2013 GWJ Fantasy Baseball League Catch-All

Unfortunately it looks like it'll be autodraft for me. Not sure I'll make it home in time for the draft on Wednesday, but it is what it is.

I'm not sure what your concern about Chapman is. On one hand folks wanted fixed pitcher roles so no one takes an all closer or all starter pitching staff. But then in your post you state

Kush15 wrote:

To be honest, if that's their policy, then it's a horrible one. I understand people drafted him to be a SP, but he always had the RP designation, so you're not losing value, and some people drafted him knowing they would get that loophole.

which I read as you'd be ok if someone drafted him to be an SP but let him take a fixed RP position. You're right, I specifically would have targetted Chapman to fill an RP slot because an RP with 200K potential as a starter is worth more to me than a tier 3 closer that I'm forced to stick in my roster because of the RP rule. I can assure you I'm looking for any other SPs that may be CORRECTLY classified as RP's to put into that position for this league, esp. if I can't get 2 good closers. There's 1 of those I can think off the top of my head that's probably worth drafting in this league and is categorized correctly based on last years pitching stats. I assume you're ok with me putting that player in my RP position even if he makes zero relief appearances right?

I get it if you're upset because its just wrong, period. But the whole RP/SP loophole is a real one that saavy owners (such as yourself) should take advantage of.

Looks like I'll be autodrafting. Did my best to order around 120 or so players, so that should last me 10-12 rounds. After that I'll let ESPN and its usually horrible autodraft take over.

How bad is ESPN autodraft? Well I had to do it for football and the damn thing drafted Jonathan Stewart, DeAngelo Williams and Ben Tate in the 6,7,8 rounds. Really is horrible, but hopefully I'm at least set for more than half of my roster.

Draft order is up...

1. Marcum Eight, Dude
2. Berkeley Treecutters
3. The Abusement Park
4. Perth Heat
5. Up Up and J-Hey
6. Ten Forward Extras
7. Balls to Strikes
8. Sparkle Motion
9. Wright in her Pujols
10. B Dog Metropolitans
11. Brooklyn AbsurdGardeners
12. CptD's Captains

Kush15 wrote:

I get it if you're upset because its just wrong, period. But the whole RP/SP loophole is a real one that saavy owners (such as yourself) should take advantage of.

If you read what I wrote, you'd see that it really doesn't affect me in this league at all. My gripe is in the other league I am in. In this league, there are four "P" pitcher spots, so pitchers with dual eligibilty won't really come into play. It would matter more in a league in which lineups were hard set for the week, and this one is not. The only true way Chapman's SP eligibilty is going to work to someone's advantage is if they hold 7 closers, and one of them is Chapman. I doubt anyone will have room for 7 closers, and if you do draft 7 closers, then more power to you.

Also, don't get me wrong, Shag and I co-owned a team in the other league last year in which we took advantage of Brett Myers' SP eligibilty and even though the rest of the league could only play 2 closers at a time, we were able to play 3.

My gripe with Chapman is this: he has NEVER started an MLB game in his life. He is not going to start one this season either now that his role has been determined. With that said, why is he given SP eligibilty? Yes, I understand the Reds were planning to use him as a starter, but they aren't now. I feel ESPN should drop his SP eligibilty. Brett Myers was a SP in 2011. He was the closer in 2012. A player like that should be awarded dual eligibilty for the year. Now that Brett Myers is a SP again, he should have dual eligibilty for another season. Chapman will not be (for this season), and has never been, a starting pitcher. Now, if the Reds change their minds mid-season and make him a SP, I have no problem giving him dual eligibilty for this season and next season, since he would technically have done both this year. But until that happens, it's a joke to see Chapman with SP eligibilty. It would be like giving Ryan Braun catcher eligibilty had he played a couple of ST games as a catcher.

On and ready to go!

Different topic: Is this going to become a keeper league? It may affect the way I draft. Granted, I should have asked this question a long time ago, but if I get an answer soon, then groovy.

Draft order is now up, so is the draft room:

1. Marcum Eight, Dude
2. Berkeley Treecutters
3. The Abusement Park
4. Perth Heat
5. Up Up and J-Hey
6. Ten Forward Extras
7. Balls to Strikes
8. Sparkle Motion
9. Wright in her Pujols
10. B Dog Metropolitans
11. Brooklyn AbsurdGardeners
12. CptD's Captains

Wow, I was concentrating so much on my other post, I didn't see someone else posted the order, lol.

Ugh! I guess I can give up playing BioShock Infinite for the night.

