Forming a new league...help with roster sizes?

[Cobra_Kai]

Greetings, wise and intelligent Cafe members -

After tiring of the incompetence of many of the members of our larger roto league for the past three seasons, 8 of us decided to form our own, 8-team league, as we knew that every person involved was a good manager, would stay involved, etc. At first, we were going to do an NL-only league, but a handful of people complained so we decided to stretch it to a mixed league. To avoid the problem of everyone having teams stacked with all-stars, we decided to increase the roster size; and not just the bench, but the actual scoring positions. Right now, our rosters look like this:

C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, IF, LF, CF, RF, OF, OF, Util, P, P, P, P, RP, RP, RP, P, BN, BN, BN, BN, DL

That's a 24-man roster, with 20 positions that will be active. Is this too much? Too little? I figure in an 8-team league, that's 192 players that will be drafted. The #912 player rated by Yahoo last year was David DeJesus, so it seems to make sense, as he's exactly who I'd imagine someone's 5th OF to be.

In any case, I'd love some suggestions here as to whether or not to increase the positions, add another bench spot, whatever. It's the first time we've deviated from our usual "12 team, standard 5x5 roto" routine (we're also going with OBP instead of AVG and QS instead of W), so any advice is appreciated!

[Matthias]

I think that's too few. We have a 12 team league with 23 active spots and 6 regular reserves plus 3 minor league slots and I still feel like the rosters, at least for hitting, are too shallow.

The thing about DeJesus is that he's actually much better than people give him credit for. Individual results may vary and it depends upon the scoring categories but according to the MDP report, here's a list of same players who would be left off under your system: Aclides Escobar, Daisuke, Liriano, Slowey, Helton, Prado, Heyward, Fowler, Evereth Cabrera, Theriot, Ryan Madson, Aaron Cook, Troy Glaus, and Kelly Johnson.

If you want my advice, I would get your rosters up around 300. I would add about 5 more pitching spots, 1 more 1B, make the IF a CI and add a MI, and make 2 more Util spots. And then 3 more bench spots. That would about do it.

[bigmck]

I agree that the you need more players in the league. The standard active roster is 23 for a NL only league with 12 owners. You have a mixed with 8 owners. My opinion is in the minority probably, but I would never play in a mixed league unless it had 20 owners. In a mixed league there are 750 MLB players. If a league does not draft 60% of the MLB players, all teams will be all stars and anyone can win regardless of knowledge. I think you should push to draft from only one league of players or expand your League.