For years I've run my Random Pages theme, with each owner having to build a roster from pages randomly generated on www.baseball-reference.com. It's a challenge because it gets people outside their comfort zones, having to use players they've never considered before instead of old reliables, and having to resort to entirely different roster strategies because of the talent pool they're assigned.
When you enter, I will generate SIX random pages for you, which will form the talent pool for your roster. You will then choose four players from each "page" for their squad, plus a wild card 25th man of your own choosing, from the entire universe of eligible players. [If you get a terrible pitching draw, you can make up for it with Charley Radbourn or Silver King.]
The most common result of the random page generator nowadays are the box scores that go back to 1913, which come up around 70% of the time. When you get a box score, you'll be obliged to take any four players who played in that game - no twisting. You only get to twist players if the page you've drawn at random shows their career statistics.
The rest of the time, you could get any sort of result: players from an all-star game, pitching leaders from a season or a franchise, leaders in any statistical category, players from a certain college, etc. Most of these are pretty self-explanatory: you take four players listed on the page. If you get a player page, you have to roster that player, and any three of his teammates from the season you choose for him. [no twisting for the teammates] If you draw a really odd page, I'll make the ground rules for you as it comes up.
Confused? Here's a sample draw:
1. P Francisley Bueno 2008-14
2. P Tommy Atkins 1909-10
3. 1933 MLB Died This Year - you’d pick any four players there, in any season of their career
4. Tigers @ White Sox, May 7, 1919 [but you can only take four of the Eight Men Out!]
5. P Jake Esch 2016-17
6. Cardinals @ Braves, July 8, 1982
Pitching is the biggest wild card in the draw: in the case above, you'd be limited to the pitchers used in the two games listed, all of the pitchers who died in 1933 [but you could use those guys in any season of their career, which is a huge help] - plus Bueno, Atkins, Esch, and their teammates. Actually, Atkins pitched for the 1910 Athletics, so this team could have a lights-out pitching staff if you want to go that route.
One aspect of the league is that sometimes your page will include players who didn't have a season eligible for the SIM: for example, Jake Esch never pitched more than 13 innings in a season. So I will have to assign you a guy to represent him for the season, from the pool of below-average AAA players [but not way-below average, so they all should have SOME value to you]. I love that the league includes guys like this, but I have struggled to find the right balance for using them. This year, we will limit every owner to three non-sim players, either from your box scores, or the players you are assigned, or their teammates. In the sample draw, you’d have to use Jake Esch, but you could also choose to take Bueno in his 2008 season, so that you could use his teammates from the 2008 Braves, instead of the 2014 Royals which is his only sim-rated season.
One other problem with the random draw is that some owners will get a way better talent pool than others. I have previously kept the salary cap pretty low to try and level the playing field, and owners have cried about the excruciating choices they must make trying to fit four guys from the 1927 Yankees into a $72m cap.
This year, we’ll try something different: you get to decide your own payroll, anywhere between $60 million and $90 million, based on the talent you draw. HOWEVER, league alignment will be strictly by team salary, so if you go for the expensive star players, you will have to compete with the other owners who have done the same in the NL East. That will give teams with the lowest payroll a chance to win the AL West and qualify for the playoffs, and who knows what might happen from there? It might look more like today’s MLB than most leagues we see around here.
Other rules:
No waiver wire or trading.
Injuries off.
No DH.
No whining about your draw!
Your home stadium must be the home park for one of your 25 players - including your wild card.
Any more questions? Feel free to ask here. Building a team this way is a lot of fun, in a hair-pulling sort of way sometimes, but it's a good baseball puzzle for the holiday season. Merry Christmas to all, and sign up right here! Oh, and whoever is the first to sign up can also generate six random pages for my team. Be kind to me!
Owners: trd3; cal8ss; dlchow; jkorn; fatguyrd; flakfizer; midknight; eman7400; thehuseman; vilefileman; big_dowg; finn2030; toddcommish; Rattlers; Belsea; harrelson; GeorgeHRuth; normy17; dhomard; 3dayrotation; redcped; kevinjb; reddtrain
12/24/2019 11:57 AM (edited)