I’m in Zev Steinhart’s keeper league again this year. I only have enough time and brainpower to be in one league at a time.
Speaking of which, Zev, have you set up the league on Yahoo! yet?
I’d love to join again. This time I’ll try to make the draft, which turns out to be rather important.
thanks.
Lamar - Zev’s league is up and going on Yahoo - don’t know why you didn’t get the email - I just forwarded you the league number and password via email in case Zev doesn’t see this.
Munch - you left out Mullinator - I know, it’s hard to keep all those Cub fans separate.
And former member Winnowill wants in as well, I’ll forward her the info when it is set.
I think I’m going to sit this year out. I never seem to stick with it as well as I should, so I’m not going to cheat the rest of you.
I’ve never played the baseball version. In Western Pennsylvania there are no major league teams to follow.*
Can someone give me a quick overview of fantasy baseball? I have a basic idea, but haven’t researched the specifics. I would like to give it a try.
*The Pirates are a minor-league club masquerading as a major-league team. As sonn as a player is developed, he is sold in a deal of questionable worth.
Well, I can answer yes to every question except #2, so I hope I still qualify. I’d love to play.
Oh ya. The draft time listed (March 31st, 9:00pm CDT) is perfect for me here in Japan.
Check out this thread:
If you have any further questions, let us know. These leagues will be roto, though.
Any more interested Dopers?
I say we set a deadline, and if we don’t get enough, we go with a super-large league like last year and open up registration.
Also, what categories is everyone up for? We used OPS and Total Bases last year in addition to the regular 5x5. I like the inclusion of On Base Percentage in there, but can be swayed regarding Slugging. TB seems to favor the inactive teams, which isn’t quite fair, but I don’t see many options. K:BB? Holds? Holds may be a good way to go, opening up middle relievers in such a deep league.
Didn’t we use OBP and SLG instead of Batting Average? Or I may be confusing this with another league…
My vote would be 6x6: HR, R, RBI, SB, OBP, SLG for hitters, W, Sv, K, ERA, WHIP and Holds for pitchers. If not holds, Total Bases Allowed or maybe K/BB ratio.
I’m thinking that Munch meant to say OBP and slugging. I like having them both in there.
Pitching-wise, the only thing that would trouble me about holds or K/BB is that there’s no reward for IP. That means if I punted on wins completely and drafted nothing but closers and setup men, I could dominate the majority of the categories. I guess that goes for last year with total bases, too. Looking at the Yahoo list, I keep coming back to outs for some reason. That’d be an interesting statistic to work with, although it seems like we’d have to have a 7X7 to do it. R, HR, SB, RBI, OBP, SLG, H, and W, SV, K, ERA, WHIP, OUTS, K/BB? That’s kind of ridiculous I guess.
I see what you’re saying JC. But the problem with outs is that it simply comes down to who can put up the best last day of pitching (assuming there’s an innings limit - which I feel is necessary). Looking at the category options for pitchers, we have:
Appearances
Games Started
IP
Wins
Losses
CG
Shut Outs
Saves
Outs
Hits
Total Batters Faced
Runs
ER
Home Runs
Walks
Int. Walks
Hit Batsmen
Strikeouts
WP
Balks
Stolen Bases Allowed
GIDP
Save Opps
Holds
TB
ERA
WHIP
K:BB
K/9
I don’t want to go with absurd categories like Games Started or GIDP, that’s be silly. But you do have a point. Maybe go with the traditional 5, and have OPS (not OBP) instead of AVG?
Well, I don’t know how much of a winning strategy that would be. You’d be guaranteed minimum points in W and K, and let’s assume you do get maximum points in Saves and Holds (or TBA). That just makes you average. And (WAG here) I’d think that middle releivers aren’t exactly going to dominate in ERA and WHIP…
But it’s an interesting thought.
I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I like having two rate stats for hitters and two for pitchers, rather than the standard 5x5 setup. But, as I’m also sure I’ve said before, I’m game for anything.
