Fantasy Baseball 2008

I was thinking maybe a $50 league.
Anyways, im not experienced setting up fantasy leagues, so someone else will have to set it up.
Post here if you are interested.
Come on guys. Americans dont like baseball all of a sudden ?
Go Yankees Go !!!

baseball...really?

baseball thread? .... fail

im in

baseball delivers

<3 baseball

Nero u mind setting it up ?

On February 29 2008 10:58 CrownRoyal wrote: baseball delivers <3 baseball

yah I was just mocking him because he did that in a hockey thread... plus I hate the yanks with a passion. I might be down for this but I don't know how many leagues I'm going to be in this year.

Go play with your puck pal !!!!

sorry im not setting it up after football league's drama i'll play in it though (2 many people hated me when i set up football)

On February 29 2008 10:35 Red9 wrote: baseball...really?

we did one last yet which was awesome. I would prefer the buy in to be more than 50 dollars but TenBagger was the commissioner of that league. Either way I would like to be in though.

count me in, and im pretty sure count BJLTNYK in as well

Ok, I renewed the Liquid Baseball Fantasy League from last year for 2008!

Here are the details:

Standard 5x5 roto scoring system on Yahoo Fantasy Sports with a live draft.

League ID#: 151622
League Name: Liquid Baseball
Password: tlp

Thank you to albonycee for bringing this to my attention nice and early so we have some time to prepare and iron out the details. I've been so busy lately that I didn't even realize that baseball season is near. We have a couple weeks before draft time but I need everyone's feedback ASAP if we are going to get maximum participation. I can't stress this enough but the more teams in a league, and the deeper the penetration rate, the better the competition and the quality of the league as a whole. So here are the main issues:

1 - Date and Time of a Live Draft

Please post here when would be a good time for you. Please list the times that absolutely cannot work and when is ideal. I'm aiming for a draft sometime midweek in the evening because I think that is when we will get maximum participation. The reason why this is so important is that live draft slots on yahoo get taken up very fast. All the prime and popular draft times are already full and the longer we take to decide, the fewer options we have. I am hoping to settle in on a draft time ASAP so please be very detailed about your availability. Hopefully, we can pick a time so that everyone can participate.

2 - Entry Fee

We did a 50$ buyin last year. I agree with adam in that I personally would like to play for more. However, I place the highest priority in establishing a competitive and strategically interesting league over money, so that means that I would rather not make it so high that it turns people away. I think 50 should be the minimum, but my personal preference would be to make it for at least $100. To everyone that is interested, please post what your preferred entry fee is and also the maximum that you would play for.

3 - Small Details

I will also put up for discussion some of the smaller details that are often overlooked. These include:

- waiver time
- max innings pitched
- roster size and format

Let me just say that roster size and format will most likely vary depending the number of teams in the league. I've mentioned this in previous posts but penetration rate (percentage of players rostered in the league over the entire player pool in MLB) is probably the single biggest factor in determining the depth of strategical play. A very good comparision is to the blind structure in a poker tourney. If the penetration rate is low, the league is considered shallow and is comparable to a super turbo tournament with high blinds. There is less room to manuever, more luck involved and less emphasis on skill. A deeper league is similar to deep stacked tourney with a greater emphasis on skill, more strategical possibilites, and less dependent on luck. My goal is to keep the penetration rate in this league at a minimum of 40% and preferably 50% or higher. This means that as more teams join, we can do away with a roster spot or two.

Finally, let me communicate some very important points:

- Collusion of any sort WILL NOT be tolerated. This is a huge problem in fantasy sports as well as in poker. The basic guideline here is that you should make all decisions and transactions based solely on the desire to improve your own team's standing. Too many times will a last place team make a trade to a buddy in second place that puts him over the top. There are many shades of gray as well, including waiver wire pickups, drops and category dumping. I have been commissioner of many leagues over many years and I know and seen every trick in the book. Please have enough respect for the league and your fellow league mates to refrain from collusion and to "play to win" at all times, even if you are in dead last place.

