What is more important: The fantasy or the baseball?

[Kelly Gruber]

This thread is a spinoff of another thread, where there was an interesting fundamental difference of opinion, and I'm curious where the consensus lies:

Point:

It as a given that the fantasy is meant to emulate the real thing. As a manager of a fantasy team, it should be as close an experience as is possible to be a real GM, without the technical stuff and other boring stuff. In other words, it is important that players' fantasy values be as close to their real values as is possible.

Counterpoint:

Fantasy is just that: a game. The players are like pieces on a checkers board, and the game should be designed to be as fun as possible. The game is the most important aspect of Fantasy, and whatever works to make it better is what should be done. It is possible that doing the above would make it the most fun, but it is not necessarily the best way.


I will not let you know where I stand so as to not influence anybody one way or another (I tried to be as objective as possible above), but after there are enough responses I will voice my opinion.

[J.C.Fighter]

All I can say I've been watching way more MLB games now that im playing fantasy baseball...

[mak1277]

I play to win money from my friends and co-workers, end of story.

I love baseball for what it is, and frankly, sometimes fantasy bugs the crap out of me...for example, Reyes for the Mets. The guy is a freaking lousy baseball player, but he's a high fantasy pick. Stuff like that irritates me.

[OhMrScottyTrav06]

Fantasy is not Reality.

[MrT]

Before fantasy baseball I would merely follow the Cubs (as a die hard fan) and the penant races. With Fan baseball I watch more games, read box scores, and watch highlights. I know the performance of nearly every worthwhioe player.

Having siad that sometimes I don,t even know who is in first place in real baseball. I now hope that the Cubs lose sometimes if it will aid my palyaers or team perfromance.

The better question is: whether fantasy baseball has ruined our appreciation and interest in the game of baseball.

I would play fantasy baseball if it were merely a computer program simulating a 162 game season. How sick is that !

[AcidRock23]

I agree that I've watched TONS more baseball since getting into fantasy. I think that some of the 'hype' that guys like Reyes get slathered with is due to journalists needing something to write about. He is much more newsworthy as a 'potential #1 ranked 2B' than a 'fast guy who has challenges getting on but does get quite a few triples over the course of the year' which might be more accurate. Jeff Kent, perhaps the suprise of the year going to LA and still cranking it out, while continuing to be cranky, is hardly 'newsworthy'...

[Tavish]

All fantasy leagues make concessions that remove it from reality in order to accomadate better gameplay. They remove defense from the scoring because it is very hard to score based on stats or they give stronger weights to certain events in order to create balance between the different types of players or they create an artificial cap on the player pool so that teams are not stocked with below average platoon players or etc. When you start to make these types of concessions you are no longer trying to emulate the real thing, you are trying to make the game more interesting.

[eftda]

I play to win money from my friends and co-workers, end of story.

I love baseball for what it is, and frankly, sometimes fantasy bugs the crap out of me...for example, Reyes for the Mets. The guy is a freaking lousy baseball player, but he's a high fantasy pick. Stuff like that irritates me.

how much do you win? I've never played in a pool of larger than 50 bucks. If I spend an hour a day on fantasy baseball, thats over 180 hours spent for $50. You must play in leagues worth over $500 if you just play for money.

[Seanyfever]

I play to win money from my friends and co-workers, end of story.

I love baseball for what it is, and frankly, sometimes fantasy bugs the crap out of me...for example, Reyes for the Mets. The guy is a freaking lousy baseball player, but he's a high fantasy pick. Stuff like that irritates me.

how much do you win? I've never played in a pool of larger than 50 bucks. If I spend an hour a day on fantasy baseball, thats over 180 hours spent for $50. You must play in leagues worth over $500 if you just play for money.

My league is strivtly buddies. 14 teams. I won the roto and placed third in the H2H playoffs. Combined with winning my division. I won close to $200, That's after I paid for this year's fees upfront?

I also watch more baseball since fantasy, I rebelled after the strike and screw over of the Expos in 94. Watched maybe five games over those years. Last year I was watching five a week.

[Third Day]

I don't care all that much about whether or not a player's fantasy value is close to their real value: I would like the fantasy game to be as close as possible to the real game (without getting anal). Not using defense is not a problem for me: I hate pitcher streaming big time.