Have You Evolved Hotbox Baseball

[benfranklin]

To the delight of many fantasy enthusiasts a new version of fantasy basketball and baseball is sweeping the underground fantasy realm. In reality, it’s not so new… because if you have ever played fantasy football, this game is a natural fit.

The Evolution

The first major difference in Hotbox Sports Fantasy Baseball is the schedule. In order to mimic the excitement of the fantasy football experience, the fans at Hotbox Sports break up the schedule into bite-size chunks. While you face the same opposing owner for an entire week, each week contains 3 fantasy game periods to form a mini Best-of-3 series: Monday-Tuesday, Wednesday-Friday, and Saturday-Sunday. During each period, owners face off in head-to-head matchups. Here is the catch, during each game period, your players can only start once for your fantasy team. So if you have David Wright and he is facing pitcher X on Monday and pitcher Y on Tuesday, you have to choose which game will count toward your score. An owner’s incite into various aspects of the game including individual pitching matchups, defense, weather, and momentum all play a factor in his decision of when to start his studs.

The second major difference is that the Hotbox Sports format places more emphasis on pitchers than the current formats. “In the major leagues, pitching is everything,” says Hotbox Sports’ Patrick Culhane. “That is why we have made them such a big part of the roster.” Each team carries a whopping 14 pitchers and starts 2 starters and 1 closer per matchup. To level the playing field during the draft, pitchers are drafted separately from all other players (similar to an individual defensive player draft in fantasy football). The result is a game where you can not do well by simply getting lucky on draft day by grabbing some big arms. An owner’s depth of knowledge of the league needs to be thorough in order to fill your roster with quality starters and closers.

For pitchers too, matchups are the crux of your strategy. Owners need to do more than just login and set their lineups to maximize the score of their best pitchers. And just like in MLB, your best pitchers will not be available every time you play in a game period. Will Josh Johnson pitch better in muggy Florida than Jon Lester will in the spring night air of Boston? Each owner’s incite controls his destiny.

Finally, the scoring is done just like fantasy football. For every stat that your player accrues, there is a corresponding value added to that players score (see the scoring table in this section for all values). Each player’s score is added up to a total for your team and hopefully it’s higher than your opponents. It’s a simple change to an existing format, but one that will bring back the emotion that is lacking when you only set your lineup once a week and get the points for every game your player participates in over the course of a week. When you watch player X on your team hit one out of the park, you will go nuts because the impact on your team winning will be much bigger. There is no more just checking your lineup on Monday to make sure your pitching rotation in lined up or your players are not injured. You are the coach and you are the one who has to make important decisions day in and day out.


Very unique rules. My draft is at 7pm Est. My league id is 166 in the public lobby. Follow the link if you are interested in reading the rules and signing up. http://www.hotboxsports.com/about.php

DRAFTS:

Hitters/Pitchers Draft – The draft is broken into 2 portions. There will be two separate drafts, one for pitchers and one for batters.

ROSTER SIZE:

1) 14 Field Players, 12 Starting Pitchers & 2 Relief Pitchers. You must have a minimum of:

* 1 Catcher
* 1 1st Baseman
* 1 2nd Baseman
* 1 3rd Baseman
* 1 Short Stop
* 3 Outfielders
* 1 Utility
* 2 Starting Pitchers
* 1 Relief Pitcher

2) 4 Injured Reserve slots are available to players who are listed by their MLB team as “Injured Reserve.” 2 for hitters and 2 for pitchers.

SCORING CATEGORIES:

Batting Points
1 – single, r, bb, rbi, hit by pitch
1.5 - steal
2 – double
3 – triple
4 – home run
+10 - bonus for hitting for the cycle
+2 – multi home run game
+3 - 3/3 hits
+4 – 4/4 hits
+5 – 5/5 hits
+6 – 6/6 hits

Pitching Points
1 – strikeout
1 – inning pitched (.3 per out)
2 – quality start
3 – save
6 – win
-.5 – earned run
-2 – blown save
-4 – loss
+5 – complete game
+15 – bonus for a no-hitter
+20 – bonus for a perfect game
+5 – 15+ strikeouts

GAME PERIOD:

You play your opponent 3 times during the course of the week. Game periods are broken down by the following: You can only start your player once for each game period.

Period 1: Monday-Tuesday
Period 2: Wednesday-Friday
Period 3: Saturday-Sunday

[benfranklin]

i started a 4pm league for today