2011 HBT Fantasy Baseball Season!

[JohnnyO]

Hello Everyone,

I hope that you are all doing well and getting through this long, cold and ridiculously snowy winter (at least it has been here in the Northeast).

We had a full league by the end of the 2010 season, so we're not taking on anyone new this year. That is, unless someone is a no-show this year. If you want to go on a Standby List, post in this thread. We will be in touch with people if any spots open.

This is a Keeper Head-To-Head Style Fantasy Baseball League. The 2010 season was our first. While it had its hiccups (LOUSY BYE-WEEKS), everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and stay enthused throughout the entire season.

Having a day off from work today due to hazardous icy conditions, I spent a few hours reviewing last season's thread and made some changes to the league. Here is a list of what I've done:

Draft

• Seeded draft positions based on rankings from 2010 season, with the bottom finishers having first draft pick.
• Draft date will be on Sunday, March 13th at 8:15pm EST.

Batting

• Dropped the 1B / 3B and 2B / SS slots. Added a Util. slot.
• How about also dropping the DH and adding a 4th OF?

Pitching

• Dropped one RP slot and added a generic P slot.

Divisions / Playoffs/Schedule

• NO BYE WEEKS!!
• Two Divisions
• 21 Regular Season Matchups
• 6 teams make playoffs
• Playoffs rounds are 1 week rather than two.

Scoring

• Wins stay at 10pts Losses now at -10pts (rather than -5). NH now at 10pts and PG now at 15pts. CG upped to 5pts (from 3pts last year).
• Added Hit Batsmen (-1pts) as we had HBP up there at 1pt.
• Added Pick-off (.5pt) as we had Caught stealing at -.5pts last year.
• Do we want to up the points from 0.7pts to 1pt for every out for pitchers?

What do you think? I'll be launching a new thread on HBT so we have a new one for this season. Please post up in the thread with your intent to participate again this year. If we don't hear from you by the first week of March, we will have to fill your spot with another person.

Also, let's think about all chipping in some cash ($10-20) for the season so the winner walks away with something.

-JohnnyO

 

[MMTG]

Yo Johnny!

Looking forward to Feb.19th with a passion...Hockey and Hoops will have to hold me over until opening day. I like the changes you've made-especially with the lowest ranked team getting the 1st pick... I agree with dropping the DH and adding a 4th OF'er. As we all know, the talent really drops off after the premier DH'ers...

I like the idea of cash to the winner, but would love to get a Trophy made for the League-maybe we could all chip in 5 bucks and I could get one made? What does everyone else think?

Thanks again for taking care of this brother.

 

[JohnnyO]

Othon! What's up my man?!!

I hear you. I'm beyond ready to get into some baseball. Less than two weeks for pitchers and catchers for the Mets. However, Terry Collins, the new manager, is already there and is expecting 30 players to show up this week to start doing drills. The Mets are being portrayed as being in a rebuilding year, but I have hope. This team could mash if they get some good pitching and their lineup hits as it should.

How are the Dodgers looking this year?

I'd chip in for a trophy. We'd have to also account for shipping.

 

[Guidry]

Put me in, Coach!

 

[MyNameIsPaul]

I'd like in for a spot if someone drops out. I'm ready to play!

 

[JohnnyO]

Hey Guidry. How've you been man?

MyNIP, you're on the top of the list.

 

[Guidry]

Been alright! Cold down here. Ready for Opening Day!

 

[eagle61]

Has anyone decided on who their keepers are going to be yet?

 

[JohnnyO]

Has anyone decided on who their keepers are going to be yet?

I started the process. Our league limit is 7, and I have 8 or 9 I would like to keep.

Josh Johnson
Cliff Lee
Troy Tulowitski
Ryan Braun
Brian Wilson
Jose Reyes ?
Mike Stanton ?
Chase Utley ?

 

[eagle61]

I am thinking about keeping:
Brian McCann
Prince Fielder
Jason Heyward
Kevin Youkilis
Dan Uggla
Chris Carpenter
Tommy Hanson

 

[jds]

I'm back in for sure! Spring training is just around the corner.

