Sorry for the reposting of this information, but it came to my attention last night that the Fantasy League I promoted last week was set to only allow previous members to join.  Thus, any new person who had attempted to join was told there was no available spaces. We currently have 6 5 available spaces.

Quick Details (full details can be found in the old thread)

Format: Head to Head

7 categories on offense and pitching:

Roster (24 players and up to 4 DL): C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, 3 OF, 2 Util, 2 SP, 2 RP, 3 P, 7 BN, 4 DL

Teams: 16

Divisions: 4

Draft: Auction. This is important. If you’ve never tried it, this is a fun, interesting way to draft – one better experienced live. The draft time is Sun Mar 27 5:45pm EDT.

To join please follow this link to Yahoo Fantasy Baseball and enter:

League ID: 108751
Password: sizemore

Please let me know if you hare having any difficulties joining.  I'll confirm when the league is full. 

As mentioned in a few other the official LGT fantasy baseball threads, we have space for a few more people in the Yahoo LGT League.  The league has 16 teams, will have between 2-4 divisions, and uses a H2H Daily format with a 7 x 7 scoring system.  It is comprised of the entire ML Universe.  Each team has 24 players (plus 4 DL).  We’ve also bantered about making it a keeper league, although the details are fuzy on that up to this point.  We’ll be doing a live draft, but have yet to set a specific time for it.  Most likely we’ll use whenisgood.net like the other league to figure out a good time.

There is currently room for 6 more teams.  People are free to join on a first come, first served basis.  You can access the Yahoo site by clicking here.  Once there click on “Join a Custom League” and enter the information below:

League ID#: 450579
Password: sizemore

Please reply here if there are any difficulties.

The Sporting News has named Mark Shapiro the Executive of the Year for the second time in 3 years, according to the PD.

I can't say I'm surprised by this, although its great to hear.  Limited payroll + great team that overcomes obstacles + surprise players + playoffs = Exec of the Year.  

Congrats to Shapiro.  Give that man a raise!

Where, oh where has the Mo-Jo gone?
Where, oh where can it be?
Where, oh where has the Mo-Jo gone?
Somebody tell me please!

Yes, this is definitely more than just a slump.  And no, I don't buy that this 'how the team truly performs'.  For the 2.25 seasons (or so) prior to the bottom dropping out in June the offense has produced.  I am thinking that this has to potentially be - and someone who's better at stats run this for me - a historic drop-off in production.  We finally are getting the pitching we'd always dreamed of and now we get this.  

So here's a poll - feel free to leave any ideas on how to break this clusterfrack of an offense out of it's slumber.  Get creative.  I'm seriously considering calling my local priest to bust out the Holy Water.

According to  The Tribe Report on MVN Andy Marte was optioned to Buffalo today in favor of Rafael Perez.  I can't find any confirmation of this on official sites yet. Apparently they're looking to go short on the bench but long in the pen.  I'm not sure if this is a bigger indictment of the perceived value of Marte or worries about the team's pitching going into a tough series with Boston.  We really didn't burn the pen out lately and outside of JoBo, everyone should be pretty much available. Maybe I'm missing something, but since Marte can't be recalled for 10 days, I'd bet that Fransisco or Guitierez will get the call.  I feel for Marte. Update [2007-5-28 15:3:55 by mjmarble]: Here's the confirmation from ESPN wire services.

According to speculation from the Chicago Sun Times the Sox are probably headed for a mid-season fire sale.  Basically the gist of the article is that the team will probably win more, but in the ultra competitive AL Central they don't stand a chance.  The time frame for this, according to the Sun Time, would start around the All Star break.  The article also covers the failure that is the Cubs, but the interesting part deals with the fact that the Sox are older, slower, more prone to injuries and continuing to get more expensive.  I'd toss in the fact they don't have enough pitching, but that's just my take.  Williams can't contend and rebuild at the same time (he should've asked Shapiro how that turned out).

If this speculation holds true, there's at least a bit less competition in the division to overcome.

Just to keep things interesting, some unknown person who had signed up for the H2H league has mysteriously dropped out.  That leaves us with an odd number of people in the league with our live draft tomorrow.  I would rather have someone sign up to fill that spot than to have another person drop out.  I know that Rayman was interested in participating.  If you still are please post here and sign up at the link below.

If Rayman cannot or does not check in by later tonight - say 10:00 pm EST - I am asking someone to step up and sign up to play.  I know this is super short notice, but I would really appreciate it if someone can jump in and help.  Thanks in advance.

Go to this link to sign up for the league.

