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[UPDATE 2-21, 12:26 AM]

Hi Folks,

We have created an official updates page for the PFM and have filled requests for the raw data downloadable in CSV and TAB formats. There were also a few other minor updates that you'll see on that updates page.

Thanks!

Ben Murphy

 

[UPDATE 2-17, 6:43 PM]

We did some tinkering under the hood of the PFM between setting it live and right now, based on comments from you, the reader. 

  • Fixed the bug in inflation that kept the system from remembering dollar values and didn't let users release players back into the pool. 
  • Changed positions and scoring categories to a form instead of plain text after initial output.
  • The Show/Hide feature set now remembers which sections you want to show and hide. 
  • There are now "Update" buttons in every section.
  • Inflation tooltips have been added to the output section. 

We've still got some things we're going to be adding–for one, we'll be adding my (meaning Marc's) rankings to the PFM as an optional column, so you can refer to the tiers I ranked players in just like you would refer to auction dollar values. Leave questions, concerns or ideas in the comments.

There seems to be some concern that the projections in the PFM are based on 2010 data–that is not the case.  You can see at the top of this page, in the biographical section for Hanley Ramirez, that his 2011 projection is present. That's the same projection you will find here on the Marlins' depth chart page and in the PFM, were you to look for Mr. Ramirez.

That being said, the 2010 projections are still present on the player cards, in the PECOTA section towards the middle of the page. That data is not anywhere near the PFM though. The PFM is fed by the depth charts, so I hope your fears have been allayed.

-Marc

 

I'll skip the flowery stuff and just tell you what you came here for:

Enjoy.

(As a note – the PFM and Depth Charts are only available to subscribers.)

Thank you for reading

This is a free article. If you enjoyed it, consider subscribing to Baseball Prospectus. Subscriptions support ongoing public baseball research and analysis in an increasingly proprietary environment.

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mgolovcsenko
2/17
All is forgiven ...

... but when I click "submit PFM parameters" shouldn't something happen? (Are the lights dimming at BP Headquarters as the new servers strain under the load of pent up PFM demand?)
cwyers
2/17
Something should, yes. If it continues to be a problem, please send Customer Service a message with your details (operating system, browser, etc.) and someone will look into it.
BurrRutledge
2/17
I believe this is the same problem people have using Internet Explorer, when they click "reply" to a comment and the site doesn't actually reply to the article. It's called "compatibility view."

If you are having problems, try changing your "compatibility view." This should also make it so you can reply to comments in the comment-threads.

I could be wrong, but it seemed to help for me just now...
o2bnited
2/17
I believe the problem, which was pointed out in IE and may have existed in other browsers, is rectified now. Please do email Customer Service if you notice it in the future.
sfastatsprof
2/17
Collin,
Ben's post fixes the issue of the PFM working for me and I now see the Download CSV tab after I submit parameters. However, I thought that in years past there was a button at the top of the PFM screen that allowed you to download the raw pfmdata file WITHOUT having to submit any particular parameters. In other words, you are downloading the playing time adjusted forecasts which themselves are invariant to PFM parameters. Will such a download link be added, or should I continue to submit default parameters in order to just download the CSV file for the playing time adjusted stats I want while disregarding the player values? I hope I am making sense. And I should add "Thank You" to this post.. I look foward to this release each year.
sfastatsprof
2/17
*apologies for not spelling your first name correctly. Ugh.
cwyers
2/17
Ah, I understand now. We'll have something downloadable soon, whether it's part of the same spreadsheet as the weighted means or something else.
jberkon
2/17
Thanks Colin; this would be enormously helpful. Especially since PFM doesn't have the MLBAM ID # in its output.
deepblue64
2/23
Not tried it yet but surely you're joking, this was sold as one one of the big improvements this year :-(
deepblue64
2/23
OK tried it now and the MLB ID *is* there!
o2bnited
2/24
MLB ID has been in every downloadable format of the 2011 PFM since its publication a couple weeks ago. If you have any downloads that do not include MLB ID, please let Customer Service know. So far we haven't gotten any such reports. Thanks!
ciarfella
2/17
I ran the PFM and the data returned was based on last years(2010) projection data. i.e. McCann numbers (see below) show up in 2010 projection on his baseball card. Not sure if
you used those numbers to calculate or just printed it
on the output.


PLAYER POS LG TEAM AGE $$$ PA IP Inflation R HR RBI SB OPS

Mccann, Brian C NL ATL 27 $123.96 551 73 19 71 4 .821
sfastatsprof
2/17
Will there be an xlsx file associated with the PFM data posted? In years past there was a download link at the top of the PFM that would allow a raw data download.
cwyers
2/17
There should be a "Download CSV File" button at the top of the PFM.
sfastatsprof
2/17
Like the first commenter, when I push the button to submit I get no output and I also do not see the download button you reference.
rosborne
2/17
I don't think it is there.
rosborne
2/17
Are we going to be able to download the PFM file like we have in previous years? Thanks.
sfastatsprof
2/17
We literally posted the same question at the same time stamp!
carpoon
2/17
I may be overlooking something, but it looks like it's running the PFM using 2010 projections.
wilykat
2/17
That's how it looks to me as well, unless the problem is that the individual player pages need to be reformatted... the PFM has Aubrey Huff ...

ok I'm confused. The PFM, the PECOTA spreadsheet, and Aubrey Huff's player page all have him putting up almost identical lines, but Huff's player page says they're 2010 projections. Is the problem that the player page needs to be updated to say 2011?
dpease
2/17
we haven't updated the player card projections for 2011 yet. Sorry for the confusion.
rawagman
2/17
Any plans to update the weighted means spreadsheet with depth chart data?
cwyers
2/17
Yes. We're using the Depth Charts to set the league run environment now, so we'll be doing updated weighted means for all players later in the week, and we'll include some link to the depth chart information (still trying to decide the best way to present them both).
brianwilliams42
2/17
Noticing that Brett Gardner isn't on the Yankees depth chart or in PFM.

