So 1 point for a single 2 points for a homerun or something like that?

Don't tell Flame, though... :p

YAHOO !!!!

The game is open!

This thread now rates a sticky.

http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1

League Name:Gangster BB
Password: Corleone
League ID# 6265

Here's what i did so far. Nothing is engraved in stone, and cpmments are inviyed.

Please read; there are some questions in there also;

League ID#: 6265

League Name: Gangster BB

Password: Corleone

Season Type: Full

Draft Type: Live Draft

Draft Time: Mon Mar 20 9:30pm EST

Max Teams: 12

Scoring Type: Points Only

Player Universe: All baseball

Max Moves: No maximum

Max Trades: No maximum

Trade Reject Time: 2 days

Trade End Date: July 30, 2006

Waiver Time: 2 days

Can't Cut List Provider: None

Trade Review: Commissioner

Post Draft Players: Free Agents

Max Games Played: 162 at each position except pitcher

They don't give you the option of limiting your starting pitchers to 162 games total as I had hoped, which, since the best SPs typically start 33-35 games each season, would have added the strategy element of having to decide when not to use a SP. I set it up with 5 starting pitchers and 5 relievers, but they all play every day, since there could be days when anywhere from none to all of your pitchers could play)

Max Innings Pitched: No maximum

Weekly Deadline: Daily - Tomorrow

Start Scoring on: Sunday, Apr 2

Roster Positions:
C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, CF, RF, Util
SP, SP, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, RP, RP, RP
BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN
DL, DL, DL, DL, DL

Every day you'll have one starter at each offensive position. the "utility" spot will be your DH. Keep in mnd when drafting that the 6 bench players can play any position, so you'll probably want to compose your bench like a real MLB team. The 7 (including your utility player who can play a position also, so he doesn't necessarily have to be your DH every day) would be something like one extra infielder at each position, 2 extra outfielders, and one extra catcher.

Keep in mind, however, that with the max # of games at each position being 162, if one of your starters misses an odd game here or there when he stubs his toe, the only way to make that game up is on a day when his team is off, and then you have to hope that your bench player's team isn't also off that day. So this game will require daily attention.

Stat Categories:
Hitting: R, RBI, SB, CS, BB, HBP, TB
Pitching: W, L, SV, OUT, ER, BB, HBP, K, WP, BLK, HLD, TB

These are the same categories offered by ESPN in the daily Salary Cap Game, with a few additions: In hitting, there's "Caught Stealing" (CS), to which I assigned a value of -1, and "Hit By Pitch" (HBP), a +1.

They also give you the option of assigning a value to "Sacrifice Hits" and "Sacrifice Flys". I didn't assign the, any value, but was thinking of +1 for each, since they are positive accomplishments.

In pitching, there's "Saves" (SV), HBP, "Wild Pitches" (WP), "Balks" (BLK), and "Holds" (HLD). See values below.

The "TB" (Total Bases) category is in lieu of the "Hits" category that the ESPN Salary Cap game uses. Instead of -1 for each hit allowed, which treats a home run with the same value as a single, this category will value each total base allowed as -1.

They also give you the option of assigning a value to "Complete Games" and "Shutouts". As rare as these two events are, maybe they should have a value of, say, +2 or +3. Kinda like "bonus points".

Stat Modifiers:
Hitting:
R (1)
RBI (1)
SB (1)
CS (-1)
BB (1)
HBP (1)
TB (1)

Same as ESPN, except for +1 for HBP and -1 for CS.

Pitching: W (6)
L (-6)
SV (3)
OUT (1)
ER (-3)
BB (-1)
HBP (-1)
K (1)
WP (-1)
BLK (-1)
HLD (1)
TB (-1)

A few big differences here: +6 for a "Win" instead of +5, because remember; In the ESPN game you get points for the entire pitching staff. here, you'll only get the "Win Points" if your starter actually gets credit for the win.

Also, a BIG question: A put a -6 value on a starter getting the "Loss". Do we want that, and if so, should that be the value?

Also, I liked the symetry of the values here: + or -6 for a win or loss, +3 for a "Save", +1 for a "Hold".

