MoFo Fantasy Baseball 2011: Draft Time, Rules, Settings

First off, welcome to all the new owners this year: voneil7, Fiscal, DexterRiley, rauldc14, and spudracer. All new to this league, some new to fantasy baseball in general, but all cool, engaged owners who should be a lot of fun to compete with. And a special hats off to guys like Dex, who are jumping into a completely new fantasy sport. I like the spirit of adventure there.

So, five owners new to the league, which means a whopping nine owners are returning from last year, and five of us will have played in all three years. That's great retention, particularly from last year, and I love the sense of history it gives the league.

First thing's first, a master team list, so everyone knows who's who:

• The Naturals (TONGO)
• Ming's Mongrels (7thson)
• Team Hannahmals (voneil7)
• Dynamic Dynamite (rauldc14)
• Zeppelins (mack)
• The Clueless Clowns (Sedai)
• Spud's Fry Guys (spudracer)
• I Like Turtles! (my friend Adam; not a member)
• Suicide Squeeze (my friend Tim; not a member)
• Dodgers (mark f)
• Dexass Rangers (DexterRiley)
• The 'Roid Ragers III (Powdered Water)
• Springfield Isotopes (Yoda)
• Eastbound Charros (Fiscal)

All that said, onto the relevant details.


DRAFT TIME
This is the most important thing we need to go over, because it's probably the only issue anyone is likely to have a difference of opinion over. I wanted something with just a slight bit of distance from Opening Day, and I wanted to give us lots of time to recruit owners and go over rules and all that, so I chose Sunday, March 20th at 1:30 PM ET. If this is a problem for anyone, please tell me by posting in this thread ASAP. If it's a problem but you don't mind autodrafting, that's okay, but if a slight change would help you make it, and anyone else feels the same way, we can probably oblige. The draft is a lot more fun if a lot of people can make it, and the league in general is more fun for us individually if we all get to shape our teams the way we want.


SETTINGS
Good news everyone: a lot of the little things that bugged us last year have been fixed this year. Most notably, players you add via free agency or the waiver system will become immediately available, provided you do so more than 5 minutes before their game starts. So, no more of the "add a player today, can't play him until tomorrow" stuff. I think we all wanted this, so I'll assume this one's locked in unless someone says otherwise.

I've also made a few other small tweaks, though they're certainly up for debate:

• Adding a second DL spot.
• Putting the maximum number of pickups per week at 8 (the default was 6).
• Putting the minimum number of innings pitched per week at 10 (the default was 7).

Pretty subtle stuff, obviously. The roster makeup is almost identical to last year except for that extra DL spot, though:

• 1 catcher
• 1 1B
• 1 2B
• 1 3B
• 1 SS
• 3 OF
• 2 UT
• 2 SP
• 2 RP
• 3 P (SP or RP)
• 2 DL
• 5 bench

If anyone has any issues, just say so; none of this is set in stone. The only remotely unusual things here are having a second UT spot, and having a second DL spot. I could go either way on the former, though I feel pretty strongly that just one DL spot is pretty rough.


BASIC SCORING
Most of you already know this, and some of you have gone back and forth with me privately on the topic, but the basic idea is that each statistical category each week counts as a single "game," and is completely separate from the others.

In fantasy football, all stats are converted into points and dumped into one total, so that a great game from, say, your Quarterback, could pick up the slack for a terrible game out of your Tight End. In baseball, categories remain separate. So, if you kill someone in Home Runs, it doesn't help you make up a deficit in any other category.

Example: you play my team, the Isotopes, for a week. Our players tabulate totals all week long. Let's say you win 10 to 1 in Home Runs, crushing me. But I barely win 10 to 9 in Stolen Bases. We each get one win and one loss for the week. This forces teams to be balanced across each category: you can't destroy someone in one area to make up for a deficit in another.

We play with ten categories (which is standard) which means there are ten "games" when you play someone each week (and yes, there are ties). The ten categories are broken up in to five hitting categories and five pitching categories. The five hitting categories are:

• Home Runs
• Runs
• RBI
• Stolen Bases
• Batting average

The five pitching categories are:

• Wins
• Saves
• Strikeouts
• ERA
• WHIP

WHIP is Walks + Hits, divided by Innings Pitched. Basically, it's base runners per inning, designed to penalize pitchers who let a lot of guys on base even if they don't score.