Otherwise very excited for another year of BP tools, thanks!
Wharton93
2/17
hmmm....6x6 with Holds and OPS. No pitchers are projecting any Holds. And OPS "feels" underweighted (and SBs overweighted)---either that, or Rajai Davis is a stud even in OPS leagues.
brooklyn55
2/17
All of a sudden, in trying to access the Pirates ... this message & similar message for all other teams. What ??

Why does PECOTA have the Pirates projected to lose 91 games in 2011?
jivas21
2/17
I'm receiving a message saying they I have to subscribe to see the Depth Charts, even though I am a subscriber and I am currently logged in. Anyone else with this issue?
kathywoolner
2/17
Hi, Jivas. We sent you an email to resolve this. If it continues, please contact BP Customer Service. Thanks.
jtc1984
2/17
not listing quality starts
saint09
2/17
Thankfully all those bugs were ironed out prior to release. Fortunately the perfectionists are all over it.

brooklyn55
2/17
Obviously the Yanks to be the power & the glory ... they have to use only eight players in their lineup ...
brooklyn55
2/17
Sorry, the Yanks can do it with ... seven ... no CFer or LFer needed . ...
Guancous
2/17
Suggestion for 2012: Net saves = saves - blown saves
Guancous
2/17
Wow, how much nicer is it for the PFM to save your leagues instead of saving the bookmarks elsewhere? Great tweak!
o2bnited
2/17
Glad to hear that you like it! It should give you full control over saved leagues, and you should be able to access them from anywhere as long as you are logged into the site (which you need to do anyway, of course).
saint09
2/17
Nothing happening for me when I click on "Submit PFM Parameters." Odd.
jtc1984
2/17
QS no longer in parameters....not recording hits in hitting category
jtc1984
2/17
the hits for batting are not recording in the points system only....rotiss ok....still no QS category listed
saint09
2/17
Fixed, thank you.
jdouglass
2/17
I thought I saw Holds in the pitcher categories a while ago, but maybe it's me. Could we have that added?

Thanks BP.
Guancous
2/17
Is there a way to remove a player that has been checked off as kept? Last year I accidentally marked Wesley Wright instead of David Wright and I had to input 199 players again.
o2bnited
2/17
You should see the players that you've taken in the list at the top. If you highlight one (or more) of those players, and click Update, it will put them back into the player pool.

I'll add some help info to the inflation elements for the next rollout to make things a bit more clear. Sorry about that.
luftmich
2/17
This seems to work for players under "Other Teams", but not players under "Your Team"...
nateac
2/17
Victor Martinez is projected to hit only 4 HR with under 20 runs and RBIs?
thats the way it shows up on his player card too
i dont think it was adding in his expected playing time at DH properly
nateac
2/17
thanks
juiced
2/17
Colin when I substitute "hits" as an offensive category for the typical BA in a 5x5 league I get numbers for all hitters on the other 4 categories except hits. If I leave it at BA, it does give me a BA.

What's wrong with hits as a category and are the zeros across the board affecting auction values
juiced
2/17
Problem solved never mind
ccweinmann
2/17
Holds and quality starts used to be categories. That was good.
rosborne
2/17
On the depth charts, WARP is shown as NA.
cwyers
2/17
We had the weighted means WARP showing up there by mistake - WARP for a player's Depth Chart projected usage is in there now. Sorry for the delay.
rosborne
2/17
Thanks.
saint09
2/17
When entering keepers, the players checked as mine keep reverting to a price of 1 dollar. Can this be reviewed please.
luftmich
2/17
Do you have straight draft or auction selected?
saint09
2/17
Auction. It'll show the correct price for a bit, but as I continue to enter more keepers, it reverts to a dollar... I can then remove and re-add my keepers, but it inevitably reverts again.
o2bnited
2/17
I will be investigating the issue related to taken players' salaries changing. Thanks for the head's up.
McCaffery
2/17
Last year I was able to sort PFM output by player name; this made plugging in keeper salaries much easier. I can't seem to find this capability on this year's version. Am I missing something?
McCaffery
2/17
As a possible answer to my own question; I assume that the sort function was removed in order to make the program work faster (especially during auctions with the inflation calculator is in use, necessitating constant refreshment).

It occurred to me as soon as I posted my query that I could sort the CSV file alphabetically, enter salaries in an adjacent Excel column, resort by dollar value, and copy the salaries into the PFM: a slightly annoying extra step, but not too terribly time-consuming.
o2bnited
2/17
Sorting within the output table should be setup now. I hope this makes usability better for all.
Richie
2/17
Pitcher W-L records, especially for bad teams, are in dire need of correction. Looks like you may have neglected to factor in their expected run environments, team-wise.

Also perhaps a half-dozen PT% oddities, which I noted in their respective team depth chart comments.
veganalyst
2/17
Great to see PFM again!

