Fantasy baseball help

[Red Leader]

I have been the league commissioner of my league at work for 3 years now. The past 5 years we have played on Sandbox.com. When Sandbox changed to a pay site, we took a vote and it was 7-3 in favor of not returning to Sandbox. All 7 people that voted 'no' said that they didn't want to pay for the site since we already kick in $20 per man and that money goes to the league winners (1st, 2nd, 3rd). So, now I am faced with having to find a new site to run our league. Really, the only "free" site remaining is Yahoo! The thing I am worried about is trying to find a host site that is as close to Sandbox as possible.

The Draft: In dealing with Yahoo in the past, I'm pretty sure that the only "offline" draft choice they have is like an open list on Sandbox, ie. you rank players 1-1000 and the computer picks your highest ranked player no matter which position it's for. On Sandbox we did multi list drafts, where it would start with ALSP and give each team one ALSP, and then it would snake back so a team that drafted ALSP 10th would also get the 11th pick at ALSP and it would work this way for all positions. I don't think that's an option on Yahoo. If it's not an option, we'll probably do a live draft.

The Game: On Sandbox we played a head to head fantasy point game. Where hits were worth 1pt, doubles 2pts , etc. You then added all of your points for all players on your active roster for the week and it gave you your total point figure. If you had more points than your opponent, you won. On Yahoo, I'm concerned that it's more roto based. In other words if my active roster has 22 HR's for the week and my opponent gets 20 HR's, I get 1 point and so on for other "roto" categories (BB's, AVG, 2B, W, L, K's, IP, etc). Does anyone that has played Yahoo before know if they have scoring like Sandbox had? I don't think the game will be released for a couple more weeks and am trying to prepare so that I won't have a mess on my hands and people griping at me because everything is so much different.

Also, if anyone plays in a league that uses Fantasy Software on a computer can you explain how that works (do you have a computer that hosts the league, etc and how scores are updated?) I'm curious to know how that works. Sorry this is kind of lengthy. Just looking for some answers in doing my preparation for the great game of fantasy baseball. What sites do you guys use? Do you like it? What are it's advantages / disadvantages?

Thanks.

[Raisor]

Originally posted by Red Leader
I All 7 people that voted 'no' said that they didn't want to pay for the site since we already kick in $20 per man and that money goes to the league winners (1st, 2nd, 3rd).


Uh oh, you better not be in Florida. They put people in jail for that sort of thing down there!

:evilgrin:

[haassolo]

You are correct on the draft problem, there is no slow live draft on yahoo baseball, but I think there is an option where you can do a draft offline and then load onto the system. As for points it is a little difference but Yahoo allows you to tailor the system to your needs, you can choose the points and categories you want. You might not be able to fanatasy head to head, I don't remeber but when I set up my league I did get a choice of what to use and for football and I think baseball you can set the point system to your choice. The only other choice you may have is MLB which is cheaper or maybe CNNSI.com which might still be free but uses the same crap system that cbs.sportslines uses. I like yahoo. It is not as nice as sandbox but it is not that bad.

[Red Leader]

Originally posted by haassolo
You are correct on the draft problem, there is no slow live draft on yahoo baseball,


I thought that Yahoo did offer a slow live draft....if not, what is the time limit per pick for Yahoo?

[RedsFan8978]

I did yahoo last year, and worked very well. The draft system is the biggest drawback, but there is a head-to-head system. A good resource is GriffeyFan, he was the commish. He's knows quite a bit about it. I have his personal email if you need it, just PM me. Good luck

[haassolo]

What is the time limit that they allow? I thought they had a live draft, the list, and load your own. On Sandbox there is a live draft with a 24 hour window, I did not think that Yahoo offered that kind of window

[Red Leader]

Originally posted by haassolo
What is the time limit that they allow? I thought they had a live draft, the list, and load your own. On Sandbox there is a live draft with a 24 hour window, I did not think that Yahoo offered that kind of window

Sandbox had a slow live draft (24 hours per pick) and a fast live draft (60 seconds per pick) as well as an open list draft (like Yahoo's offline draft) and the multi list draft (which I explained earlier). If Yahoo doesn't have a multi list draft, I want to do a live draft, but what kind of live draft does Yahoo have? How much time do you have to make a pick?

[haassolo]

I don't know what Yahoo offers as a time limit. That is what I was asking Red Leader. I know all about Sandbox, but the time limit for Yahoo's draft may be somehting like 10 minutes, not the 24 hours that Sandbox gives. Regardless, I am pretty sure you can do an offline draft and then load it into the Yahoo system

[EmtyRedsFan]

On Yahoo each pick is 60 seconds

[Red Leader]

Originally posted by EmtyRedsFan
On Yahoo each pick is 60 seconds

Thank you. I was very interested to see what the time limit was, I was hoping it was 5 minutes, but 60 seconds is what normal live drafts are. Thanks again.

[GriffeyFan]

Actually, I believe the time limit per pick for a live draft was 1:30, not much of a difference though. I believe the only other draft option for Yahoo is the auto-pick draft, which as you described, takes the top player off your list. I don't remember there being a multi-list option. As far as the live drafts, even if you can't make it, you can set your list and it will take the top player on your list.

ESPN is by far the best, but I'm sure it's not an option since it's a bit pricey. I think Yahoo is the second best option.

Face it fantasy fans, the days of free fantasy "any sport" is going to be a thing of the past. It's such a big thing now, that all of the places that once provided a free game are going to charge. Even Sportsline is charging $9.95 for the basic league.

[EmtyRedsFan]

Either 60 or 90 seconds not a huge difference...

And i am going to start a league on yahoo..... 5x5, mixed league, 12 teams, 25 man roster live draft on a friday or saturday (as soon as yahoo starts that is). If anyone is interested please PM me and i'll get back with you.

[Red Leader]

I looked at last years fantasy baseball help page and it says the the time allowed for each pick is 90 seconds. Just thought I'd throw that information out to everyone that is interested. For more information on the Yahoo fantasy baseball game.....

go here.

http://help.yahoo.com/help/baseball/brules/brules-08.html