Dear Mr. Fantasy, play us a game (Fantasy Baseball 2013!)

Something to make us all nerdy…

Anyways, opening day is March 31st… usually we do the draft one or two Sundays before that – so lets set draft day on the 24th. If that afternoon is a problem for enough people I'm fine with moving it up a week. And, as always, I will need to manually input our keepers so please let me know your picks by March 10 (it takes a while to input all the things).

We have two retiring managers: polyphonic and mayor jinglebells – so both their teams and the keepers that come with are up for grabs. we also have one new manager, Will, joining us – so you have dibs on picking which team you'd like to inherit. I'll post both teams keep eligible guys for you and other potential new managers shortly.

Last bit of business is changes to the stats… there seems to be some popular support for changing or removing either fielding % or GIDP. If managers could post their thoughts/suggestions I'm fine with altering things if some sort of consensus can be reached. Personally I'd prefer to just dump one of them (don't want too much change from one year to the next) and I can't think of any hitting stat I'd rather see in there instead.

I will post a recap of the rules and a link to our league shortly, managers should be getting an invite in their emails later today.

Oh, also – congrats to last year's winner, Z S, who put an end to polyphonics' dynasty!

da rules:
• total of 5 keepers
• 2 of which must be 27, 28 or 29 yrs old
• another 2 players 26 or under
• one final keeper that can be either (basically anyone under the age of 30)
• age is based on that year's opening date
• for a player to be keep-eligible he must have been drafted on draft day by your team or traded to you by a team that drafted him. that means:
• free agent/waiver pick-ups cannot be kept
• if you keep less than 5 players - you will have a random filler pick inserted instead of a keeper. once the draft is complete you can drop that player for someone else that will count as your final draft pick (must happen right after the draft, so i can keep track of it)

there seems to be some popular support for changing or removing either fielding % or GIDP. If managers could post their thoughts/suggestions I'm fine with altering things if some sort of consensus can be reached.

i'd be cool with dumping both of them, and i'm ambivalent about adding one (or two) to replace them. if there's a fun/unique stat that we could use instead, sure, but otherwise we may as well just make things a little more simple.

i think i'm gonna be pretty bad this year. i lost robinson cano (he's 30 now), and i got rid of shelby miller at the worst possible time (held on to him all year as he struggled in the minors, ditched him just before he found jesus and finally made it to the majors).

i can't do the 24th

polyphonic's keeper eligible guys:
Eric Hosmer
Carlos González
Craig Kimbrel
Bryce Harper
Brandon McCarthy
Salvador Pérez

Mayor Jingleberg's:
Daniel Bard
Matt Wieters
Alex Gordon
Matt Kemp
David Price
Howie Kendrick
Dee Gordon
Chase Headley
Paul Goldschmidt

Damn, Kemp, Price and Headley, not bad!

but mianly, lol @ Bard!

ok, league is set up...

http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/43463
password: vorpedminds

right now the draft is scheduled for 2:30pm sunday the 24th. mr crunch cannot do that day - if a few more people are unable I can move it up to the 17th. also the time is flexible too, if that helps.

i can't do the 24th

― johnny crunch, Monday, February 11, 2013 10:57 AM (59 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i can't do the 24th either.. unless it's 9pm EST or something real late.

and to kick off our keeper picks, here are mine:
Starlin Castro (23)
Jason Heyward (23)
Felix Hernandez (26)
Ian Kennedy (28)
Cole Hamels (29)

ok... so would the 17th mess with anybody's schedule??

i'm having some trouble remembering who i originally drafted, who was traded to me, and who i picked up off of waivers.

earlyish on the 17th would be okay w/ me, but can't commit to anything late afternoon ->

17th much better, anytime (for me).

Hmmm, is there an easy way to view trade transactions from last year?

oh, duh. just found it: http://archive.fantasysports.yahoo.com/archive/mlb/2012/40397/transactions

yup - that's what i used to confirm poly and mj's keepers.

17th is good, any time @ all

Do keepers go at a specified time in the draft, or off the top, or off the bottom? I suppose it's off the bottom since people who don't keep 5 get "fillers."

Is it possible to get a list of the guys that are under 25 who aren't keep-eligible (ie. guys I could plan to draft so I'm not surprised by the lack of kids in the draft)? I imagine all of these answers will inevitably pop up somewhere, just want to make sure.

My e-mail address is at gmail.com, and it starts with "magacid" -- should I sign up now or is there a special thing I have to do to inherit a team?

I am still trying to figure out which of those teams I want to inherit, hopefully I'll know a bit about the format... but gosh those are some sexy keepers on both teams.

And afaik 17th is ok for me, I might be playing actual baseball irl that day (!) but I do that every Sunday, I can take a break. Later is probably better for me but really I'm new so I don't get ot be picky and that's ok by me.

I wrote most of those questions about 20 xp's aog so I see now that I can find the answers myself to the second line at least.

also blowing my mind seeing the age of some of these dudes, i knew they were young but goddamn. j-hey's 23? what am i doing w/ my life?

(oh and post #100 in a row I'm sorry) but when I said "later is better for me" re: mar 17 date, to be more specific, the best for me is either morning til 1pm, or 6pm til midnight... but again, i won't cry if not

My keepers (age on opening day in parentheses):

Lance Lynn (25)
Pablo Sandoval (26)

Matt Cain (28)
José Reyes (29)
Johnny Cueto (27)

think my draft this year might have to focus on rebuilding a little. my keepers are aging out.

Is it possible to get a list of the guys that are under 25 who aren't keep-eligible (ie. guys I could plan to draft so I'm not surprised by the lack of kids in the draft)? I imagine all of these answers will inevitably pop up somewhere, just want to make sure.

i'm not sure that it is possible, but if it is, i'd be interested in the same list! drafts in this league are always kinda funny because they start off with a bunch of oldsters rather than, say, mike trout.

the way i've done it for the past few years is to just keep a big spreadsheet of all players, and then manually go in there and delete everyone who has been named as a keeper. depending on where you get your original spreadsheet from, it might already include date of birth. so once you manually delete out the keepers, you can just sort by age to see who is still available and under 25 (or under 29)

i sold out for the glory of 1st runner up so i only have 4 returning players, the rest of those assholes are dead to me

melky (28)
j upton (25)
sergio santos (29)
miggy montero (29)

Bish Boesch keepers (unless something drastic occurs prior to the deadline):

Greinke 29
Fielder 28
Gallardo 27
McCutchen 26
Trout 21

Do keepers go at a specified time in the draft, or off the top, or off the bottom?

i have to manually input the picks in the first 5 rounds - so technically our draft will start in the 6th round (hence me asking for keepers well ahead of time to allow me time to input 84 names into the draft fields). i should also point out (sorry if this adds to your confusion) that when I randomly do up the draft order, being last means when the actual picking starts in the 6th round, you will be picking first since the order "snakes".

My e-mail address is at gmail.com, and it starts with "magacid" -- should I sign up now or is there a special thing I have to do to inherit a team?

Just click the link to the league page I posted and enter the password – you should be able to sign up there (let me know if you can't).

I am still trying to figure out which of those teams I want to inherit…

You'll have to research their specific ages yourself, but let me know asap… you don't want any other possible new managers to swoop in and snag the better one (no one else has spoken up yet, mind you)!

Andy, you are a bastard for grabbing Trout in the draft last year. seriously.

not only that, but sticking with him when while he was in the minors. you brilliant fucking bastard.

keeping

joey votto (29)
troy tulowitzki (28)
jay bruce (26)
jeremy hellickson (26)
jarrod parker (24)

r.i.p. dustin ackley

There we go, I'm in. I'm Pagandroids.

I shall graciously take the team left by Polyphonic, and these shall be my keepers:

Bryce Harper - 20
Salvador Pérez - 22
Craig Kimbrel - 24
Carlos González - 27
Brandon McCarthy - 29

Checked 'em all, that's their ages & they're all born after March 31. It hurt to leave Price, Kemp & Goldie on the table but THAT'S BASEBALL!

lol hosmer

i still believe

I'll pay him some more mind if he ever gets his babip to not be babullshit

jeez, if the world somehow doesn't explode in the next 10 year, it could be 2022 and Will's team will still have Harper on it.

there won't even be fantasy baseball in 2022, holodeck baseball will ahve taken over

Hunter Pence - 29
John Axford - 29 - b-day is 4/1 ;)
Chris Perez - 27
Michael Pineda - 24 - kinda sad mostly sad
Elviz Andrus - 24

looking more now, appears brandom mccarthy isn't on the team i inherited? am i looking @ the wrong page?

you're totally right, he was dropped. my bad - if this is a game changer, feel free to switch the team you're taking over.

i was thinknig of swapping for buchholz but ughhhhhhh... i think i will switch teams. hurts to drop harper tho.

