It has been a while coming, but it is time to take a quick look at how things are shaking down in the RotoRob Regulars 15-team Fantasy baseball league.

In this, our second year of running the site baseball league, we have seen a lot more of the same from last year’s winner Steve Parsons. The proud owner of the Hidalgo All-Stars is currently leading the pack with 122 points. As purveyor of the “Thrash and Dash Strategy,” he has made a whopping 236 moves as of this writing. Do the math, folks. We are looking at close to two transactions daily over the course of the full season.

More importantly, he has managed a great 12-plus point average across the board as he attempts to make it back-to-back titles. I’d list some of his more memorable acquisitions, but unfortunately I do have a 1,000 word limit per article (that I rarely follow) as imposed by RotoRob himself. Great job, Steve!

Cory Humes representing the fine folks over at MVN is currently running in second with 115.5 points, a scant six and a half points behind our current leader. Some rather astute pickups starting with Felix Pie, Matt LaPorta and Garrett Jones have been instrumental in Cory’s great surge that has vaulted him into contention over the past several weeks. Well done, Cory, and good fortunes keeping that Hidalgo guy honest as we head for home.

Next up on the leaderboard we have the sarcastic stylings of Team Razzball who spent most of the summer slugging it out with the Hidalgo crew for first place, only to have fallen back to 111.5 points and tough times over the past several weeks. His team BA has plummeted of late with Brad Hawpe, Raul Ibanez, and Andrew McCutcheon being the main contributors. The second half has not been kind to Grey and Rudy, but they do have a pile of innings to play with and a late charge can certainly not be ruled out.

Bob Sikon from Fantasy Baseball Trade Market is currently manning the fourth slot with 105 points. He has assembled a formidable pitching staff anchored by Justin Verlander, Wandy Rodriguez and Scott Baker. Bob is also one of the bravest men I know, picking up Barry Zito not once, but twice in the same week.

In fifth at 91 points we have none other than the master of mockery himself, Geoff Stein from Mock Draft Central, who has been rolling along at a steady clip right from the get-go. That Ben Zobrist pickup back at the beginning of May was certainly a great one.

Moving down the ladder I’d be totally remiss if I didn’t pass on congratulations to RotoRob writers Todd Habiger and Jordan Frank, who are currently holding their own at sixth and seventh respectively. Team Habiger has bounced back rather nicely after a disappointing 12th-place showing last year. When you’re a life long Royals’ fan, anything outside of the basement is certainly reason for celebration.

Other than our fearless leader Steve, who I find it a bit of a reach to call “regular,” it has been a tough year for our reader challengers. I must mention the great effort put forth by Doug Mitchell from the Cannot Cantu squad who has played it hard right out of the gate and continues to give it 100 per cent as we head for home. I certainly take my hat off to him as he continues to struggle through myriad injuries while striving to improve his lot down the stretch. Good job, Doug!

In ninth we have last year’s runner-up, Dave McBride of Full Mountie fame. Next year, Dave, remember there are more than five categories and I’m sure we’ll see you right back up at the top of the leader board.

Rounding out our Top 10 is Kevin Orris from FantasyPros911, who I personally have to thank for stealing Mike Aviles from under my nose in the 10th round. After fighting for the rights to Aviles through countless mock drafts this spring I can extend my heartfelt congratulations to Kevin for beating me to the punch in the real deal.

Right on the heels of Orris is our half-time substitution, Andrea LaMont from Blogtalkradio. Thanks for stepping up to the plate and trying to right an abandoned ship. Just imagine what those results could have been if you had a full season to fill that roster with your favourite players from Beantown.

Normally I wouldn’t spend much time analyzing the last few stragglers, but this year I’ve had the opportunity to actually be one of them. When your first four picks happen to be Jose Reyes, Aramis Ramirez, Vladimir Guerrero and Geovany Soto, it isn’t looking real pretty. Toss in a sprinkling of Daisuke Matsuzaka, Audrey (oops, I meant Aubrey) Huff, and Brandon Morrow and it is easy to see how I’m currently slugging it out in 13th with two inactive teams. Erik frigging Bedard…what was I thinking, or was that not thinking? Adam Jones’ injury just proved to be the icing on the proverbial cake. The game of Fantasy baseball can be a very humbling experience and humbled I most certainly am.