Looks like I'm on autopick--I'm stuck in a damn conference call

Kush, I get it.. wrong is wrong, and Chapman only qualified as SP is ridiculous. I already threw my hat in having no SP or RP designation, so my stance is it shouldn't matter anyways.

As long as you're ok if I found 5 closers who actually qualified as SP (not possible I know) or 2 SP's who qualify as RPs (I know of 1 worth drafting) and taking advantage of that loophole, then it is what it is.

Anyway, I'm still at the office so hopefully the autopick isn't doing me any harm... with the #2 pick I better have Trout or Miggy on my team by now.

Carlbear95 wrote:

Kush, I get it.. wrong is wrong, and Chapman only qualified as SP is ridiculous. I already threw my hat in having no SP or RP designation, so my stance is it shouldn't matter anyways.

As long as you're ok if I found 5 closers who actually qualified as SP (not possible I know) or 2 SP's who qualify as RPs (I know of 1 worth drafting) and taking advantage of that loophole, then it is what it is.

Anyway, I'm still at the office so hopefully the autopick isn't doing me any harm... with the #2 pick I better have Trout or Miggy on my team by now.

Trout.

Well if anyone wants to trade me some pitching for batters, please inquire within. Mr. Autodraft game me what looks like an intimidating lineup, but no pitching. I have plenty of Outfielders to move.

Jumping on now, hope I haven't missed too much

Carlbear95 wrote:

Well if anyone wants to trade me some pitching for batters, please inquire within. Mr. Autodraft game me what looks like an intimidating lineup, but no pitching. I have plenty of Outfielders to move.

There was another auto-drafted team that was all pitching and no hitting. I think you guys are a perfect match.

The auto-draft was very strange in making one great pitching team and one hitting one.

Speaking of interesting auto-drafts if anybody is looking for some good players who won't be available for the first 8 weeks or so I'm your man.

Funny how one simple deviation in your draft can throw your strategy all to hell.

Still, I'm fairly pleased with my roster. This is the first time I've ever had the 1st overall pick in a draft. Was happy to take Miggy but with my luck, he'll get injured the first month and be out half the season. He's no spring chicken anymore...

I was happy Goldschmidt fell to me in the 4th round. I didn't expect him to be there. Likewise with Bautista at pick #24. I was a little cautious due to his wrist injury but I'm optimistic he will bounce back and in a pretty potent Blue Jays lineup, I'm hoping for big numbers. Two other picks I'm happy with: Salvador Perez in the 14th round and Josh Rutledge in the 18th round. I was worried that I waited too long to punt SS and MI slots but I'm happy with my result.

Thanks for a fun draft fellas. 2 hours is not bad at all.

FSeven wrote:

Was happy to take Miggy but with my luck, he'll get injured the first month and be out half the season. He's no spring chicken anymore...

You shut your damn mouth

The conference call I was on went waaay over time and was at the mercy of the autopick, but it looks like I came out okay. Getting Verlander was a nice surprise--figured he would have gone to someone else in the first round.

FSeven wrote:

Thanks for a fun draft fellas. 2 hours is not bad at all.

+1 to this. Fun night last night.

Will there be any free agency prior to season start? Need to fix my MI and pitching situation with some available players.

As far as draft, I did reorder some players and put a few draft guidelines into the system to try no to overload on pitching in the early rounds, but a little shocked it went all hitting for my bench.

FSeven wrote:

Was happy to take Miggy but with my luck, he'll get injured the first month and be out half the season. He's no spring chicken anymore...

I'd be happy with him just getting off to a slow start in the first week.

I'm really happy with my offense, less so with my pitching. Of course, my strategy was to go hitter-heavy in the first 10 rounds, so maybe I'm just having second thoughts about my draft strategy. I missed the run on RPs by a round or so, so now I'm counting on Jason Grilli and Steve Cishek to deliver saves.

Carlbear95 wrote:

Will there be any free agency prior to season start? Need to fix my MI and pitching situation with some available players.

As far as draft, I did reorder some players and put a few draft guidelines into the system to try no to overload on pitching in the early rounds, but a little shocked it went all hitting for my bench.

Currently there is a waiver system.

I can change the settings to allow players to become immediate Free Agents, although if I set it, the current free agents will remain on waivers until tomorrow. From that point on, owners will be free to immediately drop and add players and the waiver system will cease to be.

Thoughts? I'm indifferent. Either format is fine with me.

I think we should leave them on waivers until they clear, gives people a more fair chance to grab remaining players. The problem that may come into play is that there is a 4 acquisition limit per week, and I'm not sure if this would count towards Week 1.

