Conjoined Baseball League Format Review
Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2015 12:17 pmWhen I set this league up I was hoping to use it as sort or a trial, to see where the problems lay and how it could be improved. As the league chugs along I’m hoping to solicit some feedback from you to see where we can take this, if it moves forward at all.
After watching how this format has run so far this season I see a general problem with playing with a restricted player pool not allowing teams much opportunity to do anything to improve a poorly performing team. Considering I’ve been at or near the bottom all year, I think my outlook on this is fairly valid. Also, the way we originally allotted the Wild Card players didn’t work out at all the way I thought it might, and so I’d like to improve on that.
First to back-track a bit, my original thought was that I’d like to set this up as a 5-season league beginning annually around May 15 using the basic format of drafting an AL and an NL team and merging their players into one team. Had we started it this year, (May 2015), we would have begun with the 2011 cards in May, then moved to the 2012 cards around August 1, then 2013 by early October, 2014 in mid-December, and the timing would work out just about right to finish up with the brand new 2015 cards when Strat-O-Matic releases them in late February. Then we’d begin fresh again in May of 2016 with the 2012 set and progress by year to always culminate with playing with the brand new cards each February.
Anyway, since I have the floor you get to read my 2 cents worth first. Here’s what I’d do going forward to make the conjoined roster idea work better with progressive season card sets:
1. The first season goes off as described, picking one AL and one NL team.
2. Allow trading of players between teams.
3. Allow more than one Wild Card player from the unselected teams. (It may make the most sense and be easier to police to not set a limit on the number of Wild Card players, which would also create more Free Agent activity within the league.)
4. Initial picking of Wild Card players would be done within the first 5 rounds only of the Auto-Draft process. The last 20 spots would be filled from your own two teams.
5. Going from one season to another, all traded and wild card players revert back to the team they’re carded to, so in effect trades and Free Agent pick-ups are more similar to MLB rent-a-player deals for players with expiring contracts. So for example if I’d dealt King Felix to the St. Louis Wings (Cardinals & Orioles), he would automatically go back to Seattle for the next season.
6. After each season and before the next, each owner would protect one of their two teams, and in reverse order of standing would re-draft a second team with the only restriction being that they must still have one AL and one NL team.
If you're in the league now or can offer some insight, please take the time to let me know what you think. Even if you aren't enjoying this format and have no interest in trying it again, I'd like to hear why.
Here's a link to the current league:
http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/league/427630
After watching how this format has run so far this season I see a general problem with playing with a restricted player pool not allowing teams much opportunity to do anything to improve a poorly performing team. Considering I’ve been at or near the bottom all year, I think my outlook on this is fairly valid. Also, the way we originally allotted the Wild Card players didn’t work out at all the way I thought it might, and so I’d like to improve on that.
First to back-track a bit, my original thought was that I’d like to set this up as a 5-season league beginning annually around May 15 using the basic format of drafting an AL and an NL team and merging their players into one team. Had we started it this year, (May 2015), we would have begun with the 2011 cards in May, then moved to the 2012 cards around August 1, then 2013 by early October, 2014 in mid-December, and the timing would work out just about right to finish up with the brand new 2015 cards when Strat-O-Matic releases them in late February. Then we’d begin fresh again in May of 2016 with the 2012 set and progress by year to always culminate with playing with the brand new cards each February.
Anyway, since I have the floor you get to read my 2 cents worth first. Here’s what I’d do going forward to make the conjoined roster idea work better with progressive season card sets:
1. The first season goes off as described, picking one AL and one NL team.
2. Allow trading of players between teams.
3. Allow more than one Wild Card player from the unselected teams. (It may make the most sense and be easier to police to not set a limit on the number of Wild Card players, which would also create more Free Agent activity within the league.)
4. Initial picking of Wild Card players would be done within the first 5 rounds only of the Auto-Draft process. The last 20 spots would be filled from your own two teams.
5. Going from one season to another, all traded and wild card players revert back to the team they’re carded to, so in effect trades and Free Agent pick-ups are more similar to MLB rent-a-player deals for players with expiring contracts. So for example if I’d dealt King Felix to the St. Louis Wings (Cardinals & Orioles), he would automatically go back to Seattle for the next season.
6. After each season and before the next, each owner would protect one of their two teams, and in reverse order of standing would re-draft a second team with the only restriction being that they must still have one AL and one NL team.
If you're in the league now or can offer some insight, please take the time to let me know what you think. Even if you aren't enjoying this format and have no interest in trying it again, I'd like to hear why.
Here's a link to the current league:
http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/league/427630