New season two weeks away folks.

Last call for fantasy league. Sunday night at 6.30pm. I'll post the link on this thread for people to join up before the weekend. Once we hit late Saturday I'm going to open it up to others. At the moment, including me and Dawg I've got six people for a twelve team league. The league can be decreased or expanded so don't be put off as there's plenty of room.

Any predictions for this year?

American League
Tampa Bay
Detroit
Anaheim

Wild cards
Toronto
Oakland

Dark Horses
Kansas City

I'm not too comfortable backing against the Yankees but if Longoria stays free from injury I think he'll propel Tampa to the title. Their pitching is still strong and Maddon always gets them competing. Toronto have spent too much money to not make the play-offs, same with Anaheim. Their pitching isn't that great but I'm not sure I could back against a line-up that has Trout, Hamilton, Pujols and Trumbo in even Hamilton and Pujols are a risk with injury. I'd have gone for Oakland but for those bats. Kansas City and Seattle should be interesting. Certainly the Royals have been primed with prospects that are now hitting the league. Similarly, Seattle have some good prospects who've come up in the past couple of years and are due a few breakout seasons from a couple of them. The Central is probably the division I know least about so I've gone safe with Detroit. They seem happy without a big name closer so that could be interesting. Tough to pick a favourite from them though because there's lots of fresh blood in action.

National League
Nationals
Reds
Dodgers

Wild cards
Braves
Cardinals

Dark Horses
San Diego

Think the NL has some teams primed. Can't see past the Nationals overall though. Their rotation was strong anyway but a full 200+ innings from Strasburg (if expected) should mean a guaranteed twenty wins. The Braves have splashed out and they should push them and could easily go all the way.

For the Central I've backed my Reds because it would be silly not to after last year. On the plus side we've definitely strengthened our hitting with Choo and at the moment I'm not sure what's happening with the rotation. It was looking like Chapman was going to start but he's expressed a preference for closing. I'm okay with that although I must admit I'm in the corner that would like to see if we get 200 innings out of him. Last year we went all season without any injuries to the rotation and I can't see that happening again, which is my reservation against the Reds. The Cardinals are always competitive and with Carpenter moving to 2nd that's another good bat in an already tough line-up. The Pirates are an outside shot at a wild card.

Like Anaheim it's a brave man who backs against the stacked Dodgers. Not sure on the Diamondbacks. The Giants should be competing and I'm going to go for San Diego as a long shot because of Chase Headley and the two former Reds prospects who are both shaping up well.

American League
Toronto
Detroit
LAA

WC
Boston
Chicago

Dark Horses
Cleveland

National League
Philly
Cincy
LAD

WC
Nats
Cards

Dark Horses
Arizona

What site we drafting on ?

ESPN. Anybody interested, can you PM me your emails as I'll have to send the invitations to join out that way.

[sizeDRAFT SUNDAY 24 MARCH AT 5.30pm[/size

I've deleted that league and set this one up as an open league. I've added some extra scoring categories to make it a bit more interesting. First come first join.

Batting scoring categories
Batting Average (AVG) Home Runs (HR)
Runs Scored (R) Runs Batted In (RBI)
Stolen Bases (SB) Intentional Walks (IBB)
Game Winning RBI (GWRBI) Fielding Pct (FPCT)
Errors (E)

Pitching
Earned Run Average (ERA)* Strikeouts (K)
Walks plus Hits Per Innings Pitched (WHIP)* Wins (W)
Saves (SV) Strikeouts per 9 Innings (K/9)
Saves Plus Holds (SVHD)
*Minimum 20 IP (need your pitchers to combine for a minimum total of 20 innings for their ERA etc to be included as scores).

Added an extra place for players on rosters for the DL to take away that inevitable pain when a star goes down for a couple of months. Link here...

DRAFT SUNDAY 24 MARCH AT 5.30pm[/size

New draft time of 5.30pm. Hadn't realised that the Yanks had put their clocks forward last week.

In. Let the games begin.

Draft lobby is now open. If you haven't registered for this league yet then you won't get in sorry as the places are now taken.

5 hours to go

Bring on the sox

espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/91214 ... 30-million

espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/91214 ... 30-million

Great start from the Marlins, only giving up two runs. lol.

Life magazine's best baseball pics. life.time.com/culture/baseball-c ... 7Cmoreon#1

Life magazine's best baseball pics. life.time.com/culture/baseball-c ... 7Cmoreon#1

Any verdicts so far? We look great one night and then struggle the next which is pretty similar to last year. That said, we've had a tough opening set of games and the rest of the month isn't easier. Started with two home series against the Angels and Nationals and came out with a good 4-2 record. Followed that with a series in St Louis where we've won just three series in ten years!

Currently at Pittsburgh before we have a couple of 'easier' series against the Phillies and Marlins before a real stinger at the end of the month. A seven game road trip to the Nationals then St Louis again. Ouch. If we can be .500 by the end of the month that'll be a good effort.