Topic: fantasy baseball (Read 87784 times)

0bsessions · « **Reply #50 on:** 28 Mar 2009, 10:31 »

Bryan (West Coast US)
Shane (East Coast US)
Rachel (East Coast US)
Myself (East Coast US)
Rob (UK)
KickThatBathProf (Midwest US)
Matt (Midwest US)
Reed (East Coast US)
Dazed (East Coast US)
Alex C (Midwest US)
SilentJ (East Coast US)
DonInKansas (I'm going to assume Midwest US)

So, that's twelve, past the minimum number Bryan wanted, so I'm going to say right here we should establish a hard cutoff of midnight tonight (West coast US time) for people who want in. John and Jens, as I know, are maybes, so if one wants in, we'll probably need both unless some more people show up. If we end up with an odd number, I'll ask around and see if I can find someone else so we can get everyone who wants to play in.

Quote from: KvP on 27 Mar 2009, 19:39

I could play, but be advised that I will only pick players on the basis of how interesting their names are.

I shit you not, this came up at a party last night. A friend had this girl in his fantasy league who knew nothing about baseball and decided to just draft based on how "pretty" the players' names were.

She drafted a team consisting of Johan Santana, Albert Pujols, Vlad Guerrero and Manny Ramirez among others. Needless to say, she took second place.

Picking players based entirely on their names is at least a vaguely viable solution.

valley_parade · « **Reply #51 on:** 28 Mar 2009, 10:32 »

Rita tried that once and then proceeded to try and draft Jacoby Ellsbury in every single round.

KickThatBathProf · « **Reply #52 on:** 28 Mar 2009, 10:40 »

That seems a lot better than what my friend did in an NCAA pool this year. He picked the games based on which mascot would lose in a fight.

0bsessions · « **Reply #53 on:** 28 Mar 2009, 11:08 »

That's probably how I would've done it.

SilentJ · « **Reply #54 on:** 28 Mar 2009, 11:22 »

Quote from: valley_parade on 28 Mar 2009, 07:01

Quote from: SilentJ on 27 Mar 2009, 23:49
Hopefully Chien-Ming Wang is healthy by now.

Oh man, you're serious?

Fan bias. Though if you recall, dude had back to back 19-win seasons. Were it not for him being so injury-prone I definitely would take him, but given that Sabathia is probably my bias pick.

Storm Rider · « **Reply #55 on:** 28 Mar 2009, 14:40 »

Considering I'm going to be making this league tonight, I feel like I need more input from everyone on what style of scoring would be best. I only got a couple of noncommittal opinions, I'd really like to hear something more decisive before we set this in stone.

0bsessions · « **Reply #56 on:** 28 Mar 2009, 15:52 »

Well, I'm trying to keep my input low because I'm not used to this fantasy stuff, but simplest stuff possible is how I'd say we should go. Try to keep the stats minimal so the people who don't know baseball too well won't have to stress about figuring out like forty different stats.

I'd be willing to help out in picking the stats if you wanna PM me. I'm gonna be in and out tonight, so it's hard to get in touch on it.

Storm Rider · « **Reply #57 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 00:00 »

Alright, it is midnight PST, which means signups are closed and we have a 13-team league. However, I probably won't actually make the league until tomorrow evening when I get back to my apartment, so if anybody missed this thread until now somehow or expressed interest but didn't give me or Jon and definite confirmation (Jens, John, I don't really know how facetious your comments were meant to be), PM me and if it's in time I may be able to be flexible on that. In the meantime, if anybody has any input on their preferred league types or scoring categories, please say so because otherwise I am going to wing it myself with perhaps some input from Jon if he's available. If we don't get another team by tomorrow we may have to do rotisserie simply because we'll have an odd number of teams, but I'll figure that out when the time comes.

The first game of the season is April 5th at 5 PM PST, so we need to have the draft over and done with by then.

0bsessions · « **Reply #58 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 09:46 »

I haven't gotten any other PMs, so there's no surprise entrants. I'm going down to Rachel's house for the evening, so I will be unavailable until close to nine or ten eastern time. If it's possible for you to wait until then to get it rolling, I'd appreciate it, though I'll understand if you just wanna go ahead and do it whenever you've got the free time today.