Finally, I’d like to thank all the participants this year. It has been another fun-filled year and in the true spirit of the game I have been very fortunate to continue many good friendships and establish many new ones, playing one of the greatest games known to man. Good fortunes to all as we head into those last few crucial weeks.

With baseball season just around the corner, now’s a great time to remind our readers that Draftbug, the site where you can play alternative forms of fantasy sports, is offering 4,000 free player points (that’s $4) if you sign up before the end of March. Want to save those points until baseball season starts? No freaking problem, my friends.

You need to monitor Draftbug often, as the site is constantly offering freerolls, and those puppies fill up quickly, way to quick for us to update you on them.

Speaking of baseball, last Sunday, Draftbug posted its first baseball contest. It’s a $100 freeroll contest, with spots for 200 people, so you better act quick, as spots are filling rapidly, with 84 people signed up already at last check. This is a slightly different format than usual (as most Draftbug contests run only one day): you pick 10 hitters within a salary cap and score points only for home runs through the end of April. How’s that for an interesting twist? Anyways, the top 20 places will win cash prizes, with first place taking home a cool $24 (that’ll buy you a couple of brewskies). Remember, registration for both the site and the contest are free.

Go check out the $100 April Home Run Derby freeroll on Draftbug now! Well, alright, wait for a commercial break in your March Madness viewing.

The site has also opened up some other April Home Run derby contests, with entry fees of $1, $5, and $11. Over the next few days, Draftbug will begin adding “normal” contests for Opening Day.

By ALEX ZELVIN, Draftbug.com

Despite being a multi-billion dollar industry, online sports betting in the United States currently has an ambiguous legal status. Additionally, even if you overlook its unclear legality, it can be difficult getting money into (and out of) online sportsbooks. That’s a real shame, because having a piece of the action on a game you’re watching can really enhance the enjoyment of sporting events. So can beer, but that’s another story.

Luckily there’s a new alternative (not to beer, but to online sports betting), which has all of the advantages of sports betting, without any of the drawbacks. Daily fantasy sports contests like Draftbug allow players to pick a team of players, and win (or lose) cash based on the statistical performance of those players on that day. Fantasy sports are completely legal, deposits can be made by credit card, and payment or withdrawals by cheque. Unlike traditional fantasy sports, Draftbug doesn’t require a season-long commitment, which is perfect for those among us who are borderline ADD. Sorry…what was I talking about? Oh, right…gambling. Picking a team takes about five minutes, and results are calculated the same day.

Draftbug is currently offering daily basketball and hockey contests and baseball will be available on Opening Day (April 5). Registration is free, and a promotion providing 4,000 player points (which allows entry in $4 of real money contests) has been extended until the end of March.

So what the hell. Get off your duff and give it a shot. Tell them RotoRob sent you and get a free Chinchilla! Okay, not really. But still, mmm…chinchillas. I hear they make great pets.

Editor’s Note: Did you miss the boat on joining an NBA fantasy league this fall? No problem-o. Over at Draftbug.com you can hop in whenever you like and play in a fantasy league that features a shorter season. Try daily or weekly leagues. That sure takes the sting out watching your team suck all season after a crappy draft. Go check out Draftbug.com and tell them RotoRob sent you (we get free Popsicles for every one who signs up!).

BY ALEX ZELVIN, Draftbug.com

I realize that most of you are primarily interested in fantasy baseball, but since it’s basketball season, I thought I’d share some fantasy hoops strategy to help you win at Draftbug and other daily fantasy basketball contests (such as Snapdraft). My approach to this (and it’s worth mentioning that I haven’t had time to try this out yet) is fairly similar to the approach I used to win the 2008 Rotohog Baseball contest. I’d recommend doing the following in MS-Excel:

1. Calculate player statistics in all scoring categories per minute played. This gives you an idea how good the player is when they’re actually in the game.