Would be even greater to have holds and QS back, too. Thanks!
ccweinmann
2/17
I second this. Glad to see PFM. I really wish Holds and Quality Starts were still options.
yadenr
2/17
1. Kila Kaaihue is going to be a star!
2. Also would be happy if you could add quality starts and holds.
3. Is Total Bases coming out weird? When I ran it they were really low, like 168 or something for Pujols, etc.
4. Nice to see you again, PFM.

yerfdog
2/17
If you turn on user-centric inflation and SGP and get rid of the SO category, all pitchers are valued at $1.
BERSMR
2/17
that is exactly what is happening to me as well. Any solutions?
ccseverson
2/17
Someone needs to figure out how to get a minimum innings choice into the formula. It makes a huge difference on the value of middle relievers (and thus pitching) if you need to make 1000 or whatever innings as a Roti team.
pobothecat
2/17
PFM Total Bases projection

Nishioka Tsuyoshi 234
Ichiro Suzuki 187
Martin Prado 182
Carlos Gonzalez 182
Ryan Braun 181
Michael Young 180
Hanley Ramirez 180

(Pujols: 19th at 168, two slots behind Omar Infante.)

Meanwhile, here's Jay Jaffe's take on Tsuyoshi three days ago.

"... and let's just say that the initial outlook on their new middle infieldĆ¢ā‚¬ā€Japanese import Tsuyoshi Nishioka (no PECOTA yet, though his stats and scouting reports don't compare favorably to Kaz Matsui) and Alexi Casilla (.235 TAv, -0.4 WARP)Ć¢ā‚¬ā€ may make them miss Little Nicky Punto."

Uh ... huh?
mcquown
2/17
The Total Bases problem has been fixed. Thanks to both of you who reported it.
jimnabby
2/17
I do not see a "Download CSV" button anywhere. Am I just missing it?
jimnabby
2/17
I take that back. I see it after submitting parameters, but in the past I could easily download the full file. I know that was asked above, but the only answer I saw said it was there...and it's not.
zszalewski
2/17
I'd like to 2nd this request. In the past I could download the raw data behind all of the projections and it was really useful stuff that I built into other excel templates for fantasy bball. It doesn't appear that it's possible to download this full data file anymore. That would be great if you could add this option back to PFM again!
eliyahu
2/17
Is there any way to change the league "position counts" once they've been submitted? There doesn't seem to be an edit function there, and I'd hate to re-input everything I already have because of a minor tweak (# of RPs)
deniskoconnor
2/17
I just entered all of my league parameters, which among other things, include 13 teams and 1 catcher per team. PFM is only returning 11 catchers in the result which does not seem to make any sense.
hessshaun
2/17
Are you setting your dollar values to the negative? In the past, when I had issues with my parameters, I just decreased the dollar amount. If I was at -$5, I went to -$10 and it did the trick.

o2bnited
2/17
I am guessing the problem here was that the positional adjustment was OFF for some reason.

If you have the positional adjustment turned ON, then it should list enough players to fill all the starting positions you provided at salaries above the minimum salary.

If this is not happening, please email Customer Service. Thanks!
eliyahu
2/17
OK -- I don't know if you want to call this a bug, but RPs seem to be unrealistically undervalued by the PFM -- even in league with saves as a category -- unless you explicitly set a number of RPs in your league format.

This strikes me as odd: If saves are a category, it should be enough to list 9 "pitchers" and the value of the highest rated RP should be more than a couple of dollars....

Wasn't like this in previous years.
(PFM user since 2004)
o2bnited
2/17
I don't think this is a bug. Even the best RP's will have trouble contributing as much to the SO, ERA, and WHIP categories as much as a league average starter might. Closers will net you SV, but the above average SP's will help you in four other categories.

The reason it changes when you set a specific RP position is that now the RP's are first compared against each other, whereas with just P positions, all pitchers are compared against all pitchers regardless of position. Since RP's are relatively lesser contributors than SP's, in general, their values will get a boost if you give them their own roster spot and start comparing the elite RP's to the lesser RP's (instead of to the SP's as well).

Hope that helps, and thanks for using PFM.
rbross
2/17
Any chance UPSIDE will be ready soon?
varmintito
2/17
Haven't seen any big discrepancies for hitters, but some very weird results for pitching. My league's pitching categories are IP, W-L, ERA, WHIP, K, and a combined relief category (SV+HD-BS) that I did not enter into PFM.

Under these parameters, Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee had auction values in the middle of the pack, just below Josh Beckett, Wandy Rodriguez and Phil Hughes. Their projections were better across the board in all scoring categories, which suggests there is something wrong with the auction value algorithm.

Incidentally, Kila looks to be this year's Colby Lewis (can he really be as good as the projections?) It'll be interesting to see what the magazines and other projection systems say. And here I am at work without my Bill James BIS projection thingamawhoozie. I think I feel a cold coming on . . .
saint09
2/17
Or, this year's Matt Wieters.
rosborne
2/17
Thanks for including MLB_ID on the csv file. This is a great help.

TAv shows up as EQA on the download csv file.

o2bnited
2/17
TAv should now show up as such instead of using the old name, EqA now. Thanks for letting us know!
batts40
2/17
I accidentally left the settings to MLB and it showed Pujols @ $50, which feels about right for my draft. However, when I changed it to NL-only, it bumps him down to $39, any idea why?
dbiester
2/17
Spring is close! Yea!!!!!! Thank you for all the hard work.
kenneff
2/17
My Roto league uses a $100 base rather than the normal 260. Previous versions of PFM allowed an easy change but the new one does not. There's boxes there to adjust but when you change to 100 you get error msgs. I've tried playing around with it but have been unable to get it to change to 100. Looks like a glitch.

