League of Reds Nation - The Ultimate Dynasty - Year 4

[AtomicDumpling]

Time to crank this league back into action for another fun season of fantasy baseball. We had a great year last year. The race was tight almost right up to the end. It was a four team race well into September, but then Plus Plus pulled away and won the championship in his rookie season in the league. Congrats Plus Plus!

The rest of us need to boost up our teams and make sure we give Plus Plus a stronger challenge this year. We can't let the new guy win twice in a row can we?

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.

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]

I went back in the league history and entered all the stats from prior seasons into a spreadsheet. I thought it might be interesting to play with some of the numbers and see what I could come up with. I will post some stuff over the next few days. Feel free to add anything you can find.

Here are the single-season league records for each category:

Category	Record	Team		Season
Runs		1026	Atomic Dumpling	2011
Home Runs	282	Atomic Dumpling	2010
RBIs		1058	Atomic Dumpling	2012
Stolen Bases	232	HumnHilghtFreel	2010
Batting Average	0.285	Captain Hook	2012
Wins		96	Vada Pinson Fan	2010
Saves		177	Atomic Dumpling	2010
Strikeouts	1313	Crosley68	2012
ERA		3.08	Iowa Red	2011
WHIP		1.12	Bumstead	2011
Total Points	99.5	Iowa Red	2011

How many of these records will fall this year? Which ones are going to be hard to beat?

I think that stolen base record is very high. It is much higher than the record in the other league (the Redszone Dynasty League, which uses the same rules as this league. The second best stolen base total in this league's history is 174. The fewest bases stolen by a team was 75.

For those of you reading this thread who are not in this league, our league is a 5x5 roto dynasty league. Feel free to comment!

[reds1869]

Looking forward to another fun year. Hopefully I can move above the middle of the pack this season, but that would require not losing all my players to injury.

[AtomicDumpling]

Originally Posted by reds1869

Looking forward to another fun year. Hopefully I can move above the middle of the pack this season, but that would require not losing all my players to injury.

Yeah it is pretty hard to compete if you get nailed by injuries. It seemed like more star players got hurt last year than in most years.

[Joseph]

I love the dynasty concept so much more than a yearly draft league [even though I'm equally bad at both]. I'm very eager to get things started and make some trades to improve my team this season.

[AtomicDumpling]

Originally Posted by Joseph

I love the dynasty concept so much more than a yearly draft league [even though I'm equally bad at both]. I'm very eager to get things started and make some trades to improve my team this season.

I agree. The dynasty format adds whole new levels of strategy and depth.

[AtomicDumpling]

All-Time Standings (Points Method)

Team		2010	2011	2012	Total	AVG	Rank
Atomic Dumpling	93.5	92.0	86.0	271.5	90.5	1
Plus Plus	67.5	99.5	96.0	263.0	87.7	2
HayPay		64.5	74.5	91.0	230.0	76.7	3
Bumstead	81.5	75.5	56.0	213.0	71.0	4
Captain Hook	57.5	87.5	63.0	208.0	69.3	5
reds1869	73.0	68.0	66.5	207.5	69.2	6
Crosley68	85.5	55.5	56.0	197.0	65.7	7
Tornon		66.5	66.0	57.0	189.5	63.2	8
mbgrayson	40.5	53.0	90.0	183.5	61.2	9
Vada Pinson Fan	79.0	27.0	68.5	174.5	58.2	10
thatcoolguy_22	42.5	44.0	24.0	110.5	36.8	11
Joseph		28.5	37.5	26.0	92.0	30.7	12

Ownership changes:

• Plus Plus took over IowaRed's team for the 2012 season and won the championship in his first year.
• Crosley68 took over Brutus the Pimp's team for the 2012 season.
• mbgrayson took over a team originally owned by HumnHilghtFreel, who ran the team in 2010. The team was adopted by Redsfan320 for the 2011 season, but he abandoned the team in the middle of the season. Mbgrayson took charge in mid-2011 and the team has been kicking butt ever since.

Observations on the Rankings:

• Atomic Dumpling is still holding a slim lead in the All-Time Standings despite finishing 2nd and 4th the last two years.
• Plus Plus's team has won the last two championships and is making a strong threat to take over the top slot in these rankings next year.
• HayPay has improved his team each year and finished in 2nd place in 2012. His team is on the upswing.
• Mbgrayson took over a bad team but has turned it into a contender already.

Biggest Turnaround Seasons:

• Vada Pinson Fan gained 41.5 points between 2011 and 2012. He finished last in 2011 but got up to 5th in 2012 for a sensational turnaround.
• mbgrayson went from 53 to 90 points, a 37 point increase, between 2011 and 2012 after taking over the team in the middle of the 2011 season.
• IowaRed (Plus Plus' team now) gained 32 points from 2010 to 2011 and won the championship that season after finishing 6th the year before.
• Captain Hook made a 30 point jump from 2010 to 2011 and finished 3rd.

This goes to show that it is possible to turn around a struggling team quite quickly if you make the right moves and your team stays healthy.

