* Fantasy Baseball WNFF H2H 2014 *

[varoadking]

Live Draft tomorrow night @ 8:30 pm Thursday March 27, 2014 is fine with me...

[nobleisthyname]

Dibs on Espi.

[Terpfan76]

Damn. I'll be at work.

[varoadking]

Just got a message from ESPN...120 seconds per pick...

[nobleisthyname]

Damn. I'll be at work.

Call in sick!

[Terpfan76]

Call in sick!

As much as I'd like to and trust me, I'd LOVE to, I gotta save my time. If the net is wide open at work however as it is tonight...

[nats2playoffs]

To pre-rank your players, which helps for BOTH an Autodraft and if you're present for the Live Draft:

Click on the My Team tab on the WNFF league site.

Note that under the header on that page, there is a brown bar with a COUNTDOWN:
Your Snake Draft is scheduled for Thu., Mar. 27 at 8:30 PM ET 
Draft starts in: 0 days  ## hrs  ## min   ## sec

Under your owner name is:

      Edit Pre-Draft Player Rankings
      Edit Autopick Strategy

The first one lets you drag players up and down to change ESPN's rankings that are based on their own projected statistics. Remember to SAVE your changes.

The second one lets you change ESPN's default settings for the order that positions are selected. It makes it more likely for you to get the first several players in an autodraft, if another owner doesn't grab them first.

[Lintyfresh85]

I guess I'll use this as a catch all for fantasy... but I had a pretty tough Yahoo "Pro" league draft today. 12 teams, $50 buy-in.

C - Salvador Perez
1B - Prince Fielder
2B - Brad Miller
3B - Ryan Zimmerman
SS - Starlin Castro
OF - Ryan Braun
OF - Jose Bautista
OF - Billy Hamilton
UTI - Alex Gordon
UTI - Shane Victorino
BN - Pablo Sandoval
BN - Adam Lind
BN - Jed Lowrie
BN - Mike Morse

SP - Madison Bumgarner
SP - Marco Estrada
RP - Jason Grilli
RP - Joakim Soria
RP - John Axford
RP - Huston Street
P - Ubaldo Jimenez
P - Tyson Ross
P - Tim Lincecum

Pretty heavy on the hitting... going to have to hope I can stream into success with pitching.

[nats2playoffs]

   MLB 2014 Closers Live Draft   

         
Team               
Saves      Player   Player      
2013   Team       Saves   SO      
57   Baltimore Orioles    4   68   promoted   Tommy Hunter
55   Pittsburgh Pirates    33   74      Jason Grilli
53   Atlanta Braves    50   98      Craig Kimbrel
52   Los Angeles Angels    37   98      Ernesto Frieri
49   New York Yankees    3   77   promoted   David Robertson
47   Washington Nationals    43   51      Rafael Soriano
46   Oakland Athletics    50   56   new team   Jim Johnson
46   Miami Marlins    34   74      Steve Cishek
46   Texas Rangers    0   28   new team   Joakim Soria
44   Seattle Mariners    37   82   new team   Fernando Rodney
43   San Francisco Giants    38   58      Sergio Romo
43   Cincinnati Reds             Committee: for Chapman (inj)
42   Tampa Bay Rays    38   72   new team   Grant Balfour
41   San Diego Padres    33   46      Huston Street
41   Los Angeles Dodgers    28   111      Kenley Jansen
40   New York Mets    44   22      Bobby Parnell
40   Minnesota Twins    36   77      Glen Perkins
40   Milwaukee Brewers    28   75      Jim Henderson
40   Chicago Cubs    21   60   new team   Jose Veras
40   St. Louis Cardinals    3   108   promoted   Trevor Rosenthal
39   Detroit Tigers    43   73   new team   Joe Nathan
39   Toronto Blue Jays    34   50      Casey Janssen
39   Chicago  White Sox    0   89   promoted   Nate Jones
38   Arizona Diamondbacks    40   72   new team   Addison Reed
38   Cleveland Indians    0   65   new team   John Axford
35   Colorado Rockies    13   55   new team   LaTroy Hawkins
35   Houston Astros             Committee: for J. Crain (inj)
33   Boston Red Sox    21   101      Koji Uehara
32   Kansas City Royals    47   103      Greg Holland
32   Philadelphia Phillies    29   57      Jonathan Papelbon
         
Prominent free agents: Kevin Gregg, Joel Hanrahan, Ryan Madson.