o2bnited
2/17
This was a result of a small problem in the code that checks to make sure the total budget is higher than hitter budget, and should be fixed now. Thanks!
goldenyeti
2/17
Sorry, but I'm still having a problem with adjusting the budget - if I try to change "total" or "hitters," I get the error message and it defaults back to the same values. Any advice?
kenneff
2/17
Yea, still not fixed
mgolovcsenko
2/17
I've got the problem (believe mentioned above, too) where the salaries for my players (my players only - not other teams') get reset to $1 after saving.
naehring
2/17
Love the depth charts, but I have a problem philosophically with posting only WARP values. I realize you are using WARP to compute estimated standings and that makes sense, however, many people are accessing these for help with fantasy baseball. Since WARP includes your calculation for defensive value, it is less useful to almost all fantasy formats. In every fantasy league I'm in, defense is either ignored completely (standard roto), or computes defense completely differently than your WARP calculations (Scoresheet). So, if I use this to rank players, I need to find a way to back out the fielding numbers. A column of just the hitting portion of WARP based on playing time estimates is what is really needed. (wouldn't VORP suffice?). Obviously, this is not an issue with pitchers.
Flynnbot
2/17
i completely agree on this. VORP for hitters would be helpful.
markpadden
2/17
Wholeheartedly agree. There needs to be an easy way to look at each player's offensive value.
kddean
2/18
To jump on, yes, please add VORP.
brooksp
2/17
A bug:

When using SO as a hitter's category, PFM also credits the hitters with the same number of K's but as a pitcher's K category.

o2bnited
2/17
Thanks for letting us know about this issue. The calculations were never impacted, but the display was misleading. I believe I have corrected the display issue. Thanks for using PFM!
jimnabby
2/17
You seem to have fixed it on the display, but when I download data into a CSV file, it's not fixed. If I have "H" included for batters, the column shows up listing H totals for both batters and pitchers. If I have it included for both p's and b's, I get two identical columns. This causes me problems as I try to work with the data, and it doesn't seem like this is the way you would want to present output.
o2bnited
2/18
Ah, good catch. Sorry for over looking this earlier. It should be fixed now. Thanks!
brooksp
2/18
Thanks for all your work. The PFM is snazzy this year. pb
luftmich
2/17
Any idea on when QS will be up?
luftmich
2/17
Also, I am curious about k/9 as a category is it weighted to IP? I prefer to use it rather than SO since my league has an innings cap, which makes strikeout efficiency a better measure of value rather than total strikeouts.
luftmich
2/17
More generally, I am wondering if any or all rate stats (AVG., OBP, ERA, ect.) are weighted to playing time?
o2bnited
2/17
Yes, rate stats are all weighted by playing time. Typically we use PA for hitters, except in obvious exceptions (AB for AVG), and IP for pitchers.
Mooser
2/17

It seems like the new WARP has a much higher Replacement Level than traditional WAR. I calculate 723.5 WARP over all players in the database with playing time expected. A replacement level team is about 57 wins. I seem to think this is about 10 more wins than WAR at Fangraphs. Was that the intent?

No IP WARP
P 447 43534 328.9
Pos 403 179637 394.6
723.5

WARP/Team 24.1
Replace W 56.9
Replace W% 0.351
cwyers
2/17
It's definitely higher than it used to be, and yes, that's intentional. I don't recall off the top of my head where Fangraph's rep-level is in terms of win percentage, but if I recall correctly I think we're at about the same place as the WAR on Baseball Reference in terms of total WAR(P) at the league level.
Mooser
2/17
Just checked. Fangraphs is a .290 winning percentage, thus 47 wins. Colin did you discuss replacement level in your series on new WARP? I cant find it.
TangoTiger1
2/17
Fangraphs has just over 1000 wins above replacement, while Rally has it just under 900. That would set the win% level at close to .290 for Fangraphs and .320 for Rally (Baseball-Reference).

With 724 wins, BPro is coming in at .350. Past articles by Matt and others made me think that BPro was set at .250.
Wharton93
2/17
Need to change the title to 'closed'...as PFM isn't open right now.
Schaffpa71
2/17
Was just in PFM and it's not working. I click off the first 5 or 6 players with salaries, then hit update. It takes the guys off, but nothing shows in the "taken" field.

Then I try again, click off 5-10 more guys, then hit update. This time, it just goes back to the beginning with no players removed and they're all on the list.

You guys have major bugs EVERY year when you launch it. It's getting pretty frustrating. I guess I'll come back in a couple weeks and maybe it will work then,
o2bnited
2/17
A recent update moved the taken players information into its own collapsable section, so if you reload the page, you should see this new "Taken Players" section, which will update every time you click the update button. This way, you can hide or show the taken players as you go through the pre-draft and in-draft usage of the PFM to suit your needs.

We are always working to improve the PFM and implement user suggestions. If you have input on features that you'd like to see added, please email Customer Service. Thanks for using PFM!
Schaffpa71
2/17
Hmm....all the 'taken players' stuff is working now (it definitely was NOT updating before).

The latest fun glitch is that in the section that shows my players, after hitting update once or twice, it changes all my players salaries to $1. Nice.

Giving up on this for today.
stewbies
2/17
Can you add a K minus BB pitching category?
jtanker33
2/17
Just ran the PFM and see that QS and Holds have been added, which is awesome, but that the values for QS and Holds for all pitchers are zero.
veganalyst
2/17
Baby steps...
tschritter
2/17
I'm not seeing Holds or QS in my pitching categories. Did they get taken down temporarily?
mgolovcsenko
2/17
This I don't understand:

With zero keepers selected for my own and other teams, when switching from "0 - user centric inflation" to "1 user centric inflation" the values of players shift.

But if there are no keepers selected, shouldn't the values stay the same?

