I was in a league once...back in 1992. My first one. I learned real quick how to draft and how not to. I drafted Tony Gwynn first. Bad mistake. You don't draft for batting average. There was a guy in our league named Jack Downing from Indiana. Looking back on it, he was way ahead of his time - drafting Moneyball style - OPS, getting on base, power. I remember he drafted Frank Thomas - the god of walks and HR's. Season ended and there was a goofball in our league who "made" the playoffs...best Home record and worst Road record. It seemed like he was cheating. Jack was to play him in the World Series and declined to do it because we knew the guy was cheating. Sad.........I tried again about 4-5 years ago and after one year, I quit. Didn't like it too much. Another cheater - or just a dumbass - was in our league. When the season was over, I looked at the stats. Because pitching is consolidated with A's and B's (no C's or D's hardly), your batting averages will go down quite a bit, maybe 20 or 30 points. The published stats showed that that guys players - almost all of them - had averages HIGHER than their actual. That's impossible. Only 2 or 3 other batters in the league had that happen and here's this guy with almost everyone on his team with higher BA's. I alerted the commissioner and just like that, the guy quit. Lower numbers, strict usage rules, cheating...I just didn't like it.
I was in a league once...back in 1992. My first one. I learned real quick how to draft and how not to. I drafted Tony Gwynn first. Bad mistake. You don't draft for batting average. There was a guy in our league named Jack Downing from Indiana. Looking back on it, he was way ahead of his time - drafting Moneyball style - OPS, getting on base, power. I remember he drafted Frank Thomas - the god of walks and HR's. Season ended and there was a goofball in our league who "made" the playoffs...best Home record and worst Road record. It seemed like he was cheating. Jack was to play him in the World Series and declined to do it because we knew the guy was cheating. Sad.........I tried again about 4-5 years ago and after one year, I quit. Didn't like it too much. Another cheater - or just a dumbass - was in our league. When the season was over, I looked at the stats. Because pitching is consolidated with A's and B's (no C's or D's hardly), your batting averages will go down quite a bit, maybe 20 or 30 points. The published stats showed that that guys players - almost all of them - had averages HIGHER than their actual. That's impossible. Only 2 or 3 other batters in the league had that happen and here's this guy with almost everyone on his team with higher BA's. I alerted the commissioner and just like that, the guy quit. Lower numbers, strict usage rules, cheating...I just didn't like it.