FORT Fantasy Baseball

[lildago]

apple, I don't really know what's going on either so I'm not upset with you. But you can still send over the cookies!

[Google]

 

[JR.]

It's ok with me too. You're all still going to lose anyway

[mrdobolina]

Are you saying that we're all losers? Man...that hurts!

[QuinntheEskimo]

i also agree, it's only 9 people... fun league no money involved...
i have no objections to the early pick-ups- none of the players that were taken early were on my hit list. i figured they were both honest mistakes...

btw- can you wire to wire??

[Unklescott]

Have y'all seen the lawsuit filed against MLB over the rights to player stats? MLB says they own the stats and a company that operates fantasy leagues - CBC Distrubution - says that stats are in the public domain.

http://premium.si.cnn.com/pr/subs2/s...410/index.html
Your Average Donnybrook
Statistics can't be trusted. In most arguments they're used -- as a poet said -- the way a drunk might use a lamppost: for support rather than illumination. And now some of those slippery, elusive, elastic numbers are at the crux of a bizarre legal dispute working its way through the digestive tract of American jurisprudence. At issue is who, if anyone, owns the statistics of major league baseball players. That's right: David Ortiz might own the Yankees, with a lifetime batting average of .309 against them, but it isn't clear who owns Big Papi's batting average -- or anyone else's, for that matter.

A company that operates fantasy baseball leagues -- CBC Distribution and Marketing -- is suing Major League Baseball for the right to use the names and statistics of big leaguers without first paying MLB a licensing fee. Yes, MLB charges a licensing fee to online fantasy baseball leagues for the right to use player statistics, as do all major pro sports leagues. Just when you thought sports had exhausted all the ways to sell Nothing -- "personal seat licenses" come to mind -- this news arrives: The players' association sold the rights to use player names, images, stats and the like, both online and on mobile devices, to MLB for $50 million in a five-year deal.

Ben Clark is a St. Louis intellectual property attorney who is familiar with the case. "If I walk the two blocks from my office to the new Busch Stadium and see Albert Pujols go 3 for 4 with a home run and four RBIs, those facts are not in the public domain, not floating around for people to use?" he asks, with a note of skepticism.

If not -- and a judge will hear the case in July -- it could make for some very bland baseball banter come August.

How was the game, dear?

On advice of counsel, I decline to answer.

The two sides don't even agree on what they disagree on. MLB, for instance, says it doesn't claim to own player statistics. "Statistics are in the public domain," says Jim Gallagher, a spokesman for MLB's Internet branch. "Every newspaper in the country runs box scores every day of the season. It's when you use player statistics along with names, pictures, likenesses, nicknames, uniforms and logos for purely commercial gain or profit, then you need a license."

Newspapers do all of the above without a license, but MLB acknowledges that their usage is protected by the First Amendment. CBC's site uses only names and statistics, without photos or team logos, but the company is still required to pay MLB to use the names and stats in combination, raising the existential question, What good is an ERA if you don't know whose it is? As Rudy Telscher, an attorney representing CBC, says, "You can't very well say '40 home runs' without saying who hit them."

Clark says that MLB might argue in court that fantasy sites infringe on a baseball player's "right of publicity" -- that for-profit fantasy businesses essentially use an athlete's name as an implied endorsement without his permission. But in 1996 several retired major leaguers who played in an era before the players' association existed sued baseball over the unauthorized use of their names and statistics in latter-day game programs and videotapes. Baseball argued that the information was historical fact in the public domain, and a California court agreed. "Baseball," says Clark, "now risks hoisting itself on its own petard."

If baseball wins in July, it could conceivably send cease-and-desist letters to anyone using a player's name and statistics for profit. Somewhere men are laughing and somewhere children shout? No problem. There is no joy in Mudville, mighty Casey has struck out? Problem.

CBC's lawyers suggest that a baseball victory would put any baseball question on Jeopardy! in jeopardy. If baseball prevails, "Then Trivial Pursuit is a violation of players' and movie stars' rights of publicity," says Telscher. "I can't ask you what movie Sylvester Stallone was in." A ruling in MLB's favor, Telscher adds, would also affect Las Vegas sports books, which take bets on the performance of individual players.

It is both confusing and comical, an Abbott & Costello routine: Who's on first, What's on second, I Don't Know's on third. And it is. Just don't ask whom Who likes to face in the clutch, or what What is batting in May.

In the end, as another season gets under way this week, both sides might do well to remember the words of the late New York City columnist Jimmy Cannon, who wrote, "Baseball isn't statistics. Baseball is DiMaggio rounding second."

Issue date: April 10, 2006

[lildago]

I've spent the past 2 hours reading rules and adding players...mostly just trying to figure out what I'm doing. Anyway, can someone please tell me under pitchers why some can be selected in the position "P". What does that "P" mean? Why not just have SP and RP? Sorry if this is an obvious question. I'm tired and going on about 4 hours of sleep from last night.

[Amanda]

I'm pretty sure it's just a way of giving you a little more flexibility on how you want to use your allotted number of innings. Which, now that I think about it, is a good thing to make sure that you guys who are doing this for the first time are aware of. You only get so many innings of pitching. If you use them all up before the end of the season, you just can't accumulate any more stats (and therefore points) in those categories. So if you get a few months in and see that you're over the average, you may want to bench some of your guys who are slumping (since we'll all inevitably have that happen at some point.)

[Mantenna]

SP = Starting Pitcher (Can only use starting pitchers in this category)
RP = Relief Pitcher (Can only use relief pitchers in this category)
P = Pitcher (Can use any starting or relief pitcher in this category)

If you look at the bottom of your line-up page (in blue), you will see "Legend, Stats, Positions, and Maximum Games & Innings." Click on these, and you will gain some valuable information.

Did you also know that if you have a player that is on the disabled list (red DL next to their name), you can place them in the DL category (from the drop-down box next to their name) and pick up another player for them--meaning you don't have to drop your DL guy to add another player.

This stuff seems pretty overwhelming at first, but don't worry--you'll be an ol' pro at this before you know it.

[lildago]

Originally Posted by Mantenna

Did you also know that if you have a player that is on the disabled list (red DL next to their name), you can place them in the DL category (from the drop-down box next to their name) and pick up another player for them--meaning you don't have to drop your DL guy to add another player.

That I didn't know! Thanks!

SP and RP, I understand. I just didn't get why we need the P. I still don't really. But since it's not the only thing I don't understand, it'll be okay.

[Amanda]

Maybe an example would help. Say you had a run of bad luck with your starting pitchers, and all of them were slumping at the same time, or hurt (but not on the DL), or all of their wives were having babies on the same day or something. So, for whatever reason, you can't fill your starting pitching roster spots. Having a spot for just "P", and having that flexibility to put either a starter OR a reliever in there, allows you to play more of your relief guys than you normally would, so your pitching stats don't all go straight to hell.