Is there any desire in the league to expand the rosters? I feel like everyone here is astute enough to handle it, the question is whether it would make the league better. With only 6 teams there are a lot of good players on each team. Forcing each team to go "deeper" into the player pool would definitely add a larger element of manager/scouting. We have deep benches as it is, so what if we converted some of those bench spots to starting spots?
Additional positions to consider:
4th or 5th outfielders, middle infield (2b/ss), corner infield (1b/3b), additional pitchers, second catcher.
We would have to increase the number of moves significantly, but I would still be in favor of having a limit. My biggest complaint right now is people having "dead" spots on their roster. With a big bench and limited moves, you end up carrying players that you don't really want or need. The alternative would be to decrease the size of the bench but keep the same starting roster spots.
I'm not married to the idea... just thinking of improvements. Thoughts?
8 comments:
my problem with adding specific positions (i.e. second catcher) is that it puts a weird pressure on the league at an already short position so you are taking catchers super early in the draft. would it be disastrous to add more utility spots or does that just lead to too much power?
the only thing i like about the starting 9 is that there is still good talent on the waiver wire. if we all needed 2 1b's, andrew can't pick up carlos pena mid-way through the season (probably).
net net i guess i don't feel strongly either way.
It's all relative. What is considered a "good" starter in a 9/7 alignment would just be different that what was considered a "good" starter in a 12/8 alignment.
I think there is a big strategy component of fantasy baseball that is missing in the current format. It's twofold. First, we only have 6 teams and second we have 9 bench spots. It limits the amount of creativity you can have with your lineup and doesn't make it a difficult decision to drop a guy to pick up a player on the waiver wire.
I like the idea of having to find value in the middle of the pack type players - The Kason Gabbards of the world. With two catchers, the fact that Kendall got traded might actually be interesting (who is that Suzuki guy?)
We would decrease the size of the bench so that there would still be about the same amount of talent on the waiver wire. Right now we have 25 roster spots plus 2 DL. I think we only really need 5 or 6 bench spots which would allow for 4 or 5 more starting roster spots without increasing the size of the league much at all.
I propose the following alignment:
C
1B
2B
3B
SS
CI (1b or 3b)
MI (2b or ss)
OF
OF
OF
OF
UTL
SP
SP
RP
RP
P
P
P
P
5 Bench = 25 rounds
1 "farm spot"
32 moves.
The farm spot would be virtual and would only be allowed for players eligible as a prospect keeper. Once a player on your farm acquired 100 AB or 50 IP you would have to make room on your roster or drop him. Moving a player from your farm spot to your team would not count as a move.
I think expanding the rosters makes a lot of sense, and I especially like the idea of a designated farm spot.
I like the idea of expanding the rosters, but I would just add one more utility and one more pitcher. If you wanted to add more than just 2 spots, I would say add one more OF, one more IF, and two more pitchers. With only 14 AL teams to choose from, I wouldn't want to stretch things too thin. Although it's true that it's all relative, I find it more fun to have better players.
Also I don't understand this whole thing with prospect keepers and AB and IP limits. Could someone please explain that?
There's already not a single decent SP option on the waiver wire. I don't really like the idea of expanding our pitching rosters, thus forcing us to carry the Lenny Dinardos of the world. Things are on the thin side as it is.
I think the farm slot is a good idea, but i worry about complicating things more than they need be. It'd be an interesting thing to do, but are we gonna be able to keep up with it and each other?
We could afford to expand the offensive rosters a bit - but not at catcher. An extra OF or IF slot would be fine by me. As it stands now it's very hard to make a trade between teams, because in a 6 team league everyone is pretty well set at all of the offensive positions. Stretching that out a little wouldn't hurt. We all have deep offensive benches, so I agree that we should force ourselves to play or move some of those guys.
Luke, this year we get 5 keepers and in addition to that, we can keep one "prospect pick". This is a player who has not had more than 100AB's or 50IP in this season or any past season. All those players we just picked up with proxies (Adam Jones, Buchholz etc.) are potential prospect picks. You'll probably want to grab one of the guys remaining or trade for one that someone already has.
I'm starting to like Mz's expanded roster. I think that it also provides more value for middle relievers, that have very little value now, but would be a good alternate option to the lenny dinardo's of the world and would provide some good strategy on era and whip vs potential wins etc.
Caleb I think you're right about there not being enough good pitchers on the waiver wire, but increasing the starting roster size wouldn't effect that. I wouldn't mind increasing the starting roster size by 1 or 2 batters and 1 or 2 pitchers, and simultaneously decreasing the bench by more than that to put more players on the waiver wire. For example if we added 2 batters and 1 pitcher, we could remove 4 or 5 bench spots so the overall team size is smaller. On top of that we could have the designated farm spot, so the overall team size would be 23 or 24 plus the farm spot. I don't see the need to add more than 2 and 2 to the starting rosters though, I just think that would stretch things too thin and would decrease trade action. Convert the MI and CI on Z's roster to just 1 IF, change the bench spots to 4 or keep it at 5, and I think it'd be good. I definitely think that this year people had way too many bench players that could have either been starting or been on the waiver wire.
I think we're all on the same page that it would be better with an expanded roster and a decrease in the bench. We just have to decide on what the best format is for that as to not make the waiver wire obsolete and also increase the trading activity.
There is a bit of an art to this, as you don't want to do anything that would thin out any one position too much.
Let's continue to discuss and I'll try to work out a spreadsheet that quantifies position depth in relation to the various formats proposed.
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