Fantasy League for A's fans

[Afan4Life]

"The White Cleats Fantasy League"

Hey guys, just wanted to drop a quick note here to see if there might be any interest in getting a good long-term keeper league together primarily for A's fans. The league I've been in in the past just finished up its final season and I've been thinking for awhile that it'd be great to get in a more long-term league with some other A's fans where we could celebrate our team while playing the greatest game on earth (well the fantasy version of it anyways).

Possible Specs
- Free, 10-Team, 5x5(OBP replacing AVG.) Roto Scoring
- 5-8 keepers
- Run on yahoo (I would be willing to pay out of my pocket to upgrade the league to yahoo plus so everyone could experience the benefits of stattracker and such)
- possibly a 10 player minor league system if we could figure out an efficient way to run the draft.
- totally run online as I don't live anywhere near Oakland

In addition to running the league on yahoo I think we would have to find a good forum site where we could store everything during the offseason and most importantly where we could discuss A's baseball year round. The league I was in last year used Free invision boards but if there are better places out there I'm certainly open to ideas. In fact, thats the area where I would need somebody to step in and set up the site. As die-hard a fantasy baseball player as I am I'm not a computer-guy so I'd definitely need someone to run that aspect of the league.

Again, this all up for debate. The purpose of this thread is simply to find out if you guys are up for it. The only restrictions are that I want primarily A's fans and only SERIOUS fantasy baseball players. This is something that I would love to keep going for awhile so die-hards only need apply. Leave a response, PM or email me if theres interest (I'll be checking my messages frequently) and hopefully we can get something together.

[Half Massed]

I might be down for something like this. I'm in another keeper league already, and it's roto scoring as well, so it'd be fun for me to try one with H2H. What are your thoughts on that?

[Afan4Life]

Awesome man. (BWT I love the Swisher-Sweet sig HM)

As far as scoring goes its up for debate. I definitely prefer Roto cus I think its a "purer" form of fantasy baseball and a better test of who actually has the better team but if we get this thing going we'll see what everybody thinks.

[RynMan]

Yeah I'd probably be up for this fellas. I wouldn't have time to do much more than play though. I may be able to set up an invision board in the school holidays though. Where are we gonna get more A's fans?

[Afan4Life]

Wow I'm already getting alot of responses about the league. As soon as we get 10 guys we can look to get this thing set up and rolling.

Heres a tentative list of guys who are definitely interested thus far. Feel free to recruit any other A's fans that you think might be up for it.

BigHurtCPOY 06
Sharksfan1139
RynMan
Half Massed
Afan4Life
dirtdude

[Afan4Life]

I've had several guys ask for more specifics so let me try to give you a basic idea of what I had in mind but remember NOTHING is set in stone right now.

Description

- 10 team, 25 man rosters
- Player Universe - All ML
- possibly a 7-10 man minor league system
- 5x5 Roto Scoring system that would include the following stat categories: W, ERA, WHIP, K's, SV, HR, RBI, R, SB, OBP(instead of AVG.- after all this a league for A's fans
- Roster Spots -
-Starting Lineup - C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, OF(3), UTIL, 8(P) - innings limit TBD.
- 8 Bench Spots
- League will be 100% free, we play for pride though maybe we could work out a trophy or something.
- At the end of every season each team will choose to keep up to 8 players, though you don't have to keep that many. The rest of the players will be thrown back in the pool to be re-drafted at the start of every season.
- During the season the league will be run on yahoo.
- We will have an additional site (possibly an invision board or yahoo group) that we will use as a forum to talk A's baseball, as well as to keep track of rosters and player movement during the offseason. (This is all providing I can get someone to setup and run this additional site as I'm not great with that kind of stuff, the yahoo site I can take care of).
- League commissioner - We can have up to 3 commissioners that will run the league, settle trade disputes, etc. I will likely take 1 spot and choose 1 or 2 others who are interested in helping out or we can vote on it.

Draft INFO
- Draft time TBD - If we can find a site that runs drafts or if we can figure out a way to do it efficiently we may have a draft any time from November to February. If not, we will wait until yahoo gets its site up and running next season and do it on there (likely the end of Feb.).
- Minor League Prospect Draft - If we choose to include this aspect of the league. The draft will likely take place before the regular MLB draft. Rights to drafted prospects will remain with a team until the player is called up to full-time duty in the ML and placed on a team's 25 man roster. At the end of the players 1st season they must be designated as a keeper or released back into the player pool.

More info to come. Keep posting any ideas you may have in this thread or drop me a message. If anyone wants to help me with the technical aspects, particularly if you've been in leagues like this before, I'd really appreciate it.....

[Half Massed]

A few suggestions/ideas/questions on my part:

The H2H/Roto thing. (I'd prefer H2H, maybe a vote or something would be best)

Will keepers go in the first 8 rounds in upcoming years, or where we drafted them the previous year?

My other league used Proboards for rosters/rules/offseason stuff.
http://www.proboards.com/index.html
I didn't set it up, but it looks pretty easy.

I'd also suggest doing the minor's draft before the major league draft should we draft on Yahoo. The minor's draft will have to be message board based, which will take time, so it's better to begin earlier when other leagues haven't gotten started and begun taking up people's time.

[Afan4Life]

HM,

Thanks for the input man. How did the Proboards work out for ya? You wouldn't happen to have a link to your other league would ya?

Roto vs H2H

- Anyone else have opinions on this issue? I'm a Roto guy 100% to the point that I avoid playing in H2H leagues at all costs but if more people here want to do it that way then I won't protest.

-My reasons for prefering Roto are that it ultimately rewards the best team whereas in H2H a team that has a poor or mediocre season can "luck" its way into a championship. Its not uncommon in a 10 team league for the top 6 to make the playoffs, and the 6th seed gets lucky the last few weeks and blows everyone away. That may be cool in the NCAA Championship but in fantasy baseball its not like the players actually play against each other or that you have any control over how your players finish the season. Quite often the best players are on teams that clinch early and end up resting for a majority of the final two weeks. Therefore, its dissapointing when you put alot of effort into the season only to watch someone who didn't steal the glory. That said, I know some people who just prefer H2H so I can totally accept that if thats what everyone wants to do.

Keepers - This is up for debate as well HM, I was thinking they would go in the 1st 8 Rds but having them go in the rds they were previously drafted in could be interesting as well. What do you think?

Minor League Draft - I had hoped to avoid doing a message board draft at all costs because of the amount of time it takes and the issues that can arise but I guess we may have to. Anyone else have ideas about possible methods of doing this? I wish there was a site that could run drafts like this or something but to my knowledge there isn't....And yeah it would probably be best to do it before the main draft.

[greenandgold]

Just found this thread and would like to play in a league like this. Either roto or H2H is good with me. I use proboards in another one of my leagues and it works well for offline draft and other communication.

[dirtdude]

I vote for Roto. My thoughts are that H2H is to much luck on Sundays games alot of teams bench there starting hitters for day offs. I played H2H I lost alot of games by 3 points because my hitters were sitting on the bench on Sundays. For drafting minor leaguers I think message board drafting is the right thing.My reason is sometimes the minors isn't listed on the players list on the site like Yahoo and CBS sportline if your looking for a single A player and sometimes even a triple A players aren't on the lists.Just my thoughts thanks