Brand New UNIQUE FORMAT league. CBS. $50

[Rusty Barr]

....on Oct 1 2008, on RAZZBALL, Writer Rudy Gamble wrote this...

"While I had some doubts going into the new league format, I’ve got to say that I had more fun in this league than my expert leagues and my cash leagues combined. Who knew rooting against players could be so fun?"

HUH? What league format is he talking about?

Read on...

Ready for a UNIQUE FORMAT????

"One of the greater joys of fantasy baseball is the satisfaction of properly valuing a player – e.g., selecting the right 1st round pick, getting a ‘steal’ in a later round, avoiding a guy who you know is going to have a bad year, trading a guy right before he tanks, etc. But while there are rewards in avoiding or trading overvalued players, the greater rewards are in retaining and acquiring the most successful players.This reward system is one-sided. In investing, you can short-sell stocks that you know are going to tank and be rewarded. But if you KNEW Jason Bay was going to suck in 2007, all you could do was avoid him. What kind of reward is that?
This is like a card game similar to Texas Hold-em where the object is to have the worst hand possible. The objective is to compile the worst fantasy baseball team possible.

HOW DOES IT WORK?
The rosters are the same as currently found in standard MLB leagues: 13 hitters (C / 1B / 2B / SS / 3B / 5 OF / Corner IF / Middle IF / UTIL) and 9 pitchers.

The stats are a bit different as there is a need to both reward below-average performance while making sure this isn’t achieved by avoiding active players. We stuck with statistics that are generally available in those services:

Hitters:
AB (Goal is to be High)
R (Goal is to be Low)
HR (Low)
RBI (Low)
K (High)
AVG (Low)

Pitchers:
IP (High)
L (High)
HR allowed (High)
ERA (High)
WHIP (High)
K (Low)

Maximum – 7 GS starts for pitchers.

Minimum 200 ABs total weekly for hitters.

For hitters, R / HR / RBI / AVG are the core offensive stats.
Since this could conceivably be done via inactive players, several countermeasures are in place. ABs rewards teams that use active players (Outs would be better but it is an unavailable stat in standard online leagues). Strikeouts also serve as a reward for keeping an active roster while reflecting the least valuable action a hitter can contribute (Ok, GIDP is worse but roll w/ it). The minimum of ABs penalizes any team that falls short of the AB team minimum.

One exception that was made vs. traditional fantasy hitting stats was the removal of SB. This has always been an admittedly overrated stat in FLB (vis-à-vis actual value). We considered using Caught Stealing but it’s rather unpredictable and low in frequency. In addition, removing SB makes it easier to draft OFs as speed-only guys like Juan Pierre and Willy Taveras become attractive high AB, low HR/RBI guys.

For pitchers, L / ERA / WHIP / K serve as the core pitching stats. Losses makes for a great replacement over wins as it rewards playing bad active pitchers. ERA/WHIP/K are similar to R/HR/RBI/AVG in that teams are rewarded for poorest performance (highest for ERA and WHIP, lowest for K’s). IP is added as a countermeasure and HR serves as a mirror to offensive Ks (the least valuable action a pitcher can contribute). The maximum of 7 GS weekly is consistent with many leagues and protects against an extreme amount of pitcher flighting.

The exception vs. traditional pitching stats is the absence of Saves. We considered blown saves but this is somewhat unpredictable and VERY low in frequency. So it’s likely that many closers will not be drafted – rather, there will be the greatest demand for middle relievers that pitch a lot of poor quality innings with, hopefully, some of those games on the line (to accrue Losses). We also considered using BB instead of low Ks but felt that was already factored into WHIP.

STRATEGY 101
It’s really a blank slate for strategy. No collective wisdom over years and years of play and analysis. No publications or ‘experts’ to rely on. Should make for an exciting inaugural season.

As with regular FLB, strategy is dictated by the depth in performance at each position. Since MLB leagues tend to use about half the starting player pool, the depth in positions is nearly inverse so that the lowest valuable contributor (or Best Available Option as we’ve opined is very similar in both leagues – think Luis Gonzalez for OF (.277 / 74 R / 16 HR / 68 RBI).

Also similar to regular FLB, predicting pitching proves to be more unpredictable than hitting. In fact, the most valuable starter of 2007 was drafted in most regular leagues (Scott Olsen).

This points to an additional factor that makes for a very exciting variable – the chances that a below average performing player remains in the lineup / staff. The worst enemies are a player’s low upside, antsy coaches, contending teams, and unforgiving local media. Your best friends? A player’s high upside, smug coaches, floundering teams, and ineffectual local media.

