The SFBB Excel tools are updated and ready to help you prepare for the 2025 season! If you’re looking to build skills and develop your own methods for ranking and valuing players, these are for you!
The Automated SGP Ranking Tool will help you convert your favorite projection set (Steamer, The Bat, Razzball, RotoWire, PECOTA, etc.) into Excel-based rankings and dollar values tailored to your own league’s settings. The process takes only minutes. No messy Excel formulas. Just load your projections into the file, adjust a few settings, and standings gain points rankings are calculated automatically. Click here to read more about the tool.
Powered by the same concepts as the Automated SGP Ranking Tool, the Automated Points League Ranking Tool does all the same things, just for nearly any imaginable points league. The tool works with any popular projection set and allows you to enter your league’s unique point scoring system, then instantly converts those projections into tailored point totals and dollar values. The process take minutes and will give a huge advantage over owners that are not tailoring rankings specifically to the league scoring system. Click here to read more about the points league tool.
An easy-to-use Excel spreadsheet that can combine (or average) up to five different projection sets. The aggregator can use just about any well-known projection set you can find on the web (if you find one that doesn’t work, let me know!). Simply download your favorite projection sets, fill out some settings, and you’re done. No complicated formulas or VLOOKUPS for you to add.
The SFBB Excel tools are updated and ready to help you prepare for the 2024 season! If you’re looking to build skills and develop your own methods for ranking and valuing players, these are for you!
The Automated SGP Ranking Tool will help you convert your favorite projection set (Steamer, The Bat, Razzball, RotoWire, PECOTA, etc.) into Excel-based rankings and dollar values tailored to your own league’s settings. The process takes only minutes. No messy Excel formulas. Just load your projections into the file, adjust a few settings, and standings gain points rankings are calculated automatically. Click here to read more about the tool.
Powered by the same concepts as the Automated SGP Ranking Tool, the Automated Points League Ranking Tool does all the same things, just for nearly any imaginable points league. The tool works with any popular projection set and allows you to enter your league’s unique point scoring system, then instantly converts those projections into tailored point totals and dollar values. The process take minutes and will give a huge advantage over owners that are not tailoring rankings specifically to the league scoring system. Click here to read more about the points league tool.
An easy-to-use Excel spreadsheet that can combine (or average) up to five different projection sets. The aggregator can use just about any well-known projection set you can find on the web (if you find one that doesn’t work, let me know!). Simply download your favorite projection sets, fill out some settings, and you’re done. No complicated formulas or VLOOKUPS for you to add.
The SFBB Excel tools are updated and ready to help you prepare for the 2023 season! If you’re looking to build skills and develop your own methods for ranking and valuing players, these are for you!
The Automated SGP Ranking Tool will help you convert your favorite projection set (Steamer, The Bat, Razzball, RotoWire, PECOTA, etc.) into Excel-based rankings and dollar values tailored to your own league’s settings. The process takes only minutes. No messy Excel formulas. Just load your projections into the file, adjust a few settings, and standings gain points rankings are calculated automatically. Click here to read more about the tool.
Powered by the same concepts as the Automated SGP Ranking Tool, the Automated Points League Ranking Tool does all the same things, just for nearly any imaginable points league. The tool works with any popular projection set and allows you to enter your league’s unique point scoring system, then instantly converts those projections into tailored point totals and dollar values. The process take minutes and will give a huge advantage over owners that are not tailoring rankings specifically to the league scoring system. Click here to read more about the points league tool.
An easy-to-use Excel spreadsheet that can combine (or average) up to five different projection sets. The aggregator can use just about any well-known projection set you can find on the web (if you find one that doesn’t work, let me know!). Simply download your favorite projection sets, fill out some settings, and you’re done. No complicated formulas or VLOOKUPS for you to add.
This year’s edition of The Process contains many exciting new updates, studies, standings, and SGP data. Visit thefantasybaseballprocess.com to read many more details.
I heard this on a podcast recently. Can’t remember which one. So, I can’t give credit. It’s also not the first time I’ve heard the phrase. Maybe I shouldn’t worry too much about it.