2. Estimate expected minutes played for all players. Assuming that you don’t follow basketball closely, I’d probably use something like the average of the last five or 10 games. You’re going to miss out on players filling in for very short periods when someone is injured (and those probably are the best values), but at least you’ll also avoid giving a high ranking to most players who were filling in and will be pushed to the bench by returning players. Giving someone who won’t play a top rating is a much worse mistake to make here than underrating someone who will play more than expected. For instance, don’t put too much stock into the fact that Daniel Gibson played 32 minutes Tuesday night in the Cavs’ win over the Raptors. First of all, it was a blowout win. Secondly, with Sasha Pavlovic sidelined with the flu, Boobie got extra run. That won’t happen consistently, so don’t let it fool you into overinflating his value.

3. Make an adjustment to play statistics based on whether the player is home or away. I would add 2 per cent for home players and subtract 2 per cent for players on the road. That may be slightly under adjusting, but in general I’d rather do this than overshoot with my adjustments.

4. Make an adjustment for opponent. You can get fancy with this and try to use statistics for how opponents affect specific statistics or players at specific positions’ stats, but for starters just calculate the impact specific teams have on opponents’ scoring, and adjust projections by that amount. So if a given team allows 95 points per game vs. a league average of 100 points per game, then adjust their opponents’ projections in all categories down the difference (in this case, 5 per cent, so your calculation will be projections x 0.95).

5. Calculate a points projection using Draftbug’s scoring system based on the statistical projection you’ve done.

6. Select a team that balances solid undervalued players based on your points projection with top rated players (who may or may not be underpriced).

You can refine this strategy to be more precise, but I’m fairly certain that it will be a winning one, even in the relatively crude form described above.

I’m going to try to take some of Steve’s advice next year and stay away from underachievers and cripples, something I saw way too much of this past season. Now let’s move forward to our very deserving champion Steve’s words of wisdom:

In this special election year edition of the RotoRob’s Regulars (a 15-team mixed, vanilla 5×5 league of writers, bloggers and a few loyal players assembled by Tim McLeod, who surely regrets it now), we gathered together in order to form a more perfect union of quantitatives and qualitatives. A bipartisan mixture of hitting and pitching. One that balanced the needs of middle class infielders with the elites of starting pitching while at the same time not overtaxing our valuable resources of steals and saves.

The mighty Hidalgo All-Stars rode a fantastic roster guided by my unparalleled expertise to a rousing victory. My strategy was basically to not mess up too badly at the draft, and to set up a little shrine of crystals, magnets and, for some reason a 1971 Oscar Robertson trading card, to ward off the injury bugs. One-hundred and thirty-six transactions and one trade later and we had a winner, finishing with 121 points, 12 points more than the second-place Full Mounties!

Gleaned from 25 years of Fantasy play in all sports (Sammy Wynder, if you’re out there, I owe ya!) and this year’s victory, here are SteveP’s 10 immutable principals for fantasy victory. Follow these and you can’t lose:

1. Do not draft players who subsequently get major injuries or unexpectedly stink — This season, I demonstrated this by not drafting Victor Martinez, David Ortiz, Aaron Harang and others. Just ask your league mate who invested a second round pick on V-Mart this past season. They didn’t win. Don’t make this mistake; that’d be like drafting Tom Brady.

2. Manage your risk — Make sure that all of your risky guys do well and don’t let any of them get major injuries. To implement this strategy, this I picked up Brad Lidge at pick 92, Rich Harden at 179, Troy Percival at 209 (see below) and Milton Bradley at 272. Getting players at a discount because of age/injury risk who then universally perform well is a great source of value.

3. It is vital that you follow up your trades correctly — For instance, in my only trade I dealt Hideki Matsui, Julio Lugo and Percival for Chone Figgins. On the face of this, I overpaid for a mixed season for Figgy, but I followed up, and shortly afterwards Lugo and Matsui were done for the year. Percival, who for me had 14 saves and an ERA of 2.95 with a WHIP of 0.66 in two months, afterwards had 14 saves in four months with an ERA of 5.92 and a WHIP of 1.73 for my trading partner. Remember that to maximize your trade value, it’s not only important for you to fill a need, you really want the goods you are selling to stink up the place worse than a Barry Zito start.

4. Sometimes the trade you don’t make is the best one, part I –- After Justin Upton’s fine start, I made an offer to his owner. He declined, and Upton was an albatross around his neck for the rest of the season. Make sure the players you don’t get end up tanking big time and remember to crow about it next year.