Since there are only so many poor performing players out there, it will be important to retain them on your roster. So on the hitter side, we expect a similar amount of player activity as seen in FLB – there’s no way you’re dropping a Cristian Guzman but you’re going to rotate through 5th OFs in hopes of finding a guy on a cold streak or stumbling on a big find like a Norris Hopper (Reds OF from one year that managed 0 HR and 14 RBIs in 307 ABs!).

For pitching, it’ll be key to retain dud starters like Kip Wells and awful relief pitchers but we do foresee more turnover in pitchers than FLB since starting pitching reinforcements are generally worse than the pitching they replaced.

2007 POSTVIEW – WHO WERE THE TOP 10 BEST (AKA WORST) HITTERS AND PITCHERS?

Best 2007 Pitchers:
1. Scott Olsen (FLA) - 176.2 IP / 15 L / 29 HR / 5.81 ERA / 1.77 WHIP / 133 K
2. Livan Hernandez (ARI) – 204.1 IP / 11 L / 34 HR / 4.93 ERA / 1.60 WHIP / 90 K
3. Woody Williams (HOU) – 188 IP / 15 L / 35 HR / 5.27 ERA / 1.43 WHIP / 101 K
4. Daniel Cabrera (BAL) – 204.1 / 18 L / 25 HR / 5.55 ERA / 1.54 WHIP / 166 K
5. Dontrelle Willis (FLA) – 205.1 / 15 L / 29 HR / 5.17 ERA / 1.60 WHIP / 146 K
6. Jose Contreras (CHI-A) – 189 IP / 17 L / 21 HR / 5.57 ERA / 1.56 WHIP / 113 K
7. Adam Eaton (PHI) – 161.2 IP / 10 L / 30 HR / 6.29 ERA / 1.63 WHIP / 97 K
8. Edwin Jackson (TB) – 161 IP / 15 L / 19 HR / 5.76 ERA / 1.76 WHIP / 128 K
9. Kip Wells (STL) – 162.2 IP / 17 L / 19 HR / 5.70 ERA / 1.63 WHIP / 122 K
10. Kyle Davies (KC) – 136 IP / 15 L / 22 HR / 6.09 ERA / 1.65 WHIP / 99 K

Honorable Mention to Mike Maroth who had a fantastic 6.89 ERA / 1.88 WHIP / 51 Ks but his measly 7 Ls and 116 IP keeps him out of the top 10.

Best 2007 Hitters:
1. Nick Punto (MIN – 3B) – 472 AB / 53 R / 1 HR / 25 RBI / 90 K / .210 AVG
2. Felipe Lopez (WAS – 2B/SS) – 603 AB / 70 R / 9 HR / 50 RBI / 109 K / .245 AVG
3. Alex Gordon (KC – 3B) – 543 AB / 60 R / 15 HR / 60 RBI / 137 K / .247 AVG
4. Brandon Inge (DET – 3B) – 508 AB / 64 R / 14 HR / 71 RBI / 150 K / .236 AVG
5. Nook Logan (WAS - OF) – 325 AB / 39 R / 0 HR / 21 RBI / 86 K / .265 AVG
6. Marcus Giles (SD – 2B) – 420 AB / 52 R / 4 HR / 39 RBI / 82 K / .229 AVG
7. Stephen Drew (ARI - SS) – 543 AB / 60 R / 12 HR / 60 RBI / 100 K / .238 AVG
8. Gerald Laird (TEX - C) – 407 AB / 48 R / 9 HR / 47 RBI / 103 K / .224 AVG
9. Brad Ausmus (HOU - C) – 349 AB / 38 R / 3 HR / 25 RBI / 103 K / .235 AVG
10. Craig Biggio (HOU – 2B) – 517 AB / 68 R / 10 HR / 50 RBI / 112 K / .251 AVG

Honorable Mention to Lyle Overbay who was able to out-Razz Richie Sexson due to 425 ABs that managed 49 R / 10 HR / 44 RBI / 100 K / .240 AVG in the usually productive 1B slot. He was just good enough to stay out of the top 10."

Then on Oct 1 2008, on RAZZBALL's site, Writer Rudy Gamble continued...

