2011 Yahoo Fantasy Baseball - SDMB Big League

The Game Room
1

Or, as Winnowill called it, the elephant.

It’s that time of year again - the Super Bowl is over, no-one still cares about the NHL, and the ESPN talking heads are blabbing on and on about the NBA trade deadline. So it must mean it’s time for Yahoo to open up their Fantasy Baseball!

(Speaking of the NBA… does anybody but me get Carmelo Anthony and Carmelo Martinez mixed up? No? OK, it’s just me.)

So this will mark year 9 of the big SDMB league (there may have been a tenth, but it was before my time). The league has some non-standard settings (see below for more on that) and can have as many as 20 owners (we’ve varied from 16-20 over the last three years). We’ve had a core of 12 or so that have been in for the long haul.

I’ve set up the league, and sent out invites to those who participated last year. But there’s bound to be several spots open for new people, so if you’re interested, speak up here and/or drop me a PM.
Plus, in a secret ballot held amongst the league veterans, we’ve voted unanimously to kick Kiros out of the league for having the nerve to win three years running, so that’s another opening (I kid, I kid).

Details:
For those new to this league - besides trying for a lot of depth, we use some non-standard settings.

The settings are:
Roster Positions: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, IF, LF, CF, RF, OF, Util, SP, SP, RP, RP, P, P, P, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, DL, DL
Stat Categories: R, HR, RBI, SB, OBP, SLG, W, SV, K, HLD, ERA, WHIP

So a bit different from standard Yahoo - deeper rosters, with the IF and OF positions, plus the added twist of LF/CF/RF instead of generic outfield.
And then in stat categories we use OBP and SLG instead of average, and we add Holds to the standard five for pitchers.
Max Games Played 162, Max innings 1300.

Draft time set for Thursday, March 24th, 10PM EST.

Last year’s thread - link at the end of it to the draft recap thread.

Only six weeks till draft day - start your planning!

2

The elephant returns! Woo-hoo!

I have paid no attention to anything that has happened during the offseason. For all I know, Hank Aaron has come out of retirement and signed with the A’s.

3

Marlins, actually.

Point of discussion: as I recall, deep in the mists of time, we started using OBP and SLG because Yahoo wouldn’t allow us to use OPS, which is why we added holds. Since Yahoo allows the use of OPS, should we dump holds and go back to a 5x5 league?

My argument in favor of dropping holds is that it’s so arbitrary. There seems to be little rhyme or reason for when a reliever picks up a hold. I understand the need to make middle relievers worth something because the league is so deep, but there has to be a better way than this.

If I’m on an island on this one, I’ll shut up and draft my setup guys and lefty specialists like everyone else. Just thought I’d bring it up.

4

I’d actually argue we should keep holds just because I like having OBP and SLG separate.

5

I like the six categories - with a ton of teams, it really ramps up (read: artificially inflates) the roto score. Two years ago I broke 200 points after the ASG (then immediately went into a 3-spot tailspin starting in August), and it was nerdily exciting.

I’m team Don’t Ask, Dotel, and ready to kick everyone’s ass.

6

I’m fine with 6-6 or 6-5 (more hitters, more stats for them), but I really wish we wouldn’t use holds. It is just a terrible stat and not fun to root for (come on he got an out, take him out of the game…)

7

I like holds, especially in this league, as deep as it usually is. It DOES mean that middle relief gets a more-prominent role than usual, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It also means that picking up a closer off the waiver wire is almost impossible, but that just means you have to use more strategy in your drafting and trading.

8

The more important thing about 6x6 for me is that by counting both OBP and SLG, you’re adding two stats that are a little more indicative of actual offense performance rather than just one, and you’re slightly devaluing the stolen bases and saves of the world. Not that it matters all that much anyways, since in fantasy baseball it’s really more of a game balance thing than a reflect the real world thing. Also, the increase in the size of the effective player pool.

If you dumped holds you’d also want to drop the IP cap by 50, and get rid of… probably just one P spot, but maybe one P and one bench. Overall I think I like staying with the 6x6 though. The balance of those scoring categories plus those roster slots has worked out pretty well over the years. Of course, I might be a little bit biased… :smiley:

P.S. Try not to let me draft the better part of the AL MVP and CY ballots this year, mm’kay?

9

I don’t mind stats that encourage relievers, but I’d rather us use something that rewards good relievers rather than ones the manager happens to use in the late innings for short stints. Really any rate stats like k rate or k/bb rate will reward good relievers over average starters.

10

Of course. Because that strategy has, apparently, served you so poorly in the past. :stuck_out_tongue:

11

I would like in if you have an extra spot

12

I sm in as of this morning as the Tazmanian Devils.

13

Hey this will be fun!

I buy Johnny Banana for 5 bucks!! Do we have a deal??

14

Yes, we all see you there. Good work.

15

Grab your Ankiels is back and ready to dominate the second division again.

16

I’m interested if there are any open spots.

17

Are we at the point yet where we can get spots out for the new people who were interested? We do always have a couple of spots, and it’s better to do it earlier rather than scrambling at the last minute.

18

Yeah, we’re there… when I looked a couple of days ago, I think the only longtimer missing was Omniscient.
I’ll get messages out to those who have expressed interest sometime soon - by the end of the weekend at the latest.

19

OK, I’ve sent out PMs to those who have expressed interest, and nudged a few who haven’t joined yet (or said they did and didn’t).

But we’ve still got room - anyone interested, speak up here or PM me!

BTW - I also changed the league name to “Fred Wilpon’s Hedge Fund”. Best I could come up with…

20

I’m in.