Compiler v.1.2 Plus New YouTube Tutorial Importing Holds, Quality Starts Projections

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Mike MacGregor

I promised an update to the fantasy baseball projections, ADP and depth charts earlier today on our Facebook page, and it got done this afternoon, so you are now free to update your copy of the Cheatsheet Compiler. Same method as before, go to the update tab in the Compiler and hit Update Projections.

Ah, but there is more to the story which is why it took me an extra nine hours to post about the update. You’ll be particularly interested in this part if your league uses Holds or Quality Starts as a scoring category.

Last week member prnichols7807 asked why Holds are available at Razzball.com in the Steamer-Razzball projections on their website, but not in the Steamer-Razzball projections available in the Cheatsheet Compiler (and here). Good question. I learned that Razzball adds the Holds projections, and Quality Starts too, and they want to keep those proprietary.

No problem, of course. I can understand that, because Holds and QS are not as commonly projected as other stats, so if you want them you need to visit Razzball to get them. However, that doesn’t help us get them in the Cheatsheet Compiler to incorporate into our cheatsheets for leagues that use Holds, Quality Starts, or both, does it? The answer: Projection Pal. We can use Projection Pal to import just the Holds and QS into the Compiler, and add them to our existing Steamer projections.

The question then of course is how to do that, which inspired me to create a new YouTube tutorial on exactly that. The video shows all the steps from copying the projections off the website, pasting them into Projection Pal, getting them into the Cheatsheet Compiler, adding them to the existing Steamer projections, and creating our new cheatsheets for a 6X6 league (standard 5X5 plus OBP and Holds, and QS instead of Wins).

These videos are time consuming to produce but I can understand they are more helpful than reading instructions. I hope you find this one helpful.

As a further addendum to this story, when I first ran the Holds projections through the Cheatsheet Compiler, relievers with Holds were overvalued quite a bit. I made some adjustments to Compiler version 1.1, and uploaded version 1.2 to our download page with a new feature.

Similar to the “Stockpile Closers” feature already in the Compiler, there is now a “Stockpile Holds” feature on the roto adjust tab that forces relievers projected with a base level of holds into the draftable player pool. That change, plus an appropriate adjustment to the holds value as discussed in the video, spits out the projected best setup men in baseball at reasonable dollar values relative to closers and other positions.

The time to do one update plus another nine hours later, we have updated projections, a new version of the Cheatsheet Compiler and a new YouTube video. Yep, that is a full day, and I’m calling it a night. Enjoy!

Fantasy Baseball Projections, ADP and Depth Chart Update

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Mike MacGregor

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.

Projection Pal Now Available

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Mike MacGregor

Projection Pal is now available from our Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy download page.

The purpose of Pal is to help import other fantasy baseball projections into the Cheatsheet Compiler, but keep in mind it is completely optional. If you are happy using the projections already included in the Compiler – Zeile or Steamer – then you do not need to use Pal. Check the demo video for a tutorial on how it works.

As an added bonus, there is also a separate copy of Pal with projections from CBS. I included the top 50 at catcher and each infield position, top 100 outfielders, top 150 starting pitchers and top 100 relievers. For that file you simply need to download, open it (and the Compiler) and hit the “Copy to Compiler” button on each of the hitters Raw and pitchers Raw tabs.

Steamer-Razzball and Zeile Consensus Baseball Player Projections

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Mike MacGregor

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.

Fantasy Baseball Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Mike MacGregor

Happy New Year! I’m just back from vacation and trying to get organized and off to a good start this year, but I already received a few emails from people asking about 2013 fantasy baseball. Specifically, how to get the Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy for fantasy baseball, and/or confusion about signing up and not being able to access the download page. As you can tell from browsing around the website, it is in need of an update as the last post is from July about football. The only download files currently available are from last year, the 2012 versions, and access was denied based on the membership software setup. I just changed that, so any member should now be able to register (new members) or login (old members) and gain access to the download page. Once I get my plans together for the coming year, then I’ll make an official announcement about baseball, hopefully sometime next week. Cheers.