I'm not hot on the idea of $10 or $20, but I'd kick in a fiver to give the winner a trophy. Or, how about instead of a trophy, the winner gets a nice gift certificate to Austin Homebrew, or Rebel Brewing, or someplace else?

My keepers? Dunno. as of right now, I'd have to go with:

Ubaldo Jiminez
Timmy the Freak
Hanley Ramirez
Billy Butler
Gaby Sanchez
Matt Wieters
Dexter Fowler (who would have had better stats last year except for the Rox' weak second-half offense)

But then again, Cory Leubke's on the bubble, depending on how he pitches in spring training, so who knows?

 

[HoppyDaze]

nice work on the draft order and other changes...

for eight months worth of competition $20 seems extremely cheap to me....lol jds $5 you baller.

lets make it $50?

 

[Guidry]

What's the deadline for setting keepers? Gotta know how long I have to procrastinated.

 

[JohnnyO]

Keepers need to be locked in an hour before the draft.

 

[midfielder5]

if you have room I'd like to join up.
yes to chipping in $20 or whatever to make it interesting!
cheers.

 

[JohnnyO]

So far, we have not yet heard from the following teams:

Bridgetown IPA Junkies (Othon, I think this was your friend from last year. Is Alfred interested in coming back this year? He likely doesn't see this thread, and may or may not get the emails from espn)
Dirty South Goose Boners
Baseball Furies
Hickory Brew Crew
PEI Yankees

I know we have a month until the draft. I just had a few minutes this morning to check in.

5 days until pitchers and catchers report.
So excited...

 

[PEIYankees]

Hey all,

I'm in for another year. I'm not so hot on the trophy or prize idea, but if majority rules, I guess that's fine too.

As for keepers, I'm thinking:

Robinson Cano
Evan Longoria
Rickie Weeks
Roy Halladay
Mariano Rivera
Jered Weaver
CC Sabathia


These could still change thou, depending how spring training goes.

 

[JohnnyO]

Hey all,

I'm in for another year. I'm not so hot on the trophy or prize idea, but if majority rules, I guess that's fine too.

As for keepers, I'm thinking:

Robinson Cano
Evan Longoria
Rickie Weeks
Roy Halladay
Mariano Rivera
Jered Weaver
CC Sabathia

These could still change thou, depending how spring training goes.

Hey Adam, welcome back man!!

 

[GoldMiner]

The Baseball Furies are up for another season.

 

[DMCarson]

I don't like option 3 at all,

lol Wasnt really a serious proposal more of a push to see if we can make it a little fairer for our new league members in some way.

Also it keeps a team from loading up on SPs. The only thing I really disliked about last season was the practice of dropping and adding starting pitchers to gain more points. Not pointing fingers at anyone since most of us did it to varying degrees (me included) and it was legal, but I would like to see something to curb that like lowering the number of weekly waiver transactions to like 2. Still not sure if that solves the problem or am I the only one who thinks this is a problem?

At first thought I agreed because it definitely takes a lot of time to pick up and drop guys and plan out the week to try and manufacture a win.

But then after thinking more about it, Those with "good" SP's for the most part wont be dropping their star Sabathias, Lees, and Lesters, so the points that a star pitcher like them can make would possibly match that of a team who wasnt fortunate enough to draft solid SPs they could just throw out there, or even in my position last year: to make up for saves with the lack of RPs(from drafting 2 IR closers dumby me).

It takes more time but I do think it is an important part of the strategy in head to head offsetting it from roto.

I was just looking at the rules again and its 7 acquisitions total and 12 pitching starts. With the change from SP to P that means if you have 5 SPs in those spots only 5 of them can start on the same day, plus maybe you have 2 more on your bench, there goes almost half your pitching starts for the week. You could keep the acquisitions at 7 and maybe drop the pitching start limit to 10? or 11? Only the luckiest guys would have a 2 start week out of all 7 of the SPs he can have on his team. He would have to pick which 10 of the 14 possible starts he wants to trust in and thats without any pitching acquisitions on that very lucky week. On a bad week maybe only 2 of his pitchers have a 2 start week: thats 9 total starts already without a single aquisition.