Paul Goldschmidt (25)
Matt Wieters (26)
Matt Kemp (28)
David Price (27)
Chase Headley (28)

"ellsbury poly" reporting for duty

keepers:

jacoby ellsbury (27)
asdrubal cabrera (29)
brett lawrie (23)
aroldis chapman (25)
matt moore (23)

i'm the former omar fwiw

formar

On my old team I think Dustin Pedroia was also keeperable. I got him via trade, not waivers.

Oof gosh. I can't keep flip-flopping though... I'll stick with what I just picked, and best of luck to whoever takes over your very very sexy looking team.

oh - i thought he was too old for keepin'! again, it was my mistake so flip-flop away if you like, sir.

OOF. Okay. Here goes. Final answer.
Harper, 20;
Perez, 22;
Kimbrel, 24;
Cargo, 27;
Pedroia, 29.

Starting pitchers be damned.

i may flop back to Frieri again on this news :-/

@MikeDiGiovanna: #Angels Closer Ryan Madson had soreness after pen session Feb. 1, hasn't thrown in 10 days.

I probably can't make the draft on the 17th. Would have preferred the 24th FWIW.

I've wanted to "try" autodrafting, kind of, although with keepers it's become more important to show up for the draft.

Okay I think my keepers are as follows:

Ryan Braun (29)
Gio Gonzalez (27)
Danny Espinosa (25)
Wilin Rosario (24)
Madison Bumgarner (23)

No guarantees though. Still calibrating.

THEY ALL DO DRUGS

you are correct sir

ok - so far i have more objections to the 24th than the 17th (sorry, NoTimeBeforeTime). I only want to change this once, so no one gets confused on when the draft is… if I move the draft to, say, 1:30, Sunday the 17th, is that going to mess with anybody else? Are we all cool?

Okay by me, I have another draft starting at 4 EST so I'll just block out the afternoon.

that is appropriately 'selection sunday', like it

my keepers:

Billy Butler 26
Buster Posey 25

Hanley Ramirez 29
Adam Jones 27

Jordan Zimmermann 26

i'll be flying back from SXSW on the 17th but if i'm the only one who can't do that day than i can auto draft or w/e

man, i miss having Zimmerman as my keeper. :( oh well, it was worth it to secure 1st place last year. still.

;_;

in 2011 saturday morning in the austin convention center floor i drafted hungover in a little nook with leather couches and charging stations. weird scene.

anything i need to do to select my keepers? since i am not actually the team from last year my "choose keepers" screen is empty.

I was wondering about that too. I see the option to manually select keepers, but in previous years we just listed our keepers here and thermo handled it, so I wasn't sure what to do.

Thought briefly about jumping back in with someone else's team, kinda like the expansion Browns sort of deal... (Boy, I hardly recognize my old team! /proud)

well there's still a team up for grabs!

and don't worry about that keeper stuff folks... all you have to do is let me know by the deadline and i manually input them before we have our draft.

i think i need to go a little younger:

Caliph Narnia Fielder (13)
Stuart Strasburg (4)
Nikolai "Benny" Bonds (19)
Chastity Farnsworth (8)
Hoss Radbourn VIII (9)

S'all good, Thermo, I don't quite have the time to devote to fantasy anymore, much as I enjoy getting trounced.

Andy, you are a bastard for grabbing Trout in the draft last year. seriously.

― Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, February 11, 2013 1:02 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

not only that, but sticking with him when while he was in the minors. you brilliant fucking bastard.

― Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, February 11, 2013 1:02 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Gunning for that 2K21 Vorped ring.

wasn't satisfied w/ pagandroids as a name so i have switched

Freese In The Trap cos tigers aint shit & they aint saying nothing, 100 leaving astros cant tell me nothing

so this is going to be the last and only year we have the draft on St Patrick's day, guys!
just realized i am going to have to choose between the draft and the traditional Pattie's day brunch my friends have.

get the app, do both! (there's probably an app)

hey, that sounds like a good ide... wait a minute!

no, no, go ahead and draft while you get wasted! and i encourage EVERYONE ELSE to do the same!

(tbf i have been wasted every single year and done alright, so whatever)

TRADITION

I have had a tradition of getting pretty stoned, tbh.

Do we have a final list of keepers, then, or something close to it? i wanna start deleting rows from my spreadsheet for the draft.

we have this thread!

all i have is a disorganized simple text doc with mostly 2012 info right now.... and i think we're still missing four teams (?) lists...

and now that i'm starting to go through things... tUnE-gAlLaRdOs: you can't keep Rosario, didn't draft him!

aw okay, fine, whatever. SO MANY RULES. will re-calibrate soon.

Can't find last year's draft results. Did I draft David Freese?

enter league site -> "draft central" dropdown -> "last season"

you did indeed draft freese (and fowler) (all your other drafty keepy dudes are kinda eh)

(aside from the ones you already kept obv)

Darn, didn't see that before but now it is glaringly obvious. My bad. Still debating about a couple of others now -- why did I draft so many old dudes last year?

i dont know if we're ready for ilb faces but a live draft on google hangouts would have the benefit of enforcing taking a shot for every keeper accidentally drafted.

hmmmm, so by my count 11 teams have designated their keepers? (+ 1 from (this cannot be changed), tbd)

I still have a couple of weeks to decide for sure, though, right?

yup.

March 10

wait its not actually possible to accidentally draft keepers right? i guess 130pm isn't TOO early to start taking shots buuuuuuuuut

no, i have to plug in the keepers myself - to do that i need to lock the managers in and "draft" the keepers. that's why i set the deadline.

ZS - so far 10 teams have posted their picks, 4 still thinin'.

so does anyone else have an opinion on dropping FPCT &/or GIDP?

I'm in favour of dropping FPCT, but I'm fine with keeping GIDP.

Dumb question about keepers, is their eligibility based on their ages on Opening Day? IOW, can I still keep Joe Mauer (who is 29 but turns 30 in mid-April)?

i personally love FPCT because it's so hard to project for. GIDP is a bitch too. i think after 4 years i have stockholm syndrome.

see, that's why i DON'T like FPCT! it's just kind of a total wildcard, which sounds cool and fun, but in reality you don't really ever pay attention to it for the entire season. it can take you from a top contender to an also-ran (or an also-ran to a total basement dweller) if you just happen to have a shitty fielding team, because it's a potential 15 point swing in the standings. also, FPCT doesn't play into draft strategy, or trade/waiver decisions, at all. you would never (i hope) choose a guy who is a really great fielder over someone who is a really great hitter. so it just ends up being this thing that can torpedo your season and isn't fun to watch or track or think about. imho.

not a fan of gidp either, so much, but at least there i can see it occasionally playing into your draft strategy.

I think i'd like em both if it was a weekly head to head situation but full season pts (this is called roto right? i never remember which one is roto) it is tough, and yeah i don't wanna draft a defensive specialist just to lose in every other cat

i guess i like them (but you guys can do whatever you want, i'm playing devil's advocate) because they inject an element of randomness and frustration that is not unlike real baseball.

i get a competitive advantage in other leagues by blending projection systems, balancing stats via a draft calculator, and sometimes it just feels like i'm doing my taxes.

down for whatever.

i mean, don't get me wrong my first season joining i though wtf is this bullshit

i am definitely not casting a vote bc i haven't even been in the league yet tho for the record

NoTime, it's the 5th rule! "• age is based on that year's opening date"; so yes, he's keepable.

fwiw i posted my keepers for 'ellsbury poly' and have yet to see them on my team...

sanskrit is half right on my thinking when i first added those stats... "randomness and frustration that is not unlike real baseball."
except they aren't really random - we all know who the disasters on the field are for the most part. for me it's usually just been a tiebreaker when i'm trying to decide between guys, i liked giving a slight edge to guys who do more than just mindlessly bash balls out of the park.

xpost - jesus guys - i have to enter them manually, which i will do sometime after the march 10 deadline. you'll all be fine.

suffice it to say i'm concerned about collusion, why have these players not signed?

anyways, it looks there's a little more support for killing FPCT over GIDP, so for now I'm going to say that FPCT is the one on it's way out.

xpost ha ha

okay here's mine: Braun, Freese, Fowler, Bumgarner, Gonzalez

bomb FPCT and GIDP - don't ever pay attn to either of these (besides a tie-breaking decision b/w 2 players maybe, once).
FPCT esp. b/c don't we have zone ratings and such for this kind of thing irl b/c this stat is pretty bs? GIDP not as bad because it offsets players with a lot more RBI opportunities, i suppose

you want weird drafting conditions? last year relaying my picks from printed out spreadsheets with miniature font size over a rehab payphone to my clueless girlfriend running the interface, me asking who'd been drafted, futiley scribbling down and crossing off names, making last second decisions with no real knowledge of injury stati. Oy...yielded interesting results. Ended up leaving the team to its own devices due to it not even registering on my priorities radar during that rough year anyway.

