(Ed. Note: Peter Kreutzer joins Baseball Prospectus Online this week with
his fantasy baseball column “Ask Rotoman”. Kreutzer, formerly of ESPN.com,
will be taking reader questions and dispensing his unique brand of fantasy
baseball insight throughout the summer.)
It’s good to be back.
After an off-season that saw Rotoman welcome Rotobaby to the family, and a
parting of the ways with this column’s former home, “Ask Rotoman” is back,
and eager to provide answers to your burning fantasy baseball questions.
How did I get here? Last month, Keith Law suggested I bring my wit and style
to Baseball Prospectus. His arguments were quite convincing, and the
chance to write for the Prospectus’ savvy audience was quite an incentive.
So now that I’m here, I turn the column over to the readers. Send me
questions. I’m probably not going to send out many personal answers, because
that baby is just off the page and she wants to get bounced and sung to and
fed, and this year she wins out. But I might, because I have opinions and
I’m happy to express them.
And in the column, which will appear weekly, or thereabouts, we’ll tackle
the more intriguing questions of the day. They sure as hell won’t be issues
that the gaggle of other fantasy advice columnists are falling over
themselves answering. These will be issues that come from you, and all I can
say is the better the questions you ask the better the answers I give.
I hope the answers will amuse you, and I hope they will always make you
think about how and why you play this compelling game. And maybe they’ll
help you play the game better. Maybe.
Before I sign off on this reintroductory column, I thought this might be a
good place to introduce some of the results of a major study I did in the
offseason. What I did, basically, was derive bona fide roto draft prices for
all players in every season since 1900, for pitchers and hitters. The
results are really interesting, and so I share some of them here happily and
with an eye to using your reactions to refine them.
For instance, I’m not happy that so many of the all-time great roto pitching
seasons occurred during the dead ball era. This is counter-intuitive to me.
Yet it is hard to dismiss the amazing accomplishments (relative to their
leagues) of that period’s premier pitchers. And it’s foolish to
underestimate the impact that 464 innings of a 1.42 ERA and 40 wins–Ed
Walsh’s performance in 1908–might have on a roto team. In fact, as my
entire 1999 staff is on pace to win 56 games, I shudder to think.
So, without further ado or explanation, here are the 20th Century Roto Top
10 Lists:
10 Greatest Roto Hitting Seasons Name Year AB AVG HR RBI SB PK$ TY COBB 1909 573 0.377 9 107 76 $78 BABE RUTH 1920 458 0.376 54 137 14 $69 GEORGE SISLER 1920 631 0.407 19 122 42 $69 BABE RUTH 1921 540 0.378 59 171 17 $68 HONUS WAGNER 1908 568 0.354 10 109 53 $68 TY COBB 1911 591 0.420 8 127 83 $65 KEN WILLIAMS 1922 585 0.332 39 155 37 $65 TY COBB 1917 588 0.383 6 102 55 $64 TY COBB 1910 506 0.383 8 91 65 $64 BABE RUTH 1927 540 0.356 60 164 7 $63 10 Greatest Roto Pitching Seasons Pitcher Year IP ERA W Ratio SV PK$ ED WALSH 1908 464.0 1.42 40 7.74 6 $80 JOE McGINNITY 1904 408.0 1.61 35 8.67 5 $79 ED WALSH 1910 369.7 1.27 18 7.38 5 $72 CY YOUNG 1901 371.3 1.62 33 8.75 0 $72 CHRISTY MATHEWSON 1908 390.7 1.43 37 7.53 5 $71 PETE ALEXANDER 1915 376.3 1.22 31 7.58 3 $69 WALTER JOHNSON 1913 346.0 1.14 36 7.02 2 $69 CHRISTY MATHEWSON 1905 338.7 1.28 31 8.40 2 $68 ED WALSH 1912 393.0 2.15 27 9.76 10 $67 CY YOUNG 1903 341.7 2.08 28 8.72 2 $67 10 Greatest Roto Career Hitters Player Last Years Career PK$ Avg PK$ TY COBB 1928 24 $960 $40 BABE RUTH 1934 20 $872 $44 HANK AARON 1976 23 $775 $34 WILLIE MAYS 1973 22 $764 $35 RICKEY HENDERSON 1998 22 $746 $34 LOU BROCK 1979 19 $681 $36 HONUS WAGNER 1917 18 $649 $36 TRIS SPEAKER 1928 21 $641 $31 SAM CRAWFORD 1916 17 $632 $37 EDDIE COLLINS 1927 20 $620 $31 MEL OTT 1945 19 $608 $32 FRANK ROBINSON 1975 20 $605 $30 STAN MUSIAL 1963 21 $595 $28 LOU GEHRIG 1938 14 $594 $42 ROGERS HORNSBY 1933 17 $580 $34 MICKEY MANTLE 1968 18 $558 $31 JOE MORGAN 1984 19 $557 $29 JIMMIE FOXX 1945 18 $556 $31 TED WILLIAMS 1960 18 $553 $31 PAUL MOLITOR 1998 20 $540 $27 10 Greatest Roto Career Pitchers Pitcher Last Years CareerPK$ Avg PK$ WALTER JOHNSON 1927 21 $785 $37 PETE ALEXANDER 1930 21 $616 $29 CHRISTY MATHEWSON 1916 17 $605 $36 LEFTY GROVE 1941 17 $546 $32 WARREN SPAHN 1965 22 $500 $23 CY YOUNG 1911 13 $470 $36 DENNIS ECKERSLEY 1998 25 $469 $19 ED WALSH 1917 13 $453 $35 HOYT WILHELM 1972 23 $448 $19 CARL HUBBELL 1943 16 $447 $28 TOM SEAVER 1986 22 $440 $20 MORDECAI BROWN 1916 12 $424 $35 ROLLIE FINGERS 1985 16 $418 $26 DON SUTTON 1988 25 $417 $17 EDDIE PLANK 1917 16 $399 $25 ROBIN ROBERTS 1966 21 $396 $19 GAYLORD PERRY 1983 25 $376 $15 ROGER CLEMENS 1998 15 $364 $24 TED LYONS 1946 21 $358 $17 RICH GOSSAGE 1994 23 $358 $16
Have a question for Rotoman? Contact him directly at
rotoman@baseballprospectus.com.
Thank you for reading
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