DB, JG, DM.....Questions and comments, please.

And, of course, from anyone else who wants to play (*cough*MOAAFS*cough*).

I, of course, have plenty to say about this, but it's late right now... I'll give my $2 w/in the next couple days....

Crap, first post of the page. Might as well re-post that...

YAHOO !!!!

The game is open!

This thread now rates a sticky.

http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1

League Name:Gangster BB
Password: Corleone
League ID# 6265

Here's what I did so far. Nothing is engraved in stone, and comments are invited.

Please read; there are some questions in there also;

League ID#: 6265

League Name: Gangster BB

Password: Corleone

Season Type: Full

Draft Type: Live Draft

Draft Time: Mon Mar 20 9:30pm EST

Max Teams: 12

Scoring Type: Points Only

Player Universe: All baseball

Max Moves: No maximum

Max Trades: No maximum

Trade Reject Time: 2 days

Trade End Date: July 30, 2006

Waiver Time: 2 days

Can't Cut List Provider: None

Trade Review: Commissioner

Post Draft Players: Free Agents

Max Games Played: 162 at each position except pitcher

They don't give you the option of limiting your starting pitchers to 162 games total as I had hoped, which, since the best SPs typically start 33-35 games each season, would have added the strategy element of having to decide when not to use a SP. I set it up with 5 starting pitchers and 5 relievers, but they all play every day, since there could be days when anywhere from none to all of your pitchers could play)

Max Innings Pitched: No maximum

Weekly Deadline: Daily - Tomorrow

Start Scoring on: Sunday, Apr 2

Roster Positions:

C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, CF, RF, Util
SP, SP, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, RP, RP, RP
BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN
DL, DL, DL, DL, DL

Every day you'll have one starter at each offensive position. the "utility" spot will be your DH. Keep in mnd when drafting that the 6 bench players can play any position, so you'll probably want to compose your bench like a real MLB team. The 7 (including your utility player who can play a position also, so he doesn't necessarily have to be your DH every day) would be something like one extra infielder at each position, 2 extra outfielders, and one extra catcher.

Keep in mind, however, that with the max # of games at each position being 162, if one of your starters misses an odd game here or there when he stubs his toe, the only way to make that game up is on a day when his team is off, and then you have to hope that your bench player's team isn't also off that day. So this game will require at least some daily attention.

However, you can still "set it and forget it" for a few days at a time, anyway.

Also, up to five guys in the disabled list at any time, but I assume that they have to be on the "real life" disabled list to put them there.

Stat Categories:

Hitting: R, RBI, SB, CS, BB, HBP, TB
Pitching: W, L, SV, OUT, ER, BB, HBP, K, WP, BLK, HLD, TB

These are the same categories offered by ESPN in the daily Salary Cap Game, with a few additions: In hitting, there's "Caught Stealing" (CS), to which I assigned a value of -1, and "Hit By Pitch" (HBP), a +1.

They also give you the option of assigning a value to "Sacrifice Hits" and "Sacrifice Flys". I didn't assign them any value yet, but was thinking of +1 for each, since they are positive accomplishments.

In pitching, there's "Saves" (SV), HBP, "Wild Pitches" (WP), "Balks" (BLK), and "Holds" (HLD). See values below.

The "TB" (Total Bases) category is in lieu of the "Hits" category that the ESPN Salary Cap game uses. Instead of -1 for each hit allowed, which treats a home run with the same value as a single, this category will value each total base allowed as -1.

They also give you the option of assigning a value to "Complete Games" and "Shutouts". As rare as these two events are, maybe they should have a value of, say, +2 or +3. Kinda like "bonus points".

Stat Modifiers:

Hitting:
R (1)
RBI (1)
SB (1)
CS (-1)
BB (1)
HBP (1)
TB (1)

Same as ESPN, except for +1 for HBP and -1 for CS.

Pitching: W (6)
L (-6)
SV (3)
OUT (1)
ER (-3)
BB (-1)
HBP (-1)
K (1)
WP (-1)
BLK (-1)
HLD (1)
TB (-1)

A few big differences here: +6 for a "Win" instead of +5, because remember; In the ESPN game you get points for the entire pitching staff. Here, you'll only get the "Win Points" if your starter actually gets credit for the win.

