In praise of cheaper ($60 million) 24 team leagues-

[gbrookes]

The following is a quote from an online STRAT friend re the $80 million cap for a 2008 24 team league being too high:

"With my experience in this 24 team league, I will not play in this type
again. Unless the draft is modified. For one team to lose $18M in picks
and another to lose just $4M???? And the $18M loser is pretty much
stuck. Hello!?!?!?!?! I don't believe much in "luck" and I certainly don't
depend on it!

I might suggest that Bernie add an alternate pick to each draft spot.
Such as: my #1 pick was Chipper, but if he wasn't available I would use
my alternate pick of Aubrey Huff, for example. My thinking here is that I
would be "unlucky" that someone else picked Chipper, and might get
burned. If the next 6 third basemen were picked, I'd get stuck with
Cantu. (Sorry Broadwater) Cantu is a good hitter, but not good enough to
warrant a first round pick. BUT, if I could exersize an alternate pick then I
could try for Huff during the first round. Maybe I'd still end up with Cantu,
but at least the chance of getting seriously burned went down.

Here's a draft scenario:

Two teams have the same players for their top four picks.

My picks: #1 Sabathia #2 Lincecum #3 Chipper #4 Furcal
Your picks: #1 Furcal #2 Sabathia #3 Lincecum #4 Chipper

You would get burned as the result of "luck". I might end up having $5M
in cash after the draft. You might have $16M! How much of that $16M
can a team use during waivers? Not much!! As you probably know, this
would have a huge impact on the rest of the season."

My friend and I are in complete agreement. The real issue is that, with an $80 mil cap and 24 teams, by the time you get to the waiver draft, the post draft scrum, and the post scrum ruminations, THERE IS NOTHING LEFT WITH WHICH TO REPLENISH THE LOST CAP ROOM. THERE ARE SIMPLY NO VALUABLE PLAYERS LEFT!!!!!

By contrast, with a $60 million cap, there WILL (mathematically) still be good players left for the waiver draft, for the scrum, AND AFTER AND THROUGHOUT THE PRE-SEASON AND REGULAR SEASON. Not as much as with a 12 team league, but enough that you can rebuild a team or still fill a hole in your lineup or pitching staff.

CHECK OUT THE REAL MANAGERS LEAGUE - A $60 million, no DH 24 team league for SOME REAL BASEBALL, REAL TEAM BUILDING AND REAL STRATEGY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Geoff Brookes/BlueBombers/Goldeyes/Jets :)

[Rojo's Redlegs]

Yes I agree! :lol: The $60m salary cap calls for more planning and less luck.

In my current 24 team - $80m league, I lost my #2 pick of $8.57m Cliff Lee. Lee's replacement was $4.00m Guthrie, 26 pitchers down the list. $7.41m Sabathia was my #3 pick. I lost him and was awarded $3.25m Paul Maholm. Maholm is 43 spots down. Losing only these two guys cost me $8.73m! I was able to "spend" most of my salary cap, but for guys I really didn't need. :?

So, my "bench" is basically made up of $16.3m worth of players.
My "first string" is worth about $64m. :evil:

[Coffeeholic]

Getting burned on your top draft choices stinks in any type of league [b:bb27464836]Geoff[/b:bb27464836], but you're right in that a 24 team, $80mil, 200X league it's gonna hit home very hard. However, I would contend that, while luck always has some contribution, in this format you actually need more skill then ever in constructing your draft card. The concept of: [i:bb27464836]Do I gamble my top picks on players who will be highly coveted by other managers, or do I opt for the safer approach of drafting players who I suspect other managers would have lower on they're draft cards, if at all?[/i:bb27464836] has application in any league, but is of course magnified by having an extra 12 managers in the league.

So, if you follow this strategy (drafting less coveted players), you're likelyhood of a successful draft will probably increase, correct? However, if Bernie were to implement the change you suggest (alternates in case you miss your first priority), then managers who have constructed a draft card based upon this approach will be penalized: This manager's well thought out and constructed draft card will be "eaten up" by other manager's alternates. :evil:

Bottom line, IMO, is that you just need to be realistic in your expectations of what your team composition can be with 24 teams involved. If you set your draft card accordingly, I suspect you'll be much more succesful and that "luck" will have much less to do with the outcome.

[b:bb27464836]Rojo's Redlegs[/b:bb27464836], I hate to be unsympathetic, but it sounds like you pretty much got what you deserved. I will confess that I'm very inexperienced with the 2008 set, but for you to expect to get both Lee and Sabathia (the 2 most expensive LH SP*s in the set) with draft picks somewhere between #25 and #72 seems greedy and highly unrealistic. Couple that with the fact that you gotta know that all the high-priced SP's are going to be drafted by other managers, means that you can expect to end up in exactly the situation you did. You did get your #1 pick, correct? If you did, and happened to do so by "winning the tie" you may have had on this player with another manager, that would mean any shot you had of "winning the tie" on picks #2 and #3 were pretty much shot also. I guessing that your draft card set-up would be "iffy" in a 12 team league (what are the odds of getting both these SP*'s at #2 and #3 even with half the managers involved)? In a 12 team league, your "consolation prizes" and the more talent laden post-draft FA pool may help you compensate for this poorly constructed draft card, but in a 24 team league you can't get away with this. :(

[gbrookes]

I simply fail to see how it would be more interesting, challenging, realistic, or even a better test of managing skill to set up the league with the CERTAINTY that, within 15 minutes of the waiver draft taking place, there will be NOT ONE PLAYER LEFT WITH A SALARY OVER $3 million??????????????

I mean, why have free agents at all???? Maybe that is what you are after, being "unsympathetic" and all that.

I just think that having no-one left in the free agent pool is like putting too much pectin in the jello - it gets rigid, and it tastes awful.

WHY BOTHER WITH THAT?

It may be a matter of preference, but let's be honest and call it that. I prefer a set-up with more dynamism than that!!! :) Geoff Brookes :)

[Coffeeholic]

[quote:1c63806817="Geoff Brookes"]It may be a matter of preference, but let's be honest and call it that. I prefer a set-up with more dynamism than that!!! :) Geoff Brookes :)[/quote:1c63806817]

This is a good point Geoff. I can certainly sympathize with you on having a FA pool which really doesn't have any options available for you to improve your team with. My favorite part of this game is setting your draft card, then tinkering with your team during the pre-season. If there's no tinkering to be done, then alot of the enjoyment is going to be missing.

[gbrookes]

Thanks, Coffeeholic! (What a good handle)

Please join up, if you are interested! It is called "The Real Managers League" (I didn't start the league or pick the name, but it's a good name in the sense that I think it will closely resemble real life baseball). Remember to click on $60 million at the beginning of the new team screens!

No DH, and I believe it is a 5/10/20 drop penalty.

Hope to see you there!

Geoff Brookes/Jets/Goldeyes/BlueBombers


:)