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Post by St. Louis Sting on Jun 23, 2020 20:22:48 GMT -5
Hello everyone, I hope you've all been staying safe and healthy during these corona-filled times we find ourselves in. After endless bickering, "bad faith" negotiating, and general annoyance to fans as a whole, it appears that baseball has some sort of plan to come back these season (assuming COVID doesn't step in and put a stop to it). With a plan finally in place I believe that it is time to start thinking about our plan for the 4-Sport league.
The proposed schedule by MLB will be made up of 60 games over a 9 week period. With only 9 weeks of action I do not believe that a typical H2H-style season with playoffs is feasible. For that reason, we will be switching to a rotisserie-style scoring format for the 2020 season, as that format should work better for this sprint of a baseball season. I will be working on making the necessary adjustments to the Fantrax league over the coming days to get set up. As long as baseball returns to a normal or near-normal form in 2021 everything will be returned to our original settings.
With a plan in place at the MLB level we can also set a schedule for the re-opening of Unrestricted Free Agency, which was the only offseason activity that was postponed due to the coronavirus. Games are currently set to begin the weekend of July 24th. As long as that timeline remains unaffected we will plan on reopening bidding on UFA's on Monday, July 13th.
Let me know if you have any questions, and hopefully we can hear "Play Ball!" again soon!
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Post by St. Louis Sting on Jun 30, 2020 14:04:13 GMT -5
Alright, so I changed my mind on what we are doing this season after reading through some different articles on how people are responding to the changed schedule for fantasy baseball. Apparently Fantrax allows us to play "doubleheaders", meaning that instead of playing one opponent each week you are actually matched up against two opponents at the same time. That means double regular season sample size, and while it's still not as long as normal season would be it at least gets us closer. We are going to move forward with this option rather than change all settings to roto-style.
We will also be reducing the playoffs to two rounds, with 4 teams making the playoffs. The three division winners, as well as one wild card team, will compete in our postseason. That gives us 7 or 8 regular season weeks (depending on what MLB's final schedule looks like). With two matchups per week that gives us 14 or 16 regular season "weeks" to base standings on, which seems more legitimate.
I believe we will also need to make some small changes to our scoring categories for this season as well. From what I have heard, it will likely be at least a few weeks before starting pitchers are allowed to go 6+ innings on some teams (if at all during the season due to larger rosters). Quality Starts, therefore, are going to be few and far between. Instead, for this season only, we will replace QS with Wins. Starters may still have a difficult time accruing wins, but at least it opens the possibility of some relief aces helping you in that category. I will also be reducing the minimum number of necessary Games Started per week down to 3 from the current minimum of 4. It is likely that we see more 6-man rotations and openers this season, which reduces the number of starts.
Finally, I will be adding a few additional IL slots to all rosters for this season (and this is one change that could stick around for future seasons as well) due to the increased likelihood of players being sidelined due to the virus. I have put some thought into adding additional roster spots to reflect that change at the MLB level, but have opted against it. Because we are operating within a fixed budget spread out across four sports adding temporary roster spots would throw salaries/cap values off of their established ratios.
This will likely continue to evolve as the situation clarifies itself, but I believe this will create more continuity within the league than a one-season conversion to roto would
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Post by Pensacola Pelicans on Jun 30, 2020 14:47:50 GMT -5
I like this approach - much better than the roto option.
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Post by Clayhounds Dawgs on Jun 30, 2020 18:58:38 GMT -5
Someone been studying... I'm good with these ideas.
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Post by DC Patriots on Jun 30, 2020 19:54:44 GMT -5
I like this more, too, and on Fantrax you can actually go beyond two matchups to add a significant number of matchups per period if you'd like. This could allow for a greater match-up number to get closer to a balanced schedule and leave the door open for a shorter regular season with more playoff spots...as an option.
Just wasn't sure how much detail you had on the number of matchups available through Fantrax.
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Post by Las Vegas Strips on Jun 30, 2020 21:52:05 GMT -5
I might also suggest instead of wins, use innings pitched. Teams with pitchers going longer can get rewarded...wins and QS will be hard to come by, but everyone can compete for IPs.