"The inaugural Razzball season has ended and - in a fitting conclusion - the two representatives from this blog finished 1-2 (Contributor Lou Poulas finished last but that’s because he’s too focused on all-stars). While I had some doubts going into it, I’ve got to say that I had more fun in this league than my expert leagues and my cash league combined. Who knew rooting against players could be so fun?
The top teams set records that will be tough to duplicate in future years:

Rudy - 5238 ABs with only 75 HR and 499 RBIs. That translates to about 6 HR and 38 RBI per 403 ABs across the 13 hitting roster slots.
Grey - Over 1362 IP, a ridiculous 5.72 ERA and 1.58 WHIP. (the MLB average ERA was about 4.15) "
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So....having read THAT...I am now forming a New Fantasy BASEBALL League.

46 year old commissioner. Family Man. Wife and 3 kids. SC USA. I have been running the same 12 team FFL since 1992. I have extensive commissioner experience.

My email is chrisfranco@sc.rr.com

Cell phone is 843-822-5280

References available upon request

You can take a look at my EBAY seller info as one source of reference: my EBAY account is franco8308 and I am 100%

I can also give you 11 current guys names and phone numbers and email addresses from the football league I run as well. I know there are a lot of scammers out there these days.

Draft time and date is Sunday, March 22, 2009 starting at 3 PM EST East Coast Time USA.
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More on league rules below

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[Rusty Barr]

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Must live in Continental United Sates of America. Sorry, but we need guys to live in the continental USA since most cell phone plans include free minutes there. This is important to me for an active league with trading and fellowship.


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[Rusty Barr]

12 teams. One division. 22 weeks of H2H Roto play.

MONEY:
The yearly $50 entrance fee does NOT include the CBS Sportsline fee; we will divide that by 12 each year. Year 1 we collected $63 per GM. $50 (LF) + $13 (CBS) = $63

$50 x 12 for pot = $600

3 teams winning prizes:
1st = $330 2nd = $165 3rd = $82

x GMs in year 1 paid via PayPal. PayPal charged me $x for each transaction coming in. $? x ? = $23?

$330 + $165 + $82 + $23 = $600

Labor of love for the commissioner. Nothing to his pocket for running the league.

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KEEPERS:
None. This league is a 100% redraft league. The fantasy game here is to build a RAZZBALL baseball team utilizing players and your best skills and knowledge as a team owner.

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DRAFT:
Our annual Live Draft is in the CBS Sportsline Fantasy League Manager Draft War Room. 25 rounds.
(Serpentine Order 1-12, 12-1)
Any remaining players you would like to immediately add/change to your roster will be done through waivers which will be turned on right after the draft ends.

Draft order for Season 2 and beyond are pre-determined from prior season rankings. We will use the formula the real life NFL uses.

Draft time and date is Sunday, March 22, 2009 starting at 3 PM EST East Coast Time USA.

Owners DO NOT have to fill their 22 required starting spots with their first 22 draft picks; i.e. you can pick your second catcher with your 10th pick if you'd like.

Time Limit For Draft: There will be a 90-second time limit for each owner to make his/her pick during each round of the draft. If a participant does not make a selection in the allotted time, the computer will select for that owner using ranking system. If there is a computer failure, an error made with a selection by an owner or any other type of technical malfunction, the draft moderator (me) can stop the draft at any time and correct the error and then resume the draft. All such decisions will be made during the draft and will be final.

There are no Minor League players in the draft. Draft MLB players during our draft whenever you wish, at your own risk. LOL. CBS determines MLB players from M league players. We use their eligibility.

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ROSTERS:
Only players in the CBS Sportsline data base as a MLB player are eligible to be on a roster. When a player enters the data base at CBS during the season as a MLB player, he becomes eligible to be added to a roster. So, for example, your favorite Minor League, High School, College or Foreign player may NOT eligible to be on your league roster; he is only eligible if he's in the CBS league data base as a MLB player; which of course is determined by CBS Sportsline, not by anyone in our league. Once a player appears in the league data base as a MLB player he is free to be added by all, first come first serve. This rule rewards the active GM who is checking the site frequently.

At the end of the regular season all rosters are frozen.

Teams still competing in the playoffs will be allowed to use drop/adds to the extent they have any newly DL'd players. Since the rosters will be frozen, if a playoff team has a player go on the DL during the playoffs, post a message at the site requesting a player to replace the DL'd player, and I will make the addition to your roster. As proof of a player going on the DL, we will only require that either CBS or MLB.com say a player was put on the DL.
If a player added to the DL during the playoffs comes off the DL, you must drop a player that was added to your roster after the playoffs started.

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STANDINGS:
Roto H2H Each Category - you are awarded a win or loss or tie for EACH category that you win or lose or tie each week against your opponent for that week.

