Introducing the Around the Foghorn 2014 Fantasy Baseball League

Good afternoon, friends. We at Around the Foghorn thought a great way to strengthen connections and make new friends would be through a Fantasy Baseball league. Whether you’ve never played, or you’re an experience veteran of Fantasy Baseball, this league was created for anybody that’s willing to commit to at least twenty-one weeks, with the possibility of three more weeks after that if you get to the Championship. Let me go over the nuts and bolts of what settings this league is, because that’s important. We will be playing through ESPN.

The Format

Mixed league (AL and NL players available), head-to-head weekly matchups with rosters having to be set at the beginning of the week. Five-by-five scoring with offense being: AVG, HR, AVG, OBP, SB (rewarding better performance at the plate than a reliance on other teammates). Pitching stats counted are: W, SV, K, ERA, WHIP. I groan that wins are counted, because #killthewin. Open to twenty teams (big number because we have lots of friends), the top eight teams will go to the playoffs for one-week matchups in each of the quarter-, semi-, and finals.

Your roster will have nine pitchers, one position player for every NL position, one corner infielder, one middle infielder, one utility player, three bench spots, and one DL spot. Rosters will start at 25 players, so that  influenced the amount of time each manager has to draft their player when I created the league.

The Draft

Monday, March 24th at 6:45PM PST, snake format (e.g., if there were four teams, it’d go: 1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1, and repeat), 30 seconds per pick (due to the twenty teams). Draft order is randomized by ESPN one hour before draft time. The longest this draft can possibly go is 250 minutes. It will not go 250 minutes. This is a work-night/school-night and I’m not staying up late. Get off my lawn.

How to Sign Up

We will be reserving spots for the Around the Foghorn team, and from there, it will be open to the public for people to hit me up. Get at me on Twitter and tell me you want to join the league, or e-mail at gostuartjones at gmail dot com if you don’t have twitter and are interested. Leaving comments on this article or on the Facebook post saying you want to play will not count as trying to reserve your spot for the league.

Feb 28, 2014; Phoenix, AZ, USA; San Francisco Giants first baseman Brandon Belt (9) hits a double in the second inning of their Spring Training baseball game with the Oakland Athletics at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY

After you Sign Up and Get Your Spot

Now’s where the planning starts. You can practice draft in the mock lobbies they have, you can plan where you’re going to take Brandon Belt, Pablo Sandoval, Buster Posey (#1 overall, duh), Sergio Romo, and tell everybody how Tim Lincecum “is your upside pick.” There are rumors this league will have A’s fans in it, too, so make sure to grab Eric Sogard, the truest #FaceOfMLB early in the game.

Good luck, everybody, and thanks for playing.