Fantasy Baseball 2013 (Why even bother playing against LL?)

zoraster · Post Post #0 (isolation #0) » Wed Jan 16, 2013 11:02 am

2014 Season Is Found Here

Head to Head Main Draft

Draft Time:

Sunday March 17th at 4:00pm EDT

Team Name	Manager	Division	Draft Pick
Fightin' Toddfathers	borkjerkin	Tiger	3
AGARRRRR 2.0	Agar	Tiger	12
Gorc's Dorcs	Gorckat	Otter	4
Lamora's Lynch Mob	Locke Lamora	Tiger	13
Timid Otters	Zoraster	Otter	14 6
RHINOX	Rhinox	Tiger	2
Screwballs	mastermind	Otter	7
Montreal Herons	DrippingGoofball	Otter	5
49 Minutes to Midnight	Anix	Tiger	1
Canadian Blizzard	Sensfan	Otter	6 14
The Mongolian BBQ	Kublai Khan	Tiger	11
Mafiascum Expos Seattle Monkeys	Zoraster and the gang	Otter	10
Águilas Cibaeñas	qwints	Otter	8
kmd	kmd	Tiger	9

Keeper Auction League

Details and Rules

Draft Time:

Wednesday, March 20th at 8pm EDT

Team Name	Manager
Ferocious Otters	Zoraster
49 Mins. to Midnight	AniX
AGARRRR 4evar	AGar
Montreal Herons	DrippingGoofball
kmd4390	kmd4390
Lamora's Lynch Mob	Locke Lamora
Rainbow Farts Seattle Monkeys	Gorckat
Pumpernickel Pumpers	gorckat
Rhinox	Rhinox

zoraster · Post Post #1 (isolation #1) » Wed Jan 16, 2013 11:02 am

saved

zoraster · Post Post #2 (isolation #2) » Wed Jan 16, 2013 11:09 am

I know I'm starting this early this year, but I like to get a jump on this so that we can all think about it. We'll want to nail down the format soon and the draft day(s) in the near future.

Here are my thoughts:
1. Head to head worked out OK, and it kept people in the hunt longer. Although I feel Roto is the superior format for telling who was the best, I don't mind head to head. I might suggest making the playoffs two-week matchups, but otherwise I think this is okay unless we really feel like we're getting all people who will keep up really actively.

2. I think almost everyone was frustrated by the weekly format. I suggest we move to a daily format with restricted weekly transactions. I think most last year wanted to keep this from becoming as labor intensive as many daily leagues can get (as this is a secondary league for many of us), but daily would at least let us deal with injuries and the like.

3. Depending on how many players sign up, we may have to split into two leagues. We can discuss how we want to do that, but I like the way mith structured the NFL fantasy league with promotions and the like. Alternatively, we could just split by different draft dates or something. For me, 14 players is the absolute maximum for having in a fantasy baseball league.

4. I think we can make our rosters somewhat deeper (to yahoo standard, for example), but I don't really care on this point.

Thoughts?

zoraster · Post Post #4 (isolation #3) » Wed Jan 16, 2013 11:45 am

who were you last year? I filled in who i remembered.

zoraster · Post Post #6 (isolation #4) » Wed Jan 16, 2013 11:50 am

it was in GD last year. *shrug*

zoraster · Post Post #9 (isolation #5) » Wed Jan 16, 2013 12:23 pm

to be fair, it probably spreads it out more, gorc. don't have to worry about trying to get two start people in your lineup.

zoraster · Post Post #11 (isolation #6) » Wed Jan 16, 2013 12:26 pm

basically the only difference from last year to yahoo standard is adding a second util spot and a fourth P spot. The fourth P spot isn't as crucial if it's daily, but last year pitching was not that much fun with only 5 starters and 2 relievers.

zoraster · Post Post #19 (isolation #7) » Thu Jan 17, 2013 4:19 am

There are a number of methods we could use to try and make it so that relievers aren't punted, but I'm not sure it's necessary. I'll describe why it's probably not necessary after I give a couple of ways to reduce the incentive to punt relief pitching:

We could expand to a 6x6 format with Net Saves and Holds both being categories (we would need to add a hitting stat too).

We could change Net Saves to SHolds (Saves+Holds). While this doesn't exactly eliminate the benefit to punting, it does make it so that it's easier to compete in the reliever category because there are more relievers who contribute to that category.

We could use K/9 instead of Ks as a category. But this tends to slam the balance toward just using relievers (if you get two or three good closers and punt on starters, you're aiming to win K/9, ERA, WHIP, and Net Saves while punting QS).

---

But moving to a daily format will alleviate all that to a large degree because the benefit of punting saves is reduced. The reason for this is because in a weekly format, punting on saves means you might be able to slip in a reliever who starts, which will at the very least help with Ks and Quality Starts. But in a daily format, having a starter who counts as a reliever doesn't really help because you can cycle through normal starters without a problem.

---
I'll look into whether yahoo lets you do longer playoff weeks. I don't recall that being an option last year, but I know it was an option for ESPN's football so maybe we can figure out a way to do it. Last year with 2 divisions and 14 players we had 2 spare games.

---

I don't want to drop players half way.

zoraster · Post Post #21 (isolation #8) » Fri Jan 18, 2013 2:28 am

It looks that way. Will you be able to keep up with that, Elmo? You went AWOL pretty early on.

zoraster · Post Post #24 (isolation #9) » Tue Feb 12, 2013 4:59 am

Okay, everyone. The league is up, so get in there. If you want to join, please let me know. We already have 5 people signed up, which is a good start.

Also, fairly soon I'll send out a survey to see when is a good draft time.

zoraster · Post Post #27 (isolation #10) » Tue Feb 12, 2013 6:01 am

10635
pw: abc

zoraster · Post Post #29 (isolation #11) » Tue Feb 12, 2013 6:11 am

look at your emails and find the original invitation.

zoraster · Post Post #32 (isolation #12) » Tue Feb 12, 2013 6:42 am

cool cool cool

keep in mind that if we have more than 14, we'll probably go with two leagues ,but for now I'm just setting this one up.

zoraster · Post Post #33 (isolation #13) » Tue Feb 12, 2013 6:46 am

Okay, these are the changes I have made to the league:

1. changed from weekly - monday to Daily - Today
2. Changed maximum transactions per week to 3 (not certain on number, might want to increase to 4 or 5)
3. Changed waiver rules to Continuous with waivers resolving every day
4. Changed rosters to add a utility player and another pitcher spot: SP,SP,RP,RP,P,P,P,P and C,1B,2B,3B,SS,OF,OF,OF,Util,Util
5. Waiver time reduced to 1 day.
6. Minimum innings pitched increased to 10.

Anyone have any problems with this? This is just me trying to start shaping what the league looks like.

Scoring categories right now remain:
Batters Stat Categories: Runs (R), Home Runs (HR), Runs Batted In (RBI), On-base Percentage (OBP), Net Stolen Bases (NSB)
Pitchers Stat Categories: Strikeouts (K), Earned Run Average (ERA), (Walks + Hits)/ Innings Pitched (WHIP), Quality Starts (QS), Net Saves (NSV)

zoraster · Post Post #37 (isolation #14) » Tue Feb 12, 2013 7:29 am

sure, bork. We'll redistribute if we get too many, but for now join in.

and no problem

zoraster · Post Post #40 (isolation #15) » Tue Feb 12, 2013 9:46 am

Either way is fine. I wouldn't mind doing Saves+Holds instead of Net Saves, honestly. But that's up to you guys.

zoraster · Post Post #42 (isolation #16) » Tue Feb 12, 2013 9:53 am

One other option is to do head to head points instead of head to head categories, but that's a pretty big change.

http://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy/mlb/new ... tips022708

zoraster · Post Post #46 (isolation #17) » Tue Feb 12, 2013 10:50 am

yeah, in yahoo baseball holds are any pitcher who enters the game with a lead, records at least one out, and leaves while still maintaining the lead. that said, one thing it does do is reduce the value of closers, but they're still pretty valuable.

zoraster · Post Post #50 (isolation #18) » Wed Feb 13, 2013 2:23 am

Yes you definitely can, part of the appeal really. That said, it can be somewhat dangerous to do so as it would be easy to accidentally skew the valuation of players in weird ways. The most obvious is if you accidentally award more points on average for pitchers over hitters or vice versa, especially if you do so in a way that values certain things to create wider disparities. For example, let's say the point system you use in a week in the league has an average weekly low for pitching of 40 points and an average weekly high for pitching of 80, and an average weekly low of 30 for hitting and an average weekly high of 50 for hitting. Pitching in this situation is obviously far more valuable. That's theoretically okay because everyone can draft for it (pick pitchers with your first 5 picks or whatever), but I think most agree that it's less than ideal. In a roto or categories league, pitching and hitting are almost identically important (though with Saves, one can argue that getting an all around hitter is worth 20% more than an all around starting pitcher). There are other more subtle ways things can become unbalanced if you're not careful. If you assign too many points for a guy who steals bases, then that becomes war more valuable for example.

But if you're careful that shouldn't be a huge problem.

The advantages to points as I see them are the following:
1. You can put in a TON of different categories without making everyone really consider all of them. What this means is that good plays will get you more points. For example, as it stands, hitting a triple is only more valuable than hitting a double right now because of the marginally higher rate that would have caused an RBI or turn into a Run. With points, you can get a point directly FOR the triple. Or you can assign a point value for a perfect game, etc. None of this heavily throws off the balance of the system like it would with a categories league.

2. Unlike a categories head to head, the end result will usually favor the team that actually "won" if things are balanced right. There will be no situations where someone wins a "game" because they happened to steal one more base than the other person: 2 to 1 (which is almost just a fluke).

3. It leads to one win coming out of each matchup, which I think people intuitively understand more. Rather than have 6-3-1 coming from one matchup, you'd just get 1-0-0 from it. That means each matchup is far more important. I'll be honest, when playing categories I don't even REALLY pay attention to my opponent. Beating an opponent 5-4-1 is only barely better than tying an opponent 5-5-0 or even losing 4-5-1, but beating an opponent in points matters a lot.

---
All that taken together, I still don't really care. It's a huge change, and I'm fine keeping what we have now (which is the change to the roster spots, switching NSB with SB and NSaves with Saves+Holds). I'll put together a sample points example later so people can evaluate more closely what such a league would look like.

zoraster · Post Post #52 (isolation #19) » Wed Feb 13, 2013 3:03 am

that's fine. I think it may fit our needs a little better. Less thinking for the draft, easier to use some rankings sheet.

zoraster · Post Post #53 (isolation #20) » Wed Feb 13, 2013 6:07 am

by the way, i'm going to be gone for a couple of weeks in May on my honeymoon with limited internet access. does anyone mind if i assign LL to be assistant commissioner? Mostly just in case anything pops up, but also to confirm trades, etc.

zoraster · Post Post #55 (isolation #21) » Wed Feb 13, 2013 4:42 pm

sure is.