I agree with this statement. But since I’m a natural contrarian (ask my wife) my knee-jerk response is, “Yeah, but there aren’t an infinite number of ways to win.”
I think about this a lot. Probably too much. Maybe the thoughts that follow are obvious. Or maybe I have some unique insight to share. So here goes. Besides, I haven’t written a true blog post in a long time. Buckle up.
Seeing this Tweet is what ultimately pushed me over the edge to write this:
We think a lot about those black lines, forgetting that it’s all still in our hands. pic.twitter.com/RSZ1d3W642
I’ll agree with the author here. In life we think a lot about those black lines. We tend to be backwards looking. Either relishing in the past or wallowing in it. The Stoics would want us looking at the green path into the future and all the possibilities that exist. But we like to be crippled by bad decisions and feel sorry for ourselves.
I may well be wrong, but I get the impression that most of us are the opposite in playing fantasy baseball. We have to be inherently forward looking. The stats accumulated in the standings can’t be changed. They are what they are. We have no choice but to pull up the free agent listing and plan for the future.
We talk about the future all the time. We are always “preparing”. Projections, prognostications, adding players for the future, dynasty leagues, pursuing a championship. It’s all forward looking.
Maybe that’s why we like this game? Is it inherently optimistic?
Anyways, we fake baseball players tend to forget our past decisions. I’m here to be negative and bring us back to all of our horrible decisions!!!
That’s not really my intent. Some good retrospection and review is good at the end of the season. But I’m not proposing we start looking in the rotisserie rearview mirror any more than that.
I do think the image is insightful and helpful at demonstrating a key bit of strategy I try to always bring myself back to… Stay balanced.
I’ll go as far as to say this is my guiding principle in playing rotisserie (it’s not so relevant for points leagues). I use it any time I’m struggling with a decision. Should I take a pitcher or a hitter? Should I take speed or power? Do I take my third outfielder or my first catcher?
We discuss the topic in The Process but don’t beat the reader over the head with it. I’m about to beat you over the head with it.
Stay balanced!
The phrase is purposely ambiguous. It can mean so many things, all of them helpful. Here are some examples:
Don’t allow yourself to get backed into a corner. Keep your team balanced in both pitching and hitting. Keep a balance across statistical categories. Avoid putting yourself in a situation where you can’t take advantage of good fortunes that come your way. If you are out of balance, needing pitching, and an amazing hitter falls in the draft your decision point becomes getting even further out of balance or passing up the opportunity.
Balance the risk and uncertainty on your roster. Don’t be too risky. Don’t be too conservative or risk averse (BTW, if you say “risk adverse” and you’re a podcaster, I have shaken my fist at you before). You don’t want to be the manager rostering Oneil Cruz, Adalberto Mondesi, and Justin Verlander. You also don’t want a team full of Randal Grichuks and Mark Canhas. There is value in pursuing upside and floor. Both serve a purpose.
The SFBB Excel tools are updated and ready to help you prepare for the 2022 season! If you’re looking to build skills and develop your own methods for ranking and valuing players, these are for you!
The Automated SGP Ranking Tool will help you convert your favorite projection set (Steamer, The Bat, Razzball, RotoWire, PECOTA, etc.) into Excel-based rankings and dollar values tailored to your own league’s settings. The process takes only minutes. No messy Excel formulas. Just load your projections into the file, adjust a few settings, and standings gain points rankings are calculated automatically. Click here to read more about the tool.
Powered by the same concepts as the Automated SGP Ranking Tool, the Automated Points League Ranking Tool does all the same things, just for nearly any imaginable points league. The tool works with any popular projection set and allows you to enter your league’s unique point scoring system, then instantly converts those projections into tailored point totals and dollar values. The process take minutes and will give a huge advantage over owners that are not tailoring rankings specifically to the league scoring system. Click here to read more about the points league tool.