Also, a BIG question: A put a -6 value on a starter getting the "Loss". Do we want that, and if so, should that be the value?

Also, I liked the symetry of the values here: + or -6 for a win or loss, +3 for a "Save", +1 for a "Hold".

DB, JG, DM.....Questions and comments, please.

And, of course, from anyone else who wants to play (*cough*MOAAFS*cough*).

Ooooh....I can't wait

A couple of quick early thoughts:

1) I scheduled the draft for fairly close to the start of the season, figuring the closer it is to the start, the more knowledge we'll have, but keeping in mind that it may be harder to plan your personal calender so far in advance, maybe we want to go for an earlier date.

2) Depending on how much pre-draft planning you're gonna do, bear in mind that the Yahoo player rankings are based on Rotisserie scoring (i.e, all other things being equal, a guy with 40 stolen bases rates equally with a guy with 40 homers) and may not have all that much bearing on our scoring system.

Albert Pujols and A Rod are still Pujols and A Rod, but once you get past the top guys, be careful.

plaw what is a hold?

A hold is when a relief pitcher from the winning team comes into the game and doesn't give up the lead (yet also cannot be credited with a win or save)...

Or, a hold is what you're doing right now down your pants. :p

Precisely why I said plaw

But thank you JG

Plaw, do you think you should change and then hide the password so not just anyone can join this league (if you know what I mean)?

I like having no can't cut roster, that thing annoys me. I think +1 for Sac Fly and bunts are good. +6 for wins doesnt matter to me I am ok with 5 or 6.
There is no -1 for a strikeout or anything like that? The only way for your offensive player to lose points is if he is caught stealing?

edit: for patching stats I think a shutout should be worth one more point than we make a complete game but thats just my opinion.

That's a good point, and I agree. -1 for a K. I also think that a batter should get -2 for grounding into a double play. There's no reason why only pitchers should be penalized - batters should, too.

If in a game A-Rod were to strike out 3 times and also GIDP, that trillionaire deserves -5 for the day. :p

I was gonna mention also -1 for committing errors, but that's not something that happens in a batter's box anyway, so I think we shouldn't get into fielding stats.... even for pitchers.

Too late. I'm already in. :p

Damn! :rolleyes:



I, of course, didn't mean my favorite crabcake!

I'm glad I'm somebody's favorite something.

I have to come back to make sure the basement apartment is taken care of. I understand it was trashed last season.

Just for you, at the bar tonight I ordered the crab dip. However, of course, it's NOTHING like the REAL stuff you get there in Maryland... it was like melted cream cheese that they dipped a crap (lol - a real typo I'm leaving!) into for a second. :rolleyes:

You two around for an IM chat?

Guess not.

Regarding negative values for batters strikeouts and GIDPs:

As currently setup, the offensive scoring system reflects exactly (except for the minimal impact of caught stealing) the ESPN Salary Cap Game scoring system that we're all used to.

If you login to the ESPN game, you can still get last year's FPPG for each player, so I figured that there's a perfect research resource already at our disposal.

If you want to assign a negative value to strieouts, that means, for research purposes for the draft, looking up last year's strikeout totals for each of the 90-100 or so players (assuming that there are six of us in the league) we're gonna have to draft, and adjusting each player's FPPG average accordingly.

Strikeout totals vary wildly from player to player; from maybe 40-50 a season to 150-160, so they would really need to be taken into account.

I'm happy to include that stat, as well as a negative for GIDPs, but keep in mind that out of everyone in the league I'm probably the person with the most time and greatest inclination to do what I described above.

If we do use those stats, I assure you that I will do the necessary work and research, which will give me an advantage over anyone who doesn't.

I figured on draft day, everyone could simply print out the page for each offensive position from the ESPN Salary Cap Game, and you'd a have a ready made "player rater" handy for our game.

But without strikeouts in the ESPN stats......

