It now appears that 2020 is a more realistic arrival time for top-prospect Keston Hiura.

Re-signed with the Brew Crew

John Sickels has him at No. 5 on his top 100 list, posted now at The Athletic.

ETA late 2019.

I hope he's right (it would make me feel better about dropping him) but fully expect Whitley to pitch his way onto the team in spring training. And then I'll have to keep bidding until I buy him. And then I'll be really, really sorry.

The weird thing about our game is this useless player (offensively and defensively) could still earn close to $10 on a $1 investment if he had a little luck with batting average or if the Orioles somehow decided to let him run a bit. 

Hi Joe,

I think what happened with the Help file in PDO is that Microsoft changed the help file format and the old one no longer worked. And we haven't updated it because we have a mostly veteran clientele that doesn't use the help file. I will dig around to see if I can find a copy of the old Help file. It should be posted and available, but as Alex said, please don't be shy about asking questions.

To add on to what Alex wrote:

1) Yes, at pattonandco.com the 5x5 stats are based on Alex's formula. In PDO software, the 2018 historical earnings price is for 4x4. In fact all the historical prices are for 4x4 in the program.

2) One of the things I use the software for is to adjust my bids after entering my league's keeper prices into the BID column. Adjusting for inflation is very important and as you know the adjustment isn't across the board. In some leagues much of it goes to pitchers, in others much goes to hitters, and in all the pricier players get more inflation in general than the cheaper ones (unless leagues miscalculate and two or three teams end up with too much money and only one good player left to buy).

3) Make sure you save to Working file after making your edits/adjustments.

4) Yes, right now the default view doesn't include some key info (like my bid prices). In Information Source you can change that. In the next release I'll include a more expansive view as the default. You can set your own and as long as you don't update the Option File your adjustments will persist.

5) Yup.

Clubhouse presence and intangibles.....has to be.

cost

Minor league deal with O's, I believe I read, which poses the musical question:  "Why?"

Apparently, "spot on" originates in billiards:

http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2011/12/frasers-phrases-spot-on-bang-on-and-wicked-wizards/

Joe --

When I click on help, I see a help message. But it pertains to this site; it doesn't help with the software. I'll try to do that.

1) I think this one is about the site. $5x5 is the value of each year's stats in 5x5, using my formulas. Peter's (in the Guide) are close but not the same.

2) You are correct. The bids are not inflation adjusted. And you are absolutely correct that  underpriced keepers can radically inflate the prices of available players.That's something we talk about extensively each year in various threads.

3) Each time you save the working file, the date and hour is shown for that particular file (e.g., nlp19.pww) -- is that what you're asking?

4) Click on List/Information Choices and check PK5, MF5 and AP4 under Rotisserie Info.

5) Yes.

I'm sure there will be more questions and do keep asking them here. Most of our subscribers have been coming back year after year. When we get a new one, we get very excited.

From the Wise Guy, who hangs out now with John Sickels at theathletic.com.

Ronald Acuna  I heard somebody say "You can't just pro-rate his stats
to 155 games." Why not? What isn't he going to do? Isn't the chance that
Acuna gets better at least as good as the chance he gets worse? He's already
shown extraordinary ability in the major leagues at the age of 20. He's a
little rough around the edges and so what? I saw no sign that the league was
catching up to him. Prorating his 2018 numbers is what you should do. High floor and way-high ceiling, Acuna will be a 1st-round pick and rightly so. Don't bet against him, enjoy him. $35

Hello Peter:

It is working. There is a learning curve but looks like it will be fun figuring it out.

I like the links to fangraphs, baseball reference, etc when you are looking at stats for an individual player.

Note that when I click on help, I get the following message:

"Error opening Help in Windows-based programs: "Feature not included" or "Help not supported"

Questions

1. On the stats page, for the year 2018, the $5x5 value shown - was that the average for 2018?

 2. I am three leagues, 2 AL, 1 NL - both are 10 teams although we may just have 9 in one league - 5 x 5 - keepers -- up to 15 keepers in one league up to 10 keepers in the other. Do the projections take into account inflation as a result of keepers?