The Draft Order was determined based upon rankings from the entire season. I don't believe it took into account records from the playoffs. If you'd all rather it be based upon standings post-playoffs, we can do that.

no problem I didnt think of that(reg. season standings) I had it in my head it was from the first draft order. Its up to everyone else and their opinion because it would only move me by 1, maybe if more people have input on if we care about people in the consolation bracket continuing to try?

One RP slot was changed to a P slot. P slot allows the manager to have any type of pitcher in that active slot (SP or RP), as far as I can tell.

I like that, Theres not many closers out there than you can actually trust in getting saves, did holds go up in point value?

Interesting. I am completely in favor of dropping the DH. Having 2 Utility slots is a nice idea too. How does everyone feel about that?

Sweet

I'm also in favor of looking at limiting the amount of weekly waiver claims. I used that strategy to my favor many times last season, and is the major reason I took the trophy. However, I can see how it can become a problem. Anyone else in favor of looking at this?

See my novel above

Lastly, I started a thread for this year's league here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f19/2011-hbt-fantasy-baseball-season-222460/

Ill try and copy this to the new feed.

 

[mosquitocontrol]

I know there are a few ahead of me. But if anyone drops out I'd like to take a spot. I'm definitely in for $20-$50 buy in for the league to allow prizes/trophy mug.

 

[DMCarson]

Definitely ready for this season to start, Have paramedic school start in april so im going to have to try and put my computer on a timer lock down so I dont spend more than "an hour a week" lol, dont think I can plan on the playoffs again, we'll see.

with the pitching changes, did you change holds or saves worth?

Whoever dropped jon lester in the off season: THANK YOU for the Keeper :-D, I found him when I would have fantasy baseball withdraws and took a glance at my team and the waiver wire

Hope we can get the 4th OF/DH/2nd Utility spot figured out, i need to decide how much the new orioles DH is actually worth.

Mosquito Control may have had the biggest contribution of all and may or may not ever be a competitor...a stainless steel stein of some sort that can be sent to the winner from the last years winner, maybe even an engraved name...lol.

Im down for $20 if about 3/4 want it, im thinking a paypal account or something, dont know howd that work, only really down for $50 if its divided in steps to the top three, almost a little compensation for the time.

I definitely think we have a line of people for this thing lol, glad we got in when we did.

Dodgers: man we've got juan uribe from the 2010 World Series Giants, were set how do I make a praying face?

 

[mosquitocontrol]

For my fantasy league last year I just painted a beer mug with the champion team name. Also another one for the league commish. Came out pretty nice, don't have a picture ready. Came in handy for football sundays after the season was over. Something like that costs <$10 so you can also have the top 3 teams paid out along with some kind of trophy.

 

[jds]

PItchers and catchers report today. Let the armchair managing begin!

 

[JohnnyO]

with the pitching changes, did you change holds or saves worth?

Hope we can get the 4th OF/DH/2nd Utility spot figured out, i need to decide how much the new orioles DH is actually worth.

Im down for $20 if about 3/4 want it, im thinking a paypal account or something, dont know howd that work, only really down for $50 if its divided in steps to the top three, almost a little compensation for the time.

I definitely think we have a line of people for this thing lol, glad we got in when we did.

I don't think I changed the value of holds or saves. Just PG and NH as far as I remember (at work now, so I can't research it right now).

I'm going to wait until 3/1/11 to see if anyone else chimes in with suggested further changes to scoring, schedule, league adjustments, etc.

Also, still waiting on the following teams to check in:

• Dirty South Goose Boners
• Hickory Brew Crew

Do we want to give them until 3/1/11 to check in, or wait until a week before the draft?

PItchers and catchers report today. Let the armchair managing begin!