Word for today, kids, is: Verbose. :rolleyes:





What's the ol' saying again? Do what I say, and what I want?? Something like that..... :p

What happened to "windbag"?

Yeah, well, that was proven in basketball... :rolleyes:

I just want stats -- for once! -- to be realistic, if we're gonna do this right. Cuz if we're not gonna do this right, then, I'll stick with ESPN's game.

GIDP is a bad thing - stats should reflect that, but it never did before.

Striking out is a bad thing, and again, it never was before (in our games).

If we're gonna penalize a pitcher for fucking up, we should also penalize a batter for fucking up.

Period.

If that includes extra research (which, I, for one, wasn't even thinking of - I was just thinking day-to-day performace), then, so be it...

That's fine with me.

I was just thinking of everyone else.

But it won't be much fun if no one else wants to play because of the pre-draft research they're gonna have to do b/c that know that you and I are gonna do it.

But carrying your logic one step further, isn't any out made by a batter a negative?

We start doing that, and a guy who has a season like this:

600 ABs
35 Doubles
8 Triples
25 Homers
112 Singles (giving him a .300 batting average)
100 Runs
100 RBIs
60 Walks
420 Outs

Will finish the season with 146 FPs, less than 1 FPPG.

Even counting strikeouts only, from a typically good offensive player with power, subtracting 100 strikeouts willl bring his FPPG average down more than half a point per game.

And this, in turn, will overvalue pitching.

You want to talk about realistic......

Real life baseball only counts "outs" made by hitters as a negative in the context of those categories which are bsed on percentages: Batting Average, On Base Percentage, and Slugging Percentage.

Everyting ele is what Bill James calls a "countng" stat (you guys have heard this before, I think): Homers, RBIs, Runs, Doubles, Triples, etc.

Strangely, they award the Home Run Championship based on the number of homers, not number of homers per at bat.

Yet the Batting Championship is based not on the number of hits, but the number of hiys per at bat.

So what's my point?

I dunno.

I guess what I'm saying is that for the purposes of realism, MLB only counts outs in their "percentage" categories, and our game, being, in effect, a game in which only a players daily "counting" stats count for points, it's inconsistent to subtract strikeouts - which are not necessarily any worse than any other kind of out (if Mike Piazza is up with a man on first and less than two out, I'd rather see him strike out than hit a ground ball to short, for example) anyway.

And if we subtract all of a guys outs, the offensive totals will be ridiculously low.

We could, for simplicity, leave the entire scoring system just like ESPN Salary Cap. Forget about HBP, WP, CS, Pitching Losses, Sac Flys & Bunts, Subtracting Total Bases from a pitcher's total, rather than just hits....

But over the years we've discussed all of the above, I believe, and mostly agreed that using those stats would improve the game.

I don't remember the subject of batter's strikeouts or batter's outs ever coming up for discussion.

So what are you saying, JG? If we don't count batter's strikeouts a a negative, you don't want to play?

There’s another important issue which needs to be addressed:

In my post in which I went over the scoring values, I wrote the following:

They don't give you the option of limiting your starting pitchers to 162 games total as I had hoped, which, since the best SPs typically start 33-35 games each season, would have added the strategy element of having to decide when not to use a SP. I set it up with 5 starting pitchers and 5 relievers, but they all play every day, since there could be days when anywhere from none to all of your pitchers could play)

I realized that with no limit on the number of games for starting pitchers, the following would inevitably happen:

If there are six, or even eight, of us in the league, we will draft 30-40 SPs, so there will be tons of good ones still available as free agents at the conclusion of the draft.

What I would do, and what would be perfectly sound and legal strategy, would be to drop all five of my starters every day and add 5 news ones to make sure that I had 5 SPs going every day.

What I would do is this:

Let’s say opening day is Monday.

On Sunday, I would look at Monday’s Probable Pitchers and drop any of them that were pitching on Monday, replacing them with guys who were pitching on Tuesday.

With the two-day lag in adding/dropping players, the guys I drop Sunday would still be on my Team Monday, and the new guys would become part of my team on Tueday, just in time to pitch.

