Category: About Tout Wars

Huh, TOUT, What is it good for?

navel-gazing-at-canadaLord Zola and his merry band discuss why there is a LABR and why there is a Tout Wars, and the ways both leagues of so-called experts can better serve their followers. Follow the fun at KFFL.com.

Announcing the new Tout Wars Mixed Draft league!

On March 11th Tout Wars Mixed Draft will launch its inaugural season with an online windshield wiper draft. The league will play with the same rules as Tout Mixed Auction, apart from the method of player acquisition.

Follow the draft here at toutwars.com in the live blog and via live spreadsheet. (Links coming.) And the races all season long on this website and following the links to onRoto.com.

For the roster of excellent owners and the draft order visit the TOUTS Page here at Toutwars.com.

Lord Zola’s Knights Take on Tout Wars Mixed’s New OBP Rule

936full-knights-of-the-round-table-posterThe merry band (and Rotoman) joust about improving the fantasy game, aggressively, passively, or just right, pleasing the average fantasy player, and incorporating better metrics, at KFFL.

Derek Carty says, Not so fast!

Rotoman agrees with Derek, and thinks he’s wrong.

In a group email list among Tout Warriors, a spirited discussion breaks out. Steve Gardner’s story in USA Today does a good job of explaining some of the issues involved.

Rotoman takes a look at what hitters would gain most in value by the change to OBP.

Tristan Cockcroft doesn’t mention Tout Wars, but he does propose changing the roto categories. His idea? 6×6 roto, with OBP and SLG replacing BA, IP and K/9 replacing Strikeouts, and Quality Starts replacing Wins. You can disagree and appreciate his thoughtfulness on the subject.

In a story that may be behind the paywall at Rotowire, Jason Collette looks at the game’s declining Batting Averages in recent years, and the fantasy implications. In the comments a spirited discussion breaks out about the pros and cons of replacing BA with OBP. In sum, lots of support for the idea of it. Some skepticism about the receptiveness of the general fantasy public to the change.

2013 Rule Changes in Tout Wars

Two rules are being changed in Tout Wars this year:

1) The threshold below which the FAAB Bidding is not treated using the Vickrey rules (winning bid is reduced to $1 more than the second-highest bid) has been reduced from $10 to $5.

2) In Mixed League only this year, the BA (batting average) hitting category is being changed to OBP (on-base percentage).

The general consensus is that Vickrey is a good thing when there is real competition for a player, but in the week-to-week FAAB contests too often one team will really value a player and no one else will. Reducing the price down to $1 is like a gift to those teams. The $10 threshold has worked well to force thoughtful bids, but it is the goal to find the best balance, and so we’re trying $5 this year. If there are no other bids than the winning bid of more than $5, the winning bid will be reduced to $5.

Sabermetrics tells us that a walk is nearly as good as a hit, and many leagues are using OBP rather than BA because it values the base on balls. One of Tout Wars’ mission is to adopt new rules that improve the game. The member of the LLC have all played with OBP as a category for 10 years now in the XFL, and can honestly say: Try it, you’ll like it!

New Tout Wars Records in 2012

Did you know we keep track of Tout Wars records? Yep, you can see which teams scored the most runs in AL Tout and which Mixed Tout team has the best ERA ever on our Tout Records page.

Highlights in 2012:

Mike Siano bested Keith Law’s old old Tout AL stolen base record, with 174.

Peter Kreutzer pushed past a NL Strikeout record shared by Ben Brown/Mark Elliot in 2001 and Tristan Cockcroft in 2011, with 1272.

Most impressively, Cory Schwartz destroyed the Total Mixed Tout Points total (15 team league), held by Andy Behrens in 2010 and Fred Zinkie in 2011, with 128.5. Congratulations Cory!