(Auction / NL only / 4 x 4 / SGP on / use infation "yes")
o2bnited
2/18
I agree that this should not happen. In testing, I was unable to replicate this situation.

If you see it again please email Customer Service with information about how we can repeat the process you went through to get there, and save the output so we can look it up. Thanks!
collins
2/17
The WARPs listed for some part-time players seem to be off by a factor of ten or more. Viciedo of the Chisox is listed as -2.2 WARP, despite only 108 plate appearances, making him -11 or -13 WARP over a full season, while putting up Mike Jacobs-ish numbers. Ben Revere's WARP seems to be similarly off. Don't know what happened there or if it affected team PECOTA projections.
brianjamesoak
2/17
Yeah, I was wondering how Chris Carter was going to manage to hit 12 homers in just 129 plate appearances and still have a negative WARP. This isn't your grandfather's replacement level.
mikefast
2/18
He's projected to hit 12 HR in 121 PA at DH plus 129 PA at 1B, so 250 PA total. He's also, according to the weighted means spreadsheet, projected to have really poor defense at 1B (-18 runs if playing full time) that costs him all of his offensive value.
rosborne
2/18
Another vote to add VORP to the data available.
brianjamesoak
2/18
Wouldn't it make more sense to have either the stats split up like the plate appearances or to have all positions next to a full set of plate appearances and stats? It is confusing as is.
ciarfella
2/18
Are the numbers based on 2010 projections or
2011 projections? The numbers you provide on the output
seem to be 2010 projections
yankeehater32
2/18
They are 2011 projections. You can see at the top of this page, in the biographical section for Hanley, that his 2011 projection is present. That's the same projection you will find here on the Marlins' depth chart page.

That being said, the 2010 projections are still present on the player cards, in the PECOTA section towards the middle of the page. That data is not anywhere near the PFM. The PFM is fed by the depth charts, which have 2011 projections.
luftmich
2/18
Marc (or someone else), can somebody comment on the QS situation. There's been a number of comments left here so I assume you guys are working on it, but no one your end has responded to any of the comments here. At the moment it's no longer available as an option. I assume not forever. Any idea on when we might expect it to return (with stats)? Minutes, hours or days?
rjblakel
2/18
Another vote for QS to be added...
hegglund
2/18
Hear, hear.
iillllii
2/18
Add meto the list of people hoping for holds and QS to be added soon.....
rosborne
2/18
Maybe this isn't that big of a deal, but there still doesn't appear to be a simple way to download the csv file for all players. Are there plans to add a simple procedure?

If not, can you let us know the correct way to set the parameters so that we can be assured of getting all players downloaded?

Thanks for your help.
jimnabby
2/18
It would be nice to get a response to this, but I think the interim answer to your question is to do what I do: select every category and set the minimum dollar amount to show to something ridiculously low, like -$100. I think that will give you the whole data set. Sure would be nice not to have to do that, though.
sfastatsprof
2/18
I raised this question very early on in the thread and still wish this could be done. I am doing it the way you describe.. select a bunch of categories and set the minimum display at $-50 or $-100. HOWEVER.. this still mixes the batters and pitchers. What was nice about being able to download ONE pfmdata csv sheet is that it contained TWO SEPERATE TABS - one for batters, one for pitchers. Any chance a BP staffer can address this? I think more people have used that download feature in the past than is being realized.
jberkon
2/18
Agreed - the depth chart-adjusted weighted means spreadsheet was always made available once the depth charts posted. It would be enormously helpful to make that available, with MLBAM ID appended. Otherwise, it becomes very hard to use the data, except directly in PFM.
mcquown
2/18
The CSV and TAB downloads should respect the current filter setting. I realize this isn't as easy as not having to use PFM, but once you have the results, "P" lists pitchers and "Util" lists batters. So, you can easily set the filter twice and download two separate files.
ccweinmann
2/18
Please respond to holds / quality starts question. Thanks
veganalyst
2/18
A couple of words on the subject would be nice, even if those words are, "We've decided to remove a feature. Enjoy!"
cwyers
2/18
We'll have QS and Holds tomorrow.
veganalyst
2/18
Yay! Thanks Colin.
ccweinmann
2/18
Thanks!
dwachtell
2/21
Is there really a lot of overlap between people who read BPro and people who use Holds as a fantasy category? If so, why?
MHaywood1025
2/18
Can we start getting in to particular player projections here? In particular, why is Evan Longoria projected to hit .264 when he is a career .283 hitter, has never hit below .272 in a season, and has increased his average every year in the majors, ending last year at .294.

His OPS (among other things) seems quite lower than it should as well.
MHaywood1025
2/18
The only reason I bring this up is because if it's more than just PFM seeing something I'm not, and it somehow affects other players, I'd like to know...
BJSchumacher
2/18
PFM is broken. I trust you guys are working on it? It would have been nice if this was throughly beta tested BEFORE you went live with it. Changing it on the fly 2-3 times a day is not a good thing.
mikefast
2/18
PFM should be working. If you're having trouble, please email customer service with the details of the problem you are experiencing. Thanks.
mgolovcsenko
2/18
Think this is a bug:

Starting point: Auction / use inflation - yes / user-centric inflation 1

After taken players are entered for both other teams & my team, if I change "user-centric inflation" to "0 - none", my taken (keeper) players disappear. They are neither in the list of other team's keepers nor are they in the available player listing.
mcquown
2/18
We've had a lot of instances of having previous data being stored in browser caches causing issues with PFM (I had it happen myself while testing). If persistent settings of any type are lost, please try using a hard refresh of the browser first - i.e. holding SHIFT and clicking Refresh.

