Rosters

Am I the only one that finds it strange or unrealistic to watch our teams play for a week and then set out rosters. I know its "fantasy" baseball but it just doesnt seem right for me to watch ty wiggington have a 4hr game and an 18rbi week and put him in my starting lineup after the fact and sit prince fielder. Or the guy that owns johan santana sits him after he gets shelled by the ny yankees for 8 runs in 2 1/3 innings. Anyone agree with me? Or is just me. I would have brought this up earlier but I thought I was just reading the bylaws wrong. I didnt think it was possible to not set a lineup before the teams play. Feedback please. I may be crazy because I also was the one who never thought we could draft 500 players in one day, so it might just be me. Eric

I Love Ya Louie !!

Brad Hawpe was qouted as saying "I love ya Louie for believing in me so much that you thought your team was doomed without me !---"I didn't even get that much support from my own mother" !! " My mother actually told the associated Press that if I left Colorado I would NEVER hit more than 14 homers" !!

In Case You Were Wondering...

...this is the most controversial player in the history of the NFSL--the infamous Mr. Hawpe. (He's the ruggedly handsome fella on the left.)

Empire Rising

BREAKING NEWS: Staten Island Dumped

The Empire has taken its first blow of the season, but unfortunately for all involved it was in a courtroom instead of on the field. In what can only be described as an act of malicious pettiness, New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner has won an injunction against the nascent NFSL squad that will prevent them from using the Staten Island name. Evidently, The Boss's high-powered legal team was able to convince the judge that use of the name infringes on his franchise's Single A Staten Island Yankees' territorial rights--just two days before the inaugural Super League draft.

Empire officials could not be reached for comment, but a source close to the team has said that management is not wasting any time in trying to rectify the situation. He also claims there is no truth to the rumor that Empire ownership was, in fact, looking forward to this decision because they have grown tired of writing out "Staten Island" all the time.

The NFSL league office has issued a statement explaining that due to the legal nature of this name change, the Empire will obviously be permitted to select a new name as long as they do so before the start of the season. After opening day, team name changes will only be allowed in special cases, if at all, to establish and preserve the tradition of the league.

Check 1 Schedule

North Babylon v. Laurel

Nassau v. Kohler

Ridge v. Bay Ridge

Riverhead v. Simpsonville

New Libertatia v. Setauket

Mattituck v. Brooklyn

Browntown v. St. Olaf

Staten Island v. Westphalia

Coram v. Ninth Street

Philadelphia v. Hampton Bay

Catching the Blues

The selection of J.R. Towles in the final round of the minor league draft has finally allowed the Folsom Blues' three young arms to pitch to a catcher as they prepare for the opening of the California Penal League season. "It's nice," said towering righty Jeff Niemann. "The cardboard cut-out was okay, but we'd spend half our time standing it back up after every pitch. It got to the point where we'd miss wildly just so we wouldn't have to do it." For his part, Towles is happy to be aboard what he feels is going to be a fun ride. "We have a lot of talent here. I'm a little worried about not having any infielders, but every team has its flaws, right?"

However, the news wasn't all good for the Staten Island Empire's farm club. A lengthy undercover investigation by the Folsom Telegraph revealed that Blues pitching coach, Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn, is, in fact, a fictional character. Doubts were immediately cast as to his qualifications for preparing the staff for the upcoming campaign, let alone to help the parent club later in the year. The Empire front office declined comment other than to say that they were fully confident in all their hires.

Blues manager Miller Huggins was unavailable for comment amid rumors of failing health.

