Nov 29, 2008

Schedule for the 2009 Offseason

I hope you've all had an enjoyable break from Fantasy Baseball. Now, as the Fantasy Football season is nearing its end, its time to start looking ahead to the 2009 Fantasy Baseball season.

Our league settings for 2009 have all been decided and so offseason trading will open up on January 1st. Please keep in mind the items listed below:

1) 2009 Draft Order - The weighted lottery for draft picks 1-6 was conducted on Wednesday, December 24th. The results are in! Congrats to Jeremy for drawing the first pick in the draft. See the right column of this blog for all of the results.

2) Potential for League Expansion - Due to the losses of Jeremy & Brock, we will not be expanding this year. We may still consider expansion in the future, but for 2009 we will stay as a 12-team league.

2) Number of Keeper for 2010
- Before the 2010 Draft, each team will have to name FOUR keepers.

4) Other League Settings for 2009 - First, the league has decided that the Trade Committee is no longer necessary for trade reviews. There were no vetoes last year, and at this point it seems that we will be allowing just about any trade that is made in good faith. That being said, the commissioner will consult with at least two other managers before handing down any decision to veto. For 99.9% of trades, this will mean an expedited trade-review process.

Second, the league's thoughts on Multiple-Wins vs. One-Win remain the same as they were last year. The slight majority prefer Multiple Wins, and so just as was predicted at the beginning of last year's season, we will playing the 2009 season with Mutliple-Wins. Last year's record keeping proves that there is not a drastic difference between these two options (see right column) - so this is really nothing more than a matter of personal preference. I will continue to maintain detailed record keeping with both scoring types, and perhaps we will reach a final decision on this matter going into 2010.

Off-season trading will begin on January 1st, 2009 and we will be aiming for a draft date in mid-March like last year.

Sep 9, 2008

Head-To-Head Settings

You may recall that last year the league had a difference of opinion with regards to "Head To Head-One Win" or "Head To Head-Multiple Wins". When we voted on this topic in early 2008, it seemed that everyone voted for what they were used to (East Coast All-Star guys voted for one win, Benchwarmer league members voted for multiple wins). And since there were more guys coming over from ECAS, that's where we got the majority vote from.

Of course, that in itself does not make the setting superior, nor was it fair to the teams coming over from the Benchwarmers league. After taking a recount in April, there were 6 teams who would prefer to play with multiple wins, 3 teams who wanted one win, and 3 teams who were indifferent.

However, I decided not to change the league settings since the season had already begun.
Instead, I decided that we would review this setting for the 2009 season and I will go back only to the teams who wanted multiple wins and ask them if that is still their preference. If it is, then we will play 2009 with multiple wins.

Please review the Multiple-Wins Standings (in the right column) and compare them to the One-Win Standings that we had in 2008. I think the reality is that both systems work. Also, if everyone is being honest, each system has its own potential flaws. So this is probably just a matter of personal preference, but it deserves a second look.

If we do play 2009 with Multiple Wins, then by 2010 it will hopefully be more obvious to everyone which system is better as we go forward.

As far as record keeping goes, if we go to Multiple Wins I will manually keep track of everyone's W-L records in BOTH FORMATS for 2009 just as I did in 2008 so that we can have both forms of data (in case anyone is curious). So everyone may want to take note of this now if you care about where your name appears in the record books.

Thanks to everyone for your input.

Aug 19, 2008

Commissioner's Note - August 2008

1) During the playoffs, ROSTERS WILL NOT BE LOCKED FOR PLAYOFF TEAMS. When rosters are locked during the playoffs, it's often done to prevent managers from streaming pitchers. I feel that its safe to say that streaming has not proven to be an effective strategy in this scoring system, so I do not see the need to lock the rosters of playoff teams. However, rosters will be locked for the six non-playoff teams.

2) I also wanted to take this opportunity to detail how next year's draft order will be determined. Picks 1-6 will go to the 6 non-playoff teams by means of a WEIGHTED LOTTERY based on this year's final rankings (the #12 team will be most likely to get the #1 pick). We are using a weighted lottery so that there is little incentive to "throw games" during the last week of the regular season. For picks 7-12, the playoff bracket and the consolation games will be used to determine the draft order for next year. The #7 pick will go to the winner of the consolation game between the two teams who lose in the first round of the playoffs (the #8 pick will go to the loser of that game). The #9 pick will go to the winner of the consolation game between the two teams who lose in the 2nd round (the #10 pick will go to the loser). The #11 pick, however, will go to the LOSER of the championship game and the #12 pick will go to the league champ.