Planning on giving you guys a run this time; I feel like St. Patty's day draft date gives me a distinct advantage :'D

misplaced my "rotisserie moleskine" - i'm still deciding b/w 2 guys anyway

i am THEE TEE OHS

this cannot be changed...
Fowler will be 27 when the season starts. Gonzalez is 27, Braun and Freese are both 29. that gives you four in the 27-29 range.

EFFING EFF I KNEW THERE WAS A REASON I DIDN'T DO THAT BEFORE GAAAAAAh

i'll get back to you

:'D

Okay, I think it'll work if I drop Freese and substitute Dayan Viciedo, right?

fwiw i am booting hunter pen15ce for ernesto guy Frieri

Ernesto Frieri - 27
John Axford - 29
Chris Perez - 27
Michael Pineda - 24
Elviz Andrus - 24

Keeping my rotation strong and going for one last run with Mauer/Zimmerman (positional value!):

Brick in the Mauer (formerly D2DAddDirtUWimps)

Ryan Zimmerman (28)
Joe Mauer (29)
Stephen Strasburg (24)
Clayton Kershaw (25)
Brandon Morrow (28)

DN TCBC, Viciedo was a midseason pickup ;_;

here because all i wanna do is think about fantasy baseball i made you a handy list :D

Two (or three) from these:
Danny Espinosa - 25
Madison Bumgarner - 23
Rick Porcello - 24
Wilson Ramos - 25

Three (or two) from these:
Ryan Braun - 29
David Freese - 29
Jim Johnson - 29
Jonathan Broxton - 28
Matt Capps - 29
Gio González - 27
Mat Gamel - 27
Dexter Fowler - 27

(I hope this doesn't seem condescending or something I just already had all of the potential picks for every team ready to go BECAUSE I AM A CRAZY PERSON and I tried to presuppose everyone's picks)

hahahahahahahaha OH MY GOD could I be more incompetent or absentminded or something shit

anyway BUMGARNER RAMOS BRAUN GONZALEZ FOWLER dammit sorry guys

wait, you can't pick ryan braun because he's about to be suspended for the whole season

ha ha hahaa!

yeah i would drop braun

can we all just take a quick pledge to never, ever, take fantasy baseball even 1/20th as seriously as this guy?

http://espn.go.com/fantasy/baseball/story/_/page/mlbdk2k13_mock2/miguel-cabrera-goes-first-overall-second-staff-fantasy-baseball-mock-draft-2013

"We had already done a 10-team mock draft on Valentine's Day"

http://cdn.overclock.net/e/e9/e9a91572_spit_coffee_Wut-s576x416-126987-580.png

I thought it was bad when I was drafting in person with former work buddies and I was like "omg I can't believe I'm driving an hour Toronto->Hamilton to sit in a room for 5 hours with these weirdos" - it was like when Paul Rudd is wearing that Orioles hat and is busted in whatever movie that was. I felt embarrassed almost but it was actually one of the best experiences in my damn life and I want to do this Google Hangout (w/e that is) for our draft.

Onto my picks:

SALE, C. or TEHERAN, J.?

Okay, since I can still change it if I need to
THEE TEE OHS keepers:

SCHERZER, Max (28)
DESMOND, Ian (27)
SANTANA, Carlos (26)
SALE, Chris (23)
TEHERAN, Julio (22)

Leaving Neftali FELIZ on the table b/c he's injured until after the All-Star Break

I forgot about D'ARNAUD - maybe I should keep him for potential trade

SCHERZER, Max (28)
DESMOND, Ian (27)
SANTANA, Carlos (26)
SALE, Chris (23)
D'ARNAUD, Travis (24)

so...anyone know what's happened to Jordan?

also - I will kill GIDP as well. seems like no one likes that either.
i just need Jordan to sign up and i can start plugging in people's keepers.

wait I want to do this!! I totally forgot about the deadline!

I WILL SIGN UP WHEN I GET HOME LATER TONIGHT, I SWEAR

THANK GOD! I WAS SO WORRIED YOU DIDN'T CALL OR ANYTHING!!

also: mr j.q higgins - what are your picks?!

LET'S GET IT TOGETHER PEOPLE

ugh...think i'm going w/

longoria
cespedes
darvish
latos
samardzija

sorry for the hold up!

Jordan. you're killing me here. i would really like start entering people's keepers, but i can't do that until i lock the league and i can't do that until all the teams have signed up.

yo i missed picks for the team that has stanton, did they drop out or did i completely miss the boat on those keepers somewhere?

inquiring excel spreadsheets want to =know()

okay i registered!

my keepers:

miguel cabrera 29
giancarlo stanton 23
trevor cahill 25
allen craig 28
homer bailey 26

that would be the outstanding Mr Jordan. i'll have no choice but to lock the league tomorrow so I can enter everyone's picks (not how I had wanted to spend my saturday afternoon). if he hasn't signed up by then, Stanton and his other keepers will be up for grabs, i guess.

xpost!

no Stanton for you, WIll!

IT WAS A PSYCH-OUT, I DIDN'T EVEN WANT STANTON

ps homer bailey was a waiver pick

oh snap!

yeah i have formulas

formulae

ah alright i couldn't remember. i'll switch him out...

alright i'll take trevor bauer (22) instead

i'm almost positive that i'll miss the draft btw because i think i'll be on a plane/in transit to the airport but i'll do pre-draft rankings and hope for the best

considering where i've placed in the last two years it's probably best for me not to draft anyway

I just found out that when the draft begins I will be stuck transporting my family to a children's birthday party that none of us want to go to anyway. Kind of mad about that because fantasy sports drafts are about 34.5% of my social interaction during any given calendar year.

a children's birthday party that none of us want to go to anyway

Is there any other kind?

(OK, I guess kids get enthusiastic about Chuck E. Cheese and warehouses with inflatable structures.)

very close with the family in question...MAYBE TOO CLOSE IS THE ISSUE...but no Chuck E. Cheese involved thank the good Jesus Christ in His Heaven

formulae

― ciderpress, Friday, 15 March 2013 11:44 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my english just got corrected real good

ok. let me know if I've made any mistakes. the yahoo draft thingy can be a little wonky:
http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/43463/draftresults?drafttab=team

welcome to team emoji uehara, john mcdonald

good name

so who's in for tomorrow? (live drafting, i mean?)

as usual, i feel like i have no fucking clue what i'm doing, and that no matter what i do i'm going to somehow end up drafting skip schumaker with my first pick somehow

i'll be around, Guinness in hand.
i actually just bailed on going to the Toronto ilm meet-up so that i'll have more time work on my cheat sheets before heading out to Andy Stott!

ill be there & be as unprepared as ever

just had my irl friends draft today so i might be burnt out bt i sohuld be there barring any major issues

super bummed to miss the draft. have pre-ranked, so i'm certain to have a bunch of bums, losers, no-hopers, flashes in the pan, troglodytes, one-true-outcome guys, steroid abusers, and/or Milwaukee Brewers on my team.

looks like my keeper change didn't make it in but nbd. my players are terrible anyway

what change was that? - i can still edit things...

oh - i see Pence out Frieri in. will fix.

*adds pence to a secret spreadsheet*

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BFkhBI1CEAARnjV.jpg

b'JOIZus

alright, going downstairs to make a strong drink

so if my first pick is manny ramirez, you know what happened

logging into the draft

i will be in the air but my bff is gonna draft for me, hope that's cool

what's yr team name again?

