Scoresheet co-founder Jeff Barton was the featured guest on the March 4th edition of the Rotowire Fantasy Sports Hour with host Jeff Erickson.

The two Jeffs talked about their thoughts on playing Scoresheet fantasy baseball and more. To tune into the rebroadcast online, just click on the link below:

Jeff Barton talks Scoresheet on Rotowire Fantasy Sports Hour

The Scoresheet BP Kings league features fantasy sports media going head-to-head against their contemporaries. If you are looking for insights for your own Scoresheet league, check out Geoff Young’s blog to see how he approaches the draft decision process.

Click here for his February 28th update, part of the Baseball Prospectus Unfiltered blog.

The baseball season, as far as Scoresheet afficianados go, is here now. The draft provides hours of enjoyment (and maybe some frustration when your super sleeper selection gets nabbed one pick before yours!) and is a big part of the fun in Scoresheet baseball every year.

Recently members from the Scoresheet Experts league, BL Kings, which features luminaries from the fantasy sports industry, got together to talk about the upcoming season.

Jeff Erickson of RotoWire chatted with Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan on the RotoWire Fantasy Sports Hour over on BlogTalkRadio.com. To hear the entertaining and enlightening show, check out the February 11th edition. The link below will take you directly to the page for that segment:

RotoWire Fantasy Sports Hour – February 11. 2010

Fellow BL Kings owner Geoff Young posted a rundown of how he approached the decision-making process for his team this season on his blog. You can check out his insights at the link below:

Baseball Prospectus Blog Article

Who knows, you might pick up a few good tips for your own Scoresheet teams!

Most successful Scoresheet team managers would agree that winning a championship without having at least a couple of top middle relievers is virtually impossible.  In real life baseball, most MLB starters only go 5-7 innings these days, and therefore are limited to that many innings in a Scoresheet game.  So, even if you have a great closer like Nathan or Rivera to take close out the 9th inning for you, your team still has to get thru the 7th and 8th innings.

But the kicker is knowing in February or March which middle relievers are going to have a great season.  After all, most middle relievers are in that role because their major league manager or GM does not think they are good enough to be either a starter or a closer. So middle relievers are even more unpredictable than pitchers in general.

Thus, rather than spending protected spots or high drafts picks on those risky middle relievers, most team owners use quite a few draft picks in round 18-28 on middle relievers, hoping that if they draft 4 or 5 of them that maybe 2 or 3 will turn out to be good picks (the shotgun approach).

My strategy is different. Instead of drafting a lot of middle relievers in hopes a couple work out, I prefer loading up on starting pitchers, getting at least 8 of them on my team before the baseball draft is over.  I do that because I know that come May there is certain to be at least a couple of teams in my league that need starting pitching (they will have holes due to injuries or just plain lousy performance by some of their starters.)  And I have found that teams that are desperate for starting pitching are often happy to trade away their best one or two middle relievers for even just a so-so starter, as those teams need the innings a starter provides.  They are willing to trade away pitchers with much better ERAs just to get the innings eater they need.

The difference between trading for a middle reliever in May and drafting one in March is that for some reason, a middle reliever who has a great April seems to keep up that great work all season long, but then next season may be completely different.  I do not know what it is that makes middle relievers perform so consistent for a whole season once they start the baseball season strong, and yet be so unpredictable from year to year.   That dichotomy is why I like my strategy of drafting starting pitchers and then trading them for middle relievers during the baseball season.

Remember the mid 90s when the Atlanta Braves went from worst to first? Remember the insane press coverage? You couldn’t go a day without hearing about Maddux, Chipper, or Justice. And forget about Bobby Cox.  He was everywhere.  But you know what?   Those guys didn’t annoy me.

They had attitude, but I was okay with it.  Maybe because they went from worst to first.  That underdog label, even with their incredible payroll, it worked.  Maybe the fact they had so many new or young players. I can’t really say. They had the  the batting, the pitching, the fielding.   And their own network, in case you forgot what TBS used to show 24/7.

Now lets talk about another team that has gotten a crazy amount of press over the last decade:: The New York Yankees.   Is anyone surprised that the Yankees are kicking butt in the American League?  Isn’t this 2006?  Seriously, they took the AL East for the 16th time. Yes, that’s impressive.  But I still hate the Yankees.

They are easy to dislike.  At least for me.  And its not just because they beat the Red Sox.  Hell, I’m really a National League fan, and a San Francisco Giants fan at that.   Maybe it’s like the Oakland Raiders.  I find them easy to dislike, mainly because I don’t like their fans.   The Raider Nation goes beyond obnoxious. I think it borders on criminal. But that’s a whole ‘nother sport.

The Yankees?  Kudos for repeating your winning history.  But I still ain’t happy about it.   And I really hope you don’t win.  No rhyme, no reason, just want to see someone else in the World Series.  Is that so wrong?

New player lists are up and it is time to start thinking about your draft.  I am going to try a new strategy this year in my continuing combined league.  http://www.scoresheet.com/FOR_WWW/BL_Velli.htm I haven’t made the playoffs in a decade, so something new is clearly needed.

It seems that in continuing leagues everyone is fixated on getting youth.  They are either willing to trade a star just because he is 32 years old for the new guy who might/maybe someday be as good as the guy they already have, or they skip drafting an older established good player for the young unproven hot prospect.  So, this year I am going to see if I can’t trade young guys for older stars, or spend my high draft picks on overlooked veterans, all in an effort to break my playoff drought.  Heck, as they say, flags fly forever, and I think I’ll make this the year to go for it even if I have to mortgage future performance.

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