Steamer-Fangraphs 2016 Fantasy Baseball Projections

February 9, 2016 By Mike MacGregor Leave a Comment

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Attention fantasy baseball fans, the first cut of 2016 projections from Steamer and Fangraphs are now available. Thanks very much to Jared Cross, the man behind the Steamer projections, and Fangraphs for incorporating their playing time adjustments.

The projections update quite a few of our online features in one fell swoop, including team-by-team projections, player pages, player vs. player comparison tool and the dollar value calculator (roto and fantasy points versions), Last Player Picked.

This helps us get closer to releasing the 2016 fantasy baseball version of Draft Buddy. I am targeting end of this week but sorry, no promises! Doing my best here. If you aren’t already signed up as a baseball member (for free) on our website then make sure to do that and we will send an email to all members when it is ready for download.

Props to member Kevin Baker for helping update our MLB team depth charts. That is another piece of the puzzle for a new season of Draft Buddy. Thanks Kevin! Online cheatsheet rankings will get updated after Draft Buddy is released.

Once all of our baseball features are ready for this season, then hopefully I can pull down the front page Under Construction image, too. Lots to do still so clearly it is time for me to get back to work!

Still Drafting? Final 2015 Fantasy Baseball Projections Update for Draft Buddy and Last Player Picked

April 10, 2015 By Mike MacGregor Leave a Comment

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Still drafting? Yeah, I know some of you are, even with the MLB season five days old.

I kind of forget about this nuance with fantasy baseball compared to fantasy football each year, which rarely drafts after NFL Week 1, but it makes sense for baseball. Its a long season. Why not wait and get a small glimpse of the first few real games before drafting your squad, if that is how your fellow owners prefer to do it.

A few members emailed me saying they are drafting this weekend, and a number of people are still downloading Draft Buddy, so I figured, why not do another update? Plus, it kind of bugged me Craig Kimbrel continued to show as an Atlanta Brave in Draft Buddy, Last Player Picked and on our cheatsheet rankings. He was traded to the San Diego Padres after the season started, but man, missed it by one day? The fact people are still drafting gave me a great excuse to update for the latest transactions and depth chart moves.

So, whether you are drafting, or even if you simply want to update Draft Buddy for the latest changes, open it up, go to the action tab, and click Update Projections. I updated the Steamer-Fangraphs projections, the Zeile projections from FantasyPros, and depth charts for all 30 teams. I didn’t update the Average Draft Position, as that hasn’t changed from our available sources. The latest player news, found to the far right on the hitters data and pitchers data tabs, continues to update automatically and I will leave that on through this weekend.

For those who have stuck with us since the season started—thank you—we do have updated player stats every day. You can view the stats by game from the scoreboard on the front page, such as Toronto Blue Jays-New York Yankees game last night, and also by day, season, and further filtered by any or all positions and by team.

The plan is to keep updating the depth charts and baseball stats, and expanding on the stat features (did you notice the FanDuel salary amounts in those prior links?) plus more baseball content as we are able. We will start rolling out some football content in the near future, too.

Re-upping Draft Buddy and Gearing Up for Fantasy Baseball

February 11, 2015 By Mike MacGregor Leave a Comment

Draft Buddy is ready and I’ve got some Big League Chew. Time to get geared up for fantasy baseball!

Draft Buddy for fantasy baseball is ready for the 2015 season. Version 1.0 of DB was published last week, and a newsletter is out to our baseball members that it is ready.

Not sure what Draft Buddy is? It is a combined custom cheatsheet player rankings and draft tracker tool, created in Microsoft Excel. It works for fantasy points and roto scoring leagues of varying sizes and formats. It includes two sets of 2015 projections, Steamer-Fangraphs and Zeile from FantasyPros. It includes player stats from 2012-2014. It is FREE to download, use and update. We will be doing regular updates from now through Opening Day. Start by reviewing the features to understand how it works.

For prior members to download the new 2015 version, simply login to your existing account and renew your subscription, as follows:

Member login box is now in the right sidebar of most pages on the website. Note I am logged in but have no subscription to “Fantasy Baseball Draft Buddy” (only Football)

The Renew Subscription page looks like this. Check the “Fantasy Baseball Draft Buddy” option and click Next

After renewing, a Thank You page should direct you to download Draft Buddy, but also returning to the homepage, logged in, you should see “Fantasy Baseball Draft Buddy” amongst your active subscriptions

For new members, register an account (also free) and make similar selections as part of your registration – that you want the Fantasy Baseball Draft Buddy. Hey, while you are at it, if you play Fantasy Football then please feel free to check off the Fantasy Football Member option as well so I can add you to that mailing list.

When you first open Draft Buddy in Excel, go through the first five tabs in order. Most of your changes will be made on tabs 1 (rules) and 2 (scoring), while tab 3 (owners) can really be filled in any time, and the default settings on tab 4 (options) should be fine to start. Then on the tab 5 (action), make sure to click the Compile Cheatsheets button. This will create your custom cheatsheets and adjust the other tabs as appropriate for the size of your league.

I plan to update the projections, depth charts and ADP later this week. Watch for the note when it is ready on Facebook or Twitter, and if you have any questions that is a good way to track me down, or post a comment here.

As for my own fantasy baseball preparation, there are really too many quality podcasts, websites and individual writers to mention. Maybe what I will do is some due diligence (a.k.a. fantasy baseball research) and then post or tweet out the sources I liked and felt were a big help. Any suggestions you guys have, then please let me know.

I’m also deciding between a couple league or contest options. I prefer a slow draft just to help me manage my time on the home front. Options appear to be limited so maybe some salary cap style contests. I started to make some notes comparing different ways we can blow our fantasy budget. Sounds like the makings of another future post!