Gucci Mane LaHair (until I update it)

phew!

as usual, somehow i ended up with a shitty catcher despite swearing to myself that i would get one of 5-6 totally viable, decent options.

and, as usual, i'm looking at Andy K's roster (bish boesch) and wondering how the hell it looks so amazing and unbeatable

i might dump all of our results into a big spreadsheet and see how everyone came out based on the 2013 ZIPS projections

and by "dump all of our results", i mean laboriously, agonizingly, copy and pasting hundreds of rows of player projections into 14 new tabs

in as much to remind myself - thermo, ill name someone 2 switch out for john mcdonald (i get to do this right) by later tonight

my starting staff: Hernandez, Price, Hamels, Kennedy, Miller/Straily

xpost - that would be amazing.

that was to zs.

thanks jc - unless of course, you'd like to keep Johnny Mac (Canada's first, and drunkest, prime minister)

if i find myself with enough time i will plug them all into mlb the show and see who is rated lowest 30th in the league on defense

ellsbury poly:

c: lucroy
1b: hosmer, morales
2b: seager
3b: lawrie, gyorko
ss: asdrubal cabrera
of: ellsbury, ethier, revere, reddick, dom brown
sp: verlander, dickey, moore, lincecum, harvey, wilson, beachy
rp: chapman, cishek, ryan cook

Freese in the Trap:

C - Perez (Pacheco)
1B - Goldschmmidt (Pacheco)
2B - Pedroia (Everth)
SS - Jeter (Everth)
3B - Middlebrooks (Alvarez)
OF - Cargo Sr. (Cargo Jr.)
OF - Harper (Eaton)
OF - Murphy

SP - Sabathia
SP - Halladay
SP - Anderson
SP - FAT RYU
SP - Buchholz

RP - Kimbrel
RP - Uehara
RP - Boggs

MiLB - Bundy

CarryOnMyHeywardSon:

c: mccann/avila
1b: Trombo
2b: Zobrist/Walker
SS: Castro
3b: Freese
of: Heyward, Gordon, Swisher/Marte/Saunders

sp: Hernandez, Price, Hamels, Kennedy, Miller/Straily
rp: Romo, Janssen, Clippard, OFlaherty

just realized i've stolen two teams namesakes!

CAIN:

c: aj pierzynski (in my dreamz this was supposed to be rosario, for this year and the next handful)
1b: rizzo (really excited about this for some reason)
2b: josh rutledge (caught some shit about this, for good reason, because i grabbed him waaaaaay earlier than he normally goes. but it was kind of a positional scarcity pick - he was one of the last decent 2bs left, even early on, since 2b is super weak this year, and also he's young and i think he has some upside)
3b: pablo sandoval (keeper)
ss: jose reyes (keeper)
of: bautista, bourn, pagan (more nervous about the OF than anything else. even bautista could wind up being a disaster. :-/)
util: alfonso soriano (soriano's unexpectedly great year helped me out a ton last year. he won't do that again, but even if he just meets his projections i think he's a late-ish round grab, backup OF.

sp: cueto, cain, lynn (keepers), josh johnson, aj burnett (pretty happy with this rotation, actually)
rp: mariano rivera, broxton
setup/holds: sean marshall, jake mcgee (was really happy to grab these guys in the last 2-3 rounds. they should be hold machines, great WHIP, K/BB ratios)

bench: adam dunn (he absolutely killed me two years ago, but as an occasional fill in at 1B or OF (he has eligibility there, somehow), i think he'll provide some decent added power to the lineup), michael young (picked him up just for depth at 3B/2B/1B, just in case), carlos ruiz (his suspension ends in late April; he might be a marginal upgrade over pierzynski)

prospect pick: oscar taveras (he'll probably make it up later this year for 100 AB or so, but mainly i got him for 2014 and beyond)

c: napoli (doumit)
1b: pujols (davis, napoli)
2b: kipnis (prado)
3b: longoria (prado)
ss: escobar (prado)
of: cespedes, prado, davis (hicks, doumit, ichiro)
sp: latos, samardzija, darvish, hammel, cobb, webster
rp: grilli, casilla, hernandez, strop

^ the fact that this team somehow exists is O_O

halfway through the ZIPS draft results pre-season awards

my own team is..not looking very good!

i feel bad for bnw... Adam Lind.

if everything goes well for my team ill finish in 4th

tUnE-gAlLaRdOs:

c: W. Ramos
1b: L. Berkman, I. Davis
2b: R. Cano (E. Bonifacio)
3b: M. Moustakas
SS: A. Simmons/J. Segura
OF/UT: R. Braun, A. Jackson, C. Granderson, M. Morse (E. Bonifacio, B. Gardner)
SP: G. Gonzalez, M. Bumgarner, W. Rodriguez, J. Teheran, A. Sanchez, C. Tillman
RP: R. Soriano, R. Betancourt

not bad considering I didn't pick after round 2 but I'm worried about a couple of areas here.

ok, i'm still working on pitching but i'll go ahead and roll out the batting portion

basically i just looked at the 2013 ZiPS everyone's starting lineup, so it excludes your bench players. all the caveats you could have think of regarding ZiPS apply, of course. and in certain cases it helped certain teams (for example, ZiPS has a full season of at bats for Curtis Granderson). also, just for fun, included WAR as a bonus column, even though it doesn't play into our fantasy league at all. don't worry, WAR doesn't impact the rankings at all.

i just have screenshots from the spreadsheet, so sorry to anyone trying to view this on a phone. here are the projected point standings for batting:

http://i.imgur.com/2FJUTvi.png

and here are the actual projected ZiPS stats:

http://i.imgur.com/FwPCa8E.png

pitching coming soon, along with overall (projected) standings

major caveat for the pitching: ZiPS does NOT have projections for saves, holds, or quality starts! so they're not included here. that's especially important for the overall rankings (coming in a post in a few minutes), because it's skewed more toward batting than it should because it's missing a few of the pitching categories.

here are the projected point standings for pitching:
http://i.imgur.com/D8l1I6C.png

and here are the projected ZiPS stats for pitching:
http://i.imgur.com/1SdWvsX.png

Overall projected points:

http://i.imgur.com/34bApv0.png

son of a BITCH. hold on

did we make drunkenest elected official namesake a scoring category?

if not, switch out johnny mac for me and gimme ~$~*~!Al Alburquerque~$^$~*~!

sorry for repeated fuck ups. i'm drunk. here's the corrected version:

http://i.imgur.com/nhk2bMB.png

amazing work. I'm frankly shocked at the high placement of tUnE-gAlLaRdOs and I expect more like mid-table obscurity. but thanks!

OH GOD I had the draft set for NEXT Sunday. Best check the damage D:

/FACEPALM

Aaron Fuckin' Boone Hill. Howard! ;_;

What kind of autodraft hell was this???

I ended up with a team full of over the hill stars and several guys I actively hate! (Alex Rios? Brandon League??)

"stars"

I ran these stats against my dogeared paperback copy of Bill James Player Ratings for Kids '86 and Gucci Mane LaHair wins. But they fall to the Cubs in the World Series.

Thanks, Z S. I'm certain the squad is very beatable. As the great Joe Morgan once said, "We won't know until we find out."

Congrats to NewlywedNoTime!

FreeseIntheTrap - it's cool bruv, i dont really need/want koji uhara

liking that there's already trade offers floating around...
for the record, until the inevitable injuries hit, I'm pretty happy with how my team is looking.

Is it possible to do trades/waiver pickups yet, or do we have to wait until the beginning of the season?

i feel like the #1 overall pick is a blessing and a curse

z s - after the draft ends all free agents are on the waiver wire for a few days. so you can pick up and drop guys but you'll have to wait for the waiver claim time to end before they join your team.

not that it matters all that much but the waiver priorities should all flip

oh & also i shd get a "do over" on my 1st rd pick cuz headleys now hurt

actually strike 'not that it matters all that much'

flip those waiver numbers thermo or its gonna get ugly in here!!

http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/I5YoWBFUHA_t11Djfx.lRA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTMxMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en/blogs/sptusmlbexperts/garbageturner.jpg

fine fine fine. i'll flip it.