An easy-to-use Excel spreadsheet that can combine (or average) up to five different projection sets. The aggregator can use just about any well-known projection set you can find on the web (if you find one that doesn’t work, let me know!). Simply download your favorite projection sets, fill out some settings, and you’re done. No complicated formulas or VLOOKUPS for you to add.
Looking to get a jump on the 2021 season? Here are the Excel tools and books that are updated and ready to help you prepare for the upcoming season. If you’re looking to build skills and develop your own methods for ranking and valuing players, these are for you! All of the spreadsheet tools listed below have been updated for the 2021 season.
We are sorry to announce that there will not be major updates to The Process for the 2021 edition. Among other things, the shutdown and restarting of the season, the rule changes, the odd schedules, and the seven-inning games would have us questioning the validity of any innovative research.
With that in mind, we’ve decided to offer two editions this year, so our readers can choose the version that’s right for them.
2021 Appendix Edition (PDF) – $7.99
This is the edition for owners that have previously read the 2020 edition and are now looking for updated 2021 appendix data. This slimmed-down version contains just the 65-page appendix containing SGP analysis, Steamer projections, standings data for 2018-2020, and Jeff and Tanner’s thoughts on how to use the standings data from the 2020 season. Click here to purchase the Appendix Only 2021 Edition in a PDF e-book format for $7.99.
Full 2021 Edition (PDF) – $17.99
If you have not previously bought the book, this is the edition for you. The body of this book is the same as the 2020 edition, with an updated appendix. The appendix is updated for various leagues’ standings gains points (SGP), 2021 Steamer projections with the SGP, projected handedness splits, and others. Click here to purchase the Full 2021 Edition in a PDF e-book format for $17.99.
The Automated SGP Ranking Tool will help you convert your favorite projection set (Steamer, The Bat, Razzball, RotoWire, PECOTA, etc.) into Excel-based rankings and dollar values tailored to your own league’s settings. The process takes only minutes. No messy Excel formulas. Just load your projections into the file, adjust a few settings, and standings gain points rankings are calculated automatically. Click here to read more about the tool.
Powered by the same concepts as the Automated SGP Ranking Tool, the Automated Points League Ranking Tool does all the same things, just for nearly any imaginable points league. The tool works with any popular projection set and allows you to enter your league’s unique point scoring system, then instantly converts those projections into tailored point totals and dollar values. The process take minutes and will give a huge advantage over owners that are not tailoring rankings specifically to the league scoring system. Click here to read more about the points league tool.
An easy-to-use Excel spreadsheet that can combine (or average) up to three different projection sets. The aggregator can use just about any well-known projection set you can find on the web (if you find one that doesn’t work, let me know!). Simply download your favorite projection sets, fill out some settings, and you’re done. No complicated formulas or VLOOKUPS for you to add.
Looking to get a jump on the 2020 season? Here are the Excel tools and books that are updated and ready to help you prepare for the upcoming season. If you’re looking to build skills and develop your own methods for ranking and valuing players, these are for you! All of the spreadsheet tools listed below have been updated for the 2020 season.
Co-authored with Jeff Zimmerman, this is our comprehensive guide of the process we use to succeed during a fantasy baseball season. From preseason preparations, the draft, and all the stages of the season, it’s everything we know about playing this game. The book is available in a PDF e-book for $17.99 here or in paperback form at Amazon here.
You can read a comprehensive writeup of all that’s included in the book here, including the foreword by Clay Link, the full table of contents, and testimonials by fantasy analysts like Rob Silver, Rudy Gamble, Eno Sarris, Mike Podhorzer, and Mike Gianella.
The Automated SGP Ranking Tool will help you convert your favorite projection set (Steamer, The Bat, Razzball, RotoWire, PECOTA, etc.) into Excel-based rankings and dollar values tailored to your own league’s settings. The process takes only minutes. No messy Excel formulas. Just load your projections into the file, adjust a few settings, and standings gain points rankings are calculated automatically. Click here to read more about the tool.
