TPM Fantasy Baseball 2007 - Discussion!

[mr_pikachu]

It's almost time to start the first season of TPM Fantasy Baseball!

Before we do so, however, I'd like some input from you about how you want the draft to work. I've already made two decisions about league settings - I claim executive judgment as commissioner for these - but I want to make sure that as many of you are able to participate in the manner you like as possible.

First, let me tell you the decisions I've made. We're going to be using a head-to-head system similar to that which we used in the TPM Fantasy Football League. I'll list the scoring system at the bottom of the post to keep this explanation from getting too long.

Also, note that Yahoo does not offer a system like this, at least not for free. Therefore, we'll be using the CBS Sportsline website. This offers the added benefit of live scoring, even for free leagues; that's another thing that Yahoo reserves for paying customers.

Now, I know that some of you don't like to go through the trouble of registering for accounts and such. That's why I'm going to be really nice... if you don't have an account on CBS Sportsline, send me a PM and I'll set up one for you. (Don't worry about them finding out that I set it up for you; I've got about a half-dozen fake accounts there that I've used for testing purposes, and none have ever been cancelled.)

Just let me know what you want to be your username (4-12 characters; letters, numbers, dashes and underscores) and E-mail for registration, and I'll establish it and send you a PM with the info. You can then change your password so that I can't access your account any longer. Also, your team name doesn't have to be related whatsoever to your username, and it is subject to far less restrictions in terms of length and characters. Just in case you were concerned about that.

So let's get to your input. There are two main issues to consider.



1. What type of draft should we hold? There are two choices; live and autopick. In a live draft, we all log onto the system at the same time and choose one player after another. Those become our rosters. In an autopick draft, we each arrange a list of players. Each time it's your turn to draft, the player on the top of the list is automatically selected for your lineup. I'm leaning toward a live draft, but if there are enough protests we may do an autopick draft instead.

2. If we hold a live draft, when should it be? What time and date work best for you? I'd like to hold it around mid-March (or early on April 1). This will give us enough time to get registrants while making sure we get it done before the regular season. Aside from that, it's pretty much up to you. I'll only make an arbitrary decision on this if we have a major struggle over schedule conflicts.


That's pretty much it. I can't change the league settings once it's been created, which means we need to do this fairly quickly so that I can set up the league. So, let's do this thing!




-mr_pikachu, League Commissioner




Batting Categories

Single: 1 point
Double: 2 points
Triple: 3 points
Home Run: 4 points
RBI: 1 point
Run: 1 point
Base on Balls: 1 point
Stolen Base: 2 points


Pitching Categories

Win: 10 points
Save: 10 points
Complete Game: 5 points
Strikeout: 1 point
Base on Balls: -0.5 points
Inning Pitched: 2 points
Hits Allowed: -0.5 points
Earned Runs: -1 point

[TKnHappyNess]

I don't get these fantasy leagues. Are the results based on how well the players' real-life counterparts do in an actual game?

[mr_pikachu]

Basically, you draft a team of players and act as their manager throughout the year - you can trade, drop, and add players, as well as change who is in your starting lineup. Each week your team is compared against another team in the league, and whoever does better wins.

This goes on throughout the regular season, with top prizes going to the teams with the best winning percentages. It's just another way to enjoy major league baseball.

[SupremeChampion]

hey man, sign me up, i'd love to play. as for the draft, i don't care. as long as its like in mid-to late march, i should be ok to do it then, i should be out of college for the summer and all and my summer job shouldn't be starting for a while. so i mean for now i'll say yes to a live draft, but i might need to switch my vote to an auto-pick one if something comes up.

~The Italian Stallion

PS= i'll be sending you a PM about the whole registering me thing lol

[mr_pikachu]

Everything's set up for you, SC. Check your PM inbox for your account info.

...Okay! Since nobody else seems willing to start the discussion of scheduling, I'll begin. How does Saturday, March 24, at 6:00 p.m. American Central Time sound to everyone? Votes of approval? Potential conflicts? Remember, I can't arrange the draft around your schedule if you don't tell me what it is...

[Dark Dragonite]

So, how would an old fart like me go about kicking all of your butts this baseball season?

[mr_pikachu]

You've already taken the first step. Now all you have to do is win.

Are there any objections or alternate suggestions about the draft date and time? Anyone? If not, I'll just create the league with the schedule I gave...

If that won't work for you, let me know before it's too late!

[Dark Dragonite]

Cool, I don't foresee any problems with Saturday, is that 7 or 8pm est?
the only problem times would be Mon,Tues,Wed 7am-7pm and sun 6pm-11pm

[Perfect Chaos]

Yeah, I'm interested in joining up in this since I couldn't do it the last time. I guess the timing's OK for me so far, but its too far ahead for me to really know ;(. I guess we'll have to wait and see

-Sean

[mr_pikachu]

That would be 7 p.m. Eastern Time, DD.

Well, since nobody has any objections after five days of waiting, I'm going to create the league. A link to it will be edited into this post.


EDIT: 7 Eastern, not Central. >_<;;

Still creating the league; please be patient.


EDIT2: Once you have an account, go to this address:

TPM Fantasy Baseball League Entry Page (http://freemeeting.2.baseball.sportsline.com/meeting/join/44390)
The password is: 3603406284

Dark Dragonite, you have been entered into this league. SC, I couldn't do the same for you; I assume you've changed your account password.

Note that you can change your team name until 48 hours before the draft. So if anyone doesn't like their team name - especially if it's one that I gave when making your team - feel free to change it. You've got time.

[SupremeChampion]

haha yea i did... i'll be sure to join up right away.

