Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

I'm already in.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Dom is on vacation and will be signing up once he gets home.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Bump! Hopefully we can get the other two signed up soon; i'd like to know my draft position a little before the draft.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

If I remember reading correctly, we won't find out until approximately 30 minutes prior. Boo.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Maybe we are rolling with 10?

League ID#: 39618
League Name: Cigar Asylum 2012
Password: cigars
Season Type: Full
Draft Type: Live Standard Draft
Draft Time: Sun Mar 25 5:15pm CDT [ Add to My Calendar ]
Live Draft Pick Time:
Max Teams: 10

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

I just changed the max teams thing to 12. My bad.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Oh no problem Scott! Have you heard from Dom?

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Mike, Dom needs to sign up in order for your son to sign up. He was going to sign up last night, maybe the max teams setting held him out, I don't know. I didn't get a pm from him.
Nothing like taking her right to the last second, it makes it more exciting. :D

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

You can set your line-ups a week ahead. That won't help with starting pitchers because teams only release starting pitcher info three days out.
There's a minimum number of innings (40) a team has to pitch or they forfeit their wins for the week. I always wondered if that means you'd lose all the stats from your pitchers, and it does not. It's just W's.
A guy could use all closer and middle relief and keep their era and whip down, win saves, and be in real good shape for the week if he didn't even pitch a starter, so I always wondered why that rule is even in place. But it is.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Dang Scott, the lengths you'll go to in order to keep from losing to me...:r

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

I even stayed home from Family Day after I lulled you into false security. I'm gonna go couch until it's time to kick your ass.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Guys, I'm going to have to finalize our team list in order for our draft to go off.
Since Mike's boy is covered and I can't get in touch with Dom, as much as it pains me I have to push the button.
Sorry!!!

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Word, let's do this!

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

I just locked the teams and started the draft.
It's a snaking randomized draft. The order is posted right now, so everyone can plan their strategy.
I got the first pick and 20th pick. As God is my witness, I didn't cheat. I just about puked when I saw I drew first pick, I've never drafted above third.
Suck it, Stephen.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

It's a good thing your family isn't going to be around to witness you taking a beating, son.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

I'm relieved. I draft right next to you so I have no worries about getting my players snaked from me.:tu

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Anyone wanna move up and let me move down? lol

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

I believe you, even if you did cheat by all means please take the first pick! :D

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

That's a painful, painful spot.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Who ya takin' Scott? :)

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

My money is on Andy Van Slyke.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Just got in from vacation
Trying to register, getting error message that the league is locked and I can't join.
Help please!

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Scott I still can't sign in son. I talked to Dom he might be trying now also.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

I think Scott already locked the league.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Oh well, guess I'm S.O.L.
Have fun boys, and remember to take it easy on Scott! :noon

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Sorry Dom and Mike. I had to lock the league so the draft would populate. If I didn't do it I'd have had to change the draft date.
Dom, Hugh has a league set up, too. I know they need bodies, hopefully you can help him out. :tu

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Thanks Scottie!
I'll head over to Hughs league
Like I said have fun boys!

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Good draft all! Too bad we had a couple guys miss out there but it should be a good year!

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Favorite pick (my team): Probably Ryan Roberts. Similar stats to Howie Kendrick (save 35 points in BA) and I got him 15 rounds later.

Least Favorite pick (my team): Without a doubt it was Daniel Hudson. I meant to select Aramis Ramirez but after moving Hudson to my que he was still highlighted when I hit the draft button.

Favorite pick (other team): David Ortiz (137th). Being able to get a guy who's going to hit at or around .300/30/100 in the 14th round? Crazy. I had him all queued up and ready to go, but was taken two spots before my pick.

Least Favorite pick (other team): Not counting the two closers that were draft who are on the shelf for the year (I STOLE him!), I'm going to have to go with Stephen Strasburg (42). In my opinion it's a culmination of things:

1. First three picks were already starting pitching (Verlander/Halladay/Haren)
2. There were still a couple of bats on the board that represented good value (Hamilton/Beltre/Wright) where Strasburg was selected
3. It's likely that Strasburg would've fallen to the team's next pick

It's not that I don't like Strasburg, I just don't think it was the best pick for this team at that time.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Stephen, I had 4 of your starting pitchers in my rotation last year at one time or another. I try to minimize my starting pitchers by using as few as possible through the week because they will blow the era and whip right out of the water and produce few K's per 9 innings.
I sacrifice W, CG, and SHO to take the other 7 categories in pitching by using closers and middle relief. Some weeks a middle relief guy comes in and blows up. That's the breaks, and it's a bad week.

