{"id":1496,"date":"2008-12-10T17:18:23","date_gmt":"2008-12-10T17:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=1496"},"modified":"2008-12-11T07:40:59","modified_gmt":"2008-12-11T07:40:59","slug":"what-type-of-fantasy-league-is-right-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=1496","title":{"rendered":"What type of fantasy league is right for me?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Hopefully a lot of you reading this blog are considering getting involved in fantasy baseball.<\/div>\n
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If you’re new to fantasy baseball, once you’ve decided you want to give it a try, you are faced with another decision: what type<\/strong> of league should I play in?<\/div>\n
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Here’s my guide to the different types of fantasy baseball leagues\u00c2\u00a0available.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/div>\n
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There’s no such thing as\u00c2\u00a0a right or wrong answer with any type of league, as there are formats to fit all types of players, but I think you might find some leagues more fun than others.<\/div>\n
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Points league<\/strong><\/div>\n
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This is the format most GB baseball fans will be familiar with, as it mirrors the format often used in fantasy football\/cricket games.<\/div>\n
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Each manager will have a budget and a list of players and costs to work with.<\/div>\n
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Points will be awarded for categories such as HR, RBIs, SBs, Wins, Saves, ERA etc.<\/div>\n
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This is a simple way to get started, and any number of teams can take part, but there are limitations.<\/div>\n
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For a start, every manager can stock up on All Stars if they want to, so all managers could have A-Rod in their team, which makes it kind of boring.<\/div>\n
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I like the idea of drafting players in a league – once a manager picks a player, no-one else can pick him.<\/div>\n
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Also, in a lot of leagues, the player value won’t change, so if a cheap player has a surprisingly good season, every manager keeping an eye on their team will all add this player as well.<\/div>\n
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There is also the problem of managers giving up on their team if they feel they can’t catch up to the early leaders.<\/div>\n
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Head to head<\/strong><\/div>\n
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I’m a big fan of this format, which pits teams against each other every week.<\/div>\n
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I’ve been playing in a Head 2 Head World Series, with teams from all over the globe,\u00c2\u00a0for the past four years and find it an exciting format.<\/div>\n
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A league will be made up of an even number of teams (rarely more than 20) to ensure weekly fixtures for all teams.<\/div>\n
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A manager will draft his team online a few weeks before the season begins – which itself is excellent fun – and will compete with the opponent in a number of statistical categories.<\/div>\n
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In the H2H I’ve played, there are six hitting categories (AVG, R, HR, RBI, SB, OPS) and six pitching categories (W, SV, Holds, K, ERA, WHIP).<\/div>\n
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Whichever team has the winning total in each category gets one win – or nothing for a tie – so you’ll end up with weekly scores like 6-6, 7-5, 8-4 etc etc which are added to the standings table,\u00c2\u00a0a new week begins, and you are\u00c2\u00a0up against another manager.<\/div>\n
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Eventually, you’ll end up with the top six teams going through to a knockout playoff (the top two teams get byes for the first round) to decide the overall winner in the last two weeks of the MLB regular season.<\/div>\n
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I love H2H because it is unpredictable. Your hitters or pitchers\u00c2\u00a0could be on fire one week and still lose some categories, or they could suck yet somehow win against another team. One week you might thrash someone high up the table, the next you could lose to the bottom team.<\/div>\n
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And the fact you are playing different teams each week keeps it fresh and (hopefully) all the managers will remain interested and in with a chance of winning it.<\/div>\n
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Tactically, the manager has a big part to play in his team’s success by making daily lineup changes – who’s hot, who’s not, who’s hurt, who has a travel day, which pitcher will start that night – which can make a big difference.<\/div>\n
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You can also negotiate trades with other managers too.<\/div>\n
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This is a league for the dedicated baseball fan.<\/div>\n
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Rotisserie<\/strong><\/div>\n
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I also play a Rotisserie-style league, the Hot Stove, which aims to mirror the real process of being an MLB GM. I’ve played it for the past two years, and it has been a lot of fun and extremely addictive – the fantasy baseball equivalent of Championship Manager, if you will.<\/div>\n
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In our Rotisserie league, teams accumilate totals for five hitting stats (AVG, R, RBIs, HR, SB) and five pitching stats (W, SV, K, ERA, WHIP).<\/div>\n
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There are 16 teams in our league, so the team with the most runs, for example, gets 16 points. The team with the second-most gets 15 points, the team in third gets 14 points and so on.<\/div>\n
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This is done for all of the categories and the points are added up to create the standings.<\/div>\n
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This is good fun as you try to build a balanced team and try to pick up free agent players or make trades to increase your chances.<\/div>\n
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For example, you might be way ahead in HR but lacking in SB, so you will try to trade power for speed to increase your points total.<\/div>\n
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There’s also the tactical element of working out the best way to gain the most points – there might be some categories out of reach, but several teams you\u00c2\u00a0could overtake in others.<\/div>\n
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Dynasty league<\/strong><\/div>\n
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The Hot Stove is also an example of a dynasty league. Whereas a lot of leagues are done once the season ends, dynasty leagues allow varying levels of management fort future seasons.<\/div>\n
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Some leagues, for example, might allow to you to keep a certain number of players for\u00c2\u00a0next season and you have another draft to fill out the remainder of your roster.<\/div>\n
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Other leagues, such as the Hot Stove, allow managers to bid for players in a pre-season auction and sign players up to multi-year contracts under a salary limit.<\/div>\n
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This is great fun as you can assemble\u00c2\u00a0your own team and try to prove what a good GM you are by targeting the right players for the right money.<\/div>\n
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Much like MLB, if you are paying\u00c2\u00a0a big chunk of your budget to a player who sucks, you’re in trouble.<\/div>\n
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Another element the Hot Stove uses is the introduction of each team’s minor league sysytem. We held a 10-round draft of minor leaguers to get it rolling a few years ago and have annual drafts of five rounds so each team can stock up on young talent. There is also a one-round draft after\u00c2\u00a0the\u00c2\u00a0MLB first-year player draft.<\/div>\n
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Minor leaguers can be used however you want. If you do your research, you could end up with the next Ryan Braun or Evan Longoria. Maybe you want to trade away your big name players for young, cheap talent to rebuild. Maybe you’ll decide to trade away a good prospect to help you add that player for a run at the title. It really is a lot of fun!<\/div>\n
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Conclusion<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Hopefully this blog won’t have put any interested players off, but prove there are a number of ways you can play fantasy baseball. I’m a big fan of H2H leagues, and my time being involved in the Hot Stove has been a lot of fun.<\/div>\n
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There will\u00c2\u00a0be plenty of other similar leagues of all types out there for you to try, so why not take a look around online and have a go. You might as well, you’re already online!<\/div>\n
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If you’d like to find out more about the H2H league I play in, visit http:\/\/www.rotodatabase.com\/<\/a><\/div>\n
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The Hot Stove league isn’t looking for new players at the moment, but to get an idea of how it works,\u00c2\u00a0visit http:\/\/hotstoveleague.proboards102.com\/index.cgi<\/a><\/div>\n
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As ever, if you have any comments or questions, feel free to email me at baseballfeedback@yahoo.co.uk<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hopefully a lot of you reading this blog are considering getting involved in fantasy baseball. \u00c2\u00a0 If you’re new to fantasy baseball, once you’ve decided you want to give it a try, you are faced with another decision: what type of league should I play in? \u00c2\u00a0 Here’s my guide to the different types of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[555],"class_list":["post-1496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy-baseball","tag-fantasy-baseball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1496"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1501,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496\/revisions\/1501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}