5. Sometimes the trade you don’t make is the best one (sorta), part II -– I had a hankering for the fine canuck backstop of the Dodgers. I made an offer (remember his slow start, Russell Martin owners? Yeah, I didn’t think so) which as I recall involved a bucket of warm spit and two used wiffle balls. The owner declined much more politely than I deserved, and he didn’t win. See, by not making that trade he helped me to victory…at least that’s the way I am going to pimp this story when I am offering bad, buy-low sucker deals next season.

6. When old players with recent histories of declining play or players sent to the minors for awful performance are cut by other teams, choose the ones that are going to play like a phoenix rising from the ashes — Three examples:

Mike Mussina (age 39)
2007 — 11 wins, 5.15 ERA, 1.47 WHIP
2008 (for me) — 16 wins, 3.19 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 127 Ks

Jason Giambi (37)
2007 — 31 runs, 14 homers, 39 RBI, .236 BA , one steal
2008 (for me) — 52 runs, 25 homers, 76 RBI, .259 BA, one steal

Brett Myers (dropped prior to his fine finish)
2008 (not for me) — four wins, 5.44 ERA, 1.52 WHIP, 100 Ks
2008 (for me) — six wins, 2.86 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 65 Ks

[Due to the wonders of modern technology, one reader asks: “Steve, what kind of site would actually print this? This isn't strategy, you just got lucky.” Ha Ha, excellent question, thanks for writing. Indeed, this is the only web site where you can get this caliber of information, but only when RotoRob is on vacation and forgets to lock the liquor cabinet.]

7. When your pickup doesn’t work, get something else out of the player, part I — Looking at Francisco Rodriguez’s workload, injury history, that he would soon have the save record and that the Angels had wrapped up the division (they would never pitch him on the last weekend in a non-save situation down four runs…oh wait, they did), I grabbed Jose Arredondo for some bonus saves. No saves were forthcoming, but I got a bushel of cheapy vulture wins.

8. When your pickup doesn’t work, get something else out of the player, part II -– In the last weekend, I stood to gain two points in steals, so I grabbed speedster Josh Anderson. No stolen bases, but Anderson, who had four home runs in nearly 500 minor league at bats this season (after hitting two in 513 last year), hit two home runs in one game giving me a point and a half in home runs and RBI.

9. When you’re dropping and adding the same player, make sure you get all their good months and none of the bad — Here I am thinking of Andre Ethier (20th round draft pick), dropped in the middle of the year and then re-acquired just before Manny Ramirez went to the Dodgers. With my team, Ethier had 54 runs, 10 homers, 47 RBI, a .328 BA and three steals, while on waivers he had 36 runs, 10 homers, 30 RBI, a .173 BA and three steals.

10. The Oscar Robertson card — you need to get an Oscar Robertson card.

I followed through on this strategy in most of my leagues, and it proved to be a very successful one. What did I do in this league? I decided to look at a different approach and grabbed a couple of stud pitchers early, and lo and behold it worked. I’m currently battling it out with Grey from Razzball for ninth overall. Thanks to Grey for the Jermaine Dye and Kevin Kouzmanoff for Carlos Zambrano deal, as hopefully it allows me to move up into at least the land of the mediocre.

This league further reinforced my thoughts on that spring strategy. I decided to step outside the box and went with Johan Santana and Zambrano early, and — surprise, surprise — I got exactly what I should have, misery. I guess it also didn’t help that I drafted Eric Byrnes, B.J. Upton and Ryan Zimmerman. In a league with this many savvy participants there is no room for either injury or serious underachieving, and I had more than my share of both.

Now, on to the good news. As of Thursday we have ourselves a serious log jam at the top, with Cory from Seamless Baseball at the top of the board with 107 points. Next in line is Steve, proud owner of the Hidalgo All-Stars and his thrasher approach at 106.5. Hey Steve, you’re looking at a first here, as you’re currently not the league leader in total transactions. There are still six weeks left, so I’m sure that will be changing.

Currently in third place at 106 is Geoff from Mock Draft Central, followed by our own Jordan from RotoRob at 105.5. Bringing up the rear on our list of the top five contenders would be regular reader Dave at 102.5. How Dave is doing so well without Bengie Molina on his squad is a total mystery to me. This league has quite the crew and it’s been a very tight race to say the least.