Powered by the same concepts as the Automated SGP Ranking Tool, the Automated Points League Ranking Tool does all the same things, just for nearly any imaginable points league. The tool works with any popular projection set and allows you to enter your league’s unique point scoring system, then instantly converts those projections into tailored point totals and dollar values. The process take minutes and will give a huge advantage over owners that are not tailoring rankings specifically to the league scoring system. Click here to read more about the points league tool.
An easy-to-use Excel spreadsheet that can combine (or average) up to three different projection sets. The aggregator can use just about any well-known projection set you can find on the web (if you find one that doesn’t work, let me know!). Simply download your favorite projection sets, fill out some settings, and you’re done. No complicated formulas or VLOOKUPS for you to add.
Ever wanted to create your own rotisserie rankings? This is my instructional guide written specifically to show you how to create customized rotisserie player rankings, dollar values, and inflation dollar values, in Microsoft Excel, tailored to your own league. No more downloading rankings from the web, hoping they apply to your unique league. 10, 12, or 15-team league? $260 or $300 budget? AL-only or mixed league? 10 hitters or 14? It doesn’t matter. This book will guide you through the process of developing rankings for just about any kind of rotisserie league.
My step-by-step guide to building custom rankings, dollar values, and inflation dollar values, in Microsoft Excel, for your points league. This book will guide you through the process of developing rankings for just about any point-based scoring format.
This year’s edition of The Process is now available!
About the Book
A very thorough and detailed write-up of what’s included in the book is available here. At a high level, this book is everything Jeff Zimmerman and I know about how to play rotisserie baseball (and even points leagues). Regardless your level of experience, I guarantee it includes pages and pages of unique ideas, research, and data you have never seen before. We continue to pour our new ideas, new research, and recent realizations into it. The e-book is 265 pages and includes 58 additional pages of appendices full of projections, statistics, and helpful information.
The paperback edition of the book can be purchased from Amazon.com by clicking here.
Keep reading for details on all that was added to this 2020 edition, but my favorite addition is a detailed study that performed on the 2018 NFBC Main Event, including all the player adds, player drops, and final standings of all 34 leagues and 510 teams. The study sought to confirm if the advice and strategies in the book can be observed and corroborated in the actions of the game’s best managers. The NFBC Main Event, with its $1,700 buy in, prestigious name, and overall competition aspect, offers the best laboratory to study this.
That new study delves into many topics:
How much does draft position affect the chances of winning a league?
Do better owners just accrue more playing time? Or are their players also accumulating more stats per AB and per IP? How much more?
How many free agent transactions do the best teams make?
How do these better owners spread their transactions throughout the season?
How do these better owners allocate their FAAB spending?
What bidding patterns can be observed from winning teams?
How do these owners allocate transactions between hitters and pitchers?
How often do these owners acquire two-start pitchers? Closers?
How much season-long value do these owners acquire and drop during the season?
How much weekly value do these owners acquire and drop during the season?
For example, here’s a table of data in the section analyzing how owners finish in the standings and the amount of moves spent on closer speculation.
Closer acquisitions in the 2018 NFBC Main Event.
A Personal Note
I’m really proud of this book. Or shall I say, this annual publication that we’ve started. But the intent to have annual editions creates a significant challenge. The book’s main strength is its long-term nature. Much of what we discuss are fundamental concepts to success at rotisserie baseball. Those ideas are not going to change much from year-to-year. It’s certainly going to be a test to keep the book relevant and worthy of your time and money. We understand that.
I am confident we can do this. Afterall, I’ve been writing on this site for several years now, exclusively with a long-term slant to my analysis. I don’t have much time to write. So I choose to focus my efforts doing research, writing instructions, and building tools that will have long-term benefits. I simply don’t have time to devote to writing short-term pieces that will be irrelevant within weeks or even days. Despite blogging for several years and having written a handful of books, I still feel as though we’re finding new ways to play and think about rotisserie baseball. I see no shortage of strategy-related questions to research.
You can see this in the topics we expanded in this year’s book. Among the higher-level strategy questions approached in this year’s book are:
Are rookies more volatile than established hitters? Does a rookie’s upside offset the possible downside? Do rookie projections differ from the projections of MLB regulars?