Later I will post a different form of all-time standings. In that chart I will add up all the individual stat categories and rank each team in each stat, then total up all the ranks to see who prevails using that method. Will it turn out differently than this chart? Stay tuned to find out...

[AtomicDumpling]

All-Time Standings (5x5 Category Totals Method)

				Runs	Runs	HRs	HRs	RBI	RBI	SBs	SBs	AVG	AVG	Wins	Wins	Saves	Saves	Strikeouts	ERA	ERA	WHIP	WHIP
Team		Rank	Score	Total	Points	Total	Points	Total	Points	Total	Points	AVG	Points	Total	Points	Total	Points	Total	Points	AVG	Points	AVG	Points
Atomic Dumpling	1	95.5	3026	12	824	12	3115	12	415	9	0.277	11.5	247	7	425	12	3637	9	3.66	5	1.23	6
Plus Plus	2	95.0	2706	10	716	10	2709	11	485	11	0.272	9	239	4	391	11	3700	10	3.53	8	1.18	11
HayPay		3	86.0	2700	9	642	7	2607	9	395	7	0.269	5	253	9	298	7	3824	12	3.33	11	1.20	10
Captain Hook	4	77.0	2655	7	689	8	2642	10	366	4	0.275	10	260	11	181	4	3341	4	3.34	10	1.21	9
Bumstead	5	72.5	2602	4	590	2	2419	4	376	6	0.270	7.5	268	12	209	6	3571	7	3.31	12	1.18	12
Crosley68	6	70.5	2641	5	732	11	2543	5.5	408	8	0.269	6	255	10	173	2	3733	11	3.65	7	1.26	5
reds1869	7	67.5	2764	11	620	3	2571	7	343	2	0.277	11.5	246	6	305	8	3499	6	3.66	6	1.23	7
Tornon		8	60.5	2686	8	699	9	2543	5.5	454	10	0.262	1	244	5	362	10	3449	5	3.75	4	1.28	3
mbgrayson	9	56.5	2506	2	509	1	2289	1	546	12	0.270	7.5	238	3	192	5	3633	8	3.48	9	1.22	8
Vada Pinson Fan	10	52.0	2650	6	638	6	2585	8	296	1	0.268	4	252	8	333	9	3316	3	3.78	3	1.27	4
thatcoolguy_22	11	29.0	2538	3	634	5	2316	2	371	5	0.263	3	229	2	176	3	3304	2	3.98	2	1.30	2
Joseph		12	18.0	2457	1	629	4	2411	3	344	3	0.263	2	226	1	169	1	2919	1	4.06	1	1.34	1

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.


Observations:
There were not too many changes from the points method in the previous post.
Captain Hook and Bumstead swapped spots from 4th to 5th.
Crosley68 and Reds 1869 swapped spots from 6th to 7th.
All the other positions stayed the same. This is different compared to what happened in the twin Redszone Dynasty League.
Atomic Dumpling (me) pulled out a very narrow half-point lead over Plus Plus.
Most of the categories are close and should see significant swings in points next season and in subsequent seasons.
After three years nobody is running away with this league.

One bad year can really wreak havoc on your ranking in this league, but on the other hand one really great year can shoot you up this list quickly. It will be interesting to see how things shift as the years go by.

You can use this chart to see where your team is lacking and maybe help you identify a weakness in your strategy or an area where you can improve your team.

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 three 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.

Which method of calculating the all-time standings do you think is best -- the points method or the 5x5 Category method?

[thatcoolguy_22]

My team is terrible. Think it would be too much to post a spreadsheet of the teams in the league?

[AtomicDumpling]

Originally Posted by thatcoolguy_22

My team is terrible. Think it would be too much to post a spreadsheet of the teams in the league?

Do you mean a spreadsheet of all the team rosters? I can do that. You can also see all the rosters by going to the league website. http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo..../mlb/2012/6349

I looked at your team and I don't think it is that bad. You had a lot of key injuries last year to guys like Evan Longoria, Brian McCann, Will Middlebrooks and Pablo Sandoval who all missed a lot of games, and CJ Wilson played hurt. You have some of the best prospects in baseball like Wil Myers and Dylan Bundy. So while you had a bad season last year there is plenty of reason to expect things to improve a lot soon.

[thatcoolguy_22]

Originally Posted by AtomicDumpling

Do you mean a spreadsheet of all the team rosters? I can do that. You can also see all the rosters by going to the league website. http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo..../mlb/2012/6349

I looked at your team and I don't think it is that bad. You had a lot of key injuries last year to guys like Evan Longoria, Brian McCann, Will Middlebrooks and Pablo Sandoval who all missed a lot of games, and CJ Wilson played hurt. You have some of the best prospects in baseball like Wil Myers and Dylan Bundy. So while you had a bad season last year there is plenty of reason to expect things to improve a lot soon.

Ha! I always think things will improve. I'm really just ready for the season to start.

[Joseph]

All I see is that I need to jettison everyone.

