It’s that time once again!  The BaseballGB Fantasy League is all set to return for a second year, bringing together writers and readers in a fun fantasy competition.    

We held our first BaseballGB Fantasy League in 2009, won by the SWAT team.  Everyone seemed to enjoy taking part, I know I certainly did, and we’re keen to run the league again.  We played a Head-2-Head League using the Yahoo Fantasy Baseball system last year and that appeared to hold the interest of most participants, so that’s the proposed set-up for 2010.

The league is free, open to anyone and is ideal for any Brits who perhaps haven’t played much fantasy baseball before and are looking for a fun league to be part of.  The only technical requirements are that we need an even number of teams and we would need to limit it to a maximum of 18 teams.  So whether you played last year (I know some of you have signed up again already) or are a newcomer, sign up quickly to avoid disappointment!

You can register your interest either through the comments section below or by using the form on the Get in Contact page.  The time and date of our live draft is currently set for 20.00 (GMT) on Saturday 20 March.

Further details about our Head-2-Head league set-up are provided below. 

Head-2-Head basics

The competition begins prior to the start of the MLB season when the teams are selected in a live draft.  Once the season has started, each team competes against a different team every week with your players battling it out to beat the other team in 12 different statistical categories. You score one point for every category in which your team beats your opponent over the course of that week (nothing for a tie), so the maximum score is 12-0, and those points go into your overall total and will accumulate over the course of the season.  The top 6 teams with the most points at the end of the competition head on to the playoffs over the last few weeks of the regular season.

The advantage of this format over a Rotisserie league is that it creates an additional competition within the main league.  Your team is never dead and buried because there is always a weekly contest to win, even if your season isn’t going quite as well as you had hoped!

The main rules

We run a mixed league, so you can select players from both the American and National league. The 12 scoring categories we will be using are:

For hitters:

• batting average (AVG)
• runs (R)
• home runs (HR)
• runs batted in (RBI)
• stolen bases (SB)
• on base percentage plus slugging percentage (OPS)

For pitchers:

• wins (W)
• saves (SV)
• holds (H)
• strikeouts (K)
• earned run average (ERA)
• walks and hits per inning pitched (WHIP)

Each team needs to field:

• 1 catcher
• 1 1st baseman
• 1 2nd baseman
• 1 shortstop
• 1 3rd baseman
• 1 centre fielder
• 2 other outfielders – can be centrefielders as well if you want
• 1 utility batter – any position

For pitchers there will be six slots you can use a day:

• 2 starting pitchers
• 2 relief pitchers
• 2 slots for whatever sort of pitcher you want, starters or relievers

You will also have five bench spots which can be used on any combination of hitters and pitchers you like, and the DL spots where you can put injured players.

The draft

Teams are selected at a live draft.  As last year’s participants will recall, the live draft lasts for something like an hour and a half (it might have been a bit less than that) and is a lot of fun, not least with the chat function allowing everyone to pass comment on each selection as it is made. 

Yahoo will randomly put the teams into an order just prior to the draft beginning and this sets the sequence in which the players are picked.  Each team gets to pick one player at a time and the rounds alternate between going up the numerical order (e.g. Team 1 picks first, then Team 2 etc) and coming back down (e.g. the final team picks, then the second-from last etc).  This means that although the final team has to wait a while before they can select their first player, they then get two picks back-to-back.  Conversely, the person who gets the benefit of the number one pick has to wait until everyone else has picked two players before they can select another (although they then get two picks in a row as they will lead off Round 3).

As noted above, our draft is scheduled for the evening of 20 March.  If you can’t be there for the live draft then the Yahoo system will pick a team for you, either based on their own rankings or any that you have set prior to the draft taking place.

Any further questions?

Just pass them on and we’ll do our best to help.  It should be a great competition, so sign up now.