Figuring Out My Fantasy Baseball League

With the Super Bowl over and not a whole lot going on in the lives of me or some of my nearest and dearest it was brought to my attention that it was time to start discussing this year's fantasy baseball season.

To me normal fantasy baseball is dumb. If you have a league of 12-14 players and you are choosing from everyone in baseball, then all the teams will be way too good. There is just no skill there.

To do an AL only or NL only league is an improvement. But to me that is just too simple.

Over the last two years me and some of my inner circle have experimented with a couple of leagues. In '05 we had an AL only No Yankees league.

Last year, we decided to spicen it up a little bit and do a Bottom-Half Payroll league.

Both leagues were huge hits. Fantasy baseball to me is an amazing way to learn about the game I know and love. By playing in these weird leagues filled with crappier players, I am able to learn about and follow players from all the teams in the league that most people are not following.

I like to think my buddy Zimmy knows more about the Tampa Bay Devil Rays than any dude in America not from Tampa or with the last name Gammons.

That Ryan Garko's sizzling last week of the season put me into the money of Fantasy last season is something that I can joke with my friends about for a long time.

The debates have already heated up for this fantasy season. What can we do to make another good league?

For me there are really three main criteria.

1. The league is not diluted with talent

As I said before, for me to have Joe Mauer, Albert Pujols, Jose Reyes and Alfonso Soriano playing against David Ortiz, Grady Sizemore and Carlos Beltran, that just ain't that fun.

I want shitty players on shitty teams.

2. I want to be educated.

I want to know everything there is about baseball. I want September 1st callups to affect my league. I want the Kansas City Royals to have a major impact on my league (Thank You Emil Brown).

3. Byrnesy.

I'd like to make sure that Eric Byrnes is eligible for my league. I just really love the guy after last year's coffee on the pancakes incident and I'd like to have him on my fantasy team.

4. I'd like to avoid having Mets and Yankees in my league.

For me having Mets on my team isn't that fun. I don't want to have to go to the park and root for one of my boys over another.

And I refuse to root for a Yankee, so scratch them out too.

5. I'd like my league to have character.

I get a kick out of the schtick that comes with our league. I want a good tag line.

Those are the factors that at least for me determine where I want this league to go.

Right now we have a number of options.

1. No White Players
2. Only White Players
3. Arbitration Eligible Only Players
4. Players from teams 4th place and lower

None of them is perfect.

Option 1 -- No White Players -- immediately eliminates Byrnesy. That ain't cool.

Option 2 -- Only White Players -- That just don't sound right to me. My league isn't exactly the most diverse group and I can't imagine this would be sending the right message.

Option 3 -- Arbitration Eligible Only -- This one could just cause a ton of debate. Do players like Jose Reyes and D Wright count in this league because they should be eligible for arbitration, but signed long term deals?

Option 4 -- Bottom 12 teams in the game -- This really takes care of a lot. Byrnesy's D-Backs came in 4th in the West last year. My buddy Big Maciej could reload on Brewers as he did last year, creatively naming his team Zarko Cabrewerkapa, in honor of the great Warriors power forward with the massive dome.

My concern with option 4 is that it is a little too similar to last year's league.

So what do we do?

We have about 6 weeks to resolve all of this, and while no system is perfect, any of them would be fun.

For me I like to have as many Indians on board as possible. They are my #2 squad and any incentive to watch them play is more reason for me.

We could use your suggestions. Ship them our way.

Vaya con dios,

Sip

(Pics courtesy of Scout.com, curve.net, voanews.com)