It's been a year or two since I hosted one of my random leagues. The time is right to do it again.
For those new to the process, each owner is assigned 12 pages from the "random page" feature of
www.baseball-reference.com . For each page you're assigned, you are required to choose two players for your roster. The 25th man is a wild card -- it can be anyone you want in order to fill your salary cap, though we will limit it to non-Hall of Famers, so that not everyone rosters Babe Ruth. Other details:
League # MLB106283
Salary cap = $90 million
Trades OK up to Game 120
6/2 average AAA - only used if you draw a player with no sim-eligible seasons
no WW, injuries on [why not? it's random]
no DH
stadium must have been home field for one of your 25 players, but you can always use the wild card player to get a stadium you really want
The pages vary. The majority will be either player pages [in which case, you choose one season of that player and any of his teammates from the season you choose [no twisting]], or team pages [in which case you must choose two players from that team-season ... sometimes limited to pitchers or hitters if your page is "1929 New York Yankees Pitching"]. Sometimes you'll draw a box score of a game, in which case you can take any two players who appeared in that game, in that season only. But occasionally you'll draw something really weird and fun, such as "31 players died in Nevada", which actually includes two Hall of Famers.
As an example, here's my final roster and how it was arrived at:
1. 1B-OF Carlos Ponce 1985
C Bill Schroeder, 1985 Brewers
2. 1907 MLB pitchers
P Christy Mathewson 1907
P Jack Pfiester 1907
3. * P Dee Sanders 1945
P Nels Potter, 1945 Browns
P Paul Abbott 2002 - 200k replacement to be sent down for AAA
4. 1995 Houston Astros
2B Craig Biggio 1995
OF Mike Simms 1995
5. 2006 Boston Red Sox
DH-1B David Ortiz 2006
DH-C Javy Lopez 2006
6. 1897 MLB pitching
P Doc Amole 1897
P Henry Clarke 1897
7. * OF Dean Look 1961
C Sherm Lollar 1961 White Sox
OF Bob Cerv 1961 - 200k replacement to be sent down for AAA
8. 1954 Washington Senators
3B Eddie Yost 1954
OF Roy Sievers 1954
9. P Jesse Litsch 2007-11 (2011 season)
P Casey Janssen 2011
10. OF Eric Davis 1984-2011 (1987 season)
OF Kal Daniels 1987
11. P Al Gettel 1945-55 (1947 season)
SS Lou Boudreau 1947
12. 1981 American League Player Value
P Rich Gossage 1981
P Dave Stewart 1981
13. Wild Card
UT Harry Rice 1924
* Notice that two of the players I was assigned had no sim-eligible seasons. In that case, I must use one of their real-life teammates, and then roster a $200k player who I will replace before opening day with the corresponding player from my AAA draw -- in this case I can choose either pitcher to represent Dee Sanders, and the OF to represent Dean Look. AAA players should be renamed to the random player before the start of the season.
I don't have much sympathy for guys who whine about their bad draw. With teammates as half your roster, plus the wild card, nearly everyone has a chance to come up with a competitive club. Please don't sign up and then bail on us because you didn't like your draw; but we'll sign up two or three players after we've filled the league, because it always happens.
Owner list: sevenfifty5; daddyzander; dlchow; dodgebob; bggie1982; pmars2001; 2chair; kentol; razorclams; zephyr1949; mulder; shysters3; bigfatjew; pinotfan; Rattlers; specsman; eastonest; reddtrain; dippedncrack; houseofbayne; simisox; Big_T; buckyblues
8/3/2013 10:46 AM (edited)