The 2014 season marks the third year that I’ve played in the BP Kings — named for a previous affiliation with Baseball Prospectus — Scoresheet league. I’ve learned a considerable amount along the way, and hope that this year will be the first that I can hold my own in a league chock full of experts. Last year didn’t go very well, as I finished below .500 in my first full season alone at the helm of a club.

The league roster carries some veritable hard-hitters in the fantasy community. The list includes Jeff Erickson, Al Melchior, Bret Sayre, Nando DiFino, Matthew Pouliot, D.J. Short, Beardley Woodbeard (Woodrum), Todd Zola, Pete McCarthy, Ben Murphy, Brady Gardiner, Brent S. Gambill, David Laurila, David Wiers, Rob McQuown, Casey Stern, Nate Stephens, and yours truly*.

*not a hard hitter

For those unfamiliar with Scoresheet, you’re permitted to keep up to 10 players in a league that more or less mirrors actual, real-life roster construction. Players that are designated as big leaguers cost you picks up front (one per round), while players with the minors designation — as I recall, rookie eligible — cost you back end picks in a 35 round draft. Supplementals take place throughout the season, allowing teams to add bullpen arms, utility players, and the occasional sleeper, as well as newly minted draft picks as the summer rolls on. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s that great time of year again: Scoresheet draft review! And while I won’t make my last pick until Sunday at 15:51:46 — love that military time — that means I only have three more roster spots to fill after this is published.

After reading, you’ll know where I’ll be attacking to fill those last three spots.

So for those unaware, Scoresheet is in essence a baseball simulation fantasy league. It’s based on real-life stats. For instance, last season I thought Carl Pavano might be a good back-end rotation guy. Well, he missed almost the entire season, and my Triple-A replacement — whom shall remain nameless because the game dictates so — went something like 7-35. So while my team went 76-86 if I’m recalling correctly, I’d have done a lot better than Pavano and Felipe Paulino taking up 40% of my rotation. Read the rest of this entry »

As some readers may know, I’m involved in a Scoresheet league heavy on current and former Baseball Prospectus types. The draft starts relatively quickly — within the next few days, I think — and I’m starting to think about my keepers for 2013.

If you’re unfamiliar, here’s how it works with keepers:

Any ‘big league’ player kept costs you a pick at the front of the draft. Any ‘minor league’ player costs you a pick on the back end.

Anyway, here’s my roster, with notes after each player: Read the rest of this entry »

It’s time for me to wave the white flag on this year in Scoresheet. At 27-42, I’m only nine games out of first in my division, but I’m in last. As in dead last in King Kaufman’s AL-Skeeter 12-team AL-only Scoresheet league in the inaugral year. A couple of injuries lasted longer than I thought they would, and I’m not sure I understood how much depth is needed going into the season. In any case, I’m willing to jettison non-keepers to improve my position for next year. Inauspicious beginnings, but there are some things to like about this team still.

Perhaps you can help me identify the best non-keepers. It’s my firm belief that a fire sale should come with a white flag waive — I did that by trading Derek Lowe for a 21st-rounder next year — and then a quick strike with the best tradeable chips leaving first. We keep 13 veterans and as many prospects and/or rookies as we like (rookie is defined as anyone under the rookie eligibility 130/50 PA/IP cap).

So who should I be pushing next? Where are my biggest decisions? I’ve put asterisks next to the veteran keepers I’m looking at — I need three of the guys with (*) next to their name. I shopped Napoli some, but the offers were not exciting, so I’m more likely to work around the edges.

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Sorry we haven’t been keeping up on the Scoresheet coverage. Here’s the problem: so far, my team is terrible. I don’t feel I can advise anyone on this format yet. In fact, I need your help! So, I’ll post my team here and ask you what I should do. Because the latest results just came in, and after being shut out twice this week, I’m now worst in the league at 13-31. I should sell, but I can’t sell low. I don’t even know what to sell for, other than a third baseman, and maybe some offense.

I hang my head in shame.

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Thursdays in this time slot, we’ll have some of FanGraphs’ finest talk about ScoreSheet baseball, which some consider the “realest” fantasy baseball out there. There’s defense, lineups, simulations… it’s complicated like real baseball.

This faithful correspondent is a rookie at the format. So I may be asking you, from time to time, what y’all think about this or that. This week, I’m setting my first lineups. And I’m looking at this hook thing.

First, the results of my draft, in AL-Skeeter, the 12-team AL-only keeper led by the ineffable King Kaufman. Let’s represent them in the general lineup order, without going through and breaking them out by handedness like you do in the real game. Lefties have the asterisk.

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When we last left off, I was excited about my pitching, and mildly horrified with my offense. A month into the season, things haven’t changed much. Overall, my team has been a pleasant surprise — I ended last week tied for first in my division — but my margins have been thin, to say the least.
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Well, that took forever. There are pros and cons to there being 90 minutes between each pick in a fantasy draft. The pros include not having to devote one extended block of time to draft, and having more time to work out trades during it. The con is that it takes freakin’ forever. But my Scoresheet Kings draft is finally, and mercifully in the books, and I’m here to report back on my team – which I have tentatively titled “Chamber of Bomb-erce.”
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