Draft Dust

The Fantasy League

Okay gang....we're turning a corner here and entering the fantasy league world.  I've kicked this around with a few people on how to best approach this and here is what we've come up with.  

First, you'll notice a new tab on the top of the BLOG titled FANTASY LEAGUE.  If you click on that page you'll see it is password protected.  If you join you get the password and can track your team's progress and compare to others.  

So how do you pick your team?  Great question.  My initial thought was to pick one from all the #1's and one from all the #2's; all the way through all the ratings.  However, I'm worried that might put too much focus on ratings so I've taken a different approach. So there are about 130 people who have played ball over the last 2 years.  I have gone back and gathered stat over the last two years.  I gave each player 1 point for an at bat; 1 point for a hit (reaching base by any means); and one point for a run scored.  I totaled this for each of the 130 players and sorted from the most to the least.  I've broken these in 13 groups.  What is interesting, to me, is that the groups are not consistent with our ratings.  

What You Have To Do:

1.  This is 100% voluntary.  You are under NO OBLIGATION to join this.  

2.  Should you choose to join, you need to notify me by email.  Email me at dwyerdouglas@gmail.com and I will send you the password for the Fantasy page.  

3.  The cost is $20.00, I'll arrange to meet up with you at some point to collect.  

4.  Once you have access to the page, you'll need to pick one player from each pool and send it to me in an email.  Just list the 13 names in an email and send it so me with the title, "Fantasy Team"

5.  The close date is May 5th prior to the start of the 1st game.  If you're not in by then, you'll have to miss this year.  

6.  Anyone can join, players, wives....(no kids)

7.  I don't know how often the stats / standings will be updated yet; but at least weekly.  

8.  Once we know how many people we have and how much money is in the pot; I'll let everyone know the break down for prizes.  However; the plan right now is that 1/2 of what is raised will go to a local charity.  There is one I have in mind but need to talk to some people first before I can say.  The other half will go the the winner or perhaps 1st, 2nd & 3rd.  We'll see.  

9.  Yes, you can pick yourself. 

 I'm going to keep this up here for about a week.  I'm hoping that word of mouth will sell it and let us do something kind of cool and ongoing to raise some money and maintain interest.  Two years of history shows that the folks in these groupings are very close so I'm hoping this goes right down to the finish.

Oh, and Chuck Cragg is paid in full, he wouldn't leave the draft without making sure he was guaranteed a team.  So we have one.  

If you have questions or see any major flaws let me know and I'll share the answers on here because there's probably others with the same questions.  

Cheers.

QUESTIONS:

1.  Are any pitching/defensive stats included?

     a:  No.  We don't keep those stats nor do we have the resources to start tracking them.  The only things we track are Hits, At Bats and Runs and all from the batters perspective.

2.  What if my player(s) gets injured?  Can you replace them?

     a:  No.  Sorry, its just too sophisticated for what I can manage.  If your player doesn't play, ie. misses games, you are out of luck.      

3.  How long does the pool run?

     a:  Another good question.  The pool season includes all regular season games for ALL teams.  The playoffs are NOT INCLUDED.  The winner(s) will be determined from regular season stats only.  

4.  Do stats from subbed games count?

     a:  NO, NO, NO, NO!!!!  we only track games played with your own squad.  No sub stats count.  

Keep in mind that there are some people who have extended vacations planned.  That will be factor.  As of now, the only one I'm aware of is Bill Jonkman who is intending to be gone for two months.  You might want to consider that in Round L. 

STATS PACK

Our Stats Pack team  is planning to meet this Wednesday at a secret location.  The Stats Pack is not JUST a group of losers with nothing better to do than follow old timers stats.  No indeed.  We also do lots and lots and lots of work that gets fed into our 3 prediction blogs that get released just before the season starts.  How important is the prediction BLOG?  

Not very.  

But its fun and its conversation fodder.  We typically get people voting on the top 6 teams (the rationale for looking at the top 6 will be explained later).  

So, here is an invitation to join the stats pack.  Do not accept this invitation lightly.  There is WORK involved.  Not kidding.  The work has a deadline.  Not kidding about that either.  Even if you're good with that, you will need to also put your predictions on paper with your name and it'll be published.  There you go.  Let me know via email if you're interested.  dwyerdouglas@gmail.com

Next update will have Fantasy League info.  Might take a while. 

48 years hangover free!!!!

I don't know why I have this luck but I do.  The good news is I never get sick.  The bad news is I would probably learn a lesson or two if I did.

So as I sit here this morning with my coffee in my superman mug and reflect on yesterday's draft, my mind immediately goes to how flawlessly it was run once again.  I'm involved in a lot of different things but I've never gotten close to the draft.  I'm actually kind of intimidated by how well its executed.  There are so many permutations of where people can go depending on captains ratings, pitcher combo and father / son combos.  Watching these guys pull it off when surrounded by the chaotic horde in front of them is like cirque du soleil in the middle of a paint ball tournament.

Something like that.

My, actually - all of our sincere thanks to Steve Ross, Chris Ross and Jamie McClean for the draft day coordination and all the behind the scenes work.  Thanks to Eric and Randy Hipken for the setup work at the Legion to get ready for the draft. And thanks as well for getting in the gluten free beer!  Thanks for all the setup and organization work for the lunch goes to Gord Robertson, well done!  Thanks to The Beechey, Dave Fleming and Cliff Tucker and draft day and pre-draft day work.  And thanks to the ratings committee for getting everyone lined up before the draft:  Paul Piellusch, Hugh Armstrong, Mark Doyle and Scott Mason.

You will find all the complete rosters at:  http://www.tottenhamoldtimers.ca/pages/rosters.html  .