It's back! Baseball Challenge on ESPN:

http://games.espn.go.com/bbc/frontpage

Group: GangsterBB (use the search to find it)
Password: corleone

Free to play. This is similar to the Fantasty Baseketball game many of us are playing.

"All you gotta do is pick a player for each position, plus a pitching staff. You accumulate points if your chosen players do well. The first 'season' ends at the All-Star Break, and then you start again."

NOTE: THE FIRST GAME IS MARCH 30 - YANKS VS TB IN JAPAN (5am, eww). PLEASE TRY TO SET YOUR ROSTERS BEFORE THEN SO YOU'RE IN FROM DAY 1. (Hear that, Bad Daddy? :p )

For nostalgic sake, here is a link to last year's fun -- but please let's keep 2004 in this new thread.


Questions?

--Commissioner Pork Chop

Grazie Don! You read my mind. I look forward to playing this year!

What a bitch it is trying to get a decent team (with the salary cap) with only Yanks/TB next week... this is gonna take some thought... (Yup, I'm already whining!! )

To make things easier for me, I would appreciate people creating team names -- or their "real names" -- that reflect your user name on this board. Either one, just so we know who's who.

It's not required of you, just a suggestion.

To change your team name:

1) Go to your team clubhouse page (the one that shows your roster) and click on "Change Settings".
2) Change the Location and Nickname boxes.
Note: Your team name can be anything. If you want a cute team name, then change your real name:

To change your real name:

1) Go to the BBC Home Page and click on your user name where it says "You are signed in as [jgeoff]".
2) Click on "Edit My Profile"
3) Click the "Account" tab in the upper left
4) Change your name -- it can be a fake name.
I use my real name here, everyone knows it anyway. If you want to keep this info private, then feel free.

You can use either method so we know who you are. It doesn't have to be your exact board name, just a piece of it if you want.

Just a suggestion...

Thanks

In the box that lets you pick which position to change (1b, 2b, etc...), there's a "Change Settings" button. Click on that.

By the way, I'm in!

Yeah. My first run through left me with Baldelli, Huff, and the rest Yankees, and waaaaaay over the cap.

This is gonna take some thought.

Regarding the team name: Thanks guys. I didn't realize that you had to be on a "player selection" page to find the "change settings" button. I saw it as soon as I started to pick my team.

This is gonna be great, huh? :rolleyes:

I agree with you Pork. Since I'm not allowed to whine on the basketball thread, I'll whine here. I'm seriously considering not picking a pitching staff for this game.

Whine all you want.

Ten point deduction per whine.

Did we have to pick a DH last year?? I don't remember.

Yup.

I'll probably attempt to sign up tomorrow, but just reading this thread I feel like I'll need all my skills and power just to figure it out. :rolleyes:

Do understand right that the Yankeee/TB game is the only one played on March 31 and therefore your whole team consists of Yankees or Devil Rays?

That's right MC. Having only one game that day is making it difficult because we don't have many options. Fortunately, it's the only time it will happen all season.

To elaborate on strategy for the newbies in the game....

Your whole team should consist of only players who are playing that day -- in this case, Yankees or Devil Rays.

While your first inclination may be to pick an "All-Star" team (to the extent that it's possible while staying within the salary cap), the main thing to remember is that

THIS IS A DAILY GAME

You get to change your roster and pitching staff (which is what you should build your team around every day, since the scoring system results in about 40% of your points on a typical day coming from pitching) every day, so if you pick players who are not playing on a particular day, you get no points from them.

On good day, you can figure on about 30-35 offensive points, and 20-25 pitching points, so having an offensive position un-filled could cost you 4 or 5 points or so, and having no pitching staff could cost 20-25, or more. Do that enough times during the season, and it adds up when everyone else is picking a full team every day.

However , bear in mind that each week the salary cap values of the good players usually increase. So, for example, if you have A. Rod, let's say, at a value of 5.0, as long as you keep him on your team he only counts for 5.0 against the cap. But let's say his value increases to 6.0, and the Yankees have an off day. If you replace him with another third baseman, when and if you want to use A. Rod again, you have to add him back at his new value. So you may want to sacrifice the potential points you can get from a replacement third baseman for one day in order to keep A. Rod at the lower price.

Another thing, RE: DB's comment about possibly not picking a pitching staff for the Yanks-Tampa:

The way the scoring system goes, if your pitcher gets bombed, it's possible to wind up with negative points for the day, so it's conceivable that if you have two really bad pitchers going in a small ballpark like they have in Japan, and the final score winds up 9-8 or something with lots of hits and walks, both pitchers could wind up with a negative total, in which case you would have been better off with no pitcher, and a zero score.

Hope this helps :p

Plaw just doesn't quit, does he??

Just to fill the new guys in, plaw won the first half. I won the second half. Plaw "won" the hypothetical overall title, although it never existed.

Hmmm... Looking for a way to respond to plaw's baiting... I got it!

I think plaw is currently the favorite to win the first half. He won the first half last year and was the most consistent player overall.

By the way, if anybody wants to ask any questions on how to play, general strategy, etc... ask away. I'm sure any of the old players are willing to help.

As I've told FS: "Quitters never win"

Besides, I'm going for the early psychological advantage by trash talking 10 days before the game even starts.

