Draft moved to Sunday!

Just a quick reminder that the draft was moved to Sunday, March 29 at 8:45pm ET. See league site for more details.

P.S. Try not to do this on Sunday:

Draft on Wednesday!

One last thing to take care of before the draft: a little fantasy baseball welfare. We voted as a league (question 8) to give the talent-poor teams a little boost before the draft, like we did last year. Looking at the rosters, it's pretty clear that the Pirates and Nationals qualify for this bonus, as each team has only 1 player in the top 100. So, like last year, these two teams are getting a supplementary pick before the draft. It's only fair.

Here's how we're doing it:

• I asked Andy and Scott for two players from the pool that they want.
• Coin flip for who gets first choice. I'm doing this right now in real time. Andy is heads, Scott is tails. I'm flipping a quarter. It's in the air. Result = tails. Scott gets first choice, Andy will have first pick in the draft.
• I'll add this extra good non-home player to their rosters, replacing a home team player. That home team player will then replace their last pick in the draft to bring them back up to the 11 home team players.

Now the draft pool is set. Be prepared. Be ready. Be there Wednesday.

Non-home team keepers for the newbies!

To figure out the order, I wrote the names of the new teams on a piece of paper, put them in a hat (Red Sox hat, of course), and picked them out one by one. I then used the ranked lists each team gave me to assign the two non-home team keepers. And the results are...

#1 Detroit Tigers = Tim Lincecum
#2 Washington Nationals = Chase Utley
#3 Houston Astros = Albert Pujols
#4 Tampa Bay Rays = Grady Sizemore
#5 Tampa Bay Rays = Johan Santana
#6 Houston Astros = Jimmy Rollins
#7 Washington Nationals = Cole Hamels
#8 Detroit Tigers = Ryan Howard

That ends our keeper allocation and now all the players on the waiver wire (i.e. the Players tab in the league) will available in the draft. Start your draft prep, make those cheat sheets, and get ready for next week.

Keepers! Get your keepers here!

I love going to baseball games. Great times often began by buying tickets on a whim, recruiting a co-conspirator, and heading to Fenway Park. Until now, I never realized that my behavior was inappropriate. Instead of abusing my liver with over-priced beer, I should have been abusing the opposing teams with my fists...my fists of fury.

Alright, back to the business at hand. Two things to deal with.

Number 1: The results are in, thanks for voting. A few small changes: 6 teams in the playoffs, 11 players from your home town team, and 3 SP each week instead of 2.

Here's what we need to do next (Deadline: Wed, March 18):

• EVERYONE needs to send me a list of the 11 players they want from their home town team.

AND

• Teams from last year: tell me your 2 non-home team keepers

• New teams: you get 2 keepers as well. Please rank (in the order you want them) the top 8 players from the list of players from the teams that dropped out and the waiver wire.
  

Keep in mind: we get first dibs on the players on our home town team. For example, while Jason would love to keep Texeira as a non-home team keeper, the Yankee's manager, Charlie, will undoubtedly choose Tex as a home team keeper. Sorry Jason.

Number 2: Decide on draft day and time. Season starts Sunday, April 5th. Most of you said the week of March 22rd to 29th was good. Does this day/time work for everyone?

Wed, March 25 at 8:00 pm ET

If not, let me know what days work/don't work for you that week.

Dagan