Monday, February 13, 2012

Mock drafting

I am hosting weekly mock drafts for Fantasy GameDay on Couch Managers this winter.  Anyone who is interested the link is here.  Password is FGD2, and the final digit will simply go up with each succeeding draft.  The writeup for the first mock is up at FGD, if you have an interest.  I will be hosting these every week through March (unless my draft schedule interferes) so if you have a particular format or date/time that work better for you, let me know.  I am very accommodating.
I am also excited about the league starting up again.  I'd be more excited if we could keep more than 6 players, but I will survive until 2013.  I do agree with Olin that a dynasty setup for our league would work well, with a minor league draft to pick up prospects.  I am in a few of those, and enjoy the prospecting of prospects a great deal.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Spring 2012 Newsletter

Hey Guys :

As spring approaches, a young man's fancy turns to ............ BASEBALL.

Hopefully, we've all survived the winter none-the-worse for wear, and are looking ahead to a better and brighter future.

Our incumbent League Champion, Lloyd Souza (stangnut), gave us a bit of a scare, a few weeks ago, when he was rushed to the hospital with a rather serious medical condition. I believe he is home, now, recuperating. So, before we get "down to business", let us send well wishes his way and pray for a speedy and full recovery .

Speaking of business, it's time for us, all, to cough up the $20 league "donation". For a few years now , my wife has rescinded my cheque-writing privileges, so I'm going to stick a $20 bill in an envelope and trust that the post office will deliver it to :

Richard Justmann
315 Antler Way
Alpharetta , Georgia 30005


Rich has informed me that he will cash your checks and safely tuck our money away, until year-end prizes (!!) are to be distributed .

Another CHANGE made for the 2012 season ==> the IP (innings pitched) Limit will be set at 1650 innings. Although this is a significant reduction, many of us will be unaffected by it, and will go on managing our teams as we have in the past. 1650 innings is our attempt to bring us closer to 'real' baseball and is designed to curtail the seemingly un-endless daily streaming of pitchers and to give us a chance to "manage" our pitching staffs .

THE BIGGEST CHANGE will actually take effect in the 2013 season. That is when we have scheduled to "bump up" the NUMBER OF KEEPERS to 10 players .

And even though we will enter the 2012 season with only 6 keepers, this change could have a serious impact on your up-coming draft strategy .... maybe it's time for all of us to start thinking about locking down our "core" players, especially those studs that occupy positions of "scarcity".

For me, this means that I'll be throwing back one of my stud pitchers into the pool and hanging on to my shortstop of choice, instead. I wish that I could keep both of them, but remember we ONLY KEEP 6, this year. You guys  You do what you want. Hopefully it will turn out alright for you .

ONE LAST NOTE:  bookmark this page ==> http://couch-managers.blogspot.com/

RJ was kind enough to set-up our very own blog. This is where RJ will be posting info on a variety of issues, including, but not limited to, the exact date and time of our draft, the keeper cut-off date, polls, etc etc .

On this blog site, we will ALL be able to post our views comments and opinions. How many leagues, that you belong to, have their very own blog site ??

Monday, January 23, 2012

Yahoo Schedule

Hey guys, FYI. The Yahoo Fantasy Baseball site usually opens up on February 15th give or take a day.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

MLB Ad

Hey guys. I put an MLB ad on the blog. My idea is that if anyone wants to buy something during the season, you could click on the box and access the MLB website from there. You'll have full access to all current deals in place.

The plan would be to contribute 60% of what I get to the Couch Managers pot at the end of the year. The other 40% would go toward taxes and covering my time.

Because of my Fantasy Sports Warrior website, I have qualified for lots of sponsors --- NFL, Dick's Sporting Goods, Sports Authority, etc. So if you want me to post an ad for something else, let me know.

It wouldn't be a lot of money. I get around 5% to 7% typically on the deal. But it would help the pot if anyone is interested.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

IP Limit

Hey guys.  I've gotten some feedback on reducing the Innings Pitched limit to 1650 innings.  Let me know your thoughts.  I would not anticipate it going lower in future years.  Thanks.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Manager Backgrounds

FROM BIG O  (CHATAS)

I have put together a little questionnaire.  And yes , some of your responses will be featured in an up-coming "newsletter" , and maybe even twisted around and used against you (especially questions #6 and #12) .

I'm not asking for any top-secret draft strategies here , but I think it's important for us to get
to know each other a little better .
1. age
2. marital status
3. occupation
4. favorite outdoor activity
5. favorite vacation spot
6. favorite major league team
7. favorite major league ballpark to see a game
8. how long have you been playing fantasy baseball
9. how many fantasy baseball teams did you have in 2011
10. how many fantasy baseball teams do you plan on having in 2012
11. do you play in "money" leagues
12. when you were 12 years old , who was your baseball hero

There has been some "discussion" about turning CouchManagers' into a money league.  That discussion has been "tabled" , thus far.  (We feel that we have a great group of managers , and , at this point , we don't want to do anything  that would jeopardize our union) .  HOWEVER , in an attempt to improve on just "bragging rights" , we would like to enhance our prize structure .

13. would you be willing (starting in 2012) to "donate" $10 to a winner-take-all Champion's Prize .
(the idea here is to award our Champion a MLB Gift Certificate in the amount of $140.  We envision that the winner would use this prize money to purchase the MLBtv package ... about 100-120$ , and maybe get a hat) .

14. would you be willing to "donate" $20 (total) so that 2nd and 3rd place could be awarded smaller certificates .  (someone suggested to make it $25 , but ....putting a $20 bill in an envelope seems simpler) .

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Keepers

FROM OLIN (a.k.a. chatas)

Ok guys , here we go again .
It's time to discuss our intentions and the direction we want for our league .

Originally , the league was formulated with the idea of making it a full-keeper league , to include
a limited (true) minor league roster of about 4 - 6 players .
Since it was year one , we decided not push the minor league idea and went with a roster size of
26 players (instead of 30) .

Because we were a start-up group , including some managers with little or no roto experience ,
we were apprehensive about league turn-over .
The fear was , that if we jumped right into a full-keeper and lost 3 or 4 managers after the 1st year ,
that we would have difficulty finding replacement managers who were willing to take over full teams ,
that they had NO part in drafting .... especially if those teams really sucked .

So , it was decided to gradually evolve into a full-keeper and to give us some time to stabilize our
ownership .
The first year , (actually year number 2 ... the 2010 season) we started with 4 keepers .
Year 3 ... 2011 ... we progressed to 6 keepers ... scaling back from our intention to go to 8 keepers .

Year 4 ... the up-coming 2012 season , because of a lack of consensus (some call it apathy) ,
our Commissioner (Rich Justmann) , instead of sticking with our original plan of an orderly
progression of keepers .... 12 - 16 - 20 etc ... decided to REPEAT the 2011 season and hold the
status quo on keepers .... meaning that , for 2012 , we would again have 6 keepers .
Again , the lack of a clear consensus , and the fear that we might lose some owners , we're the reasons
he made this decision .
*************************************************************************

NOW , is the time to decide on the number of keepers for the 2013 season .

I propose that , in addition to voicing your opinion about our league "direction" , that you
vote on the following options :
a) 6
b) 10
2) 14

PLEASE NOTE ... that we will decide on the number of keepers for 2013 BEFORE the 2012 draft .

There are 2 camps :
1st .... we should limit the number of keepers ... the fun is in the "drafting" .

2nd ... we should move towards full-keeper at a more accelerated pace ... right now , the number
of keepers is so low that it inhibits "trading" .

SO , we will , now , OPEN THE DISCUSSION on KEEPER SIZE for the 2013 SEASON .