The Saber's Edge: Next Season Starts Now

The 2015 fantasy season is winding down and it may be over for most teams in head-to-head leagues. Some owners may have moved onto other fantasy sports or are just ready for a break. With all the hours put into your fantasy team over the year, don't forget to put in a small amount of work at this season's end. The winter can be long time and information can be lost as leagues are reset and memories fade. Here is a list at some end-of-season house-keeping tips to help with the 2016 season.

To start with, create a spreadsheet in which you can input on the following information. A tab will work for each team. I wouldn't collect all the information on each league if you don't plan on being in it next year. I would collect the league results, especially if it is a standard-ish league like 12-team 5x5 Roto. It is nice to have this information in case you end up joining a similar league next year.

League Results

If you don't do anything, at least copy down the final standings. It doesn't matter if it is a keeper league or not, so much information can be taken from the standings. Now some websites may say they keep previous standings, but don't trust them. Also, who knows if a league may have to change host sites because of increased costs or changes in available features.

When you collect standing data, collect as much information as possible. In standard roto leagues, the information collected is obvious in these overall standings:

With this information (assuming it is at the season's end), an owner knows what it will likely take to win the league next year. In this case, an owner needs to aim for a top 4 to 5 finish (190 total points/12 categories = 15.8 points/category) in each category. Additionally, the owner will know each statistical benchmarks to aim for. If the owner plans to slack in a category, like the league leader here did above unintentionally with Holds, they will need to make up the difference in other categories.

Besides been used for reachable benchmarks, the can be used to set up next season's fantasy values using StandingGain Points. I like using this value method as it can work for auction and drafts.

Also, get all the information available in point leaguse as it helps to see how the top teams are performing. For example, here is the standings in an Ottoneu league I am in.

If it was the final standings, I could see I need ~17,700 points to win. What this information doesn't tell me is how the top teams got to the top values.

It can be seen in a couple of places where I can try to do better next season (team is Piazza's Back Acne). I need to get more plate appearances (more players for Mondays and Thursdays) and better overall pitchers. Additionally, it gets some bench marks to aim for in pitching stats. My pitchers averaged 8.0 K/9 while the top teams were at or well over 9.0 K/9.

Replacement Level Player

I find the replacement level player the second more important factor to collect. These will help you set projections for players who will miss a known amount of time because of injuries next season.  This level of player is tough to determine before the draft/auction.

This process may take a little longer than finding the final standings, but it should just take a few minutes. Go to the leagues waiver wire and find the best three players at each position and copy their stats.

When the 2016 season starts, people will try to put a value on an injured position player like Jung-Ho Kang or pitchers returning Tommy John surgery like Yu Darvish. By using the player's partial season value and the value from their replacement, a total value can be found. To find this total value, an owner can use the information provided in this article.

I know some people who will work in some amount of replacement level production into often injured players like Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez. While this may take a bit more time, it can make the difference in winning or losing a league.

Owner Tendencies

If the same set of owners are coming back for next year, it may be a good idea to remember their tendencies. These can be used next year against the owner. Here are some to note.

• Draft/Auction: These should be noticed at or just after the players are acquired, but an owner may still note them. Some owners won't pay for Saves on draft day. Others go extremely heavy on Saves. Some go for an 85%/15% split with Hitters/Pitchers. Just try to remember these tendencies, especially if they worked for the owners. If they didn't work, the owner may not go back then next year.


• Use of FAAB: Owners have different rates for spending their FAAB. Some wait until the trade deadline, others blow through it in a month. Others just horde it.


• Trading: Some players like to move players and others just will not make a trade. Others make hundreds of horrible offers. I would go through the leagues transactions and find those owners who do and don't make trades and note them down. When it comes time to trade out of need or surplus, target the owners who will trade and start to work with them.


• Tenacity: Some owners will give up and "rebuild" after a couple of bad months while others will fight to the end. Keep track of the rebuilders and try to trade your prospects for their stars before others jump in.


• Note your own tendencies: Know your own weakness and how you may try to exploit it if you were another owner. In a live draft which has the category W+H+SV, I am notorious for picking up high strikeout setup men at the end of the draft for a dollar or two. Once it got down to me filling my relief pitchers this year, another owner kept his slots to fill also with more money to spend. When I threw one pitcher out, he would bid them up. I caught on and began to nominate the relievers just below my targets. He quickly filled up with lesser player and then I was able to fill those spots like I normally do.

This is a catch all, but could include.

• Hosting website glitches. Maybe they are so bad you need to move to another host.
• Enjoyment level. The owner may be in too many leagues and may need to drop one or more.
• Mistakes made and how to correct them.
• Cash Winnings. If the cash losses aren't worth the game, maybe it is time to move on.

Ignore you fantasy team for a bit and take a break. The players need a break and owners should also.