10635
pw: abc

zoraster · Post Post #57 (isolation #22) » Wed Feb 13, 2013 5:18 pm

cool cool

zoraster · Post Post #59 (isolation #23) » Thu Feb 14, 2013 7:31 am

Yes I will, and I'll have e-mail still. It's just that i'm only going to take my cell phone and connect through wi-fi, I think. So my guess is I'll access every other day or so, but it's not exactly set yet. This is mostly just a precaution.

zoraster · Post Post #61 (isolation #24) » Thu Feb 14, 2013 7:57 am

the yahoo baseball one is the one i use

zoraster · Post Post #63 (isolation #25) » Fri Feb 15, 2013 11:38 am

by the way, as a side league a friend and I are doing a Worst League in Existence league where you get points when your players do bad things (strike out, ground into doubles, lose games, etc.)

If you want a fun little league:
ID: 62130
pw: abc

zoraster · Post Post #66 (isolation #26) » Sat Feb 16, 2013 12:10 pm

i'll send out a survey fairly soon

zoraster · Post Post #68 (isolation #27) » Sun Feb 17, 2013 9:50 am

too late, sorry :-/

zoraster · Post Post #69 (isolation #28) » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:14 am

We currently have 10 teams signed up. Any other takers? I'm sending out the draft time survey. I have targeted the 9th, 10th, 16th and 17th as possible draft dates.

zoraster · Post Post #74 (isolation #29) » Mon Feb 18, 2013 12:22 pm

i highly doubt we'll be able to get a significant portion of people for a weekday afternoon. weekday evening is theoretically possible, but generally speaking weekends tend to work better for people and end up with fewer cancellations.

zoraster · Post Post #75 (isolation #30) » Mon Feb 18, 2013 12:27 pm

LL, I can't make you cocomissioner because you hide your email.

zoraster · Post Post #76 (isolation #31) » Mon Feb 18, 2013 12:38 pm

Figured I'd finalize this:

Statistics

Hitting:

Runs
RBIs
Stolen Bases
Home Runs
On Base Percentage

Pitching

Quality Starts
Strikeouts
ERA
WHIP
Saves+Holds

Rosters

Catcher
1B
2B
3B
SS
OF x 3
Utility x 2

SPx2
RPx2
Px4

6 Bench, 1 DL

Transaction Limit

Weekly Limit: 3

Question

We can either play the way we did last time, where each win of a category equals a win overall OR we could do it as 1 win per game (like football does). In other words, if you win more categories than your opponent, you get 1 win. Personally, I like the One Win system as it really highlights the individual matchups, but I'm fine with either. One win does make it so that one guy who wins 9-1 is the same as someone who wins 6-4, but that evens out over time I think.

zoraster · Post Post #82 (isolation #32) » Tue Feb 19, 2013 5:02 am

The following is a description of why I lean toward One Win. But I'm spoilering it because I want everyone to realize that I'm merely leaning this way. Sometimes I think when I make an argument for one thing or another it comes across as me trying to strong arm my way into things (see the MS Football Auction this year), when really I'm just floating ideas and putting forth my one way of looking at it. I am not heavily invested in this at all, and as commissioner I am here to serve you, not the other way around.

Spoiler: That said, this is why I lean One Win

The reason that I think head-to-head generally works best for our league is that we're mostly playing to fight out among ourselves, not truly to see who is the best, but rather to have fun against each other. It has the side benefit of being far "less serious" than roto leagues where about a third of the league is well and truly out of the competition for first place by the All-Star break.

But using the every category is a win standard kind of works against that idea to an extent. It turns it into being more about seeing who can win more categories generally rather than who can beat the most opponents. The every category is a win may well be the better way of deciding which team is the "best" in a general sense outside of lucky or unlucky matchups, but if we wanted that, we ought to just play roto.

To put a point on it: I think we usually follow sports, whether fantasy or real for the close games. The nailbiters. Yeah, maybe if we're rooting for a team we'd rather our team crush the other guys, but over the course of time that'd get boring. So imagine the following scenario:

Scenarios

It's week 6 of the season and LL and borjerfkin are coming into it 1st and 2nd place in their division. Both have a strong team. Going into Sunday (the last day of the matchup), it's clear borjerfkin is going to win runs, rbis, saves+holds, and stolen bases. It's clear that LL is going to win ERA, WHIP, Strikeouts, and OBP. They're currently tied on Home Runs and Quality Starts, but neither has a starter playing the final day.

In Scenario 1, the old system, Day 7 is the difference between the teams going 5-4-1, 5-3-2, 4-5-1, 4-4-2 or 3-5-2
In Scenario 2, the One Win system, Day 7 everything is riding on who can hit more home runs that final day. They've come out to a draw between the other categories, and it's winner take all. Everything is on the line. It's the difference between going 1-0 for the week or 0-1.

In Scenario 1, the teams will "care" in the sense that it's always better to get more wins than losses. But that final day is only of mild interest because it's one of

222

games you'll play throughout the season.

In Scenario 2, the teams will care deeply. A win or a loss is far more likely to alter their actual outcome. It's one of only 22 games in the season, and an intra-divisional game between two top teams is an extremely important game.

Anyway, again. Please take all that for what it's worth, which is merely me explaining why I lean toward One Win. But I don't want anyone to think that doing the other way is bad at all, so feel free to speak up.

zoraster · Post Post #83 (isolation #33) » Tue Feb 19, 2013 5:32 am

By the way, I checked and the top 6 (playoff teams) would not necessarily have changed under One Win, though their order would have somewhat.

1. Locke Lamora 14-6-1
2. Gorc's Dorks 13-8
2. Kmd 12-7-2
4. Mastermind 12-8-1
5. Bluberry 10-8-3
6. Zoraster 10-9-2
7. Montreal's Herons 10-10-1
8. Canadians 9-10-2
9. Rhinox 8-10-2
10. AGARRRR 7-12-2

zoraster · Post Post #86 (isolation #34) » Tue Feb 19, 2013 6:45 am

mastermind

Is there any chance you could make [Sun Mar 17th Early Afternoon (2-4)]? As it stands now, it appears to be the most universal choice (6 availables, 1 inconvenient, and you at 100% can't make). All the other spots have at least two inconvenients+at least one 100% can't make.

Mar 17th Late Afternoon (4-6) would work too if you could swing it. That would mean that kmd would 100% not be able to be there, but given his work situation, that might be the case anyway.

Neither of those times has a single person who PREFERS that time, but lots of people are available for it.

Locke

What's your story for [Sat Mar 9th Early Evening (6-8)]? got a hot date? It'd also be a good time to do it, as 4 people prefer it, 1 more is available, and you're marked as "probably can't." It's inconvenient for Anix, though. What time do you need the draft done by?

AGAR

What time do you get off work or whatever on Saturdays? When's the earliest draft start you could make?

You can see the spreadsheet results here: Spreadsheet. As you can see, I'm available at pretty much any time, but my wife is in Hawaii the 9th and 10th, so it'd be a great time to do it for me.

zoraster · Post Post #89 (isolation #35) » Tue Feb 19, 2013 9:51 am

and i'm on the other side, in central time. I don't get out of work until 7 or 8 eastern, which makes it tough to do a weekday draft, though in an absolute necessity i could leave early.

i was asking because depending on what agar says, we could do something like a 5-7 draft

zoraster · Post Post #93 (isolation #36) » Tue Feb 19, 2013 11:49 am

okay. i'll send out a supplemental wednesday survey when i get home.

zoraster · Post Post #95 (isolation #37) » Tue Feb 19, 2013 12:11 pm

well the goal is to minimize who's the odd man out.

zoraster · Post Post #97 (isolation #38) » Wed Feb 20, 2013 9:55 am

kmd, if you're going to join the league, please join the league itself.

zoraster · Post Post #101 (isolation #39) » Wed Feb 20, 2013 3:58 pm

sorry about that, we didn't change the draft time or anything. it was pretty much just a last second draft my friend and I put together for kicks.

zoraster · Post Post #107 (isolation #40) » Fri Feb 22, 2013 1:36 pm

Sensfan sent in a selection but he isn't signed up either.

Once again, the group is 10635 the password is abc

we're just going to do a weekend draft. what day/time i'll decide soon and announce ASAP.

zoraster · Post Post #108 (isolation #41) » Sun Feb 24, 2013 6:45 am

DRAFT TIME

Barring any unforeseen problems, the draft time will be

Sunday March 17th at 4:00pm EST

this is 3 Central, 2 Mountain, 1 Pacific. This had the most availability of any time, with all but two people available. Sadly, mastermind is unavailable.

Please make sure you're there. Playing against autodrafters is not fun, and if you aren't there, then mastermind missing it is all for naught.

PLEASE NOTE: I will be shutting off sign ups Friday, March 1st. If you are not signed up AND IN THE LEAGUE by then, you will NOT be in the league

Yahoo
Group ID: 10635
password: abc

I will generate the draft order on March 2nd.

zoraster · Post Post #110 (isolation #42) » Sun Feb 24, 2013 7:29 am

just as an aside, my friends and I are doing another side league. 5 batters only, 140 games played max per player. Draft is at 3:30 eastern (in a couple of hours) so you'll need to sign up ASAP.

86484
pw: abc

zoraster · Post Post #112 (isolation #43) » Sun Feb 24, 2013 8:46 am

you don't have to be a baseball fan to be a fantasy baseball fan

zoraster · Post Post #113 (isolation #44) » Sun Feb 24, 2013 8:46 am

KK: Make sure you sign up for the yahoo league.

group: 10635
pw: abc

zoraster · Post Post #114 (isolation #45) » Sun Feb 24, 2013 9:13 am

Got a notice from Yahoo about Saves+Holds causing problems with the draft room. They say to remove the category and write to them after the draft. So that's what I'll do. So don't freak out if you don't see SHolds as a category; it'll be there.

zoraster · Post Post #115 (isolation #46) » Sun Feb 24, 2013 10:35 am

OP updated with team names to players. If you change your team name, please post it in this thread so i can update the OP.

zoraster · Post Post #118 (isolation #47) » Sun Feb 24, 2013 12:23 pm

you most certainly may, monkeyman

yahoo
group: 10635
pw: abc

the divisions will change, don't pay too much attention to them for now. How many divisions we use will be determined by how many teams. I'll assign people to divisions based on historical rivalries, fairness and random chance.

zoraster · Post Post #120 (isolation #48) » Sun Feb 24, 2013 12:54 pm

12 teams is kind of perfect. It gives us two options:

1. The everyone is in one division format: Everyone plays everyone twice. Top 4 advance, playoffs week 23 and 24.
2. The League/interleague (vs. division) format: two 6 player divisions. Everyone plays within their division 3 times, out of division once. Top 6 advance, playoffs week 22, 23 and 24.

I've always been a fan of the 6 player playoff vs. a 4 or 8 team because it provides incentive to win even when you know you've made the playoffs, but I'm okay either way. I'll ask for people's opinions if we know we have 12 (though feel free to do so now if you want).

