Thursday, April 30, 2015

The PFBL Commish makes his picks!

Our own PFBL Commissioner has posted his full seven round Denver Broncos mock draft over at Mile High Report.  Check it out to see whether or not there is an appearance from this dude:



Wednesday, April 29, 2015

My initial 2015 All-Star ballot

All-Star voting is live online.  My first ballot--which as always is comprised both of players I think are deserving and players I like--is as follows:



I wish that I could select other position players to be the DH.  If that were the case, my 3B in the AL would be Adrián Beltré and Mike Moustakas would be the DH.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Greatest 1-3 putout of all time!

I guess all that PFP in Spring Training really paid off for Jon Lester!



And yes, this type of play has happened before.

The NBA regular season is over I guess.

Apparently there were a number of well placed shots this year:



Friday, April 17, 2015

My thoughts on the new Star Wars trailer...

The new Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer is out.  Watch it now:



My thoughts, complete with time stamp references to the above video:

0:10- Ah, the Lucasfilm logo.  Seeing this appear gives me flashbacks of

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Happy Birthday Nolan!

Here's his incredible catch from a few days ago:



Sunday, April 5, 2015

Predictions from the Commissioner's Desk

I know the season has already officially started, but here are my 2015 season picks, along with a few bold predictions:

5 Bold Predictions that will reduce Biff Tannen's Pleasure Paradise to a pile of ruble

This is the season that we've been awaiting for more than 25 years, ever since Back to the Future 2 predicted the outcome of the World Series. SPOILER ALERT! I'm hear to tell you they got it wrong. You can throw out they Gray's Sports Alamanc in favor of what's below, my annual predictions.



Happy Easter!

HE IS RISEN!



Saturday, April 4, 2015

2015 MLB Predictions

Kristi's picks:
NL East - Nationals
NL Central - Cardinals
NL West - Dodgers
NL WC1 - Padres
NL WC2 - Braves

AL East - Red Sox
AL Central - Royals
AL West - Mariners
AL WC1 - Tigers
AL WC2 - Orioles

World Series:

Another thought about the PFBL outfielders...

I mean, does this look totally strange or what?


Wouldn't it be better if the maximum games played looked like this instead:

LF - 162
CF - 162
RF - 162
OF - 162

Or is it just me?
 

Bo knows Bo.

Unlike young Drake LaRoche here:



SMH!  If you need an

Friday, April 3, 2015

OF Overload!

As I looked over my roster on this Friday before opening day, something caught my eye:

Does this look strange to anyone else?

With the PFBL being trimmed to eight teams, rosters increased to 25 for each team.  Starting positions also changed as well.  Previously, the offensive positions were C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF, Util, Util.  This season, one additional Util spot was added, and the two previous Util spots were changed to be one IF and OF one spot.  This is the lineup construction that I voted for and I'm glad that it's what the majority of the PFBL affirmed.

However, the more I see this new roster setup, the more it looks strange to me.  The block of four OF spots just seems to stick out to me.  Every infield roster spot aside from IF is specifically delineated by its defensive position around the diamond.  But when it comes to the outfield, there is no such precision.  It's just a glut of generic OF spots.  Heck, it kinda looks like I just have four rovers playing in my outfield.

Since the PFBL has already drafted, I don't think it would be appropriate to make any changes right now.  But for 2016, I think the PFBL constituency should consider changing the offensive roster spots in the outfield to be LF, CF, RF and OF, with the infield and Util spots unchanged.  That would result in an offensive lineup that looks like C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, IF, LF, CF, RF, OF, Util

If specified outfield positions have been previously considered for the PFBL, it's been too long for me to remember precisely how that conversation went.  I imagine that the idea was likely dismissed since (1) it is less common among fantasy baseball settings, (2) it adds too much complexity, and (3) it forces owners to deal with even more position scarcity.  In response, I'd say that the PFBL has evolved a great deal since its early days.  It now resembles nothing like any other fantasy baseball league I've ever heard of, and it features an immense amount of complexity.  Position scarcity would be an issue that owners have to face, but I don't think it would be a significant one since the eight-team PFBL is a shallow league.  If, say, CF is a scarce position talent-wise, that means only eight of the thirty starting CFs in the majors would need to be owned, leaving no less than twenty-two CFs left over--and this doesn't even account for players that will be eligible at CF as well as other corner OF (or infield) positions.  Moreover, the generic OF and Util spots would still be available for an owner to start up to four corner outfielders at a time.

Finally, the PFBL strives to simulate real baseball from a managerial perspective as much as possible.  I believe that this change could advance that longstanding goal.  After all, no competitive major league team could field three Manny Ramírez-type defenders in left, center and right field at the same time!

What do you think, OSITF readers?  Am I focusing too much on appearances?  Would this change turn out to be an aggravating novelty?  Or is this a good idea for a now-shallow(er) league like the PFBL?