(*) MASTER NOTES: The Evolution of Roto500

Contrary to popular belief, the rules of Rotisserie Baseball were not written on stone tablets and brought down from Mount Sinai. Three years ago, Ron Shandler heretically questioned some of the basic tenets of the game, which were penned by the Rotisserie Gods more than three decades ago.

Thou shall populate your team through a draft or auction. Why choose—why not do both at once?

Thou shall have a salary cap of $260 when drafting. Why that number? Why not $300? $500?

Thou shall have a free agent acquisition budget (FAAB) of $100 above and beyond the salary cap. OK, who came up with that?

Thou shall use WHIP to judge the quality of your pitchers. Seriously? Had anyone even heard of WHIP before the early 1980s?

Ron combined a few of these ideas into a new gaming format called Roto500.

It is designed to utilize a single currency for valuing and acquiring players. Each team has a $500 budget to spend at the draft/auction, the remainder of which is set aside for acquiring players during the year.

Each player is assigned a list price at the draft that is an average of their value from the past two years. Owners can put in an “auction call” for a drafted player if they want to acquire the player for more than list price.

The stat categories are a modified 4x4 system: OBA, HR, SB and runs produced (R + RBI – HR) for offense; wins, ERA, strikeouts, and (saves + holds) for pitchers.

As a side effect from the way player salaries are defined, players can be “bargains” if they missed significant amounts of time or under-performed over the past two years. An example is Stephen Strasburg, who missed most of 2011 recovering from Tommy John surgery. This made him a $9 player heading into 2013. Since Bryce Harper didn’t play in 2011, his price was assigned to be $14 going into 2013.

In the same way, players who consistently performed at the top of their game for the past two years were costly to acquire. Miguel Cabrera, $42; Ryan Braun $44; Justin Verlander $40.  These values, combined with the presence of the auction calls, helped define owners’ draft strategies.

Roto500 has undergone some tweaks in its three-year existence. The main change going into 2013 was to eliminate the auction calls; this was done to make it easier to hold the draft. With auction calls, everyone needs to be in the same room, or at least have phone access, to allow the bidding to occur. Without them, a draft could be held online or through email.

This change was a double-edged sword. The elimination of the auction calls made the commissioner’s life easier and allowed the draft to go forward in a straight-forward manner. But the auction calls were fun, and make the draft a lively event. They completely defined draft preparation and the auction process. 

Permit me to explain.

With the auction calls, the draft process was a cat-and-mouse game. Have a bargain player you’d like to have on your squad? Good luck getting him past the auction calls— he’s likely to incite a bidding war. Want a stud player? Other owners will bid on him—even if over-valued—simply to ensure that they use their auction calls before they expire. A strategy used by this owner was to draft players over-valued by $5-$10, simply to conserve auction calls for other desirable players. This strategy helped put together a strong team that won the league in year one.

Without the auction calls, the draft became a matter of drafting studs or bargain players in the early going. No fears of being outbid and losing your first- or second-round draft pick. No chance to create an offensive juggernaut by rostering both Braun and Cabrera simply by paying the (extremely high) price to get them both.

Even with the lack of auction calls in 2013, things did not proceed like a normal snake draft. The first pick? Giancarlo Stanton, of course, due to the fact that he was assigned a $15 value. Super-stud Mike Trout? Thoughts of regression and a $30 salary made him slide to eighth overall. While offensive studs still went early despite their price (Cabrera and Braun went second and third, respectively), some expensive pitchers went late. Did Justin Verlander go in the 8th round of your league? Doubtful!

So, if you’re getting tired of the usual Rotisserie auction or snake draft, get your buddies together and try the Roto500 format next spring. I encourage you to get everyone together in the same room, and try it with the auction calls. If that’s not possible, give it a go without the auction calls. Each option adds some spice to the Rotisserie experience and forces you to think outside the box for some new strategies.

It’s time to break those 30-year-old stone tablets and try something new.

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