If we get a couple more sign ups we'll have to do 2 divisions of 7 which is a lot messier as it leaves 2 games just dangling out there, but that's okay. If we get 4, then we'll have to decide. 8 team leagues in baseball are pretty darn shallow, but 16 team leagues are really deep.

If you're interested, 16 teams probably means 4 divisions of 4, playing in division 3 times, out once for a 6 team playoff... with 16, a 4 team playoff is somewhat iffy)

For what it's worth, if we do get an odd number by Friday, the last person in will have to be removed. I apologize for that.

zoraster · Post Post #124 (isolation #49) » Mon Feb 25, 2013 4:47 am

Draft on Your Phone

For you guys that think there's even a remote chance of not having computer access during the draft (be it work or whatever), you might consider picking up the Draft 2013 (i think it's also known as "Baseball Draft '13" anyway it's by "bignoggins." I think this is distinct from their "Fantasy Baseball" app by them ). It apparently lets to draft live from your device. It's available for Iphone, android and ipad. It works with yahoo and espn. There's a Free and Paid version of the app, so I don't know exactly what's provided in each.

Obviously drafting by phone isn't preferable (hell, I hate to draft without my dual minotaur setup), but the app is out there if you want it.

zoraster · Post Post #126 (isolation #50) » Mon Feb 25, 2013 8:50 am

great. i think kmd is still outstanding, so assuming he finally gets around to signing up (or someone else for that matter), you're good. By the way, is your fiance staying in Austin next year for UT?

zoraster · Post Post #129 (isolation #51) » Mon Feb 25, 2013 9:17 am

i don't know your work situation, but have you looked into the live draft app i put above?

zoraster · Post Post #134 (isolation #52) » Thu Feb 28, 2013 4:26 am

Just a reminder that the deadline to sign up for the yahoo group is tomorrow. I'll probably close it when I get to work tomorrow morning, so sign up today. Right now Qwints is the odd man out, so if you join you'll definitely get to play.

zoraster · Post Post #136 (isolation #53) » Thu Feb 28, 2013 10:08 am

great. Please make "shortly" tonight

I'd hate for you to miss the deadline, but i will cut it off.

Now I have to figure out how to structure a 14 team league! I wasn't super keen on the 2x in division, 1x out of division + 2 out of division games system as it seemed less fair.

Unfortunately, Yahoo doesn't give the option to have 2 week playoff weeks or it'd make it somewhat easier.

I'd kind of like to use ESPN (which does offer that option), but the league's history is on Yahoo as well as all my other fantasy leagues, and i hate to try and wrangle all the players again.

zoraster · Post Post #137 (isolation #54) » Thu Feb 28, 2013 10:46 am

we have 14! i think i'm going to cut it off here. 16 is going to get unwieldy even if the numbers are a little better.

zoraster · Post Post #138 (isolation #55) » Thu Feb 28, 2013 12:06 pm

Okay, so through a complex concoction of weighted standings based on last year's regular season standings, playoff finish, total moves made last season, yahoo ranking, and total baseball trophies won I have come up with a way to divide us into 3 divisions.

Why 3 when that makes us uneven?

Because it decreases the number of uneven out of division games we play. Rather than have everyone have two games out of division and it's just luck whether you end up with a good person or a bad person in your second out of division, I THINK it'll mean that only 10 teams play 1 game out of division each, and 4 teams won't play a second out of division game at all.

I also think it provides an opportunity to really cultivate divisional angst because those in the 5 team divisions will play each divisional opponent 3 times, and those in the 4 team division will play 4. I'm calling these the Leagues rather than divisions as they more closely resemble the separation between National and American leagues than they do between the AL West and the AL East for example.

How will people be divided into these divisions? I'll put the top three people into a pot (LL, kmd, gorc) and draw one for each division. Then i'll put the 4th, 5th and 6th (zor, mastermind, agar) into a pot and draw, etc. Because I'm obviously an interested party and being put into the 4 player division has a slight advantage, I will repick my group if I get put into the 4 team division.

Anyway, this is all subject to change, but I try to be as transparent as possible. Anyway, this should be done shortly, after which I will do the draft order

zoraster · Post Post #141 (isolation #56) » Thu Feb 28, 2013 12:20 pm

scheduling non-similar division is hurting my head! i think there's a way to do this!

zoraster · Post Post #142 (isolation #57) » Thu Feb 28, 2013 12:22 pm

wait qwints. have you played a 14 team AL or NL only??? That's wild!

zoraster · Post Post #144 (isolation #58) » Thu Feb 28, 2013 12:34 pm

yeah. also i'll point out that we're using OBP, Quality Starts and Holds+Saves rather than BA, Wins, and Saves.

zoraster · Post Post #146 (isolation #59) » Thu Feb 28, 2013 1:04 pm

haha well to be fair, the differences are fairly minor. QS and Wins correspond pretty well, though a good pitcher on a bad team does benefit. OBP and BA are a little more off, but in broad strokes they're similar. And Holes+Saves expands the field of relievers you can use which slightly devalues a closer, but the top Saves+Holds people are still almost always closers.

So if you went in with the prerankings, you'd still end up with a pretty good team.

zoraster · Post Post #147 (isolation #60) » Thu Feb 28, 2013 3:05 pm

anyone know how to run this? I tried by hand but my head started hurting. I'm pretty sure it's possible, but here are the parameters:

There are 154 games total, 7 games a week
Each Tiger Division team plays each other tiger division team 4 times
each kangaroo and otter division play themselves 3 times.
every team plays every out of division team once
in addition, the following games are played: kmd vs. seattle, zoraster vs. toddfathers, canadian vs. montreal, 49 mins vs. agar, gorc vs. aguilas
obviously in any given week a team cannot play more than one other team.

zoraster · Post Post #149 (isolation #61) » Thu Feb 28, 2013 3:34 pm

yeah. i mean that would be the way it works with 2 divisions too.

zoraster · Post Post #151 (isolation #62) » Fri Mar 01, 2013 3:29 am

I'm not sure it's not really less fair than having a system where I might play the bottom two people in the other division twice, but you might play the top two teams in the other division twice. It only potentially affects 1 playoff spot directly because of the 6 playoff spots, only one per division is awarded to the winner (wild cards are by best record period). And that's only a marginal improvement. Theoretically, you're just as likely to end up with an easy division in the 5 team divisions (and in fact, a little more likely given the way I seeded things).

zoraster · Post Post #153 (isolation #63) » Fri Mar 01, 2013 4:56 am

I have a few options:

6 teams, playoffs week 22, 23 and 24
6 teams, playoffs week 23, 24, and 25
4 teams, playoffs week 24 and 25

So the season can be either 21, 22 or 23 weeks long, though the 23 week option means a 4 team playoff, which is on the low side for a 14 team league.

zoraster · Post Post #155 (isolation #64) » Fri Mar 01, 2013 5:18 am

hmmmm that actually appeals to me, but it doesn't really solve the fact that C/D have an advantage over A/B, and that advantage is actually quite a bit larger than it was in my three division solution.

Done randomly, the difference between being in a 5 team division and a 4 team is 5%. The difference between being in a 4 team division and a 3 team division is 8.3%. Or to put it another way, your chance of winning a 5 team is 20%, your chance of winning a 4 team is 25%, your chance of winning a 3 team is 33.3% (one in three).

Add to that the fact you're taking away one wildcard spot, meaning that winning a division is even more important than it was in the 3 division format.

zoraster · Post Post #157 (isolation #65) » Fri Mar 01, 2013 7:35 am

1. Yeah, the seeding is laughable. I don't have any problem admitting that. It's the worst way to put people into divisions besides all the other ways. Yahoo ranking can be found by clicking on a manager's name. I'm not entirely sure how it's calculated, but I think it takes how you've finished in all your qualifying leagues and then applying some sort of formula.

2. Yes. I agree there's an advantage to being in a 4 team division. I don't deny this. It's just that there's also an even more randomly decided advantage when assigning 2 or 3 extra out of division games. I don't think the advantage of being in a 4 team division is about the bottom feeder though because there's a proportionally less likely occurrence that a bottom inactive team will be in a smaller division. You could just as easily end up with 4 of the most active best teams. The advantage comes from the increased odds of being the top team in a division.

3. No argument with me.

I'm not entirely sure about the main conclusion, but I'm certainly open for other options. 7-team divisions playing each twice with either 2 or 3 extra games is the kind of default other option, but can we come up with something better?

zoraster · Post Post #159 (isolation #66) » Fri Mar 01, 2013 7:50 am

i mean theoretically i could use a program to take some set of projections (liek ZIPs) and use it to seed people into divisions i guess. But really so much of fantasy baseball is in season play...

zoraster · Post Post #161 (isolation #67) » Fri Mar 01, 2013 8:10 am

no no no, please don't apologize. I'd MUCH rather you rant now than be passive-aggressive later after letting it simmer (not that you've done that, just a few others are guilty of it in some other leagues). I'm perfectly fine analyzing how to do this. I don't love my solution either, so it's not like i'm tied to it. I do like having in division play a lot of games against each other (which is why 12 teams would have worked really nicely with two 6-team divisions), but doing it this way works too.

hmmm let me think about it a bit. you may be right.

It can be 14 teams and 21 weeks as well, for what it's worth.

zoraster · Post Post #165 (isolation #68) » Fri Mar 01, 2013 9:08 am

ouch! going to be a fun season.

zoraster · Post Post #166 (isolation #69) » Fri Mar 01, 2013 9:21 am

by the way, did you know that all the writers for Fire Joe Morgan are now writers on Parks and Recreation?

zoraster · Post Post #169 (isolation #70) » Fri Mar 01, 2013 10:56 am

oh no. if it's 3 divisions, then it's 22 games. I just meant that if we're brainstorming how to structure it, we can pick a 21, 22 or 23 week season (though 23 isn't preferable because it only allows 4 teams in the playoffs)

zoraster · Post Post #171 (isolation #71) » Fri Mar 01, 2013 11:19 am

I actually think that might be possible, and it makes a good deal of sense.

That said, I can't alter the playoffs, which is REALLY annoying. I can't even seed them outside some really basic stuff (i.e. I can set it to either seed the divisional winners first or do it by overall standing).

zoraster · Post Post #172 (isolation #72) » Fri Mar 01, 2013 11:21 am

edit: except that it doesn't work I don't think. 7 teams in a division means that no matter what you do at least one game will be played interdivisional at all times.

zoraster · Post Post #174 (isolation #73) » Fri Mar 01, 2013 11:49 am

One alternative is to start the season on the 3rd week of the season. That'd make it 19 weeks long, which is 2 in division, 1 out of division games. But it's not a solution I like much since the beginning of the season is really the most fun part.

zoraster · Post Post #175 (isolation #74) » Fri Mar 01, 2013 11:54 am

Maybe the simplest thing to do is to reopen this for sign ups and try to get 2 more? That makes for a really big league, but it'd make life considerably easier by allowing us to do 4 divisions of 4, in division 3 games each, out of division 1 game each for a total of 21 games, which is perfect.

