Fantasy Sports - Misunderstood Concepts #2

Positional Requirements

I had a discussion with a friend the other day, in which he presented a hypothetical question regarding the data analysis I work with (he is a semi believer, basically I think he wants to use data analysis to a lesser extent than I use it, because he has great feel for the game and would just love to have data as a back up or to break ties for him, which is fine and probably good use for him as his feel probably still puts him ahead of 75% of the group)................he said, if the top player in your analysis is an OF (say in the middle rounds) and you need a SS, but he is 5 players down on the schedule, do you take the OF, or the SS............I gave the short answer and said that using data is not absolute and that I would take the SS based on need. I also brought up a theoretical point...........if this were a league in which there were no positional requirements whatsoever, you could pick the guy with the best absolute value every single pick. The real or more detailed answer is that based on valuation metrics that rate the value of the related position, I would take whicher player had the best comparative value..............my comparative value was a way for putting a value on players playing different positions, which allows you to make the best choose (value wise) when making a decision..............this decision pointed me in the direction of Victor Martinez in round 4, when his absolute value was lower than many guys selected immediately after him..........his comparative value (by position) shot him above all others. Now, coupled with this is strategic factors regarding positional requirements..........remember we are choosing between best available players in my example when weighing positions..................if you want to weigh rostered strategic factors, you have to do a lot of mock drafts to determine market value (or go to www.mockdraftcentral.com and print their ADP reports)...............and use many different draft positions to see, on average, where players come off the board and what types of deficiencies a particular roster might have picking a certain way (this type of exercise is underperformed and takes practice to be able to accurately assess, even I don't have an entire grasp of this, but I have gotten better and have a beat on most leagues I play in, but new leagues will be harder).

Again, I digress..............my point is that, I have a metric set up to help distinguish value between positions in the leagues I play in, mainly because I don't think it is very easy to determine this factor...........I think a lot of people make mistakes in this area and grossly under or overvalue the difference in positions............I was just in a draft in which a player liked a pick due to position when the pick immediately after that was a player that, not only had a better projected overall value, but also had a better comparative positional value, but since the 1st player was a middle infielder, it was assumed that his subpar numbers belong there while the OF didnt............this is something that I need to study much much more and perfect, but it is safe to say that there is many opportunites to gain an edge...........