How much does a player’s previous levels of fantasy-production affect their future performance? Do these players offer a higher return on investment than those that have never before attained a given production level?
What are the key differences owners should know about the SGP and z-score player valuation models? Where are these systems similar?
How does the cost of closers during the draft compare to their cost in free agency (FAAB)? How does the cost of starting pitchers differ?
How much value should multi-position eligibility add to a player’s valuation? (Note: This topic was included last year, but we expanded our thoughts)
Having studied how weekly values appear in 12-team leagues during the 2017 season, how much did things change in 2018? How does the appearance of weekly values change in a 15-team league?
What do average weekly statistics lines look like for players? For example, what does a $30-35 weekly hitter line look like? What do valuable weekly pitcher statistics look like?
What strategies and behaviors can we observe from the NFBC’s amazing data (standings, adds, drops, etc.)? What behaviors lead to success? What beliefs about how to best play rotisserie baseball can we confirm by studying this data?
On top of all this, Jeff and I continue to evolve the way we play the game and we share those changes and decisions with you. Here are the new discussions of strategies, tips, and tools included this year:
We co-owned a team together this season. We share what we learned from this experience, both during the draft and in-season. Our general recommendation is that partnering is very helpful, especially for leagues where there is a grind of weekly transactions.
To that end, we outline the weekly FAAB process we went through together on that shared league. Having a consistent weekly routine is the key to uncovering valuable players and to avoiding under- or over-bidding. We share the process that works for us.
We outline the specific tools we use to identify FAAB targets and two-start pitchers. We also share the process we go through for setting lineups and finding important last-minute MLB news.
We explored different approaches to dealing with catchers this past season. We share the results of those strategies.
We share a FAAB binning strategy that helps owners stay disciplined about overbidding and maintaining a healthy weekly budget.
Do you have to read through the entire book hunting for what’s new? No! We kept track for you. You can see a full list of changes and jump right to the updated content. Here’s what that list looks like.
Please Click the ‘Buy Now’ Button Below to Purchase the e-Book for $17.99
After clicking the “Buy Now” button, you’ll be taken through an online checkout process using PayPal. There is also an option to pay with a debit or credit card. After completing the purchase, a link to download the PDF book will immediately be e-mailed to you. You can read the PDF on any mobile device, PC, or tablet.
Or Click Below to Buy the Paperback Edition at Amazon for $22.99
Click here to see a list of participants The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational. I’m in League 13.
I recently participated in my The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational (TGFBI) draft, which, if you’re a Twitter user and follow anyone in the fantasy baseball landscape, you could not have avoided. I do want to share with you some observations I had during the draft, but similar to my other writings, the goal here is to give some actionable advice (even if you’re reading this in the future) and not get too hung up on my team and specific players.
The Context
The invitational is made of 13 separate 15-team leagues. Each of these leagues will compete like any traditional rotisserie league and crown a champion within that league. The twist is that there is also an overall competition across the 13 leagues, whereby all 195 teams are competing in one massive rotisserie competition to crown an overall champion (similar to how the NFBC works). The one person that emerges atop 194 other experts can surely claim to be one of the best fantasy baseball players around.
This is the inaugural year of the competition, but it’s such an innovative idea that there’s no shortage of well-known folks competing. You can see the full list of participants here.
I’m participating in League #13. I happen to be the last name on the roster of the last league! What does that tell you, ha! You can see the draft results here. I was picking from the fifth spot.
My Feelings Going Into the Draft
While I’m obsessed with fantasy baseball, I really don’t view myself as anything special in this arena. Sure, I’ve MacGyver’ed up some neat spreadsheet tools over the years. But I don’t view my preparation process as anything special. I DON’T DO ANYTHING YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF BEFORE. I’m not holding back any secret tricks of the trade.
