Thought you guys might be interested

[Todd Zola]

Is anyone doing the pitcher ratio dump and loading up on hitters with all their early picks? That's gotta be the way to win a league designed like yours, I would imagine. Though I didn't look too closely at your innings limit. If it's too loose, you might be able to do a Johnny (punting wins and K's and loading up on good hitters early).

If you've got at least one smart player in your league, you're going to definitely have to punt something in order to win.

I have a feeling the Mr. Squidward power punt wouldn't work with most of the deadball hitters locked out by your rules, though.

There will definitely be some creative category management. We are in round 6 so it is still too early to tell. Adding to this intrigue is we are drafting rounds 5, 10, 16 and 23 "blind". We used a third party to be the confidant, we eacj know our own picks but no one else. At the end of the blind rounds, the playersd are revealed but not the year nor the owner. This is a great way to disguise what you are doing if you take a specialist like a closer or someone that had an inordinate number of stats in a single category. The reason we are doing this, however, is money is on the line and we did not want the last few picks to be in a position to decide the outcome for others -- it is very possible that depending on the last pick, two different owners other than the last owner, could win.

Personally, I am not sure of the best strategy or whether dumping is wise. In "regular" fantasy, we devalue pitching by shifting more "budget" to hitting. If you assign your "currency" 50/50 in these rankings, pitchers DOMINATE. We are in the sixth round and if I simply "took one off the top" of my overall rankings, i would still be taking pitchers and would likely fill in my staff in my first 9 picks. I am of course not doing this, but it is tricky knowing when to take pitching - actually, I do not truly know if I am right, just hoping.

My strategy is to compete in all categories, but not necessarily equally across the board. The blinds make it difficult, but my plan is to at minimum be ahead of the teams dumping in particular categories, then try to build up points by getting a better feel for the flow of the draft than others. Relative ranking, especially positional adjustments will make a difference as well. I can already tell that there are some intuitive drafters versus those that have come up with a means to quantify.

[Todd Zola]

I admit I screwed the pooch BIG TIME in this draft by breaking my cardinal rule which is really bumming me out. By taking Cobb, I am pigeon-holed into taking a certain profile of player and that type (high power) was taken way before my value-in-a-vacuum said they should go. I'll scratch and claw and hope that in the end "value" wins out, but I am seeing a few high speed, high average, no power guys left at 2B that would have been better for me than Cobb -- of well, live and learn.

[Todd Zola]

maybe easier to follow, but far less entertaining here...

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fantasy-Hall-of-Fame-Baseball-Draft/254047354645712

[joncarlos]

I've been following along and this stuff is great. It's fun watching someone else figure it all out for the first time. (I'm only on about page 36 of the thread so far)

I bet that any of the spreadsheet wizards here (JA, KS, OaklandAs) could predict all 4 of every team's blinds, or at least come very close.

[Todd Zola]

What may have gotten lost in the thread is the NFBC is going to at least discuss with STATS how they can go about coming up with an on-line version of the format.

[DMT]

Some pretty smart cookies participating in this draft. Several have either employed or at least noticed the dumping strategies that we've found to be extremely effective in our drafts. It's cool to follow along as this thing progresses.

Yea, I've been following along as well...it's funny that they're throwing out ideas like making teams with 1 or 2 points in any category ineligible for prize $ to discourage dumping strategies. Zola, you should suggest to them the multiplicative scoring that we started using.

[amcg]

Sorry for the flood of posts, but I'm also chuckling at the similarities between your league and the Vintage Drafts we've had. You've already had your "amcg" moment --- the drafter who takes a year and a day to make his pick and makes the more impatient among you start freaking out with anticipation. It even got a new phrase around the RJ community --- doing something "Irishly" meant taking your sweet time, since amcg is Irish.

*cough*

You called?

(he posts, Irishly)