In terms of preference, the simpler the better. We've got a lot of new people to the baseball world, so we don't want to overwhelm them, so I say a simple set of stats without throwing too many in.

valley_parade · « **Reply #59 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 09:50 »

Would you consider OPS a complex stat?

Quote from: Joe Torre

oh, and who can forget the time i was kidnapped and freighted to a gulag in kamchatka

my fellow prisoners and i had to communicate through the wall through morse code via banging a wooden bowl against the wall

we were talking baseball stats, and it proved tedious to actually morse out a player's on-base percentage and then his slugging percentage, so we simply shared OPS

oh man

and also

there was the time i did shrooms and decided that i wanted to be able to stare at a fixed point and comprehend as much as possible without moving my eyes at all

i re-arranged my living room furniture, shoving the sofas, end-table, coffee table, and entertainment center into one corner of the room, then just sat and stared at it, and yelled, "LIVING ROOM"

then i took andruw jones' on-base percentage and slugging percentage and added them together, and stared at it, and screamed, "HORRIBLE BASEBALL PLAYER"

Dazed · « **Reply #60 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 10:29 »

Man, OPS isn't complex, it's just a pointless stat. It isn't a comparison of anything, just 2 stats put together. If you're already counting slugging and OBP as fantasy stats, then it's totally meaningless.

DonInKansas · « **Reply #61 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 11:00 »

Agreed. Jsut stick with the Basics. They should have a preset league setup that goes that way.

valley_parade · « **Reply #62 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 11:02 »

Guys that was all just to post a Dugout quote, come on.

Storm Rider · « **Reply #63 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 17:26 »

If anything, I'll probably be removing stats from the default setup rather than adding them. I also may tweak the positions a bit, but I'll worry about that later. Jon, I have no problem waiting until you're available, I just got back to my apartment and should be online the rest of the night. If I'm not responding in Meebo, I'm probably playing RE5 or something and will take a break to check my computer every so often.

0bsessions · « **Reply #64 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 20:01 »

Bryan has set up most of the league stuff. Here's some basics for now:

The stats we've gone with are as follows (With little tidbits for the uninitiated)

For batters-
Batting average (AVG). The percentage of time a batter gets a hit.
On base percentage (OBP). Batting average with the amount of walks they draw rounded in.
Home runs (HR) kind of speaks for itself.
Runs scored (R). How many times the player crosses the plate themself.
Runs batter in (RBI). How many runs the player has driven in.
Stolen bases (SB). Kind of speaks for itself, again.
Strikeouts (K). How many times the batter has struck out, will obviously adversely affect you.

For pitchers-
Earned Run Average (ERA). How many runs the pitcher gives up per nine innings pitched.
Strikeouts (K). How many batters the pitcher has struck out.
Walks and Hits per Innings Pitcher (WHIP). Kind of speaks for itself.
Wins (W). How many games the pitcher has started and pitched at least five innings that the team has won.
Quality Starts (QS). How many games the pitcher has started and pitched at least six innings while giving up three runs or less.
Saves and Holds (S/H). Originally, we had saves to basically account for relievers. Bryan found this one, which also helps out the middle relievers and gives us a reason to carry more than just a bunch of closers and opens up the reliever market a lot more.
Innings pitched (IP). Again, speaks for itself.

We were thinking of going with shutouts, but Bryan pointed out that it would be so rare that adding it in would just complicate things. We're using a non-weighted system, since this is, for all intents and purposes, entry level for the majority of us. We did add in quality starts to offset wins and innings pitched, as that will effectively give an added lift to those guys who will actually pitch shut outs. Strikeouts was added in for batters as a big old fuck you to whoever picks that schlub Ryan Howard. We'll probably add in more detailed stats like slugging percentage, K/9 or total bases next year if this goes well, but for now, it's been agreed that simpler is better.