Not that it will affect you . Iceman.

Plaw - Way to not intimidate our Kraut-Mick friend who's thinking of joining!

My name is New York Goodfellas. This sucks trying to fit all these guys in 50 m! I've got 4 positions that are gabbling up almost half my money. The rest of my team sucks!

I read plaw's treatise and it made perfect sense to me. I'm sure it made sense to Pork also.

I wonder what it looks like to someone who has never played!

Ok, here's another stupid question because my memory is failing me...

Last year, did our pitching staffs get one point for every out or 3 points per inning? I remember Pork had a 4 out inning last year... Did you get 4 points or 3 points?

Y'know, I cannot for the life of me think of how a 4-out inning can happen, altho I do remember something peculiar like that happening. I really don't recall if I got 4 pts, or only 3 pts and then whined about how I was robbed...

Pitching Staff (PS) Points:

Innings Pitched (IP) = +1 per out (complete IP = +3)
Earned Runs (ER) = -3
Hits (H) = -1
Walks (BB) = -1
Strikeouts (K) = +1
Wins (W) = +5

And yes, those negative numbers can add up to a negative total for the day!

(Newbies should read the How To Play section)

A 4 out inning can happen if the third strike on a third out is counted as a passed ball, the runner can run to first and must be thrown out. If he is safe, the strikeout counts but the pitcher must face another batter.

Duh! Yeah, of course. I better get into Baseball mode - quick!

So yeah, a PS can get 4 K's in an inning... 4 outs... but I don't recall if BBC scored them. I would imagine they would? We'll find out eventually...

How many people are allowed in a group? 10 teams?

Damn...would someone light a damn match in here. The place stinks with so much bullshit.

Up to 50, I believe. But we play one team per person. Congrats, FS. You finally spelled "damn" correctly. :p

So I don't see your team in the league yet
What's this gonna be? Another game for you to backseat drive?

With all the useful suggestions you have (see above), maybe we can get JG to appoint you Assistant Commissioner. You'd get my vote. :rolleyes:

I guess we should help out the newbies with a few words about doubleheaders, also... :rolleyes:

And, BTW guys, I'm giving out these strategy tips because I want to win strictly because I play the game better, not because I know how to play the game better, if you see the distinction. In other words, you won't be getting any advice here (I hope) on strategy for picking your players.

Anyway, anytime there's a doubleheader, the player's stats count for both games. So if you pick a guy who plays both games, and he gets 8 or 9 at bats, he has an excellent chance of earning you more points than a guy who is only playing one game that day.

That usually translates to a mediocre offensive player being a better selection than a star player on that particular day.

The same for your pitching staff. Two mediocre games for 12-15 points each can easilly add up to more points than one well-pitched game, especially if you get at least one win, since before the games even start, you have an automatic +54 for 18 innings pitched (or +48 if you happen to pick a road team's pitching staff, and they lose both games). That's a tough edge to overcome with only one game.

Most days your pitching points result in a positive score, so it's very tough to overcome a two game total with even one well-pitched game. However, if your staff gets racked up in both games, it can result in a huge negative total.

The thing is, though, when you select your players on a given day, there's no indication next to the player's name that his team is playing a doubleheader that day. All they give you is the name of the team he's playing against, and the name of one of the opposing starting pitchers, so you kind of have to know when a doubleheader is scheduled.

You really have to pay attention here, because early in the season there are frequent rainouts, and doubleheaders get scheduled as make-up games at the last minute. That's why some of us serious players wake up in the middle of the night to check our rosters one last time before the 3:00 A.M. Eastern time deadline.

Hope this all helps.

I read plaw's treatise and it made perfect sense to me. I'm sure it made sense to Pork also.

I wonder what it looks like to someone who has never played! [/b][/quote]I'm not sure if I'm going to be playing a game, developing a business mission statement or doing research for a doctoral thesis. Plaw, you astound me. For a guy who spent countless hours at the Fillmore in a purple haze, you are quite cogent and lucid. But, I'm an old dog who likes new tricks so I'm going to stumble along with the Baseball Challenge. But I'm not going to get up at 3am to check for rainouts, injury reports or curfew violations. PLAY BALL!!

The Fillmore daze were 35 years or so ago. My head is just starting to clear now.

I've always enjoyed writing. It's just that now what I write makes sense.

Pee-Lawrence is talking like a junkie in need of his next fix. Fantasy Baseball. After all Fantasy Basketball is just about over and it didn't seem to have the same fanfare as last years baseball. He is here to win and doesn't believe that anyone should play unless they give it their all. So if you think you are coming just for some fun FORGETABOUTIT. Come to play or feel the wrath of Pee-Lawrence.

Come on Pee lets try and make this new season a good one. Loosen up a bit and let everyone enjoy the game, even if you can't have fun during competition. The rest of us can.....

Oh, by the way newbies, even if it sounds like I don't like Pee-Lawrence, The truth is I do, I just like to give him a taste of his own medicine.

By the way Pee- did I spell everything correct?

The spelling looked OK, but you need some help with grammar and sentence structure Run on sentence Should be sharply. Comma after sharply.
Another run-on sentence. Period or semi-colon after "I do".
Should be correctly