Ok guys, Super Bowl is over and pitchers and catchers I believe are less than 2 weeks away.  Time to start thinking about fantasy baseball again.  Since I don't believe HXCkid is around any more I was going to take the reigns on the league.  I should have access to emails to you guys as ass't. last year.  Anybody that wasn't a part of the league in years past but wants in get in this thread and mark your spot.  I wanted to throw this out there as well.  I am more of a fan of ESPN Fantasy than Yahoo.  It's easier to guide your way through and I feel that pickups/drops/trades are much easier as well.  I've been using that platform for years in other leagues, and feel it's far superior, but that's up to the group as a whole.  We can discuss what categories we want to keep, change, etc.  How much the buy-in will be, number of teams, you get it.  Woo Hoo Baseball.  Go Cubs!

I sent out pm's to those that had expressed interest.  So far, our lineup reads:

Huskers1236, Deeker, Jaxman, stoltzjl77, meowsmeowsmeows, loki1244, grackleflint

With those in and the pm's I sent out that's 10 participants.  I would like to be at 14.  If you guys see pcaster, sroster, vexxet, redghostx on the forums out and about let them know we are getting things going as they have not seen pm's but I don't know that they always go through. 

Edited February 11, 20169 yr by Huskers1236

We are at 10 guys now:

Huskers1236, Deeker, Jaxman, stoltzjl77, meowsmeowsmeows, loki1244, grackleflint, sfcommando14, wsuskee, deanfjr

so the goal is 14, i would say settle for 12 if we start getting close on time. we have 10 seems good so far. when will our deadline be?

the first game is Sunday April 3rd.

Edited February 11, 20169 yr by Deanfjr

Yeah good idea to get things squared away now.  I tend to get busy in March as most of my extra time is spent running a large ncaa bracket group.

2 minutes ago, wsuskee said:

Yeah good idea to get things squared away now.  I tend to get busy in March as most of my extra time is spent running a large ncaa bracket group.

You should set up a Brickpicker group for March Madness.  I'd be in for sure.  This year's going to be wide open.

2 minutes ago, wsuskee said:

Yeah good idea to get things squared away now.  I tend to get busy in March as most of my extra time is spent running a large ncaa bracket group.

Sorry I edited that i thought i was saying too much 

6 minutes ago, Deanfjr said:

so the goal is 14, i would say settle for 12 if we start getting close on time. we have 10 seems good so far. when will our deadline be?

the first game is Sunday April 3rd.

I like to draft about a week before games start so that we don't have issues with a spring training injury like Wainwright a couple years ago.  I would hate for a guy to get drafted and then blow out an elbow in March.  That's something we'll hash out next week hopefully when we have our teams set.  There are 4 guys that have played in the past that I'm still trying to get a hold of.  That puts us at our number and we'll have a really good group.

2 minutes ago, Huskers1236 said:

You should set up a Brickpicker group for March Madness.  I'd be in for sure.  This year's going to be wide open.

Not a basketball guy here... NASCAR anyone?  

Once we get into March I will look into setting up a group for us.  This year should be wide open for sure.

10 minutes ago, wsuskee said:

Once we get into March I will look into setting up a group for us.  This year should be wide open for sure.

Sounds good.

We're still sitting at 10, hoping to get a few more in.  I've given the guys about a week to respond to pm's and emails, so if anybody else out there wants in, you're good to go.  For those that have played in the past, what are your thoughts?  Stick with $70?  Up/down?  As I said before I'd prefer to move over to ESPN but can work with Yahoo, I just don't like the platform as much. 

Assuming 14 teams and $70, that's $980 in prize pool money.  I was thinking of something similar to last year where regular season winner gets 25%, and then the Top 3 from playoffs would go something like 40%/25%/10%.  Prizes with shipping would come out to something like a Helicarrier/GB Headquarters for 1st, any number of the $200-250 sets for winning regular season and 2nd place and then something in the $100 range for 3rd.  I'm located in the midwest so shipping anywhere continental is generally $20 and under before insurance.  We can do cash as well, but it's always been fun to have that prize be Lego.  We can stretch out the number of prize winners to everybody that makes playoffs, but that starts to water down the winnings.  It totally depends on our numbers and buy in.  