League ID: 60678
Password: travis

According to ESPN, Lee will start the season on the DL now.  Apparently that throwing session didn't go so great.  There is no real word on how long it'll be until he is ready for the bigs again.  So that moves Carmona up to the Majors.  

As much as I can see giving the job to Carmona straight up, I wish that Miller and some other prospects would be given a chance to compete. Update [2007-3-11 12:16:46 by mjmarble]: The PD is now reporting it too, with Soloff calling it due to "the volume of spring training" whatever that means. It also says he'll be back mid to late April.

I hope that this is the last post until the post season gloating commences in late September.  I posted the sign up info a week ago in my last diary.  There's still 2 people that have to sign up for the H2H league and 4 in the Roto.  Please do so as quickly as possible or let us know if there's a problem.  If need be, I'd like to have time to find any needed replacements.  Here's the info again...

brad, RichYett, and Tribelifer - there are spots for you in the Roto league.  I'm going to shoot for Live Drafts for the last weekend in March to avoid any injury problems.

Go to this link to sign up for whichever league.

H2H:

League ID: 60678
Password: travis

Roto:

League ID: 60355
Password: grady

Good luck everyone.  I look forward to beating all of you thoroughly.

After reading through the last thread, I'll try to organize things a bit.  There will be two leagues, a H2H weekly league and a daily Roto league - both AL only at this point.  Either one can be changed before the season.  I tried to break up the two leagues based upon stated preference, but if I've messed up anywhere please let me know.  Or if you'd like, just try and negotiate changes here.  A number of people have said that they don't care in which league they play.  Once that's all straighted out I'll post the league ID#'s and passwords.  I'll make it an autodraft and and give people time to make their prerankings.

Thommy, you said that you'd be willing to help with one of the leagues, and I could use that with the Roto.  I don't know that I have time to completely manage a daily league.  Email me so we can work out the details.  My email is my name here with 33 added on the end at yahoo.com.  

Turns out I don't need Yahoo ID's, so don't worry about those. There's also still a bit of room left if anyone wants to join.  The lists:

H2H:

Is there any interest in getting another league together this year?  Watching the interview with Shapiro at the FBB summit got me thinking about it.  I enjoyed last year although I'd prefer a head-to-head league this year.  I think Yahoo worked well and they'll open up their registration as of Feb 16th.  Respond if you're interested.

There's one less arm to consider: Baez for 3 yrs, $19mil to the Orioles.  I'd say that the trade route is becoming more and more likely.  There just isn't anything inspiring out there anymore (was there every really anything inspiring?).  I've always thought that Baez wouldn't come back the the Tribe regardless, so nothing really surprising except that Cleveland is listed as one of the serious suitors for him.

Link

Ok, I'm going to be lazy and assume that someone has way too much time on their hands at work today.  With the talk of how much we might have to spend this winter on free agents - who exactly are the options.  I'm guessing that we'll be in the market for 2B, SP and some relievers.

Of course we can speculate on what these players might earn - but I'm most interested in following a list how our 'prospects' do with the rest of this season.

I figured I'd start a new diary so as to make it to the front page again.  At this point I have brad, IndyDave, rgolem, Thommy, Jeff, mkwng, dctribefan & myself interested (with Jay offering to provide the mocking, derisive running commentary).  That makes eight, which is doable - but the more the merrier.  Just post if you're interested.  Also confirm if you've already expressed interest.  Please indicate if you're interested in an auto or live draft.  If you can't make the live draft, you just preorder your preferences and the computer picks for you just as it would in an autodraft.

With eight, an AL only league is probably the way to go.  If we get 10, 12 or 14 then we can open up to both leagues.  I'd prefer to have the draft after the WBC so to avoid any unpleasant injuries.

I'll post the signup details (league name, password, links, etc.) after we get enough confirms to play.

Ok, I've resisted the urge up to this point, but with pitchers and catchers reporting I couldn't do it any longer.  For the past few years I've been the commish of a work Fantasy League, but that fell apart late last spring when I decided to quit my job and move overseas to Bulgaria for two years.  After trying to start a league here I actually found 4 people who not only knew what baseball was, but who had actually heard of Fantasy Baseball.  Whilst they would have been easy pickins, there's unfortunately just not enough of them to form a league.

Not many of my close friends in the states follow baseball as closely as I do, and none of them play fantasy baseball.  So I thought I'd see if any of the well read, thoughtful, intelligent folks around here would be interested in starting up a league.  It'd be something free and easy like a head-to-head Yahoo league - solely for bragging rights since me collecting any winnings from ya'll might prove less then cost effective.

So is there any interest in forming a league?