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That's better! My Toronto Walrus jumped all the way from 15th to second in the Batter's Box Fantasy League standings this week, thanks to an 11-1 pounding of the Red Mosquitos, who learned what injuries (Brian Giles) and slumps (Mark Bellhorn and others) can do to your Head-to-Head team. I punted steals early in the draft, and my pitching's still a lot better than my hitting, but timing and luck are huge in HtH, and our matchup was the most extreme example of that so far this season.

Snellville's Gashouse Gorillas put together another solid week to take over top spot. Jonny, the spreadsheet wizard, will check in later with the Roto "standings," which are completely unofficial, but shed some light on strength-of-schedule issues and are useful to help identify your team's weak spots.

Please read on; we need to discuss the league's keeper rules and of course, talk a bit of trash.

Here's the standings:
 #  Team                    W- L-T    PCT   GB
1 gashouse gorillas 17- 7-0 .708 -
2 Toronto Walrus 16- 8-0 .667 1
3 Nation Builders 15- 8-1 .646 1.5
4 Hannibals Cannibals 15- 9-0 .625 2
5 Eastern Shore Birds 15- 9-0 .625 2
6 Baird Brain 13- 8-3 .604 2.5
7 Sub-Urban Shockers 12- 8-4 .583 3
8 Springfield Isotopes 13-10-1 .563 3.5
9 Jicks Rays 12- 9-3 .563 3.5
10 Garces_not_on_roids 12-12-0 .500 5
11 Billies Bashers 12-12-0 .500 5
12 AGF 10-11-3 .479 5.5
13 K-Town Mashers 11-13-0 .458 6
14 Reykjavik Fish Candy 11-13-0 .458 6
15 Geoffs Grumpy Group 9-14-1 .396 7.5
16 Red Mosquitos 9-14-1 .396 7.5
17 Mebion Glyndwr 8-15-1 .354 8.5
18 Moscow Rats 6-14-4 .333 9
19 Chatsworth Halos 6-16-2 .292 10
20 Thunderbirds 6-18-0 .250 11

I'm relieved, but I know not to get too excited -- last week's top two teams dropped to 11th and 16th with one disappointing week. All it takes is one lopsided win to vault several teams in the standings, so as of now, all 20 teams are very much in the playoff race -- the top six through the end of August qualify for the championship tourney, and 7th-12th will play in the consolation round. Speaking of consolation, here's a friendly word to Spicol: hahahahahahahaha! (See you again in Week 21).

OK, on to keepers. Here's Rule VI from our constitution:

Owners must keep exactly four players from their final roster of 25 players at season's end. These players will not be automatically added to the roster of their respective owners at the beginning of the following season; there will be an agreement to place them at the top of the pre-ranking lists. Owners must announce their "keepers" on the Yahoo league message board one week prior to the draft, but in the event of injury, may make changes until the draft room opens, approximately one hour before the draft. Every team must “select” their four keepers in the first four rounds of the draft. Beginning with the fifth round, the draft resumes as usual.

Owners may keep a player for a maximum of three seasons, after which time said player must be released back into the draft. That player may be re-drafted by his former owner the following season, however, starting another 3-year cycle. Owners may choose to keep a player for only one year or two instead of the maximum of three, and the owner is not obligated to declare ahead of time how many years he intends to keep a player.


All of this assumes that we will continue as a free league on Yahoo, using their fast, live draft. If each owner pre-ranks their four keepers, the first four rounds will automatically assign the correct players to the correct teams. If just one owner forgets to pre-rank and doesn't show up, or someone accidentally selects a free agent instead of their keeper, the draft would be aborted. It's an imperfect system, but it worked in the second year of the Greensboro Baseball League, where 16 teams each protected five players and the "real" FA draft began in the sixth round. You can see why everyone must keep the same number of players, and the rule doesn't read "up to four." We chose an even number of keepers, so that the draft order doesn't actually favour last year's winner after the keeper rounds. GBL, which had an odd number of keepers, simply reversed the order so last year's cellar-dweller had first pick in the sixth.