Let me know what you think.  We've had a successful couple of years and want to keep it that way. 

I'm in. Happy with buy in and format. I think small prizes for all playoff teams might be fun - I'm thinking like a 20, 10 and polybag (not a Fire Bike) for 4-5-6 (maybe do $75). If we get 14 teams and even a few drop off the table even a token prize might get teams in the 9-10 spots to try to make a push.

This is obviously head-to-head and not rotisserie, right?

23 minutes ago, Huskers1236 said:

We're still sitting at 10, hoping to get a few more in.  I've given the guys about a week to respond to pm's and emails, so if anybody else out there wants in, you're good to go.  For those that have played in the past, what are your thoughts?  Stick with $70?  Up/down?  As I said before I'd prefer to move over to ESPN but can work with Yahoo, I just don't like the platform as much. 

Assuming 14 teams and $70, that's $980 in prize pool money.  I was thinking of something similar to last year where regular season winner gets 25%, and then the Top 3 from playoffs would go something like 40%/25%/10%.  Prizes with shipping would come out to something like a Helicarrier/GB Headquarters for 1st, any number of the $200-250 sets for winning regular season and 2nd place and then something in the $100 range for 3rd.  I'm located in the midwest so shipping anywhere continental is generally $20 and under before insurance.  We can do cash as well, but it's always been fun to have that prize be Lego.  We can stretch out the number of prize winners to everybody that makes playoffs, but that starts to water down the winnings.  It totally depends on our numbers and buy in.  

Let me know what you think.  We've had a successful couple of years and want to keep it that way. 

Everything sounds good.  I don't think we should give out more prizes than the 4 since it would start to water down the winnings.  Don't really see the point of say a $20 prize but maybe that's just me.  I have always played roto scoring and actually never knew there was another way to play fantasy baseball.  Is the way we play this league sorta like a standard fantasy football league?  The roto takes the luck part out of scoring since its you against the league and not 1 vs 1.  For instance in my fantasy football league this season 2 of our top 4 scoring teams didn't make the playoffs since they had the most points scored against them leading to loses.  Don't know if I am explaining this very well but lets say one week I score 70 and my opponent scores 68 that works out great for me while the second highest scoring team of the week lost with a score of 95 since he was up against 102.

Not asking for any changes just making sure I understand how this is played.  Personally I am down for luck to be involved.  As for buy in the 70/75 range sounds great but I would like to cap it at $100 if we decide to go up since we might only have 10 playing.  Again not looking to cause conflict just adding my 2 cents.

26 minutes ago, wsuskee said:

Everything sounds good.  I don't think we should give out more prizes than the 4 since it would start to water down the winnings.  Don't really see the point of say a $20 prize but maybe that's just me.  I have always played roto scoring and actually never knew there was another way to play fantasy baseball.  Is the way we play this league sorta like a standard fantasy football league?  The roto takes the luck part out of scoring since its you against the league and not 1 vs 1.  For instance in my fantasy football league this season 2 of our top 4 scoring teams didn't make the playoffs since they had the most points scored against them leading to loses.  Don't know if I am explaining this very well but lets say one week I score 70 and my opponent scores 68 that works out great for me while the second highest scoring team of the week lost with a score of 95 since he was up against 102.

Not asking for any changes just making sure I understand how this is played.  Personally I am down for luck to be involved.  As for buy in the 70/75 range sounds great but I would like to cap it at $100 if we decide to go up since we might only have 10 playing.  Again not looking to cause conflict just adding my 2 cents.

I do prefer roto as well, but H2H is fun, too (although a little more luck involved, and having a few players hot during the playoffs is essential). 

33 minutes ago, wsuskee said:

Everything sounds good.  I don't think we should give out more prizes than the 4 since it would start to water down the winnings.  Don't really see the point of say a $20 prize but maybe that's just me.  I have always played roto scoring and actually never knew there was another way to play fantasy baseball.  Is the way we play this league sorta like a standard fantasy football league?  The roto takes the luck part out of scoring since its you against the league and not 1 vs 1.  For instance in my fantasy football league this season 2 of our top 4 scoring teams didn't make the playoffs since they had the most points scored against them leading to loses.  Don't know if I am explaining this very well but lets say one week I score 70 and my opponent scores 68 that works out great for me while the second highest scoring team of the week lost with a score of 95 since he was up against 102.

