2008 Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball (Live Draft)

ID# 144275
Passw: corleone

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I've created the league, and it kept all settings from last year. I've set a tentative Live Draft date of Wednesday, March 19, at 6:30 PM ET. This can be changed if it's not convenient for everyone

Those who can dedicate 6 months of active play are encourage to join. If you can't commit, then please don't sign up. There's nothing worse than someone drafting players that later become unavailable because someone dropped out. Of course, unforeseen things happen which is understandable, but please only play if you're serious. Please also note there is a limit of 12 teams in this league at this time.

2007 Standings: BL, DB, JL, TM, JG, DM, DA, FC, AP

League Settings
League ID#: 144275
League Name: Gangster BB
Password: corleone
Season Type: Full
Draft Type: Live Draft
Draft Time: Wed Mar 19 6:00pm EDT [ Add to My Calendar ]
Max Teams: 9
Scoring Type: Points Only
Player Universe: All baseball
Max Moves: No maximum
Max Trades: No maximum
Trade Reject Time: 2
Trade End Date: August 10, 2008
Waiver Time: 2 days
Can't Cut List Provider: Yahoo! Sports
Trade Review: Commissioner
Post Draft Players: Follow Waiver Rules
Max Games Played: 162
Max Innings Pitched: No maximum
Weekly Deadline: Daily - Tomorrow
Start Scoring on: Monday, Mar 24
Roster Positions: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, CF, RF, Util, SP, SP, SP, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, RP, RP, RP, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, DL, DL, DL, DL, DL
Stat Categories: R, 1B, 2B, 3B, HR, RBI, SF, SB, CS, BB, HBP, GIDP, GS, W, L, CG, SHO, SV, OUT, H, ER, BB, HBP, K, WP, SVOP, HLD
Stat Modifiers: R (1), 1B (1), 2B (2), 3B (3), HR (4), RBI (1), SF (1), SB (2), CS (-1), BB (1), HBP (1), GIDP (-1), GS (1), W (7), L (-6), CG (3), SHO (3), SV (8), OUT (1), H (-1), ER (-3), BB (-1), HBP (-1), K (1), WP (-1), SVOP (-5), HLD (1)

Any night that week would work for me except the 17th.

One thing I do have to think about is the loss category... It always bugged me that a pitcher can throw a great game but can still end up with a loss with no run support. Alternatively, maybe 7 points is too much for a win if the pitcher stunk but lucked out with a lot of run support. The loss/blown save double negative always bugged me as well.

Maybe we should do away with the loss category altogether and bump pitching wins to 5 points?

I think a loss should count for something. Lowering it from -6 to -4 would be a good idea though IMO. Also, lowering SVOP from -5 to -4 or -3 would be better too.

Any day/time is good for me too. And this year I wont use all my picthing in the first week.

I've suggested more than once getting rid of the loss category and I always felt it sounded absurd for more experienced players, but now that DB might be with me, I really believe we should discuss it. and why the 2 points for SB? it is not that big a deal, but is it as valuable as a 2B ?

I'm okay with the draft date.

Between JL, TM and I we were like three kids sitting in the backseat of a car saying "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"

Thanks for starting the league

I agree something should be done with the pitching. I was just looking at the highest total for fantasy points for hitters, SP's and RP's and the top number of each for last season looks like this:

Batters:
1. Alex Rodrigeuz - 829 pts.
2. Jimmy Rollins - 740 pts.

SP's:
1. Jake Peavy - 605
2. C.C. Sabathia - 530
3. Brandon Webb - 498

RP's:
1. J.J. Putz - 355
2. Takashi Saito - 298 (!)

That's quite a huge gap from batters to pitchers, especially for RP's. I would be okay with a minimal change for starters, but something should definitely be done for relievers.

Thing is, batters play every day and pitchers don't...

If we start taking away points for things like loses and stolen bases, then we turn this into a noobie league.

yes, but does that mean that the gap between the top hitter and the top pitcher should be all of 224 pts? the most experienced fantasy players should answer that.



I'm not saying taking away SB, but I personally don't see the logic why it is worth 2 pts, but what the hell, I guess it's more fun for me 'cause I'd rather have the 20/20 guy over the 40 HR slugger anyway.

let's take a deeper look at it:

A-Rod had a monster season last year, and I don't think it should be used as a standard, so I checked the gap between the 2nd best hitter and the top pitcher.