If we choose to relocate next year to a "pay" service, and a league administrator volunteers (it will not be me, I can assure you) BBFL can add bells and whistles galore. We will also need to arrange a much longer window, perhaps 4-5 hours in an IRC chat room, to conduct the draft. IF a 3/4 majority (at least 15 owners) agree to that change, which hasn't even been proposed to the rules committee yet, it opens up a lot of interesting possibilities, including one of the best ways I know to "rebuild" a disappointing team -- trading of future draft picks.

Here's how it works in my Roto Junkies AL league: around midseason, owners decide whether they're "buyers" (dealing away the future to improve the present) or "sellers" (waving the white flag on the current year but stockpiling higher picks for the next draft). You see lots of trades of a star and a low pick for a bum and a high pick -- I wanted to make a run at the money last year, and gave up my #2 and my worst P for Mark Mulder and a #14. Immediate help, but the "bill" came due at this year's draft.

The same league also keeps track of what round a player was drafted in, and allows just one keeper from each category -- A (rounds 1-5), B (6-13) and C (13-23). We could adopt a similar rule, maybe A-B-C-D, if someone wants to do the paperwork and keep the records, but be warned: it does complicate trades and affects a player's value. A star who is a "C" is worth a lot more than a player with the same stats who is an "A". We'd need a rule to deal with FA pickups: do they assume the draft position of the player cut, or are they automatically assigned to the lowest keeper class? Administrative nightmares increase in direct proportion to features; I will not take on that responsibility, so any "improvements" depend on the emergence of a league secretary, preferably two.

We're not even 10% into this season, but as Mike (Reykjavik) pointed out on the Yahoo board, the keeper rules can impact trade decisions, so we should address them now. Let's bat some ideas around, take a straw poll of whether we want to make changes for 2004, then vote on the most popular suggestions. I'm strongly in favour of the status quo: it's simple, it's free and it's been fun so far. I will not support any "improvements" unless they are accompanied by someone agreeing to accept the responsibility for any and all additional work they will generate.

The question that precludes most others is; do we want to remain a free Yahoo league, or move to a more flexible service? That would mean someone (not me, remember) pays up front -- most charge $100 to $150 US for the season -- and collects a fee from each owner, which also opens up the possibility of prize money. My budget is limited, and I am quite content to vie for the Ricciardi/Tosca autographed T-shirt and bragging rights, but I won't drop out if the league decides on a reasonable ante. The floor is yours...



BBFL: Anything Can Happen | 29 comments | Create New Account
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_Jonny German - Monday, April 14 2003 @ 09:19 AM EDT (#13312) #
Mashers Spit Out Fish Candy

K-TOWN (AP) -- A great day with the bats Sunday was not enough for the visiting Reykjavik Fish Candy to overtake the Mashers in their signature categories, R, RBI, and SLG. The Fish Candy did widen their margins in SB, AVG, and OBP, to which K-Town manager Jonny German had only this brusque comment: "Go big or go home". He did give a strong vote of confidence to right fielder Tim Salmon, the subject of many recent trade rumours. "Salmon's been lighting it up at all the right times", stated German, "He's not going anywhere." Salmon closed out the week with another big homer, a three run bomb off Barry Zito.

The pitching matchup took an interesting twist as the two teams headed into the late afternoon in a virtual deadlock for innings pitched and K-Town trailing by 1 in wins. Reykjavik manager M.P. Moffatt sent lefty Glendon Rusch to the hill and German countered with young righty Aaron Cook. As the informed reader would expect they each took a pounding, but Cook lasted six while Rusch was gone after five, earning the weekly IP crown for K-Town. Having failed to get a win from Cook, K-Town made a last-ditch effort by sending Tim Worrell out for the top of the ninth in a tie game, but it was to no avail as his mates failed to score in the bottom half of the frame. The win in innings was tempered by the fact that Cook's lackluster performance cost K-Town the WHIP category, with Reykjavik's 1.40 edging out the home team's 1.42. K-Town cleaned up in K/BB, SV, and (surprisingly enough) ERA, leaving them at 4 - 2 in pitching for the week with a clean sweep tormentingly close.

