We're going to have to make some decisions before much longer on what we are going to do this year. The 3-team discount package deadline for the Rookie (Roto) game and the Bronze (Points) game is February 16th. Those are Fantrax' low-cost games (Rookie $40/$100 for 3 teams & Bronze $30/$80 for 3 teams). I imagine that the details on the high-dollar games (Gold/Roto & Silver/Points) will be up soon.
The first decision is whether we're going to play roto again or switch to the points game. I've played both, though much more Roto than Points over the years....but to tell you the truth, I'd kind of like to move over to the points game. However, I'll stay with Roto if that's what everybody else wants to do. The one thing I would say is that I don't advise trying to play both at the same time. I've done it and it just doesn't work very well. You can't effectively use the same players in the different games because the roster rules limit the number of pitchers you can have in the Points game (and you don't have the swing pitcher option) & the scoring is different, so you have to evaluate your players differently. For example, you get points for walks & extra points for extra base hits in the Points game, so a player's slugging percentage and on-base percentage is more important than batting average. And in pitching, you don't use ERA or WHIP, so there is not that problem of staying away from SPs in hitters' ballparks. Only strikeouts, innings pitched, wins & saves score points.
As far as prizes go, I like the set-up for the Bronze Points game better in the cheaper league than the one for the Rookie Roto league.....though we've always said that it's not about the money, anyway, when you consider the amount of time that we spend doing this. Anyway, the Bronze only pays $150 to the league winner....but the overall winner gets $3,000 & it pays 50 places. The Rookie Roto league winner gets $200 (both pay 4 places)...but the overall winner only gets $1,000 & it only pays 10 places.
The high-dollar leagues will probably be about like in the past....no overall competition with the Gold Roto costing & paying more than the Silver Points league. Seems like the Gold league cost $280 last year and the Silver Points league cost $200. Payouts were comparable to cost.
I went entirely overboard with my teams last year. Think I ended up with 7 or 8 of them, counting mid-season. Not doing that this year. I may even skip the high-dollar leagues and just get the 3-team package from whichever game we decide to play. That would be a total cost of $100 for Roto or $80 for Points. If I did anything else it would be just to get one of the high-dollar teams. So if we decided on the Points game, that would probably be a total of $280 for 4 teams.
There has been a lot of player movement, so we have a lot of work to do.....and we are already getting a late start. I entered my first two teams on January 14th last year.