Looking at Munch’s list makes me want to come up with the most ridiculous 5x5 league, using Yahoo’s choices… for pitchers, how about CG, Intentional BB, Balks, GIDP and Save Opps?
Good choices, but I think Shutouts are far more ridiculous than Complete Games. You could dominate with just having Livan on your squad!
As for absurd hitting categories, I’d say: GIDP, HBP, Games Played, Caught Stealing and Putouts.
I’d think that’s exactly what they’d dominate in. Er, I think it is exactly that in which they’d dominate, if you drafted towards that strategy. If you put together a staff of the Ray Kings, Tom Gordons, K-Rod, Mota when he was a setup man, and similar high-powered guys who work an inning or less at a time, plus decent closers, you might reasonably expect to have a sub 1.00 WHIP for your entire staff. Of course it would take an absolute madman to come anywhere near the innings limits, and if there are separate limits for starters and relievers the whole thing goes out the window. I wasn’t all that serious about the idea; I’d prefer to do the 5X5 league Munch suggests or whatever it was we did last year.
As far as the Bizarro League, I wouldn’t mind doing a 5X5 league with nothing but negative stats. Lock the rosters after the draft, and give people credit for appearing and performing poorly. Yahoo doesn’t let you do that, though, do they? The only way to do it would be to pretend last place was first place.
Man, I hate my travel schedule these days. I don’t get to check in here for a while and see what I miss? Anyway, I’m definitely interested again this year. And I too liked the depth of our league last year. I also made my feelings about the various statistical categories pretty clear in last year’s threads before setting up the league, so I won’t rehash those arguments here. FWIW, last year we did a 6x6, with R, HR, SB, TB, OBP and SLG, and W, Sv, K, TBA, ERA, and WHIP. In brief, while I like having 6 categories on each side, so that you have a harder time winning by just dominating a few categories and you need more balance, I didn’t like the way either TB or TBA actually worked out.
it was R/HR/RBI/SB/OBP/SLG, and the six pitching categories rackensack mentioned. I think I mentioned how I felt about how TB in pitching worked out, or didn’t work out as the case may be. My opinion would be either drop TB and do OPS as one stat on the offensive side, or (preferably) find another counting stat where more is better to put on the pitching side. I think four counting stats and two ratios on each side worked fine, and the problem was only because of a counting stat where less is better (I have had the same experience in the past in roto basketball leagues using turnovers or personal fouls, actually). I’d love something to do with walks, but straight BB is out for the reason I just mentioned, and K/BB is too strikeout dependant when we already have a K category. I want something that rewards a pitcher who may not get many strikeouts but also just plain doesn’t walk anyone. Outs could be interesting, but that’s pretty much just IP… so it would be ‘whomever can get closest to the IP limit without blowing their other categories’, or the exact opposite of TB last year 
At gunpoint, I’d probably be forced to say holds as the sixth category for pitchers, as the one I dislike the least.
Agreed. I did 6x6 last year with OPS and holds in addition to the standard 5. It worked ok, but there really isn’t a 6th good pitching category. I don’t understand what’s wrong with 5x5. How is the league set up? 23 man starting lineup?
We started C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, IF, LF, CF, RF, Util (did we have a generic OF position as well?), and the Yahoo standard pitching spots (2 SPs, 2 RPs, 3 Ps, I believe). 5 bench spots for a 25-man roster. I think.
As for my preference this year, I say we go 5x5, but use either OBP or OPS instead of AVG.
Aye, we did have a generic outfield position as well. The combination of 18 teams and 11 starting offensive positions put a HUGE premium on offensive depth. 11 position players and seven pitching spots comes to 18, and seven bench to bring the total roster to 25 sounds about right for what we had.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with 5x5, but 4x4, 5x5, and 6x6 all put the emphasis slightly on different things.
Either 5x5 with OPS instead of BA, or 6x6 with OBP/SLG and no BA and then holds as the sixth pitching is fine with me. I tend to think 6x6 might be better if we end up with another big league like last year, and 5x5 would be better if we’re down in the 12ish range.