Hey
@Eagling - nice bit of analytical work there and good to see you leading the mid-pricer/value charge for season 2025.
It seems like we go thru this Guns V MPM every year & I imagine it will continue on forever.
I have generally gone for the mid-pricers but havent had any success, but I'm stubbornly going there again.
The starting squad is a unique point in the season.
Players from 2024 are basically priced at a parity value - using their 2024 average and the magic number.
Untried rookies are priced from a nominal average of about 36 ppg down to 22 ppg
So if all players play to their starting prices all coaches will all score the same..
But of course that nominal scoring wont happen!
I have a notion of free points - the points a player scores in excess of what you pay for.
ie If I pick Max Holmes at his starting price of $533K, I am effectively paying for 99 points.
Should he score 109, I am getting 10 points for free.
In my simplistic view then, the coach who can pick the players that produce the most free points will win**. -
I have tried to model this concept of free points in a comparative way between a straw-man Guns & Rookies squad against a straw-man Mid-Pricer line-up.
In doing so, I have had to make quite a few assumptions, so hopefully they stand up to scrutiny from the SCS gang.
This first panel sets out my starting assumptions..
It shows the straw-man prices I have assigned to each of my 3 players categories - these prices are averages.
Then I have designed 2 starting squads
- blue for an extreme Guns & Rookies line-up
- green for an extreme Mid-Pricer line-up
View attachment 83273
This next panel is a bit superfluous, but it moves into the realm of SC points & shows how those 2 squads would score (using a Magic# of 5389)- if the 23 scoring players were counted - you can see they are equivalent.
View attachment 83275
So to model what will happen with 8 bench players who dont contribute to the weekly score..
For simplicity, I'll ignore captains scores and the best 22 of 23 rule.
The G&R team will have 10 on-field rookies, the MP team will have 5 on-field rookies.
To further simplify things, I'm assuming the MP team has picked the best 5 rookies to field - so both sqauds have the same 5 tier1 rookies, but the G&R team is fielding 5 tier2 rookies.
Since my overall objective is to measure the notion of free points they are integral to this step.
I'm assuming Guns are fairly priced in both squads - no free points.
I'm assuming tier1 rookies will score at 70 ppg (37.5 free points)
Then I'm going to make a leap and say that the MP coach has picked players who can outscore their nominal starting value.
In my model - the only way that the G&R coach can keep up, is if their Tier2 rookies produce the same quantity of free points.
This is what looks like if the 12 mid-pricers in the MP squad go at 10 ppg above par - blue highlighted cell.
View attachment 83277
The MP squad of 23 will score a total of 1901 pts on these assumptions.
I have shown the G&R squad with the same score - but this will only be achieved if the the Tier2 rookies can generate an average 24 free points - (salmon highlighted cell) - thats a scoring at about 56 ppg.
This is the modelling if the Mid-pricers reach 15 free points.
View attachment 83278
This is getting very tough for the G&R team (on my assumptions) as then the tier2's are going at 68 ppg - so they are effectively equivalent to tier1's.
So - all things being equal and if all my assumptions are reasonable, it comes down to which of the free-point scenarios you think is more achievable? This final summary table distils everything down.
View attachment 83279
The first column shows the range of free points that the MP team might achieve.
The middle column is the number of free points the tier2 rookies in the G&R squad would need to keep up.
The third column is the ppg that goes with the column 2 free pts.
I'd reckon, the the tier2 rookies would be able to get low 60's - so the mid-pricers would need to have around 12 points of value.. so you probably need to get it up to around 15 free points.
** obviously the analysis is just for the static nature of the start - all sorts of other possibilities arise when trades come into play.