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Acceptable Manuevers and Gamesmanship

#1 - June 13, 2005 @ 12:13 PM EST

Pawtucket Red Sox

204 Posts

Seantoo has been doing a lot of whining about my style of play, roster management, and trading. He claims that "I know that it is wrong". Sorry, Seantoo, but I don't know that it is wrong. Geez, you complained about me trading Foulke and Sosa for Schilling as a hugely unfavorable trade for the other person because he released the horrible Jake Westbrook and Kelvim Escobar (currently sitting on the DL after 1 start for another team). Sosa hit 2 HR yesterday, but by trading him, I had the flexibility to pick up Ryan Freel and Craig Counsell (who were 2 big cogs in my offense last week), but to little avail against Pat Burell and AROD having monster weeks. I was losing wins 4-0 going into Friday, so I signed extra starters who could have sucked but pitched well and they, combined with my regulars, provided me with 7 wins. Anyone else in this league could have signed the very same guys. This is how I play and it has resulted in a 3rd place and 2nd place finish in my ESPN head to head league in the last 2 years despite no "STUDS" on my pitching staff. It isn't my fault that I dealt Foulke with the intent of signing Todd Jones when ANY SINGLE ONE of you could have signed Jones before I did. Since I am virtually the only one who has beaten BosoxBob head to head this year, maybe I actually know what I am doing? This is supposed to be competitive and fun. I'm having fun. This is the reality in head to head with unlimited moves, and it is also part of the fun. Heck, in my ESPN league 2 years ago the Semi Final came down to whether Randy Johnson would hang on to win 1-0 in the last game of that week). He did BTW and despite my miraculous 5 wins on the day, I was edged out. I didn't complain about Halladay getting traded to Seantoo, because the trade seemed to satisfy both guys and while the paper advantage seems to be with Seantoo, the reality may be different because this is BASEBALL and that is the way that it goes. Apparently in Seantoo's view, I should have sat on my ASS and lost 8-2 or 9-1. Sorry if outmanagng you hurts your feelings. As Tom Hanks' character said in A League of Their Own, "THERE IS NO CRYING IN BASEBALL".

#2 - June 13, 2005 @ 3:32 PM EST

BosoxBob

Pawtucket Red Sox

206 Posts

This is definately a common strategy employed in this format of fantasy baseball. If you look at a number of fantasy baseball columns at various web sites, they feature sections where they recommend spot starters that are likely available on the waiver wire. It may be difficult to combat this type of strategy, but you can always fight fire with fire. I think part of the problem is how our league is set up this year. Compared to last year, we have 10 teams instead of 12 (which means more free-agent players), and we have 5 stat categories instead of 8. Last year, we also used shutouts, K/9 and K/BB. Someone who employed this strategy last year would most likely have been guarenteed losing ERA, WHIP, K/9 and K/BB - 50% of the categories. This year, it's only ERA and WHIP - 40%. If we want to discourage this type of strategy, then next year we should do one of the following: 1) Change Ks to K/9. 2) Add additional categories like K/9 and K/BB. 3) Change to an AL or NL-only league. BTW, the week that SRYD beat me, it was mainly due to his hitters going nuts, not because of the number of pitchers he used.

#3 - June 13, 2005 @ 3:48 PM EST

Titoschew

Pawtucket Red Sox

168 Posts

Or you could employee my strategy...Sit back and enjoy the ride see if you can go wire to wire in last place...I'm looking to get a #1 in next years draft.....