First Full Year of Yahoo! Lessons Learned

Sure, Blossom had a ridiculous season (congrats of course), but being my first FULL year of Yahoo, I figured out it's not how you start, but how you finish.

After ten races or so, I was at, near or in the Top 5 in the FRO "Pay to Play" group.

Then everything went downhill from there. I guess you need to take more chances early in the season, and use the last half or so to gain spots back when the sport's best are in Championship form as they gear up for the Chase.

Perhaps my most glaring mistake was use of the A Group

Ended up with 7 Gordon starts, 7 Keselowskis, 5 Harvicks. That's some darn good talent left unused.

Also used WAAAAY too many Kyle starts early on. Gotta take more risks in this game I guess and like I suggested, perhaps getting off to a "slow" start isn't all that bad because the cream of the crop drivers are most valuable the second half of the season.

I disagree with people that say you should "save" driver starts on there. Yes, it's nice to have Kyle Busch's left there later in the season, but if he scores max points early on in the season, you're not going to get any better than that. Doesn't matter when a driver scores max points, the point is to start him when he does.

That being said, I did employ that strategy a bit in 2013. This year, I had 3 Kyle's left and 5 Stenhouse's left for the Chase. I only used the 18 when I thought he could get max points, and Stenhouse I thought he would be a lot better the second time around in tracks.

Personally I think one major thing in Yahoo! is to not use your studs on the plate tracks. Like 18 this year in B, no need to use him on the plate tracks. Same goes with 48 and 20. Just too much value elsewhere.

But Zach you are totally right, it's not how you start it's how you finish. My first year playing Yahoo! was in 2011. I was ~50th percentile after the first 20 races. Finished in the 89th percentile. Last year 99th percentile, this year 97th or so.

Jordan wrote:

I disagree with people that say you should "save" driver starts on there. Yes, it's nice to have Kyle Busch's left there later in the season, but if he scores max points early on in the season, you're not going to get any better than that. Doesn't matter when a driver scores max points, the point is to start him when he does.

That being said, I did employ that strategy a bit in 2013. This year, I had 3 Kyle's left and 5 Stenhouse's left for the Chase. I only used the 18 when I thought he could get max points, and Stenhouse I thought he would be a lot better the second time around in tracks.

Personally I think one major thing in Yahoo! is to not use your studs on the plate tracks. Like 18 this year in B, no need to use him on the plate tracks. Same goes with 48 and 20. Just too much value elsewhere.

But Zach you are totally right, it's not how you start it's how you finish. My first year playing Yahoo! was in 2011. I was ~50th percentile after the first 20 races. Finished in the 89th percentile. Last year 99th percentile, this year 97th or so.

I was actually pretty good about that. Always went with Waltrip/Ragan/Gilliland/Patrick on the plate tracks, used guys like Burton, Menard, McMurray in the B Group.

It happened last year (when I was only ACTIVELY competing in the ESPN game) and this year, with exception to the Yahoo! game:

My best days were during the second half of the year. I did very well in the second half of Chris' game.

I agree that perhaps the 'save starts' strategy isn't perfect, but using say Keselowski or Harvick here and there instead of automatically looking at Johnson and Kenseth I would think really pays off in the long run.

For me, it was really about terrible weeks. I'd get 320 one week and 180 the next after that early period of success.

I had way too many weeks where I had two guys finish outside the Top 30 and another guy barely crack the Top 20.

This whole season was a little wacky; I'm glad it's over. All you can really do it put out rosters with the fastest cars and hope for the best.

I always excel in the second half of the season, too, I don't know why.

Jordan wrote:

This whole season was a little wacky; I'm glad it's over. All you can really do it put out rosters with the fastest cars and hope for the best.

I always excel in the second half of the season, too, I don't know why.

Well I don't think it's unreasonable to think the first half of the year is a tad more unpredictable in terms of driver performance, especially for the middle-tier guys.

I also don't think I realized how big a deal the extra 10 bonus points for leading a lap is (in Yahoo)! Seriously. Leading ONE LAP is equivalent to five extra spots in the finishing order.

Zacky

The first year or two that Michael and I played at Yahoo we were a little intimidated and we would read
what the "Experts" would pick each week. The following year we started playing the game a little different
and we did a lot better. If I play at Yahoo a hundred more years I will never have another season like the one I just finished. I too started off slow then got real lucky.

Spring rating  10,322
Summer  390
Playoff    274
Overall 5th

The so called " Experts " 

Dan Beaver  64,630   Overall rank
Jay Busbee   82,941      "        "
Jay Hart       96,835      "        "

I like the format and I like the idea of making your picks a day before qualifying. I hope we have a nice turn out
for (2014 FRO Yahoo) but I"m afraid I've used up all my luck   

Annie

I can't figure out why I do so much different from game to game, I finished 95.5% in ESPN's game, 68% in Yahoo, about the same here 108th, yet at CDM I finished 28th, I try equally hard in every game?

It's the curse that is upon you. For a modest fee, I can lift it for you.

thanks Ray I knew I could always count on you:lol:

http://racing.fantasysports.yahoo.com/auto/group/22191/weeklyperformance?half=3rd






Ending the season in Victory Lane.   329 points High Score by yours truly, on to 2014
[th]Rank[/th][th]Team[/th][th]27[/th][th]28[/th][th]29[/th][th]30[/th][th]31[/th][th]32[/th][th]33[/th][th]34[/th][th]35[/th][th]36[/th][th]Segment Points*[/th][th]Season Points*[/th]

1	rmiller	309	274	346	306	248	250	241	296	290	329	2,648	10,111
2	Top8Legendracing	262	310	289	203	316	362	306	158	264	262	2,574	9,535
3	Garrett's Gang	322	237	287	270	287	272	279	271	249	300	2,537	9,429
4	Fred & Barney (20)	238	250	327	285	226	294	284	283	261	279	2,501	9,340
5	The Experts' Choice	267	264	236	298	207	246	289	338	316	204	2,461	9,402
6	chrisjen	228	266	298	207	268	248	243	300	215	316	2,382	9,286

among the 60 picks, our winner had the lowest score of 203.Also the highest..362

Generally speaking, Yahoo scores seemed to be lower this year. 
I think it'll come up in 2014. We should have a much better C group and a full A group.