As it was, the overall 7 - 5 victory pulls K-Town even with Reykjavik and is a nice step forward from the opening week's 4 - 8. Next up, the Mashers head west to Chatsworth to take on the Halos, another team looking to overcome some early-season doldrums and establish itself as a force in the BBFL.
_King Rat - Monday, April 14 2003 @ 09:28 AM EDT (#13313) #
So this is how Mike Illich feels at MLB owners meetings.

Fresh off my second straight thumping, here's what I think. I think the keeper rule is fine as it currently stands; of the theoretical possible changes should the BBFL go to a pay system I think the only one I'd get behind would be the trading of draft picks. As for the wider issue of whether we should make this a pay league, I personally am happy with the current 'bragging rights' status of the league, even though the only bragging rights I've got so far are the much coveted 'my pitchers throw more action-packed games than yours' bragging rights. I'd stay with the league if it went pay provided the price wasn't exorbitant, but I wouldn't vote for a change to make it so.

A short business aside: I will trade any outfielder of mine except Xavier Nady for the right pitching. If you're looking for outfield help, keep your friendly neighbourhood Rats in mind.
_Jonny German - Monday, April 14 2003 @ 09:58 AM EDT (#13315) #
Week 2 Roto Summary

NOTE: It's called the Week 2 Roto Summary because it's a summary of Week 2 roto stats. It's not the complete roto stats for the season to date. I'll post that later. This one lets you assess your week in comparison to the whole league, i.e. Did your degree of success have more to do with the strength of your team or the strength of your opposition? You can also look at these numbers next to the previous week's numbers and see if you're on the rise or if you should panic.

Once again I've split up the batting and pitching into separate charts and sorted each by overall ranking for the week.
									
R RBI SB AVG OBP SLG Hitting

1 Baird 1 1 7 3 3 2 1
2 Hannib. 12 11 2 4 2 4 4
3 Toronto 12 2 16 5 10 9 7
4 K-Town 5 3 16 9 5 1 5
5 Gashous 17 12 13 11 8 12 14
6 Reykjav 7 7 7 1 1 5 2
7 Geoffs 20 18 7 6 4 6 9
8 Eastern 7 9 11 15 12 3 8
9 Garces 4 12 13 17 16 15 16
9 Sub-Urb 2 5 7 2 6 11 3
11 AGF 15 14 2 8 15 7 9
12 Mebion 17 14 2 10 18 7 13
13 Billie 6 17 13 11 16 14 16
14 Jicks 14 6 11 13 9 13 11
14 Nation 2 10 2 13 7 15 6
16 Spring. 19 19 1 7 11 10 12
17 Chatsw. 9 3 16 18 19 17 18
18 Thunder 11 20 19 19 13 18 19
19 Red Mos 15 8 2 16 14 19 15
20 Moscow 9 14 19 20 20 20 20

									
IP W SV ERA WHIP K/BB Pitchng

1 Baird 8 2 7 12 13 11 8
2 Hannib. 4 11 3 2 7 15 4
3 Toronto 8 11 1 6 1 1 1
4 K-Town 6 7 5 7 15 4 5
5 Gashous 4 7 7 3 4 6 2
6 Reykjav 11 2 17 17 12 18 16
7 Geoffs 10 2 11 13 6 5 6
8 Eastern 6 19 5 4 9 15 11
9 Garces 1 1 17 9 2 9 3
9 Sub-Urb 15 7 17 11 20 13 18
11 AGF 2 11 17 16 8 3 10
12 Mebion 16 2 11 1 4 20 9
13 Billie 3 15 2 10 11 17 11
14 Jicks 17 7 3 19 18 8 14
14 Nation 13 15 11 14 17 19 20
16 Spring. 17 15 7 18 16 7 17
17 Chatsw. 17 2 11 5 19 14 13
18 Thunder 12 15 11 8 3 2 7
19 Red Mos 20 19 7 20 10 10 19
20 Moscow 14 11 11 15 13 12 15
_Mike H. - Monday, April 14 2003 @ 10:23 AM EDT (#13316) #
12th in hitting, 17th in pitching... with Jicks Rays coming ahead of me in both categories. Yet I still end up winning 6-5. That should have been 7-5 except Kelvim and Scott Sullivan decided they weren't going to show up to play this weekend. Of course I drop a couple of places in the standings too, despite the hard fought victory. Ah, the subtilties of head-to-head.
_King Rat - Monday, April 14 2003 @ 10:26 AM EDT (#13317) #
As Jonny's numbers show, my team sucked last week. Second division in everything except runs. Ow ow ow.

