Fantrax Salary Cap League Queries

For those taking part in the new salary cap league run through Fantrax – aka FBUK Classic – here’s a thread to post any questions and answers that arise.

I also added some general information about how it works to the How to Play page of the website.

• This topic was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by FBUK.

[waynum @waynum]

Whatever happened to the ‘good old days,’ when any Prospect was valued at $10k until their own activities had caused their salaries to rise during the revaluations? That’s all we want in the $5M League, not Fantrax and its b/s generating numbers on a whim for players who’ve yet to put their uniforms on!
When Prospects were valued at $10k it gave the GM chance to benefit from their research and make great bargains because the $10k salary could only ever adjust based on player activity during the salary revaluations. I don’t think it’s unreasonable that we return to this and if Fantrax can’t do it then ditch them out of hand and find a better site which can!

[Redbaron 07 @redbaron-07]

Tim

An example of the difference of this year to last year.

Jordan Walker & Wyatt Langford were more or less in exactly similar positions.

Both were hyped up prospects, both performed well in spring training. A the time of setting-up our starting rosters, neither were guaranteed a spot in the starting line-up at the opening of the season, yet my ‘Secret Agents Too’ FL team in 2023 picked up Jordan Walker for $10k………whilst Wyatt Langford this year is priced at $758k !!!

[FBUKCommissionerTopic Author @fbuk]

Redbaron 07 wrote:

my ‘Secret Agents Too’ FL team in 2023 picked up Jordan Walker for $10k………whilst Wyatt Langford this year is priced at $758k !!!

It’s not possible to go back far enough on Jordan Walker’s profile in Fantrax to see his projections or news updates prior to the 2023 season, but Wyatt Langford’s two most recent updates from 16 Mar, then today, might provide some rationale to why Fantrax are valuing him that way:

“Langford has been building a strong case for his spot on the Rangers’ Opening Day roster. Entering Saturday, Langford leads spring training batters in slugging percentage (.806), is tied with Freddie Freeman for most RBI (14), and is tied with Thomas Saggese for fourth-best batting average (.361). While Young hasn’t fully committed to Langford being on the team’s roster on Opening Day, the 22-year-old prospect will almost certainly make the club out of spring training.”

“The 2023 fourth overall pick made quick work of four minor-league levels last season, and he earned a roster spot this spring with six homers and a 1.242 OPS in 17 Cactus League contests. Langford still needs to be officially added to the 26-man and 40-man rosters, but he will end up making his MLB debut less than a year after being drafted and will be a lineup regular between left field and designated hitter.”

Maybe last year’s league was opened earlier in spring training, leading to Walker’s valuation being lower than it might have been if run closer to the end of spring training.

I’m not denying that $758k is high for a rookie, just trying to offer some rationale for it. Langford seems to be something of an anomaly himself, given his quick rise through the system and expected to be an everyday player. There was another rookie valued similarly either last year or in 2022 – maybe Gunnar Henderson.

• This reply was modified 11 months, 3 weeks ago by FBUK.

[waynum @waynum]

……on a positive note, the Limited Trade Yahoo snake draft was really fun.

[FBUKCommissionerTopic Author @fbuk]

Redbaron 07 wrote:

I thought the $5 mill Fantrax League, the players were a percentage of the values of the $12 million league as it was last year? I think it was 90% then….although that is even a bit too high, should be nearer 85 to 80% as there are no $10k (prospects) specials anymore.

In a test version of the $5m Game today, I played around with the salary valuation ratio and got players salaries to about 80% of what they are in the $12m league. Obviously, because it’s a percentage, the reduction has more effect the higher the salary.

To use your examples, Wyatt Langford’s salary would be $613k instead of $758k; Jackson Holliday’s would be $320k instead of $396k.

It has little effect on increasing the number of players at $10k – I think it adds two more. (btw, there are almost 14,000 players valued at $10k, but that includes all minor leaguers as well as ex-MLB players / players without a club whose MLB future isn’t clear, or haven’t yet been removed from the total player pool.)

It puts 60 more players in the under-$50k group; 100 more players in the under-$100k group.

At the top end, it would mean no pitchers currently over $1m, compared to 10 SPs over that in the $12m league. The most expensive pitcher, Spencer Strider, would be $902k instead of $1,117k.

For hitters, there would be only six over $1m, compared to 28 in the £12m league. Acuna Jr. would be $1,159k instead of $1,434k.

As noted above, reducing the percentage below 80% will impact the higher end of the salary scale more than the lower end, where reductions will be small. I’m hesitant to reduce the higher-end salaries too much as it lessens the point of the $5m Game if they become too affordable, if you see what I mean.

• This reply was modified 3 weeks ago by FBUK.

[Redbaron 07 @redbaron-07]

Thanks for your effort Tim   🙂

It just came as a bit of shock due to the lack of $10k players & lowly priced prospects compared to last year. This year I’m having to fill up the roster with some very marginal players, that might be mainly Bench-Utility types in this year’s Hitters section.

I had selected Jackson Holliday due to his price for my $12m team , then had to ditch him after he didn’t make the cut.

That type of player last year would have been priced $10k like Jordan Walker, Nolan Schanuel, Christian Encarncion, Anthony Volpe, Oscar Colas, Mike Moustakas, Elly De La Cruz, Matt McLain (I checked my full rosters from last year with original prices when selected, still visible on Fantrax)

I just want some consistency…..and not having the goal posts moved from one year to the next.

If this is going to be the norm for next year, you might consider raising it to a $6 million Budget 

 

• This reply was modified 11 months, 3 weeks ago by Redbaron 07.

[waynum @waynum]

Thanks for your efforts, Tim, and you’ve explained things very well. The only problem is that the explanation changes nothing and we’re still left with a $5M which, because of the Fantrax wage structure, has a far lower value than it should have. Currently, I’d estimate the $5M has the value of $4M and all through Fantrax fiction wages.

I made an earlier suggestion for future seasons to increase the available budget and I feel that this is the only solution. By increasing what we have to spend will negate the Fantrax inflated wages by at least one Prospect and level out the task to something like the time it was when Prospects only had wage increases after they’d actually done something.

[FBUKCommissionerTopic Author @fbuk]

Redbaron 07 wrote:

If this is going to be the norm for next year, you might consider raising it to a $6 million Budget

I agree this makes sense as a starting point, which I’ve made a note of for next season. That 20% increase in budget would add a similar level of extra spending power as the other suggestion of dropping all salaries by 20% would have, but avoids the unintended effect of the reduction impacting the highest salaries the most, which is not the problem we’re trying to solve.