EDIT: I've provisionally added a line about possibly taking more.

zoraster · Post Post #178 (isolation #75) » Fri Mar 01, 2013 5:01 pm

do it glork! Nobody likes Yahoo! and yet we persevere.

zoraster · Post Post #180 (isolation #76) » Fri Mar 01, 2013 5:19 pm

well i like it because my other league(s) are on it, but after playing ESPN fantasy baseball, i wish it were all that easy.

zoraster · Post Post #181 (isolation #77) » Mon Mar 04, 2013 4:56 am

okay. since we didn't get any more sign ups, i'm just going to call it. Two divisions, doing what we did last year. 13 round robin to start off the league, a 1-week "rivalry game" interdivisional, and then a 7 week mostly divisional season end (those on "bye" play an interdivisional game)

Anyway, after I finish doing the schedule, I'll generate the draft order and let everyone know where they stand so they can prepare! Huzzah!

zoraster · Post Post #182 (isolation #78) » Mon Mar 04, 2013 7:09 am

Divisions

Otter Division

- Screwballs
- Seattle Monkeys
- Águilas Cibaeñas
- Canadian Blizzard
- Gorc's Dorcs
- Montreal Herons
- Zoraster

Tiger Division

- AGARRRRR 2.0
- The Mongolian BBQ
- kmd4390
- RHINOX
- Fightin' Toddfathers
- Lamora's Lynch Mob
- 49 Mins. to Midnight

I tried to make the divisions as even as possible. Each has two teams of "newbies" each has the winner of a division from last season, and I tried to balance out everything otherwise.

Anyway, the schedule is DONE. In the first 13 weeks we play every other team in a round robin style. The 14th week is "Rivalry Week" and for the most part I tried to give each team a good challenge, but who knows. The final 7 weeks are filled with mostly divisional games (each team having one more interdivisional game in there on their "bye" week).

Anyway, that's as good as it gets! I don't plan on going back and rescheduling unless people REALLY hate what I've done as it takes forever to do. Anyway, go and take a look at your schedule to see what your favorite games are!

Draft Order

1. 49 Mins. to ...
2. RHINOX
3. Fightin' Tod...
4. Gorc's Dorcs
5. Montreal Herons
6. Canadian Bli...
7. Screwballs
8. Águilas Cib...
9. kmd4390
10. Seattle Monkeys
11. The Mongolia...
12. AGARRRRR 2.0
13. Lamora's Lyn...
14. Zoraster

All I can say is... yuck.

zoraster · Post Post #185 (isolation #79) » Mon Mar 04, 2013 7:27 am

To be fair, yahoo's transaction thing shows whether or not the draft has been set randomly, so it'd be pretty hard to cheat. That said, I did consider doing what the NFBC does which is every person lists in order their preferences for draft spot, then i randomly pick the order... the first person gets their first choice. the second person gets their first choice if not taken, second if it is, and so on. But in the end that seemed like more work.

Some people like to be at the turn since they feel like after the first few people the 5th or so person is about the same value as the 12th or 13th. I am not one of these people. If for no other reason than it is maddening to have to wait 26 picks in order for it to get back to me (a problem picking first too, but at least you get to cuddle with trout, braun or cabrera as you wait).

zoraster · Post Post #187 (isolation #80) » Mon Mar 04, 2013 12:49 pm

who are you taking at one?

zoraster · Post Post #190 (isolation #81) » Mon Mar 04, 2013 3:00 pm

i will trade you evereth cabrera for pedroia

zoraster · Post Post #193 (isolation #82) » Mon Mar 04, 2013 5:20 pm

i think turnover is just too high. we had decent retention this year, but we're still working with at least 4 new teams. and at least one of those replaced, zorblag, was one of those guys who wanted to try a keeper last year after insisting that it was really stable.

zoraster · Post Post #197 (isolation #83) » Tue Mar 05, 2013 2:08 am

i'd be fine with that. for what it's worth, I think that keeper leagues work better as auctions because you can make it more equitable easier. You can essentially say "you may keep up to X players. Each player to acquire will be taken from your auction budget at $5 what you paid for him the year before (with waiver wire/FAAB acquisitions being $1, so $6 paid)"

With snake drafting it's a little harder because you have to do something like say "you can draft up to X players, each player you acquire will be the draft round you acquired him minus 2" but the reality this is a pretty horrible way to go because The difference between someone you acquire in Round 15 versus Round 13 is negligible, but the difference between acquiring someone from Round 5 versus Round 3 is huge.

If we only get 6 or so people, we're almost forced to do

zoraster · Post Post #199 (isolation #84) » Tue Mar 05, 2013 2:47 am

i'd suggest roto, personally.

zoraster · Post Post #201 (isolation #85) » Tue Mar 05, 2013 3:53 am

i wouldn't mind trying for it this year, but we need at least 6, preferably 8 teams to make it worthwhile. I don't know that we have those kind of numbers.

zoraster · Post Post #204 (isolation #86) » Tue Mar 05, 2013 6:08 am

okay. i'll look into it. The problem is timing. We could schedule it for right after our current one or we could figure out another time. Weekdays are problematic for LL I think, but weekends are problematic for kmd.

zoraster · Post Post #206 (isolation #87) » Tue Mar 05, 2013 6:23 am

the issue with snake is the keeper portion, but I'm great with snake as well. See the spoiler to see how I'd suggest laying out either one.

I've sent out invites to the keeper league to those that I could. Rhinox and mastermind excluded. The draft time is completely up in the air, so don't pay much attention to it.

Also, need to establish keeper guidelines.

Question: Should we move this to another thread?

Spoiler: Keeper League Information

zoraster · Post Post #208 (isolation #88) » Tue Mar 05, 2013 9:00 am

that's standard for roto leagues to keep people from streaming like mad.

zoraster · Post Post #210 (isolation #89) » Tue Mar 05, 2013 10:36 am

I mean it has the merits of simplicity, but it also just makes it so that teams are protecting their top 5 players no matter what value they were to them, which I don't personally like as much. For example, if you grabbed Harper last year or if you grab Profar this year and he's a star, you probably won't keep him because you probably still have 5 guys (in an 8 team league) that are better than Harper.

And it makes future drafts far less fun because they'll essentially start in the 6th round of the draft.

Last, while the systems I suggested reward teams that identify people early on trade for the future, etc. just doing the top 5 players REALLY does that.

zoraster · Post Post #214 (isolation #90) » Wed Mar 06, 2013 5:01 am

there are 7 right now, and I think 8 or so is ideal, but with roto it is not necessary to have an even number of teams.

zoraster · Post Post #216 (isolation #91) » Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:26 am

do a few mocks. it's not tough, but it takes some getting used to. Each auction is different. But decide how you want to budget your money beforehand. do you want to go star heavy and scrubs? spend your money on the very top guys. balanced? let trout go for ungodly amounts and spend more widely. Both are legitimate strategies.

The way auction works is that people in turns nominate a player and everyone bids. You start with $260 to start with (i may up this as we're playing with an expanded roster, but $260 is for whatever reason the default). As a result, the top players might not be nominated first. One thing that some people do is nominate their semi-sleepers early to try and get a good deal while everyone else is saving up for the big players. Another important thing, especially in a league so small, is not to let someone get away with a steal.*

Playing roto isn't that much different from head to head except it's season long. The big thing is that it's a bigger deal to punt a category. If you punt saves in head to head, you're losing a category every week, but that may not matter. If you punt saves in roto, that means that rather than getting the average number (say 4) you're getting 1 point. And that can hurt. Not to say it can't be done, but you'll need to make up those points elsewhere.

The other big thing is that consistency is less of a helpful quality. In head to head if you have a guy who hits 4 HRs in one week then none the following three, it can suck. Sure you won the category in one week, but you're going .250 overall. In roto, if you have a guy who does that, it's no different than a guy who hits 1 HR each of those four weeks. In other words, streaky players are okay in roto in a way they aren't in head to head.

What I mean is this: let's say either you don't think a guy is as good as other people do or you've already got your position filled, so you don't really want the guy. Last year for me that was ellsbury and adrian gonzalez among others (don't think me prescient, I wanted Tulo really bad). But if one of those two guys had come up, in an auction league I might STILL bid on them to up the price. Because if I don't, then someone is paying less than they otherwise might for a player, and that'll mean that I have to spend more money on the players I DO want. I don't want to win the player, but I need to keep other teams honest.

zoraster · Post Post #219 (isolation #92) » Wed Mar 06, 2013 12:03 pm

The big concern is getting people who will stick around, since keeper leagues thrive on consistency, monkey. That said, I'd be willing to go up to 9 or 10 teams (we currently have 8). That's up to the rest of the guys, though.

zoraster · Post Post #223 (isolation #93) » Wed Mar 06, 2013 12:43 pm

all right. then invitation sent. Roto leagues don't need even numbers, but I've upped the max to 10. I don't think more than this is a good idea, and we don't want the auction league to become the "main" league so to speak.

zoraster · Post Post #226 (isolation #94) » Fri Mar 08, 2013 5:52 am

OP is updated with table of Auction teams.

Auction Roto Keeper Details

The Auction Draft Will take place on Wednesday, March 20th at 8pm EDT

. That's 7pm CDT, 6pm MDT, 5pm PDT. This was the time that everyone marked Inconvenient or better.

Commissioner and Co-Commissioner

Zoraster is the commissioner. In the event of any absence, Locke Lamora will take over commissioner duties.

Keeper Setup:

It will be Auction + $5.

We can keep a maximum of

6

players.

Players retained on a team may keep a player for the price they bought him at the auction the year before + $5.
Players acquired off the waiver wire who were NOT drafted may be kept the following year at $5, no matter what the FAAB cost.
Players who were DROPPED by a team and then acquired by another team may be kept at the same price as the original team would have.
Players who were TRADED may be kept at the same rate as the team who traded it to them.

If a player was already kept from the year before, their price will continue to rise $5. So Player X is drafted for $10 in 2013, kept for $15 in 2014, kept for $20 in 2015, etc.

Before the auction next year, I'll ask each team who they want to keep.

Auction Setup:

Everyone will start with

$280

(raised from 260 so that it'll be an average of $10 per roster spot). Nominators will have

30 seconds

to make their nomination so make sure you have your guys queued up. It will be 10 seconds between bids. Yahoo predicts that our auction will take

2 hours and 20 minutes

Rosters:

C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CI, MI, OFx5, Util, SPx3 RPx2, Px4, BNx6 = 28 players

Corner Infielder means you can play either a 1B or 3B there. Middle Infielder means you can play either a 2B or SS at the position.