MVP: Tomo Ohka
LVP: Jason Simontacchi
_snellville jone - Monday, April 14 2003 @ 11:32 AM EDT (#13318) #
The Gashouse Gorillas became the King of the BBFL Hill this week, but don't expect them to bask in the spotlight for long. They will be matched against a tough opponent this week, Hannibal's Cannibals, who are only two games behind the Gorillas, and are thirsty for blood.

The German Roto Stats point out the Gorillas' weakness with the bat last week. Only a 10 RBI performance by Renteria overcame a 10-for-59 by Soriano, Winn, and Teixeira. (I feel your pain, Coach- Teixeira gets a start against a righty and promptly goes 0-for4.) The Gorillas would like to see Mueller get some more at bats, and feel confident that Klesko and Floyd will find their swings this week.

The pitching has been solid, even an Oswalt blowout was countered by another strong performance by the Cy Young frontrunner in the AL, Runelvys Hernandez, who has only given up one run in 20 innings. The Gorillas have one of the best bullpens in the BBFL, and they'll need it as they take their chances with young starters (Perez, Ramirez) and guys on the comeback trail (Dreifort, Ritchie).

*** I like the game as is, but I did notice that yahoo had an upgrade that gives you a few interesting options like splitting up into two leagues, real-time stats, and an assistant manager feature that tracks stats. It's like $125 (~7 a team) and while there aren't as many bells and whistles, we wouldn't have to change much.
_Jugen Maas - Monday, April 14 2003 @ 11:43 AM EDT (#13319) #
Boo-ya!

Look at that Roto Summary.

Get ready for a whole lot more of whoop-ass from Baird Brain. As the Royals go, so does Baird Brain, and I'm starting to smell a World Series trophy for KC.

I like the rules and everything as they are--especially the free part. Things like fewer keepers for playoff teams, and being able to swap draft picks would be nice, but not if it means paying for it.

So, Coach, I assume that means the Commissioner doesn't have the power to tinker with other people's lineups?
_dp - Monday, April 14 2003 @ 12:25 PM EDT (#13320) #
I was a little worried, facing the first-place Bashers, but thanks to some "shocker" weeks, the Cannibals prevailed with a 9-3 victory.

This week was one of those "I'm glad it happened, but I can't count on it" things- like if you win because Dave Berg gets 7 RBI's, picking up your 0-15 middle of the order. Ly Overbay went .533/.846, but Bob Brenly still won'y play him regurlarly. Ty Wigginton and D'Angelo Jimenez were .583/.944 and .448/.680, with Ty easily capturing team MVP honors. Chris Woodward hit .350 in an attempt to make the skipper eat his words (reporters in the Cannibals' clubhouse are pretty happy when all the skipper eats is words). Alfonzo, Hee Choi and Ivan Rodriguez all hit under .200, though I-Rod tossed in a .400+ OB% and a rare SB from a catcher. Newly acquired Reggie Taylor hoit poorly but did swipe a base.

The most surprising game came from one of the skipper's longtime dissappoints- Esteban Loiza pithed 8 innings of shutout ball, allowing only three hits and walking none. To balance that nice line, Tim Hudson and Armando Benitez pretended they were Chris Carpenter and Kelvim Escobar- Benitez blew 3 dramatic saves for an 8.10 ERA, while Hudson allowed 6 ER in 6 IP. AJ Burnett, fresh off the DL, turned in a solid outing, as did newly acquired Kevin Appier. Despite an awful K:BB, my team ERA for the week was 2.83, which I don't expect to happen very often.

