2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops

[shilala]

Guys, check this.
It covers how week one will be scored.
Week One will run from March 28th to April 8th to cover the two games in Tokyo and the short week that starts the season on April 4.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by shilala

Stephen, I had 4 of your starting pitchers in my rotation last year at one time or another. I try to minimize my starting pitchers by using as few as possible through the week because they will blow the era and whip right out of the water and produce few K's per 9 innings.
I sacrifice W, CG, and SHO to take the other 7 categories in pitching by using closers and middle relief. Some weeks a middle relief guy comes in and blows up. That's the breaks, and it's a bad week.

K/9 isn't a category in this league, Scott. Another thing to consider is that you sacrifice total outs when going reliever heavy, which IS a category in this league. The way the league is set up I really don't see an advantage to going reliever heavy. Also worth noting that the way the league is set up I don't really see an advantage to going starter heavy, either. That, and the way the league is set up the best you can hope for is a 50/50 split of starters/relievers.

[shilala]

K's are, brother. I didn't mean to give the impression there was a k/9 category. My point was that middle relief and closers will yield far more k's than starters on a per inning average.

On the rest, we agree exactly. You can't go after all 20 categories on a regular basis or you end up mediocre in all of them.
The goal is to go .560. .500 will get you in the playoffs.
If I can regularly take 12 of 20, that's .600 ball. It's more than enough to win the season and get a shot at the playoffs. If I make it to the playoffs, it's a whole new season with a whole new cache of players either producing or not. Thats when a guy can make the changes he needs and watch daily matchups to get an edge.

Take a minute and break down what you're likely to get in each scenario. Reliever heavy, Closeer heavy, Starter heavy, Starter/middle relief heavy, etc.
I've found that it's best to go light on starters, normal on middle relief and heavy on closers. That's because I'll likely earn more than 5/10 categories per week, it's far easier to manage, and I can sit/swap out a starter who's blowing up.
I don't believe in a pitcher having a "bad game", for the most part. Seldom do they have one bad game, you can watch their stats and see something is wrong. I feel it's almost always injury. It doesn't take much of an injury to wreck mechanics because a guy will change his delivery to guard the injury, even if it's minor. Once he's gotten used to that different delivery, it takes hell for coaches to correct it, especially if they don't have enough accurate pre-analysis via film, slo-mo, etc. Most pitching coaches don't rely on computer-aided pitching analysis, they're old-school. That sets back and prolongs a guy's "bad game" syndrome for a good while till they retweak everything and get him back to where he started.
They'll push starting pitchers into the rotation forever. Middle relief and closers, they'll just sit them down and bring someone up, or whatever. They'll just keep his ass off the mound.
That's how I play it and a little of why. A guy can have just as much success with starting pitching/a little middle relief and no closers. I just feel it's more work and more risk. I've tried just about every combination and this one yields results for me.
The hitting side is tougher. I go with power-heavy, and those guys get hurt a lot. It makes things tough to fix if the injuries last and I don't have a comfortable margin.

[Stephen]

With five required starters though, you really can't go reliever heavy in this format (at least to where you have any sort of viable edge). That's all I'm saying, brother.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Stephen

With five required starters though, you really can't go reliever heavy in this format (at least to where you have any sort of viable edge). That's all I'm saying, brother.

They aren't required. You don't have to fill any spots any given night.
You'll see later that I'll only carry 1 or 2 bench bats and carry more middle relievers. That way I'll get just as many innings (or at least close to as many) as guys that are starter heavy. Enough so that I can compete for K's and W's and Outs. ERA, WHIP, L's, Saves and Relief Wins should already be bagged.
If I get five and the usually tie in SHO and CG, a 5-3-2 week is awesome. I'd take that every week all year, and it's very well within reason.
You'll see how the numbers mash out in a couple weeks. It's a great math game. But just like Fantasy football, you can have everything in place and lose your ass. Or vice versa.
With all the games and all the points, it's best beat with aggregate averages, or at least that's what I've found.
It sure helps to have Verlander, too.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by shilala

They aren't required. You don't have to fill any spots any given night.
You'll see later that I'll only carry 1 or 2 bench bats and carry more middle relievers. That way I'll get just as many innings (or at least close to as many) as guys that are starter heavy. Enough so that I can compete for K's and W's and Outs. ERA, WHIP, L's, Saves and Relief Wins should already be bagged.
If I get five and the usually tie in SHO and CG, a 5-3-2 week is awesome. I'd take that every week all year, and it's very well within reason.
You'll see how the numbers mash out in a couple weeks. It's a great math game. But just like Fantasy football, you can have everything in place and lose your ass. Or vice versa.
With all the games and all the points, it's best beat with aggregate averages, or at least that's what I've found.
It sure helps to have Verlander, too.

Two things:

1. I asked earlier if this was a daily or weekly lineup. You said weekly. Now you're saying it's daily?

2. Any fantasy game I've ever played in required a full lineup submitted otherwise a forfeiture occurred. So if for instance I don't want to start a catcher I don't have to? I suppose to get around that if there's daily transactions and lineups you could just go and pick up joe blow that isn't starting that night...

