Ideal league formats

[mikemcj55]

SLAP!!

Hey guys,
I am relatively new to fantasy baseball. A bunch of guys I know are thinking about starting another league next year, and are unsure about the different formats and which are the best ones to choose. So my question is two fold:
1) Could someone please explain auction leagues and salary cap leagues to me please? (or any other ones I don't know about) or at least a link to some place that does?
2) Once that is taken care of, what would be your supreme fantasy baseball league, from top to bottom.
Feel free to be as descriptive as possible (i.e. auction league vs. regular drafting vs salary caps, keeper league vs single season, roto v h2h scoring, basic 10 categories v. expanded cats, ideal number of teams, roster move limits, and whatever else you can think of

I know this is pretty broad, feel free to contribute in any way you like. thanks in advance

[nsulham]

For next time, it's "What did the five fingers say to the face?"

Also don't know what that subject heading had to do with your question

[mikemcj55]

jeez, man, take a joke

thanks for the tip though

[nsulham]

jeez, man, take a joke

thanks for the tip though

I was just saying that you'll likely get more responses if people know what they're getting into.

[mikemcj55]

I know , its a good tip

Just busting your chops

[dannahann]

It's more about the owners than the format, scoring, or keep issues. I f your group is commited and mature enough to weather the enivitable "issues" you'll have a good league. If not...nothing else matters. I personally prefer deeper keeper roto scoring tho.

[StlSluggers]

My fav type of league is anything that's not roto, and I severely dispise anything associated with Yahoo...

Ok, just kidding about the "anything" part, but I really do hate roto and Yahoo. I like a league with the following attributes:

• Points-based scoring
• Weekly, not daily, lineup submission
• Head-to-head competition
• Start one player from each position, plus a min. of three SPs and one RP. No less, and definintely none of this "middle infielder, corner infielder, utility, utility, utility" yahoo crap.
• Pseudo-cash system for bidding on free agents
• Salary cap
• A shallow minor league draft

I am currently in two leagues, and each one has its pluses and minuses. At this very moment (yes, right now), I am working in conjunction with a webmaster to start up a new, private league that is a blending of the best parts of the two leagues. He has promised to build this new league entirely from scratch (new code). If you and your friends would like to know more about it, just check the thread that I've linked to in my sig.

Anyways, the auction system that I play now is pretty simple. Every team receives an identical yearly "cash" allowance that you may increase by a) trades for "cash" and b) year-end ranking (less wins is more "cash"). When free agent time comes around (approx. mid-Feb), everyone bids on free agents. The high bidders win the player, of course, and then designate a contract length which is subject to a couple of easy regulations.

The "salary cap" is actually based on the total lengths of your contracts. This prevents great players from being owned for a number of consecutive years, or - to put it differently - it insures that each player will be back in the free agency pool. This is not a legacy format where you can just keep any number of players for as long as you want. However, you are required to designate one franchise player that counts toward the salary cap at a fixed amount. You can keep that player as long as you want, which is good because switching FPs is a costly proposition.

There are other nuances to this league, but that's the general concept. It's very simple, and very effective. The only problem with that league is that its scoring system doesn't value pitchers accordingly. The other league I'm in has a perfectly balanced scoring system, so the goal of this new league is to blend the cap format of league "A" with the scoring system of league "B".

So that's my "brief" answer to your question. Feel free to ask for even more detials. I don't have carpal tunnel syndrome yet, so I'll type up a response to anything you ask.

-Stl