2012 Yahoo Fantasy Baseball - SDMB Big League

The Game Room
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It’s that time of year again folks…

Eli Manning has finished bitch-slapping Mr. Bundchen, Tiger is still declawed, the NHL is apparently playing pick-up games, and the biggest story in the NBA is a freaking Harvard grad.

So, it’s time to talk baseball!

This is the tenth year of the SDMB Big League, which I’ve been running for the last several years because I’m just an amazing leader of men (and one woman). Or it could just be because it’s easy for me to renew the league as last year’s commish, I dunno…
We’ve had a core of 12 or so that have been playing for most of those years, and a few others who have been constant for the last several years, so this is a pretty serious league.

Last year saw Munch break Kiros’s three year run as champion, in a fairly convincing win over second-place rackensack.

But it’s a new year, and we’re ready for a new champion, at least I hope so.

I’ve renewed the league, and sent out invites to everyone who was in it last year. But, since we had only 18 managers last year and the league can take up to 20, I wanted to get the call out for new owners if there is any interest. Plus, Kiros is probably so embarrassed by his (and the Red Sox’s) finish last year that he won’t show up again (just kidding, of course - but there may be some attrition from last year so we’re always looking for new managers). Post in this thread or PM me if you are interested, and once I get a handle on the number of returnees, I’ll send out the league info to newcomers.

Details of the league, copied from last year’s thread:

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.

No keepers.

Draft time set for Monday, March 26, 9:30PM Eastern. Subject to change if there is popular demand.

Good luck all!

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Token woman signing in!

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I’m back in – after having my most successful season in years despite (or more likely because of) missing the draft and having my team drafted by computer, I couldn’t drop out now. With nearly 40 days to go before the draft, I should have plenty of time to get my act together and figure out what I want to do in the draft. Which means I’ll probably be scrambling to pull it together at the last possible minute again as usual. At least I have a better chance of making the draft this year – last year a delayed flight home on Thursday night kept me from being there, but on Monday nights I’m usually either at home or already wherever I’m going to be for the week.

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I remember that day after the draft last year. I was utterly disgusted with the geriatric group I had compiled, thinking how well they would have competed if I had just completed a 2004 sim draft. Ah - here’s my team draft recap. And the most hilarious comment I think I’ve ever made in a fantasy thread is right there at the top:

:eek:
I mean, not only did I draft a bunch of old players, I drafted roughly 15 firstbasemen/DHs. WTF was I thinking?

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Whatever it was, I’m going to try to use the same strategy this year. :slight_smile:

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Well, I won because I made some REALLY beneficial trades. And I checked at the end of the year - every trade I made was a net gain for both teams, so I wasn’t fleecing people (I hate doing that - it hurts my chances of making another trade down the line). With 18 teams, I was really surprised at how few trades there were. There are always surplus bench players on people’s teams, and yet people are always willing to just get a platoon player out of the free agents rather than make a mutally beneficial trade with someone who has an extra 2B or whatever. Or at the very worst, let their DL player ride on their starting roster.

I really encourage people to use the Trading Block feature available, and post on the league board (and here) when they need to fill a roster hole. You can’t make the best trade possible without comparing offers from multiple teams.

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If youse need me, I’m interested in playing

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First off, I’m amazed I still remembered my password.

Secondly, I’m amazed it works.

Thirdly, as I said on the league page, I’m going to actually prep for this like I haven’t in a while.

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I’ve sort of given up on trying to make trades in this league. Part of it is the depth of the league – the talent is spread so thin that it’s really tough to find the magic combination of a player on another team who fills a hole for you and is expendable for them, and a player on your team you’re willing to part with. I know that I’m reluctant to let even marginally productive players go when I can’t readily find any viable replacement. And it always seems like once I’ve spent hours coming up with what seems like a win-win trade offer (or at least a starting offer that I’d potentially be willing to sweeten somewhat after a little negotiation), the other party usually turns it down cold, without even a counter-offer, for reasons that often have little or nothing to do with the specific merits of the deal – doesn’t fit with the strategy they’re following, they’re convinced that someone else on their roster is going to tank eventually and they can’t risk giving up their potential replacement, etc. Not saying that they aren’t justified, just that what makes sense to me in the abstract rarely seems to for the other party, for whatever reason.

Also, given that not everyone checks in every day, it can take several days to even get a response, so that even if they accept the deal, by the time the waiting period for the trade to be processed is over a week or more may have gone by without resolving whatever problem you’re trying to address with the trade. For any given problem with my roster, I’ve concluded that in general I’m better off with even a questionable solution off the waiver wire than by leaving the gap unplugged for a couple of weeks while I fruitlessly try to convince someone else to part with a better solution, or by creating new and bigger problems for myself by giving up too much in the interest of getting a deal done.

Apparently others feel the same (either that or everyone’s convinced my entire roster sucks, which hasn’t been an bad conclusion in past years), since I rarely receive any trade offers from other managers – as few as I initiate, I probably start twice as many or more than I receive.

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Signed up and ready for my yearly ass-beating.

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I look forward to playing again

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I’m a West Coaster, but I’m not opposed to moving the draft time up. If I remember from last year, the draft went close to 2 hours.

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I’m east coast, but still prefer the later time. If I’m home, i can get the wife and kids off to bed and have the time free. Earlier I feel like I’m cutting into the relatively scant time I spend with them, being on the road and working so much. And if I’m on the road in a hotel someplace, it really doesn’t matter.

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I’m signed up. Hope none of you have any hopes for the 9th place finish in this league, because I’m a virtual lock for it year in and year out.

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I dream of finishing 9th one year.

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Would anyone in here be interested in an auction league this year?

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Would love to try one. No idea how to go about the prep work, but I’d love to try.

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I’d be interested.

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If you’re interested, PM me for details for signing up. Draft will be March 11 at 8pm EST. If people want it later, it will have to be during the week.

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Checking in, and making my annual call for dumping holds as a stat. I understand the desire to reward having quality relievers, but holds does an even worse job of it then saves does for closers.

I also find my performance in this league tends to depends more on how active I am in setting my lineup than my drafting prowess. If people agree that this is an issue we can consider weekly lineups instead of daily, stricter inning limits, or more rate stats.

The problem for me is that I don’t really have any running dialogue with the rest of members. So when I look to make trades, I have no idea how much people are valued. So I feel like I’m flying completely blind in making offers, and as mentioned, very often there is absolutely no feedback beyond a rejection to help with this issue.