We'll be running on a head to head schedule, meaning you'll be paired up with one player's team each week and your stats will be compared head to head, rather than just adding up everyone's everything. We felt this was more fair to those who are new to the game and stat systems, allowing some people to get a little help from luck and take away a bit of the advantage those of us who follow baseball routinely will have. There'll be some hard luck losses, but hey, that happens in real baseball too, and we want this fun for all involved.

I'll let Bryan describe the rosters, as fuck if I can remember how that was handled, honestly.

Reed · « **Reply #65 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 20:09 »

Thanks guys, I appreciate you setting this up.

Dazed · « **Reply #66 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 20:12 »

Cool, sounds good. I approve of the strikeouts, fuck you Adam Dunn/Grady Sizemore.

Question: forgive the ignorance, as I'm not a big fantasy guy, but is there no such thing as defensive statistics when it comes to fantasy ball?

0bsessions · « **Reply #67 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 20:18 »

It can be done, apparently, but it is such an absolute bitch to quantify defensive ability on paper that we decided it wasn't worth the headache. Fielding percentage and range factor are the only real big universally accepted fielding metrics and both are incredibly flawed and I'll be fucked if I enter a league using bullshit like WARP3, that shit is a Star Trek terminology, not a baseball statistic. So yeah, ignore defense, folks.

Dazed · « **Reply #68 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 20:20 »

Eh, errors maybe? And assists for outfielders maybe, caught stealing % for catchers, but yeah.... Probably too complicated/position specific for the system we're going with.

BTW, you can just call me James, if that's not too confusing (iirc there's another one).

0bsessions · « **Reply #69 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 20:24 »

For the record, our grouping is as follows, organized by timezone:

Rob/pied_piper (UK)
Shane/valley_parade (East Coast US)
Reed/Dire Bacterium (East Coast US)
SilentJ (East Coast US)
Dazed (East Coast US)
Rachel/pen (East Coast US)
Myself (East Coast US)
KickThatBathProf (Midwest US)
Matt/mberan42 (Midwest US)
Alex C (Midwest US)
DonInKansas (I'm going to assume Midwest US)
John/KVP (Mountain timezone US)
Bryan (West Coast US)

We have a fourteenth spot open that will either be filled by Jens if he remains interested or given to someone else off the street.

Dazed, errors and fielding percentage go hand in hand and are very unfair in their calculation. An error is only actually given if the fielder actually touches the ball in the vast majority of cases (And are also very subjective to the scorer), so you get a lot of shit outfielders that have high fielding percentages because they just never get to the ball to fuck up the play in the first place. It's really all just too much trouble to begin with, much less when trying to keep it accessible.

KickThatBathProf · « **Reply #70 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 20:52 »

In addition, errors are basically a judgment call rather than a statistic.

0bsessions · « **Reply #71 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 20:53 »

Quote from: 0bsessions on 29 Mar 2009, 20:24

(And are also very subjective to the scorer)

KickThatBathProf · « **Reply #72 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 20:53 »

Oh, sorry bout that

0bsessions · « **Reply #73 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 20:55 »

THAT IS MY THUNDER AND I DEMAND YOU RETURN IT MRGLR GLMRGLMR RRLGGG!!!!

(Props to anyone who can tell me what animal makes that sound)

Dazed · « **Reply #74 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 20:56 »

Sounds vaguely murloc-ish.

Oh god I'm showing my recovering wow-nerd side ohgodohgodohgod

Storm Rider · « **Reply #75 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 20:59 »

Alright kids, the league has been established, so here's the deal. In order to get an invite, you need to PM me your email. I created the team with 14 spots, so hopefully we can get one more person to pick up the empty space.

The roster set up is: one spot for every infield position (catcher, first base, second base, third base, shortstop) and 5 outfielders. We decided not to create separate spots for center, right, and left fielders because it's honestly unnecessary. There are also 3 utility spots, which can be any offensive player. I thought this was better than having the default which added additional corner and middle infield spots because that's kind of pointless, and this also gives people a chance to draft designated hitters without requiring them since only half the league has any. On the pitching side, there are 6 starting pitcher slots and 3 relief pitcher slots. Every team has 3 bench slots and 3 spaces on the disabled list for injured players that don't count towards your roster at all.

