Ive played fantasy baseball for a number of years now. To this point, I have exclusively played on Yahoo, which is free and pretty comprehensive. Ive even been part of a private league with the same players that has gone on for some 7 years now. Im participating in 3 Yahoo leagues this year, including one made exclusively of fantasy members. But this year, for the first time, Im playing real fantasy baseball for real money. Its a local league, to which, ironically, I was invited by one of my non-traditional students.
For those of you unfamiliar with fantasy baseball, every participant in the league drafts existing major-leaguers. Then, for the entire season, those players stats are accumulated in a number of categories. Most leagues are what is called 5X5. That means that 5 statistics (ERA, WHIP, strikeouts, saves, and wins) are tracked for pitchers and 5 statistics (batting average, runs, home runs, RBIs, and stolen bases) are accumulated for hitters. Your team is then ranked in comparison with other teams. So, in a twelve-team league, for example, if your team has the most home runs, you get 12 points in that category, second place gets 11 points, and so on. Those points are added up in all ten categories to determine your standings at the time. So, if you lead in all categories, youll have 120 points.
Enough of the introduction. In this live draft league, everyone gets together over beer and sandwiches and bids on players. You have a $260 budget overall. The first person, usually the person who came last in the league the year before, calls out a player and a bid. So, for example, this player might say, I bid $10 for Alex Rodriguez. The bidding continues, as per a live auction, until a final price is reached (he went for $49 this year). The winning bidder then adds that player to his roster, and subtracts the price from his budget. Bidding continues until all players are out of money.
At the same time, each team must have 23 players. So you have to be sure you have enough money to fill your roster, but you dont want to have any money left over at the end of the draft, because you lose it. One of our players had $12 left, which disappears.
This draft was different in a couple of other ways from what I was used to as well. It consisted of American League players only, for one thing. This means that you run out of starters quickly. So knowledge of lesser-known players is integral. It also is a 4X4 league, which discounts runs and strikeouts.
Each player, at least for this league, pays $150 in real money. 12 teams means there is roughly $1800, minus incidental expenses. The top four players at the end of the season win money, with first place getting around $800 and fourth place winning $150. Second and third are in the middle somewhere. So there is incentive to be active!
After my first live draft, I certainly can see the addiction. Its fun to watch bidding wars, and to participate in them yourself. My strategy was to get people to spend their money early, and for the most part, it proved to be successful.
Well see how my team performs, but Ill definitely be doing it again next year.
For those of you unfamiliar with fantasy baseball, every participant in the league drafts existing major-leaguers. Then, for the entire season, those players stats are accumulated in a number of categories. Most leagues are what is called 5X5. That means that 5 statistics (ERA, WHIP, strikeouts, saves, and wins) are tracked for pitchers and 5 statistics (batting average, runs, home runs, RBIs, and stolen bases) are accumulated for hitters. Your team is then ranked in comparison with other teams. So, in a twelve-team league, for example, if your team has the most home runs, you get 12 points in that category, second place gets 11 points, and so on. Those points are added up in all ten categories to determine your standings at the time. So, if you lead in all categories, youll have 120 points.
Enough of the introduction. In this live draft league, everyone gets together over beer and sandwiches and bids on players. You have a $260 budget overall. The first person, usually the person who came last in the league the year before, calls out a player and a bid. So, for example, this player might say, I bid $10 for Alex Rodriguez. The bidding continues, as per a live auction, until a final price is reached (he went for $49 this year). The winning bidder then adds that player to his roster, and subtracts the price from his budget. Bidding continues until all players are out of money.
At the same time, each team must have 23 players. So you have to be sure you have enough money to fill your roster, but you dont want to have any money left over at the end of the draft, because you lose it. One of our players had $12 left, which disappears.
This draft was different in a couple of other ways from what I was used to as well. It consisted of American League players only, for one thing. This means that you run out of starters quickly. So knowledge of lesser-known players is integral. It also is a 4X4 league, which discounts runs and strikeouts.
Each player, at least for this league, pays $150 in real money. 12 teams means there is roughly $1800, minus incidental expenses. The top four players at the end of the season win money, with first place getting around $800 and fourth place winning $150. Second and third are in the middle somewhere. So there is incentive to be active!
After my first live draft, I certainly can see the addiction. Its fun to watch bidding wars, and to participate in them yourself. My strategy was to get people to spend their money early, and for the most part, it proved to be successful.
Well see how my team performs, but Ill definitely be doing it again next year.
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Good luck.