I play in a fairly competitive annual fantasy baseball league, and this year we want to make the transition to a keeper league. I'm not the commissioner, but he sent out an email asking for us to propose the rules we want for the league (in terms of how many players can be protected, size of rosters, things like that). I don't know what is considered "normal" for keeper leagues, so I'm wondering if anyone has any advice or links that would help structure a keeper league (we run it through ESPN). 

Let's be honest, both the Brewers and the Blue Jays have good teams this year, and should be able to compete in their divisions without too much help. But as a fan of both teams, I know they could both be better, and I've got an easy way to do it: Merge them. Now you might think this is another evil American plot to contract the Canadian baseball teams, but I assure you, it is nothing of the sort. My plan is to create nothing less than the MLB equivalent of the 5th grader playing tackle football with the 2nd graders. Some minor issues to take care of before we start. It'll probably be best just to merge the AL East and the NL Central: the top two teams will advance to the playoffs and the DH will be in effect for games on eastern time, Central timezone games will revert to National League rules. In order to avoid each city only having half the number of games they are used to, we'll DOUBLE the number of games. The Brew Jays will play double headers every single home date. I'll admit, I don't have the logistics worked out perfectly yet, but maybe that's where the Bluebird Banter readers can help me out. Without wasing more words, onto the roster. (I'm ignoring injured players at the moment) (aside from Romero) (I don't know too much about the heart of the Jay's bullpen, so I'm just going from the stats so far this year)

Starters:

C Rod Barajas

1B Prince Fielder

2B Aaron Hill

3B Scott Rolen

SS JJ Hardy

LF Ryan Braun

CF Mike Cameron

RF Corey Hart

DH Lind

Bench:

INF Scutaro

INF Overbay

OF Wells

OF Rios

C Rivera

SP Halladay

SP Gallardo

SP Richmond

SP Romero

SP Bush

CP Hoffmann

SU Downs

RP DeFelice

RP Carlson

RP Coffey

RP Frasor

Wouldn't this be fun? What an electric team that would be. Weeks is having a really nice start to the year, and if he keeps it up we'd need to find a spot for him too. I'd be curious what more Jays-centric fans would put together as a combination.

I don't think I can procrastinate studying for my final tomorrow any more at this point without risking trouble, so I'm going to leave this as it is, even though I'd much rather stare at statistics for a while longer to debate about the tough choices.

I know, I know, we wouldn't be wasting half our day thinking/writing/arguing about baseball on the internet if we didn't. But I think it's worth taking a moment to think about what a great game this is, and how it has captivated us to spend so much of our energy on it, even when we're obviously not the kind of people able to play it at the major league level. I usually find myself unable to explain to people why I listen to over a hundred games a year on the radio, why I drove almost three hours on a cold, rainly, Suppan-y school night to watch the Brewers play in Pittsburgh, and why I'm content to look at statistics online for hours and hours on end. So, without getting long-winded or trying to step on the toes of great baseball writers who can actually explain the wonderful aspects of the game in beautiful prose, I'd like to say to a community of people who really get it, "Damn, I love baseball."

Hey Bucs fans,

I'm a Brewers fan who lives in Ohio and is thinking about driving the 2.5 hours to PNC park to see the game tonight. I've never been to Pittsburgh before, so I'm wondering if any of you would be kind enough to give me advice on the best way to get into the city/ballpark (I'm coming from the Cleveland area). I've always had a soft spot for the Pirates, and there's no better excuse to blow off my homework for the night than a baseball game! I would appreciate any advice you folks may have. Thanks,

TheBrouhaha

Hey folks,

I'm thinking about driving the two and a half hours to PNC park tonight to see the game. Have any of you been there? Is it an easy park to get in and out of? Any other things I should know about going there? I'd assume tickets are pretty easy to obtain (hehehe). If I don't go I won't be able to see the Brewers until late July... now I just need to convince my girlfriend that it's a good idea to blow off work tonight.

Thanks,

TheBrouhaha