Not asking for any changes just making sure I understand how this is played.  Personally I am down for luck to be involved.  As for buy in the 70/75 range sounds great but I would like to cap it at $100 if we decide to go up since we might only have 10 playing.  Again not looking to cause conflict just adding my 2 cents.

Our league is H2H weekly matchups with daily lineups.  All formats have their + and -, but I've always liked H2H as it gives you a real feel for playing another team that week vs. just watching stats accrue.  Definitely more luck involved with it vs. pure numbers, I agree with that.  The hot team will win in the end, very much like the real thing.  We can all agree that the Mets weren't the best NL team all year long but they got hot when it counted and it got them to the World Series.  Same sort of thing. 

Our first year out buy in was $25 and we jumped up to $70 last year.  I'm fine with whatever everyone wants.  Just changes the prize structure.

Perhaps increasing the fee to $75 and providing smaller prizes to the 4th-6th place playoff teams would be an option, with the 4th place playoff getting a $30-$50 set depending on total number of teams and 5th and 6th getting something like a Star Wars battlepack and a polybag, respectively.  I don't think the winnings for the 1st overall and 1st-3rd place playoffs should be changed much from what Huskers suggested.  I like the idea of Lego prizes, whether you want to build them or save them for investment.

The H2H definitely involves a lot of luck in the weekly outcome, but is fun and (often) rewards those who pay attention.  Some weeks go well and others don't.

Yeah that makes sense as the hot team will win in the end.  I also like going head to head than just checking stats.

The H2H format was enjoyable. It allows you to narrow your focus to a week by week basis and plot strategies for your roster relative to your opponent's, with the ultimate goal of winning as many categories as possible and minimizing the number of categories that go in your loss column.

I like Meows^3 idea of upping the entry fee to $75 and allowing smaller prizes for the 4th thru 6th place team.  It's a long grind just to make the playoffs and you should be awarded in some way.

The prize structure worked well last year in my opinion.  And from my inherent bias as mainly an investor, I would lean more towards awarding sets that are theoretically close to retirement as opposed to something like Ghostbusters HQ.

I'm good at $75 and prefer H2H categories. but don't mind Roto. I'm not a fan of h2h points.

How many make the playoffs?  If we have 10 teams then 4 seems good but 6 seems like too many.  

Also I have seen H2H points and H2H categories listed and I believe those are different which one do we use?

Edited February 16, 20169 yr by wsuskee

36 minutes ago, wsuskee said:

How many make the playoffs?  If we have 10 teams then 4 seems good but 6 seems like too many.  

Also I have seen H2H points and H2H categories listed and I believe those are different which one do we use?

I think we're at 11 confirmed? I think either 12 or 14 is realistic, with the top 6 making the playoffs. We had 14 last year, which was good - drafting is more crucial with more teams, and drafting is (to me) very fun.

I was thinking we had 16 last year.  I know that we had 6 make playoffs with byes for #1 and #2.  If we have 12 and under, I think 4 making playoffs is fine. 

40 minutes ago, wsuskee said:

How many make the playoffs?  If we have 10 teams then 4 seems good but 6 seems like too many.  

Also I have seen H2H points and H2H categories listed and I believe those are different which one do we use?

We do head to head categories.  Last year was a 7x7 league, so 14 total wins/losses possible.

We had 16 last year.  I remember that because I had the 16th pick in the first round and that was a long wait.

22 minutes ago, Veegs said:

I think we're at 11 confirmed? I think either 12 or 14 is realistic, with the top 6 making the playoffs. We had 14 last year, which was good - drafting is more crucial with more teams, and drafting is (to me) very fun.

Yeah drafting is one of the best parts if not the best in some leagues.  Yeah 6 playoff teams seems good with the top 2 teams getting a bye.  Hopefully we can find one more person to get to 12.