Nice farm system

louie, you have a very good farm system with a nice mix of players. Thank You for actually putting the time in to research your picks and submit them in a timely fashion.

rate my farm system

be honest.....the Manatees can take criticism

1)Mike Pelfrey, RHP, New York Mets (14th overall)
2) Jose Tabata, OF, New York Yankees (27th overall)
3) Eric Hurley, RHP, Texas Rangers (54th overall)
4) Jacob McGee, LHP, Tampa Bay Devil Rays (67th overall)
5) Eric Young Jr., 2B, Colorado Rockies (94th overall)
6) Chris Marrero, OF, Washington Nationals (107th overall)

NFSL Minor League Draft: Round 6

101. North Babylon: Chris Carter, Arizona
102. Setauket: Jeremy Hellickson, Tampa Bay
103. Laurel: Josh Hamilton, Cincinnati
104. Kohler: Alexi Casilla, Minnesota
105. Bay Ridge: Alberto Callaspo, Arizona
106. Riverhead: Hank Conger, Los Angeles (A)
107. Brooklyn: Chris Marrero, Washington
108. Staten Island: J.R. Towles, Houston
109. Coram: Brian Barton, Cleveland
110. St. Olaf: Trevor Crowe, Cleveland
111. Simpsonville: Jamie Garcia, St. Louis
112. Westphalia: Matt Lindstrom, Florida
113. Ridge: Eric Patterson, Chicago (N)

114. Browntown: Angel Villalona, San Francisco

115. Philadelphia: J.A. Happ, Philadelphia
116. Nassau: Bryan LaHair, Seattle
117. Ninth Street: Sean Rodriguez, Los Angeles (A)

118. Mattituck: Tony Sipp, Cleveland
119. New Libertatia: Kurt Suzuki, Oakland
120. Hampton Bay: Jeremy Jeffries, Milwaukee

For Paul, Mike and Klong

Mission Accomplished.

2007 Minor League Draft: Round 5

81. Hampton Bay: Neil Walker, Pittsburgh

82. New Libertatia: Joba Chamberlain, New York (A)
83. Mattituck: Miguel Montero, Arizona
84. Ninth Street: Sean West, Florida
85. Nassau: Carlos Gomez, New York (N)

86. Philadelphia: Kyle Drabek, Philadelphia
87. Browntown: Dexter Fowler, Colorado
88. Ridge: Daric Barton, Oakland
89. Westphalia: Ryan Sweeney, Chicago (A)
90. Simpsonville: Blake DeWitt, Los Angeles (N)
91. St. Olaf: Glenn Perkins, Minnesota
92. Coram: Brandon Morrow, Seattle
93. Staten Island: Will Inman, Milwaukee
94. Brooklyn: Eric Young Jr., Colorado
95. Riverhead: Jeff Baker, Colorado
96. Bay Ridge: Carlos Ruiz, Philadelphia
97. Kohler: Chris Parmalee, Minnesota
98. Laurel: Daniel Bard, Boston
99. Setauket: Elvis Andrus, Atlanta
100. North Babylon: Joe Smith, New York (N)

Idea

Hey, I think i came up with a way to incorporate everything in a fair way that we should have no problem finishing. It is 16 rounds of auction draft, followed by 9 rounds of snake draft. Here are the particulars.

-100 million dollar budget
-25 players
-players 1-260 are auctioned off by Tom as the auctioneer
-we will bid using green/red cards to indicate whether we are in/out of the bidding
-until there are two people remaining, when those two will bid directly against eachother
-bids are for yearly contracts and owners assign contract length (1, 2 or 3 years) after winning bid
-only eight players can be given three year contracts
-players 261-320 are bid on auction style but are called up by the owners. So each owner will eventually call up three people during this phase.
-The rest of the draft will be done as a snake-style draft in reverse order of the minor leauge draft.
-Player salaries for this phase are defined as follows:

round player # yearly salary
17 321-340 2 mil
18 341-360 1.75mil
19 361-380 1.5mil
20 381-400 1.25mil
21 401-420 1 mil
22 421-440 .75mil
23 441-460 .5mil
24 461-480 .25mil
25 481-500 .25mil

Note: this adds up to 9.25mil so you must have at least that much remaining to be fully involved in this portion. If you don't, see below...

-contract length of drafted players are assigned after you draft them

OK, now for the tricky part...

