DB.com Fantasy Baseball Leagues

Each year since 2006, everyone who purchased the Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy for fantasy football was eligible to enter a contest to win $5,000. It was a way for Mike Krueger (FFToday) and I to say thanks for the support that year, and great to add some fun and excitement to see who comes away with the cash at the end of the year.

I’d like to do something similar for fantasy baseball as a thank you for supporting the cause in 2010. I have two problems that prevent me from doing it along exactly the same lines though. One, with a much smaller customer base the big money contest is not really an option. “Win $50!” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, does it?

Two, I can’t think of a contest idea that groups us all together in one big competition for baseball season. Hold that, I actually do have an idea to convert one of my football contests to baseball, but the program is not ready, I don’t have a stats feed, and, and, and… no time to put it together right now. That idea is on the shelve for now.

Here is what I want to do though—let’s run some fantasy baseball leagues at DraftBuddy.com.

Now, while I’m sure the competition and trash talking will be nice enough on its own, we aren’t going to just play for pride. I want to start sending some of you—the best of our best—on the road to the National Fantasy Baseball Championship.

First, since we don’t know the best of our best right now, we are going to have a random draw for an entry in a 2010 $125 NFBC Satellite League, with first prize being an entry in the 2011 NFBC Classic, otherwise known as the mother of all fantasy baseball championships. Entry into the 2010 NFBC Classic is $1,300 where the winner amongst 405 teams walks away with a $100,000 grand prize.

Second, we’re going to play one or more sub-satellite leagues amongst Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy customers. We’ll start forming the leagues this week and get drafting soon. The winner (if we have one league) or draw amongst the winners (if we have more than one league) wins an entry in a 2011 $125 NFBC Satellite League.

For obvious reasons, I’d like to replicate the NFBC Satellites as close as possible. They are 15 team, 5X5 mixed roto leagues. We might not get to 15 teams, but the nice thing about not playing head-to-head is we have some flexibility there. There will be no trading, the same as the NFBC.

I’m likely to run the leagues on Yahoo! given the cost and I do believe it is a pretty reliable and slick system. Plus live scoring is free this year as an added bonus. It probably won’t allow us to do all the things we need, like FAAB waivers, but if it lets me make add/drops as commissioner when I want then I could run the FAAB offline. ESPN’s league manager is also a possibility I’m looking at if the drafting options are more flexible (slow draft with pre-selects).

Okay, that is the offer. What I need YOU to do is tell me if you are in or out. We don’t want to wait too long to get this going. If you’re on the fence about buying the Compiler & Draft Buddy Baseball, then maybe this is a little more incentive to get in. Drop a comment here, or on the message board, or shoot me an email.

I hope to see all of you in the leagues! Rick and I will also be playing, so come school us on your fantasy baseball knowledge, if you’re up for the challenge!