Scoresheet Trading Scams

Scoresheet waters are full of sharks. Your best defence against scammers is to understand the tactics and strategies that they use. Typical Scoresheet scams involve some combination of getting another player to accept a trade on the basis of inflated or dimished asset values. What follows is a list of some of the more common Scoresheet trading scams.

• Hospice Scam: In this scam the owner trades an injured player to another owner who is unaware of the injury status of the player involved. This is perhaps the oldest scam in the book, and one that has a good chance of ending up with an officially reversed trade. Always, always, always check up on the injury status of players involved in a trade before you make a trade, including players you are trading. A fast way to check injury status is to do a search for "cbs fantasy news [player name]"


• Evil Twin Scam: This is a scam where an owner switches the target player of the opposing owner with another player with the same name. This is one of the dirtiest trading tricks in the game and will absolutely result in a reversed trade when caught. Always, always, always double and triple check trades before you confirm them. Make sure player names match, and player numbers match.


• Matching Round Scam: This is a scam where an owner switches a later pick in a round for an earlier pick, where that owner has multiple picks to trade from the same round. As is the case with many "scams", it isn't always intentional, accidents do happen. Always, always, always, double and triple check to make sure that, not only are you receiving your desired pick, but you are actually trading the pick you intended to trade.


• Bullshit Baffles Brains/Kitchen Sink Scam: This is a scam where an owner attempts to trade many low value players for one high value player. "I threw everything, including the kitchen sink, at that trade!"


• Hot Catcher Scam: Where an owner attempts to trade a catcher who is on a hot hitting streak, but is unlikely to keep hitting that way. It isn't always a catcher, but often it is. Everyone needs catchers, and catchers tend to run hot and cold, moreso than other positions, in part because catcher is one of the most physically and mentally demanding positions to play, and as a corollary to that, they don't get as many regular at bats as other hitters.


• Hot Baby Scam: This is a variation on the "Hot Catcher Scam". It's cagey and requires smart scouting and an in depth understanding of what is happening in MLB's minor leagues. In this case Sir Shark drafts a number of minor leaguers that are not super high end prospects, solid but unspectacular. Hitters don't just get hot in the majors, they do that in the minors as well. Sir Shark waits for his minor leaguers to get hot, and attract some buzz, then trades them while their value is high. The key to this scam, and what makes it a scam, is that the perpetrator doesn't expect the hot streak to last, and Sir Shark is usually right.


• Fading Star Scam: Where an owner attempts to get another owner to overpay for a former star who is in a funk that appears likely to last for the rest of his career.


• One Foot in the Grave/Retirement Scam: Similar to the "Fading Star Scam" this is where an owner attempts to get another player to overpay for a star player whose days of meaningful contribution are over and who is on the verge of retiring. Hey, we all have our favourite players!


• "And One" Draft Pick Scam: It goes something like this, "Sure we can make that trade, but I can't do that trade straight up. I'll need a little something extra to make it work..." Just throw in that rd 30, or rd 35... Meanwhile that low round draft pick allows Sir Shark to protect yet another hot prospect who will probably be worth more than any of the other players involved in that trade.


• Prospect Capital Scams: In a lot of leagues in Scoresheet "hot prospects" are treated like currency. They are probably years away from being productive major league players, and they are one of the most overvalued assets in the game.


• Amateur Draft Round Scams: In most leagues in Scoresheet the supplemental rounds where the players from that season's MLB amateur draft first become available are considered to be among the most valuable draft picks of the season. It is common for veteran owners to prey on less experienced owners and "acquire" those picks for far less than their accepted value. "Supp picks aren't worth much, but I'll help you out..."


• Undervalued Draft Pick Scams: When you trade a pick for a player, it is a multi-asset trade. You are trading that pick, and getting a player in return presumably for the current season, if you trade away the pick during the off season, the deal becomes even more unbalanced. You are trading away the player you would have picked for that player. If you end up protecting that player, you are also trading away the player you would have protected in that player's place. Not only that, but you are going to be down a player for the entire next season.
  