Thermo (CarryOnMyHeywardSon) Waiver Priority changed from 'old order' to 'new order'

I can't see this upthread but: did you do the ZIPS thing last year? If so how accurate was it to the final standings? (I imagine that it changed a lot as people picked up/dropped players etc)

i did, but unfortunately i can never keep track of who is who! like, username to team name, and also team name changes from last year to this year

i'm sure they weren't very accurate, not only because of the obvious caveats with projections in the first place, but also all the transactions/injuries that happen in a season.

i know i'm screwed this season because already thinking of it as a rebuilding year

thermo, do u want me 2 drop him for you to make this happen? i notice waivers kicked in today, fortunately no one swooped in & stole my boo

if not, switch out johnny mac for me and gimme ~$~*~!Al Alburquerque~$^$~*~!

― johnny crunch, Sunday, March 17, 2013 7:04 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Where are these trade offers that you see floating around, Thermo?

I've updated my trading block - my main concern is unloading either C.Santana or D'Arnaud for starting pitching. All trade offers welcomed, and I'd appreciate any would-be dealer updating their trading block

Johnny: I assumed you were actually going to handle this yourself.

Francis: I honestly forget who the offer came from right now but he was looking for pitching aswell.

oh well i can. i get him as a "draft pick" right? meaning eligible to potentially keep nxt yr

Yes.

aight, ill do it, thx

sent you an email, francisF

i shot a few garbage trade offers out just to say: 'hey, i'd trade someone better thna this awful player i'm currently offering for a starting pitcher'

i thought the one saving grace of this league was that weird sabr allegiances trumped spaz rape trades

/says the guy who gifted hamilton, cruz, and a title last year for a middling SP keeper

ps offers for Wil Myers in August

/says the guy who gifted hamilton, cruz, and a title last year for a middling SP keeper

you leave jordan zimmerman out of this, i loved that guy!

ok - so how/why was i able to grab Granderson on the waiver wire?

he's not keeper eligible and is out for 3 months?

Isn't he injured for a long time? Still, if you have room to stash him, not a bad pick!

hes also def 30+

yeah i needed to fix some roster construction stuff so i dropped him. i was sad about it if it makes you feel better.

oh fuck - i didn't realize that he was going to be out that long! (10 weeks according to espn)

oh well. i'll just have to tell me team no one can get injured for two months.

should be fine.

seems legit. we'll see if my strategy of reaching for keeper eligible guys will actually pay off.

Yeah I'll be great in 2016 imo

Z_S: just need to find out how to check my fantasy email now

also, auto-draft netted me FOUR closers, so anyone interested in one will get a good deal on one because this is an untenable situation

i think it just sends it to your yahoo email address?
but no worries, i'll just send a trade offer. if you don't like it, feel free to propose a counteroffer!

i don't have anything in my yahoo email address or primary email associated with your account. i do see the trade offer

I made my email available to make it easier to contact me. I'm denying with intention to counter-offer

Anyone know when the DL stuff kicks in? Is it only at the start of the season? I keep checking every day but Eaton isn't going DL (also headley and hanley).

it's whenever the team makes the dl stint official, i think. i have two guys i'm waiting to move to the DL too - it's annoying.

Apparently ahoo added an "NA" spot to stash minors dudes, any interest in using this? (I know it's probably too late bc people would want to account for it while drafting but seems interesting!)

There's always been an "NA" indicator for guys in the minors/limbo...
But did yahoo make this a slot like the DL now?!

Not sure how interested I would be because the last thing I want is people hoarding prospects.

^

yeah, i think the balance of how drafting prospects works right now is good - there's a real risk to it because you have to sacrifice a relatively high draft pick in order to secure the top prospects, and then you have to deal with them eating up a bench slot for a good chunk of the season (or longer). if there was a NA spot for it, a lot of that strategy would go out of the window.

yeah I wasn't even really thinking it'd be something I'd want to include but it definitely is interesting!!

This is the first year I haven't done fantasy baseball since probably 1996? 1997?

what do you expect to do with those extra hours of your life this summer

I'm hoping to actually watch some Padres games for once instead of just watching my fantasy players.

But after they're eliminated in June there will be some low times.

Yes please open up 3 NA spots kthxbai

haha yea this would fuck shit up too much, the only reason i dont draft as many prospects as like j0rdan does is cuz im really impatient

btw, francisF i sent u an email, lets kibbutz

i had no clue Puig was up for grabs... might have rethought Plouffe :(

oops. nevermind!

fuckin 'ell!

haha I noticed just now (default settings = images off) that Z S showed that my team would finish first according to ZiPS projections (great work dude!). Four posts later I went on a rant about how crap my team was ... oops. Yeah, I've softened on my team now, especially after making a bunch of waiver wire moves. With autodrafting you usually end up with a bunch of highly ranked veterans so the chances of injury/collapse are higher than I'd like, it also means my keeper class for next year is going to be really thin so it'll be "win now" mode for me this season.

DOMINATION!

(one day only bragging rights)

thing i hate: every day this thing has to remind me how many people dropped adam eaton...

I KNOW, YAHOO

I'M NOT GOING TO

I STILL BELIEVE IN HIM

did something happen to him?

Out 6-8 weeks with an elbow thing. Based on the small amount of the game I watched yesterday, I can't imagine Parra is going to be blocking him when he gets better, though.

jeez, Jack Oh Gee McGee just counterbalanced my awesome opening day starter stats with this masterful appearance in the game against the O's:

Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
McGee	        0.2	4	5	5	1	1	1	67.50

jason hammel has brought down my pitching numbers. i'm at .31 whip for the day.

Yahoo! on Halladay: "The 35-year-old's stock is dropping faster than Carnival Cruise reservations."

f u yahoo the knife needs no twisting

the SB category is bringing me down

i must act

I just dropped Cain if anyone is interested :S

David Price, Felix Hernandez and Cole Hammels - all got shellacked on behalf of my team yesterday... THIRTY POINT DROP!@

yeah, matt cain got destroyed in the third inning against my beloved cardinals yesterday to the tune of 9 earned runs. i really hate when my fantasy players play against my favorite team. i couldn't even enjoy the total beatdown because i was like "GET CAIN OUT OF THERE! HE'S DONE!"

RA Dickey also got beat up yesterday. Not a good day for star pitchers.

anyone interested in corey hart for something comparable? due back next month i think & u can just stash him if u have dl space (which i dont now). no offer too insulting!

i will offer you a punch to the head for Cory Hart.

that was mean. i apologise.

http://i.imgur.com/z1Gdfzk.png
not pictured: roy "idiot panic draft" halladay 15.75 ERA

i forgot to start matt harvey today :X

i see somebody is selling low on Dickey!

huh-huh...selling low on dickey.

i had to reject all trade offers at this point, i seek RELIABLE POWER.

NO SUCH THING.

You had to reject all trade offers because they're all junk to start. Make me a counter-offer would ya i need SP

You want Nelly Cruz?

Also, Thee Tee Ohs Merry Band Of Auto-Draftees is somehow in 4th place!

You had to reject all trade offers because they're all junk to start. Make me a counter-offer would ya i need SP

^ me too

also, i am pretty ready to sell low on halladay, world

ugh, my only halfway decent player (reyes) is now out for at least 3 months, possibly more.

Can the season end today?

i kind of want it to! i'm ready to trade away a few overachieving veterans for a promising keeper. my season is already in the shitter. reyes is out 3+ months, all my other players are underachieving/hurt. adam dunn decided to take a new approach to the plate that makes him somehow even WORSE. rizzo is just...completely sucking. my catcher is the second most hated player in baseball behind a-rod. every relief appearance somehow ends up with a line of 0.2IP 91.00 ERA 6.00 WHIP 4 BB 1 K

i may have a catcher to spare, sir.

Send me a trade offer if you dare! I just got a very interesting one from someone else (can't act on it now because yahoo baseball is blocked at my work) too

hmmm - to be honest, not sure there's anyone on yr team i really want.
congrats on your signing of Bud Norris tho!

http://www.sadtrombone.com/classic

yeah, he's my terrible fill in while johnny cueto hits the DL yet again.

hmmm - to be honest, not sure there's anyone on yr team i really want.

no one?! not even bourne+some mediocre guy?

sigh, i can't even spell my relatively good players' names

this team is doomed i tells ya

however, i have hopes for the next several years, with taveras and hopefully another elite prospect, if my trade goes through

you realize i'd be offering Avila?