These issues arose from version changes of PFM, I am not suggesting there was any user error here. But doing this provides an easy workaround for now (for all of these sorts of issues we've found so far).
o2bnited
2/18
What you are doing is going from asking it to track which players are on your team (user centric = 1) to telling it not to track the players on your team (user centric = 0), so it stops doing so and forgets which players you had marked as on your team because it figures you do not want it to use that information. So the use of the information of whether players are on your team or not on your team is inextricably intertwined with the tracking of that information. So under the current paradigm, this is intentional.

However, I understand how you would want to be able to do the tracking without having it impact the calculations, and be able to adjust it to either impact the calculations at a level zero (no impact) up to a level 9 (significant impact). So I will add this separation as a feature request to our list for a subsequent release.

If you have further questions or concerns about the valuation for user centric inflation, feel free to contact Customer Service. Thanks for using PFM!
TangoTiger1
2/18
If you sort the batters by descending WARP, and select the players with enough PA to get you to 180,000, you will get about 570 wins, which is just about correct.

markpadden
2/19
How about putting important product release information where it belongs -- on the home page and on the Fantasy page?

Why is every announcement relegated to BP Blogs (beta)? Announcements are not blog content, and for that matter, how is a blog in "beta?"
o2bnited
2/19
We posted an update tonight that updates the interface for setting points values and should rectify the issues reported regarding point values not working or being reset to zero for output and downloading text files. We hope that the interface improvements make using the PFM for points leagues much more enjoyable. Thanks!
ccweinmann
2/19
I'm trying not to be a jerk about this. My primary league uses holds and quality starts and is drafting right now. Last year, PFM included these categories. I have been assuming this year's PFM would has well. First, you ignored the various questions about whether / when those categories would be added. Then, you said they would be added today, but I haven't seen them. All of this has appeared in comments so that I find myself searching through comments to find out the status. A straight, timely, and logically located answer, would be helpful.
o2bnited
2/19
I am happy to report that due to Colin's hard work, the PFM now supports quality starts (QS) and holds.

Additionally, I am also pleased to announce that PFM now includes the option to display Marc Normandin's tier rankings for players who have been ranked so far. We will be adding other positions as they are published as well.

We've also gotten positive feedback about the interface updates for points leagues, so we are happy to hear that folks like those changes as well.

If you have other questions, comments or concerns, feel free to contact Customer Service, and thanks for using PFM!
markpadden
2/19
Please post any important updates to your products in an appropriate, consistent, easy-to-find location.

Buried within the comments within a blog post is not the proper location for such information.
schlaack
2/19
Is it possible to include quality starts as a category for analysis. My league uses quality starts. Believe it or not, there is a small group of us out here who think wins are dumb. Crazy right?


mcquown
2/19
The change Ben announced last night enabled QS to be used as a scoring category. It has worked in testing, both for Rotisserie-style scoring and points leagues. Is it not working for you?
jimnabby
2/19
When might we expect to be able to download the raw data directly? And a suggestion: a hard link to the raw data (as opposed to a button we have to click) would be great, so members can automate downloading PFM updates. Thanks!
markpadden
2/19
Yes, please.
jberkon
2/19
Agreed. The inability to export the Depth Charts-adjusted data into an Excel spreadsheet - without going through PFM and having to then sort hitters/pitchers - is really making this product hard to use. Every other projections system, even the free ones, make this feature available. And BP always did in the past. When can we expect this?
saint09
2/19
Probably too early to say, but any initial thoughts on the Miggy Cabrera DUI/alcohol issue and impact on his 2011 season?
eliyahu
2/19
Discussed this above, but there's two things with PFM that still bother me and I'd appreciate if it could be addressed:

1 -- Despite Ben's assertion, I find it very hard to believe that the top closers are worth no more than $2-$3 in leagues with saves. Yes, despite limited impact in other categories. Doesn't align with any other valuation system (including the PFM from 2004-2009)

2 -- Can we please get the ability to adjust league position requirements just like we can with other categories (e.g. salary allocation) after a team is uploaded? I really don't want to have to input 200 players every time I want to see how valuations differ when I use 2 RPs vs 3, etc.

Thanks.
TangoTiger1
2/19
The very best closers should be worth 15-20$. I just ran the default PFM and Nathan was at 18$.

Can you elaborate on what kind of league setting gets you a top closer at $3?

Also, where exactly did Ben assert this, as clearly, it's got to have a very specific condition attached to it.
o2bnited
2/20
The condition that I specified was that all pitchers are rostered under the "P" position and that there are no specific "RP" positions in the league. Valuation of closers are going to be somewhat low because the top end SP's and the middle of the pack SP's will help a team in four categories where as an elite closer would help in one category significantly (saves, obviously) and perhaps two or three others as well. This results in, as others have said, elite closers falling into the middle of the pack of SP's, and not all of the closers even being "above replacement level" in a typical 9 P roster scenario.
lowellfield
2/19
PFM keeps "forgetting" kept players I've entered the salary for. I've tried many times, saving along the way. Very frustrating.
o2bnited
2/20
The issues that existed for taken players should be resolved now (and were fixed in a release update a few days ago). Please make sure you're using the latest version by doing a hard refresh (hold shift and click the refresh button) and if you still have trouble, please email Customer Service. Thanks!
dsdanese
2/20
Sorry...I have a ton of questions. First year using this

First, how does the PFM handle straight draft leagues? I'm a little suspicious, because I'm still required to enter a budget even if I select the "Straight draft" option. If I'm in a straight draft league, can I just think of the PFM-generated dollar values as the relative values (with dollars as an arbitrary unit) of the players in the draft? And if so, it seems strange to me that when I scale down my total budget, hitters' budget, pitchers' budget, and minimum bid by the same constant factor, the ranking of players by dollar value changes. Am I misunderstanding something? Any clarification would be awesome.