Also, with regards to the draft, it would be preferable if we did a live draft because otherwise we all just make lists of our preferred player and it's all done by computer. It's quick and convenient, but doesn't really let players customize their picks based on what they currently have. The most logical time to have the draft would be on Saturday, since it's a weekend so people don't have to worry about work/school, and it's also the final day before the season begins so we don't have to worry about any last minute injuries/suspensions/whatever. If you know, just tell us whether you're available that day, and what your ideal time would be. The draft won't take an exorbitant amount of time, so it's not like you have to organize your entire day around it or anything.

0bsessions · « **Reply #76 on:** 29 Mar 2009, 21:01 »

Quote from: Storm Rider on 29 Mar 2009, 20:59

Every team has... ...3 spaces on the disabled list for injured players that don't count towards your roster at all.

So it's okay to pick A.J. Burnett and Jorge Posada.

SilentJ · « **Reply #77 on:** 30 Mar 2009, 00:30 »

If I could suggest a time for the draft, late afternoon EDT would be ideal, I think. Say, 6 o'clock or so, since that only goes to 3 o'clock for the west coast US, and it'd only bee 11 o'clock UK time, if my math is right.

(also this is because I'm busy roughly 1-5 saturday afternoon)

Quote from: 0bsessions on 29 Mar 2009, 21:01

Quote from: Storm Rider on 29 Mar 2009, 20:59
Every team has... ...3 spaces on the disabled list for injured players that don't count towards your roster at all.

So it's okay to pick A.J. Burnett and Jorge Posada.

man fuck you and your yankee bashing, i ain't tryna hear that shit

the_pied_piper · « **Reply #78 on:** 30 Mar 2009, 04:31 »

Thanks a lot for setting this up guys. I would give you a dinosaur smilie but apparently we're not worthy of them any more so you can have some cool guys instead.

With regards to the draft time if we do friday or saturday night i don't mind it being late evening East Coast US time because i'm usually up until about 4am on a saturday/sunday anyway. Ideally, i agree with SilentJ for around 6pm East Coast Time as that would be 11pm like he said but i'm able to give you some leeway if you need it.

mberan42 · « **Reply #79 on:** 30 Mar 2009, 09:30 »

Damnit, I have a bachelor party AND class this weekend. Bachelor party from Thursday to Monday, class from noon to six eastern time. I'll bring my laptop with me to class, so I can theoretically sit and leech wireless after class, so 6pm eastern might work for me.

I agree though that a live draft would be best. Either way I'm good with, though.

0bsessions · « **Reply #80 on:** 30 Mar 2009, 10:25 »

It's currently set up as an autopick list draft where, you set out a list of players you want and it will pick the next available. ESPN has a default ranking so, if you run out of picks or are have an empty position but no one picked for it, it'll automatically the next pick.

It can, however, be changed as long as do so before the draft date. We figure a live draft is for the best, but we need to figure out when.

Dazed · « **Reply #81 on:** 30 Mar 2009, 11:57 »

Yeah, saturday 6-ish EST should work for me.

Storm Rider · « **Reply #82 on:** 30 Mar 2009, 12:09 »

It's worth mentioning that even if you can't be at the live draft, you can still set up your pre-draft list as you would for an autopick, and the computer will draft for you from that. It will put you at a bit of a disadvantage, unfortunately, but it's not like you'll be completely screwed.

DonInKansas · « **Reply #83 on:** 30 Mar 2009, 13:27 »

To be honest, I think that 3 utility spots is a lot for a 14 team league. Most leagues run 1 or 2 utility spots which is plenty. Having too many people on a team will not only prolong the draft but force people to pick guys who are bench players/split timers on their own squad.

Just my 2 pennies.

Storm Rider · « **Reply #84 on:** 30 Mar 2009, 18:05 »

I chose 3 utility spots because I wanted to preserve the default roster size, but I thought that the corner infielder/middle infielder positions were unnecessary. If people don't like that, I can change it.

For the record, I've sent invites to everyone except Shane and John, so if you've sent me an email address your team should be waiting for you.