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mewgwmZXcP1r5mzd8.jpg

Ha!

of course, i could have had myers in the 8th round (or whatever it was) in the draft a few weeks ago, but now i have to trade my first round pick for him

*sadfaceguy*

wow. that's a mighty gamble.

i have a bridge i might want to trade, if you're interested!

hey, i've won first, second, and third in my first three seasons in the league. i can't make mistakes!

(oh wait, does that mean that i'm only going to place fourth and below for the forseeable future, until i've placed everywhere from first to last and everything resets so that first place becomes a possibility again??)

btw what kind of bridge is it?

one thing to keep in mind is that elite prospects never fail to deliver

I agree

Which is why I recommend u trade me Matt Cain (old man, looool, +5 ERA what a washup) for Dylan Bundy (POTENTIAL IS INFINITE)

happy 2 do u this favour

How about I give you the legendary AJ Burnett instead? ;)

Cain's a keeper, figuratively and literally, so i'm holding on to him

i would (seriously) be open to other offers for bundy, though

if i can just land profar as well i'll be in good shape i think

Considering I only have one potential 27-29 keeper next year and something like 6-8 under 27s that might be worth keeping, I'll keep you posted :O

Interesting trade!

I might be looking to "get younger" and trade for keeper eligible players too, don't be shocked if some of you get trade offers from me soon.

every relief appearance somehow ends up with a line of 0.2IP 91.00 ERA 6.00 WHIP 4 BB 1 K

― your holiness, we have an official energy drink (Z S), Tuesday, April 16, 2013 10:20 AM (Yesterday)

ok, this is my fault for picking bud fucking norris off of the waiver yesterday, but this was his line today as a SP:

0.2IP 91.00 ERA 12.00 WHIP 3BB 0K

i wish i was joking

- J. Jaso doubled to left
- C. Young singled to left center, J. Jaso scored, C. Young to second on center fielder J. Maxwell's fielding error
- S. Smith singled
- J. Lowrie walked, C. Young to third, S. Smith to second
- J. Donaldson fouled out to first
- J. Reddick doubled to deep right, C. Young and S. Smith scored, J. Lowrie to third
- D. Norris walked
- E. Sogard singled to shallow right, J. Lowrie scored, J. Reddick to third, D. Norris to second
- S. Peterson walked, J. Reddick scored, D. Norris to third, E. Sogard to second
- J. Jaso grounded out to second, D. Norris scored, E. Sogard to third, S. Peterson to second
- X. Cedeno relieved B. Norris
- C. Young popped out to first

Yeah but picking up a guy for a spot start against the highest scoring team in baseball wasn't the best idea.

The Rays are the highest scoring team in baseball?!

Ironic Moustakas!

oops - it was the Athletics.... the Athletics are the highest scoring team in baseball?!

as someone said on their team thread, i think thats cuz of playing houston a lot already

anyone have eyes for jackie bradley jr as keeper value? if y offer me something or else i may drop dis dude idk

the guy from seinfeld?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/67/Jackie_Chiles_in_The_Maestro_Seinfeld.JPG

anybody want a keeperable d'arnaud before he becomes a casualty in my pursuit of 1st?

probably not. thought it was a little strange when you grabbed him to begin with, tbh!

My 50-something point lead ... wiped out in a week :(

omg its me now :S

i will know your pain because i have to be the next person to lose the lead

Well, the person who leads for most of April NEVER wins at the end of the season, that's practically the First Law of Fantasy Baseball. So my season is/was basically over no matter what.

i can spy the parallel universe where i use my waiver priority for john buck & it's a terrifying place

I saw Ruiz and I had to make a crazy move on the assumption buck is about to nosedive.

Whatever happens doesn't matter, I think my team is kinda fucked

He nosedove already, hasn't he?

i am very happy i drafted Starling Marte.

oh sweet - my turn to be in first! thanks, Shelby!

hey guys remember that time i drafted roy halladay

SHUT UP IT NEVER HAPPENED

who should i drop to make room for granderson

http://i.imgur.com/dZ6Ko0z.png

im thinking uggla or headley

Uh. AJ Burnett is also on MY team!

its not ilx league... i wasnt invited for some reason... #smh

no turds allowed

i dropped uggla... thanks for nothing

btw - thank you whoever dropped Granderson in our league two weeks into the season!

dropping headley would've been ridiculous

Three of our top four teams are Canadian!

its just hard to get headley into the lineup with longoria already there. maybe i'll try to trade him

current events have necessitated a name change #Yeezus

mightve gone david deyeezus, but nice

needed 3 HR to take the point in my h2h $ league with only one game left in the week (which wld conveniently put me in first place)

ilu miggy

That is the exact opposite of what happened to me in my other $ league

And I had Alex Avila starting which would have mitigated the damage slightly

If he had played

fu miggy

i'm in 8th place right now which i think is the highest i've been this late into the season in ILB fantasy history

for some reason i still like my team so im blissfully disregarding every precipitous pt drop & embracing last place FOR NOW

altho danny espinosa can die in a fire tbh

^^^ no joke, I was looking at your roster this morning and thinking "I don't get it, this team looks decent"

im thinking of dropping Alejandro De Aza for dexter fowler. what do u guys think

i think YOUR OTHER GLORPING FANTASY LEAGUES!!!

Adam Lind's name is spelled Ádám Lind in Yahoo, what's up w/ that?

How are my keepers doing?

From your team I kept CarGo, Kimbrel, Harper, Salvador Pérez, and Pedroia -- Harper and Perez are slacking a bit, but, we're in first place, mr. phonic! thank you for the excellent dynasty, so far I'm doing you proud.

(of course there are a few months left, so we'll see how long that lasts...)

Glad to hear it!

fucking had McCann on the fucking bench (but not Gatis at least).

today three players homered twice (dom brown, lucroy, loney) and another fun thing they have in common is i dropped them all in the past month

those are some unfortunate drops!

i can be so terrible with free agency. i never trust it when an older hitter suddenly starts a tear so i dropped loney as soon as he went through a little slump. i drafted dom brown and he was so frustrating and it's easy for me to drop guys when they drive you crazy, when he got picked up i said "oh ho ho, good luck you silly person" and now he does this. lucroy just hit another homer and i wanna pick him up but i don't want to drop cashner, gausman, lincecum, colon, alcides. this happens every year.

winning fantasy means not being the one who can't readjust expectations, and i suck at that

of course if i weren't an o's fan it would be so easy to drop gausman but dammit i can't

First in DL stints, goddamnit.

Yesterday I shot way up in the standings, up 45+ points, somehow based off of a few home runs and 8 RBI with 2 NSBs. This morning I realized it was all a dream.

So.. second place in this league is a set of steak knives, right?

Who has Evan Gattis in this league, and how much hair-pulling is he causing you?

I have McCann as my main catcher, so Gattis has been a delight!

as long as i check my lineups before the game starts i can swap one for the other - or if there's an OF/UTL spot open i can toss Gattis in there (as i did last night for his pinch-hit homerun). it's working out pretty well thus far :D

having two catchers from the same team actually seems kinda genius...

altho i don't particularly feel like picking up george kottaras :S

Cool. I was wondering if there'd been times he'd been used in a UTL spot, produced zilch in his only AB, and bumped someone who'd been productive that day.

not yet. his idling spot is the bench until i know he's playing.

anyone interested in a 1B, btw? I have four.

my team is hilarious, i had dominant starting pitching and zero offense for the first two months and suddenly it's gone the exact opposite way. also wishing i'd dumped lawrie and not gyorko but i don't think anything will help me out this season.

Damn, Kemp, Price and Headley, not bad!
― Z S, Monday, 11 February 2013 11:49 (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

So glad I decided to 'keep' the other team. Yyyyyyikes.

and i was so excited when i was able to grab Price.

I remember that in front of my first pick I watched the four guys I intended to take in round one fall off the board (Beltre, Price, Lee, and Wright) and I kind of panicked... so I grabbed a guy I figured wouldn't sitll be available on my next turn... Paul Goldschmidt.

