The offseason ..yawn..

BlueJays · Post by **BlueJays** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 8:22 pm

So, the offseasons around here are pretty boring sometimes.. the "lull" of the draft, that kind of thing..

Did we even have a winter league this year?

Given all my free time this offseason, without the IBC distraction, got me to thinking about how we can reshape our offseason and make it more interesting. I have some idea's that I'll outline but I also want to make sure I'm going to be able to be around before I can't spend anytime seeing any of it through.

My initial idea in a short summary:
1. Hold the First year player draft sooner than Jan. With all picks now having to sign by August, this shouldn't be too huge a deal.
2. Instead of Winter League, we setup a 25 round draft for a "hall of fame" winter league. 25 man active roster, no injuries - build the best 25 man team you can through a draft, using hall of famers, and we do a quick tourny.

I've go to work out some kinks obviously, but these were floatin around in my head.. We could do the winter league during the big "lull". I figured it might be more interesting than a winter league using the players on our current rosters, and I'd be interested to see the types of teams folks could come up with, and what kind of damage they'd do.

Feel free to comment on the offseason though.. what you think about it.. any ideas you might have.. that kind of thing...

Royals · Post by **Royals** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 8:30 pm

The jan 1 draft date is still an issue because of the asian player and international signings.

BlueJays · Post by **BlueJays** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:03 pm

International signing day is in July or June aint it?

And, why couldn't you just inherit the risk of a japanese player signing vs. not signing.. ?

Obviously I haven't worked out the logistics, but would you be interested in doing this type of winter league?

Royals · Post by **Royals** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:06 pm

Personally, I'm not a fan of the winter leagues. I like having a break.

Another reason to not push back the draft. The Holidays. I don't imagine many of us want to be thinking about whether our pick is up at Thanksgiving dinner or on Christmas morning. New years either.

BlueJays · Post by **BlueJays** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:36 pm

RedSox wrote:Personally, I'm not a fan of the winter leagues. I like having a break.

Another reason to not push back the draft. The Holidays. I don't imagine many of us want to be thinking about whether our pick is up at Thanksgiving dinner or on Christmas morning. New years either.

Yet, the draft began what time this year?

You might not be a fan, because all we have is a winter league based on a season disc. Make it more interesting. All Time Greats element, and I think some might like it more.

Dodgers · Post by **Dodgers** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:43 pm

If anything I think we push the draft back into late January/early February and use a winter league to pass that time before.

BlueJays · Post by **BlueJays** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:01 pm

Dodgers wrote:If anything I think we push the draft back into late January/early February and use a winter league to pass that time before.

Fine by me.. Logistics can be worked out.. I'm trying to gauge interest on something like this, get something contructive going. I'd be happy to hold the draft in my blog.. we can take our time, over the course of a season if we want..that way there's no rush.

I'll see if I can add a poll.

Mets · Post by **Mets** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:34 pm

To me, winter league almost takes the place of spring training...a chance to see if you're new pickups take to your home park...gives you an idea at least...

BlueJays · Post by **BlueJays** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:46 pm

I'd be willing to organize the draft here in my blog.. get rosters recorded for every team. It wouldn't be too difficult to get started, and all we'd have to do is make a pick here and there in a thread during the course of a season. Beyond the initial draft, getting this started shouldn't be too terribly difficult - and would throw in a different twist than our normal sim leagues... we all know todays prospects, elite players, etc. But throughout history, there have been many greats. What would a team lead by Ruth do against a team headed by Hammerin Hank?

It would lend some of the older GM's a chance to draft some of the favorites they have seen play in their childhood.. a chance for GM's to flex some nuts about what they "know" about baseball history? Who can assemble THE BEST team of the best all time greats?

I think that last question is an interesting one given the quality of GM mind's in this league. But thats just me.

Dodgers · Post by **Dodgers** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:19 am

Nate, if you do do it, I can throw some stuff up as a subsite of the IBC site.

BlueJays · Post by **BlueJays** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:25 am

Dodgers wrote:Nate, if you do do it, I can throw some stuff up as a subsite of the IBC site.

Awesome, streamline its intigration..

could it handle all transactions, etc? I really think this is something we could all handle, and would offer a much more interesting element to the offseason than our standard winter leagues of past.

BlueJays · Post by **BlueJays** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:28 am

updated the poll to include an "unsure" option, since not all the details are worked out... I seriously don't think the 25roster draft would have to be a big distraction if we didn't want it to be.. and thats the hardest part.

Giants · Post by **Giants** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:42 am

Sounds like fun. I'd be interested. Are we doing a regular winter league this year?

Cubs · Post by **Cubs** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 7:15 am

I've run the winter league the last two years with the ZIPS projections by Dan Symborski over at www.baseballthinkfactory.org. They've been slow to release this year he doesn't give the entire database until every team has been projected on the website. He's been doing about 1 team / week and still needs to do Arizona and Atlanta.

I'm not gonna have time to run it this year, I can help get the d-base setup if someone else wants to do the bull work - sending out the boxes, stats etc.

Dodgers · Post by **Dodgers** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 9:10 am

Nate, the subsite could do all the things regular OOPSS does.

WhiteSox · Post by **WhiteSox** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 9:12 am

All-time great winter league sounds like a great idea, count me in if it gets off the ground and running.

BlueJays · Post by **BlueJays** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 7:42 pm

So I've been doing a bit more research thanks to Shawn, and DMB does have an All Time Greats disk.

Its 30.00 Bucks, so I may see about shelling out the money - 17.someodddollars if you have the 2003 version.

But I thought an All Time Greats disk was given to users who bought a registered copy of the DMB Software.

Anyone know for sure? Does anyone have a copy? Bren, any info?

BlueJays · Post by **BlueJays** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 5:06 pm

Okay, I checked out this link last night - a free season disk of all time greats compiled by a Mr. Keith Hemmelman.

http://pie.midco.net/hemmelman/GamesDMB.html

We could play based off this one, although it would take some minor work and alteration. This is looking more and more like something that wouldn't be difficult to impliment. We could run the draft through OOPS on a mirrored/subsite, manage rosters and transactions fairly easy.

JB and I were looking some of the projections over. Good stuff and we both think this could be a lot more fun and entertaining than your run o the mill winter league using the latest season disk.

The offseason ..yawn..

Would you participate and/or be more interested in a winter league based around an all time greats disk?

The offseason ..yawn..