Fantasy Baseball 2005

[Del Murder]

Cap, you are on the right track. I may or may not use that strategy again this year. There are two and only two starters I'll take with an early pick. See if you can guess them. I won't tell you if you're right or wrong.

[The Captain]

Would Tim Hudson be one of them? As for other, hmmm, Unit would be too easy and is bit of a gamble, Santana seems a bit obvious, so let's go with a bit of a leap here: Mark Prior.

Take care all.

[Strider]

I hated how last year ended. This year, though, it's finally time to take the final step.

Oh, yeah, I say Jason Schmidt and Roger Clemens.

[Del Murder]

Final step of doom?

[The Captain]

Leagues start this Thursday!

Take care all.

[Del Murder]

We also need to come up with some sort of silly league. We can still do the all one team league again, but I want to try something bold, like having only runs and ERA as categories, or only playing infielders and starters.

[The Captain]

How about the All Steriod Free league, where no one can draft a player who averages more than 20 HR's a season and track the basic ten categories?

Take care all.

[Del Murder]

Keeping track of that would be a pain. How would we account for pitchers?

[The Captain]

Does any pitcher average over 20 home runs?

I meant, keep the default yahoo categories, which place a lot of emphasis on power. To me, it would be interesting to see teams constructed around hits, runs, and good pitching and not pure power.

Take care all.

[Strider]

Yahoo doesn't usually account for a pitcher's hitting statistics, anyway. Since Mark Prior hit like 4 home runs or something back in '03 and I didn't get credit for 'em.

It's an intriguing idea, and it'd certainly allow for an opportunity to play hunches on who might break out in a big way. It'd place more emphasis on rookies, too.

[Del Murder]

Does any pitcher average over 20 home runs?

I meant, keep the default yahoo categories, which place a lot of emphasis on power. To me, it would be interesting to see teams constructed around hits, runs, and good pitching and not pure power.

Take care all.

What I meant was that pitchers take steroids too, but don't have a glaring stat to show it. Should we discount anyone who averages over 9K/inning?

[The Captain]

Hmm, that thought did occur to me, but since that will be even harder to prove, perhaps pitchers would be exempt from scrutiny. Though if a player has a history of injury to spots that can flare up due to steriod use: Achilles, Biceps, Abdomen, that could pinpoint usage to some degree.

My proposal was meant as a joke initially, but if it does strike the fancy of the group, I suppose we could try it.

Take care all.

[Del Murder]

Nah, again, keeping track of it would be a pain. I'm assuming the list of players that average over 25 HRs a year would be long, but maybe it isn't. At least we're generating ideas.

[The Captain]

I have a feeling, with the microscope focused heavily on players now thanks to this steriod scandal, we'll see less home runs this season.

Also, how are we determining draft order in League A?

Take care all.

[eestlinc]

I'd bet at least as many pitchers use steroids as hitters. The difference between a 93 mph fastball with no motion and a 98 mph fastball with no motion is the difference between a major league starting job and a short minor league career.