My least favorite pick is Aramis Ramirez. He scares me.
My favorite picks were Granderson at 20 and Reyes at 21.
Kimbrel, Axford and Papelbon at 60, 61, and 80 made me smile. Putz at 120 shocked me. I never thought I'd grab a fourth closer.
I was bummed that I missed Michael Young. He played into my lineup heavily and I almost went after him earlier but he wasn't worth the weight where I'd have had to take him.
I got tons of power, which is what I was after, and even picked up some speed in Reyes, Granderson and Young. That's something I usually have to sacrifice.
I really couldn't be more pleased with my team.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Guys, check this.
It covers how week one will be scored.
Week One will run from March 28th to April 8th to cover the two games in Tokyo and the short week that starts the season on April 4.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

K/9 isn't a category in this league, Scott. Another thing to consider is that you sacrifice total outs when going reliever heavy, which IS a category in this league. The way the league is set up I really don't see an advantage to going reliever heavy. Also worth noting that the way the league is set up I don't really see an advantage to going starter heavy, either. That, and the way the league is set up the best you can hope for is a 50/50 split of starters/relievers.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

K's are, brother. I didn't mean to give the impression there was a k/9 category. My point was that middle relief and closers will yield far more k's than starters on a per inning average.

On the rest, we agree exactly. You can't go after all 20 categories on a regular basis or you end up mediocre in all of them.
The goal is to go .560. .500 will get you in the playoffs.
If I can regularly take 12 of 20, that's .600 ball. It's more than enough to win the season and get a shot at the playoffs. If I make it to the playoffs, it's a whole new season with a whole new cache of players either producing or not. Thats when a guy can make the changes he needs and watch daily matchups to get an edge.

Take a minute and break down what you're likely to get in each scenario. Reliever heavy, Closeer heavy, Starter heavy, Starter/middle relief heavy, etc.
I've found that it's best to go light on starters, normal on middle relief and heavy on closers. That's because I'll likely earn more than 5/10 categories per week, it's far easier to manage, and I can sit/swap out a starter who's blowing up.
I don't believe in a pitcher having a "bad game", for the most part. Seldom do they have one bad game, you can watch their stats and see something is wrong. I feel it's almost always injury. It doesn't take much of an injury to wreck mechanics because a guy will change his delivery to guard the injury, even if it's minor. Once he's gotten used to that different delivery, it takes hell for coaches to correct it, especially if they don't have enough accurate pre-analysis via film, slo-mo, etc. Most pitching coaches don't rely on computer-aided pitching analysis, they're old-school. That sets back and prolongs a guy's "bad game" syndrome for a good while till they retweak everything and get him back to where he started.
They'll push starting pitchers into the rotation forever. Middle relief and closers, they'll just sit them down and bring someone up, or whatever. They'll just keep his ass off the mound.
That's how I play it and a little of why. A guy can have just as much success with starting pitching/a little middle relief and no closers. I just feel it's more work and more risk. I've tried just about every combination and this one yields results for me.
The hitting side is tougher. I go with power-heavy, and those guys get hurt a lot. It makes things tough to fix if the injuries last and I don't have a comfortable margin.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

With five required starters though, you really can't go reliever heavy in this format (at least to where you have any sort of viable edge). That's all I'm saying, brother.:tu

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

They aren't required. You don't have to fill any spots any given night.
You'll see later that I'll only carry 1 or 2 bench bats and carry more middle relievers. That way I'll get just as many innings (or at least close to as many) as guys that are starter heavy. Enough so that I can compete for K's and W's and Outs. ERA, WHIP, L's, Saves and Relief Wins should already be bagged.
If I get five and the usually tie in SHO and CG, a 5-3-2 week is awesome. I'd take that every week all year, and it's very well within reason.
You'll see how the numbers mash out in a couple weeks. It's a great math game. But just like Fantasy football, you can have everything in place and lose your ass. Or vice versa.
With all the games and all the points, it's best beat with aggregate averages, or at least that's what I've found.
It sure helps to have Verlander, too. :D

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Two things:

1. I asked earlier if this was a daily or weekly lineup. You said weekly. Now you're saying it's daily? :pu

2. Any fantasy game I've ever played in required a full lineup submitted otherwise a forfeiture occurred. So if for instance I don't want to start a catcher I don't have to? I suppose to get around that if there's daily transactions and lineups you could just go and pick up joe blow that isn't starting that night...

