Sons of Theo Fantasy Baseball

1. Miguel Cabrera

2. Adrian Gonzalez

3. Mark Teixeira

4. Justin Morneau

5. Billy Butler

6. Kendry Morales

7. Paul Konerko

7. Daric Barton

8. Justin Smoak

9. Derek Lee

Players having the most value going into the 2011 season.

1.  Carlos Santana

2. Matt Wieters

3. Victor Martinez

4. Mike Napoli

5. Kurt Suzuki

6. JP Arencibia

7. Jarrod Saltamatchia

8. John Jaso

9.  Alex Avila

Jesus Montero would top this list if he’s getting 450 ab’s this year.  Wieters and Santana only two guys on the list that have more SOT value right now.  Assuming Montero moves from C down the line.

Evil Empire Trades:  Kevin Gregg ($4.5)

Tillman USA Trades:  Brandon Erbe

DMB Trades: L. Chisenhall/K. Suzuki

Soxin7 Trades: A. Hicks/M. Perez

Good Luck To All!

The new rule currently awards compensation for the previous season’s WAR values. There are a few possible problems that might arise; career years, off year and injuries. Do we want to award owners comp for a career year? Should we dismiss a players body of work due to injury or an off year statistically? Last Sunday there was a lot of talk about awarding only the best players compensation, if we only use the previous season’s WAR figure we may fail to achieve our goal of awarding the best players.

Here are the minutes from Pat.  Post any inaccuracies and/ or corrections that need to be made in the comments.

MLB and MiLB Players lost to NL

• WAR (Offense) has replaced VORP

o        Compensation rewarded at end of 2^nd rd

§         Higher the WAR, higher the pick if multiple guys qualify

§         Milb, the higher the rank the better the pick

o        Top 3 at each IF position and DH

o        Top 10 OF

o        Top 20 SP

o        Top 5 RP

• Milb, we will use top 100 from the following:

o        Keith Law

o        Sickles

o        BA

o        BP

• Name just has to appear on one of these lists
• Top 100 is mix of AL and NL
• Footnote: Once the new season begins, we will use the upcoming year’s list.  For instance, Rizzo and Fuentes would be applied to 2011 lists but they are grandfathered into the voting comp rule of 2010.

Innings pitched

• Minimum IP has been increased to a total of 1200 IP.

o        Increase due to a low starting point to begin with and the addition of the 10^th P.

September Injuries (Josh Hamilton 2010)

• In years past, a player needed to be deemed “shut down for the season” in order to be reserved without a MLB triggering event (DL,minors) in September.
• Last season (example), Josh Hamilton was sat down due to a cracked rib, Texas was adamant he would play the final weekend of the season to shake off rust which he did.  He missed approx 4 weeks due to rib injury but was never officially shut down.
• Rule Change:  If a player is injured in September and it is confirmed he will miss game action, he can be reserved by that teams GM.

o        Once reserved, player is shut down for the season.

o        Rest, family issues and poor production do not apply.

• Good: “Josh Hamilton has bruised ribs and is expected to miss the weekend series at Seattle” – Can be reserved.
• Not Good: “Vin Mazzaro has been struggling finding the strike zone; pitching coach Dave Duncan confirmed the team will skip his next start”.  Cannot be reserved.
• Spirit of the rule change is to allow team’s roster flexibility to compete in September.

SPICE Draft

• In 2010, SOT implemented a rule change to allow replacements for guys put on the DL week one have their stats count retro to opening day.  Unknown at the time is that this created the need to two transaction periods due to salary implications and priority impact.
• In 2011, most teams begin their season on Friday.  This reduces the need to have stats retro when we weigh that impact vs. the ability to have the spice draft same day as the draft.
• Rule Change: In a unanimous decision, league voted to return to the original spice draft set up where DL guys and pre-arb guys are reserved.

o        Draft order will mirror SOT draft order

o        Week 2 priority will be set based off the amount of moves made in the spice draft.

Hold vs. Saves

• The 2010 WM rule to combine holds and saves as one master category worth 16pts was overturned.
• New rule, saves will remain at 1pt and holds will be worth .75 pts

o        Holds:

§         1^st 6

§         2^nd 5.25

§         3^rd 4.5

§         4^th 3.75

§         5^th 3

§         6^th 2.25

§         7^th 1.50

§         8^th .75

Salary

• Players who we cannot find a salary for (J Benoit) will have a salary of 500k.
• COTTS will be used to look at minor league guys who have major league salary (Viceado)
• COTTS will be used to best ability pre-draft if AP is not out yet.

o        Best practices will be used.

Items not approved

1.       Category rule changes proposed by WTNY and TRC

a.       Increase and decrease values and OBP

2.       NET SB

a.       All NET items were not approved

3.       Ability to trade cap space

CBS can accommodate for net holds

CBS can accommodate for Net Saves

Bring back Net SB’s

This is a combined proposal from WTNY and TRC:

When we talk about the league becoming too confusing, and too many rules, we’re almost always talking about transaction related rules.  I think most of us agree that we’ve put many rules in place over the years, and without studying the constitution, it’s easy to forget them.  But we’ve also tinkered with the scoring, adding and subtracting categories as we go, trying to find the perfect mix of real world value and fantasy.  I think tinkering is a good thing, and that’s why the alliance of WTNYTRC or TRCWTNY is proposing this rule.

OFFENSE (6.5 pts total):

HR, OBP, SLG, TBB+IBB+HBP, SB – all worth 1.0 pts

AVG, R, RBI – all worth 0.5 pts

PITCHING (6.5 pts total):

SV/HD Category – 1.5 pts

W, QS, ERA, WHIP, K – all worth 1.o pts

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A couple of reasons how we got here.

1) No one needs to reconstruct a roster, all this does is put less value on the categories that deserve them – Avg, R, RBI.

2) This is a nice compromise on the SV/HD stat.  Some believe 2pts is too great a reward, yet 1pt could have teams punting relievers as a group.

3) Cue the “this isn’t a SABR League, this is a fantasy league” argument.  We didn’t add FIP, WAR, and BAPIP, all we did was give more value to the categories that deserved them, based on what MLB GM’s value.  So for the fantasy evangelists, you still have your R, RBI, AVG, and W, nothing was removed.

4) This won’t change the face of the SOT, just adjust it to more accurately reflect the overall reason we put a league in place that requires Winter Meetings, 24/7/365 coverage, 20 person farm, salary cap, etc.