  If it's a late round pick it may appear that that pick doesn't have much value, although useful, productive players are always available, so there is no such thing as a draft pick that has no value. But more importantly, late round draft picks are used to protect minor league prospects, which can have a great deal of value. So that rd 30 - 35 "throw in" can afford the owner who receives it a great deal of value, and should not be offered lightly.

Amateur Draft Round

The supplemental draft that includes the amateur draft rounds is one of the highlights of the Scoresheet year. It is the round of supplemental drafts when the players from that year's MLB amateur draft become available. Those draft picks are typically very valuable, especially in "BL" leagues.

In previous years that draft round was rounds 40 and 41, in recent years it has been rounds 42 and 43. Starting in 2024 those rounds will be round 45 and 46.

Erik Drost, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Scoresheet's Three Most Common Mistakes

• Trading away too many draft picks.
• Protecting too many minor leaguers.
• Not discussing trades before they are made.

Here's the thing about draft picks. In a standard rules Scoresheet continuing league, when you trade away a draft pick, it's really a 3 for 1 deal. Bear with me while I explain. First off you are trading away the draft pick. That's one. Then you presumably have to drop another player to make room on your protected list for the player you just traded for. That's two. Then you are down one body for an entire season. That's three. I would never tell anyone not to trade draft picks, far from it, just be aware that you can't trade many picks before you put your next season in serious jeopardy.

Protecting too many minor leaguers is related to the mistake of trading away draft picks. Every minor leaguer you protect is one less active body playing for your team. Scoresheet rosters are capped at 30 for a reason, that is about the number you need to avoid replacement AAA players, and you will need more pitching on that 30 person roster than you need position players, not to mention that Pitcher AAA will hurt you more than a AAA position player. Very few rookies make a big splash when they make the majors, so even when that minor leaguer is finally providing innings pitched or at bats, they may not be productive innings pitched or at bats, for a season or two.

We're all human. Typically the first thing any owner wants to do when they pick up a team is make a big splash, and put their mark on their new team. That's when it would be wise to take a deep breath and count to more than ten. Find someone you trust you can bounce trade offers off, before you say yes. If you get a trade offer, shop around and see if you can get a better deal. The only Scoresheet owners that don't make bad trades aren't playing the game, but you can lessen the probability for disaster greatly if you follow two simple rules.

• Never make a trade without discussing it with a friend.
• Never make a trade without seeing if someone else can make a better offer.

The One Thing

The single factor that makes the biggest difference between winning and losing in Scoresheet Baseball is Pitcher AAA. Absolutely nothing has a bigger impact on whether your team will win or lose than having enough MLB innings pitched to go around on any given week.

You have room for 30 active players on your Scoresheet Lineup Card. All of those should be filled with active players, if you want to avoid AAA players. 16 of those should be pitchers and 8 of those pitchers should be starters.

You should maintain those numbers throughout the season, which means you will need to be using the supplemental drafts to fill holes created by injuries. I have yet to see a bad losing season in Scoresheet where Pitcher AAA wasn't a major contributor.

SRAT

Team Speed Rating

Scoresheet Baseball games are a statistical baseball simulation, but they are not baseball itself. As such Scoresheet Baseball games generate their own unique statistics. One of the biggest challenges in both real life and Scoresheet baseball statistics is generating actionable data from offensive numbers impacted by team speed.

SRAT is an attempt to generate a team offensive speed rating. It combines all the offensive stats affected by team speed into a single number. The meta objective of SRAT is to achieve a number that accurately reflects the number of runs scored impacted by team speed per nine innings. This has not been tested, and will likely never be, so what we are left with is an educated guess, and probably a not terribly accurate one. However the final number generated is useful for comparison purposes.

Formula (all stats in the formula are team total stats):

 ( ( ( [Stolen Bases] - [Caught Stealing] ) * 3 + [Triples] * 6 + [Run Support] - [Grounded into Double Plays] / 1.5 - [Home Runs] * 1.5 ) / ( [Hits] + [Walks] - [Home Runs] ) * 10 + 10 ) * 0.05