Zeile Consensus Projections Update

Status

I popped over to FantasyPros this morning to see if there was an update to the Zeile Consensus Projections. There is! It seems a few of the projection sources they are using to form the consensus updated since last week, so I’ve uploaded a new copy of Projection Pal with the Zeile projections you can download and import into your copy of the Cheatsheet Compiler. You can read more about the Zeile projections in Projection Pal, and watch a video which includes steps to import them into the Compiler (really pretty simple).

YouTube Video of Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy Fantasy Baseball

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Mike MacGregor

I did some demo videos and posted to YouTube back in 2010 for each of the Cheatsheet Compiler, Draft Buddy and Projection Pal. People find them very useful, and rightfully so, because you can actually see what is going on while I’m doing and talking about the steps using the fantasy draft tools, rather than read a bunch of instructions.

I was on hiatus from doing videos though, because frankly, they’re hard to do. They take time, and can be frustrating with mistakes and misspoken words resulting in retakes and editing. Hey, I’m trying to be a website developer / fantasy sports guy, not a video producer / director / actor / editor guy. Also the software to do the screencast videos was a tad expensive too.

In this day and age though, I guess we need to wear a lot of hats to get a half-decent website cobbled together. That is what I’m trying to do, and I want to do the best I can to help people use the Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy. If videos are going to get that done, then I’d better produce some videos. Hopefully with more practice, they get more polish and less bloopers.

The first one is complete, and posted to YouTube on my YouTube channel which you can subscribe to if you so choose. The video is a general getting started video, doing the following:

Opening the Cheatsheet Compiler
Inputting league settings and scoring
Importing the Zeile Consensus Projections via Projection Pal
Using the Zeile projections to create your cheatsheets in the Compiler
Setting up Draft Buddy
Draft the first player in Buddy

That seems like a pretty good overview. Of course, the video ran longer than I would like at 12 minutes. Like I said, this is going to be a learning process for me doing the videos. Hopefully it is a productive learning process for you using the CC/DB. I’ll have to make sure I hit some shorter topics going forward.

Okay, without further adieu, here is the first fantasy baseball video for the Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy for 2012:

Projection Pal Available Plus Pal With Zeile Consensus Projections

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Mike MacGregor

Keeping with my knack for getting one significant item crossed off my high priority to-do list each week (uh oh, I’m running out of days this week), I uploaded Projection Pal to the Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy download directory late last Friday. Feel free to login and head over there to grab it as another tool in your fantasy baseball draft prep toolbox.

For those not sure what Projection Pal is, it is an optional add-on to help import projections from other websites into the Cheatsheet Compiler. From there, you can set your projection source from the default, DraftBuddy.com, to something else. Then the cheatsheets generated by the Compiler will be based off the other set of projections.

Here is an old video on how Projection Pal works, but fair warning, it is not the easiest thing in the world to use. I’m not apologizing for that, just stating a fact. The reason is because there are a myriad of ways that websites can present their projections. I can only automate so much in Pal to account for that. Once you get your projections imported and cleaned up in Pal though, then it does a wonderful job of exporting them to the Compiler, lined up with the right players on each of the hitters and pitchers tabs.

That caveat out of the way, I have excellent news to share. The guys over at FantasyPros have a new feature this year, compiling projections from, as of this writing, six different sources. They are called the Zeile Consensus Projections. FantasyPros gave me permission to make a special copy of Projection Pal available for you guys to download with the Zeile Projections pre-loaded.

This way, I’ve done the import for you, and all you have to do is download to the same directory as your Compiler, open both files, and hit the Copy to Compiler buttons on each of the hitters Raw and pitchers Raw tabs in Pal. Voilà, you have the Zeile Projections in your copy of the Compiler. Set the default projections on the setup tab in the Compiler to “100% Site B”, hit Compile Cheatsheets, and now your cheatsheets are powered by Zeile.

There is quite a difference between our projections and the consensus projections. I uploaded the overall cheatsheet from each for comparison sake. Check the cheatsheet using Rick’s projections and the cheatsheet using Zeile.

I’ll keep updating the Zeile projections periodically in our copy of Pal, so any time you want the new projections, just come back and download the file again, replacing your old one. Check the last update date on the download page to know if it has changed since the last time you downloaded.