What does it mean when some of these baseball cheat sheets show a negative (-) dollar value for a player? For instance, in one of the rankings for 1B Players, Todd Helton had an amount of -$5.
Obviously no one is going to bid in negative amounts.. and that player (if you choose to pick him up) has to cost at least $1. Can someone explain to me?
For example, if there are going to be 40 corner infielders drafted in your league, the 40th best one is worth $1. Your list is saying that Helton is worth less than this "baseline" player, and shouldn't be drafted.
In theory, you should be buying players for less than their value on your cheat sheet (though in practice, many stars will go for much more, so you buy some of them at cost or a little above, then get your bargains with the mid-tier guys.)
Its basically what UMTerp said, but it acts like the WAR stat. The best way to rank relative values would be to rank the worst player as 1, and build off that. However, to make the players fit a standard 260 budget, you start the scale at $1 as a replacement level player. If you didn't rate players below 1, there would be no differentiation between the 20th best and 40th best player at a position.
Roto Baseball: Auction-Style Question