Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

The idea of a high cap tournament has been bouncing around in my head for a while. With Barnstormers winding down (and just starting up again) and many of us with a little extra time on our hands, seems like it might be a good time to try one. While 80m and 100m leagues are still the basic ones for ATG8, there is a solid core of players who like to play high caps (usually seems like at least 1-2 auto leagues form fairly quickly each week plus 1-2 live drafts). I am not imagining a tournament the scale of Barnstormers, but more in the 24-36 player range... That could be optimistic.

I floated this idea in a couple of high cap leagues and there seemed to be some interest, though a fairly wide opinion as to the form it should take and what constitutes a "high" cap. There are a number of factors that need to be worked out. I am going to raise them below.

Honestly I doubt there will be a consensus some points (or any for that matter) but figure get a general feel for if there is enough interest and general opinion then I plan to set up some rules and see who signs up:

Number of Rounds:

I am thinking 6.

Frequency of rounds:

I would love to draft a team a week (not waiting for one league to finish to start the next). This may be too optimistic and many need to be once every two weeks

Live drafts v. Auto Draft.

I think Live drafts are more important in High Cap Leagues than in lower caps because of the dynamic of the Ruth and Bonds lottery. So I am thinking 3 live drafts and three auto drafts. Given that we may make two live drafts tonight in high cap leagues, I am hoping this won't be a problem.

Caps:

Here is what i am thinking 250m is basically the lowest cap where money does not matter.

To me 200 is really the bottom end of "high cap" you have enough money for a solid rotation and maybe one or two high dollar platoons, but not a lot of extra. Some who expressed interest suggested 175-185m which I can work with. I would like to do a 200m 24 person league but that would only work if we get 24 or 48 people. With all this mind (not necessarily in this order) I am thinking the following caps:

180m auto

200m auto

200m live

225m live (I have definitely run out of money at 225 but not by that much)

250 auto

250 live

I don't want an unlimited draft because that just invites gamesmanship.

Note that I am not really looking for that big of variety, the idea here is to have a tournament relating to the "specialty" of playing high cap teams. The point of 6 leagues is to have consistency win out and diminish randomness.


Points:

For simplicity sake I am inclined to simply go with one point per win. Am tempted to have a 1 point bonus for making playoff and winning championship, but am waffling on that point



Winner

If we only have 24-36 people I don't see much point in having a playoff. Champion is top point getter. I am could be persuaded otherwise.

Thoughts, comments?


Egnaro

My thought
1. A $250 auto will never fly. $200 auto is bad enough
2. 5 events MAX . This isn't Barnstormers
3. There should be a $140 event (call it low cap for this tourney )
4. Replace one of the $250 with an unlimited. Let the "gamesmanship" flow!