2013 smack talk

West : Quan, Ty, Andrew, Jay & Lee
East : Jamie, Chris, Ben, Mike, & Mark

Not sure if Mike & Mark are in CNY or Pittsburgh but going on that hunch. Plus with Jay & Lee in the same division it will eliminate the possibility of a Harbaugh-like, brother v. brother, grudge match.

Not sure about the turtlenecks & latte but dig the vibe. I'll settle for chilling in my flannel & doing 12 ounce curls with a case of PBR ("Heineken.... f--- that s---! Pabst Blue Ribbon! )

pariah1107 wrote:West : Quan, Ty, Andrew, Jay & Lee
East : Jamie, Chris, Ben, Mike, & Mark

Not sure if Mike & Mark are in CNY or Pittsburgh but going on that hunch. Plus with Jay & Lee in the same division it will eliminate the possibility of a Harbaugh-like, brother v. brother, grudge match.

Not sure about the turtlenecks & latte but dig the vibe. I'll settle for chilling in my flannel & doing 12 ounce curls with a case of PBR ("Heineken.... f--- that s---! Pabst Blue Ribbon! )

Close enough...I'm from Pennsylvania!

Mark

I'm up and I don't want to hold things up, but I have an eligibility question.

Yaz played 2874 games. 765 at 1B.

That works out to... 26.6% of the career at 1B using by abbacus.

Will the sim let Yaz start at first?

Sorry for the holdup guys, I just don't want insane depth at LF through the first sixth rounds. LOL

i would say he's a LF but if jay is correct you only need the guy to have 25% of games played to be eligible.

Lee you sniped my Ernie Banks! Nice pick there. I almost took him over Schmidt.

2B/3B/SS are premium positions both in fantasy and reality, no surprise the top tiers (at least offensively) are mostly off the board at this point in the draft.

BTW I think Chris should be able to start Yaz at 1B if he wants to.

the 25% rule was put in place for players like Pete Rose and utility players that never got 51% at one position. Besides, there really isn't a shortage of good hitting 1B.

Wow, the infield spots are really drying up! I'm trying for the all Gold Glove team!

I'm new to fantasy baseball. I probably need to get a book. Last year, I picked former Cubbies, and I had a lot of fun as general manager watching my club finish last in my division. This year, I thought I would go for a pitcher then infielders with the first 3-4 picks, but then a couple of fielders I wanted to pick went right off the board. I see above that a strategy is to pick fielders then go for pitching, which, reviewing most picks by others here, I see only a couple of us picking pitchers with any consistency.

Anyone want to comment if a pitching first strategy is a recipe for disaster?

I don't think it's necessarily a recipe for disaster, it just depends upon who your pitchers are, and maybe using a pitcher's park to support them. Think Safeco Field. Then get really speedy outfielders to cover all the ground, plus infielders with good range, and you can try to win with pitching, speed and defense. Think St. Louis Cardinals circa 1985.

(Don't draft Vince Coleman, though )

There is also a lot of herd mentality in drafting. Everyone goes for the big hitters to start, usually OF. As soon as someone grabs a C or 3B, it starts a run on those positions. Same is usually true with closers. I've got a basic formula I use that has been pretty successful. I'd tell you what it is, but then you guys would be sucking up my hidden gems. Martin Dihigo was a player that didn't go until after the 10th round the first time we used NeLers. People notice which players do well year to year and I can't take them deep in the draft if I want then on my team again.

Then there is the ocassional weardness the sim like to toss in like last year where it decided Hack Wilson was a pitcher and nothing I did could stop the sim from using him as such.

Does the sim account for player flakiness? Do I have to worry about Waddell jumping his contract?

In the manager settings, can I set purpose & retalitory pitches?

mlb teams tend to put more weight on the premium defensive positions (up the middle cf, ss/2b, catcher)...so those guys that can hit a lil is worth a bunch. i don't know if that affects the sim any but for any corner spots you will find plenty of power in the later rounds, but for others you will see them go much earlier (cobb/wagner/hornsby/lajoie).

we do have about 100 years' worth of players so there should be available players to address everybody's needs. i still don't know where pitchers fit into this, but there are 5x the amount of pitchers than any other position so i draft them later. of course that got me david cone, andy pettite, bert blyleven, kid nichols, and amos rusie last year. a suprise was the nichols/rusie combo did great last year, they brought the dead ball era and low scoring to every game they pitched.

Defense, especially up the middle matters. Jay rode the Dihigo/Wagner combo to last years' championship and seems to be replicating that strategy. It doesn't hurt that his defense has some pop at the plate with, historically, the weakest hitting positions.

My experience with pitchers has been; they are unpredictable. I invested big in pitchers last year with the Big Train & Big Unit, but flirted with .500 all season. On the other hand Tug McGraw was my closer last year and he performed well. The year before I had Hoyt Wilhelm but the team was terrible. Still learning....

I appreciate these responses. Before I picked all of these pitchers, as well as after, I do ask myself if it is worth it giving up an early pick on a player that will be in a game every 5 days, maybe. You might know, but I have no idea. I will look for strong defensive players up the middle.

Does the sim have a momentum factor, or each each game played independently?

last year i had lots of streaks...i'd win 6, then lose 4, then win 8, then lose 5...not alot of wlwlwlwl.

i'd actually prefer to micro-manage a little more this year. i know jay set it last year so that the sim would run for 2 weeks, then we'd tweak it. i would like to go every week so can change lineups/strat, account for injuries right away.

There is no momentum factor but players do tire over time and need to be rested. You cannot set retaliatory pitches, etc but the HBP will be in line with what the pitcher did. You will be able to set platoons, rotations, etc along with game strategy.

Very disappointed I won't be able to direct my pitchers to hit the next batter after Ruth or Bonds smacks a bomb.

Dang! How didn't I realize that Three Finger Brown was still there???

Okay, Quan, well you win this one...

hof pitchers are dime a dozen...try finding one playing 2 fingers short, that's the challenge

cccc wrote:last year i had lots of streaks...i'd win 6, then lose 4, then win 8, then lose 5...not alot of wlwlwlwl.

i'd actually prefer to micro-manage a little more this year. i know jay set it last year so that the sim would run for 2 weeks, then we'd tweak it. i would like to go every week so can change lineups/strat, account for injuries right away.

I agree very strongly with this, and Jay, if it is possible, I hope you consider it.

The draft takes a very long time. I'm not complaing as most of us are busy people, and it gives us time to contemplate our pics. I actually get a little nervous as the hours go by wondering if the next E-mail alert will knock my targeted player off the board.

That being said, we are dealing with a computer, so the sim itself tends to run in minutes from what I gather.

Since we only play annually, it might be worth exploring the options of drawing it out by adding more stops. It would give us more time to make trades, evaluate players, make adjustments, and counter injuries.

Of course I would understand that this would mean more of your time and more work for you, Jay, so I understand if it would not be practical.

One week at a time is fine by me.

What was I thinking when I selected Rube Waddell 7th? Arghhhh

Was surprised how long Jackie Robinson lasted. The past few rounds I had seriously considered drafting him for my DH. Was hoping everyone had forgotten about him and I would be able to get him after I filled out my pitching staff.

I was debating between Robinson and Gehringer for something like the third round pick! If I hadn't needed a lot of other players I would've gotten him as well.

I think both Bagwell and Greenberg are nice pickups in the late mid-round picks, especially since I need a first baseman. Actually, I am surprised a huge slugger like Greenberg lasted this long, but then, I didn't pick him earlier when he was for the taking.