Underrated Mike DeJean saved 3 games for the Brewers, which means the Brewers won 3 games. The Bashers' deep relief corp outdid the Cannibals there 5-4.

I caught the Bashers on a bad week- all of the guys that slumped this week with the exception of Piazza had been hot the week before. Sometimes, ya just gotta get lucky.
_Jonny German - Monday, April 14 2003 @ 12:40 PM EDT (#13321) #
Roto Standings - End of Week 2

Here are the roto standings after two weeks.

The rate stats for hitting are weighted by the number of ABs in a given week. For example, if you slugged .400 in 200 Week 1 ABs and .500 in 150 Week 2 ABs, your overall slugging percentage is .443, not .450 (and you can forget about catching the Mashers). Similarly, pitching rate stats are weighted by IP. Yahoo records a third of an inning piched as .1, but the spreadsheet used for these standings converts that to .333333.

Roll the numbers!
									
R RBI SB AVG OBP SLG Batting

1 Baird 1 4 13 2 4 5 2
2 Gashous 17 8 2 4 5 6 3
3 Toronto 11 3 17 10 16 13 13
4 AGF 11 1 12 9 10 4 5
5 Hannib. 10 17 2 12 6 8 8
6 K-Town 8 2 17 8 7 1 4
7 Spring. 19 12 2 3 9 7 7
8 Mebion 9 14 7 7 14 9 10
8 Garces 7 14 9 6 8 14 9
10 Sub-Urb 2 7 2 1 1 2 1
11 Billie 3 10 11 11 17 15 12
12 Reykjav 13 5 13 5 2 10 6
13 Nation 5 14 2 17 11 16 11
13 Jicks 16 8 9 15 12 17 16
15 Eastern 14 11 13 16 15 3 14
16 Chatsw. 4 6 7 19 20 18 15
17 Geoffs 20 19 13 14 3 12 17
18 Red Mos 14 18 1 18 13 19 19
19 Thunder 18 20 19 20 18 20 20
20 Moscow 6 13 20 13 19 11 18
									
IP W SV ERA WHIP K/BB Pitchng

1 Baird 9 4 9 1 2 9 2
2 Gashous 4 6 11 3 3 14 3
3 Toronto 6 8 1 4 1 1 1
4 AGF 2 8 14 19 10 2 7
5 Hannib. 5 8 5 6 11 16 5
6 K-Town 7 8 3 20 20 7 14
7 Spring. 14 15 5 17 8 4 11
8 Mebion 18 1 12 2 5 18 9
8 Garces 10 2 18 16 6 6 10
10 Sub-Urb 20 15 18 11 19 19 20
11 Billie 1 19 2 9 9 15 7
12 Reykjav 12 4 18 12 14 20 18
13 Nation 11 15 5 10 15 8 12
13 Jicks 13 8 8 14 4 5 6
15 Eastern 3 20 3 8 18 12 12
16 Chatsw. 16 2 14 7 13 17 15
17 Geoffs 15 6 14 15 16 10 16
18 Red Mos 19 15 9 13 12 11 17
19 Thunder 8 13 12 5 7 3 4
20 Moscow 17 13 14 18 17 13 19
_R Billie - Monday, April 14 2003 @ 12:57 PM EDT (#13322) #
Well the good fortune of last week did not hold true, and Piazza so far has been a third round dog. Fossum and Piniero weren't terribly impressive but at least Schilling had an encouraging outing and I hope for better things this week. In restrospect, Ricardo Rodriguez seems like a good 24th round selection afterall.

I'm still looking for established starting pitching. I'm willing to trade a closer packaged with an outfielder for either a big bat in the infield or a true frontline starter.
_Jurgen Maas - Monday, April 14 2003 @ 01:05 PM EDT (#13323) #
Yes, thanks for making Rodrguez available.