Worked out.

so let me lay my cards out on the table:

this fantasy season is over for me. i was already playing for the future in the draft, and the little chance i had of doing well fell apart early as reyes went down, my starting pitchers succumbed to injury (cueto, johnson) or played much worse than their track record (CAIN).

i'm looking to make a big trade.

here are the keepers that i'm fairly certain i'll be rolling with next year, unless they get run over by a lawnmower or something:

oscar taveras (21 on opening day 2014)
wil myers (23)
anthony rizzo (24)

that leaves me with two keepers in the 27 and up category. here are my options:

pablo sandoval (27)
matt CAIN (29)
lance lynn (27)
johnny cueto (28)

i would like to make a trade that results in me getting a keeper in the 27-29 range that is better than one of those four players. i'm open to pretty much any position, although i'm pretty set in the OF and 1B. what's available on my end? sandoval, CAIN, lynn, cueto, but also my three players which are actually playing really well this year (michael bourn ,aj burnett, and hisashi iwakuma), jose reyes (should return from the DL later this month. i'm a huge fan but he's turning 30 this year so he's dead to me, keeper-wise). anyone else.

again, just laying it out there. want to make a trade. i have a decent selection of good talent. looking for a keeper in the 27-29 range that's a noticeable improvement over the four players listed above (sandoval, cain, lynn, cueto). as evidenced by my trade of bautista (right before he heated up, of course) for myers, i'm willing to be a wild and crazy guy. i'll be drinking and looking at other rosters, but feel free to shoot me a trade proposal either via the yahoo thing or email at [MODERATOR REDACTION] at geewhizzzzzzz mail dot com

gmail

i suppose, also, that if someone cooked up a deal that resulted in an improvement over myers/taveras/rizzo i would consider that as well!

i guess i should throw this out there, while we're at it - I will be going into the 2014 season with one too many quality under 27 keepers:
Shelby Miller (probably keeping)
Jason Heyward (likely keeping)
Starlin Castro (inclined to keep)
Starling Marte (don't really need two OF keepers)

would be willing to deal one at this point for a significant upgrade.

whoops, also meant to mention that obscure baseball player mariano rivera is also available from my team, for those in need of reliable saves.

I've been number one in my fantasy league for weeks now with a player on the DL that I didn't notice. The other people in my league are basically mailing it in

that's an example of a waste of time

i almost put together a blockbuster trade that involved giving away mariano rivera and iwakuma...but then it didn't work out. ;_;

still looking to trade away awesome players btw

so long lead, i will miss you when my team keeps batting under .100 and with harper, everth, gyorko, and buchholz all on the DL

you know what the worst thing is

checking your team at 7:30 when they're 6-for-11 and then checking a second time at 2 AM when they're 6-for-52

For sure, but it's so awesome when it happens the other way ... you start out 1-for-13, go to bed before the late games start, and the next day you wake up to a 10-for-25 overall.

fwiw barring an epic improvement in ellsbury poly I'm putting all non-keeperables on the market very soon.

interesting.

Att'n world:

Freese in the Trap would like to cordially invite you to make your trade offers for the #1 keeper in the age 27-29 range next year: Carlos Gonzalez. In return I am looking for players who will help me put a chokehold on first place.

Ideally looking for a stud at 3b and/or SP. I'd say catcher too but I can't think of any who I'd take for a 2.5 years of CarGo.

Side note: having Carlos Gomez and Carlos Gonzalez kinda makes me wanna name my team excess cargo

Side note 2: Similar but less-so trade offers for Carlos Gomez are definitely considerable at this point. He's the same age and will probably be a darn good player for those 2.5 years as well.

Sending you an ILX mail, since I can't log into yahoo fantasy baseball at work.

i included my top secret IRL email address in my message, so please respond to that if you can!

i feel kinda bad helping out the 1st place person but since i made multiple attempts to swing deals with several of the other upper echelon contenders i feel a little less guilty.

z s i'd take your offer if Cain could be worked in somehow. thought he was a 30 year old but i guess he's not. i also thought Butler was 30 this morning. oops.

Adam Jones is still in play for anyone who wants to get me and z s in a bidding war.

i accepted your trade, will

apologies to the rest of the league for handing will the championship

Haha I thought you weren't checking anymore on account of you still having Kemp or someone on the DL. Didn't expect that offer ot go thru.

Other 27-29ers I am willing to deal btw to get help now @ SP:

other Cargo, Everth Cabrera, poss. buchholz & fat ryu (that's the rest of my 27-29ers so I'll deal up to 2)

Also if you're looking for an under 27 I have 5 of those.

cargo for miggy seems more than fair. i was expecting some lopsided controversy.

Yeah I probably could have extorted someone more than that tbh but MIGGY

i'm on week 3 of basically just trying to give reyes, rivera and iwakuma away

so 3 years of Cargo = 1/2 season of Miggy?!

Yeah the more I think about it the more I cringe at it so don't rub it in -_-

so i have a bridge i'm interested in trading! ;p

harper for a bridge hit accept already jesus

i've offered two bridges for harper

one is a suspension tho.

Yeah the more I think about it the more I cringe at it so don't rub it in -_-

― I've Seen rRootage (Will M.), Tuesday, July 2, 2013 2:33 PM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark

flags fly forever tho

i've offered two bridges for harper

― christmas candy bar (al leong), Tuesday, 2 July 2013 14:46 (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah that offer is a no-go, two rentals for a top player i can keep until the world collapses is a little too myopic even for me

i know, man. i know.

cmon DUI cmon CMON

I'd love to do a trade like this to make a proper run at first place but I haven't got the balls to make a trade like that (also: a shortage of decent keepers). I guess I could be trading Kershaw for an impact bat but again, no guts :/

at this point i don't think an "impact" player will help me enough to get out of 6th place – i'll just have to decide between Castro, Marte and Heyward in February.

Damn Will M, can't believe you traded my dawg CarGo for a rental

At least you picked a good rental though

a rental who hurt his back tonight wtf

daerest Miggy,

it helps to wash the Advil down with Johnny Walker Blue. just saying.

Keep laughing, John Buck fantasy baseball owner

Anybody else have a weird bug if they go to the main fantasy sports website and it gives you a bunch of warnings for a team that you don't own?

eg.
Ryan Braun is injured and on your starting roster.
Baseball: Yahoo Public 174255: My Balls Ich-iro

Oh man, is My Balls Ich-iro in our league? That is a classic name

why do people use yahoo, what benefit does it offer over ESPN, i hate yahoo

i find it loads quicker than most sports site and i have the easiest time navigating it.

i am actually in an espn league where i dont know how to change my roster. good thing the work league mostly died and i am still coasting at 4th place. but it would be nice to take Ortiz off the bench.

wait what, you just go to "my team"

if you want to add a player you go to "add player"

and if you want to manage dl you click "why did we make this so complicated"

yeah that's the one annoying thing but it's still way better than yahoo's problems and general ugliness

Jeter snagged for this league and another one.

I don't know who I am anymore.

that is some 4chan shit right there Chad Gaudin rocketing up an additional 7% owned. No explanation for that except the new news that

According to the police report obtained by the Review-Journal, Gaudin appeared to be drunk at about 4:30 a.m. on Jan. 27 when he approached a 23-year-old woman who was lying on a gurney in the emergency room at Desert Springs Hospital. Gaudin allegedly told the woman "she was gorgeous" and touched her face and breast.

two annual traditions in roster setting:

that one day in April where you're scratching your head on why the Red Sox are playing at 8am
today when you hungoveredly try to figure out how the hell everyone is having a travel day at once

so i'm basically out of the fantasy running and i'm looking over my keeper eligibles and with the rules, i've got a bunch of attractive options and i can't keep them all.

26 and under:

kyle seager
domonic brown
matt harvey
matt moore
brett lawrie
aroldis chapman

27-29:

brandon beachy
tim lincecum
asdrubal cabrera
josh reddick

i'm going to keep matts harvey and moore, for sure, and one of either seager or domonic brown. i'm willing to listen to offers on either of the latter two. i'm looking for better 27-29 keeper options.

and if anyone wants brett "high ceiling" lawrie, aroldis "100+ mph" chapman, brandon "i'll be back and better than ever" beachy, tim "i just threw a no hitter" lincecum, asdrubal "a shortstop with some power" cabrera, or josh "lol" reddick, hit me up. and i've still got ellsbury and verlander on the market.

new fixed position header.

marissa, why you braek baseball?

is the new yahoo look driving anyone else crazy

yes. it is shockingly clunky.

espnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

hey maan, if you're like the product. i mean, if you can't figure out who what product their selling, it's like, dude, you're the product being sold.