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Thanks for the advice Scott. Just dropped Madson for Alexi Ogando. He was bumped back to the pen for the Yu Darvish kid and should be one of the best mid/long relievers this year.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

I just set my lineup all the way out till April 8th.
The system only shows pitcher starts for 3 days out, so if you have more than 5 starting pitchers, you have to check them to see who's up.
See, you don't need to carry 4 bench players in your hitter lineup as you have. You could dump any or all of those bench guys and pick up more pitchers (most guys only carry one or 2 bench batters so they can carry more pitchers). In this instance, you can only go out 3 days because that's all the farther teams announce their pitching.
So far as your hitters go, you can adjust that lineup at least 12 days into the future, because I just did it. You'll want to spot in bench players when one of your position players has a night off. Or maybe you don't. That's your choice.

Be aware of this...
If you set your lineup, you have to advance by calendar date.
So say you set your lineup for 10 days then change day 5, all the days after day five will be identical to day 5. It assumes you want to make the changes forever each time you make a change.

No, you don't have to start anyone if you don't want to.
As your team sits, you can set your lineup a long ways out.

You will find that at some point, strategically, you're not going to want to start one of your starting pitchers. Either to assure you win the L's column, or preserve your era and whip, or whatever.
So I guess the best answer to "weekly" is yes, if you want to. Or you can change your lineup all day every day, like I told you when I said I check mine every day over coffee.

One nother thing, you can make changes to your team right up till the player starts their game, every day. Even if a bunch of your guys played already, you can still make changes, you just can't use guys that have already played. Just like in Fantasy Football. You can change guys in your late game while the early guys are playing.
That help any?

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

You guys put too much thought into this. I just put the guys out there that have the most chance of whoopin' ass. Good luck!
I love my team too, well rounded power, speed, starting and relief pitching.

Favorite pick- Joe Mauer in the 12th, high risk, higher reward!
Least favorite- Paul Konerko, Mariano Rivera. F'em. (I hate the pale hose and the spankees)

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Polander.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

I just picked people other teams weren't picking:)
Oh...and let autodraft round out my lineup while smoking a nice Padilla:)

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Scott should've done this, then maybe he wouldn't have ended up with a gimp.:lr:lr

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

I get a gimp every draft. Fortunately when I go to B-dubs for live FF draft the guys tell me so I don't pick them up. I wouldn't even feel good about a season if I didn't draft at least one dead guy. :)

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Just watched The A's vs Tokyo Giants at the Tokyo Dome on Sunday....great game!!! Good luck everyone, sorry I didn't make the live draft, but it was 7 am my time, and I had to go into work!

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Good buddy of mine hates playing fantasy sports anymore. There's no art or skill to it because all the work is already done and all one has to do is sit in front of a computer and click some buttons. Even then you don't really have to do that, because if you don't show up for the draft, the computer will be nice and draft a competitive team for you.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

Understandable. You live halfway around the world!

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

I can't even imagine the volume of work you'd have to do to play fantasy sports if there was no internet. If it weren't for the help, I'd have no time or desire to play. The level of work necessary is exactly what kept me from playing fantasy sports up until 5 or 6 years ago.
I totally get his point.

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

The greater the challenge, greater the reward. It's funny, any of the fantasy sports championships that I won 10 + years ago I treasure more, simply due to the amount of wrench time spent preparing and subsequently investing during the season. The one thing that the internet has brought to fantasy sports though is parity. Someone could be minimally invested (set their lineup when required, make any necessary roster changes) and still be close to .500, if they were to let the computer take care of everything else (drafting, telling you which players to pick up, etc.).

Re: 2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops
 

I can see that, too.
10 years ago I barely had time to sit down and watch a football game let alone do all that crunching. I enjoy it now because I have forced downtime. Now I enjoy it so much I'd struggle to make time even if I didn't have any.