Totally new to this

[Dch48]

I have been a baseball fan since about 1952 when I was 4 (in 1952) and I wanted to be Duke Snider on my favorite team the Brooklyn Dodgers. I have never gotten into fantasy before though. I have joined a public free rotisserie league in Yahoo and went for the auto draft setup. I don't think I have a bad team but I am not sure how this works.

From what I've been able to glean so far, you get points based on what the players you have who are not on the bench do each day. I'm assuming that my starters, utility guys, and pitchers will all rack up stats if they play that day. Is this correct? I have a pretty good team, especially in the outfield where I have Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, and Jason Bay as my starters. First base is also pretty good since I have Kendry Morales as the starter and Adam Dunn as a utility guy. At Second Base I have Dustin Pedroia as the starter and Aaron Hill as utility. The rest of the team is kind of average with Ian Stewart at 3rd, Asdrubal Cabrera at Short and Kurt Suzuki as my catcher. On the bench I have Juan Rivera, Clint Barmes, MarkTeahen and a guy I took a flyer on off waivers, Cameron Maybin. Barmes replaced Cristian Guzman after he lost his starting job and Maybin took the place of Elijah Dukes after he got released. Those are the only two moves I have made so far.

My best starting pitcher is Wandy Rodriguez, followed by Ben Sheets, Johnny Cueto, Edwin Jackson and Randy Wells, with John Maine on the bench. My relievers are Andrew Bailey, Matt Thornton,and Ryan Madson.

My real question is who is eligible to gain points ? Is it all the players who are not on the bench, including the utility guys? Or is it only the ones I put in the starting lineup each day? I have been searching Yahoo and other places for the answer but I can't find it.

If I like this and gain more understanding, next year I may go for a more advanced league with an actual draft. For now, though, I'm content to just see how it goes.

[Fenris-77]

If you are indeed playing roto style scoring, then the players eligible to accrue stats are the ones you insert into your starting lineup for any given day. In other words, not the players in slots marked BN (bench) on your Yahoo team page. So yeah, the utility guys score.

Something to keep in mind, and which you are probably already aware of, is the games limit in effect for each position for hitters, and the innings pitched restriction for your pitchers (your league settings should show you both). If the games limit is 162 games at SS, for example, that means you can only score 162 total players games at SS and can't exceed that number by subbing guys in and out. In order to amximize your scoring the general idea is to try and use all of those 162 games at each postion. There will be a running count of games remaining at each postion listed on the bottom of your team page, so keep an eye on it. What a lot of guys do is try to run at, or slightly ahead of the GL so that they're not scrambling to make up games at the end of the season. For your pitchers there may be a cap on total innings pitched - that counts all your pitchers, starters and closers. If your league has an IP max then you should keep an eye on that as well. Again, the idea is to use all those innings, or as close to it as you can come.

From what you've got listed for players there I have a suspicion that your starting pitching needs a boost. I'd recommend taking a look at some different rankings for SPs to see if there's some decent talent available on your waiver wire. Feel free to post your entire roster for more specific feedback (although you may want to do that in the roster analysis sub-forum).

Anyway, good luck in your first fantasy season.

[ivanmata]

You will sure enjoy this , trust me!