The SJ.com Ultimate Fantasy (baseball) League

For years, I was in an intense fantasy-baseball league with friends. After moving to another state, it became too much of a pain to get back there for the draft each year so I decided to leave that league.

All this leaves me to wonder what sort of SportsJournalists.com leagues usually are set up. Have there been NL-only, AL-only leagues and combined leagues? I've enjoyed playing in the SportsJournalists.com fantasy hockey leagues and want to join one of the baseball leagues.

It would be interesting, if Yahoo! allowed for it, to have a combined league of 30 teams. If they limit leagues to 12 teams, then a combined league would have so many free agents that there never would be trades. We have the same problem in fantasy hockey because there hardly ever are trades in our 12-team league.

According to Yahoo!, you can start signing up leagues on Friday.

 

Re: Fantasy baseball

There's only one TRUE SportsJournalists.com fantasy baseball league [/snobby NIAFL member]


Seriously, tho, Yahoo doesn't limit a league to 12 teams. It's the commissioner's perogative when they sign the league up, I believe. They have roto along with head to head leagues.

 

Re: Fantasy baseball

I'd be in rookie ball this season, but I'd be interested in joining.

 

Re: Fantasy baseball

It seems like head-to-head might be a bit unfair considering how September baseball (which would be the fantasy playoffs) becomes with roster expansion. Does anybody have any experience with head-to-head baseball leagues.

 

Re: Fantasy baseball

I've tried head to head and don't like it for the reason you mentioned. While it does give you some of that competitive/smacktalk atmosphere that makes fantasy football enjoyable (to me anyway), the September roster expansions do make it a little challenging down the stretch, and baseball has always been more about winning categories/hauling in points over the long haul than beating your pals from week to week.

As for flexibility of leagues, I know that ESPN is going totally free this year and will be fully customizable league-/scoring-wise, so you could prob have as many teams as you want, do H-to-H or roto, and maybe even do the unusual combined set-up you mentioned above. And commonly pay features like live scoring, etc. will also be free. I've been a "Yahoo guy" for a while but will likely switch one of my leagues over to ESPN for the free extras and to see how their new game is.

 

Re: Fantasy baseball

You can already sign up for fantasy — and there's been drafts too — at mlb.com

 

Re: Fantasy baseball

Disagree. Fantasy sports is ALL ABOUT beating your buddies in head-to-head matchups.

 

Re: Fantasy baseball

Agreed 100 percent. Roto is boring. Although, it might be more fun if you're just in a public league.

 

Re: Fantasy baseball

I guess drafts start Feb. 15, sorry

 

Re: Fantasy baseball

Roto is OK, but head-to-head, talking shit to co-workers if much more fun. Plus it gives them another reason to hate me, and another reason to show them just how much better I am than they are.

 

Re: Fantasy baseball

I prefer points, because I'm a championship snob. With points, the best team will just about always win. H2H is more of a crapshoot. Also, I want the only strategy to be getting the best team, not who will still have something to play for in the last week of the season. One of many reasons I (unlike most) like baseball more than FB. Bye weeks & won't have it all wrapped up by week 16 are not what I want to measure.

 

Re: Fantasy baseball

I much prefer head-to-head. I'm in two fantasy-hockey leagues, one that's head-to-head and one that's points based. I have a lot more fun with the head-to-head league. I'd be all for head-to-head if not for the playoffs being played during September.

I just checked and the ESPN league is limited to 20.