A razor thin margin.

Have you ever had a close finish in your league?  How close is close?  My 2009 championship  in the NOLA FBA (a longstanding league I am commissioner of) was the closest that I have ever seen or heard of.  It literally came down to the afternoon games on the last day of the MLB season.  No kidding, it sounds like a joke but it is the truth.  I would have never dreamed that after 6 months of baseball stats, 2 teams' championship aspirations rested on a couple of home runs and a couple of stolen bases. On my team Jayson Werth stole 2 bases on the last day, Ryan Braun one.  Another team hit a couple of HR's, thus not allowing my competition to gain any ground on me.  And that was that.  A margin of victory of 2.5 points.  My first championship after 20+ grueling years of 2nd place finishes, injury riddled teams, and admittedly at times lackluster judgment/performance on my part.  I sweated the next few nights thinking that Yahoo would make some sort of stat correction that would continue my long frustration of non-championship seasons.  Thankfully, the corrections never came, the scores stood as posted, and the hardware was mine for a year.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has had it come down to the last day or something like that.  FYI, this was a 5x5, 10 team league.  If you have, please comment below or send me an email: therotocommish@gmail.com.  Thanks!

A better way to handle league issues/proposed changes.

Changes/Issues in your league--how do you handle it?

Let me just start by saying that few things in life are absolute. Spare me the tired death and taxes axiom. I've got something else that is ABSOLUTE TRUTH. It's this-Absolute Life Truth #3- if you want a guaranteed way to waste a bunch of your time inefficiently and get frustrated, trying resolving league issues via the email route. Believe me, I've done it and it isn't fun, unless you like sifting and searching through various emails about what was said, how someone voted, etc. Not to mention, replying and forwarding and trying to make sure everyone got the same email you got which shows how a league member voted on an issue. Also, there is the problem of retrieving this info after a year or two has passed if you need to.

What to do? I have found a quick, efficient way to tidy up league votes and issues. The answer -- Google Forms - which is found in Google Docs. Not only does it save you time as commissioner, but league members get a fast way to cast their votes on various issues and see how others have voted with out having to go through email after email themselves. This is a picture of the form our league used this year to vote on some issues or proposed changes that have come up. From year to year it can be quickly accessed by anyone in our league to see how they or someone else may have voted. I can either send them the document again or they can see it posted on our "Winter Meetings" section of our league website.

So anyway, it may be something that you want to try.  Google forms can be found here.

Adding another dimension to your league.

Late in the fantasy baseball season things can get a little "long in the tooth" for some teams if you know what I mean.  As League Commissioner, keeping all teams engaged throughout the season can be a challenge.  This season our league instituted a developmental player slot for each team.  I would hazard a guess and say that it went well in our first year and definitely added some excitement towards the end of our season. Our developmental player draft starts in August of each year.  You can check our (Developmental Player Page) portion of our league website here.  It has all the rules that we use and how we lay it out. Our main league page can be found here.  If you are looking for a way improve your league or change it up a little bit, something like this might just be the trick you are looking for.

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The inaugural year of The Roto Commish-now what?

This season has been a great learning experience in my first year of this website.   It takes a tremendous amount of time, effort and skill to put together a website like this.  I hope that this site has provided some value for anyone that has run across it.  At times, my posts and new content have been sparse.  Life has a way of taking time away from one's hobbies or avocations.  Yes, this is somewhat of a hobby for me-but a serious one nonetheless.  A website like this does not generate enough revenue to pay for its costs, so I pay the bills with my real job and contribute what I can here as time permits after FAMILY-my #1 priority and passion.  

I do plan to continue this site for many years to come, whether I generate any revenue or not.  Making money was never my first priority with this site to begin with.  It is more of an outlet of expression for the game that I enjoy greatly.

There are many plans in the works for TRC and I hope to implement as many as I can.  Hopefully, it will continue to improve each year.  So thanks to all you fantasy baseballers out there for stopping by.  Come back again from time to time or subscribe to the RSS feed.  You never know what will pop up next.  

Sincerely,

The Roto Commish

Don't Take Your Eye Off The Ball!

We are in the stretch run of the fantasy baseball season. The contenders have separated themselves from the pretenders and glory soon approaches for the soon to be champion.  Any moves good or bad at this point may well be the difference.  Here are two quick things to think of with trades you may be trying to pull off up against your league's deadline. 

• If you have a substantial lead in a category, look to make a can't refuse offer to another team that may take points away from your competition.  For example, trading your stud closer to a team that may not be in the running but could take that crucial point away from your nearest competition as they pass them up in the saves category.  You may not get a great player in return, so on the surface it may look like it was a bad trade for you.  But if it takes away a point from a team you are in the running with, well then, your trade was a success no matter who you got in the deal. 

• Often when trying to make a deal I will send links about the player/s to the team I am trying to trade with. Finding some good info in the form of an article or two and then sending it with the trade offer could be the difference in whether a trade goes through. Everyone gets pumped when they read good things about their players.  At the very least it can't hurt.  It's all about selling the deal.