HTH league concept with 3 divisions and Home Teams

[baegames]

HTH league concept. Would anyone like to be involved next year or help me flush out the ideas and League Constitution?

# of teams - 15
# of divisions - 3
# of teams/division - 5

# of weeks of regular season games - 20
# of weeks each team plays - 18
# of byes each team has - 2

Categories:
Offensive - 5 (Avg., HR, RBI, Run, SB)- categories subject to change by discussion
Pitching - 5 (Wins, Saves, ERA< WHIP, K) - subject to change

Home Field Advantage:
Each matchup, one team is assigned the home team. By midnight on Friday, one category must be designated by the home team as not counting for the upcoming week, making it that there are 9 categories that count in the standings. Each category counts for one game; this will mean that, with 9 categories per series (week) and 18 series, each team plays 162 games.

Schedule:
Teams play two weeks against each team in their divisions, and one week against each team from other divisions. This will be set so that each team in Division A hosts each team in Division B, which hosts each team in Division C, which hosts each team in Division A.

Lineup Setting:
Subject to discussion, but I think it would be best to have lineup set by midnight Sunday night for the week.

Tiebreakers:
1) HTH
2) Division (if same division)
3) Record in last 9 matchups
4) Cancelled Categories
5) Coin Flip

Playoffs:
Matchups subject to home rules where teams with higher seed get home advantage (Division Winners get top 3 seeds). Qualifiers and matchups subject to discussion. Home Team also designates tiebreaker for playoffs.

Auction/Draft: To be discussed.

Keepers: To be discussed.

NL Only/Al Only/ML Universe: To be discussed; may depend on Roster Size discussion.

Roster Size: TO be discussed.

[bigmck]

Hi -- First off, you need to have an even number of teams in a H2H league. Having off weeks during the regular season is not a sound idea. That is why MLB has 16 teams in the NL and 14 in the AL instead of 15-15. You could have a 12 team league with three divisions of four teams. You could have each team play its own division three times and the other divisions once for a total of 17 regular season weeks. You could have the three division winners make the playoffs and three wildcards. The two division winners with the best record would get a first round bye. You would have three rounds of playoffs with two weeks in each round. The champion would be crowned at the endo week 23. I would not have home field enter into it. Just play the games without this out this "imaginery" home field. ==
This year in my H2H league, I had two divisions of five teams. Each team played its own division three times and the other division twice for a total of 22 weeks in the regular season. Six teams made the playoffs with the two division winners getting a first round bye. Each round of playoffs was a week. In hindsight I think two weeks in the playoffs is probably better.

[fast dogs]

each week 1 category doesn't count. not sure you could do that changing every week or different matchups having different cats not counting. Not sure which service could provide teams 1 and 2 not counting runs, teams 3 & 4 not counting sb's...
2 bye weeks in season doesn't sound like a good idea. Seems like you are trying for 162 total games in a season which I don't think really matters. Also keep in mind next year starts on a Friday and ends on a Wed; you'll need to either have a couple extra short weeks or a couple long.

[baegames]

I am not averse to eliminating the bye weeks and having a different structure (2 divisions of 8, for example, with 2 matchups against each of the teams in your own division (14) and 1 each against the other division (8) for a total of 22 weeks.

The idea of the home advantage was the main purpose of this structure. I personally think it would be quite fun to add that extra element of strategy. I was looking for people who think this might work, and might want to help me flush out that idea.

Thank you.

[bigmck]

I had forgotten that the season starts on Friday and ends on Wednesday next year. This year on ESPN, they combined the short All-Star week with the following week and made it 25 weeks in the season. I am guessing next year that the first and last short weeks will be added to a regular week and will make the season a 23 week season. This will need to be considered when making schedules and play-off weeks. == I agree with Fast Dogs that having 162 games does not matter. The league can be just as much fun with 180 games or 140. Fun is all that counts anyway.

[mkultra]

I'm generally not a fan of "cute" leagues, with clever rules meant to mix up your strategy or uncommon scoring categories. It just makes it all the more likely that I'll screw myself over by forgetting "that one thing in that one league".

Aside from that, what's your plan for actually running it? Is there a site out there that can support all of your specific rules?

[IGGY23]

I run a 12 Team H2H daily league on Yahoo with 3 divisions. I think the home field advantage thing is just adding alot of work to the commissioner and is just going to be a nightmare to track.

We play a 22 week schedule which allows each team to play everyone 2x. The division winner advance to the playoffs and the next best 3 teams make the playoffs regardless of division.

Our league has keepers but only 1 hitter and 1 pitcher. The non playoff teams go into a lottery for the top 6 picks the next yr, this helps stops managers from throwing games to get that #1 pick.

We like our setup and actually have an opening if anyone is interested.....

[bigmck]

I run a 12 Team H2H daily league on Yahoo with 3 divisions. I think the home field advantage thing is just adding alot of work to the commissioner and is just going to be a nightmare to track.

We play a 22 week schedule which allows each team to play everyone 2x. The division winner advance to the playoffs and the next best 3 teams make the playoffs regardless of division.

Our league has keepers but only 1 hitter and 1 pitcher. The non playoff teams go into a lottery for the top 6 picks the next yr, this helps stops managers from throwing games to get that #1 pick.

We like our setup and actually have an opening if anyone is interested.....

Why do you bother to have divisions if each team plays the others twice? That defeats the purpose of having divisions. A better schedule format would be to have each team play their own division three times and play the other two divisions once for a 17 week season. You could then still have six teams in the playoffs but have each playoff round last two weeks. Just an idea for you.