~The Italian Stallion

PS= this would also be a good time to point out i have no idea whatsoever on how to join... can you tell me lol

[Ghost]

Wait for me! I wanna join! Sucking at TPM Fantasy Football Last Year, hopefully my baseball team will do better :D

[mr_pikachu]

Once you've registered an account and logged into CBS Sportsline, click this link (http://freemeeting.2.baseball.sportsline.com/meeting/join/44390). You'll be asked for a password; enter 3603406284.

If you have trouble getting a CBS Sporstline account, then feel free to contact me as I mentioned in my earlier offer. I'll be happy to help or outright set up the account for you.

Let's get this league going! ^_^


EDIT: My apologies; it looks like the link I gave in my earlier post redirected to the "view league" page rather than the "join this league" page. That error has been corrected.

[mr_pikachu]

Sorry for the double post, but... well, we only have two members in the league right now. If we don't get several more participants by March 23 (a day before the draft), I'm going to have to cancel the league. It's simply not worthwhile to have a league with so few teams.

I figure that eight managers is enough for a decent league, and SupremeChampion, Perfect Chaos, and Ghost all showed interest in joining. If we get at least three other players by the 23rd, I'll create accounts for SC, PC, and Ghost and add them to the league to reach the target of eight managers. (If they decide they want different accounts, I'll remove the ones I created and add ones based on their specifications.)

Still, we need three more managers. If you know any TPMers who might want to be a part of the league, please direct them to this thread.


EDIT: There's one day until the 23rd, when we need to have at least eight managers. So far we have two. As I said before, I'll add SC, PC, and Ghost myself if we're short of that quota - but only if we get at least five other managers first.

If you've been thinking about joining but putting it off, get in the game! Because if we don't get some participation, there won't be a game.


EDIT2: The requisite number of managers was not reached. I'm sorry, but the league had to be cancelled. And since it really doesn't look like we can get a decent number of managers in the week or so before the season starts...

Well, as much as I really hoped this league would succeed, I'm afraid it's just not going to work. Maybe next year we can try again... In the meantime, I hope you'll look forward to the TPM Fantasy Football League later this year.

[Dark Dragonite]

ok, the league was disbanded, due to insufficient managers...

Who wants a yahoo league?

I could have it set up in very little time...

[mr_pikachu]

Nearly closed the thread without seeing your post, DD.

If you can actually get some other people to participate, I'll join. For that matter, the TPM Fantasy Baseball Leagues can be your project in the future, if you like. I don't mind someone else running it as long as it's someone who can make it successful.

[Dark Dragonite]

Hey, I appreciate your effort Mr. Pikachu, if anyone wants to play in yahoo, please make your presence known, I hate to invite outsiders into a TPM thing, but I could create a "BYE" team, as we did in football, if I can atleast get 7 teams I'd be happy

DD
Mr.Pikachu
BYE
?
??
???
????
?????

8 teams would be pretty competitive, any suggestions?

[Perfect Chaos]

Sorry for missing the deadline yesterday, was extremely busy with alot of stuff.

I'm still interested in joining up for Fantasy Baseball. When do you plan on having the draft BTW? If it's sometime next week, I'll only be good from Thursday onwards :\

-Sean

[Dark Dragonite]

I would probably do it on a friday or the weekend...
so, we still need a few more players, and i can set everything up.

[mr_pikachu]

If we want to beat opening day, we ought to do it this week. I'll throw out a suggestion for Friday evening, as long as there are enough managers. How does that work for prospective players?

[Perfect Chaos]

If it's this coming Friday (the 30th) then that works out REALLY well for me

[Ghost]

Friday evening also works for me... I wont be here Saturday and have Baseball tryouts Sunday.

[Dark Dragonite]

Only need about 3 more teams guys, and we can get this off the ground, unless anyone wants a 6team league counting a bye team?
DD
Mr.Pikachu
BYE
Ghost
Perfect Chaos
???
????
?????

[mr_pikachu]

I'd... really prefer to have seven plus a bye. Maybe six teams, but five teams and a bye is really pushing it.

[SupremeChampion]

sorry for coming late lol, but i would definately like to be in this league. PM me what i need to know to sign up, and i'll be there.

~The Italian Stallion

[mr_pikachu]

DD, have you created the league yet, or are you still waiting for interested participants?

[Dark Dragonite]

I can create the league in minutes, but the draft time is up in the air, i know today is probably the best day for most, but at this point, when could we do it?

[mr_pikachu]

Uhh... I honestly assumed that you'd given up when there wasn't a reply...

The only concern I have is whether there's time to get everyone here, inform them of the draft time, and have the draft before the days is over. If other people made the same assumption that I did about the league being abandoned, that problem could be greatly compounded. After all, if they don't happen to check the forum in the next few hours, they'll probably miss the draft entirely.

...Erm, when did you want to hold the draft?

[Perfect Chaos]

Sorry guys, I was out the whole day and by the time I remembered the draft was supposed to happen, I was coming home at like 1-2 am EST o_o;

Anyways, I'm free this whole weekend, so if you want to hold it Saturday or Sunday, that's fine by me.

EDIT: W00t! 2100 posts :D

[mr_pikachu]

Yeah, I'm gonna assume the league's cancelled now. Sorry guys... I really wanted this to work out. Would've been awesome. :(

[Perfect Chaos]

:\, so much for that...oyy, and next season is so far away @_@

-Sean

[SupremeChampion]

don't worry about it man, next season will be here before you know it, and hey you can use this season as a sort of advanced scouting process lol.

~The Italian Stallion

[mr_pikachu]

Yeah. Besides, I can use this time to focus on another, much bigger project that'll be invading TPM very soon.

Hint hint.

[/not-so-subtle attempt to get people curious]

Well, time to close the thread. Maybe we can do this next year, huh?