TGP Fantasy Baseball League 2012: Organizational Meeting

Just like the real players do, it's time for all of us TGP Fantasy Players to report to the blog for the first organizational meeting. I'm sure it will come as a relief to more than a few of you out there to know that you are spared the bodily fluid tests. If everything else checks out, it's game time.

The purpose of this post is to outline our fantasy league structure(s) for 2012. Individual leagues will get into the nitty gritty of transaction and roster details, etc., later. This is one last check for interest, as well as a call for responses from those with veteran clubhouse (fantasy) presence as to where you'd prefer to play. Based on your responses, we'll make final participant selections by next week (I'll aim for Wednesday so we can get on with our lives and, you know, do meaningful stuff like comment on the FSU game thread).

Please read below and comment.

I. League Structure - 2012 TGP Fantasy Baseball Leagues

Recognizing both the many who expressed interest as well as the blog's growth, this year we'll branch out into TWO (2!) separate 16-team TGP season-long rotisserie leagues, organized thusly:

A. "The Good (Phight) League: This league, under the direction of Good League Co-President Phrozen and Trev223, will remain with CBS. For those who played last year and are interested in remaining, you'll get first crack at staying here, or moving to the new league if you'd like to self-realign this club (see Participants, below).

Stat categories will remain the same as last year, which were:
Offense- OBP, SLG, HR, RBI, SB-CS Pitching- QS, FIP, K, BB, SV+HLD-BS

B. The (Good) Phight League: This league, under the direction of Phight League Co-Presidents phillies0100 and dannijd, will be on Yahoo! 2011 players are welcome here, as are new players who've expressed interest.

Stat categories will mirror the Good League as best as possible, but like the DH in the AL, Yahoo! doesn't carry FIP, so the proposed categories will be:
Offense- OBP, SLG, HR, RBI, SB-CS Pitching- Net Save, HLD (or the quirky BAA?), ERA, BB, K, QS

A la Selig, I'll be moving Team WL into this league for lifestyle reasons that include: daily lineup flexibility, a 2-year struggle with the finer points of FIP, and to represent the SBN partnership with Yahoo! - ymmv, but if you played last year, let us know which league you'd prefer. If there's more information you need to make a choice, ask in the comments.

II. Relegation
To keep the maximum amount of interest going season-long, we introduce a relegation feature, in which the top 8 finishers in each league get their choice next year of which league they wish to play in during 2013.

III. Participants
Even with league expansion, we're likely not going to be able to accommodate all interested players. The league presidents and I, your Fantasy Commissioner, will make player determinations based on a Delphic Oracle calculation that factors in your activity on the blog (not just time, but time well-spent, too). Sorry lurkers, we love you dearly, but it's time we smoked you out. Get posting!

Those players were (bolded if they've expressed an interest in re-upping or struckthrough if not). Plain text = no reply one way or t'other, so please clarify your interest if you're out there:

Jose and the Contrarians
BudVugger
Leepin Lizardz
Philsandthrills
Wet Luzinski - realigning to Yahoo!; shadowy, Venetian-blinded 2012 Fantasy Commish
CoburnsCuddleBuddy
RememberThePhitans
Cormican
Walcott
Montreal Rexpos (EREX21)
LondonPhillie
FuquaManuel
The Phrozen - 2012 League co-President
Trev223 - 2012 League co-President
dannijd - realigning to Yahoo!; 2012 League co-President
j reed
ThinMountainAir
FearTheTurtle

Posters who already expressed interest in this thread or this thread, in no particular order:

phillies0100 - 2012 League co-President
CoburnsCuddleBuddy
VanceinmyPants
Joecatz
Eaglesadvocate
JpH89
TheOrangeCone
The Mad Hopper
doubleh
howard is better than pujols
FanSince1993
88Lindros88
esentman
Airedale260
Missing Jamie Moyer
Fear the Turtle
corwinnelinnel110
The Fish
Johnny Best
BigLumber55
Airedale260
Delicious Cake
Ant
The Legend
Cole_Hamels_Can
TwistyWristy

If I missed you or you're late to the party, sign on in the comments.

By my count, that's 41 participants, which after we select 32 on Wednesday, a few of you will be outside looking in. If you don't make the cut, there's still time to start your own league or join up with others. If three other posters want to express interest, you could start up your own 12-person league as well, and appeal to me, the shadowy Fantasy Commissioner Uber Alles, for official recognition.

IV. Draft Day
We'll target Sunday, March 18, as the likeliest draft day. Actual start times can be hashed out on the boards (usually depending on how spread out participants are on the globe). For you n00bs out there, if you want to be present for every round, block out a good three hours for this; if you can't devote that time, leagues have an Auto-pick feature that you can set yourself or simply "let the computer do it."

V. Cost/Prizes
Free to play; CBS league entry costs have been taken care of thanks to anonymous donor(s) who recognize we have more than a few struggling college and grad school types up in here. We don't play for prize money in these parts. Trash talk is our forte, rain delays and lulls in the action on game threads is when it heats up.