Statistics:

Batters Stat Categories: Runs (R), Home Runs (HR), Runs Batted In (RBI), On-base Percentage (OBP), Net Stolen Bases (NSB)
Pitchers Stat Categories: Strikeouts (K), Earned Run Average (ERA), (Walks + Hits)/ Innings Pitched (WHIP), Quality Starts (QS), Net Saves and Holds (NSVH)

Waiver Wire

This will use FAAB with a budget of $1000 with continuous waivers. In other words, there are no free agents, everyone not on a team is on the waiver wire. When you pick someone up, you will be asked to enter a bid. The person who bids the highest that day gets the player the following day.

Players

MAY

include FAAB budget (unlimited) OR up to $10 of the budget for the following year's auction (however, no player may put himself lower than $260 or more than $300 for the following season) in a trade if they both EXPLICITLY agree to it by PMing the commissioner.

You are not limited in the number of transactions you make.

Innings and Game Limits

After your pitchers have pitched a total of 1500 innings, no further pitching statistics will be be counted.
For each position, once that position has played 170 games, no further statistics will be counted for that position (outfield is an aggregate 850 games)

Trade Deadline

The trade deadline is August 4th. This is much earlier than the other league's in order to prevent too much tomfoolery with the keepers.

Trade Review

This league is on "commissioner reviews" trades. Trades will be vetoed by the commissioner in the case of suspected collusion, but will not be vetoed on the basis of simple "unfair" trades.

Off Season Trading

From August 4th to the end the season, trades will be locked and the commissioner will not entertain them. Once the season is over, managers may trade players and they may negotiate with money for the next season's draft up to $20 per trade as long as it does not leave either player with more than $320 or less than $240. You may not trade money for the season after next. These off-season trades are trades of the

right to keep

a player at its keeper price. A manager must still pay to keep the player before the next season.

Following Season Keepers

Managers must choose their keepers at least ____ week(s) (unsettled) before the auction by PMing the commissioner. The commissioner will then announce who is being kept and what the final budgets of each team will be.

Rotisserie Scoring

It's real simple: for each of the 10 categories, everyone is ranked first to last. First place in the category gets 10 points, second 9 points, etc. until last place in the category finishes with 1 point. At the end of the season, whoever has the most points wins (maximum being 100 points, minimum 10).

zoraster · Post Post #229 (isolation #95) » Fri Mar 08, 2013 8:02 am

I like it DGB. By the way, changed the FAAB budget to $1000. This shouldn't have much practical effect, but it allows a little more precision and makes it less likely teams will tie.

zoraster · Post Post #230 (isolation #96) » Fri Mar 08, 2013 8:21 am

Mafia Scum 14-player Head-to-Head Draft League Details

Draft Time:

March 17th at 4pm EDT

Commission and Co-Comissioner

Zoraster is the commissioner. In the event of any absence, Locke Lamora will take over commissioner duties.

Draft Order

Spoiler: Draft Order

Note: Draft Order reflects trades between: Sensfan and Zoraster

Draft

This will be a 14 player Snaking draft (i.e. the last person to draft in one round will be the first to draft in the subsequent round). Assuming I remember, I will pause the draft for a 5 minute potty break after the 10th round has finished.

Divisions

Otter Division

- Screwballs
- Seattle Monkeys
- Águilas Cibaeñas
- Canadian Blizzard
- Gorc's Dorcs
- Montreal Herons
- Zoraster

Tiger Division

- AGARRRRR 2.0
- The Mongolian BBQ
- kmd4390
- RHINOX
- Fightin' Toddfathers
- Lamora's Lynch Mob
- 49 Mins. to Midnight

Scheduling

Each team will play each other team once in the first 13 weeks of the season. The 15th week, from July 8-21st (All-Star Break) will be entirely interdivisional play. Week 14 and the final 6 weeks will be for divisional play, where each team will have a "bye" week where they will play their final interdivisional game.

Scoring Categories

Batters Stat Categories: Runs (R), Home Runs (HR), Runs Batted In (RBI), Stolen Bases (SB), On-base Percentage (OBP)
Pitchers Stat Categories: Strikeouts (K), Earned Run Average (ERA), (Walks + Hits)/ Innings Pitched (WHIP), Quality Starts (QS), Saves + Holds (SV+H)

Roster

C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OFx3, Utilx2, SPx2 RPx2, Px4, BNx6, DL

Head to Head One Win

Each week, beginning on Monday, a new game will start between two teams. At the end of the week, the team that has won the most of the scoring categories will get a win.

Minimum Inning Requirement

Your pitchers must pitch at least 16 innings or you will forfeit all 5 of the pitching categories.

Trade Deadline

The deadline for all trades is August 18th. Any trade agreed to on this day or before this day will go through.

Trade Review

This league is on "commissioner reviews" trades. Trades will be vetoed by the commissioner in the case of suspected collusion, but will not be vetoed on the basis of simple "unfair" trades.

Playoffs

This league uses a 6-team playoff system. The two divisional winners will receive the top seeds and get a bye the first week.

Based on their record, the remaining 4 best teams will be seeded and play each other the first week. The winner of this week will face a divisional winner. The world series will come after this.

zoraster · Post Post #231 (isolation #97) » Fri Mar 08, 2013 8:24 am

that's a lot of information, and I apologize. I just wanted to get all the details out and in one place for people to reference. the OP links to those two posts.

zoraster · Post Post #234 (isolation #98) » Sun Mar 10, 2013 12:52 am

As per the conversation I just had with Sensfan on the message boards, in the AUCTION league, transaction limit has been removed, Games Played limit raised to 170. I very much doubt that you'll be able to reach the 170 limit, but it's possible. The innings pitched limit will stay to prevent excess streaming.

zoraster · Post Post #236 (isolation #99) » Tue Mar 12, 2013 1:40 am

I think you'll find it's actually quite a bit more difficult than you think. The season runs March 31st to September 29th. That's 178 days right there. Given 5 days for the All-Star break and that's 173. Unless you are a real streaming hero, you'll miss at least 3 days on positions due to Thursdays and the like.

Anyway, more importantly -- yes! You can definitely keep indefinitely. So if you picked up trout off the waiver wire last year, you would have been set at OF for quite a while! (presumably)

zoraster · Post Post #240 (isolation #100) » Wed Mar 13, 2013 3:24 am

Two words: Adam Dunn.

zoraster · Post Post #241 (isolation #101) » Thu Mar 14, 2013 3:43 am

Who's getting excited about the upcoming draft? I know I am! I've done a couple of non-serious league drafts,* but this will be my first serious one of the season.

As I'm drafting 14th, I'm not planning out my draft very carefully. It's almost impossible that far out to try and target someone, so it's hard to know what I need to try and target in the second and further round.

*An attrition league where there are zero transactions, a points league where you get points for bad things happening, and a 5 batter only league

zoraster · Post Post #244 (isolation #102) » Thu Mar 14, 2013 4:19 am

Here's my take, having some experience with leagues that have allowed doing this:

I don't mind if people want to trade draft picks up until, say, Saturday at Noon EDT (to allow me time to edit the draft order). But they need to trade ALL of their picks.

For example, let's say I wanted 6th pick and you wanted 14. We'd swap ALL our picks (so you'd get 14th, 15th, 42nd, 43rd, 70th, 71st, etc. and I would get 6th, 23rd, 34th, 51st, etc.)

But I

don't

want to get bogged down with trades such as "my 14th and 71st pick for your 23rd and 34th pick." It tends to be a bit confusing and alter the competitive balance of drafts in non-optimal ways, and ends up with some people drafting twice and others none in a single round.

Anyway, to put it another way, PM the commissioner if you've agreed with another player to trade all your draft picks for all someone else's.

zoraster · Post Post #246 (isolation #103) » Thu Mar 14, 2013 4:36 am

i thought it probably was, but figured I'd head it off at the pass. Anyway, sure. Trade away!

zoraster · Post Post #247 (isolation #104) » Thu Mar 14, 2013 5:00 am

Very Slight Scheduling Change

Because of the all-star break, Week 15 runs July 8-21st, which results in 149 games. This is in comparison to the 80-90ish games in a normal week. Because I wanted the final games to be the same, and a long week seems to "suit" the "Rivalry Week" I swapped week 14 and 15, meaning the all interdivisional Rivalry Week is played during the All-Star Break weeks. There is no change otherwise.

zoraster · Post Post #249 (isolation #105) » Thu Mar 14, 2013 5:22 am

Last Year's Holds: http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?p ... &sort=11,d

Some projections:

Holds
http://www.fangraphs.com/projections.as ... 0&sort=6,d

+

Saves
http://www.fangraphs.com/projections.as ... 0&sort=5,d

---

One thing to consider is that Holds and Saves are pretty context dependent. Whether someone gets a ton is determined in large part by the manager's use of a player. It might be better just to focus on the pitching talent of a reliever, looking at his ERA, WHIP, K/9, etc.

zoraster · Post Post #251 (isolation #106) » Fri Mar 15, 2013 5:28 am

I'll do it. PMing.

zoraster · Post Post #253 (isolation #107) » Fri Mar 15, 2013 5:37 am

Draft Order has been changed to reflect Zoraster moving to 6th pick and Canadian Blizzard to 14th. Everything else should be exactly the same.

zoraster · Post Post #256 (isolation #108) » Fri Mar 15, 2013 9:02 am

foul?

zoraster · Post Post #260 (isolation #109) » Fri Mar 15, 2013 1:35 pm

yeah, no i don't think that's okay. let's keep the transactions from the two leagues separate, especially since not everyone in the MS Draft is playing in the MS Auction

zoraster · Post Post #270 (isolation #110) » Sun Mar 17, 2013 5:52 am

I think we'll see regression, but if he plays a full season, it's hard to see him doing anything less than 95 Runs, 20 Home Runs, 75 RBIs, .355 OBP and 30 stolen bases. Those numbers are a pretty major regression from the 129/30/83/.403/49 he had last year in 550 ABs, but they're still first round material.

zoraster · Post Post #271 (isolation #111) » Sun Mar 17, 2013 5:53 am

Adrenaline will keep you up through at least the first break.

By the way, as I mentioned before (and remind me please), we'll take a short bathroom break after the 10th round has completed. I THINK I can do that.

zoraster · Post Post #274 (isolation #112) » Sun Mar 17, 2013 6:01 am

In post 272, SensFan wrote:
In post 270, zoraster wrote:I think we'll see regression, but if he plays a full season, it's hard to see him doing anything less than 95 Runs, 20 Home Runs, 75 RBIs, .355 OBP and 30 stolen bases. Those numbers are a MAJOR regression from the 129/30/83/.403/49 he had last year in 550 ABs, but they're still first round material.

I think the SB -> NSB change (from 'traditional leagues') is just really bad for him in general. His value is in getting like 50 Steals when no one else is running, whereas he might not even have 20 more NSB than Braun.