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SCORING:
Teams will compete for accumulative stats in six offensive and six pitching categories weekly, with each category weighted equally.

Hitters:
AB (Goal is to be High)
R (Low)
HR (Low)
RBI (Low)
K (High)
AVG (Low)

Pitchers:
IP (High)
L (High)
HR allowed (High)
ERA (High)
WHIP (High)
K (Low)

Note that some Categories that are based on percentages (e.g., Batting Average, Earned Run Average, etc.) are determined by adding the individual numbers of every player on your team, and then computing the average. CBS does NOT compute a percentage for each individual player and then compute a team average. For example, if you have two batters -- one goes 1-for-1 (1.000 BA) and the other 0-for-4 (.000 BA), then the team BA is .200 (1-for-5), NOT .500 (the average of 1.000 and .000.)

Pitchers' hitting stats will not generate any hitting points, and batter's pitching stats will not generate pitching points.

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STARTING LINEUPS:
Starting lineups will consist of:

* 1 Catcher
* 1 First Baseman
* 1 Second Baseman
* 1 Shortstop
* 1 Third Baseman
* 1 Middle Infielder (2B/SS)
* 1 Corner Infielder (1B/3B)
* 1 Utility Player (any offensive position)
* 5 Outfielders
* 9 Pitchers

Players are eligible at the positions they've played 20 games last year or 10 games this year. CBS will automatically govern all position eligibility.

Lineups are set once for the start of each period.
Deadline is 30 minutes before game-time on the first day of the period.

Owners may set lineups and change players' positions from a list of their eligible positions.

Only players who are on the disabled list may be placed into Injured status.

You cannot start a minor leaguer in your active lineup even if he is scheduled to start by CBS. Players in your active lineup must be on a major league roster and designated as a MLB player by CBS.

If a player is sent down after the Monday lineup deadline, and he's in your starting lineup, he isn't illegal until the following week.

You may not start a player who is on the DL.

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STARTING LINEUPS MINIMUMS AND MAXIMUMS: (Manually tracked by you):
There is a 7 (GS) Games Started pitching weekly maximum, but no minimum or maximum requirement for number of starting pitchers or relief pitchers on each roster. Should any team exceed the maximum limit of 7 GS pitched by the end of the game week, the league and overall rankings will be altered to show that team losing that week H2H in all the pitching categories 0 to 6 to his opponent. The penalty is the same for a GM who starts an illegal pitching lineup (as explained elsewhere).

There is a MINIMUM to the number of team hitting (AB) At Bats per week of 200. Should any team not meet the 200 team AB minimum by the end of the game week, the league and overall rankings will be altered to show that team losing that week H2H all the hitting categories 0 to 6 to his opponent. The penalty is the same for a GM who starts an illegal hitting lineup (as explained elsewhere).

It is extremely important to note that these minimums and maximums are to be manually tracked by each and every GM in the league. I as commissioner will try and watch this each week, but I will not be held accountable if I miss it. It is up to you, as a player in the league to inform me, on a given week to alter the prior week's game result because these minimum and maximum guidelines have not been met by your opponent. We will allow up to one full week for you to notify me of a broken lineup and that the result of your game week needs to be changed in the standings. Once one full week has passed and we are starting the following week's games, the results are final and will not be changed. CBS can not be set up to watch this automatically. It is up to YOU to watch for this throughout the season and to inform me when a strategy error by your opponent has occurred.

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All players must have played 20 games in prior season or 10 games during the current season to qualify at a certain position.
If a player returns from retirement or rehab after missing the previous year, his position eligibility will be the one on CBS.

After Week One, if no starting lineup is submitted, your starting lineup will be that of the previous week.

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SCHEDULE:
Every team plays every other team 2 times in our regular season.
Balanced H2H schedule randomly generated by CBS.

In the head to head format, each team will play another team in a weekly match-up. The winner is determined by how many categories they win against their opponent. Ties stay. Our weekly win-loss-tie records are tracked through the regular season to determine standings, rankings and playoff seedings. The playoffs will determine the prize money winners.

The regular season will extend from Opening Day 2009 through the final game of OUR regular season.

I have adjusted the league schedule:

Period 22: 8/31/09 - 9/6/09 (Last week of our regular season)
Period 23: 9/7/09 - 9/13/09 (Playoffs Week 1)
Period 24: 9/14/09 - 9/20/09 (Playoffs Week 2)
Period 25: 9/21/09 - 9/27/09 (Playoffs Week 3)

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PLAYOFFS:
The Top 6 teams by Overall H2H Win/Loss/Tie Winning Percentage at end of our regular season make the playoffs as Playoff Seeds 1 through 6.