MONETIZING EYEBALLS

http://musicblog.vh1.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/eddie-money-geico.jpg

after picking up 17 RBIs along with a near strasburg no-hitter yesterday, i am out of the basement by...0.5 points. looooook out, world!

yeah ive come 2 terms that my lineup that goes 4/35 every single day isnt going 2 miraculously catapult itself out of the depths here~

if any contenders are interested in my studly non-keeperables such as

puig
kuroda
rodney
masterson
jose fernandez
mike leake

im looking for either variety of the <26s or 27-29; maybe pitching moreso than hitting

This rate stats thing is ruining my liiiiiiife~~~ HOW DO I GET OUT OF THE PITCHING GUTTER

my bench hit four home runs tonight.

lol I kept reddick on the bench this past weekend : /

my combo of matt harvey, max scherzer, jeff samardzija and bartolo colon combined for a 6.43 ERA and 0 wins :(

Does anyone want matt moore? Looking to unload him for a 27-29 keeper player (ideally 27.)

i swear a week or two ago it was straight offensive 14s but 7 for steals. should have posted my upbraiding but didn't want to come off as gloaty.

http://i.imgur.com/Zf1bbQw.jpg

not bad - 14 point lead. followed by the new guy and then three Canadians!

its like this guy in the lead doesnt value Wins!

I've been within three points a couple of times in the last month but I can't get over the hump. Running out of time for my offense to finally go on a run :(

not bad - 14 point lead. followed by the new guy and then three Canadians!

If this is true, then he is followed by four canadians

...and Montreal can't even get a short-A team. FOR SHAME

oh - not sure i knew you were a Canadian! there you have it: four of the top five teams are canuks. go our education system or something!

damn you sanskrit - picking up Redmond just as i was about to add him!

If this is true, then he is followed by four canadians

― I've Seen rRootage (Will M.), Thursday, August 22, 2013 10:03 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

'Murrica

fuck yeah! GETTIM!

so uhh... thanks for picking up Redmond before i could, there, sans!

ha i was just going to post his
Todd Redmond ^ @Hou L, 12-4 9% 3.1 0 0 6 0 18.90 3.30 2.00 0

i got him just in time

on the bright side - 6 k through 3.1 inning :s

it's doing that thing again when i have a few outlier bad days and you have a few outlier good days and it gets to a 2-3 point differential before recorrecting. that must be maddening to a Sisyphean level

so do we want to talk about tweaking our stats next year? i'm happy with how pitching is (given our options) - but i'm thinking i want to replace AVG with OBP ans then switch out BB with something like XBH or TB. any thoughts?

walks might determine the winner this yr! not saying it should but...

i like that the top 2 battle is dominant hitting vs dominant pitching WHO WILL PREVAIL

Yeah, replacing AVG and BB with OBP and XBH sounds good.

It could also come down to, say, holding on to 6th place in RBIs! It's really close, and I can't believe my offense has managed to hold on with Mauer and Wright injured.

really glad i didn't post "it's a wrap" a few weeks ago. i think your offensive counting stats will take a tiny hit the last couple days seeing how you are +7 games up with your OFers. otherwise if my pitching keeps getting rocked you could do it. i'd give you 20/80.

ok new team name should dejinxify me

My outfielders (and Zimmerman, finally) have been carrying my offense lately so the +7 games is definitely a problem. My biggest problem is that it'll be really hard to gain any more points -- I've basically maxed out in pitching, and I'm well behind the next highest team in almost every offensive category. My best case scenario is to hold on at ~ 160 pts and hope that your team blows it. 20% odds is probably about right.

FIRST.

I still can't believe my offense woke up when my best two players went on the DL. Ewing Theory? I was hoping to hang onto second buntil Pence and Zimmerman somehow became the two best players in the NL.

i had to look up this "Ewing Theory"

FALL BACK

i had a dream the other week that Billy Hamilton had 7 steals in one game. last night he went 3 for 4 and put up 4 steals. i'll take it.

8 games, 9 steals

i just watched the video, holy crap the last one was on a pitchout.
[/not hyping him as 2014 tradebait]

very much regret starting Ian Kennedy.

So that's that then. Too bad the season didn't end on the 15th. I had a nice two day run in first.

sorry man

http://i.imgur.com/YpEs9AQ.gif

taking tiger stadium (by strategy) (sanskrit) found a shoebox of my old mixtapes?

The Fat Lady on Lonborg

OF

when you gave me that tape that night i thought i meant something to you </wipes tear>

Alex Rios hit for the cycle last night.

Too bad we ditched the cycle and no-hitter categories, this could have been the start of my miracle comeback.

THANK YOU BASED DONALDSON

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/2840661/cwspileon.gif

congrats sanskrit!

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/2840659/cwslulz.gif

fuck...
http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/2840659/cwslulz.gif

TOTAL DOMINATION

thanks its been real. lots of teams with interesting keeper options for 2014.

yeah, i'm already dreading the decision on who to ditch between matt cain, johnny cueto or pablo sandoval in my 27 and up category.

none of which are Donaldson, i've noticed!
xpost

and i'm going to have to decide who to drop between Starlin Castro, StarlinG Marte and Heyward. :(

rip starlin castro

i'm dropping my team off a cliff. congrats sanskrit!

I think my 5th slot has to either be Kimbrel, RYUUUU or Everth Cabrera... tough tough tough. :|
Other 4 are Harper, Goldie, Buchholz, and GoGo so pretty happy there. :)

Ya - my other under-27 is Shelby Miller, so at least I have that going for me! (now that Felix is graduating to 27+)

Michael Wacha will also be available next year. I know that's probably not a household name yet but he's gonna be goooooood

puig & jose fernandez avail. theyre p good, carried me to 8th place

Congrats sanskrit! It was fun trying to chase you down all summer.

Congratulations Sanskrit!

http://imgur.com/4wS4xUM.jpg

And thank you Yahoo auto-draft for grabbing me fourth place.
Next year I'm def. employing a more Yahoo!ish strategy: more tried-and-true (boring) veterans.

Not sure I even have enough keeper-eligibles tho :|

what are the rules on off-season hot-stove trading keepers for draft spots? because i have 7 and i cant keep them all, i could help a brother out for some dope pixxx

err i have 8 or 9 maybe even

um. no one has asked me about this before. not sure i can change up draft spots, tbh.

fyi i am out for real next year, i thought i could work up the interest to keep up with it this year but it didn't happen yet again. letting you all know early so you can find someone to take over my team if you want. its been fun.

i know in other leagues (on yahoo) you can actually trade draft spots as long as it's an equal number of draft spots, but itd also require the league to be set up in a certain way i would guess so no big deal if it's too much of a pain in the ass (especially since this is some weird meta-yahoo winter meetings nonsense i am proposing).

so, you could trade someone a keepable player for, say, that persons second round slot?

yeah, for example in a keeper hockey league last year i traded lundqvist + my 16th round pick 2014 for nabokov + a 6th round pick 2014 or something like that. i think the trade was a little more complicated than that but you get the idea.

also, fun: looking through players you dropped and picked up to see how much of a goddamn impatient maniac you are.

some of my highlights:
Uehara -> Maholm
Pedro Alvarez -> Chris Carter (only to pick up Alvarez a week later, making him unkeepable)
Jason Castro, picked up for 6 hours only to drop for Yasmani Grandal wtf
Bartolo Colon -> Tanner Scheppers
Eric Hosmer for a week, only to drop him shortly before the 2nd half

there were good picks too but they're far less fun to look at tbh

on closer inspection, auto-draft didn't pick anyone under 28!
Left with an open <26 slot

*≤26

a tip on checking player ages:

type your player's name into google and it will show a bio without having to press return

Or just have your assistant do it, that's what I do

i think my most regrettable drop was Jeff Locke.

and (i think) it looks like if we were to have tradable draft slots i would have to manually input the order of each round of the draft! that may be a little more work than i'd care for.

although - i would not personally have a problem with trading keep-eligible guys straight up. so long as the convos happened here where i could track of who was going where. but it think i might want some input from other managers on this one first, tho.

also, sad to hear that ciderpress. i'm going to make any possible new manager agree to use the original team name, Whole Camels.

i meant to mention the real champion is Carry On My Heyward Son

i dont how many of you remember ILB's Felicity but when I showed her the league that was her favorite indie guilt bermanism.

awww. i wish she'd come back.