Diamond Dad

Love that Boy. Now, C'mon Cliffy!~

Nick Johnson, that noted speedster

What -- no first inning run today? What gives???

Win each series. Two out of three. Fine. Pedro gets the win. Sanchez looks good. Lots to like. Lo Duca does little offensively, but gets hit and restrains Guillen. Starting to like him. Let's Go!!

I'm happy to be Aaron Heilman -- but why is he listed as being a met only from 2003-2004? Did he leave the team and nobody noticed?

use of the glove takes away from the spectacular nature of the play. Plus it was only the #2 top play of the day on SportsCenter

Bannister 2 Delgado 2 Reyes 2 Floyd 1 Hernandez 1 Sanchez 1 Heilman 1 Can we give negative points to Julio BenRojas?

I'd use "Pressure" by Billy Joel I think Billy Wagner should go for "the Ballad of Billy the Kid"

I prefer weekly transactions -- let's you set your team for the coming week and not worry about scouring the wires every day to make sure that you have every possible favorable matchup in the active lineup for that night, or kicking yourself because there was a day game you forgot about and you didn't make the move you wanted to make in time, etc. To tell the truth, I wasn't sure how often our transactions process in this league -- the web site is not very clear on that

I've never been in an NL-only league, but I agree that 9 teams in a mixed league is ridiculous -- it's an all-star team. Stud at every position. Key is to pick the best studs. 9 teams means that your top 5 starters are only 45 pitchers -- that's basically the #1 and #2 starters from each ML team, with several to spare. I like it better when you have to choose between starting Tomo Okha or Ryan Franklin this week, instead of whether to start Tom Glavine or Jason Schmidt

I thought we had a 2-player DL list for this league? I need to place Nomar on the DL and pick up a shortstop to use until he comes back. how do I add a shortstop without having to "drop" a player?

The best night of the year is Draft Night in my main league, called Rotissaria. The league was founded in 1987 and I've been in since 1989. Back in the stone age when we did stats by hand and faxed them to the commish, who did the standings by hand (once per month). League uses 13 stat categories -- 8 for hitters (.avg/runs/HR/RBI/doubles+triples/Walks-minus-strikeouts/Net steals/errors) and 5 for pitchers (net wins/ERA/WHIP/K/S) The league does not allow free agent acquisitions during the season, so you have to draft backups or wait for the supplemental draft in June. Keepers are allowed 15 picks earlier than drafted the prior year -- but you have to maintain the player on your roster all season -- can't keep players acquired in trades. It's very competitive! 16 owners, and we draft 40 rounds. I had a great first 5 rounds, snagging Pujols (2nd overall), Damon, Rolen, Schilling, and Delgado (yea!). Then things started to fall apart. There had been a run on the best closers early, which I stayed away from figuring I could get a couple of useable closers later. Got Bobby Crosby in the 6th and then took Cliff Floyd (another Met!) but didn't get my closer. (Remember, I'm picking 2nd in the order, so I get 2 picks within 4 overall picks at each corner, then I wait 31 picks for the draft to get back to me). There was then a run on secondary closers while I waited for my 8th round pick. I was left with Foulke in the 8th and then grabbed Zito in the 9th (can't start him in week #1 after his bad outing, but should be a steal by the end of the year). So, after 9 rounds I had two starters (Schilling and Zito), two first basemen, a third baseman, a shortstop, a closer, and two outfielders. Then things got ugly. I needed another closer (we use 3 relievers, one of whom must be a middle man) but everyone was gone by round 10 and I took injured Mike MacDougal, hoping to also get Ambroix Burgos later. I then took a flyer on Rocco Baldelli, who will either be the best pick in the 11th round or a dud. In retrospect, I should have taken a more solid outfield choice. 12-13 swing I took another starter (Jeff Weaver -- just missed out on Kelvim Escobar) and then jumped up way to early and took Fernando Rodney -- hoping to be able to trade him to the owner of Todd Jones. 14-15 got my second baseman (Josh Barfield) and the best available hitter (Frank Thomas), but ultimately I got shut out of several starters I wanted and several outfielders I wanted. I did get some great prospects later in the draft (Ian Stewart, Jon Lester, Phillip Hughes, and Brandon Wood) and some great sleeper pitchers (Gil Meche, Angel Guzman, Rich Hill, Wade Miller) but I'm going to end up starting Juan Encarnacion and Casey Blake in my outfleld. Still, it was 4 hours of pure adrenlin!!! Loved it, as always. Now . . if Baldelli gets healthy . . and if Thomas stays healthy and hits big . . . and Crosby's hand injury isn't serious . . . and Zito bounces back . . . and . . . and . . . .

Back home (finally). Great day at Shea! Nice to meet Soup and glad to give Cooby a ride. Mini Knight had a blast (and so did David Wright!). Memories for the album.

What are the final decisions about # of players, bench, stat categories?

At this point, more important to just do it. 6 man bench and 2 DL slots. fine. done.

OK, I'm in for March 25th.

The easier way to prevent a team from winning the wins category by going with 8 starters is to use "net" wins (wins minus losses). This takes away the incentive to use a low-end starter rather than a high-end middle man. I would prefer only a minimum innings requirement. No max. 5 starters pitching average 200 innings (remember that you sub out for anybody who is injured, so each starter "spot" should get 200 innings easy) is 1000 innings. 3 relievers pitching 50-75 innings each would be another 200. So, 1200 minimum innings, I'd say. Otherwise you have two or three stud starters, and then all the rest are middle men and closers.

Evening of March 4th is out for me, so I'll be on auto pilot if we have it then, but that's fine. Later would be better. I'm fine having it on a week night. DD

13 out of 15. Woo hoo!! I was listening on the radio to the Aaron Heilman game when he had that one-hit shut-out, and I was on my way to Washington, D.C. at the time -- so I always associate that game with Washington.

As much fun as it would be to ban the braves and Yankees, I don't think it's feasible -- especially with 20 players But, we can heckle anybody who drafts Yankees or braves during the draft!!

I have been in a league with 19 active players for a long time. It works fine. We have 16 owners in a mixed league and 40-man rosters with no free agent acquisitions allowed. 19 active players is fine. We use C,1b,2b,ss,3b, 4OF and 2 DH and 8 pitchers (5/2/1)

I don't mind 8 pitchers, so long as there is a minimum innings requirement. You need to be "realistic" so that each team has to have 4-5 actual ML starters, and not a team filled with middle men and closers. You can win ERA, WHIP, and saves with just middle men and closers, but if there is a sufficient innings requirement, that is not a problem With an 8-man staff, figure a 125 innings per man requirement -- so 1000 innings pitched

Six man bench, plus the ability to place two starters on the DL and pick up additional free agents to fill in seems fine to me. WHen the guy on the DL comes off the list, you have to cut somebody. I assume we'll have unlimited right during the season to cut players and pick up free agents, right? The DL rule is just so you can pick up a player to replace an injured player without having to cut the injured player.

I don't have the time to make daily transactions for a free "fun" league like this. Too many pitchers and match-ups etc. Weekly transactions make for a much more liesurly pace and friendly league. My two cents

Where are we on the rules for this league? Have we fixed the # of active players? Stat categories? DD