I put a claim in on King Felix before I saw these posts!

That is good because it would be terrible for one of the top teams to get a better player under those circumstances.

It certainly was not a tough decision.

I agree, thank goodness that worked out the way it did. I thought Dutchmen, with his high waiver priority, might have gotten him.

IMO, pitching counts for too much in our league. It would be a lot more competitive, and fun, if the points for some of the categories were lowered.

Not sure I understand why it would make it more competitive.

Fewer points for pitchers means less separation between teams. There are a lot more options on the waiver wire for position players than pitchers who could make a difference.

I'd like to see Ks reduced to .5, or better yet, eliminate the -.5 for batters, and don't count that category on either side of the ball. Fewer points for CGSO would help, too.

I drafted solely on pitchers early. Got good ones and traded for a good one. Guess what ? Still in 5th or sixth place. You have to be good across the board. Have knowledge, time, few injuries and some luck.

At the same time, if you are near the top all the time. You are just better at the game then the other players.

You have to get lucky in the draft. Weaver? No way anyone could predict this year. Same goes with heran. I did pick buerle off the ww this year.

AZZOO: Pitching is always a crapshoot from year to year. But you jumped out to a huge lead, and kept it all season, due to the pitching points. That wouldn't have happened if those points hadn't been so high. ANd if your stud pitcher gets hurt, you can't pick up an equivalent on the waiver wire, and it's unlikely anyone would trade one w/o a huge price. It shouldn't all depend on the draft. That takes, what an hour and a half? The season is a marathon. It would be nice if everyone could be in the hunt during the whole season.

As hr totals continue to fall, you should see more value in pitchers. I have never won a baseball league, but I've also never given it as much attention as I currently am. To give your arguement more credit, my starting lineup is average. I have two great 1b, then a couple average guys. But again, I did trade a couple hot pitchers for uggla and Ramirez. Uggla couldn't hit his way out of a paper bag at the time. When I lost the lead this year my staff was struggling.

I'm not trying to sway either way, just giving clause to anyone else's fire.

I think you are assuming a lot if you are giving Azzoo the title. The draft will always be a big part of any fantasy league. At the same time the players you pick up during the season are important too.

How many significant moves have you made since the draft ? Mark abuses waivers, rookies, trades, spot starters, and everything he can to get to the top.

You bring up an interesting thought. I went over my roster. I have six position guys I drafted, and five pitchers.

I still have 6 position players, 3 SP. 3 RP

We've had these conversations for years.

I do feel I have some credibility, as I have won a lot of these leagues, all sports too.

First of all, you have to have balance. On nights where you have no pitchers going, you have to have the hitting. Hitting is constant, every single night. If anything, it's more important than pitching overall.

Sure pitchers score more points on individual nights, but that's the same for ALL teams.

Also, it is actually much easier to get a pitcher off waivers to help your team than a hitter. Right now, I have Ervin Santana, Johnny Cueto, Brandon Morrow and Oswalt on my roster, all of whom were gotten off of waivers. Simple math, there's way more SPs out there than any other individual position. And generally, you have to plug a hitter into an individual position.

By the way, you can ask HB on this, he used to completely draft pitchers early. Often he would get out to early leads as a result. But the better hitting team, by picking up pitchers off waivers, will eventually overcome the better drafted pitching team - and it is a LONG haul.

(PS - last time I looked C-Bus had Pujols and Prince Fielder on the same team. That hitting does not suck. He also claimed Chris Carpenter, SP, off waivers)

To summarize - rusty has it right as usual with this quote:

Mark abuses waivers, rookies, trades, spot starters, and everything he can to get to the top.

It takes all of those things, for a very long time, to win a league. In order to "abuse" waivers, rookies, spot starters etc you have to be very plugged in and follow MLB very closely. You have to do your homework. Then plug all your holes as best you can using all of those methods. There is no shortcut, we have been doing this way too long to think that.