Fantasy Baseball League

[efeene]

Hey fellow Soxfans.. I am setting up a fantasy baseball league and am looking for people that will be faithful and active with their teams for the year.. we have all been there when a teams owner goes MIA after June.. or even after a bad draft lol.. so if you are interested in a Head to Head Category based fantasy league, probably through Yahoo, maybe ESPN, drop me a line here or at [email protected] thanks and hope to hear from you!

 

[patsfanofNC12]

Sounds great, I would love to join.

 

[VJCPatriot]

I'm game as well.

 

[Real World]

Hey fellow Soxfans.. I am setting up a fantasy baseball league and am looking for people that will be faithful and active with their teams for the year.. we have all been there when a teams owner goes MIA after June.. or even after a bad draft lol.. so if you are interested in a Head to Head Category based fantasy league, probably through Yahoo, maybe ESPN, drop me a line here or at [email protected] thanks and hope to hear from you!

I'm interested. I'll shoot you an email. Yahoo's not bad. I used it last season for a league. I'm sure ESPN is great too. When would we do a draft roughly? How many teams?

 

[patsfanofNC12]

If we could I would prefer ESPN, because I am maxed out of teams on yahoo.

 

[Watson's IQ]

I'd love to do it as well. I play on both, and I vastly prefer ESPN, but since both are free, either would work for me.

 

[efeene]

hey guys.. so it looks like espn will be the way to go.. I am creating the league tonight and am thinking 10 teams.. no more than 12... drafting dates between the 13th and the 17th.. not sure.. leaning towards the 13th if we can get the spots full.. I think we need 2 or 3 more.. for a 10 team league anyway.. will post later with more info.. if you havent shot me an email yet with interest please do it is how I am counting the interested parties later all

 

[efeene]

total headcount is 8 so far - 1.) Myself, 2.) my roommate Jeremy, 3.) coworker Josh, and these posters - 4.) Real World (emailed me) 5.) mtbykr (emailed me) 6.) PatsFanofNC12 (emailed me) 7.) VJC Patriot (no email) 8.) Watson's IQ (no email) .... Loyd Braun made an interested post a few days ago but havent heard from him since then.. anyway.. thats where we are at so far - question I am asking myself is go for 12 team league and hope to fill the last 4.. or go for 10 and just need 2.. or 1 if Loyd Braun is serious.. anyway just wanted to run down a list for you guys .. working on it

 

[efeene]

League is created! 10 team league.. I have sent invites to the people that have emailed me with interest.. so VJC Patriot and Watson's IQ if you send me an email I can send you an invite into the league we have a solid 8 people.. 2 more needed.. I havent set a live draft date yet but I will make it no later than March 17th.. I was thinking either the 12th, 13th or 17th at 7 or 8pm.. thats the last thing to be fine tuned haha anyway like I said we NEED TWO MORE PEOPLE IF YOU ARE INTERESTED DROP ME A LINE AT [email protected] and post here.. glad to have it rolling and any questions you know where to find me (here or email lol) thanks all!

 

[Real World]

I think hits should be an offensive category.

 

[efeene]

Not opposed to that .. we need a couple more owners.. come on guys step up! lol.. any interest let me know.. thanks!

 

[Watson's IQ]

Sorry, I hadn't checked the thread in a couple of days. I just e-mailed you, hopefully there's still a spot.

As a 10 year vet or so of fantasy baseball, I can't agree with using hits as a category if you're also going to use average, it seems redundant. My league that I run with my friends over the years has experimented with a lot of different stats and finally settled on an 8x8 format:

Batting
Batting Average (AVG) Home Runs (HR)
Runs Scored (R) Runs Batted In (RBI)
Stolen Bases (SB) Doubles (2B)
Triples (3B) Walks (BB)

Pitching
Earned Run Average (ERA) Strikeouts (K)
Walks plus Hits Per Innings Pitched (WHIP) Wins (W)
Saves (SV) Quality Starts (QS)
Holds (HD) Complete Games (CG)

We've used this the past few years and it's been very successful for us. We're a roto league, however, so this might not translate as well to the head-to-head format (we could always switch if people wanted, I always prefer roto).

I've also noticed the default roster sizes have gotten a bit out of control on ESPN. What have you settled on for the positions we're using?