-after the auction part (320 players taken), for every player more than 16 players you have on your team, that is one fewer than 8 players that you can give a 3 year contract to.
Ex. if you have 18 players after 320 players have been auctioned, you can only give 6 players 3 year contracts.
-once we hit the draft phase (post-320) the draft only involves teams that meet the following criteria for each round

ROUND 17: Fewer than 17 players AND no more than 90.75 spent
ROUND 18: Fewer than 18 players AND no more than 92.75 spent
ROUND 19: Fewer than 19 players AND no more than 94.5 spent
ROUND 20: Fewer than 20 players AND no more than 96.0 spent
ROUND 21: Fewer than 21 players AND no more than 97.25 spent
ROUND 22: Fewer than 22 players AND no more than 98.25 spent
ROUND 23: Fewer than 23 players AND no more than 99.0 spent
ROUND 24: Fewer than 24 players AND no more than 99.5 spent
ROUND 25: Fewer than 25 players AND no more than 99.75 spent

-An owner can have more than one pick in a round. The round will continue until 20 players are taken or no owner is eligible
-Any owner that winds up with less than 25 players, must make the highest paid player with a three year contract become a one-year contract for every player under 25 players...


well, that's my idea...is it too complicated? Have i made it clear enough? anything you disagree with? anything you wanna add? any part that you don't understand why it's been implemented?

Draft

Im making a new post to ensure everyone sees it. I completely agree with Kohler about the time that it is going to take to complete an auction style draft for 500 players. The draft probably needs to be done over a 2 day weekend. I doubt that is feasible with people coming from all over the place. I think its alot to ask for guys to give up a whole weekend to draft a team. And I for one will not give up a whole weekend to draft a fantasy baseball team. Kids, work, puppy, coaching, other hobbies, misc errands, and oh yea a wife all pull on my time as it is. Going into this I thought it would be a draft on one weekend day taking at most 12 hours which is not a problem. I voiced my concerns earlier on about the time that I thought it would take to conduct an auction style draft with 20 teams owners (actually more counting co-owners) trying to draft 500 players. But I was told don't worry about it, it will work. "Ok" I thought "I will give it a shot" but the more I think about it and hear others voice their concerns the more I realize its not going to work. Look how long its taking us to complete 6 rounds of a minor league draft. Team owners aren't prepared to make their picks for this and they know when they are going to be picking. Based on that it doesnt seem to me that all team owners in this league are taking this as a serious as I am or as committed as I am and that worries me and makes me wonder "How in the hell is the live draft going to work?" What makes anyone think these same people are going to be ready for a live draft and arent going to be the same people slowing that down as well, if they even show up. I dont mean too sound like I'm crying and moaning here but I think I am just trying to be realistic. Frank has said that if u cant give the time then it might be time to drop out. Frank, I dont know u nor what else u have going on in your life but fantasy baseball is a hobby of mine not my life. As u have seen my picks have all been made quickly except for one (I was on the road to florida to scout players at spring training) and have all been valid/half-way decent picks (if i dont say so myself). My point being that I am into this and half-way know what i am doing (remember Matt Garza?). But though I am not yet raising the white flag I am raising the yellow (caution) flag. I cant give more than 12 hours or so for a live draft on a single day and if its going to take more than that then I am out. If the rest of team owners can give that amount of time, god bless them, but I can't. I look forward to hearing what my fellow owners have to say. By the way, who is on the owners committee? This is starting to feel too much like Major league baseball (Bud Selig anyone?)

Congrats DAD !!!!!

Congratulations Todd and Ms. Sliss on the new addition to your family. Henry Shea, sounds like a future editor of the New York Times to me .Hope mommy and baby boy are doing well.

Newest NFSL Legacy

Raise your glasses to Simpsonville Slayers co-owner Todd Sliss and his wife Carrie (though, mainly to her) on the birth of their new son, Henry Shea. For those of you scoring at home, lil' Hammerin' Hank weighed in at 8 lb., 6 oz. at 3:19 pm on Monday--12 days late.

We can only hope this lackadaisical attitude will be gone when it's his turn to draft in a couple of decades.

Hey Nassau....

looks like someone read the Daily News this morning ;)

The Draft

We are now less than 1 month from D-Day. Seriously. After all the talk, after all the hype, the time is almost here to put up or shut up, to see just what you're made of in what will undoubtedly go down as a ground-breaking, some might say transcendent, fantasy baseball league.

