Conspicuous by his absence...

[klaiggeb]

Anyone heard from Mark?

Has to be... a couple of weeks (3?) since we've heard from him.

boly

[donk33]

dk...he was at spring training....see Facebook

[Rog]

Mark is a busy guy! Two weeks from tonight, he has two fantasy drafts scheduled back-to-back, if not overlapping. Just as he is a salient poster here, he's a very good fantasy manager.

As I mentioned to my co-worker today, fantasy baseball is not REAL baseball. It has to do only with statistics, but while I never expected to play it, I've definitely learned a few things from it. Where it IS similar to real baseball is that the fantasy player is his own general manager and field manager. Not only does he make draft decisions in order to build an entire new team every spring, but he has to decide when to cut players and when to add them to his roster. He also makes trades up until the trade deadline. I've learned that isn't as easy as it would seem.

There are no in-game decisions to make as the "field manager," but every day the fantasy manager has to make out a lineup based on platoons, match ups, recovery from injuries, not knowing until close to game time if a player will be starting his game in the real world or not, and even weather.

It's far different from the real thing, but there are a lot of similarities as well. There is no in-game strategy, but just about everything that IS in the fantasy game involves a lot of strategy -- both as GM and manager. Once the game starts, the fantasy manager's job is done for the day, but until then, he makes many decisions that are similar to those made by the real GM and field manager.

I think the guys who played in our league last season enjoyed it -- and that included even Mordy and Mark's two sons. And of course Boagie, the organizer.

Aside from "living" the GM and pre-game strategy of the manager, I found that my best learning experience was simply learning about the individual players and learning about how to spot when players are entering or coming out of slumps or hot streaks. Mostly I learned how difficult it is. I learned about prospects too.

And sometimes I merely learned that my own prospects weren't very good, that I had both a lousy manager and a lousy GM! My biggest mistakes were in proposing trades. I'd get bored and try to make trades merely for the excitement, often making lousy ones.

What I learned from that is how it would be easy to get impatient as a real GM when not being able to make a trade even as you desperately want to improve your team. With the fans wanting to see positive changes, it must be really tempting to react just to be reacting. I also learned that sometimes it's not just the player you trade for or claim on waivers, it's the TIME you do so.

And I learned how to put a roster together. And I learned how tough it is to compile a balanced roster. Being a fantasy GM and manager isn't nearly as tough as the real thing, but it does give a taste, which can be a little eye-opening.

[klaiggeb]

Don:

I don't do facebook, but thanks.

boly