SB -> NSB is only for the auction roto league. The head to head (which is today) uses just regular stolen bases. That was changed after we realized it was kind of lame that the stolen base (and save) categories would be something like 2 vs 1 in some weeks

zoraster · Post Post #275 (isolation #113) » Sun Mar 17, 2013 6:25 am

anyone interested in doing a Google Hangouts for the draft?

zoraster · Post Post #278 (isolation #114) » Sun Mar 17, 2013 7:00 am

Google Hangout

As mentioned in the PM, please let me know through PM what your Google+ ID is (should be the same as your Google ID you use to access gmail or whatever).

zoraster · Post Post #280 (isolation #115) » Sun Mar 17, 2013 7:09 am

Sensfan and Agar and DGB (soon i think) are in for the hangout. Come join the fun!

zoraster · Post Post #283 (isolation #116) » Sun Mar 17, 2013 8:09 am

Okay. We have DGB, Anix, Qwints, me, and Sensfan at the moment. I know a number of you have invites, so be sure to use them. I think the max that can be held is 9.

zoraster · Sun Mar 17, 2013 11:30 am

That was fun but exhausting. I did not do as well as I think I might have, but that's okay. Time to give what you think the strongest teams are! Go!

zoraster · Post Post #287 (isolation #118) » Sun Mar 17, 2013 1:00 pm

yeah, 14 players is a pretty big difference from 10 or even 12.

zoraster · Post Post #291 (isolation #119) » Sun Mar 17, 2013 2:09 pm

Pumped it into a projection analysis thing. It uses the Steamer projection system. To be perfectly fair, I used this system to draft, so it is not remotely surprising that I should come out on top. If you put it into a different system, I almost certainly would not. The biggest problem is that it doesn't take in season play into account. I'm not including pitching stats here because it's almost impossible to project this fully due to in-season play having a huge effect.

First stat is total for season, second is averaged over 26 weeks.

HRs

1 Zoraster 219 8.42
2 Lamoras Lynch Mob 219 8.42
3 The Mongolian BBQ 212 8.15
4 RHINOX 204 7.85
5 Screwballs 198 7.62
6 AGARRR 2.0 195 7.50
7 Aguilas Cib 195 7.50
8 Gorcs Dorcs 192 7.38
9 kmd4390 190 7.31
10 Fightin Toddfathers 163 6.27
11 49 Mins to Midnight 157 6.04
12 Seattle Monkeys 149 5.73
13 Canadian Blizzard 143 5.50
14 Montreal Herons 125 4.81

Runs

1 Zoraster 818 31.46
2 RHINOX 786 30.23
3 Aguilas Cib 778 29.92
4 Lamoras Lynch Mob 757 29.12
5 kmd4390 751 28.88
6 49 Mins to Midnight 751 28.88
7 AGARRR 2.0 749 28.81
8 Gorcs Dorcs 738 28.38
9 The Mongolian BBQ 715 27.50
10 Screwballs 690 26.54
11 Montreal Herons 684 26.31
12 Canadian Blizzard 666 25.62
13 Seattle Monkeys 660 25.38
14 Fightin Toddfathers 635 24.42

RBIs

1 Zoraster 832 32.00
2 Gorcs Dorcs 763 29.35
3 AGARRR 2.0 757 29.12
4 Lamoras Lynch Mob 750 28.85
5 The Mongolian BBQ 750 28.85
6 kmd4390 748 28.77
7 Aguilas Cib 732 28.15
8 RHINOX 731 28.12
9 Screwballs 711 27.35
10 49 Mins to Midnight 700 26.92
11 Canadian Blizzard 645 24.81
12 Seattle Monkeys 639 24.58
13 Fightin Toddfathers 608 23.38
14 Montreal Herons 597 22.96

Stolen Bases

1 Montreal Herons 148 5.69
2 RHINOX 129 4.96
3 49 Mins to Midnight 128 4.92
4 Gorcs Dorcs 127 4.88
5 Lamoras Lynch Mob 110 4.23
6 Seattle Monkeys 97 3.73
7 Zoraster 91 3.50
8 Canadian Blizzard 90 3.46
9 kmd4390 89 3.42
10 The Mongolian BBQ 79 3.04
11 Aguilas Cib 79 3.04
12 Fightin Toddfathers 78 3.00
13 AGARRR 2.0 67 2.58
14 Screwballs 59 2.27

OBP

1 Aguilas Cib 0.366
2 Zoraster 0.354
3 Fightin Toddfathers 0.352
4 RHINOX 0.35
5 kmd4390 0.348
6 Lamoras Lynch Mob 0.347
7 The Mongolian BBQ 0.345
8 Seattle Monkeys 0.344
9 Canadian Blizzard 0.343
10 AGARRR 2.0 0.343
11 Screwballs 0.342
12 Montreal Herons 0.339
13 49 Mins to Midnight 0.339
14 Gorcs Dorcs 0.337

---
You can see why any given week is almost random. The difference between someone averaging 8.15 homers a week and 7.9 a week is basically nothing in a given week.

zoraster · Post Post #292 (isolation #120) » Sun Mar 17, 2013 2:17 pm

Using ZIPS, a different projection system:

HR

The Mongolian BBQ 216
Screwballs 212
Lamoras Lynch Mob 211
RHINOX 200
Aguilas Cib 200
Zoraster 193
kmd4390 189
Gorcs Dorcs 187
Fightin Toddfathers 185
AGARRR 2.0 182
Seattle Monkeys 161
49 Mins to Midnight 153
Canadian Blizzard 144
Montreal Herons 139

Runs

Montreal Herons 813
49 Mins to Midnight 769
Lamoras Lynch Mob 759
RHINOX 752
Zoraster 748
Aguilas Cib 740
Gorcs Dorcs 733
kmd4390 716
The Mongolian BBQ 709
Screwballs 703
Fightin Toddfathers 682
AGARRR 2.0 667
Canadian Blizzard 655
Seattle Monkeys 649

RBIs

Screwballs 766 29.46
Gorcs Dorcs 756 29.08
The Mongolian BBQ 743 28.58
Aguilas Cib 734 28.23
kmd4390 726 27.92
Zoraster 725 27.88
Lamoras Lynch Mob 723 27.81
RHINOX 721 27.73
AGARRR 2.0 703 27.04
Fightin Toddfathers 687 26.42
49 Mins to Midnight 684 26.31
Seattle Monkeys 653 25.12
Montreal Herons 638 24.54
Canadian Blizzard 617 23.73

SBs

Montreal Herons 222 8.54
49 Mins to Midnight 170 6.54
Gorcs Dorcs 169 6.50
RHINOX 145 5.58
Seattle Monkeys 138 5.31
Lamoras Lynch Mob 127 4.88
Fightin Toddfathers 118 4.54
Canadian Blizzard 116 4.46
kmd4390 115 4.42
Zoraster 115 4.42
Aguilas Cib 109 4.19
The Mongolian BBQ 105 4.04
Screwballs 90 3.46
AGARRR 2.0 84 3.23

OBP

Aguilas Cib 0.358
Lamoras Lynch Mob 0.345
RHINOX 0.343
Fightin Toddfathers 0.342
Zoraster 0.342
Canadian Blizzard 0.338
kmd4390 0.338
The Mongolian BBQ 0.338
AGARRR 2.0 0.338
Seattle Monkeys 0.337
49 Mins to Midnight 0.335
Screwballs 0.335
Gorcs Dorcs 0.33
Montreal Herons 0.329

zoraster · Post Post #294 (isolation #121) » Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:02 pm

man. the two projections on SB are WAY off from each other. the herons have 222 SBs over the season under ZIPs but only 148 in Steamer.

zoraster · Post Post #296 (isolation #122) » Mon Mar 18, 2013 1:27 am

yeah you took a number of people i was hoping to target the next round. Particularly Zobrist but also Pestano

zoraster · Post Post #298 (isolation #123) » Mon Mar 18, 2013 1:43 am

i think that's a pretty sensible strategy. I think the danger of punting, especially in the QS category, is that on a weekly basis it's hard to know whether you'll pick up any given category. So while you may be more likely to win, say, ERA, there's a fair chance you won't, but there's virtually no chance you'll win QS. Still, I think that's a perfectly valid strategy. I look forward to our matchup in Week 1 because I took the weak-version of your strategy (I have 6 RPs, but I went ahead and had 5 starters with a possibility of streaming the tommy milone/edwin jackson spot if QS look close on Friday+)

One thing to keep in mind is the 16 inning minimum. That shouldn't be a problem for you if your starters pitch 5 innings and your relievers all average 1, but if you get to saturday and see you're at like 10 without Darvish or Strasburg up to pitch, you might want to stream in a starter.

zoraster · Post Post #299 (isolation #124) » Mon Mar 18, 2013 1:45 am

oh by the way, i don't know if it starts counting the weekly transaction limit now or on opening day, but if anyone runs up against the 3 transaction limit before the season starts, let me know and I'll shut it off until just before the season starts. The intention is to limit transactions during the season, not to limit your ability to set up your roster before the season begins.

zoraster · Post Post #303 (isolation #125) » Mon Mar 18, 2013 2:08 am

i mean, Wieters was drafted in the 7th round. Still before I'd want him.

As to SV+H, I mean who knows. It's as much the real life manager's choice as it is anything about skill. But at least going by the RotoChamp projections (the only one I found with holds), you'll have 149 over the season, I'll have 151. Lamora has 123. Fightin Toddfathers have 129. Gorc has 138. Agar has 137.

Any of those are probably capable of beating any of the others depending on the week.

You'll definitely have a bench advantage over me in the hitting though as you have 6 bench hitters to my 3.

I don't think you're punting Ks except against teams with a lot of starting pitching, but you're probably looking at a 20%-30% win rate against someone who is active with roster management.

zoraster · Post Post #304 (isolation #126) » Mon Mar 18, 2013 2:19 am

I'm going to go ahead and predict the final season standings:

Otter Division

3. Aguilas (div winner, 1st round bye)
4. Zoraster
5. Screwballs
6. Canadian Blizzard
9. Gorc's Dorcs
10. Seattle Monkeys

14. Montreal Herons

Tiger Division

1. Lamora (div winner, 1st round bye)
2. Fightin' Toddfathers
7. RHINOX
8. AGAR
11. Mongolian BBQ
12. kmd
13. 49 Minutes to Midnight

That's with the presumption that Granderson comes back in May or earlier and not later.

zoraster · Post Post #308 (isolation #127) » Mon Mar 18, 2013 2:34 am

yeah, that's the truth. Trying not to reveal too much of my strategy here because I need to decide how much to stick to a similar one in the keeper auction league.

zoraster · Post Post #313 (isolation #128) » Mon Mar 18, 2013 9:08 am

Sure. And this year we'll randomize it... say right now. There is no randomize option for auctions like there is for the regular draft. So I'll randomize here. Highest total goes first, lowest goes last.

Mask of Zorotter Zoraster 1d1000
49 Mins. to Midnight AniX 1d1000
AGARRRR 4evar AGar 1d1000
Montreal Herons DrippingGoofball 1d1000
kmd4390 kmd4390 1d1000
Lamora's Lynch Mob Locke Lamora 1d1000
Seattle Monkeys 2 Monkyman576 1d1000
Pumpernickel Pumpers gorckat 1d1000
Rhinox Rhinox 1d1000

zoraster · Post Post #314 (isolation #129) » Mon Mar 18, 2013 9:09 am

er that didn't work. let's try again.