Trogdor strikes again!
_AGF - Monday, April 14 2003 @ 01:31 PM EDT (#13324) #
MVP: Royce Clayton 4 RBI, .455 avg, .500 OBP, .682 SLG (FA pick-up)
LVP: Randy Johnson 4.2 IP, 19.29 ERA, 2.57 WHIP (1st round pick)

No wonder I am in the bottom half of the standings...

I am cool with the rules as they are set. Anymore than 4 keepers would be shame. Trading draft picks might be interesting, though.

LMK
_Jurgen Maas - Monday, April 14 2003 @ 02:03 PM EDT (#13326) #
Number One offence in BB, and yet:

Berkman YTD: 9 R 2 RBI 1 SB .231 AVG .375 OBP .308 SLG

Granted, Batista, Cruz and T. Lee are probably playing over their heads, but I'm not sure how much so...

So far, a change of scenery seems to have done the last two some good.

It's rarely a good thing when a player starts playing at his rookie level, but Lee had some promise when he first came up before he regressed into Mientkiewicz-lite. He's still young and stranger things have happened (actually, I think a lot of them happened last week).

But it's Cruz in particular seems like he's turned a corner. He's even drawing walks in key, high pressure situations rather than constantly hacking away--and he's continuing to do it batting behind Bonds.
_Jurgen - Monday, April 14 2003 @ 02:04 PM EDT (#13327) #
Sorry, I'm only #2 on O. I got a little carried away.
_Scott Lucas / N - Monday, April 14 2003 @ 02:28 PM EDT (#13328) #
Spicol,

Players acquired during this season won't become free agents after 2005, but they will be arbitration-eligible.

But seriously, folks... I have no strong preference, but I'd vote on the side of leniency and say that a player's three-year allotment doesn't start until the first full year of ownership. Perhaps an exception can be made for players traded prior to the start of the season. Keep it simple.

Despite my current status in third place, I would back up previous comments about not giving up. My team hasn't performed all that well, but it's performed just well enough to win more often than not.

In a sense, I am the 2002 Twins; my Pythagorean/expected winning percentage is much lower than my real winning percentage. Some of you are in the opposite position. I would expect that to even out over the course of the season.
Coach - Monday, April 14 2003 @ 02:47 PM EDT (#13329) #
I assume that means the Commissioner doesn't have the power to tinker with other people's lineups?

Jurgen, if you click Edit Team Info, there's a button to "Allow the commissioner of your league to edit your team" -- if everyone enables that, I can make roster moves, which might be useful. Owners could select in each other's spot by prior agreement, and the Commish can "fix" those transactions after the draft. It would require some accurate record-keeping, and everyone involved in such a deal would have to be online for the draft, but it's a way to trade future picks without upgrading to a pay service.

So you could trade good player(s) and low pick(s) for filler player(s) and high pick(s) -- as long as both owners agree on what's fair, and both report the swap on the league message board at the time the trade is posted in Yahoo. Next year, using the draft chat, you make a selection on behalf of the other owner, and he makes one for you. Do we want this? Should there be a "dump" limit on how many such trades a team can make per year? I guess nobody's going to trade away all their stars when they have to name four keepers.

if I acquire a player in July of 2003, does 2003 count as one of those 3 seasons?

Yes. After three seasons (or parts thereof) he's a FA. So if I trade for Brian Lawrence anytime this year, I can only keep him through two more drafts.
_Mick - Monday, April 14 2003 @ 03:12 PM EDT (#13331) #
Now, I ain't playin' in this heah league, of course, and in fact am not playing roto ball at all for the first time since 1989. But I want to weigh in on a fantasy-at-large topic.

Somewhere out there, some guy decided to go all-pitching, all the time and brilliantly manipulated his draft, taking Randy Johnson in the first round, Pedro Martinez in the second, wheeling and dealing to end up with Greg Maddux, Mariano Rivera and Robb Nen ...

And that guy, if he is in a cumulative scoring league of any kind, even after Maddux's bounceback yesterday, is buried so deep in ERA and WHIP and hurtling so far back in saves that he can already designate himself a "seller" in July.