0bsessions · « **Reply #85 on:** 30 Mar 2009, 21:35 »

Okay, so it's become apparent to me that I cannot do Saturday at 6 ET, as I'll probably be out of the city for most of the day and even if I get back in time, it's going to be nigh impossible for Rachel and I to balance the fantasy draft WHILE we watch a rambunctious three year old. It would help to know what the latest Rob can do is. Rob?

the_pied_piper · « **Reply #86 on:** 31 Mar 2009, 05:49 »

Like i said, i'm usually up until about 4am anyway which is around 11pm. If necessary i can just load up on sugar and stay awake all night (i have done this before) then be dead to the world for the next day. This isn't actually a problem next weekend as i start my easter break on friday.

valley_parade · « **Reply #87 on:** 31 Mar 2009, 06:00 »

I can't go too late Saturday night.

KickThatBathProf · « **Reply #88 on:** 31 Mar 2009, 09:25 »

I can't make the live draft at that time

valley_parade · « **Reply #89 on:** 31 Mar 2009, 09:29 »

Can we just be randomly assigned players via a complex series of coin flips?

mberan42 · « **Reply #90 on:** 31 Mar 2009, 13:33 »

We can have the computers assign teams for us all. All we need to do ourselves is rank the players on the website and the computer will do the work for us. We should still do the live draft, but know that like half the people won't make it. Those of us who miss the draft will get a bit of a crap team, (in that unless you do some serious work ranking players before the draft day you'll end up with a lot of random players) but there's not much else we can do. Trying to coordinate people from across the US plus a few from outside less than a week before the proposed draft time is a bitch.

Storm Rider · « **Reply #91 on:** 31 Mar 2009, 16:37 »

Yeah, that's the fallback option, but I imagine everyone would prefer a live draft if we could swing it.

DonInKansas · « **Reply #92 on:** 31 Mar 2009, 19:04 »

A live draft where half could make it isn't terrible, especially with 14 people. Just everyone who knows they won't be there set your autopicks so you don't end up with buttdirt.

0bsessions · « **Reply #93 on:** 31 Mar 2009, 19:18 »

Alright, important questions folks:

What's everyone's availability looking for Friday? A live draft is definitely the best option and since you can set up autopick with a live draft, it seems like a no brainer. I've personally become aware that I absolutely cannot do Saturday. I have a thing to do in the middle of the day and I'm unsure what time I'll be back.

I've spoken to Bryan, Shane and my brother Chad (Who is our fourteenth team) and all three can do something Friday with the earliest for any of them being about 2 PM eastern time and the latest some are willing to to as 5 or 6 PM, eastern time. What's everyone else's availability for that day? I know some of you have jobs and school and all that and we'll need to try and figure it all out ASAP.

Also, let us know if you're planning on using the autopick feature anyway due to unfamiliarity with the players. No sense really scheduling around people who are just having the computer do it for them.

How do you guys feel about sometime Friday afternoon for the draft? Maybe around 4 PM eastern time?

DonInKansas · « **Reply #94 on:** 31 Mar 2009, 20:03 »

Sounds okay for me. I'll set autopick regardless. a four year old and six month old tend to thrash any schedule, but I could probably be in and out.

Reed · « **Reply #95 on:** 31 Mar 2009, 20:10 »

That's perfect for me. I'll be in lab, but right now I don't have any big experiments planned for friday. At most I'll need a few minutes at a time.

KickThatBathProf · « **Reply #96 on:** 31 Mar 2009, 20:21 »

Four is very good for me

SilentJ · « **Reply #97 on:** 31 Mar 2009, 21:25 »

I'm working all day on friday, so it looks like it's off to ranking land for me. I'm used to missing my draft and working the waiver wire though, so it's not too much of a disappointment.

KvP · « **Reply #98 on:** 31 Mar 2009, 21:33 »

I'll start work at around 2 PM Mountain time which should be around 4 or 5 Eastern on Friday.

Dazed · « **Reply #99 on:** 31 Mar 2009, 21:43 »

Uh, real life plans are pretty much boning me for live-drafting. Turns out I'm pretty much gone all friday/saturday. I'll set an autopick thing at some point I guess.

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Author Topic: fantasy baseball (Read 87784 times)