eh?


 

If you notice any issue with the Compiler, Draft Buddy, or anything on the website, then please send me feedback so I can correct it. To submit feedback, like the CC/DB on Facebook, follow @DraftBuddy on Twitter and Google+, post in the blog or send me an email.

Steamer-Razzball and Zeile Consensus Baseball Player Projections

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I did say, “next stop, Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy” last week, but to get to that stop there are a few key steps we need to take along the way. Most importantly, we need some player projections to get into the Cheatsheet Compiler to generate our fantasy baseball cheatsheets.

Good buddy Rick Milleman isn’t doing the projections this year, so I reached out to a couple people to help us out and fortunately, and thankfully, they agreed to let us use their projections in the CC/DB. One you’ll recognize from a year ago and one perhaps not, although they do have a good track record.

The Zeile Consensus Projections are from FantasyPros, an average of player projections from a variety of fantasy baseball websites, and updated constantly from now through spring training and right up to Opening Day. FantasyPros let us use the Zeile projections last year, and I made them available for import into the Cheatsheet Compiler using Projection Pal. This year, we’ll see about a more direct import into the Compiler.

The Steamer-Razzball projections are a collaboration between the Steamer Projections Blog and top-notch fantasy baseball website, Razzball. Steamer is a system for generating baseball projections and they’ve coupled the projections with playing time estimates from Razzball. These will also be available for import into the Cheatsheet Compiler… somehow (I haven’t entirely figured it out yet).

Make sure to support these websites as thanks for providing their projections for us. Projection Pal allows for importing projections from other sources into the Compiler, but as anyone is aware who used Pal in the past, it can be a tad frustrating when player names don’t match up exactly with our database. Any possibility to skip that step and still get a solid set of projections is a welcome step into the right direction.

Baseball Stats and Player Pages Updated

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That was a chore. Yes, I did say in my prior post I’d return with a more official announcement about the 2013 Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy for fantasy baseball. I’m overdue for that, but the week I posted that comment I spent planning my projects for the year.

As a result of that planning, I scheduled time to update my baseball stats database. Since then, I’ve been head down, eyes on computer, plugging away at the stats. It was a lot of of programming and Excel spreadsheets to try to automate importing rosters from a stats provider, to keep them updated, and making sure the stats are complete and accurate. That took another week, plus most of today. Glad to have that done and announce the updated player stats, games played by position data, team rosters (example: Washington Nationals) and player pages (example: Bryce Harper). If you notice an error with the stats, please let me know so I can correct it.

Now that is done, next stop is the Compiler & Draft Buddy. I need to look at my schedule and see what is possible for this year. To be perfectly honest, it may be “simply” updating the same file as last year for the current year. Hey, if you liked last year’s version (and many did), then you should be happy to hear that. Timing? Not sure. These projects do take a significant amount of time. You can still download last year’s baseball CC/DB by registering (rookie members) or logging in (returning vets).