Mask of Zorotter Zoraster

Original Roll String: 1d100

1 100-Sided Dice: (46) = 46

49 Mins. to Midnight AniX

Original Roll String: 1d100

1 100-Sided Dice: (85) = 85

AGARRRR 4evar AGar

Original Roll String: 1d100

1 100-Sided Dice: (67) = 67

Montreal Herons DrippingGoofball

Original Roll String: 1d100

1 100-Sided Dice: (63) = 63

kmd4390 kmd4390

Original Roll String: 1d100

1 100-Sided Dice: (20) = 20

Lamora's Lynch Mob Locke Lamora

Original Roll String: 1d100

1 100-Sided Dice: (43) = 43

Seattle Monkeys 2 Monkyman576

Original Roll String: 1d100

1 100-Sided Dice: (8) = 8

Pumpernickel Pumpers gorckat

Original Roll String: 1d100

1 100-Sided Dice: (25) = 25

Rhinox Rhinox

Original Roll String: 1d100

1 100-Sided Dice: (29) = 29

zoraster · Post Post #315 (isolation #130) » Mon Mar 18, 2013 9:12 am

Ooops. Left off Sens His:

Original Roll String: 1d100

1 100-Sided Dice: (67) = 67

zoraster · Post Post #316 (isolation #131) » Mon Mar 18, 2013 9:13 am

Order of Nominators (nonsnaking I believe)

1. 49 Minutes (again??)
2. Canadian Frostbite
3. Agar
4. Montreal Herons
5. Zoraster
6. Locke Lamora
7. Rhinox
8. Pumper
9. kmd
10. monkey

zoraster · Mon Mar 18, 2013 10:27 am

Well get ready for auction. There's no crying about sniping!

zoraster · Mon Mar 18, 2013 10:53 am

our auction league should be pretty similar to ESPN, so that's a good place to start i think. The difference being 1 more OF, a few more bench spots, and of course keepers.

zoraster · Mon Mar 18, 2013 10:56 am

i think ESPN standard is 4OF

zoraster · Mon Mar 18, 2013 10:58 am

oh nevermind. there were 5. So pretty much the same except the pitching configuration is specialized a bit more, not that it matters much in a daily league

zoraster · Mon Mar 18, 2013 10:58 am

I think it's probably more significant if you play in a weekly league. If you play in a daily one, it doesn't provide that much more flexibility.

zoraster · Mon Mar 18, 2013 11:08 am

well, not really. you could simply not buy RPs. The "bench" can actually be however big you want it to be. The "6 bench spots" is really more "6 extra players." (i just tested with my team to make sure this is true. I can move my full team to the bench). So if you want to punt SV+H, just draft 9 or 12 or whatever SPs and play them only on their start days. You might have an issue getting them all in once a season.

zoraster · Post Post #339 (isolation #138) » Tue Mar 19, 2013 3:09 am

I will trade you my 21st round Fantasy Football pick for him.

zoraster · Post Post #342 (isolation #139) » Tue Mar 19, 2013 4:04 pm

my legal pads are full of scribbled numbers. my spreadsheets are full of half completed and then discarded evaluations. In the end I finally did my valuations. We'll see where they get me.

zoraster · Post Post #347 (isolation #140) » Wed Mar 20, 2013 2:15 am

even if you only have half an hour or an hour, i'd really suggest trying a mock version. it won't give you a good idea of what players go for since our league is different, but it will help a lot in terms of figuring out pace and such.

zoraster · Post Post #350 (isolation #141) » Wed Mar 20, 2013 3:37 am

A few slightly more "advanced" ideas for auctions (not that advanced, just stuff you'd realize if you did several mocks):

Inflation and Deflation are VERY real things in an auction. If people are overpaying for players now, that means there isn't as much money in the system which means every subsequent dollar is worth more. This is why in a lot of drafts you might see a player like Asdrubal Cabrera, who might have gone for $12 in the opening rounds, go for $4 later on.

If people are getting away with steals on players early on, inflation becomes an issue as you might see players like Ryan Howard, who might have gone for $7 in the opening few rounds, go for $12 or $14 later.

---

Keep in mind that what you're bidding on is NOT the absolute value of a player but the value of a player versus a replacement player. This concept is crucial to understanding an auction.

So let's say someone nominates Mark Reynolds for $1. If you believe he would provide value over the theoretical replacement player (say, I dunno... Trevor Plouffe), then bid on him. If you don't believe that he'd be better than the replacement, don't bid on him. Yes, he might provide you counting stats and whatever, but if he's not better than whatever you can get after the draft, you've put yourself in a worse position.

---

As to keepers, I won't provide advice on this because the relative weight people put on winning now versus winning later is a personal decision. Whether you want to push hard for prospects and long term sleepers or if you want to play with a "win now, worry about later later" mentality, it's all good. The only things I'll say is to keep in mind you can only keep 6 players, so it doesn't help much to end the season with 10 players you're hoping will come into their own in the 2014 season and did nothing in 2013.

zoraster · Post Post #351 (isolation #142) » Wed Mar 20, 2013 3:56 am

For the poker players out there, this'll seem simple, but I think some people fight it: Your sunk costs are sunk. If Pedroia goes for $25 at the start of the draft, that doesn't mean that Zobrist necessarily will go for some amount less than that at the end of the draft. If you find yourself needing a position late in the draft, don't spend your time thinking "I can't bid X on this player when that other better player went for Y!"

By the same token, if Zobrist goes for $20 at the start of the draft, then at the end of the draft it doesn't necessarily mean that Pedroia will necessarily go for more.

The second scenario is less likely, though, because people tend to nominate better players in early rounds on the whole, and because autodrafters automatically nominate the next person on the value list.

zoraster · Post Post #352 (isolation #143) » Wed Mar 20, 2013 4:14 am

Oh, by the way, I'll attempt to take a 3 minute time out each hour of the draft.

zoraster · Post Post #354 (isolation #144) » Wed Mar 20, 2013 6:59 am

For what it's worth, a first round nomination on someone like 2012-Lawrie might work pretty well. The secret is to make these types of nominations before the top guys are gone. In Lawrie's case, Cabrera still being on the board should suppress Lawrie a little because if you think you might get Cabrera, Lawrie's value is diminished. But more than that, most people are looking at the top players and probably figuring that there's one or more they may want to fight for, and until those guys are gone, they may be hesitant to spend $22 on Lawrie (or whatever he went for last year).

If you wait until the 3rd or 4th pass to nominate someone like 2012-Lawrie, people who missed out on the megastars will have cash to spend and realize they need to make up for it with sub-30 guys.

zoraster · Post Post #356 (isolation #145) » Wed Mar 20, 2013 7:12 am

No, it's just Saves - Blown Saves + Holds.

zoraster · Post Post #358 (isolation #146) » Wed Mar 20, 2013 7:38 am

I think Storen gets a Blown Save because it's technically a save situation:

A pitcher is charged with a Blown Save when he enters the game in a save situation and leaves the game having relinquished that lead, regardless of which pitcher is officially charged with the runs that are allowed.

A relief pitcher is in a save situation when upon entering the game with his club leading, he has the opportunity to be the finishing pitcher (and is not the winning pitcher of record at the time), and meets any one of the three following conditions:
He has a lead of no more than three runs and has the opportunity to pitch for at least one inning
He enters the game, regardless of the count, with the potential tying run either on base, at bat, or on deck
He pitches three or more innings regardless of the lead and the official scorer credits him with a save

A hold is earned when a reliever comes into a save situation, records at least one out, and gives way to another reliever without giving up the lead.

So I see it as Storen -1, Venters +1, Clippard +0, Kimbrel -1, which matches your own.

zoraster · Post Post #360 (isolation #147) » Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:17 am

well, the way I look at it, a blown hold would be a LOOGY who walked his guy and was pulled. Since the requirement for a hold is simply to get an out, not to finish the game.

zoraster · Post Post #362 (isolation #148) » Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:31 am

yeah i'd be happy to do it with the one requirement that people don't talk about an auction until AFTER it's completed. IF you want to smack talk after a player is sold, go for it. But if it's still going on, use a no ongoing games philosophy.

The hangout will have to be hosted a bit later this time around. I might skip out of work a few minutes early, but I probably won't be home until 7:30ish EDT

zoraster · Post Post #366 (isolation #149) » Wed Mar 20, 2013 9:41 am

yeah. all it means is that you wait until the bidding is done to say something about it.

zoraster · Post Post #367 (isolation #150) » Wed Mar 20, 2013 9:42 am

PS. I look forward to Anix assembling a team all costing $11 or $1

zoraster · Wed Mar 20, 2013 11:08 am

it's not "no talking during player auctions" it's "no talking about the CURRENT player during that player's auction" If we're auctioning off buster posey, and I just bought Everth Cabrera for $23, you're more than welcome to smack talk. Just don't talk about Buster Posey.

I feel like this concept should be really easy to understand for mafia players on the site. No talking about ongoing games.

zoraster · Wed Mar 20, 2013 11:10 am

how is that any different than during the snake draft?

zoraster · Wed Mar 20, 2013 11:16 am

it's for NCAA basketball

Also, note my new avatar.

zoraster · Wed Mar 20, 2013 11:20 am

I'm fairly confident they do not. Otters would just smash the clam they're currently eating on the heron's noggin, thus disabling it, and then proceed with being utterly adorable.

zoraster · Post Post #387 (isolation #155) » Wed Mar 20, 2013 4:16 pm

that was exhausting.

zoraster · Post Post #389 (isolation #156) » Wed Mar 20, 2013 4:26 pm

oh i thought it was great. the keeper aspect kept the end pretty exciting because every time someone got someone for $1 they were thinking "i'm getting him for $6 next year!"

My batting is to be feared. I think I may have to figure out something to do with my pitching though.

zoraster · Post Post #394 (isolation #157) » Thu Mar 21, 2013 1:57 am

Just in case something were to happen to me/the league, here's a backup of the players bought:

Spoiler: Players

zoraster · Post Post #396 (isolation #158) » Thu Mar 21, 2013 2:02 am

Potentially looking to trade Nelson Cruz for someone with some speed. Willing to combine with some of my other players.

and yeah. it was a lot of fun.

It's easy for me to forget that even with the expanded rosters, the average bench player is going to be better than many of the starting players in the other league.