And because I don’t do anything special, I was nervous as hell heading into this draft. I joked a few paragraphs back about being the last name on the last league. I don’t really know if that’s indicative of anything, but even if it is, I get it! I don’t even think I’ve written five legitimate articles in the past two years. It wouldn’t surprise me if that’s the lowest output of any participant involved. Meanwhile, many of the others are busting their backs to write articles and create podcasts on an aggressive and regular schedule.
These guys and gals are painstakingly combing over StatCast data, spin rates, hard hit rates, launch angles, swinging strike rates, and more… Meanwhile, I pretty much just let them do the work, read their articles, listen to their podcasts, plop some projections into a spreadsheet, make some manual adjustments, and I’m ready to rock with a comprehensive list of players and expected earnings dollar values.
Alright. Enough about me. Let’s try to make this useful. I apologize if some of what follows comes across as inflammatory or soap-boxy. Not everything can be sugar-coated. Here are my top lessons learned and observations after participating in this draft.
#1 – Exploit the League Rules
I really, really, really didn’t want to start with this one. It’s what EVERY SINGLE introduction to fantasy sports article ever written in the history of the world has started with.
So you would have expected that every one of the 195 participants would have done this, right?
But guess what??? I’m speculating, but I’d bet less than half of the TGFBI participants gave the rules a worthwhile look (I do realize saying “the TGFBI” is probably redundant, but it looks too weird not to do it). They probably assumed we were playing by prototypical standard rules and just checked to determine if we were using batting average or on-base percentage. But there are two rules we are playing by that are not exactly “standard” and each was something that I think needed to be known going into the draft. These two rules should have affected your behavior in the draft, and possibly in a significant way. Those two rules are:
Starting rosters include only one catcher but two utility spots
Rosters allow for five reserves and up to five DL spots for injured players
Pretty simple stuff, but small differences in rules, like starting one catcher instead of two, can have a significant effect on player valuation.
Why does this matter? In a 15-team league, I show the effect of going from two starting catchers to one as having around a $10 swing in value! That is an ENORMOUS detail (Note: the values in the image reflect the change from 2 C & 1 UTIL to 1 C & 2 UTIL, not just the move to 1 C).
The fact that this change is so significant surprises some people. But these are the same objective calculations that tell me Mike Trout, Trea Turner, Jose Altuve, Chris Sale, Clayton Kershaw, and Max Scherzer should be the highest valued players for the 2018 season. This isn’t speculation or “feel” about how to adjust for position scarcity. If you want to read more about the reason for this, here’s an illustrated example I put together from a few years ago.
As some of the faster drafting leagues started to get into the second and third rounds, we saw the big name catchers start to go. Then word quickly spread over Twitter, “This is a one-catcher league.” The effect quickly kicked in and the catchers starting plummeting. I’m a little disappointed this had to spread like a juicy rumor. I’d have expected everyone to know this going in.
I also suspect that many folks were worried the rules allowed for five reserve spots and no recourse for injured players. I believe this is how NFBC leagues and Fantrax leagues that allow for transactions operate (e.g. NFBC Main Event). I don’t have hard evidence to support this claim, but it just seemed like injured players like Michael Brantley, Michael Conforto, Jimmy Nelson, and Alex Reyes were going later than they should have been. My guess is they’d have been pushed up draft boards aggressively had everyone known this.
Small tip here. I don’t mind pushing up these injured players when you have a realistic way of replacing them that won’t burden you (force you to keep dead weight on your roster). Not only do you secure a talented player at a discount, you get the added benefit of being able to take chances on the waiver wire early in the season, when the odds are higher that you’ll be able to find a hidden gem.
My takeaway here is to not take anything in the rules for granted. Comb over them. Think about what the wrinkles in the rules might allow or incentivize you to do. Tailor your rankings and calculate your dollar values with these rules in mind. And don’t assume your enemies are doing the same. This can be an edge.
#2 – Use Dollar Values Tailored to Those League Rules to Make Decisions
My stance on this is simple and straightforward. If you’re not drafting with a set of projection-based dollar values in mind, you can do better.
