Double Dipping: Not Just for Chips
If you aren’t a Dungeon Master and actually leave the house every once and awhile, you know about the social faux pas that is double dipping. If not, “double dipping” is when you dip a chip, take a bite, and then dip again. It is frowned upon because not only are you a fat slob with an insatiable appetite for guacamole, but you are spreading your germs into the bowl of dip.
Double dipping shows up elsewhere in life, including fantasy leagues. What is Fantasy Baseball double dipping you ask? Fantasy double dipping is when an event affects two different stat categories in your league. When an event counts twice, it can skew league results slightly and have a small affect on player rankings. Fantasy double dipping comes in two forms: acceptable, and unacceptable. First, let us look at some acceptable double dipping:
- HR & R/RBI/AVG – A home run goes into almost every category, but since it is such a special event it can slide through.
That’s it! The above case is the only common acceptable case of double dipping. Now, some of the many unacceptable cases:
- ERA & QS – If you had a quality start, you had a low ERA.
- AVG & OBP – A walk counts once, but a hit counts twice? Absurd.
- OPS & OBP/SLG – OPS is “On-base plus slugging”. It’s in the name, people.
Consider this a public service announcement. In the words of the almighty Seinfeld, “Just take one dip and end it!”
Zach is the creator and co-author of RotoGraphs' Roto Riteup series, and RotoGraphs' second-longest tenured writer. You can follow him on twitter.
good stuff eno although a qs doesn’t always translate to fantasy-friendly era. The minimum requirement for a qs is a 4.50 era. They need to get rid of that sucker just like they did gw RBI.
the average ERA for a QS is something in the low 2’s if I’m remembering correctly, about a half a run lower than for a Win. Even though a QS can technically happen with a 4.5 ERA it’s pretty rare.
You’re right – quality starts can be a decent enough (albeit imperfect) indicator. The main point, though, is that you don’t need both quality starts AND earned run average as they both tend to get at the same type of information. Pick your favorite and go with it.
I prefer ERA because it allows for finer granularity – if you carry it to enough decimal places you would very seldom have a tie in the category.
Finer granularity, too, in that it doesn’t treat a 6 IP, 3 ER Blanton-esque start the same as a 9 IP, 0 ER Greinkerrific performance.
My league uses QS along with ERA because QS is vastly superior to W’s. Yeah, the overlap isn’t ideal, but W’s are an abomination.
Also, your point about differentiating between 6 IP/3 ER and 9 IP/0 ER shows why the two stats can coexist.
I think Zach wrote this.