New positions:  397 Harris,Br (3B 2.62); 460 Uribe,Ju (3B 2.65); 483 Atkins,Ga (1B 1.83);
 528 Amezaga,Al (3B 2.65); 539 Bruntlett,Er (3B 2.65); 544 Barmes,Cl (3B 2.65).
 
Scoresheet Baseball  August 4th, 2008
 
	Hi All:  There are 8 full weeks (roughly 50 games) of regular 
season games left after this report, meaning there is a lot of baseball 
yet to be played this year!  And in Scoresheet, I think the standings 
can change even more dramatically in the last few weeks of a season 
than they do in the majors.  Plus, as pointed out a couple of weeks 
ago, most Scoresheet leagues do have a wild card also making the 
playoffs.  So don't just look at how far back you are of the first place 
team; also take a look at where you stand in the wild card hunt.  
 
	Next week we will have a lengthy discussion of how the 
playoffs work. But for now, I'd like to mention that we have done 
our best to design our playoff system so that 'weird' trades just for 
the playoffs do NOT make sense.  How your players will do in the 
playoffs is based partly on how they do in September, and partly 
how they performed all season long.  But playing time in the 
playoffs is ONLY based on how much a guy plays in the last 4 
weeks of the major league regular season.  We do this so that some 
owner who is playoff bound can't trade a scrub player to a non-
playoff contender for a guy who is out for the rest of the year but 
had good early season stats.  To avoid having those kind of trades 
influence the playoffs, we have a simple rule - if a guy does not 
play in the majors in the last 4 weeks of the season than he can't 
play in the Scoresheet playoffs.
 
TRADE BAIT: We've once again printed the 'trade bait' info for all 
leagues. What these 'most unused playing time' sections show is 
the players in your league who have the biggest difference that week 
between their major league and Scoresheet playing time. Some of 
these players are recent draft picks that have not yet been put in a 
new lineup by their owners, but this info should still help you see 
which teams have extra players at various positions.  You may also 
see a player show up on those 'unused' lists that is having a pretty 
darn good season so far, but is still not being used by his owner.  
Maybe a call to that owner can get you a little known player for little 
cost, but who could fit nicely into your lineup or rotation.
 
	Don't forget that there is a TRADING DEADLINE in Scoresheet.  
This year the deadline is Labor Day morning, September 1st 
(before the first major league game starts on Labor Day).  And 
once again, please ONLY make trades if they are designed to help 
your team.  Obviously some teams will be out of the hunt for a 
crown by late August, but no matter where you are in the standings 
please do not make trades just to help a buddy out.  When you make 
a trade think of how your fellow owners will view the trade - we all 
play fantasy baseball for fun, and that fun can be ruined if someone 
in the league is making unfair trades.  Thanks again for your 
cooperation!
 
          -----------------------------------
 
Fantasy BB Symposium:  
The folks at Ron Shandler's BaseballHQ.com are once again 
putting on a weekend fantasy baseball conference centered on the 
Arizona Fall league. This year's meeting begins with a welcome 
reception Thursday evening, October 30th, and runs thru Sunday 
afternoon, November 2nd.  Included among many other fun 
activities are seminars on fantasy baseball draft and trade strategies; 
tips on how to evaluate players (both major and minor leaguers); 
tickets to four AFL Arizona Fall League games; and some fun 
bonding with other fantasy players.  Fantasy baseball experts such as 
Baseball HQ's Ron Shandler and Deric McKamey, Jeff Erickson of 
Rotowire, Peter Kreutzer of mlb.com, Lawr Michaels of 
CreativeSports, Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus, along with 
many others, will all be leading various discussions.  I will also be 
there, and I will be leading a couple of seminars on various fine 
points of Scoresheet, and answering any and all questions on 
Scoresheet you might have.  
 
	I will also be attending all the ballgames - there will be plenty 
of chances to talk at length about Scoresheet, along with time to pick 
the brains of the many experts Ron has assembled.  Plus sitting a 
couple of rows behind home plate, watching future stars, and talking 
fantasy baseball (and Scoresheet in particular) is hard to beat.  If 
you'd like more information about the Arizona Seminar, check out 
the official web site, at:  
http://www.baseballhq.com/seminars/arizona.shtml
 
NOTE:  Other than me going every year, Scoresheet has 
nothing to do with sign-ups; this is strictly a BaseballHQ run event.  
I'll be happy to answer any questions I can, but contacting 
BaseballHQ is the best way to get questions answered, price and 
sign up info, etc. When you sign up please do mention you are a 
Scoresheet player - the more Scoresheet guys the more pull we have 
as far as designing conference topics.  Please note - BBHQ does 
offer Early Bird pricing - register by August 31st and save $70!
 
	Have a winning week! 	        -     Jeff Barton
 
P.S. The start of football season is almost here.  If you would like to 
get into a league please let us know to save you a spot. Once we hear 
from you we will send you complete drafting info. - Jeff
 
 
Scoresheet Sports, PO Box 1097, Grass Valley, CA 95945  
(530) 470-1880 phone  (530) 470-1885 fax   
staff@scoresheet.com   www.scoresheet.com