AVC Primer

HOW TO BEST CUSTOMIZE AVC FOR YOUR LEAGUE

Most of the customization of AVC is routine, you simply input your league parameters.  But in order to get maximal benefit of AVC’s capabilities, it is best to take a few minutes and customize your player pool in terms of the number of each position in the draft-worthy pool.  Unfortunately, this will require a little bit of effort on your part.  AVC is programmed with a STANDARD option that gets you most of the way there – but give AVC 5 minutes of your time and he will get you all of the way there.

The reason a single STANDARD option is not ideal is the replacement pool differs per league size, per roster requirements and per positional eligibility rules.  At the root of the matter is specifically the make up of the corner infield, middle infield and utility/DH pools.  Complicating things is the number (and quality) of multiple eligibility players is growing as well as what to do with players only eligible at utility/DH.  Each player must be assigned one of the standard six positions – C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, OF.  NOTE : AVC allows the user to alter this position designation from the house designation.  Intuitively, a player is most valuable at the more scarce position (more on scarcity in an accompanying piece).  Based upon previous season’s statistics, the following is the hierarchy of positional scarcity, from most to least: C>2B>SS>3B>1B/OF. .

The problem with using a STANDARD setting is the composition of the MI, CO and UT/DH pools differ by league format.  That is, there really is no STANDARD; each league has its own custom distribution of positions.  An algorithm can be designed to approximate the number of 2B and SS encompassing the MI pool, the number of 1B and 3B encompassing the CI pool and the makeup of the UT/DH pool, but with only a little time and a modicum of Excel acumen, the user can set the positions to give the best results for their league(s).  That said, AVC has a STANDARD algorithm that best suits AL only, NL only and MIXED leagues.

It is going to be incumbent upon the user to carry out the following procedure.  The entire process is driven by the positional designation POOL (Column F on the Player tab).  The idea is going to be to change all non-catchers to the same position, so that they will all be compared to the same replacement player.  The draft-worthy pool will then be generated.  The chore is to total up the number of each position in the draft-worthy pool.  Those totals will be entered into the CUSTOMIZED position settings.  Once familiar with the process, it should only take a couple of minutes.  Are you ready?

1. On the Player tab, paste the contents of Column F into Column D by clicking on Cell F2, dragging down, hit CTRL C, click D2 and hit CTRL V. Sort Column F by selecting Cell F1 and clicking on either the sort ascending or sort descending icon, it really doesn’t matter which.  These icons are identified by the letters A and Z, with an arrow beside them.  They should be available from the top icon menu.
2. Leave the C designation alone and convert everything else to OF.  The easiest way to do this is type OF in cell F2, highlight the string of non-catchers until you get to the catchers and fill down by pressing CTRL D.  Then repeat this starting with the first non-catcher at the end of the catcher pool.
3. Go to League Set Up and enter the number of catchers your league requires.  The rest are entered as outfielders.  In a 12-team league with 14 roster spots, 2 of which are catchers, 24 is entered for catcher and 144 for outfield, as there are 168 total players drafted, 24 of which are catchers.
4. Set the pool size and run values.
5. You are going to need some workspace for this next step, so go to the top menu bar and click on the INSERT menu, choosing WORKSHEET.  You should see a new tab at the bottom, entitled Sheet1.  This is your workspace.
6. Go to the VALUES tab and copy the positions in the draft-worthy pool from PPOS, Column D by highlighting Cell D1 and dragging down, then pressing CTRL C.  Paste these into Sheet1 by clicking on Cell A1 and pressing CTRL V.  ONLY TAKE THE DRAFT-WORTHY POOL – those with value $1 and above.
7. Those familiar with COUNTIF function feel free to use it, otherwise, click on Cell A1 and sort ascending or descending, again, it does not matter which.
8. Count up the number of each position.  Sometimes, there are not quite enough catchers.    This is a small flaw with the programming that will be addressed in the future, but don’t worry in terms of proper valuation; the necessary catchers are usually $0.
9. That said, you do need to account for this low catcher total if it occurs.  Determine how many catchers you are short.  Now go to the lowest valued non-catchers in the draft-worthy pool and eliminate the same number of non-catchers from the totals derived in Step 8.  In other words, if you are supposed to have 24 catchers and there are only 21, you need to eliminate three non-catchers from the pool, as they will be displaced when 24 catchers are drafted.  You also need to make sure there are enough 2B and SS to fill in MI and the same for 1B and 3B for CI.  If you are short, again, starting at  the bottom of the draft-worthy pool, eliminate the non-catchers that also do not play the position that is short.
10. Go to the Players tab.  Copy and paste Column D into Column F by highlighting cell D2 and dragging down, hitting CTRL C, clicking Cell F2 and hitting CTRL V.  This returns the positions to the original setting.
11. On the League Set Up tab, choose CUSTOMIZE and enter the adjusted total from Steps 8 and 9, entering 0 for 1B/3B, 2B/SS and UT/DH.  The cross check is making sure the number in the blue section of the POOL SIZE FACTOR equals your pool total.
12. Adjust the pool size and run values.
13. Dominate your league.