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Post by St. Louis Sting on Jul 3, 2020 18:09:30 GMT -5
I like this more, too, and on Fantrax you can actually go beyond two matchups to add a significant number of matchups per period if you'd like. This could allow for a greater match-up number to get closer to a balanced schedule and leave the door open for a shorter regular season with more playoff spots...as an option. Just wasn't sure how much detail you had on the number of matchups available through Fantrax. I had actually seen that you can have a TON of matchups each week if you so choose. Three could be an option, but I wouldn't want to go any higher than that |
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Post by St. Louis Sting on Jul 3, 2020 18:11:55 GMT -5
I might also suggest instead of wins, use innings pitched. Teams with pitchers going longer can get rewarded...wins and QS will be hard to come by, but everyone can compete for IPs. I thought about this, too, but from what I have seen each team is going to be running their pitching staffs a little bit differently. I have a feeling that IP are going to be determined more by team philosophy than by actual skill in many cases. I don't particularly like using W's or IP's, but using more ratio stats would create a MAJOR value skew towards relievers |
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Post by DC Patriots on Jul 6, 2020 14:14:45 GMT -5
Will there be any adjustment to allow for increased roster space or cap room for players who are opting out? Right now it doesn't look like Price, Desmond, Zimmerman, etc., are owned by anyone, but is there a proposed protocol should a player who is owned decides to opt out?
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Post by St. Louis Sting on Jul 6, 2020 15:55:48 GMT -5
Will there be any adjustment to allow for increased roster space or cap room for players who are opting out? Right now it doesn't look like Price, Desmond, Zimmerman, etc., are owned by anyone, but is there a proposed protocol should a player who is owned decides to opt out? That is a good question. I feel that it would be most fair to "freeze" the contract of any player that should opt out so that all remaining years remain intact for the future. The team would not be responsible for paying that contract until the player is reinstated |
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Post by DC Patriots on Jul 6, 2020 19:30:45 GMT -5
Just two clarifying questions:
1. By "freeze" do we mean: Player under contract for 3/$45 ($15 per), they remain on that team but the contract starting next year is now 2/$30, or starting next year it will still be 3/$45?
2. Will we be able to drop them from Fantrax for this season and re-add them at the beginning of next year so we can replace them on the team with the limited bench space?
Sorry for the questions, just want to make sure we are on the same page as additional players opt out - heard Markakis opted out today.
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Post by St. Louis Sting on Jul 7, 2020 9:44:50 GMT -5
Just two clarifying questions: 1. By "freeze" do we mean: Player under contract for 3/$45 ($15 per), they remain on that team but the contract starting next year is now 2/$30, or starting next year it will still be 3/$45? 2. Will we be able to drop them from Fantrax for this season and re-add them at the beginning of next year so we can replace them on the team with the limited bench space? Sorry for the questions, just want to make sure we are on the same page as additional players opt out - heard Markakis opted out today. 1. The contract would still be 3/$45 starting next year 2. You will be able to drop them on Fantrax. I will keep track of those players separately on the spreadsheet |
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Post by Pensacola Pelicans on Jul 22, 2020 8:22:41 GMT -5
Fantrax provides an option to move opt-out players to an IR slot (if you want to avoid dropping them). There's also an option to allow moving a suspended player to an IR slot. Can we consider setting these options in all sports?
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Post by St. Louis Sting on Jul 22, 2020 9:06:31 GMT -5
I will definitely implement that for opt-out players. If for some reason your IL fills up you can still drop an opt-out player on Fantrax and retain the rights for future seasons under contract if you choose to do so.
As for the suspended players, I tend not like having them be IR eligible. I don't like the idea of owners being able to stash a guy like Domingo German while he serves a punishment for being a piece of shit.
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Post by Pensacola Pelicans on Jul 22, 2020 9:17:00 GMT -5
Yea - I get the punishment issue and the fact that most suspensions are well deserved, but if I already had a player on a lengthy contract before he got suspended, I'd still like to keep him and open a roster slot in the meantime. That's exactly what happens with MLB teams. The team is not pelanalized with the loss of an active roster slot.
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