Yeah, I’m still here. I’m not really that concerned about the roster size one way or the other.
Shall we play a game?
Well, I’m going to go ahead and post the sign up info. Was afraid we’d have a glut of people wanting to get in this year and we’d be better off doing it via email, but it seems like we’re not going to lock out any of the veterans this way. Without further ado, here we go:
The Mark Grace Slump-busters
League ID: 59051
Password: BALCO
Live Draft: Thu Mar 31 9:00pm CST
Currently I’ve got it capped at 16 teams. I’ll open up extra slots if it fills up quickly to get new people in. The settings are pretty much still the default, and I’ll edit them to reflect our preferences sometime soon. Afterwards we can talk out any personal preferences.
I call dibs on Giambi!
[sub]Yes, I mean Jeremy[/sub]
I’m in!
Ah yes, Jeremy Giambi. The Chuck Cunningham of MLB. Went out to play one night and was never seen again.
I’m in! Woohoo!!!
We’re up to 10 so far. I don’t know what all the usernames are associated with the teams, so if you’re aware of anyone who expresed an interest but hasn’t been seen recently, shoot them a note.
What veterans are we missing?
I’m in.
I guess I’m sort of perverse in my fondness for really deep leagues – sure, everybody would love to have 9 all-stars in their starting lineup, but for me a lot of the fun is the challenge of dealing with injuries, slumps, etc. in managing a team through the whole season, having to find the role players and utility guys who can really make a a difference, and all that, just like the real teams do. I probably put too much emphasis in my player selections on positional flexibility, but I do get a kick out of having a guy stashed on my bench who can step in to a starting lineup slot at a position other than his main one and contribute. And after all, at just barely more than half the number of teams in MLB in a fantasy league, with a slightly smaller roster, it’s not that hard to at least field a team made up entirely of major league regulars, even if some of them are below average. I hate being in a ten or twelve team league with small rosters where everytime somebody (other than perhaps a catcher) goes down, his owner just goes out to the free agent pool and grabs and equivalent or near-equivalent player. Then it really does come down to whose superstars happen to be having career years.
But that’s just me.
I find this funny, I agree with the overall emotion on this, but I have a completely different rationalization that disagrees with yours. I think it’s safe to say that having a 10-12 team league with tons of quality free agents isn’t as much fun for the more cerebral types like we seem to have here. It negates the draft in large part, and makes the breakout free agent pick up in May the tide turner. However, I feel like your preference for a really deep league actual creates a situation where the superstars decide the league. When there’s basically no one on the free agent wire that qualifies as an adequate fantasy starter, and many teams are saddled starting a handful of players that REALLY drag down rate stats it overly biases the game. That, to me, is when a league is really favoring the Bonds and Randy Johnson types. If Bonds accounts for more than 40% of a few statistical categories, thats not very balanced or realistic to me.
Because of that, I think finding a sweet spot in the middle is better. something in the 16-18 team range with benches on the avrage to small side.
Also, I think that it’s fair to say that we have more than a “slightly” larger roster. when you factor in that there’s usually something like 12/7 batter/pitchers starting and another 8-10 on the bench, thats quite alot more than the number of regulars on a typical MLB roster, especially considering that Rotiserie doesn’t compare well to head-to-head IRL games. 18 teams with 27 or so players is close match with the 32 teams with 18 or so regular players in the MLB. Considering most every player in fantasy leagues effect your stat rankings, I think it’s safe to say that a really deep league presents problems.
Of course, what people find fun is subjective. Me personally, I felt that last year’s league leaders were overly helped by a few superstars while anyone with injuries was effectivly out of the hunt, period. A little smaller league I think balances things a bit.
Well, I did say that I guessed I was being sort of perverse.
I disagree, Omni. Sure, there was a team last year ravaged by injuries that didn’t have a chance. But other injuries could be overcome if you were willing to take some risks.
I also think that the league leaders weren’t the ones who were just healthy, they were the ones who both drafted well and used the FA market to their advantage. No way could I have finished #2 without some help from the FA market and deep drafting - Casey Blake and Cliff Lee being the perfect examples for my team.
And for those new to the league, there is a great article up over on espn.com that highlights good draft strategies that rookies would be well served to take a gander at. It’s an Insider jobber, though.
And then there was my team, which was in the top 5 only because I drafted Scott Rolen just in time for him to have a ridiculous season batting behind Walker, Edmonds and Pujols.
This year, I’m thinking about actually drafting more than one pitcher. Who knows?
More than 1 pitcher? That’s crazy talk, and you know it! 3B went pretty quickly last year, didn’t it? I think I drafted 3rd, and went with Beltran and Chavez in 1 and 2.
So, let’s do four leagues this year - an 8 team league, a 12 team league, a 16 team league and a 20 team league. We’ll be able to experience the pros and cons of different settings, and develop strategies for each!
only half kidding
I signed up as the Isotopes. I’m in 4 leagues. Hopefully I can do good in one of them.
I’m with Munch here - I tend to think the teams that did the best were the ones that got good/very good years from as many different people as possible. When I try to look at why I won objectively, I tend to think it was the depth picks in the draft and the depth pickups that did it for me - drafting Konerko/C. Guillen/Kolb, trading for Sabathia, picking up Holliday, Wright, and C. Cordero as the year went on.
My team was maybe the most superstar-bereft - my first two picks were Soriano and Renteria, who while they both had very good years, were nowhere near as singularly dominant as Pujols, Bonds, etc etc. My biggest superstar was probably Miguel Cabrera, who I picked up in the 8th round or something silly like that, and who had 3B eligibility to boot so it let me get around the early 3B glut that Munch mentioned. I was just at least decent top to bottom, and my serious injuries were mostly limited (Peavy in the middle of the year, Guillen at the end, rotating my outfielders on and off the 15-day DL in the middle… but no losing Cabrera for half the year or anything of the sort).
We have 12 people already after just a few days… we going to settle down at 18 to keep things the same? I am Socks Repeating, this year, btw.
Yes, that is just you. 
Looking for a few dedicated souls.
And everyone else, remember that this league has LF, CF and RF instead of just 3 OF positions. Predraft accordingly.
Everyone getting excited yet?
Just wanted to provide a little bit of a bump as to not get totally overshadowed by March Madness.
[sub]there is going to be an SDMB NCAA bracket league, right?[/sub]
We’re at 15 teams now. The league is set at 16, but if anyone pipes up wanting to join and it’s full, i’ll up it to 18 teams.
In short, if you stil want to play there’s time and space. If you’re not able to get in, email me and I’ll adjust the max teams. I’ll assign the official league settings sometime early next week. I’ll post them here, we’ll have a week to debate any changes, then I’ll make them final to give everyone a full week to predraft without any changes in settings. Sound good?
One last thing, as posted in the league page, I’m asking everyone signed up to post their team name here in this thread. I’ll pull together a team/owner roster and draft order when I set the final league settings.