- Participation! Please try to be active and manage your team. I don't expect everyone to be a total maniac and be on it 24/7 but I do ask that everyone make a reasonable effort to "play to win". If you drop out, dissapear and don't manage your team, it doesn't only affect you but it affects the entire league. Some people might not care because that team becomes "dead money". While that is true, it also diminishes the level of competition and strategical depth of the entire league. Prize money is just an incentive to keep everyone interested, the main goal of fantasy baseball should be to participate in a good, active and competitive league.

maybe do a lowstakes league and a high stakes league like 50$ one league 300$ another or like 20 / 200

problem with that is that is will make for two mediocre leagues since many people will only join one or the other. the level of interest is just not high enough right now to even get 1 league full with 16 teams let alone 2. I'd imagine we'd have a hard time even getting 10 teams for each league if we split it up into two. I'd prefer to make it one league with the entry fee at a nice midway point.

so nero, if you are interested, please respond to questions 1 and 2. date and time of live draft and preference for entry fee.

thx!

tenbagger owns

date/time - any weekday night is good

entry fee - anything

gooooooo

I'm interested.
Things to consider.
- League specific if there's only 12 teams
- Auction draft
- Keeper league or penalties for teams who come in last.

Crayons,

You make some good recommendations but here is why I oppose them for our situation here:

- Auction Draft

This is actually my preferred form of league. It has the greatest depth of strategy and it allows for each owner to potentially select any player rather than hoping they are available when it comes your pick, as is the case with a serpentine draft. However, the biggest drawback is the sheer length of time that it takes to complete an auction draft. It is common for auctions to run 10 - 12 hours, and in the case of deep mixed leagues, even longer. Even in very shallow leagues, it takes a good 6+ hours to complete. It is hard enough to setup a time to complete a 2-3 hour serpentine draft that will agree with everyone. Until we can establish a group of more hardcore players that are willing to schedule their lives around a 6-10 hour auction, a serpentine draft is our only option.

- Keeper League

Keeper leagues also add another layer of strategy and it has the advantage of keeping even last place teams interested for the entire season. However, there are a couple issues here. First of all, I would only recommend a keeper league with an auction league where players have salaries. Second issue is continuity year to year. If you have owners that quit, it is very difficult to find a new owner to replace him since the new owner doesn't start with a fresh slate but rather inherits the old owner's team. And since they are quitting, it is highly likely that his team sucked ass. I'd recommend starting a keeper league only after a regular annual league has stayed together for the most part for at least 2-3 years.

- Last Place Penalties

I strongly advocate this and I have instituted this in several other leagues that I participate in. However, there is one major hurdle. You have to either collect the last place penalty from everyone before the start of the season and then refund at the end of the season, or you have to go by an honor system where you trust the last place team to voluntarily pay the penalty at the end of the year.

For our situation, putting more money upfront will most likely be met with serious resistance from some prospective players, especially since it isn't guaranteed to be a part of the prize pool but rather a deposit for not finishing in last. And based on my extensive experience, last place teams will rarely voluntarily pay the penalty unless it is a group of close friends or part of a long running league. The last place team has already lost their buyin, spent a long fantasy season mired in last place, most likely due to a combo of bad decisions and major injuries. Of course, they will blame their performance on injuries. They already lost they buyin, and they had no fun since they were in last all year. so oftentimes, they will say "fuck it", I'm not going to pay and I won't play in this league next year.

And so the only way I advocate a last place penalty would be if we can collect the penalty upfront for all players, AND if this condition won't reduce the number of teams that would be willing to play. Maybe if there is just one team that we lose because of this, we can consider it. But I'd much rather have a 14 team league without the penalty clasue than a 10 team league with the penalty.

To all interested teams,

PLEASE post your preferred date and time for the draft and the buyin amount.

Also, please sign up @ fantasysports.yahoo.com

League ID#: 151622
League Name: Liquid Baseball
Password: tlp

Draft Time is tentatively set up for Wednesday, March 19th @ 10:30 PM EST.

Please feel free to sign up first and if things don't work out, you can always unregister.

haha, reminds me of knocked up