FORT Fantasy Baseball

[mrdobolina]

Can all of you cagey veterans give us rookies more tips like the ones above? I know I would sure appreciate it. Manny pointed me towards the yahoo page with all of the rules, but even those don't really give you all you need to know.

For instance, how many players should you have on your roster? Is the number of position players and the number of pitchers fixed? Or can you drop a pitcher and pick up a position player? What are the scoring stats? How do I look at the totals in those categories for my team?

And correct me if I am understanding the scoring incorrectly, but we're "playing" until a certain point in the season, and at that point Yahoo will total up each of the "scoring categories" and dish out the points based on the season end totals....right?

[Google]

 

[Amanda]

Originally Posted by mrdobolina

Can all of you cagey veterans give us rookies more tips like the ones above? I know I would sure appreciate it. Manny pointed me towards the yahoo page with all of the rules, but even those don't really give you all you need to know.

Okay, I'll give it a shot.

For instance, how many players should you have on your roster?

You can have a maximum of 22 players, with a maximum of 21 active players. That extra spot is for someone on the DL. If you have nobody on the DL, you'll only have 21 guys on your team. When someone DOES go on the DL, choose "DL" for their position, and pick a new guy up. However, when your injured player is healthy again, if you want to start playing him, you have to drop someone else. Again, only 21 active guys at any given time. You can't put a healthy player in your DL spot, but you CAN leave a guy there after he's healthy, if you wanted to. Not sure why you would, but you can.

ETA: I should add this: Say you have 5 guys all on the MLB DL. You can't put them all on YOUR team's DL. You get one guy who gets that status, and just one. The other guys, you either have to drop them, bench them or just let whatever position they're in go without accumulating stats. I don't know if I made that clear before.

Is the number of position players and the number of pitchers fixed? Or can you drop a pitcher and pick up a position player?

No, it isn't fixed, and yes, you can drop a pitcher and pick up a position player. I just did that, actually, and now I have an open pitching spot, and a ton of OF guys on my bench. It's up to how you want to manage the team. There's nothing that says that you have to use the maximum allotted number of pitchers, but given that this league scores strikeouts, wins and saves, the fewer number of pitchers you have, obviously the fewer opportunities you have to accumulate stats in those categories. It MIGHT help you in the ERA and WHIP categories to have less guys going (if the ones you do use are good in those respects), but there's an equally good chance that it'll hurt you. It's putting all of your eggs in just a couple of baskets, which is always a gamble. But rule-wise, go nuts.

What are the scoring stats?

This league is accumulating points in the following categories: runs, home runs, RBIs, stolen bases, average, ERA, wins, saves, strikeouts and WHIP.

I'm not sure if this is what you're asking, but I'll spell it just in case anyone else doesn't get it. In these kinds of leagues, your score is wholly dependent on your relative stats compared to the other teams in the league. For example, we have 9 teams. In each of those 10 categories, you have a rank from 1 to 9 (half-points can be awarded in case of ties, which comes into play a lot more early in the season like this, since nobody has really had a chance to break out in any given category. Like, a lot of us might have, say, 2 pitching wins). This means that the very highest score you can have is 90. That would mean that the team with 90 points is leading the league in every single category, which doesn't really happen. If we had 12 teams and 10 categories, the maximum score would be 120. If we had 6 teams and 15 categories, the maximum score would be 90. And so on.

How do I look at the totals in those categories for my team?

On the front league page, where you see the overall standings (where, as of today it shows Quinn in first, me in third, and you, Dobs, in 7th), there's a tab on the right of that box that says "full standings". Click that to see where you stand in each individual category. It's an excellent tool, especially once the season really gets underway, to see where you're lacking strength and to help guide your decisions on adding and dropping players.

And correct me if I am understanding the scoring incorrectly, but we're "playing" until a certain point in the season, and at that point Yahoo will total up each of the "scoring categories" and dish out the points based on the season end totals....right?

I think the season goes until the start of the playoffs. Once those begin, the standings at that point determine the winner.

Did that help?

[applesauce]

Good explanations Amanda. If anyone needs more info on anything, I can have mr.apple help. He has been doing fantasy baseball for years (but he plays in the money leagues...and often finishes up top). He knows all of this stuff really well. He also knows every baseball statistic ever.

[Mantenna]

That was great info, Amanda.

On the front league page, where you see the overall standings (where, as of today it shows Quinn in first, me in third, and you, Dobs, in 7th), there's a tab on the right of that box that says "full standings". Click that to see where you stand in each individual category.

I didn't know where that had gone, so that's nice to know.

One other important thing to know is that if you have a player benched, you won't receive that player's stats. This includes pitchers. Now sometimes when your guys are slumping, you will want to bench them. Probable starters will have a caret (^) next to their name. You'd want to put them in your line-up for that day, assuming you want their stats.

[mrdobolina]

Originally Posted by Amanda

Did that help?

Totally!! Thanks, Amanda!!

I've been looking at my lineup every night, and my big question has been "where do I look to see my stat totals". Now I know. That is a great little primer right there.

[lildago]

Wow, Amanda, thanks for all the info! It's really helpful. The more time I spend playing around with things, the more I understand what's going on.

[JR.]

Originally Posted by applesauce

If anyone needs more info on anything, I can have mr.apple help. He has been doing fantasy baseball for years (but he plays in the money leagues...and often finishes up top). He knows all of this stuff really well. He also knows every baseball statistic ever.

Cheater!

[applesauce]

Originally Posted by JR.

Cheater!

...but he hasn't had to help me out yet.

[QuinntheEskimo]

Originally Posted by Mantenna

Probable starters will have a caret (^) next to their name. You'd want to put them in your line-up for that day, assuming you want their stats.

you can not overstate the carat ^.
just to reinforce- a pitcher who is (probably) pitching that day will have a carat next to his name.
if you know you are going to be away a few days- on the "my team" page where you see fri, sat, sunday, 2006 season stats... you can tab over for each day and change you starting lineups up to a week in advance.

[mrdobolina]

Damn Manny!! Your team is kicking ass right now! You lead in nearly every category.

I suck