Redszone Dynasty League 2013 -- Season 5

[AtomicDumpling]

Welcome to the fifth season of the Redszone Dynasty League!

Time to get the ball rolling for another action-packed year of fantasy baseball excitement.

Yahoo fantasy baseball is likely going to open on Tuesday February 5th. I will fire up the league on that date. Each of you should receive an email from Yahoo asking you to register and claim your team, so be sure to check the email account you used to sign up last year.

Once everyone gets registered for the league I will be able to add all our players to our rosters. I will need to know which 30 players you want to keep. You might have had more than 30 players at the end of the season if you had players on the Disabled List. I will be sending you PMs here on Redszone soon. In the PM will be your full roster, so just tell me which guys you want to cut to get down to 30 players. I will need your reply ASAP.

Congratulations to redsfandan for winning the championship last year. He succesfully defended his title from 2011. Can he make it three in a row this year?

I am planning a series of posts in this thread to share a lot of cool information about the history of our league, so check back often and share your thoughts and observations. If we can get lots of discussion going in this thread throughout the season it will make the league even more fun.

To make sure you don't miss anything, please subscribe to this thread by clicking on "Thread Tools" at the top of this post, then click on "Subscribe to this Thread", then select "Instant Notification by Email" from the dropdown box.

Good luck with your teams this year!

[AtomicDumpling]

Since we now have 4 seasons in the books I think this is a good time to create a Record Book. Here are the single-season records for each category:

Category	Total	Team		Season
Runs		1024	mbgrayson	2009
Home Runs	281	redsfandan	2011
RBIs		1007	Atomic Dumpling	2011
Stolen Bases	205	redsfandan	2011
Batting Average	0.289	redsfandan	2009
		0.289	Atomic Dumpling	2009
Wins		99	mbgrayson	2012
Saves		157	Atomic Dumpling	2011
Strikeouts	1343	Atomic Dumpling	2012
ERA		2.94	mbgrayson	2011
WHIP		1.11	mbgrayson	2011
Total Points	112.5	Atomic Dumpling	2010

Surprisingly, it looks like only 3 different teams hold a record. I am sure that will change soon. Now you know the targets, get your team in the Record Book this year!

[camisadelgolf]

I'll probably shatter all those records this year.

[AtomicDumpling]

Originally Posted by camisadelgolf

I'll probably shatter all those records this year.

It would be polite to leave me one if you could. Please.

[camisadelgolf]

Originally Posted by AtomicDumpling

It would be polite to leave me one if you could. Please.

How does highest ERA sound?

[AtomicDumpling]

Originally Posted by camisadelgolf

How does highest ERA sound?

That is a mighty kind offer. Thank you very much!

The League Record for highest ERA in a season is 4.40 and I will be kind and not say who holds that dubious distinction unless you guys insist. Should I post a list of the worst records for each stat or is that rubbing folks' noses in the poo?

[AtomicDumpling]

I will be posting the all-time standings tonight. There are a couple of different ways to do this, so I will do both. One is the total points earned by each team over the league's history.

The other way is to add up all the stats in each category over the four seasons, then assign points based by rank. For example, I will add up the total number of Runs scored by each team from 2009-2012 and give 12 points to the highest total down to 1 point for the lowest total. Then do that for each stat category and then come up with a grand total.

I have already done it both ways. There were a surprising number of differences in the results from the two methods... more on this later tonight.

[camisadelgolf]

Originally Posted by AtomicDumpling

That is a mighty kind offer. Thank you very much!

The League Record for highest ERA in a season is 4.40 and I will be kind and not say who holds that dubious distinction unless you guys insist. Should I post a list of the worst records for each stat or is that rubbing folks' noses in the poo?

As long as it's good-natured ribbing, I see no problem with it. My team hasn't exactly been the cream of the crop, so I'd expect to see my name a couple times.