I don’t care if you calculate them yourself, if you use the Fangraphs auction value calculator or the Rotowire custom dollar values, or if you buy a piece of software that does it for you… You’re not optimizing your chances of winning if you’re not drafting from values. You need a framework for comparing two hitters to each other, for comparing a hitter to a pitcher, and for making educated decisions. This is what dollar values do! Without dollar values, you’re being subjective. You’re letting biases creep into your decision making.
I don’t know exactly how every analyst drafts, but based on following folks on Twitter, reading certain sites, and discussions I’ve had with people, I’m pretty certain these folks all do value-based drafting:
In this post I’m going to put a slight twist on the Draft Kings CSV salary file import we discussed recently and show you how to import the data into an “Excel table” (or sometimes referred to as an Excel structured reference).
If you’ve followed any of my previous “how to” sets, you know I’m a big proponent of using these Excel tables. They give a number of benefits:
Efficiency – When you add a formula to a cell, Excel automatically copies that same formula to all other rows in the table. No more copying and pasting and scrolling around to copy your formulas.
Consistency – Reduces the likelihood of an error in your spreadsheet by making sure formulas in a column are identical.
Easier to Build Formulas – Your table becomes part of Excel’s reference system giving you useful type ahead features
More Reliable Formulas – Because of the naming and reference system, formulas can better adjust when rows/columns are added or deleted. Ever had a VLOOKUP formula fall apart after you added a column to your spreadsheet? Or how do you think your spreadsheet will respond when you import a large list of players for a big slate of games and the next day you play a small slate of afternoon games? Setting the range of salaries as an Excel table allow formulas to adjust automatically.
Meaningful Formulas– Structured reference formulas inherently have more meaning to them than standard formulas not using structured references. Look at these two examples…
While the first formula is shorter in length, it’s also shorter on meaning. You can’t look at the formula and easily determine its purpose. You can easily look at the second formula to see it’s trying to locate the PLAYERID in the PLAYERIDMAP table and return the FIRSTNAME of the player.
I think this is a HUGE benefit…
Is This Really Necessary?
Necessary? Probably not. An improvement? I think so. Since discovering Excel’s structured reference system, I’ve been using it on all my spreadsheets. I was excited to find a way to do this while importing data from an outside source. I didn’t know it was possible… I just wish we could get it to work with a web query too!
Step-By-Step Instructions
Here are instructions to bring in a Draft Kings or FanDuel CSV salary listing into an Excel file as a table. I use FanDuel in the example, but this can just as easily be performed with a Draft Kings CSV export.
Step
Description
1.
Log into your FanDuel account and download the CSV relating to the contest you wish to enter.
To do this, choose the contest you wish to enter. After identifying the contest, click the “Enter” button.
Once the contest loads, scroll to the bottom of the player salary list and click the link to “Download player list”.
The file you download will have a unique name. Recall from our previous post on using CSV files that we will be better off to change this to a more generic name, like “FanDuel.csv”. We can then use that generic name going forward and instruct Excel to import “FanDuel.csv” each time it opens. Instead of using the unique name provided by FanDuel, rename the file to a more generic name like “FanDuel.csv”.
By saving the file in the same spot and using the same name each time, Excel can seamlessly open and update the salary information with us not having to perform the CSV import each time.
So, after you have renamed it, save your “FanDuel.csv” file somewhere you don’t mind it residing in the future.
2.
Start a new Excel file or open the file you wish to add the FanDuel salary list to.
On Excel’s Data tab, click the “Get External Data From Text” button.
Then browse to and select your “FanDuel.csv” file. Then hit “Import”.
3.
At this point, Excel’s “Text Import Wizard” will open, asking you which type of file you’re importing. Choose the “Delimited” option and be sure to check the “My data has headers” box.
At step 2 of the import wizard, check the “Comma” delimiter box and uncheck any others. Click “Next”.
No changes are necessary at step 3. Just click “Finish”.
4.
This is where we diverge from the previous instructions. To format the imported data as an Excel table, check the “Add this data to the Data Model” box (other options on this screen will be grayed out until you check that option). Then ensure the “Table” radio button is selected under the “Select how you want to view this data in your workbook” area.
