Fantasy Freestyle: 4×4 Versus 5×5

Believe it or not, there are still a few old school, 4×4 Rotisserie-style leagues out there. For those of you who think that 5×5 is an ancient and outmoded format, this might be as shocking as finding out that there are still people in the industrialized world who don’t have indoor plumbing.

Nevertheless, some of these 4×4 leagues do still exist. I’m in one of those leagues, and my colleague Paul Sporer is in a 4×4 league, as well. If you do play 4×4, one of the biggest challenges now is trying to decipher what 5×5 valuations mean to you. If merely taking the auction prices from CBS and LABR and walking into your auction with them is a bad idea in 5×5, it’s a terrible idea in 4×4. By ignoring the differences between 4×4 and 5×5 valuations, you’re putting yourself at an extreme disadvantage.

How do player values change?

HITTERS

On the hitting side, the differences aren’t too significant.

Table 1: Top 10 Hitters 4×4 Greater Than vs. 5×5 2012

Some have called 5×5 formats the great equalizer. Some of the Monopoly money that we pay the hitters has to go to runs; how that money is distributed isn’t equal. In order to pay for the extra category, the best hitters get cheated, an effect that is more dramatic in the American League. Some non-elites sneak onto the National League list (yes, I’m looking at you Wilin Rosario), but generally speaking, the more categories there are, the more balanced you want your team to be. 5×5 is less conducive to Stars and Scrubs than 4×4.

Table 2: Top 10 Hitters 5×5 Greater Than 4×4 2012

The “winners” in this exchange are the not-very-good players who manage to pile up a significant amount of at-bats. Poor batting average players matter less in 5×5, especially if your player stays on the field all year long and contributes at least modestly everywhere else.  These types of players still aren’t highly recommended in 5×5, but you can stomach them to a degree.

If there’s a takeaway from Table 2, it’s that one-trick ponies aren’t quite as rewarding. Filling a roster spot with someone like Barney or Carroll is more useful than wasting a spot on a 150-at-bat player that might steal a few bases and do nothing else.

PITCHING

If the hitting valuation differences are vanilla, the pitching differences are a devil’s food cake/tiramisu turducken.

Table 3: Top 10 Pitchers 4×4 Greater Than 5×5 2012

For hitters, some of the play money has to go to runs; with pitchers, the money gets redistributed to strikeouts. As a result, relievers with excellent ERAs and WHIPs are monsters in 4×4. In 5×5, great relievers are still valuable, but even strikeout kings like Kimbrel and Jansen take a big hit. This is why owners don’t pay big bucks for saves in the expert leagues; they need to save money for strikeouts across the board—as the next chart displays.

Table 4: Top 10 Pitchers 4×4 Less Than 5×5 2012

5×5 is more forgiving of terrible pitching performances than 4×4. Tim Lincecum buried his owners in 4×4 last year; in 5×5, he was a slightly positive earner. You still don’t want most of these pitchers, but if you buy one of them, you’re not necessarily condemned to five months in the cellar bitterly cursing Ricky Romero and waiting for football season to begin. On the more-positive side, pitchers like Masterson and Lester had some value in 5×5 last year. Volquez is the kind of pitcher you want to keep in mind in 5×5 in the endgame. The ERA and WHIP are ugly, but the 174 strikeouts make him a somewhat valuable commodity.

Regardless of what format you play, you have to be familiar with the value proposition. If you’re playing 5×5, remember to focus on at-bats and innings. A balanced team is even more important in 5×5 than it is in 4×4. An offense with seven studs and seven duds is going to have a much tougher time in 5×5, and a three-starting-pitcher strategy isn’t likely to succeed.