Then, on Monday, I would do the same. I’d drop everyone who was scheduled to pitch Tuesday and replace them with pitchers scheduled to pitch Wednesday.

And I’d do that all season long.

So naturally, everyone else would follow the same strategy – they’d have to. I’d be getting 5 starts a day for 180 days, while anyone else who just holds on to their original 5 starters would wind up with only 165 or so.

And I would have to start doing this, because if I don’t and someone else adopts that strategy first, they immediately get 5 extra starts – worth maybe 50-75 points more or less.

Even if we have a “gentleman’s agreement” not to do this, it can’t be prevented.

Suppose I have a starter that I want to drop because he’s shit. If I drop him on Tuesday, I’m naturally gonna look for a guy pitching on Thursday or Friday so I can pick up an extra start.

This is perfectly acceptable strategy in Roto and HTH leagues, by the way.
All of the games sites, as well as Rotoworld, publish the upcoming week’s schedules, usually in spreadsheet form, so if you have, say, a hockey player whose team is scheduled for only two games in the upcoming week, you can drop him and replace him with a guy playing four times.

Anyway, this is not the way I envision our game being played. First of all, it will really become a daily game by necessity, which is something, I think, that none of us want.

And, as far as pitching goes, it will totally eliminate the realism factor and reduce the skill in drafting pitchers to nothing, while emphasizing the importance of guessing right on which 5 pitchers to select for the upcoming day.

PLUS….it gives a huge advantage to the person(s) who are able to be awake at the right time(s) of day to claim free agents first, since theoretically we’d all be going after the same guys.

Hopefully you guys get the picture b/c I’m not sure if I explained the problem very well.

Anyway, here’s the solution I came up with:

While you can’t create a maximum number of games played for each starting pitcher position, or a total max for all of them, they do allow you to make “Games Started” a stat category.

So if we agree among ourselves that the maximum number of starts allowed will be 162, and award a +1 for every start, then Yahoo will keep track of it for us.

On the bottom right of your team’s Home Page there’s a link to “Team Log” that “displays all players that have ever earned fantasy stats for this team, regardless of whether or not they are still on the team.”

So you can manage your 162 game max through that, plus I’ll include it every day in the scoring update.

Now you’re free to adopt any strategy you want. You can use up all 162 starts the first 4 or 5 weeks of the season by picking 5 new starters for every day, or try and space it out over the whole season.

And since, as I said earlier somewhere, the average #1 or #2 starter makes 33-35 starts a year, you’ll have to pick some spots during the season to bench one of your starting pitchers, or you’ll hit the 162 mark before the end of the season and may lose out on some more favorable match-ups later.

As far as the superfluous +1 point for each start (it’s necessary, otherwise the number of starts won’t appear on your Team Log, so it will be much harder to keep track of your starts and to have the number verified), well, if we all hit 162, then the net result of an additional 162 points will be zilch, because we’ll all get the 162 points.

And if you screw up somehow at the end, or if one of your starters misses a couple of turns because of a minor injury and you didn’t want to drop him, then at the very end you can go with the strategy of dropping guys whose last start may have been Thursday of the last week, and adding guys who still have a start left.

And if someone screws up so totally that they only wind up with 159 or 160 starts at the end, then they deserve to have those 2 or 3 less points than everyone else.

The only slight flaw in this idea, of course, is that if someone goes over the 162 mark, we’ll have to manually deduct the points for any start after #162.

But I don’t think that’s gonna happen, because, as I said, we’ll publish everyone’s number every day, and each of us will be able to track it ourselves through our Team Log.

Whaddaya you guys think?

What do I think? I think I was just hoping to make sure I had at least one Johnson or Woody to play with.

Poor Geoff. You gotta come to Baltimore to get your crab dip hot and spicy. Anything else is just a cheap imitation.

Summary of the Open Questions:

-- My idea about how to handle the 162 game max for starting pitchers.

I vote "Yes"

-- Assigning a negative value to GIDPs.

I vote "Yes". If a regular out counts as a "0", then a GIDP, where a guy makes two outs for the price of one, should be a -1.

