That's better! My Toronto Walrus jumped all the way from 15th to second in the Batter's Box Fantasy League standings this week, thanks to an 11-1 pounding of the Red Mosquitos, who learned what injuries (Brian Giles) and slumps (Mark Bellhorn and others) can do to your Head-to-Head team. I punted steals early in the draft, and my pitching's still a lot better than my hitting, but timing and luck are huge in HtH, and our matchup was the most extreme example of that so far this season.
Snellville's Gashouse Gorillas put together another solid week to take over top spot. Jonny, the spreadsheet wizard, will check in later with the Roto "standings," which are completely unofficial, but shed some light on strength-of-schedule issues and are useful to help identify your team's weak spots.
Please read on; we need to discuss the league's keeper rules and of course, talk a bit of trash.
Here's the standings:
I'm relieved, but I know not to get too excited -- last week's top two teams dropped to 11th and 16th with one disappointing week. All it takes is one lopsided win to vault several teams in the standings, so as of now, all 20 teams are very much in the playoff race -- the top six through the end of August qualify for the championship tourney, and 7th-12th will play in the consolation round. Speaking of consolation, here's a friendly word to Spicol: hahahahahahahaha! (See you again in Week 21).
OK, on to keepers. Here's Rule VI from our constitution:
Owners must keep exactly four players from their final roster of 25 players at season's end. These players will not be automatically added to the roster of their respective owners at the beginning of the following season; there will be an agreement to place them at the top of the pre-ranking lists. Owners must announce their "keepers" on the Yahoo league message board one week prior to the draft, but in the event of injury, may make changes until the draft room opens, approximately one hour before the draft. Every team must “select” their four keepers in the first four rounds of the draft. Beginning with the fifth round, the draft resumes as usual.
Owners may keep a player for a maximum of three seasons, after which time said player must be released back into the draft. That player may be re-drafted by his former owner the following season, however, starting another 3-year cycle. Owners may choose to keep a player for only one year or two instead of the maximum of three, and the owner is not obligated to declare ahead of time how many years he intends to keep a player.
All of this assumes that we will continue as a free league on Yahoo, using their fast, live draft. If each owner pre-ranks their four keepers, the first four rounds will automatically assign the correct players to the correct teams. If just one owner forgets to pre-rank and doesn't show up, or someone accidentally selects a free agent instead of their keeper, the draft would be aborted. It's an imperfect system, but it worked in the second year of the Greensboro Baseball League, where 16 teams each protected five players and the "real" FA draft began in the sixth round. You can see why everyone must keep the same number of players, and the rule doesn't read "up to four." We chose an even number of keepers, so that the draft order doesn't actually favour last year's winner after the keeper rounds. GBL, which had an odd number of keepers, simply reversed the order so last year's cellar-dweller had first pick in the sixth.
If we choose to relocate next year to a "pay" service, and a league administrator volunteers (it will not be me, I can assure you) BBFL can add bells and whistles galore. We will also need to arrange a much longer window, perhaps 4-5 hours in an IRC chat room, to conduct the draft. IF a 3/4 majority (at least 15 owners) agree to that change, which hasn't even been proposed to the rules committee yet, it opens up a lot of interesting possibilities, including one of the best ways I know to "rebuild" a disappointing team -- trading of future draft picks.
Here's how it works in my Roto Junkies AL league: around midseason, owners decide whether they're "buyers" (dealing away the future to improve the present) or "sellers" (waving the white flag on the current year but stockpiling higher picks for the next draft). You see lots of trades of a star and a low pick for a bum and a high pick -- I wanted to make a run at the money last year, and gave up my #2 and my worst P for Mark Mulder and a #14. Immediate help, but the "bill" came due at this year's draft.
The same league also keeps track of what round a player was drafted in, and allows just one keeper from each category -- A (rounds 1-5), B (6-13) and C (13-23). We could adopt a similar rule, maybe A-B-C-D, if someone wants to do the paperwork and keep the records, but be warned: it does complicate trades and affects a player's value. A star who is a "C" is worth a lot more than a player with the same stats who is an "A". We'd need a rule to deal with FA pickups: do they assume the draft position of the player cut, or are they automatically assigned to the lowest keeper class? Administrative nightmares increase in direct proportion to features; I will not take on that responsibility, so any "improvements" depend on the emergence of a league secretary, preferably two.
We're not even 10% into this season, but as Mike (Reykjavik) pointed out on the Yahoo board, the keeper rules can impact trade decisions, so we should address them now. Let's bat some ideas around, take a straw poll of whether we want to make changes for 2004, then vote on the most popular suggestions. I'm strongly in favour of the status quo: it's simple, it's free and it's been fun so far. I will not support any "improvements" unless they are accompanied by someone agreeing to accept the responsibility for any and all additional work they will generate.
The question that precludes most others is; do we want to remain a free Yahoo league, or move to a more flexible service? That would mean someone (not me, remember) pays up front -- most charge $100 to $150 US for the season -- and collects a fee from each owner, which also opens up the possibility of prize money. My budget is limited, and I am quite content to vie for the Ricciardi/Tosca autographed T-shirt and bragging rights, but I won't drop out if the league decides on a reasonable ante. The floor is yours...
Snellville's Gashouse Gorillas put together another solid week to take over top spot. Jonny, the spreadsheet wizard, will check in later with the Roto "standings," which are completely unofficial, but shed some light on strength-of-schedule issues and are useful to help identify your team's weak spots.
Please read on; we need to discuss the league's keeper rules and of course, talk a bit of trash.