[AtomicDumpling]

Here are the final point standings for each year of our league. I added up the total points to find the All-Time Standings:

All-Time Standings (Points Method)

Team		2009	2010	2011	2012	Total	AVG	All-Time Rank
Atomic Dumpling	108.0	112.5	88.0	96.0	404.5	101	1
mbgrayson	93.5	98.0	88.5	85.0	365.0	91	2
redsfandan	36.5	61.5	107.0	108.0	313.0	78	3
TRF's debacle	69.5	64.0	55.0	79.0	267.5	67	4
Gilpdawg	62.0	76.0	70.0	58.0	266.0	67	5
RedsManRick	62.5	48.5	80.0	64.5	255.5	64	6
camisadelgolf	22.5	75.0	53.0	67.0	217.5	54	7
nate		75.5	65.0	28.0	45.0	213.5	53	8
BaseCloggers	66.0	38.0	42.5	66.0	212.5	53	9
stephenk29	72.0	51.5	51.0	36.5	211.0	53	10
CRF2000		57.5	46.5	57.0	47.0	208.0	52	11
GAllen5862	54.5	43.5	60.0	28.0	186.0	47	12

Ownership changes:

• RedsManRick took over his team before the 2011 season. The team was owned by Reds77 for the 2009-10 seasons.
• GAllen5862 also took over his team before the 2011 season. The team was owned by WMR for the 2009-10 seasons.
• It is an added challenge to take over someone else's team, especially one that wasn't good. It can take a long time to remodel the team, shift strategies and build it up the way you like it.

Observations on the Rankings:
Atomic Dumpling won the first two championships and redsfandan won the next two championships. Mbgrayson hasn't won a championship but still holds the runner-up slot in the All-Time Standings because he finished second for the first three seasons and came in third last year. Redsfandan absolutely dominated the league the last two years but comes in third here because he did not fare well in 2009 and 2010. During the draft he employed a strategy of taking lots of young prospects, then waited for them to mature and supplemented them with some astute trades to bullrush his way to the top of the league.


Top 3 Turnaround Seasons:

• The record for the biggest point increase from one season to the next is the 52.5 point jump that camisadelgolf made from 2009-2010 when he went from last place to 4th place. Impressive.
• The second-best turnaround is the 45.5 point jump that redsfandan's team made between 2010 and 2011 when he went from 7th place to 1st place and won his first league title.
• RedsManRick made a 31.5 point jump in 2011.

This goes to show that it is possible to drastically improve your team very quickly. Redsfandan finished second-to-last in 2009 yet two years later he won the championship.

Soon I will post the All Time Standings in a different manner. The results will be different.

[AtomicDumpling]

All-Time Standings (5x5 Category Totals Method)

Team		Rank	Points	Runs	Runs	HRs	HRs	RBI	RBI	SBs	SBs	AVG	AVG	Wins	Wins	Saves	Saves	Strikeouts	ERA	ERA	WHIP	WHIP
			Total	Total	Points	Total	Points	Total	Points	Total	Points	AVG	Points	Total	Points	Total	Points	Total	Points	AVG	Points	AVG	Points
Atomic Dumpling	1	109.0	3936	12	990	12	3946	12	624	11	0.2795	12	344	12	581	12	5064	12	3.70	7	1.245	7
mbgrayson	2	104.5	3836	11	961	11	3663	11	531	7	0.27575	9.5	336	10	528	11	4565	10	3.41	12	1.2	12
redsfandan	3	92.0	3540	9	948	10	3390	7	638	12	0.27275	6	328	7	407	10	4922	11	3.51	10	1.225	10
Gilpdawg	4	71.0	3517	8	939	9	3551	10	484	5	0.27	3	338	11	384	8	4428	6	3.73	6	1.2825	5
TRF's debacle	5	68.0	3339	2	853	5	3286	5	483	4	0.27375	8	335	9	397	9	4476	8	3.52	9	1.2275	9
RedsManRick	6	65.0	3650	10	927	8	3461	8	607	10	0.27075	4	332	8	232	2	4461	7	3.78	5	1.2975	3
CRF2000		7	50.5	3336	1	909	7	3388	6	391	1	0.27575	9.5	293	2	73	1	3815	1	3.45	11	1.21	11
stephenk29	7	50.0	3415	6	795	2	3269	4	554	9	0.276	11	316	6	273	5	4244	3	3.92	3	1.32	1
BaseCloggers	9	47.0	3353	3	828	4	3092	1	419	2	0.27325	7	288	1	271	4	4555	9	3.66	8	1.2425	8
camisadelgolf	10	44.0	3388	5	809	3	3197	2	518	6	0.264	1	312	5	383	7	4424	5	3.85	4	1.27	6
nate		11	42.0	3453	7	790	1	3203	3	537	8	0.271	5	311	4	357	6	4190	2	3.92	2	1.295	4
GAllen5862	12	37.0	3356	4	901	6	3516	9	447	3	0.265	2	303	3	256	3	4289	4	4.17	1	1.3075	2

This is what the All-Time Standings would look like if all four seasons of our league were combined into one long season. So instead of totaling up 162 games of stats to see who has the most fantasy points, I took all 648 (162x4) games worth and added them up to see how the standings would shake out.