[Manly]

"Make good picks!" is the advice I've received going into tonight.

[Manly]

Draft order:

1. Team AUS - EAST
2. Team don't know yet - EAST
3. Dixie Goodness Kings - WEST
4. The Fighting Mongooses - EAST
5. Doctor Doom - EAST
6. nats 2playoffs - EAST
7. NoVa BooBirds - WEST
8. Nathan's Neckbeard - EAST
9. Halladay in Cambodia - WEST
10. Beer Here - EAST
11. PhilWood's Hairpiece - WEST
12. Nine Guys - WEST
13. Team UK - WEST
14. Safe European Home Hustlers -WEST

[nats2playoffs]

Clayton Kershaw, SP LAD taken with the first pick in the draft by aussienatsfan, as he already had a win in Saturday's 2-game MLB opener in... Australia.

[varoadking]

The draft was fun...I likely picked a couple of duds, but overall I am pleased with my team...

Now all I have to do is learn how to play... 

[HalfSmokes]

I like my offense, but my pitching gets pretty dody pretty fast

[nats2playoffs]

If you Drop a player and get another one by clicking on Players, and then grabbing someone off the Free Agent list, that player will always be placed on your Bench.  You then have to Move him from the Bench to an Active roster slot and Save.

Note the Set your Lineup bar near the top of your My Team page.  You can set your lineup for each day for the next week or so, by clicking on each day. It will not change the previous day's lineup.

We each have 3 DL (Disabled List) slots. You cannot pick up a DL player off the Free Agent list unless you already have an open slot in your active list or bench.

The way to get DL players off the Free Agent list is:
1. Drop a player that you're planning to dump anyway.
2. BEFORE picking up an active Free Agent that you want to use:
3. Pick up a DL player from the Free Agent List.
4. Click on the Manage DL header near the top of your My Team page.
5. Move the player from your Bench to an open DL slot.
6. You can do this again, if you have open DL slots.
       
The standard ESPN league has 2 DL slots, but I raised it to 3 last year. Most of us could have 3 DL players some time during the season.  There seems to be a lot of starting pitchers now that could end up on the DL soon.

[aussienatsfan]

So I had first pick and took Keyshaw. Wow I really should have edited my pre draft settings. Need hitting desperately and would love to trade. Autodraft has killed me

[JCA-CrystalCity]

How soon after a player gets off the DL must he be activated?

[HalfSmokes]

Considering that I have profar, teix, and Hendrickson, hopefully not instantly

[nats2playoffs]

How soon after a player gets off the DL must he be activated?

ESPN allows you to keep a recovered DL player in the DL slot, until you try to make a move involving a Free Agent.  Then it forces you to activate him first.
 

[nats2playoffs]

There are two early games today, Tues April 16, with 12:35 pm being the first, which is the deadline to get Free Agent moves done for today.
 
ESPN is slow to post Daily Lineups.  Two places that post them much sooner, which are also good for creating Game Day Threads (GDTs):

Baseball Press
http://www.baseballpress.com/lineups/2014-04-16

RotoWire
http://www.rotowire.com/baseball/daily_lineups.htm



Sometimes one posts them sooner than the other, and vice versa.

The first game on Monday April 21, 2014 is at 11 am in Boston, their annual Patriot Day game.  This messes up fantasy baseball owners every year!

[nats2playoffs]

1. A Catcher is NOT an Infielder, for purposes of filling the one INF slot.  (I learned this the hard way!) Standard 10-team ESPN fantasy leagues have one slot for 1B/3B and one for 2B/SS.  With 14 owners, we eliminated both slots and made one INF slot.

2. Reminder: you can set your Daily lineup each day for about the next 10 days. Just click on the next day on the Set Your Lineup: header.

3. When you pick up a Free Agent and move him from your Bench to an open slot, ESPN often leaves him on your Bench for the next day or two.  That's a reason to use Set Your Lineup - to make sure he's in your active lineup for the next several days, in case you forget to check.  A rain postponement can mess up your Pitcher starts, if you set the lineup in advance.

