Fantasy Baseball...Drama?

It's not every day I wake up and think there will be a lot of bickering in a fantasy baseball league, where insults will be thrown at others' expense, vulgarity is utilized more times than not when attempting to make a point and the complaints are anything but few and far between. But, this is what I awoke to a few days ago.

In most fantasy baseball leagues I've participated, the winner of each game every week was determined by winning a majority of categories. These categories could include: At bats, hits, singles, doubles, triples, home runs, walks, strikeouts, runs batted in, stolen bases, innings pitched, wins, losses, saves, holds, earned run average, WHIP, etc. In one league I'm currently participating, there are 20 such categories. In Week 1, I won 14-6-0 (0 standing for ties). In week 2, I won 12-7-1 and in week 3, I won 10-4-6 for a combined record of 36-17-7. In the other league, a team wins a week based on points, which are tallied by a formula that either adds or subtracts points based on the stat(s). For example, when one of your pitchers strikes out a batter, that counts as 5 points. If one of your position players strikes out, that will lose you points. Due to the formula, pitchers dominate the league. In a single game for me this year, Philadelphia Phillies' pitcher, Cliff Lee, earned 141.00 pts. by himself. Adrian Gonzalez, the slugging 1st baseman for the Boston Red Sox, has a total of 160.00 pts. to this point of the season. Position players aren't of much value in the league. They may only be useful when working as a tie-breaker in a tightly contested match. Before going into the drama that unfolded, let me make note that there were no restrictions. An infinite number of moves could be made and there was no maximum or minimum of innings pitched.

One player in the league made 41 moves in the first 3+ weeks, for an average of about 13 moves per week. What did she do? Directly after a pitcher of her's threw, she'd drop him and pick up one whom was slated to throw the next day. She continually did this to gain an advantage in the league by using and abusing the system. I thought this was quite cheap and made mention of it. What point would there be in holding a draft if everyone based their score on quantity of starts as opposed to the quality of pitchers. This is how ridiculous it got. After St. Louis pitcher, Kyle Lohse, threw a complete game shut-out last week, compiling 114.00 pts., this lady dropped him. She did this on several occasions. So, to prove a point on how cheap and ridiculous this was, a buddy of mine and I dropped all of our position players and just picked up pitchers.

The drama started in the first reply to my complaint about how cheap this person was being with her 41 moves in a short duration. Someone quickly responded (not her) by saying the point was to score more points than the opponent and that there are many ways to go about it. He said that this person was strategizing to do just that and that this very method had been used in leagues prior. He closed by saying to do whatever it takes to win. The woman in charge of this team I complained about chimed in by saying something along the lines of, "Why would I play with the same team every day? Why would I play a player who is on the DL (Disabled List) when he's not going to play? Same with these pitchers. Why do I have one on my team if he's not going to play that day?" Lovely logic, isn't it? Things were relatively calm at this point, until my buddy and I made our moves and that's when the insults and profanity came a-flying.

I can tell these two individuals were never involved with a debate club in school and never majored in critical thinking and/or philosophy. Their inconsistencies, double standards and logic (lack there of) are ubiquitous. The argument that to waive pitchers the day after they throw and to then sign a pitcher whom is scheduled to throw that following day is equivalent to starting a position player, whom is on the DL, is ridiculous. A position player on the Disabled List could miss anywhere from 15 days to an entire season. They're on the DL for a reason; they aren't healthy enough to play baseball. No, it wouldn't make much sense to start a player that can't play. A team would be down to 7 position players to fill 8 positions. Good luck with that set-up! Starting pitchers throw every 4-5 games. There's a stark difference between the two situations. In reality, you'll never see the Philadelphia Phillies waive starting pitcher, Cliff Lee, the day after the throws and to then sign someone, whom hasn't thrown for 3-4 games, and can start the following day for them. That's preposterous and is what my friend and I attempted to illustrate by going over the top with our strategy. The two complainers of our strategy laid claim that we were being cheap, that it wasn't realistic to only possess pitchers on a team and that we should start a new sport, which only included pitching, and see how high ratings would be for it. Like I said just a bit ago, that's inconsistent. One unrealistic strategy is okay and another is not? Like the one guy said at the outset, the point of fantasy baseball is to score more points than your opponent. My buddy and I just used his words against him and how did he respond? He basically admitting to losing the argument by sarcastically stating he wishes he was as intelligent as my friend and I, that he wishes he could be just like us and asked where he could go to accomplish this. As I've learned through the years, when a person resorts to name-calling and useless banter such as this by sarcastically claiming the other to be superior to themselves, they're waiving the white flag.

Since then, the owner of the league has changed the settings, so that there may only be 6 moves made per week. That was the initial intention of my friend and my's over-the-top strategy. We just wanted to illustrate how asinine it was to make 41 moves in 3 weeks time, waiving and signing pitchers at a quicker clip than George W. Bush mispronounces words. Mission accomplished! The two of us have since let go of some pitchers and picked up enough position players to field a whole team, so the only complainer will likely be the woman whom made 41 moves in 3 weeks. Under the new guidelines, she will only be able to make 18 moves in three weeks time. It's such a pity when one attempts to take advantage of a system and it backfires on him/her.