You can see some differences between this ranking and the total points method in the previous post. The top three teams are the same, but there the similarities end.

• Gilpdawg and TRF swapped the 4th and 5th places.
• CRF2000 goes from 11th to 7th.
• Stephenk29 goes from 10 to 8th.
• camisadelfgolf and nate both fall three slots.
• At the top, Atomic Dumpling still claims first place, but his lead over mbgrayson and redsfandan is much smaller.
• In the points method the total points ranged from 46.5-101.0 but in the 5x5 Category method the points ranged from 37-109. So the points race is tighter top to bottom, but not as tight near the top.
• mbgrayson could conceivably sit atop this list next year and lead the All-Time Standings despite not winning any championships yet.
• Several of these categories are still very close after four years of battle. For example, Atomic Dumpling holds a very slim lead with 6 Wins and mbgrayson's WHIP is only 0.01 better than CRF2000's. These point totals could change a lot each year.

You can also see who the all-time leaders in each category are. (Should I brag that my team is leading 7 of the 10 categories? No? OK I won't. Knock me down next year if you think I shouldn't brag. Just kidding. I am not a braggart -- even though I could be. Sorry, couldn't resist. Do you hate me now? I probably just jinxed my team. Karma is a female dog.)

One thing I think is neat about these All-Time Standings is they can give teams who may be out of the running for a championship late in the year an additional motivational factor. Maybe a team can't win a league title this year but they can still gain ground in the All-Time Standings. From now on we not only fight for yearly championships, but we also fight to be the All-Time Champ. These standings may not mean that much now after only four seasons, but a few more years down the road it would be pretty cool to be the All-Time Leader after a decade-long run.

[camisadelgolf]

Thank you for the analysis, AD. This is awesome.

My first draft was horrific. I tried going young, but I had a lot of busts combined with ridiculously bad luck on the injury front. After that, I took action and accepted that I needed to get some veterans to compete. However, I got in a position where it looked like I couldn't compete long term, so I went back to the drawing board. 2011 saw me rebuild, which I kept doing in 2012 with decent results. Now I feel okay about 2013 and even better about the future.

[AtomicDumpling]

Originally Posted by camisadelgolf

Thank you for the analysis, AD. This is awesome.

My first draft was horrific. I tried going young, but I had a lot of busts combined with ridiculously bad luck on the injury front. After that, I took action and accepted that I needed to get some veterans to compete. However, I got in a position where it looked like I couldn't compete long term, so I went back to the drawing board. 2011 saw me rebuild, which I kept doing in 2012 with decent results. Now I feel okay about 2013 and even better about the future.

I just took a look at your team and liked what I saw. You had enough veterans to compete well this past season and came in 5th. You also have a very nice group of top prospects on the verge of breaking into the majors and boosting your team to the top of the standings. I think you could be a threat to win the championship this year if things break just right, and a definite threat next year and perpetually after that.

How many of those prospects did I trade to you? At least a few I can remember.

[camisadelgolf]

Originally Posted by AtomicDumpling

I just took a look at your team and liked what I saw. You had enough veterans to compete well this past season and came in 5th. You also have a very nice group of top prospects on the verge of breaking into the majors and boosting your team to the top of the standings. I think you could be a threat to win the championship this year if things break just right, and a definite threat next year and perpetually after that.

How many of those prospects did I trade to you? At least a few I can remember.

Only the good ones.

[*BaseClogger*]

I'm just consistently mediocre! I'll take it!

[*BaseClogger*]

I've found rebuilding to be pretty difficult in this league. There are only a few teams buying each year because of the dominance by AD and Dan and a lot of sellers--it's been a perpetual buyer's market...