 

[efeene]

yeah I saw the default and was like "ummmmm no way" haha.. so here is what we will be using

Catcher - 1
1B - 1
2B - 1
SS - 1
3B - 1
OF - 3 (no LF,RF,CF.. just OF)
Utility - 2
Starting Pitchers - 3
Relief Pitchers - 3
7 - Bench
1 DL

I can always edit it pre-draft so I am open to suggestions.. let me know thoughts..

 

[Watson's IQ]

yeah I saw the default and was like "ummmmm no way" haha.. so here is what we will be using

Catcher - 1
1B - 1
2B - 1
SS - 1
3B - 1
OF - 3 (no LF,RF,CF.. just OF)
Utility - 2
Starting Pitchers - 3
Relief Pitchers - 3
7 - Bench
1 DL

I can always edit it pre-draft so I am open to suggestions.. let me know thoughts..

I don't really see the need for the second utility player, especially if you're trying to approximate a 9-man lineup as closely as you can. I might also add a second DL spot, as it's always useful over the course of a season.

As for stat categories, I made a suggestion above but I think what you have works as well.

Two suggestions:

1) I'm not quite sure about using OBP as a stat, since you tend to want to avoid stats that incorporate other stats you're already using (like OBP incorporates average, for example). If you want to get a sense of OBP, I might suggest using walks instead, since that's independent of average.

2) I've experimented with using losses as a pitching stat before, and I have to confess that I'm not overly fond of it. It's a stat that in some cases can be independent of pitcher performance. Two alternatives I might suggest are holds (which allows people to draft middle relievers, opening up a whole new dimension, although you'd probably have to add a couple more pitching slots to accommodate it). The other suggestion would be quality starts, since that's generally very indicative of how a pitcher performed.

Just some thoughts.

 

[efeene]

I understand what you are saying about stats incorporating other stats.. makes a lot of sense.. I like the idea of using walks separately instead of OBP and think I will incorporate that.. if I add walks and subtract losses then i need to add two pitching categories to even it out - I need the symmetry or my brain would explode - so that could be holds and quality starts.. in a head to head league I dont want to use triples as basically 1 a week would win it.. and I feel it would add a lot of "ties" to the league.. if people wanted roto I can switch it but need to hear some opinions to do so anyway thinking March 13th, a week from tonight, to draft.. Thursday around 7 or 8pm eastern need another gm or two so if you have friends anyone that wants in feel free to invite them

 

[Watson's IQ]

I understand what you are saying about stats incorporating other stats.. makes a lot of sense.. I like the idea of using walks separately instead of OBP and think I will incorporate that.. if I add walks and subtract losses then i need to add two pitching categories to even it out - I need the symmetry or my brain would explode - so that could be holds and quality starts.. in a head to head league I dont want to use triples as basically 1 a week would win it.. and I feel it would add a lot of "ties" to the league.. if people wanted roto I can switch it but need to hear some opinions to do so anyway thinking March 13th, a week from tonight, to draft.. Thursday around 7 or 8pm eastern need another gm or two so if you have friends anyone that wants in feel free to invite them

You'd only need one more pitching category if you replaced OBP with walks and removed losses. I think given we only have 6 pitcher slots, then I would use QS instead of holds. If you want to add a few more pitchers, I'd be open to that.

As for a switch to Roto, I know I would vastly prefer it, just because I think it makes a lot more sense for baseball (while football is fat better head to head). That's my vote.

 

[efeene]

Yeah messed up that math haha... may add quality starts instead.. not sure I like the middle reliever idea but not sure.. i took off the extra utility spot.. no word back yet on switching but we will give it a couple days first..

 

[patsfanofNC12]

I would be fine with roto.

 

[Watson's IQ]

Yeah messed up that math haha... may add quality starts instead.. not sure I like the middle reliever idea but not sure.. i took off the extra utility spot.. no word back yet on switching but we will give it a couple days first..

You can also set up a poll directly in the league on ESPN, which might be a good way to gauge.

As I said a while back, I've played fantasy baseball for a while, and I've never found that head-to-head was as good a format as roto (while the exact opposite is true for football).

 

[Watson's IQ]

Thursday around 7 or 8pm eastern need another gm or two so if you have friends anyone that wants in feel free to invite them

If it comes down to it and you need more people, I'm sure if you posted an OT topic on the main forum (as a last resort) you would fill up the league in about 5 seconds.