Still regretting letting Scherzer go for $12. Could have really used him.

zoraster · Post Post #398 (isolation #159) » Thu Mar 21, 2013 5:08 am

sure I can do that. I need to enter the final players taken first though.

zoraster · Post Post #399 (isolation #160) » Thu Mar 21, 2013 5:25 am

EDIT: Took this down. Weird results that I think make it inaccurate (e.g. it had Canadian Frostbite winning Ks with a superhigher average Ks, but that's nonsensical because Sens doesn't even have all his pitching spots filled, so the fact the average is high is meaningless).

zoraster · Post Post #403 (isolation #161) » Thu Mar 21, 2013 9:15 am

In post 401, SensFan wrote:
In post 399, zoraster wrote:EDIT: Took this down. Weird results that I think make it inaccurate (e.g. it had Canadian Frostbite winning Ks with a superhigher average Ks, but that's nonsensical because Sens doesn't even have all his pitching spots filled, so the fact the average is high is meaningless).

If my total Ks are higher than other people's without the pitching slots filled, how does that invalidate the chart? Unless it measures Ks as average Ks per pitcher, which would be really weird...

it does this. it was giving the result as 173 Ks, about 40 more than the next closest person. Which is accurate in the sense that it does what it says it does. It's just analytically useless.

zoraster · Thu Mar 21, 2013 12:37 pm

classic verlander hustle.

zoraster · Post Post #413 (isolation #163) » Fri Mar 22, 2013 6:05 am

I think it's probably too late. I wouldn't be averse to introducing longer than 1 day waiver periods for dropped players, though.

zoraster · Post Post #414 (isolation #164) » Fri Mar 22, 2013 7:16 am

btw mentioned it on the hangout and found it buried in my bookmarks: http://razzball.com/fantasy-baseball-pr ... view-2012/ evaluation of some of last year's projection systems.

zoraster · Post Post #415 (isolation #165) » Mon Mar 25, 2013 3:24 am

Players Open for Trade

Auction League

I have a couple guys I'd like to offload: Ike Davis ($3), Nelson Cruz ($7) and Andre Ethier ($3).

I think Ike Davis should especially appeal to someone because he hit 32 home runs last year, he's only 26, and next year you can get him for only $8. The only reason I'm trying to get rid of him is that I have Fielder in my 1B spot, Pujols in my CI, and Rizzo in my Utility spot (that doesn't even count Napoli who plays Catcher for me but could play 1B). As it stands there's literally no way I can work him in.

I'm looking for a Starting Pitcher especially, but also will take a MI.

Cruz and Ethier I'm looking to move for a Starting Pitcher that is solidly over our replacement level.

zoraster · Post Post #417 (isolation #166) » Mon Mar 25, 2013 3:48 am

Looking at the teams, I am super excited about the head-to-head league. I think moving to one-win daily move format has already made a huge difference. We have teams that are trying all sorts of strategies... any of which I think have a chance of winning.

I've already discussed SensFan's strategy of dropping Ks and QS in order to pick up ratios and SHolds while hopefully giving himself a leg up in batting. But now I've noticed that Qwints will compete with SensFan on SHolds BUT instead of trying for ratios, he's going for Ks and QS, having a total of 8 starting pitchers on his roster. I'll be curious to see what he does when he faces SensFan: does he put it out of doubt and just cycle through his SPs, or does he just try to win Ks and QS barely and try to compete on ratios too? We'll see!

I think this has opened up a whole lot of strategic options that I'm pretty pumped about.

Personally, I went somewhat balanced to try and give myself flexibility during the week, but that may backfire!

zoraster · Post Post #419 (isolation #167) » Mon Mar 25, 2013 8:02 am

Rules wrote:Players retained on a team may keep a player for the price they bought him at the auction the year before + $5.
Players acquired off the waiver wire who were NOT drafted may be kept the following year at $5, no matter what the FAAB cost.
Players who were DROPPED by a team and then acquired by another team may be kept at the same price as the original team would have.
Players who were TRADED may be kept at the same rate as the team who traded it to them.

1. $55
2. $55
3. $55

zoraster · Post Post #421 (isolation #168) » Mon Mar 25, 2013 8:05 am

no problem. basically it was a long way to say "the keeper price is the draft price +$5 no matter what happens during the season"

zoraster · Post Post #423 (isolation #169) » Wed Mar 27, 2013 4:18 am

DGB. Check the OP to see who owns which team.

zoraster · Post Post #424 (isolation #170) » Wed Mar 27, 2013 4:23 am

REMINDER

For Head-to-Head League

The season, and thus our Week 1 matchups, begins in the evening of March 31st. At this time you will be limited to THREE roster moves per week.* So if you want to fiddle with your lineup, do so soon!

zoraster · Post Post #425 (isolation #171) » Wed Mar 27, 2013 4:25 am

I found this under "Evaluate Trade"

Spoiler: What Yahoo thinks will be the stats

zoraster · Post Post #426 (isolation #172) » Sat Mar 30, 2013 4:38 am

Last reminder that the season starts tomorrow, so if you want to make a move and not have it count toward your 3 a week, you'll want to do that today.

zoraster · Post Post #428 (isolation #173) » Sat Mar 30, 2013 4:51 am

To be fair, I believe that when Yahoo adds a player they go up on waivers first.

zoraster · Post Post #434 (isolation #174) » Mon Apr 01, 2013 3:03 am

opening day is always super exciting. Can't wait!

And I'm currently up 2-0 against Sens with my .250 OBP and 1 RBI.

The Monkeys are CRUSHING Gork, 10-0 with all zeros in hitting except a .250 OBP. And of course there's the 7.94 ERA he sports. Intimidating.

zoraster · Post Post #436 (isolation #175) » Mon Apr 01, 2013 3:16 am

oh wait nevermind. was on the wrong league. the issue is that it's set to "Daily - Today" instead of "Daily - Tomorrow." I don't know that shifting it to Daily - Tomorrow will have any affect whatsoever given FAAB/Continuous, so I might do that.

zoraster · Post Post #437 (isolation #176) » Mon Apr 01, 2013 8:12 am

man i hate the stat tracker. in addition to being buggy and slow and often incorrect, it puts Saves+Holds and Net Saves+Holds next to the batters instead of the pitchers... because that makes sense.

zoraster · Post Post #445 (isolation #177) » Tue Apr 02, 2013 6:11 am

in the auction league I am currently -1 for Net Saves+Holds. Thanks, Axford!

zoraster · Tue Apr 02, 2013 10:43 am

guess i'm not going to ratio categories this week. thanks, McGee!

zoraster · Post Post #453 (isolation #179) » Tue Apr 02, 2013 3:11 pm

as a ranger fan, i approve. As a Zoraster fantasy team facing Senfan, I do not approve.

zoraster · Post Post #456 (isolation #180) » Tue Apr 02, 2013 3:29 pm

could be a capstone to it if he keeps it up.

zoraster · Post Post #458 (isolation #181) » Tue Apr 02, 2013 3:39 pm

No. 3 outs remaining.

zoraster · Post Post #459 (isolation #182) » Tue Apr 02, 2013 3:43 pm

the thing i hate most about having a perfect game/no hitter is watching the other team bat.

zoraster · Post Post #460 (isolation #183) » Tue Apr 02, 2013 3:49 pm

I think i'm going to get rich off my "redzone tv" for baseball: you put in your fantasy team and then mlb.tv automatically cuts to your player when he's up. if you have a pitcher up, he's shown while you don't have anyone batting.

zoraster · Post Post #463 (isolation #184) » Tue Apr 02, 2013 4:06 pm

so sad. going to go to any games when you move to dallas? speaking of which, when do you move?

zoraster · Post Post #465 (isolation #185) » Tue Apr 02, 2013 4:11 pm

yeah that's when we move too, although we can't close on a house until july 23rd

zoraster · Post Post #468 (isolation #186) » Wed Apr 03, 2013 3:56 am

we need a Damn You, Yahoo! meme.

zoraster · Post Post #470 (isolation #187) » Wed Apr 03, 2013 4:16 am

I mean, was it that silly for the head to head league? They get added to the waiver wire when they're added, correct?

zoraster · Wed Apr 03, 2013 10:34 am

slowly digging myself out of that pit McGee dug me in the auction league. down to only 5.75 ERA! -2 Net saves+holds though...

zoraster · Wed Apr 03, 2013 10:44 am

i'm scared of internet people.

zoraster · Post Post #482 (isolation #190) » Wed Apr 03, 2013 2:05 pm

of course they pull jackson after 5 innings of 2 run ball. ugh. just leave him in for ONE MORE INNING!

zoraster · Post Post #485 (isolation #191) » Thu Apr 04, 2013 2:25 am

A good night for the Zorasters, who pulled to 5 and 5. My hold on SV+H and Runs are on a knife's edge, but it's really unlikely that Sens can hang on to Ks unless Strasburg's next game is a mega K fest, but Scherzer alone should hold his own in that regard (Strasburg's 11.13 vs. Scherzer's 11.09 K/9 last year). I'm figuring that I need another 2 QS from Fister, Scherzer, Haren and Lohse to tie and 3 to win that category. Stolen bases are close, but I don't really have the speed to make a likely challenge.

Overall I'm feeling pretty good, though we're only halfway through and a big offensive show by the Blizzards over the next couple of days could put the Zorasters away.

In other news, yet another blown save in the auction league, leaving me at -2 (since I had a hold from benoit) for the season. Yipes.

zoraster · Post Post #491 (isolation #192) » Thu Apr 04, 2013 3:13 pm

i think so, but i'm not sure

zoraster · Post Post #492 (isolation #193) » Sat Apr 06, 2013 6:05 am

Well I was certainly biten by the same thing, Sens. I tried to pick up Colon who's facing the incredible strikeouting machine the Astros, but he hasn't been added yet. Had to go with Tillman instead. Can't believe I only got one QS yesterday. Dan Haren at least provided 5 Ks, I guess.

Down to just one more transaction this week. I kinda hate the 3 a week restriction, but I kind of love the tension it puts on things too. Otherwise I could just bury Sensfan in starters these next two days.

zoraster · Post Post #493 (isolation #194) » Sat Apr 06, 2013 6:34 am

this is exciting. we have 4 ties going into the final two days of the week and one that's 5-4. of course the other two games are blowouts, but this will be exciting!

zoraster · Post Post #496 (isolation #195) » Sat Apr 06, 2013 2:27 pm

correct. keep in mind you can only keep up to 6 people

zoraster · Post Post #498 (isolation #196) » Sun Apr 07, 2013 3:11 am

sens picked up masterson to try and make a run at Ks and assure his QS victory. I was left with scraps and had to go with Chacin facing San Diego in Colorado just to try to make sure that I stay ahead on Ks.

He's still within striking distance on Runs, so if he can turn around Runs and pick up QS it'll be tied at 5-5. If he can either pick up Ks (I'm up by 21) or Saves+Holds (I'm up two) along with those, he'll win.

zoraster · Post Post #501 (isolation #197) » Sun Apr 07, 2013 9:12 am

5 Strikeouts up and it's going to be Chacin vs. Darvish. I think this could be close.

zoraster · Post Post #504 (isolation #198) » Sun Apr 07, 2013 2:26 pm

My auction league pitching is the literal worst.

zoraster · Post Post #506 (isolation #199) » Sun Apr 07, 2013 3:04 pm

1 1 1 2 1 are my points from pitching right now