Is there a way to change it to unlimited pickups until Week 1 begins? Not that we need unlimited pickup, just pickups that don't affect Week 1. I'm fine either way.

*EDIT*
I was very happy with my team. I didn't go for any massive power guys, but my roster is well balanced. I think my weakest area is SB, but I think I have enough talent to contend.

Kush15 wrote:

Is there a way to change it to unlimited pickups until Week 1 begins? Not that we need unlimited pickup, just pickups that don't affect Week 1. I'm fine either way.

I should be able to open it up to Free Agency now (will go into effect tomorrow morning) which will allow people to add/drop as they wish and then set it back to waivers for Opening Day.

If no one objects by 5:00pm EST, I'll open it up.

Don't all players come off waivers tomorrow anyways? You shouldn't have to do anything. Or are players on waivers all week and you can only add people once on Fridays, because that would suck. Should be open FA all the time unless a player is dropped from a team, then they go to waivers for a couple days.

Edit: Standard ESPN stuff (assuming we are on that) says what I did, they will come off waivers tomorrow and be free agents.

"Waivers is the time period by which a player must wait before becoming free agents. Players go into waivers when your draft is complete and immediately after a player is dropped from a team. The standard game system enforces a 1-day waiver period during which time all team owners are allowed to put a waiver claim in to add him to their team. Players on waivers are listed with the day of the week the player is scheduled to clear waivers (ie, "WA (Thu)"). To put a waiver claim in on a player, click the "Add" button. At this time you will be brought through the appropriate adjust roster and confirm transaction pages to submit the claim.

On the date waivers are scheduled to clear, the system looks to see if any teams have a waiver claim on that player. If none do, then the player becomes a free agent who can be added on a first-come, first-served basis. If only one team has a claim on the player, then he is added to that team and the team's priority in the waiver order is moved to the last slot (#10). If more than one team have a claim on a player, then the system looks to see which team has the highest waiver order priority (closest to "1"), that team will win the waiver bid and the team's priority moved to the last slot. All players added to your team via waivers are placed in a bench slot. Each team's waiver priority is displayed on the My Team page. "

ukickmydog wrote:

Don't all players come off waivers tomorrow anyways? You shouldn't have to do anything. Or are players on waivers all week and you can only add people once on Fridays, because that would suck. Should be open FA all the time unless a player is dropped from a team, then they go to waivers for a couple days.

I think I made a glaring oversight.

The acquisition method is currently set to Waivers. Modifying that setting locked in once the draft took place and I am unable to change it.

I've already created a new league with the proper settings. I set the draft for offline. Once everyone joins I can manually enter your rosters as they are now from our draft results and then immediately afterwards Free Agency will be open.

Unfortunately, I will need everyone's email address again for invites. Please send email to: [email protected]

So sorry about this. My first job commishing.

I agree with leaving it as is. All those not drafted will be Free Agents tomorrow morning and will be first-come, first-served with the exception of those who have been claimed since the draft.

That gives everyone until tomorrow morning to put in waiver claims on whomever they wish and avoids a free-for-all at 5pm.

Of course, that still means there is a 4 acquisition per week limit in place for the first week. Can we leave waivers as is but increase the acquisition limit for this first week before switching it back to 4?

EDIT: Simul-posted with FSeven. Why do we want to move away from waivers permanently?

I agree. I think waivers is a much better option now that I fully understand its implementation in the league.

Is there a way to spectate your Fantasy league? Just because I'm curious and haven't followed fantasy in a long time. And I watched Moneyball two nights ago.

Oi, looks like we need a new vote, LOL

Current settings: All players in the unclaimed pool are on Waivers. There is a waiver order from 1 to 12 (currently, my team has 12th priority since I drafted first). If two teams put a claim on the same player, the team with the highest priority waiver number gets the player. After a successful claim, the team's waiver order number is dropped to 12th. This is to encourage being thoughtful and strategic when you happen to get that #1 claim position.

Proposed setting: All waivers are removed. Every unclaimed player is a free agent and may be gobbled up at any time by any team on a first come, first served basis.

Also with the current league settings, as B Dog said, you can put in claims on players right now to get preference before all the players unlock to Free Agency tomorrow morning.

Huge brain fart on my part. I think things are fine the way they currently are.

Okay, so wait...Are we voting to stick with Waivers now? That's what I'm used to and wouldn't mind just sticking with that.

Waivers makes more sense, especially given our geographic disbursement and being able to get online the moment FA open up.