-- Assignng a negative value to batter's strikeouts

I vote "No", even though I think it will give me personally an advantage because I know I will do the necessay research to adjust last year's ESPN scores (I'm not gonna bother adjusting for GIDPs and CS, since the effect of those is very minimal)

But I don't care. I'll abastain from the voting and do it the way everyone else wants to

-- Assigning a value of -6 for a starting pitcher charged with a loss.

I vote "Yes". It seems to make sense.

-- Assigning a value of +1 to Sacrifice Flys, Sac Bunts, and Hit-by-Pitch.

I vote "Yes". Altho all three will have minimal impact, they should be counted.

-- Charging a pitcher -1 for each total base allowed, rather than -1 for each hit.

I vote "Yes". Also seems to make sense, and will further devalue pitching.

-- Charging a pitcher -1 for a HBP, Wild Pitch, and Balk

I vote "Yes". All will have minimal impact, but all should be counted.

--Assigning a positive value for a pitcher's Shutout or Complete Game

I vote "yes". They are relatively rare occurances, so the impact will be minimal, but they should be rewarded. I'm thinking +2 or possibly +3 for each.

-- Here's a new one: They don't give you the option of deducting points for a "Blown Save", but you can assign a value to "Save Opportunities".

If a guy has 20 opportunites and makes 15 saves while blowing 5, he should wind up with a net of +30 (15 saves minus 5 blown saves = 10 "successes, times 3 pts for each success).

So if we assign each "Save Opportunity" a negative value of -3, and each successful save a value of +6, then we'll get a net value of +3 for Saves minus Blown Saves.

Which would be more desirable than simply awarding +3 for each save.

Example: 20 opportunities, 15 saves, 5 blown saves.

So his “net” is 10, and we’d want him to have +30 points

20 opportunities times -3 per opportunity = -60

15 saves times +6 per save + +90

Net = +30

Another example:

A guy finishes the season with 40 saves and 7 blown saves.

So his net is 33 .

At 3 points each, we would want him to finish with +99.

So, 47 opportunities times -3 per opportunity = -141

40 saves times +6 per save = +240

So his net is 99

Okay, you make some good points re: -1 for a batter's K. I was gonna then suggest -1 for a GIDP (which in a sense is 2 outs), but you beat me to it. I'm fine with that now.

Luckily you put so much thought into this that I don't have to.

As for this and the subsequent strategy you presented:
Do you really think there are that many quality SPs out there??

I think there'd be a handful of SP's we'd consider true Aces - and I suppose we'd each be able to draft one. I didn't really notice that you wanted FIVE open SP slots per day... that's a bit much, no? I think we should start ONE SP per day, with 5 on our bench. If I have 1 of each other position player, why would I have to worry about filling 5 SP slots per day?

Or did I misinterpret what you were saying?

We should have 1 SP, and say 2-3 RPs, and 1 closer, like a real team, per day.

It was hard enough in BBC to pick the best pitching matchup - I'm not about to try and pick 5 per day. We should pick 1 from our own personal pool of SPs.

Here's the problem with doing it the way you suggest, JG:

Even if only two of your pitchers are on the same schedule and pitching the same day, at the end of the seacon you'll wind up with 30 odd fewer starts than someone else in the league whose five starters are all on a different day.

To me, that unfairly penalizes you for something you have no control over - the real-life manager's pitching rotation.

Think of it this way:

If there are 6 of us in the league - I'm hoping for you, me, Crabby, DB, DM, and JL.

If that’s the case, we’ll draft 30 starting pitchers.

Yeah, there are only a handful of “aces’, but once we get past those, there is still at least a decent #1 starter on almost very team.

Opening day is Sun, April 2, when there’s only one game.

Then on Mon, April 3, there are 13 games involving 26 teams.

Here’s the schedule:

Nationals at
Mets

Pirates at
Brewers


Red Sox at
Rangers

Cubs at
Reds

Devil Rays at
Orioles

Cardinals at
Phillies

Diamondbacks at
Rockies

Tigers at
Royals

Braves at
Dodgers

Angels at
Mariners

Marlins at
Astros

Giants at
Padres

Yankees at
Athletics

Let’s say, for example, your 5 starters are Martinez (Mets), Mussina (Yankees), Sabbitha (Indians), Pettitte (Astros), and Smoltz (Atlanta).