Winning percentage 1 through 6 seed ties will be broken by overall combined H2H results; not adding the stats, but the results; so if Team A and Team B ends the regular season with the same winning pct, and the first time they played, Team A beat Team B (5-3-2) and the second time they played Team B beat Team A (6-2-2); then Team B gets the seed based on an overall H2H record of 9-7-4 against Team A.

The playoff bracket will be formatted like this:

Winners Bracket
6 Teams

Playoff Week 1 (Period 23)
Bye - First Place and Second Place
Third Place vs. Sixth Place
Fourth Place vs. Fifth Place

Playoff Week 2 (Period 24)
B3 First Place vs. Lowest Seed winner
B4 Second Place vs. other winner

Playoff Week 3 & 4 (Period 25)
Championship Game - Winner of B3 vs. Winner of B4
Third Place Prize Game: Loser of B3 vs. Loser of B4

We allow lineup changes between playoff rounds.

Playoff Tie Breaker:
At Bats (High)

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TRADES:
Unlimited. Free. No max.
To minimize the possibility of collusion, trading allowed, but will be subject to passing a league vote. Trades are subject to a 4-day voting period, where at most 5 objections are allowed. Trades receiving more than 5 objections are sent to the commissioner then to the board.

It is asked that you reserve your veto for those trades that seem to involve collusion or are grossly disproportionate.

Before the season starts, we will form a 'contested trade review board'. Only when there is a problem with a trade through the voting do the prospective trading parties submit their rationale behind the trade to the commissioner via EMAIL (this way there won't be a nasty league wide discussion on our boards). I will then take it to other members on the "board". As stated, the board will consist of 3 to 5 members TBA (if a member is a party in the contested trade he has to recuse himself). The "board's" decision then will be final.

Trade Deadline
In an effort to keep the integrity of the league, a deadline for trades will be imposed at 11:59 PM ET 8/16/2009. No trades will be allowed after that time.

Between 7/27/09 and 8/16/09, trades may only be made between teams that are within 3 places of each other in the most recent standings.

The trading of draft picks is not allowed.

Trades consisting of cash and/or players to be named later or clauses are not allowed.

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ADD DROPS and WAIVERS:
Unlimited. Free. No max.
Add/drops are handled by a waivers process.
The waivers process runs every day.
The waiver order resets after each weeks' games.
Dropped players remain on waivers for 1 day.

Being a add/drop/waiver wire maniac is absolutely 100% OK. Some will tell you to leave your team untouched until May, because early stats can be deceiving. From my experience this is bad advice. My advice is leave your stars alone, but aggressively pick up decent-looking players. Every roster has a few spots to allow for turnover. Pick up now, ask questions later. Waiver wire aggression here is free, unlimited and again, encouraged! Its a better league when everyone is active with waivers and add drops.

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RULE CHANGES:
Possible rule changes are only allowed in the off-season before the season starts, unless league integrity is at stake. It takes a majority vote of 7 owners to change rules, unless league integrity is threatened, then the commissioner has the power to make rule changes.

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The football league I run has a similar rulebook and we've been going strong since 1992. My goal is that this league will be just as successful.

Chris


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chrisfranco@sc.rr.com is my email

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[Rusty Barr]

[Rusty Barr]

thread bump

[Rusty Barr]

Update:

We've got 5 GMs signed up, plus me, so we've got 6 spots open.

Please email me if you are interested

chrisfranco@sc.rr.com

Thanks for your consideration.

I know its a long thread. But I wanted everyone to know all the rules up front.

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[Rusty Barr]

You can PayPal me the league fee or you can mail me a check.

Once I receive it, I will email you the link to join the league website at CBS and that locks you in.

Email me and I can give you my PayPal email address or my home mailing address in South Carolina.

First 12 that are paid, get in. I know of no other fair way to fill the league.

Right now we're half way there.

Any questions just give me a call on my cell phone. 843-822-5280.

Looking forward to a great season!

Best,

Chris

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[Rusty Barr]

league fee dropped to $25

Trying to get this league filled

[Rusty Barr]

We are moving the draft to a TUESDAY NIGHT

• Live Draft in CBS Draft Room, 3/31/09 08:15 pm ET. East Coast Time.

Draft should take about 2 hours.

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