Comments on: TGIF: The Ethics of Streaming Pitchers

By: ghcjoe

ghcjoe — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:39:19 +0000

this is my first fantasy team ever (baseball ’11) and lack of statistics and fantasy mechanics knowledge spawned intimidation and fear of the unknown. i just waited for the season to start to figure it out. the draft was autopick, and only 3 of the 8 players in our league knew you could flag players. So obviously the upper echelon of SP’s was gobbled up without our knowledge. I ended up with a super closer bullpen(Bell, Wilson, nunez axford) the only trade play i could get was pujols for wilson, which has been an obvious rocky road. essentially i had no wins or K’s and a rollercoaster era. so I started adding a couple of pitchers a week and it went from there. I later found out it was a hated strategy by the guys with lee,halladay price johnson ect. Ive still lost pitching stats. Sometimes you get backed into a corner and got to do what you got to do. quit whining! blame your mother and/or your league commissioner.

By: h2h Corner ~ Back to the Future, Next Week's h2h Preview | Fantasy … | back to the future delorean

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:56:05 +0000

[...] weekly move caps to cut down on the nefarious streaming pitchers strategy. this makes it important to maximize your move [...]

By: h2h Corner ~ Back to the Future, Next Week’s h2h Preview | Fantasy Baseball 101

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 21:13:05 +0000

[...] league owners because some leagues have started with weekly move caps to cut down on the nefarious streaming pitchers strategy. This makes it important to maximize your move allotment on two-start pitchers and key [...]

By: Dylan

Dylan — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:38:22 +0000

What your article fails to take into account is the amount of time it takes to do this in addition to the ability and willingness to be online at precisely the right time (which you did allude to). I am an attorney with family and full life. My league got dominated one year by a guy who streamed pitchers because he was unemployed and single and had nothing to do, but stream. You are right. This is supposed to be fun. But if having no life becomes the most important aspect of succeeding in fantasy baseball, it stops being fun for those of us who won’t make it our top priority in life.

By: 18: People who take fantasy sports way too seriously « God, I Fucking Hate People

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:15:29 +0000

[...] Hmm. He’s questioning other people’s integrity. This is interesting when you learn that this person streams his pitchers. What’s that? Basically, that’s when you drop and add pitchers constantly, picking up as many innings, wins, Ks, and saves as possible. Many leagues have settings that allow it, so some think it’s ok. Anybody with a brain, however, doesn’t. Why? Because “[s]treaming is seen as an easy way out of having to strategically play fantasy baseball and i… [...]

By: lokesh

lokesh — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:34:45 +0000

good point about the FG and FT, both of them could work against the streamer as well. so you’re looking at one category as a sure loss(TO) for the streamer, and two that could go either way, most likely against the streamer as well.

However, I disagree with your argument that waiver wire pickups may only help out in one or two categories, thus can’t guarantee winning. As you said, the streamer picks up players that add onto any of these 6 categories, therefore he has a chance at taking 6/9 categories. It doesn’t matter if the pick up only helps in one or two cats, because the opponent has an empty roster spot when the streamer has a pick up in place.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 01:57:00 +0000

With regards to hoop, you have an advantage in 6 of the 9 categories. You’ll lose turnovers and usually, since you’re taking lower quality players off the wire, you’ll dilute (and possibly give up) up FG% and FT% (unless your opponent is poor at one of them). As for the other 6, you need 5 to win your matchup, but the guys coming off the waiver wire aren’t across the board contributers, so they’re good for a couple categories. That said, if you get specialists to complement your weaknesses or take a variety of players (some steal guys, some blockers, etc), you can push for all the cats. In hoops, there are too many categories you can’t guarantee winning; most of the starters/high minute guys are rostered. With starting pitchers, you’re guaranteed a guy who will “start” and could log some good innings for you.

By: KC

KC — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:32:00 +0000

The key with streaming in basketball is that the players actually have to play well.

Most of the time, any below-average starter in Major League Baseball can go out there and throw five crappy innings, but gives you want you need in innings, k’s, and if you’re lucky, wins. So, streaming pitchers has a higher success rate than streaming basketball players, I would think. I’d love to see Pete’s take.

By: lokesh

lokesh — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 05:42:41 +0000

“Do I personally condone streaming? Yes I do”

does your take on streaming change for the playoffs? if so, how do you justify it?

While your article on streaming mostly focused on baseball, could you give your insights on streaming in fantasy basketball? Unlike baseball, there are only one set of stats for all players(as you know). In my opinion, it seems like streaming is something either everyone in the league should do, or no one, because if just one person does it, he/she has a clear advantage in 8 of 9 categories. don’t you think?