Jimmy Rollins 740 pts
Jake Peavy 605 pts
GAP = 135 pts - just right, I guess!

but Peavy also had an year that ranks in a league of his own, winning the NL pitching triple crown. so I checked the gap between the 2nd best hitter and the 2nd best pitcher

Jimmy Rollins 740 pts
C.C. Sabathia 530 pts
GAP = 210 pts - just a little too much, no?

Just my two cents if I may.

Over in the league that I've played in for the past couple of years, we give 1 point for a stolen base and -1 for caught stealing.

For starting pitchers :

W (10), L (-5), CG (5), SHO (5), ER (-1), HR (-1), BB (-1), Hit Batter (-1), K (1), No Hitter (20), Perfect Game (20)

I specifically like the MINUS category in Earned Runs allowed because this way, if a pitcher pitches a real shitty game and gives up a lot of earned runs, but gets enough run support to still win, with the MINUS category for Earned Runs allowed, he's penalized for pitching a shitty game.

This was a good league last year and I'm really looking forward to this season (fantasy and real).

I don't know if it's possible, but I think intentional walks (for hitters) should be worth 2 points.

As for the draft, the 19th is ok but could it be pushed back to 6:30 or 7:00?

I made this same argument last year. If we lower SB value to 1/-1, then it will make players that hit .250 with 20 HR's more valuable than players that hit .320 and steal 40+ bases.

DC, are you going to play with us here in this league? You should.

I'll probably keep changing my mind the more I read everyone's arguments here. Right now I'm feeling that the way the league was set up last year was good.

I remember last year there were complaints when a relief pitcher scored 20 or so points in one day because that seemed ridiculous. But relievers also have the chance to destroy you by just as much each day. They are so inconsistent in usually one inning per outing that it magnifies everything they do.

I would agree about getting rid of the loss category, or maybe changing it to -3 or -4 instead of -6, but then that would change the way we look at relievers as well.

If you change the stats, it will also change the points scored by players in the player list section right? So maybe if you changed the things we are discussing temporarily we could see how those changes would have affected the players stats last year.

Thanks Blibble. I'm giving it some serious consideration. I really don't like playing in more than one Fantasy Baseball league because I find it takes up an enormous amount of time and effort to stay on top of two or more teams. Especially in the summer. But I'm thinking about it.

My inclination is:
- Lower losses to -4
- Lower save ops to -3
- Leave SB/CS the way it is currently for the reasons cited by everyone above (e.g. 30/30 player > 40+ HR player)

I'll change it to these settings. You guys should take a look at how the points play out based on last year's stats and see if you like them better.

Sounds good to me.

I think I asked about GIDP (-1) once before... should this be -2 since it causes 2 outs?

No. You're not taking a point away from everyone that makes 1 out.
-1 is more than enough.

We don't take away points for a normal out so I think -1 is punishment enough for the other out.

Doh! ...and that's probably the answer I got last year. Good point. lol

But GIDP (-1) is worse than CS (-1), isn't it?

Perhaps, but it separates the players that steal 40 bases and get caught 25 times from the player that gets caught 5 times.

Man, if Plaw were still around, he'd be having a field day with you about this!

We use the GIDP as a -1 in our league. Personally I like that stat because it makes ranking/drafting a power hitter that much more strategic. If a power hitter has a high percentage of HR's but is not a clutch hitter with men on base, and he has a high percentage of GIDP, you may not draft him or rank him as high as you would without the GIDP stat in the league.

You don't know the half of it. I once had close to a 2-hour chat session w/ Plaw discussing scoring for fantasy baseball. At one point, he was waiting for me as I calculated the average save conversion ratio (saves / save opportunities) for all MLB closers.

PL and I had a similar session on the fantasy values of mediocre closers vs the best setup men.

Speaking of that, changing the SVOP value makes closers more valuable than setup men. Should we slightly raise the value of Holds? Right now a save gives you 5 points while a hold only gets 1.

Let the closer vs. setup men debate begin

well, I believe the closers are supposed to be way more valuable than the setup men!

if we get rid of the 'loss' category, or at least lower the minus pts for it, all pitchers will become a little more valuable and that's it, problem fixed.