The new Tout Wars constitution has been posted. The changes are few (and are highlighted in red).
Major League games played last year to qualify for a position has been lowered to 15 (from 20). The object is to open up some position flexibility, which is especially important in these days of expanding pitching staffs.
Tout Wars loves the Vickery FAAB system, but the feeling was that applying Vickery on the less contested players gave owners a nearly unlimited budget, as player after player was reduced to $1. This year, FAAB bids of 10 or fewer will not be adjusted for Vickery, while bids of more than 10 will be reduced to $10 if there isn’t a higher second bid.
FAAB reclaims, if a player goes on the 60 day DL, will be rounded down, rather than up.
There is clarification of what constitutes a legal contingent bid during FAAB.
And that’s about it.
We’re looking for league commissioners/SWATs for this season.
The ideal candidate is a fantasy baseball blogger or analyst aspiring to play in Tout Wars some day. Scrupulous ethics and ability to process details is a must. Familiarity with stat service software is helpful, too.
Work (processing FAAB and claims and entering into stat service, then issuing a report) must be done between midnight Sunday and noon Monday every week of the season (a sub will be available when necessary).
If you’re interested please send why you think you’d be a good fit to webmaster@toutwars.com.
While compensation will mostly be increased visibility in the fantasy baseball world, and working with some of the best known analysts in the business, there will also be a cash bonus at year’s end, for jobs well done.
UPDATE: The jobs are full, we think, but if you’re interested feel free to send in your name and contact info. It will get you on top of the list for next year. Thanks.
With the draft slated for 2 pm on March 28th, the 13 teams of Tout Wars NL are set.
This year’s competition is joined by Larry Schechter, three time Tout Wars Mixed winner, and Chris Liss, last year’s Tout Wars Mixed champ.
They join last year’s Tout NL winner Brian Walton in battle with three-time NL champ Mike Lombardo, two-time champ Scott Wilderman, and TWNL vets Nate Ravitch, Todd Zola, Lenny Melnick, Phil Hertz, Cory Schwartz, Tristan Cockcroft, Peter Kreutzer, and Scott Pianowski.
The Tout NL draft will be live-blogged on toutwars.com.
For the NL, the games begin April 5th.
The twelve teams of Tout Wars AL are set. One big change this year. Sam Walker, author of Fantasyland, has decided to move on with his two Tout Wars titles.
Taking his place is the estimable Rob Leibowitz, of Mastersball.com, a long time Tout Wars vet who played last year in the NL league.
The rest of lineup includes 2009 champion Lawr Michaels, second place finisher Mike Siano, third place finisher Ron Shandler, and Jeff Erickson, Joe Sheehan, Jason Grey, Steve Moyer, Matthew Berry, Jason Collette, Rick Wolf/Glen Colton, and Dean Peterson.
The AL auction will be held at 4 pm on Friday, March 26th.
The event will be live blogged. We’re working on getting some unfortunately limited number of guest passes. If you’re interested, please write to webmaster@toutwars.com, with Tout Wars Guest in the subject, and which draft you would like to attend.
Those hungry for Tout Wars history can head over to the history page, where the final standings and league records are all posted. Some day we’ll get all the draft results and full final standings posted (and remember, if you have any Tout Wars data that you think might be of interest, please send it to webmaster@toutwars.com).
Draft dates have been set (March 26 and 28 at Citifield in Flushing NY), the slates are almost filled, Spring Training is almost here.
Check back soon for all the Tout Wars details.
Tout Wars 2009 juggernaught Creativesports.com, home of AL champion Lawr Michaels and NL champion Brian Walton, have merged with Mastersball.com, a fantasy industry stalwart. The new entity will be called Mastersball.com.
Read the press release here: Mastersball Creativesports Press Release 2009 (doc file).
There is more to be said about the Tout Wars winners than will be said in this post. You can read some of it in The Fantasy Baseball Guide 2010. Surely Lawr and Brian will write about it at CREATiVESPORTS.com, and Chris will write about it at Rotowire.com. The fact is this:
TOUT WARS WINNERS
AL: Lawr Michaels, Creativesports.com
NL: Brian Walton, Creativesports.com
Mixed: Chris Liss, Rotowire.com
wow. what a game #163. throughout it, mike and i were texting one another with possibilities, thoughts, highs, and lows. not to mention rick wolfe sent me a note noting that though i was in first, that there were a number of variables that could rattle the statistical house of cards and send my team tumbling below mike’s.
but, rick porcello pitched well enough, and jason kubel belted a homer to secure third in that category for me, and in the end, amazingly, my team prevailed.
but, not without a serious fight. mike forced me to keep pressing hard all season, something essential to win any league.
and, well, mike plays as well as the two best players i know: jason grey and tony blengino (though tony retired from fantasy when he started working for the brewers a few years back).
not to mention ron, who came out of nowhere to threaten my peace.
i am still shaking my head with some kind of disbelief that i won, but, there are the standings, proving i did.
what a year, capped by that amazing twins tigers game.
in closing, thanks for following us here. thx to mike and ron for forcing me to play my hardest. and, of course, thx to monsieur peter kreutzer who was our SWAT and who organized and managed the web site here.
see you all next year (and don’t forget to log into creativesports.com, the little site that grabbed two tout and two nfbc titles this year!)
man, what a day i had yesterday.
i got back from a guitar lesson, in time to watch the athletics game while tracking the rangers, as i had saunders and feldman pitching. i knew that being tied with dean for wins, i needed to convert one to be able to hang onto a tie or finish first in tout.
as is my wont, i don’t run to the computer first thing when i get home. i try to exercise a little discipline and self control.
so, i made some lunch and i let jazzy and pavi out and opened the back door for them so they could either watch with me, or lie on the warm sun-baked bricks in the back yard as the afternoon passed.
when i did log in i was shocked to see that arod, jd drew, and jason kubel all already had two-homer games, and i was just two behind ron.
more amazingly, carl pavano took the ball with three days rest and had left with a lead and seven whiffs, giving me ostensibly a win sans feldman/saunders and putting me just seven whiffs behind sam with both my starters yet to pitch.
more amazingly, brad kilby, whom i picked up the sunday before to replace justin masterson, was starting for oakland making my whiff chore more attianable.
and, at 2:12, pm, yesterday, as michael cuddyer homered to tie me with ron, scott feldman logged a whiff that tied me with sam. those two achievements negated the need for my whip to stay lower than matt berry’s, and, well, one strikeout later i had the lead.
now, it is iffy. mike has already pointed out all the directions in which things can go right/wrong, depending upon.
but, i also know a serious pitching meltdown in a game like this is unlikely simply because a manager will not allow a game to get away like that.
still, yesterday john mcdonald homered, and if he can, so can nick punto.
either way, eight homers on the final day of the season with a 18 RBI, a pair of wins, and 17 whiffs is pretty sweet.
not to mention mewelde moore tossing a td pass for two of my teams: something as unexpected as 8 dingers.
like i said, what a day i had yesterday.