The minor league draft is rolling along at a somewhat efficient pace. A pothole here and there have slowed the proceedings, but overall it looks like we'll be able to wrap things up in a week or so. Once completed, if anyone wanted to break down the draft (winners, losers, ranking the farm systems, etc.), that would be swell. Just go ahead and post it on here.

I hope everyone has at least started prepping for the major league portion of the draft. Draft day comes up fast and you don't want to be left holding your junk while blanking on a back-up shortstop. I've been to too many drafts where some numbnut holds everything up because he has run out of players on his list and has to frantically flip through a magazine looking for a name, any name. At the end of a long, grueling day of bidding it can happen to the best of us. trust me.

And that's just what the inaugural NFSL draft is going to be--a grind. There's no getting around it: 20 teams x 25 players each = (carry the one) 500 players. Now, I love drafts as much as the next guy, but even I expect to need a Red Bull IV by the end of the night. I am also going to assume that this isn't coming as news to anyone. We're starting a Super League from scratch. This isn't some kill-a couple-of-hours-before-American Idol-comes-on-Yahoo! draft. This is the real deal. Bring your A game and hope it's enough.

So, how are we going to pull this off, you may be wondering? This has been the biggest question mark from the league's conception. After hearing from most of you over the past few months, the consensus is that an auction is the preferred drafting style. Besides simply being more entertaining, it also prevents us from having to compromise the innovative salary-based strategy that I feel separates this league from other, lesser leagues. Of course, this hasn't prevented many of you from expressing grave concern over the feasibility of such an undertaking. Is it actually possible to draft 500 players via auction in one day? The most honest answer is, we'll see. But I think it can be done.

The biggest problem in every auction-style draft I've been in has been a lack of focus. Owners would go to the bathroom in the middle of a bid, start side-conversations about totally unrelated subjects, or be giggly drunk before picking their starting 1B. You may need to draft 10 players and it can take 2 hours or 10 minutes. It's all about focus.

So here's what we're going to do. We're going to use a real auction format. No around the room bidding. It will be a player called up and open bidding until one owner is left. And it will move fast. If you can't figure out if you want to bid on a player, no one is going to wait around for you to figure it out. You need to come to the draft prepared. If you're not paying attention and miss out on a player you really, really wanted, the other 19 owners won't be showing you much sympathy.

Players will be divided into blocks of 50 based on generic pre-draft rankings and called up randomly within those blocks. We'll take short breaks between groupings to give everyone a chance to unwind, eat, drink, and excrete. Then, back to work. Again, keep in mind this is a one time thing. Next year's draft will be more leisurely.

Tom will be in touch shortly with the Draft Day specifics and directions. Remember, this is going to be an all-day affair, so don't make plans for that night. If you can't make a one day commitment to this league, maybe you need to rethink if this is right for you. If there are any extenuating circumstances, please let us know ahead of time and we'll try to work something out. Until then, happy scouting.

2007 Minor League Draft: Round Four

61. North Babylon: Brad Lincoln, Pittsburgh
62. Setauket: Chris Volstad, Florida
63. Laurel: Jeff Clement, Seattle
64. Kohler: Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Atlanta
65. Bay Ridge: Tyler Clippard, New York (A)
66. Riverhead: Joe Koshansky, Colorado
67. Brooklyn: Jacob McGee, Tampa Bay
68. Staten Island: Donald Veal, Chicago (N)
69. Coram: Ian Stewart, Colorado
70. St. Olaf: Gio Gonzalez, Chicago (A)
71. Simpsonville: Troy Patton, Houston
72. Westphalia: Brian Bannister, Kansas City
73. Ridge: Dustin Pedroia, Boston

74. Browntown: Elijah Dukes, Tampa Bay

75. Philadelphia: Michael Bourn, Philadelphia
76. Nassau: Tyler Cummings, Kansas City
77. Ninth Street: Wade Davis, Tampa Bay
78. Mattituck: Kory Casto, Washington
79. New Libertatia: Eric Campbell, Atlanta

80. Hampton Bay: Travis Buck, Oakland

Draft Format Info

Frank will be posting a blog explaining how we plan to auction style draft--so stay tuned !