A few days ago Paul from fantasybaseballguy.com forwarded the 2008 LIMA plan for pitchers to me. I personally have never heard of this, but I think it is a solid source for selecting pitchers in the middle to late rounds of the draft. Paul does a fantastic job explaining the plan, and you can view that here:

The 2008 LIMA Plan

The basic idea of the plan is to identify mid-draft bargains that will allow your team’s pitching staff to be successful. Here is the criteria used to identify the pitchers:

• K/BB ratio of 2.0 or better : K/BB Ratio = K/BB
• HR/9 of 1.0 or less : (HR/IP) *9
• K/9 ratio of 6.0 or better : K/9 Ratio = (K/IP) * 9 (used mainly in 4×4 leagues — 5×5 may need to push to 7 in order to compete in the K’s category)

Here is the PDF file that Paul created: 2008 Lima Plan

I think you will be surprised at some of the names that make the list. Most of the pitchers are the studs that everyone tries to go after at some point in the draft. I was also very interested in the reliever pitchers that are listed, especially the middle relievers. I personally think that having 1-2 outstanding middle relievers can help a team substantially in a roto style league.

Take a look at Paul’s work, and be sure that you drop him a line to thank him for the great information.