After that we have about a ten point drop to the tandem of Brett and Jason from Fantasy Phenoms currently sitting at 92.5, and then a further drop into a pack of about four other teams currently slugging it out for the mid-pack honours. I’m just curious here, but has anyone seen Todd these days? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone finish 16th in a 15-team league before, but we could be looking at a first here!

What I do find very interesting is that there is no single team that appears to have an edge at this stage of the season. Each of our leaders has their inherent weaknesses and, with the categories extremely tight, this provides for a very volatile situation. Eight teams are within five wins of each other. The top four are all bunched up in the WHIP category, and they were even all tied earlier in the week. One good or bad start from a starting pitcher is going to make a huge difference. Almost every category provides an opportunity for the leaders to move either up or down on a daily basis.

This is probably going down to that last weekend in September and a “Last Team Standing” scenario.

My congratulations and thanks to all the participants this year and good fortunes to all, as we head into the stretch run!

We’re looking at a standard H2H format with six playoff slots, or should I say five now that I’ve got mine booked (might as well start the trash talking early because I’m usually done by about Week Three) with a live draft scheduled for Sunday August 24th at 3:30 p.m. EST.

This is certainly the opportunity of a lifetime for those looking to heap plenty of abuse on yours truly as I’m still trying to live down my outstanding selection of Daunte Caulpepper from a few years back. I’ve actually done much better since then by enlisting the services of my good friend and partner, Otto Paek, who has provided some outstanding assistance in assembling my teams the past several seasons. To all interested readers, feel free to fire off an e-mail to me and we can hold a slot for you in what should be a memorable and fun league.

A spokesperson for the players union responded with the old tried and true, “We’re looking at our options at this time,” and MLB had “no comment.” Someone enlighten me here, because I just can’t see a whole lot of options. Give it up guys, it’s over and done and leave us fantasy fans to the game we love. C.B.C. Distribution and Marketing Inc., which originally launched this suit, has a free-speech right to use the names and performance statistics of professional athletes, as both a federal judge and then a U.S. appeals court in St. Louis had determined in earlier judgments.

Maybe it’s just about time that the game recognized the value of the fantasy player in the grand scheme of things. An article by RotoRob back in August 2006 more than summarizes my feelings on this topic. Have we not gone to games, bought the apparel, and stuck by a sport/industry that has endured more than its fair share of recent problems?

We talk the talk and walk the walk, and maybe, just maybe, the “Business of Baseball” can now without recourse allow the “Fantasy Fans” of baseball to enjoy the game that we hold so near and dear.

Geoff Stein – Mock Draft Central
Cory Humes – Seamless Baseball
Jay Sarney – The Grass is Greener
Grey Albright – Razzball
Matthew Blake – MLBHub and AZHS
and Jordan, James, Daniel and Tim M. from your hosts at RotoRob

We currently have four slots open for our loyal readers, so the opportunity to show us your expertise is one simple click away. Hey Todd, we’ve listened to you talk the talk, maybe we should now see if you can walk the walk? For any and all interested please e-mail me for the details.

Are you ready to compete against the experts, including members of Team RotoRob?

We’re looking for a few good fantasy baseball players to accept the challenge in this, our first annual event. The league is a 15-team, standard 5×5 format, and the draft is slated for March 19.

Nothing tricky, nothing fancy, just an opportunity for you the reader to play against a group of seven highly esteemed writers and bloggers for fantasy baseball bragging rights. For the winner, we’ll also toss in a copy of next year’s Fantasy Baseball Guide and give you the opportunity to explain to the world your strategy on how you conquered all, in your own article here on the site. The experts component of this years league is comprised of:

Geoff Stein – Mock Draft Central
Matthew Blake - MLB Hub
Corey Humes - MVN Seamless Baseball
Jordan Frank - RotoRob
James Morris - RotoRob
Tim McLeod - RotoRob
Daniel Olson - RotoRob
Steve Simon - RotoRob

Any and all interested parties please feel free to contact either myself or Rob as soon as possible. We would like to finalize our plans in the next week or so and with only eight open slots, this league should fill fairly quick. If you think you have what it takes to show this esteemed crew how to play the game, or are just looking for the opportunity to have some fun picking on the old guy, drop us a line.