Here's the standings:
# Team W- L-T PCT GB
1 gashouse gorillas 17- 7-0 .708 -
2 Toronto Walrus 16- 8-0 .667 1
3 Nation Builders 15- 8-1 .646 1.5
4 Hannibals Cannibals 15- 9-0 .625 2
5 Eastern Shore Birds 15- 9-0 .625 2
6 Baird Brain 13- 8-3 .604 2.5
7 Sub-Urban Shockers 12- 8-4 .583 3
8 Springfield Isotopes 13-10-1 .563 3.5
9 Jicks Rays 12- 9-3 .563 3.5
10 Garces_not_on_roids 12-12-0 .500 5
11 Billies Bashers 12-12-0 .500 5
12 AGF 10-11-3 .479 5.5
13 K-Town Mashers 11-13-0 .458 6
14 Reykjavik Fish Candy 11-13-0 .458 6
15 Geoffs Grumpy Group 9-14-1 .396 7.5
16 Red Mosquitos 9-14-1 .396 7.5
17 Mebion Glyndwr 8-15-1 .354 8.5
18 Moscow Rats 6-14-4 .333 9
19 Chatsworth Halos 6-16-2 .292 10
20 Thunderbirds 6-18-0 .250 11
I'm relieved, but I know not to get too excited -- last week's top two teams dropped to 11th and 16th with one disappointing week. All it takes is one lopsided win to vault several teams in the standings, so as of now, all 20 teams are very much in the playoff race -- the top six through the end of August qualify for the championship tourney, and 7th-12th will play in the consolation round. Speaking of consolation, here's a friendly word to Spicol: hahahahahahahaha! (See you again in Week 21).
OK, on to keepers. Here's Rule VI from our constitution:
Owners must keep exactly four players from their final roster of 25 players at season's end. These players will not be automatically added to the roster of their respective owners at the beginning of the following season; there will be an agreement to place them at the top of the pre-ranking lists. Owners must announce their "keepers" on the Yahoo league message board one week prior to the draft, but in the event of injury, may make changes until the draft room opens, approximately one hour before the draft. Every team must “select” their four keepers in the first four rounds of the draft. Beginning with the fifth round, the draft resumes as usual.
Owners may keep a player for a maximum of three seasons, after which time said player must be released back into the draft. That player may be re-drafted by his former owner the following season, however, starting another 3-year cycle. Owners may choose to keep a player for only one year or two instead of the maximum of three, and the owner is not obligated to declare ahead of time how many years he intends to keep a player.
All of this assumes that we will continue as a free league on Yahoo, using their fast, live draft. If each owner pre-ranks their four keepers, the first four rounds will automatically assign the correct players to the correct teams. If just one owner forgets to pre-rank and doesn't show up, or someone accidentally selects a free agent instead of their keeper, the draft would be aborted. It's an imperfect system, but it worked in the second year of the Greensboro Baseball League, where 16 teams each protected five players and the "real" FA draft began in the sixth round. You can see why everyone must keep the same number of players, and the rule doesn't read "up to four." We chose an even number of keepers, so that the draft order doesn't actually favour last year's winner after the keeper rounds. GBL, which had an odd number of keepers, simply reversed the order so last year's cellar-dweller had first pick in the sixth.
If we choose to relocate next year to a "pay" service, and a league administrator volunteers (it will not be me, I can assure you) BBFL can add bells and whistles galore. We will also need to arrange a much longer window, perhaps 4-5 hours in an IRC chat room, to conduct the draft. IF a 3/4 majority (at least 15 owners) agree to that change, which hasn't even been proposed to the rules committee yet, it opens up a lot of interesting possibilities, including one of the best ways I know to "rebuild" a disappointing team -- trading of future draft picks.
Here's how it works in my Roto Junkies AL league: around midseason, owners decide whether they're "buyers" (dealing away the future to improve the present) or "sellers" (waving the white flag on the current year but stockpiling higher picks for the next draft). You see lots of trades of a star and a low pick for a bum and a high pick -- I wanted to make a run at the money last year, and gave up my #2 and my worst P for Mark Mulder and a #14. Immediate help, but the "bill" came due at this year's draft.
The same league also keeps track of what round a player was drafted in, and allows just one keeper from each category -- A (rounds 1-5), B (6-13) and C (13-23). We could adopt a similar rule, maybe A-B-C-D, if someone wants to do the paperwork and keep the records, but be warned: it does complicate trades and affects a player's value. A star who is a "C" is worth a lot more than a player with the same stats who is an "A". We'd need a rule to deal with FA pickups: do they assume the draft position of the player cut, or are they automatically assigned to the lowest keeper class? Administrative nightmares increase in direct proportion to features; I will not take on that responsibility, so any "improvements" depend on the emergence of a league secretary, preferably two.
We're not even 10% into this season, but as Mike (Reykjavik) pointed out on the Yahoo board, the keeper rules can impact trade decisions, so we should address them now. Let's bat some ideas around, take a straw poll of whether we want to make changes for 2004, then vote on the most popular suggestions. I'm strongly in favour of the status quo: it's simple, it's free and it's been fun so far. I will not support any "improvements" unless they are accompanied by someone agreeing to accept the responsibility for any and all additional work they will generate.
The question that precludes most others is; do we want to remain a free Yahoo league, or move to a more flexible service? That would mean someone (not me, remember) pays up front -- most charge $100 to $150 US for the season -- and collects a fee from each owner, which also opens up the possibility of prize money. My budget is limited, and I am quite content to vie for the Ricciardi/Tosca autographed T-shirt and bragging rights, but I won't drop out if the league decides on a reasonable ante. The floor is yours...