4. Just above the Research columns, there is a Display Preferences option.

For batters: AVG, SLG, OPS and K can be displayed.  I like to show AVG, since the standard ESPN league uses AVG instead of OBP. That's why a LOT of batters with good OBP but a poor BA have a low % Owned number. 

For pitchers: QS (Quality Starts: number of games started with 6 IP and no more than 3 ER allowed), and K/9 (Strikeouts per 9 IP). I display both, as a constant failure to get QS's is a bad sign. Since the IP can vary, the K/9 is a good tool to measure the rate of K's when he does pitch.

5. Two Internet sites display Daily Lineups at least one hour or even several hours before ESPN posts a blue S next to your starting players.
http://www.baseballpress.com/lineups/2014-04-28 (Shows L or R)

http://www.rotowire.com/baseball/daily_lineups.htm

This helps when some of your players do not have a game until 10 pm ET, and you want to have all your slots filled.

6. The Standings tab lets you click on each column for the 10 categories, to see every owner's rank. You can see where your team needs to improve, which may encourage a Trade.

7. JCA-CrystalCity recently became a co-owner with terpfan76 for BlindLeadBlind-NathanNeckbeard.

8. Lintyfresh85's Doctor Doom is currently #1 in the East division, while Marquis de Sade's Safe European Home Hustlers climbed to the top of the West division.


Good luck!

[JCA-CrystalCity]

JCA-CrystalCity recently became a co-owner with terpfan76 for BlindLeadBlind-NathanNeckbeard.

We got you right where we want you.   

[Terpfan76]

We got you right where we want you.   

Word *written in braile*

[JCA-CrystalCity]

What are the rules on picking up someone still in the minors?  Also, what are the minimum number of innings in a week to get credit for WHIp and ERA?

[nats2playoffs]

What are the rules on picking up someone still in the minors?  Also, what are the minimum number of innings in a week to get credit for WHIp and ERA?

ESPN Fantasy Baseball 2014: Rules Index
http://games.espn.go.com/flb/content?page=flbrulesindex2014

When are rookies placed on the Waiver Wire?
http://games.espn.go.com/flb/resources/help/faq?name=when-are-rookies-placed-on-the-waiver-wire
Players will be listed on the ESPN Fantasy Baseball waiver/free agent list the morning after they are officially added to the team's 25-man roster (which is often the day after they play for the first time, since most big-league teams make the roster moves right before the start of the games.) Therefore, if you see a rookie make his debut, he will be in the player pool that next morning, if he is not already in it.

Before the season begins, ESPN may manually add without notice any player our experts believe has a legitimate shot at playing in the upcoming season, even if that rookie is not on the 40-man roster yet. When we do so, those players will show up, either in FA or on waivers.

From n2p: Type the player's LAST name in the box next to Find a player at the upper right section of any page. A lot of minor league players are already there. The names of all players with the same last name will appear. The Owner ID is displayed if already owned, or it will show FA (Free Agent.).

MINIMUM INNINGS PITCHED THRESHOLD
http://games.espn.go.com/flb/resources/help/content?name=scoring-settings-standard
Teams in head-to-head leagues are required to reach an innings pitched minimum in order to qualify for stats in both the ERA and WHIP scoring categories. For H2H leagues this total must be reached each week. This rule was instituted primarily for H2H leagues to protect against owners intentionally benching pitchers after 1 IP with no hits, runs or walks allowed (and thus ensuring a win in 2 of the 5 categories). The minimum innings pitched rules are as follows:

    H2H leagues: 10 innings pitched per matchup
   
For H2H play, failure to accumulate the minimum number of innings will result in forfeiture of ERA and WHIP pitching categories for the matchup. If both teams fail to reach the minimum, both will receive ties in these pitching categories. Note that even if the threshold is not met, the other non-average stats DO count (for example "Wins", "Saves" and/or "Strikeouts"). You can view the IP minimums for each matchup on your "H2H Box Score" page.

NOTE: Until the 10th inning pitched is reached, the category for ERA and WHIP will remain italicized. This indicates that these categories will not count towards your matchup score for the week (until the 10th inning is complete). If you are viewing your matchup scoring categories on our mobile Fantasy Baseball experience, these two fields may NOT be italicized and will resemble all other category fields. Please remember that the rules above still apply.