Also, I feel like I'm missing/overlooking some features. I'm reading others' comments about being able to check off keepers and other selected players, but I don't appear to have that option. Anyone have any idea what the issue is?
o2bnited
2/20
Yes, for straight drafts, the dollar figures can be interpreted as a relative valuation on whatever scale you specified for the budget. Typically I use a total budget of 100 and then assign a percentage to hitters and pitchers, like 65/35 or something. That part is personal preference, and there's a whole lengthy discussion we could have about the optimal settings.

You can turn on user centric inflation, which will adjust the relative valuation of scoring categories (but not pay attention to roster spots) for players on your roster compared to the other teams' rosters. For more information, please read the Help/FAQ documentation. If you still have questions, please email Customer Service.

Thanks!
dsdanese
2/21
OK, cool. Thanks.
mbodell
2/20
Where is SSIM? Usually in the past scoresheet scores is a catagory.
mbodell
2/20
Also, upside for those of us who use that to adjust for keeper leagues.
doog7642
2/21
Our dynasty league's offseason draft started yesterday; I could really use upside scores ASAP. I would feel bad about pushing, but I know others here are looking, too...please help.
eliyahu
2/20
For some reason, can't reply to Tango above, so I'll comment here:

Initially, when I plugged in saves as one of the five standard pitching categories but didn't specfy that I wanted relievers on my roster (instead opting for the standard nine pitchers w/o specifying relievers) the most valuable relievers came out as $2-3. I found this unrealistc, yet Ben said that he didn't think this was a bug. Regardless, it now has the top relievers n the $17-$20 range -- whether I specify 7 SPs and 2 RPs or 9 SPs, so this seems to be fixed.

Also, kudos to Ben and the team for enabling the adjusting of the positions requirements after initial output -- much appreciated.

Overall, despite rough first week of launch, PFM looks better than ever. Now about those player cards.....
o2bnited
2/20
Glad you like the updated roster and scoring categories interface! We are working hard to roll out updates that address user concerns and this was one of the things we wanted to improve.

I addressed the RP/closer situation before--the most valuable relievers should be in the middle of the pack under typical settings, I believe.
TangoTiger1
2/22
I agree, it would definitely have been a bug. When I do my valuations, I don't do a RP/SP split, and simply let the forecast and league structure dictate the value. And that value is what I said, that the top relievers would come in at 15-20$.

Now, if the league dictated that each team select at most 2 relievers, then I don't see how you will get the top relievers at 17-20$. Maybe if you have 12 teams in an AL-only league? I'd have to work it out.

The fantasy product is blocked at the office (am I the only one? maybe something other than "fantasy" can be in the URL?), so maybe you can try this for me. Re-run forcing 1 RP, 2 RP, 3 RP, 4 RP, and then report back how much the top 6 relievers get under each setting. Just guessing, but I'm thinking the numbers should be something like 7$, 10$, 13$, 16$ respectively. Something like that. It certainly cannot be fixed.

Or, if you want to make it even clearer, do it with 1 SP, 2 SP, 3 SP, 4 SP. You should see a similar situation, where the numbers might be 10$, 14$, 18$, 22$ or something.
joelefkowitz
2/22
second the url change. can't get fantasy content at the office.
benrosenberg02
2/25
i'd support the URL change, would be appreciated
rosborne
2/20
Thanks for adding VORP to the pitching categories, but I don't think it was added to the hitting categories.

Still checking to see if we will be able to download the entire database easily. This would be helpful for those who do not play in leagues that have these parameters (probably most of all Scoresheet leagues).

Thanks for your help.
o2bnited
2/20
VORP should be enabled for both hitters and pitchers. If you are not seeing it, please do a hard refresh to make sure you are not using a cached version of the page (hold shift while you click reload in the browser). If you continue to have problems please email Customer Service. Thanks for using PFM!
naehring
2/21
I see that VORP is also added to the depth charts. Bravo! Thanks for addressing the concerns that were expressed here so quickly.
kcwilson
2/21
Would there be anyway to create a Saves+Holds combo category? I play in a roto league where they are combined. Simply selecting both categories individually would throw off value.
o2bnited
2/21
For completeness, I'm posting a comment, to close the loop on that particular means of notification--I have put together a formal updates page for PFM, complete with its own comments. I have also added the downloadable CSV and TAB data files for the entire dataset to the landing page (see links at the top), and added a comments section to the help document. We made a few other small tweaks, including adding some statistics and such as well. Check out the updates page for more:

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/fantasy/pfm/updates.php
BCulhane
2/21
Thank you for the downloadable database. Based on the comments above, I'm not the only one who will use this. As someone who participates in multiple fantasy leagues, the complete database makes my early planning much easier.

BP is obviously making a tremendous effort to listen to what the customer is saying this spring. Your efforts are recognized and appreciated.
murber74
2/21
Ditto!
jberkon
2/21
Agreed, many thanks for doing this!
o2bnited
2/21
Thanks, folks. Glad to hear you are enjoying the fantasy offerings this year. We always like to hear that readers and subscribers are pleased with the product.
mutusliber
2/21
Is there any possibility of optionally adding each player's MLBAM ID to the info displayed/outputted to CSV and TAB?