Click the “Properties…” button.
5.
In the past, I’ve suggested you check the “Refresh data when opening the file box” at this point. But don’t do that yet!
When I check that box at this point, my Excel file gets an error each time I open it. I get the sense the connection is still working, but the error bothers me. In researching the error, it seems others have experienced the same thing. The simple workaround to the error is to not check that box now, and just come back and check it later in the process.
I would recommend unchecking the “Prompt for file name on refresh box”.
Click “OK” to close the “Connection Properties” settings. Then click “OK” to close the “Import Data” settings.
6.
Your import should be complete! You’ll know that Excel formatted your data as a table if it’s somehow shaded with alternating colors.
You can change the colors under the “Table Tools Design” tab that should appear on the Excel ribbon when you click within the table.
7.
After the import is done and you’re satisfied with the color, go to Excel’s “Data” tab and click on the “Connections” button.
In the list of “Workbook Connections” that loads, choose your FanDuel connection and hit the “Properties…” button.
Now check the “Refresh data when opening the file” option that we purposely held off on earlier.
8.
To test the connection, close your Excel file. Then browse to and open the “FanDuel.csv” file.
Make an obvious edit to a player’s salary (for example, change Clayton Kerhsaw’s salary to “99999”), save your changes, and close the CSV file.
Note, your CSV file may open in Excel. You can still edit a player’s salary. When you go to save the file, you’ll get a series of annoying messages about “Do you want to keep using the CSV format?”. Just be sure you’ve saved the file and say “Yes” to those questions. You’ll get prompted with the same set of questions when you close the CSV file.
9.
Now open your Excel file and verify that the salary change you made flows through. You might first get a security warning from Excel that data connections have been disabled. Click the “Enable Content” button and watch the data below update.
My data files sometime import in a strange order. You may have to use the “Salary” drop down menu to sort by salary in descending order (to see Kershaw at the top).
Changing the Name of a Table
Now that you’ve created an Excel table, you an edit its name and other properties on the “Table Tools” tab. This tab is not always visible but should appear when you select a cell within the table.
Once you’ve selected the “Table Tools” tab of the ribbon, you can change the name of the table under the “Properties” icon set all the way to the left of the tab. Remember, a great deal of the value from using structured references is the ability to use type ahead formula building and to have meaning in your formulas. So avoid names like “Table1” and go for things like “FanDuel_Salaries” or “Table_FanDuel”.
Using Type Ahead in Formulas
Once you’ve set up a table, the type ahead features immediately activate with no effort needed on your part. To see the type ahead in action, just start by typing the name of your table in a formula.
You can see in the image below that just typing “Ta” (for “Table_FanDuel”) pulls up the table. You can then use your mouse to double-click on one of the items in the list or use your arrow keys to select one and then hit the “Tab” key to select the highlighted item.
Once you have completed adding the table name, an open bracket (“[“) will then present you with a list of field names, all of which you can cycle through with the up and down arrrow keys and then hit Tab to select a column/field.
Wrapping Up
A little bit of a personal story here. I occasionally give Excel trainings at work to people that know their way around a spreadsheet pretty well. Most could even rattle off a VLOOKUP formula without much thought. I show them Excel tables and structured references and everyone’s eyes glaze over and they look like a bunch of deer in headlights.
I get it. The structured reference thing is new. If you already know how to do a VLOOKUP it’s hard to see the value in changing. Why take the time to do this?
Keep in mind that I try to design spreadsheets that will last for a long time and be reusable. At least for one season and possibly into future seasons. You could easily just get caught in a cycle of whipping up an inferior spreadsheet each time you want to create a lineup. But I would rather invest the time to build a long-term tool on a strong foundation. This way I can save time each night by having a prebuilt tool and because it’s built on a strong foundation I can continue to add new data, projections, and features over time.
And don’t you just love the pretty alternating row colors????
The SFBB way is all about doing things yourself, building things the right way, and continually improving and learning new things. So take the time to play around with structured references and learn the language.
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