That's pretty much it. If you're at all new to this, I definitely recommend checking out various rankings around the Internet. The best players in fantasy baseball don't overlap with the best ones in real life baseball quite as much as they seem to in football, mainly because of the categories here. Guys who steal a lot of bases aren't usually as famous (or valuable) as power hitters in real life, but in fantasy they can be gold, because stolen bases make up just as many wins or losses throughout the year as home runs do.

If anyone has any questions or qualms about the draft time, settings, or anything else, have at it! Even if you just agree with everything and can make the draft time, please take a second to reply and let me know. Looking forward to a great third season!

Oh, and by way of intimidation:



Come on, puny mortals. Challenge me!

I'm happy with everything, basically. The one qualm I have with WHIP is that a pitcher can hit three batters and give up three hard and/or deep outs in one inning and his WHIP would be 0.00. Another pitcher with a 3-2 count walks one batter on a strike the umpire blew and then strikes out the side and his WHIP is 1.00. I would have thought the WHIP and the ERA would normally reflect similar patterns concerning a pitcher's control but when you factor in wild pitches, passed balls, etc., they sometimes don't equate the way I prefer. I suppose I must get a break in this regard too but sometimes it seems like WHIP should include hit batters or guys who strike out and make base on wild pitches.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

Well, the hard-hit outs thing is more a problem with the game itself. As for HBP not counting; I guess that's a little annoying, but the MLB leader in hit by pitches last year (Aj. Burnett) only had 19 all year, and the MLB leader in wild pitches only had 20 (Edwin Jackson), so the difference is very marginal.

It's marginal except for those times it would make a tie in weekly WHIP become a win on the last inning of the last game of the week.

This is true. As you say, it probably helps any of us as much as it hurts us in the long run.

Anyway, I agree it would be better, but unfortunately there's no option for this. If we use WHIP at all, we have to use it however it's defined by Yahoo's stats provider.

DVD to the champeen..

if you somehow win Chris, its somewhat possible you may have gotten around to watching your Football spoils of war.

__________________
"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo.

I like everything as it is and I will be there for the draft. I am also still pissed about last year. I am ready.

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We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

Is there a keepers system for the returnees?

also is it a snake or Auction based draft. If its an auction, will free agents values be locked weekly or game by game floating?

Nope, no keepers. We've talked about it, but we've stuck with redraft. Keepers in baseball, in particular, would require a LOT of extra forethought.

It's snake-style. I'm very intrigued by auctions and would really like to try them at some point, but we usually have enough newer members that snake lowers the amount of research needed. I've always found it more fun, too, even though I'll readily admit that auction-style is probably a better test of overall skill, provided all owners can put in the prep time for it.

in that case, its the same as FF i assume in that draft order is randomized some time b4 the draft.

Yup.

in that case

my only decision is between lager and ale.

This should be interesting, to say the least. This is the first time EVER, I've even attempted Fantasy Baseball.

__________________
"I was walking down the street with my friend and he said, "I hear music", as if there is any other way you can take it in. You're not special, that's how I receive it too. I tried to taste it but it did not work." - Mitch Hedberg

First year playing Fantasy Baseball for me too Spud.

Please welcome to the field... The Eastbound Charros

(vulgar language)


Do yourself a favor and watch this intro

__________________
If I had a dollar for every existential crisis I've ever had, does money really even matter?

I'll watch it when I get home.

Thanks for signing up, Fiscal; this should be a good time. All 14 teams are finalized! What a turnout.

Quick update on the draft time: my friend Tim might not be able to make it on the 20th. If we moved it to the day before, Saturday the 19th, would that interfere with anyone's schedule? I know PW sometimes works on Saturdays, for example.

If Saturday is better then I could work that in if you East coasters wouldn't mind doing it a bit later in the evening. Say, 6:00 pm or 6:30? Maybe? Although, I won't know for sure until that weekend gets closer but I may not be working too. So far the Saturday work hasn't picked up a lot yet.

I'll live with whenever it is.

Whatever it is is what it is. If I can't make it I'm fine autodrafting though I should be able to