[AtomicDumpling]

I compared our current rosters with the original draft list to see which players from our inaugural draft in 2010 are still with the team that drafted them:

14 -- Plus Plus: BJ Upton, Carlos Gonzalez, Carlos Quentin, Chase Headley, Chris Perez, Dustin Ackley, Jose Valverde, Justin Morneau, Matt Cain, Matt Garza, Matt Kemp, Matt Wieters, Miguel Cabrera, Shaun Marcum

10 -- Crosley68: Albert Pujols, Alexei Ramirez, Carl Crawford, Curtis Granderson, Ian Kennedy, Mike Napoli, Nelson Cruz, Paul Konerko, Ryan Zimmerman, Yovani Gallardo

9 -- Bumstead: Andre Ethier, Corey Hart, David Price, Delmon Young, Josh Johnson, Justin Upton, Martin Prado, Miguel Montero, Troy Tulowitzki

9 -- Captain Hook: Cliff Lee, Dustin Pedroia, Jayson Werth, Jeremy Hellickson, Joakim, Johnny Cueto, Jose Reyes, Mark Teixeira, Torii Hunter

8 -- mbgrayson: Aaron Hill, Austin Jackson, Chris Carpenter, David Freese, Joe Nathan, Max Scherzer, Shin-Soo Choo, Zack Greinke

7 -- Joseph: Brandon Morrow, Gordon Beckham, Jacoby Ellsbury, Giancarlo Stanton, Pedro Alvarez, Ricky Romero, Yunel Escobar

7 -- reds1869: Aramis Ramirez, Derek Holland, Elvis Andrus, Jesus Montero, Madison Bumgarner, Mariano Rivera, Robinson Cano

7 -- thatcoolguy_22: Anibal Sanchez, Brian McCann, Cameron Maybin, Denard Span, Evan Longoria, Homer Bailey, Tommy Hanson

7 -- Vada Pinson Fan: Adam Wainwright, Aroldis Chapman, Ben Zobrist, Brian Wilson, Chase Utley, Derek Jeter, Tim Hudson

6 -- Tornon: Adam Dunn, Alex Rios, Buster Posey, Hanley Ramirez, Jered Weaver, Nick Markakis

6 -- Atomic Dumpling: Dan Uggla, Jimmy Rollins, Johan Santana, Ryan Braun, Shane Victorino, Ted Lilly

0 -- HayPay:

That means 90 out of the 360 players selected in the 2010 draft are still with the team that drafted them. That is exactly 25%. Much higher than I expected it would be after three full seasons.

How many will still be left this time next year? How many years will it take for all of the original draftees to depart from their original teams?

Some of these guys might have been dropped or traded, then reacquired rather than having been on the team without interruption ever since the draft. Guys like Billy Butler, Ryan Howard and Huston Street are with their original teams but were traded back and forth over the years.

During the 2nd round of the draft David Wright (pick 2.6 by HayPay) was traded for Alex Rodriguez (pick 2.7 by Atomic Dumpling) immediately after that pick was made. We changed our minds. Ever since that moment David Wright has remained with Atomic Dumpling's team, but I did not put him on the list above because he technically was not drafted by his current team.

HayPay has been doing some wheeling and dealing. He doesn't have any of his original draftees left. Everyone else has at least 6. HayPay's team finished 8th in 2010, then 5th in 2011, then 2nd in 2012. So it appears all those transactions have steadily improved his team because the team he has now is much better than the team he drafted.

There are a surprising number of very late picks still remaining with their original teams. Derek Holland was the 358th pick out of 360 and is the lowest draftee still with his original team. Also taken in the last few rounds were #340 Anibal Sanchez, #332 Brandon Morrow, #328 Joe Nathan, #327 Shaun Marcum, #314 Ian Kennedy and #303 Chris Perez. That is a steal if you can get a good keeper at the end of the draft.

mbgrayson's team was drafted by HumnHilghtFreel, Plus Plus' team was drafted by IowaRed and Crosley68's team was drafted by Brutus the Pimp.

Here are some late-round gems from the 2010 draft:

15th round: Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto
17th round: Giancarlo Stanton
21st round: Chase Headley, Yadier Molina
22nd round: Carlos Santana, Adrian Beltre, David Ortiz, Mat Latos
24th round: Jeremy Hellickson, Hiroki Kuroda
26th round: Melky Cabrera
27th round: Ian Kennedy
28th round: Brandon Morrow
30th round: Jordan Zimmerman

[Tornon]

That's kinda cool to see. I've gone back through the draft thread a couple times just to see old names & realize how much better I've gotten at fantasy since then :P

[Bumstead]

Well...looking at the All-Time standings, I clearly built my team on pitching as the 49 points in those categories show (tied with HayPay for the highest pitching total). Unfortunately, I have never been able to add enough true power hitters to my team to make my team a true threat to actually winning this league. I traded a few of my stud pitchers last year for good hitting "prospects," so we shall see what happens in that avenue. To me, it still appears that I have one of the better pitching staffs but my hitting is still not strong enough to really be a threat.

I haven't been all that active, other than a couple of weeks last year when I made a few trades, but nevertheless it has been annoying for some of my hitters to have not produced at the levels I would have expected at this point in their careers. Maybe a year with Tulo not being injured would help...

Bum