That would make the PFM a lot easier for me to use alongside the full PECOTA spreadsheet.
o2bnited
2/21
The MLB ID should be included in the output that you download, in both the raw downloaded files and the post valuation downloaded files. I believe it has been included since the initial release and we have not had any other reports of issues with this feature, so if you are having trouble, please email Customer Service so we can help you out. Thanks for using PFM!
sfastatsprof
2/21
Thanks for adding the RAW CSV download! Much appreciated!
tribe24
2/21
Any chance CGs could be added as a category for pitchers. I asked last year but to no avail. Not sure how easy or hard that tweak would be.
cwyers
2/21
I'll look into it.
zszalewski
2/21
Thanks for the RAW CSV download!
rosborne
2/21
Thanks for the download files.
jimnabby
2/21
I"ll add my sincere thanks for the download files. My homemade Excel-based software can finally automatically download RAW PFM data and interpret it properly without any work from me (like it already could with Baseball HQ and other data). Fabulous!
jimnabby
2/21
Sigh. Never mind, I can't, because you're changing the link name (the csv filename) every time you update.
jimnabby
2/21
Never never mind. My own stupid error. Everything works great. Boy, it would be nice to be able to delete one's comments here.
rosborne
2/21
Thanks again for all the work. It works great.

Just a general question - will you post on the update site when depth charts are adjusted? Is there a set schedule that will be followed or just adjusted as things change?

markpadden
2/21
ETA for player cards?
rjblakel
2/21
Another request for Complete Games (CG) and Shut Outs for pitchers.
mtgannon
2/22
Our 16-team roto league weights OBP, HR and R more than RBI and SB. For example, the top team in HRs gets 32 points, while the top team in RBI only gets 16, etc. So, a high OBP/HR guy like Kevin Youkilis is very valuable in our league. Same idea on the pitching side. Is there any way or does anybody have any suggestions for how to model this in PFM. Thanks.
hessshaun
2/23
I just completely ignore SB in PFM and rely on my PECOTA spreadsheet for bags, generally later in the draft. As for your RBI issue, personally, I would run the numbers with and without RBIs and see what happens. It may pop up a few names that surprise you and from there you will know what expect in terms of their RBI production.
mtgannon
2/24
Thanks. I will give both a try. Ignoring SBs in PFM makes sense.
mboschi
2/22
Thanks for the download files.

I'd also like to see the SS/Sim values.

Thank you.
zstine1
2/23
there have been several requests but no comment on the timeline for the return of upside? i am trying to decide whether to resuscribe or not before my draft.
o2bnited
2/24
We have posted version 2.2, which includes a custom player pool option under league used, allowing you to select a custom subset of MLB teams to be used as your player pool.
mtgannon
2/24
Is there a way to use PFM to rank my players based on particular categories, but also download all of the player info? For example, I want to rank my pitchers on W, Saves, ERA, WHIP and Ks, but would also like to download to excel IP info so I can do a Ks/9 IPs calculation as well. Any thoughts? Thanks.
mutusliber
2/24
Bug I've just stumbled on...

When opting to display players with negative value, everyone shows up in the order expected (from highest to lowest $$$ value) when the PFM first loads.

If I manually click to sort by the $$$ column, however, the sort ignores the '-' sign completely, ordering players by absolute value.

E.g., with my current settings, I'm seeing Marcus Thames valued at $-23.31 but ranked directly between Aaron Hill at $23.39 and Justin Morneau at $23.28.

Google yields this potentially-related bug report:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1833234&group_id=162528&atid=824138
mutusliber
2/24
(Or, I suppose, it could be just an issue of the '-' sign coming after the dollar sign instead of before it.)
zstine1
2/24
another potential bug...
my league has a $26 budget with a $0.10 minimum bid instead of $260/$1. whenver i try using $26 money, $0.10 bids, $18 for hitting, $8 for pitching the prices come out very skewed compared to the $260 budget (ie not 1/10th of the price when set to $260/$1/$180/$80). it is not a big deal for me since i can just divide the $260/$1/$180/$80 prices by 10, but may cause problems for leagues with strange budget settings.
o2bnited
2/24
Thanks, I will investigate.
o2bnited
2/25
Thanks for reporting this bug. It should be fixed now.
BCulhane
2/27
Ben,
It is only half fixed for me. The appropriate values come up for hitters, but pitcher values seem to have a $1.03 ceiling. That is, the most valuable 175 players are hitters despite my allocating $8 of $26 to pitching.
geefsu
2/25
Don't now where else to ask this . . . Can anyone give me an ETA on the Player Cards? When will the 2011 cards be published?
mgolovcsenko
2/25
By chance is PECOTA/PFM over-penalizing Colorado pitchers for pitching in Coors?

Without exception, the Colorado pitcher rate stats in PFM seem high relative other forecasts.

Here are ERA/WHIP projections from PFM. I won't list other systems (i.e. marcel, oliver, etc) comparable projections, but from my quick review they are uniformly lower than these:

Ubaldo: 3.94 / 1.38
Hammel: 5.06 / 1.48
de la Rosa: 5.01 / 1.50
luftmich
3/02
Ok, I asked this on the PFM update thread, but got no reply. What's the planned update schedule for the PFM/Depth Carts? Seems like last off-season they were updated once a week.

Btw, you guys guys have done a great job addressing customers' idiosyncratic requests since the launch. And since the working out the obvious kinks you've have really exceeding my expectations. Thank you.
jberkon
3/02
Agreed, would be very helpful to have a sense of when these will be updated. Hardball Times, for example, updates the THT Forecast playing time projections every Monday.