Except for Pedro (maybe), who in that group is really one of the handful of “Aces”?

Yet all could be possibly considered their team’s #! Starter, and all could possibly pitch on opening day.

So it’s certainly possible that after the draft you could wind up with any or all of the above five.

Well, not likely that you’ll have all 5, but I bet at the end of the draft there are at least one or two of us who have two and possibly three of the pitchers that start opening day.

Remember, we’re only gonna draft 30 starting pitchers.

If I looked it up right now, I could guess who the 30 would be, and I bet I'd get 25-26 of them right, and I’d also bet that out of the 30 that we do draft, 25-26 of them wind up being their team’s opening day starter.

So let’s say you have three of those guys. So you go with Pedro on Monday, and pass on Smoltz and Mussina.

Then on Tuesday, you use Pettitte, and on Wednesday you go with Sabbitha.

Now it’s Thursday and Friday, and you have no starting pitcher.

Those two days are gone forever. If we only use one starter a day, you can’t “make up” those two days with your bench like we can at the other positions.

The point is that it is theoretically possible, due to the MLB schedule and the “luck” of pitching rotations, that at the end of the season you could have anywhere form 33-34 starts for the season, up to as many as maybe 170.

What my system does is say, “Look…you have 5 starters. The season is 162 games long. You can’t have more than 162 starts, (which is possible your way). All we’re doing is guaranteeing everyone the same chance at getting those 162 starts. Which days those 162 starts take place on doesn’t really matter.”

Plus, your way, what we don’t want to happen will start to happen: people will start to drop and add starters just because of the rotation.

Suppose there are 6 of us, and we draft 30 starters.

The you discover that two of them are pitching the seond day of the season, and you look at the schedule and days off and everything, and figure out that for their next 6 turns they’re both gonna be pitching the same day.

That means you will lose 6 starts that you can never get back.

So you drop one – let’s say he was the 24th starter selected – and pick up the 37th best starter as a free agent.

Wouldn’t you do that? Wouldn’t the drop in quality from 24th best to 37th best be worth it to pick up the 6 starts?

Meanwhile, the guy you drop helps someone out that’s in the same spot that you are, so he picks up your guy and drops someone else.

And on and on it will go.

What will happen is the entire focus of the game will become making sure that you have a decent starting pitcher on your team for every day of the season.

And if we’re only gonna pick 30 starters, there will always be someone available that’s better than not getting any starting pitching points at all on that day.

I'd much rather have the stability with our teams where you can say:

"These are my 5 starters. If there are no injuries, I know that bewteen the five of them I'll have 160-170 opportunities, so all I have to worry about is figuring out which games I may want to bench one of them because they're pitching at Coors or whatever"

Naturally, if one of them bombs for the season, or gets injured, you're gonna make a move anyway, but it will be for the same reasons that managers do in real life.

I hope I explained all of this OK.....This particular question, I think, is the most important one one out there.

If Yahoo set it up with a maximum games at each position for starting pitchers, this would not be a problem.

Look at our Yahoo Basketball League when you look at the max games played chart.

If for baseball they just showed "162" as the maximum for the "Starting Pitcher" position, just as they will for the other positions I presume, this whole thing would take care of itself.

And if they did do it that way, wouldn't you have all of your starting pitchers playing every day (except for those rare days when you wanted to bench them because they were at Coors or something, and knowing that if you left all of them in every day you would use up your 162 games before the end of the season since, barring injury, each starter will make 33-35 starts each, so you would rather pick the spots yourself when to bench them, rather than having them be benched because you used up your whole 162 games?).

My way does it exactly the way we would be playing it if Yahoo did have the 162 game max on starting pitchers as they do for the other positions, except that when you hit the 162 mark it won't automatically stop counting your points (We'll just have to do it manually, but it won't be a big deal since if anyone goes over the limit by accident, it won't be until near the very end of the season).