FANTASY BASEBALL: SO-CALLED FANTASY EXPERT

Since we’re just a few days away from pitchers and catchers reporting, and the baseball news is slowing down before the mad rush during spring training, let’s take some time to do some spring cleaning.

Life anew on RotoExperts’ new website

Can you believe this new site? It’s gorgeous. It’s practical. It’s pleasing to the eyes. It’s like a hot librarian — So informative and pleasant to look at! And finally, the biggest missing piece from our old site has been amended – comments! Here’s what having comments on this site means:  Your comments will now extend our articles with more depth and more logical discussion. Your comments will make our writers work harder to please you. Your comments are totally welcome, and you can rest assured each writer is more than happy to reply to them. Even if it’s a criticism – all we want to do is improve our products and content for you, the readers. There’s no reason why we wouldn’t want to hear a constructive tip.

This great new site also does something else – it recruits. Writers who formerly looked at the old bulky site will now be seeing this much better organized WordPress site and long to join the multiple award-winning staff of writers. And once again, the more writers, the better the competition, and the better the content that comes out in the end.

Tout Wars new rules

I just got my invitation this week to rejoin the Tout Wars Mixed League for the ninth season in a row. This is, without question, my favorite league. You’ll read about it throughout the season as different things happen in it – usually a big trade or how the league reacts to big injuries or big prospects’ arrival from the minors. This league has over 40 respected writers (I keep getting a pass somehow!) from dozens of respected Fantasy Baseball websites.

This year, the league is implementing a few changes, one of which I’d like to go into in a little bit. For years, it always bugged me how this league had some peculiarities. Like, for instance, one year, we had 17 owners in the Mixed League. SEVENTEEN!?! How does that make any sense? (It’s 15 teams this year.) Well, the reason it happened was that they over-invited, basically, and since the Mixed League is kinda viewed as the kiddy table, they just lumped us all in one league. My argument was that it skewed all of the dollar values for all the players. A 40-save closer was suddenly much more valuable than in a 12-team league. A five-category hitter will cost an owner in a 17-team league a little more than it would in a 12-teamer. They also have used an FAAB for years for acquiring free agents, which, until recently, wasn’t really supported on man mainstream media league services.

So why do they do it? Why don’t they make a standard league, allowing all of the Fantasy readers out there a true window into what we feel are the correct values on players? Ron Shandler, one of the most respected names in the industry, explained it best. The league tries out these little oddities because we’re trying to make the hobby better. We’re trying to lead the way and find better ways to play the game. Rather than be reactive, we’re being proactive.

And I like the way that sounds. As writers and (ugly) faces of the industry, we have a duty to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

All of that brings me to this rather huge change to the Tout Wars set of rules – The addition of “The Swingman.” The fifth outfielder slot will now be converted into a “Swingman” position, which is a spot that can be filled by any player that plays any position (including pitcher) on their roster. This has tons of interesting implications that we won’t fully realize until the season is finally over. Think about how you could enjoy that extra pitcher once your ace goes down for two months with a bad shoulder. Think about how you could build up hitting stats with another power-hitting corner man, while other teams are leaning on a fifth outfielder that can’t crack 20-10, or a pitcher racking up innings and earned runs. Think about how you could catch someone in a specific pitching category late in the season much easier with an extra pitcher.

Now, the big problem for many Fantasy readers will be – if this is interesting enough, how can we get our league service to make it possible? That’s the beauty of it – since most of the top league services have writers in these leagues, you can expect this to be a possible addition in coming seasons.

My Perfect Fantasy Baseball League

Not sure if you’ve noticed, but I do tend to bitch a lot about experts leagues and how they’re run. Tout Wars is actually a well structured league, with tons of thought put into most decisions. But here’s how I’d run the perfect Fantasy league:

• 12 Teams – These 10-team leagues on mainstream sites are killing me inside. Twelve is the perfect number. It’s in the bible. It’s on clocks. It’s in eggs!
• Auction draft with $260 salary cap – Again, it’s a long-time standard that should be followed forever – like shaking hands, wearing a wedding ring or hating the Yankees!
• CMI Position – No more being forced to draft two catchers. Now, you can draft one catcher, one second baseman, one shortstop and three catcher/middle-infielders. Yes, you’ll still end up with a crappy hitter in that spot, but at least you have a much wider choice of crappy players to choose from.
• Pitch-Hitters – Pitchers will now get hitting stats for their at-bats and hitters will get pitching stats if they take the mound. That’s dumb to not have this. That’s like not giving a quarterback points for a rushing touchdown. Yes, it’s EXACTLY like that!
• Live in-person draft – No more online auctions. Just stop it. Those are the drone missiles of Fantasy Baseball. There’s so much more strategy to use when you do an auction in person.

These are just a few of my thoughts on how to make a good Fantasy life great! I’ll delve deeper as the spring progresses.

What do you think about the “Swingman Position” and its possibilities? … What do you think about the new site? … What do you think would be a “must-have” in your “Perfect Fantasy Baseball League” rules? … What do you think?

Now we can finally read what you think!

Follow David Gonos on Twitter @davidgonos

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