[ It finally dawned on me why the bidding in our leagues is always so much higher than projections - the inflation due to keepers!! ]

After some more reading, I think I answered my own question - these are not inflation adjusted.  Only after I enter the keepers in my league with the value include inflation, correct?

3.  Entering my own projections - how do I enter date in the working file

4. In the projections, there are no values for AP, PK or MF. But in the raw data in the Excel spreadsheet I see values for these items.

5. "  And something else happens when you subscribe:

Rotoman's Projections Appear at the Bottom of the Stat Scans at Patton & Co.

Subscribers will see these"

Are these the Rotomans projections when looking at the stats of an individual player?

Thanks

Joe

From the Associated Press today:

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Roberto Osuna will close for the Houston Astros.

"I can pretend and create some false competition, and that doesn't gain
any credibility," manager A.J. Hinch said. "Transparency goes a long
way, and maybe the closer question can be put to rest."

Good. That's settled.

Or is it?

Hinch used Ken Giles, Hector Rondon and Luke Gregerson to finish games during his first four seasons before the Astros acquired Osuna from Toronto last summer.

"I think the league has graduated to the point of, you can say somebody's
your closer and use him in the seventh or eighth inning and people don't
freak out," Hinch said. "It's amazing how the sport has evolved to
where one word doesn't mean that he has to pitch exactly in that role
every single time."

From ESPN today:

TAMPA, Fla. -- CC Sabathia, the left-hander who is entering his 19th major league season, formally announced Saturday that he'll be calling it quits at the end of 2019.

"I just wanted to make this announcement that 2019 is my final season," Sabathia said at the start of his news conference at the New York Yankees' spring training complex.

Fighting to contain his emotion, the 38-year-old credited his mother -- "I owe her the world" -- and wife for their support at multiple stages of his baseball life. He also reflected fondly on his late father, remembering a conversation shared at the outset of Sabathia's big-league career.

"He always told me I'd play for the Yankees," Sabathia said. "And when I was in Cleveland,
I'd be like, 'No, no chance. I'm going to be an Indian my whole career.' He always said, 'When you're a free agent, the Yankees are going to come get you and you're going to win a World Series with the Yankees.'"

From the Associated Press today:

JUPITER, Fla. -- St. Louis Cardinals left fielder Marcell Ozuna will be on a limited throwing program to start the spring but is expected to be ready for Opening Day, manager Mike Shildt said Saturday.

... Shildt isn't at all worried that the slugger won't be ready when the Cardinals open the season at Milwaukee on March 28.

"Hasn't caused me a wink of sleep."

From ESPN yesterday:

Pedroia, 35, was able to rest this offseason and reported to camp early.
The 2007 American League Rookie of the Year and 2008 league MVP says
the knee feels good and he looks forward to the first full-squad workout
on Monday.

"The human body can only take so much, so you have to let it heal," he
said. "When I started going again, it was tough, but it wasn't like the
year before. Maybe that's why I feel so good now. I healed up, got some
rest, my body is recovered and I'm excited."

That's right. 5x5 is more popular now, so 5x5 is the default, in the Evaluator and the Projector. Click on Options/Formula to change it.

I'm seeing $2 under AP4 -- obviously I was impressed with Peter's projection!

Next week at some point we will post the bids that are in PDO now (the software and Excel and text files of Patton $ Online) on the player pages here to help generate discussions. For now subscribers get the small advantage of an early look.

A year-long advantage, if you have subscribed, is that you see Rotoman's projection at the bottom of the stat scans.

I figured it out. The evaluator was defaulted to 5x5. I switched it to 4x4 and it syncs up. 

The earnings in the 2018 evaluator do not match what's here on the site. For example, Mookie Betts earned $49 on the site, $46 on the evaluator. Jose Ramirez is $45 on the site, $40 on the evaluator. Which is correct?