[Mattso3000]

Thanks for the advice Scott. Just dropped Madson for Alexi Ogando. He was bumped back to the pen for the Yu Darvish kid and should be one of the best mid/long relievers this year.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Stephen

Two things:

1. I asked earlier if this was a daily or weekly lineup. You said weekly. Now you're saying it's daily?

2. Any fantasy game I've ever played in required a full lineup submitted otherwise a forfeiture occurred. So if for instance I don't want to start a catcher I don't have to? I suppose to get around that if there's daily transactions and lineups you could just go and pick up joe blow that isn't starting that night...

I just set my lineup all the way out till April 8th.
The system only shows pitcher starts for 3 days out, so if you have more than 5 starting pitchers, you have to check them to see who's up.
See, you don't need to carry 4 bench players in your hitter lineup as you have. You could dump any or all of those bench guys and pick up more pitchers (most guys only carry one or 2 bench batters so they can carry more pitchers). In this instance, you can only go out 3 days because that's all the farther teams announce their pitching.
So far as your hitters go, you can adjust that lineup at least 12 days into the future, because I just did it. You'll want to spot in bench players when one of your position players has a night off. Or maybe you don't. That's your choice.

Be aware of this...
If you set your lineup, you have to advance by calendar date.
So say you set your lineup for 10 days then change day 5, all the days after day five will be identical to day 5. It assumes you want to make the changes forever each time you make a change.

No, you don't have to start anyone if you don't want to.
As your team sits, you can set your lineup a long ways out.

You will find that at some point, strategically, you're not going to want to start one of your starting pitchers. Either to assure you win the L's column, or preserve your era and whip, or whatever.
So I guess the best answer to "weekly" is yes, if you want to. Or you can change your lineup all day every day, like I told you when I said I check mine every day over coffee.

One nother thing, you can make changes to your team right up till the player starts their game, every day. Even if a bunch of your guys played already, you can still make changes, you just can't use guys that have already played. Just like in Fantasy Football. You can change guys in your late game while the early guys are playing.
That help any?

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by shilala

That help any?

I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.

[mkarnold1]

You guys put too much thought into this. I just put the guys out there that have the most chance of whoopin' ass. Good luck!
I love my team too, well rounded power, speed, starting and relief pitching.

Favorite pick- Joe Mauer in the 12th, high risk, higher reward!
Least favorite- Paul Konerko, Mariano Rivera. F'em. (I hate the pale hose and the spankees)

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Stephen

I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.

Polander.

[blugill]

I just picked people other teams weren't picking
Oh...and let autodraft round out my lineup while smoking a nice Padilla

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by blugill

Oh...and let autodraft round out my lineup while smoking a nice Padilla

Scott should've done this, then maybe he wouldn't have ended up with a gimp.

[shilala]

I get a gimp every draft. Fortunately when I go to B-dubs for live FF draft the guys tell me so I don't pick them up. I wouldn't even feel good about a season if I didn't draft at least one dead guy.

Just watched The A's vs Tokyo Giants at the Tokyo Dome on Sunday....great game!!! Good luck everyone, sorry I didn't make the live draft, but it was 7 am my time, and I had to go into work!

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by shilala

I get a gimp every draft. Fortunately when I go to B-dubs for live FF draft the guys tell me so I don't pick them up. I wouldn't even feel good about a season if I didn't draft at least one dead guy.

Good buddy of mine hates playing fantasy sports anymore. There's no art or skill to it because all the work is already done and all one has to do is sit in front of a computer and click some buttons. Even then you don't really have to do that, because if you don't show up for the draft, the computer will be nice and draft a competitive team for you.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by thecatch83

Just watched The A's vs Tokyo Giants at the Tokyo Dome on Sunday....great game!!! Good luck everyone, sorry I didn't make the live draft, but it was 7 am my time, and I had to go into work!

Understandable. You live halfway around the world!

[shilala]

I can't even imagine the volume of work you'd have to do to play fantasy sports if there was no internet. If it weren't for the help, I'd have no time or desire to play. The level of work necessary is exactly what kept me from playing fantasy sports up until 5 or 6 years ago.
I totally get his point.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by shilala

I can't even imagine the volume of work you'd have to do to play fantasy sports if there was no internet. If it weren't for the help, I'd have no time or desire to play. The level of work necessary is exactly what kept me from playing fantasy sports up until 5 or 6 years ago.
I totally get his point.

The greater the challenge, greater the reward. It's funny, any of the fantasy sports championships that I won 10 + years ago I treasure more, simply due to the amount of wrench time spent preparing and subsequently investing during the season. The one thing that the internet has brought to fantasy sports though is parity. Someone could be minimally invested (set their lineup when required, make any necessary roster changes) and still be close to .500, if they were to let the computer take care of everything else (drafting, telling you which players to pick up, etc.).

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Stephen

The greater the challenge, greater the reward. It's funny, any of the fantasy sports championships that I won 10 + years ago I treasure more, simply due to the amount of wrench time spent preparing and subsequently investing during the season. The one thing that the internet has brought to fantasy sports though is parity. Someone could be minimally invested (set their lineup when required, make any necessary roster changes) and still be close to .500, if they were to let the computer take care of everything else (drafting, telling you which players to pick up, etc.).

I can see that, too.
10 years ago I barely had time to sit down and watch a football game let alone do all that crunching. I enjoy it now because I have forced downtime. Now I enjoy it so much I'd struggle to make time even if I didn't have any.