So happy today. I must look like I had sex last night.

 

[HoppyDaze]

So do I just post my keepers here?

 

[JohnnyO]

So do I just post my keepers here?

No, you need to go to the league page on espn. There is a link to manage your keepers on there.

You can, of course post them up on here so we can ridicule you for choosing to make Craig Counsell a Keeper...

 

[MMTG]

So far, we have not yet heard from the following teams:

Bridgetown IPA Junkies (Othon, I think this was your friend from last year. Is Alfred interested in coming back this year? He likely doesn't see this thread, and may or may not get the emails from espn)
Dirty South Goose Boners
Baseball Furies
Hickory Brew Crew
PEI Yankees

I know we have a month until the draft. I just had a few minutes this morning to check in.

5 days until pitchers and catchers report.
So excited...

Alfred is definitly in. We're gonna have the draft at my shop

 

[MMTG]

What happened to the idea of getting rid of the DH and adding a 4th OF spot? I'd like to put this to a vote. We're better off having the ability to use our 4th OF'er than some crappy DH.

What say all you sud swillin' swindlers?

 

[jds]

If this is a democracy, I say lets kick the DH slot to the curb.

JohnnyO: Did you eliminate both the the 2b/ss and 1b/3b position and add in one utility slot? Does that reduce the playing roster by one slot, or did I miss something there? Either way, I still think getting rid of the DH is a good change.

 

[HoppyDaze]

my best player got arrested last night \\o//

 

[JohnnyO]

What happened to the idea of getting rid of the DH and adding a 4th OF spot? I'd like to put this to a vote. We're better off having the ability to use our 4th OF'er than some crappy DH.

What say all you sud swillin' swindlers?

Made the switch. No more DH. Added the 4th OF.

If this is a democracy, I say lets kick the DH slot to the curb.

JohnnyO: Did you eliminate both the the 2b/ss and 1b/3b position and add in one utility slot? Does that reduce the playing roster by one slot, or did I miss something there? Either way, I still think getting rid of the DH is a good change.

Good catch. I just added another UTIL player, making that 2.

If people want it removed, that can easily be done by the draft.

 

[JohnnyO]

Just sent emails to Ray (Goose Boners) and Mike (Hickory Brew Crew) to see if they're in for this year. They have until the end of the month to check in.

 

[JohnnyO]

Just sent emails to Ray (Goose Boners) and Mike (Hickory Brew Crew) to see if they're in for this year. They have until the end of the month to check in.

Still no response from Ray or Mike. If they don't show, first two on standby are mosquitocontrol and MyNameIsPaul. (Just saw that skeeter posted up last season with interest, so I'm giving him dibs).

First televised spring training game is this afternoon. So freaking psyched.

 

[jds]

It's like Christmas for baseball geeks.

We're having family over on the 13th, since it's my birthday. ****ers better clear out before the draft...

 

[MMTG]

It's like Christmas for baseball geeks.

We're having family over on the 13th, since it's my birthday. ****ers better clear out before the draft...

I hope you get smashed on your bday/draft day!

 

[JohnnyO]

I hope you get smashed on your bday/draft day!

Hahaha. I say we send over some nice high ABV IIPAs and RIS's to he and Carson...

 

[jds]

Me? *looks around*

Why me? I finished solidly in the middle of the pack last season. Hoping to improve upon that record this season.

But, by all means, feel free to send me beer, at any time, for any reason. Or no reason at all.

 

[JohnnyO]

Me? *looks around*

Why me? I finished solidly in the middle of the pack last season. Hoping to improve upon that record this season.

But, by all means, feel free to send me beer, at any time, for any reason. Or no reason at all.

Just my attempt to gray the lines and have everyone forget that it was me who won the whole thing last year...

**cue maniacal, sinister laughter.

 

[JohnnyO]

Unless anyone opposes, I'm going to offer the two open teams (Goose Boners and Hickory Brew Crew) to two new oncomers.

I'll wait until I get home from work tonight to send out the invites to them.