In fact, he's probably whining about it already, making him something of a "whine seller."
_Geoff North - Monday, April 14 2003 @ 07:37 PM EDT (#13333) #
Well, I suppose that after being trounced in the first week, coming back with a .500 showing in the second is a little more respectable - though it could have been a lot better, considering I was winning 9-3 going into Sunday's games. Fittingly for a fantasy baseball league though, it truly isn't over till it's over, and a shockingly bad start by Ryan Dempster for the Group, managed to lose leads I had in ERA and WHIP, though the pitching staff did keep it's lead with K/BB. I pulled out a couple of surprise wins in steals (Bonds won that for me with THREE steals this week), and saves - a commanding one save victory on the back of a Francisco Rodriguez surprise.

I should have played the manager game, and sat Dempster on Saturday. I had been tempted to, seeing that Garces had four or five starts scheduled for the weekend, while I only had two, and would probably end up winning innings and wins, though we were very evenly matched in those all week, and I had what looked like good leads in all of the pitching rate stats. Hindsight is 20/20, and I should have gone with my first instinct. Still, no one expected Dempster to be anywhere nearly as bad as he was against the Phillies.

The Group is still plagued by playing time woes, a problem that resulted in a 55 AB deficit. That makes it hard to compete in the counting stats. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that little Giambi gets his job back soon, and keeps it, and that Aaron Gleeman's Free Bobby Kielty campaign is successful, and soon!

The Group's starting pitching staff is looking to keep my strongly competetive in all pitching categories except saves, especially once Mark Mulder gets on track, and Dempster should be solid, provided he doesn't forget how to get the third out again.

I'm still looking for some more reliable saves and an outfielder with regular playing time, so far I haven't had any offers that really interested me - if you're interested in making a deal, especially one that doesn't involve the words "fleece" or "robbery", etc, send me a proposal, or leave messages - I'm happy to discuss possibilities.
_R Billie - Tuesday, April 15 2003 @ 03:59 PM EDT (#13334) #
After careful consideration, I've decided to drop out of the Prior sweepstakes.
_Spicol - Tuesday, April 15 2003 @ 05:01 PM EDT (#13335) #
That's understandable, your pitching is pretty good as it is.

With the one serious offer withdrawn, it appears as if Prior will remain a Mosquito for a while longer. Not good news for Scott.
_AGF - Tuesday, April 15 2003 @ 09:17 PM EDT (#13336) #
And Spicol let me know I don't have any good players. I can't wait for week 13 when AGF's no-goods will match up with Prior and co. for a real test of character, talent, and clutch performing.....
_Spicol - Tuesday, April 15 2003 @ 10:33 PM EDT (#13337) #
I let you know that you don't have any players that I want for Prior, not that you don't have any good players. Your needs and mine just don't jive at this point in time.
_dp - Wednesday, April 16 2003 @ 04:34 AM EDT (#13338) #
The Cannibals have been offered a bunch of trades that don't do anything to address my team weaknesses while sapping my strengths. I'm perfectly willing to deal quality players, but offers that are slightly balanced in someone else's favor while doing nothing to upgrade my weak areas are a waste of time. Unless there are owners out there who actually bite on lopsided deals, I don't get some of the trade proposals that have been throw my way...
_Jonny German - Wednesday, April 16 2003 @ 03:49 PM EDT (#13339) #
Who me?

I've definetly made some offers that have no chance of being accepted. It's not because I think anybody's stupid enough to accept them, it's just a starting point to get some discussion going and seeing if we can both help ourselves. Most of the time I do look to match up needs, which for me means dealing with teams that are strong in pitching and weak in hitting.
_dp - Wednesday, April 16 2003 @ 08:15 PM EDT (#13340) #
That comment wasn't directed at anyone in particular, just at the general trend in trades I've been offered. Based on past experience, I've also become very conservative with trading slumping stars early in the season, which I guess plays into my perception that I'm getting offered lopsided deals. If the goal of an unbalanced proposal is to initiate talks, I also don't get why it isn't accompanied by a message, like "I don't think you're dumb enough to accept this deal, but let's start talking- here's what you have that I'd like, and here's where I can afford to deal from." If not, they're just a little pointless.
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