"THOSE WERE THE DAYS" LEAGUE

Let's see how well this worked.

I've listed all 24 teams in descending order of predicted "goodness." Preseason predicted ranks expressed as percentile under the normal curve, with ACTUAL 2008 record in parentheses:

BEST GROUP (average wins: 101)
BOOMERS - 97.38% (113-49)
THE RANCH - 94.06% (113-49)
ASTARTES - 82.64% (100-62)
CLUB 62 - 80.51% (94-68)
KNIGHTS - 79.95% (97-65)
TORNADOES - 74.86% (88-74)

GOOD GROUP (average wins: 88)
VORTEX - 73.57% (91-71)
BREWERS - 73.24% (88-74)
SWAMPERS - 72.24% (93-69)
DUDES - 72.24% (79-83)
MONKEYS - 57.53% (104-58)
SKIPPED - 56.36% (70-92)

MEDIOCRE GROUP (average wins: 76)
JOES - 51.99% (90-72)
ISLANDERS - 51.99% (82-80)
REWIND - 48.01% (77-85)
HOMERS - 31.92% (55-107)
BRNSTRMRS - 25.46% (86-76)
INQUISITORS - 24.51% (68-94)

BOTTOM GROUP (average wins: 59)
MACAROONS - 19.49% (48-114)
CLOWNS - 16.85% (57-105)
LONG RUN - 13.79% (65-97)
VISITORS - 12.10% (79-83)
BALLS FIRE - 3.75% (66-96)
50W 112L - 2.28% (41-121)


The biggest outliers were the Visitors, who won 79 games with the third-worst roster, and the Monkeys, who won 104 games with a barely above-average roster.

Confounding variables:
- GM/Manager skill
- tanking vs. contending approaches late in season
- trades
- strength of division opponents


Conclusion: Team salary was highly correlated with team wins.

ANNUAL FREE AGENT DRAFT
1) A non-serpentine free agent draft of at least 4 rounds will be held each year after the playoffs are concluded. Managers will continue drafting at least until they have 25 players eligible to be loaded into the league, per game engine limits. Rosters can be filled to maximum of 28, including those not carded for the upcoming season.
2) Only those players who were issued Strat cards for the current season and appear on Strat’s website are eligible for the draft.
3) Draft order is determined by the previous regular season win/loss records: Reverse order, worst-record first, NFL style. Ties between teams will be handled as in the League Setup rules.
4) Prior to the draft, all owners must drop enough players to bring their rosters to a maximum of 21 players. Owners can drop below 21 players, but must not have fewer than 18 prior to the draft.
5) There is no requirement for a team to drop a player who is not issued a card in the new year's set. For example, if a star player from 2007 is injured in 2008 but will be able to play again in 2009, then that player can remain on a team's 28-player roster while using the 2008 card set.
6) Player drops must be announced prior to the beginning of the annual draft.

ANNUAL WAIVERS & FRENZY
1) There shall be NO annual waivers and frenzy.
2) Rosters are finalized after the draft, except for trade-related activity.

DROPS

Rich Aurilia
Mike Sweeney
Geoff Blum
Endy Chavez
Eric Gagne
Luis Vizcaino
Brandon McCarthy


And Kendry Morales will be returned to Dr.Publix

Drops:

Emilio Bonifacio
Greg Dobbs
Nomar Garciaparra
Gary Mathews JR.
Jeff Salazar
Dan Giese
Dennys Reyes

The Great Balls of Fire are warming up Hernandez, Kershaw, Rivera and other flamethrowers for next season. As we do that, though, I see that we have 25 guys worth keeping -- so I'd be happy to trade 4 of them for draft picks:

Brendan Ryan - Great fielder at SS, 2009-2013, and even hits in 2009

Brandon Inge - Great fielder at 3B, 2009-2013

Willie Harris - Good in LF for 2009, with solid OBP

Scott Podsednik - Good in LF for 2009, also with solid OBP

Dropping:
Jason Kendall
Chris Gomez
Omar Quintanilla
Jay Payton
Taylor Buchholz
Troy Percival
Brian Shouse

Keeping 21

If anyone has roster space and an eye towards 2011, I have several guys who have nice cards that year (but don't offer much in '09 or '10). I would like to move a couple of these guys for draft picks, someone who can help in '09 or '10, or package them together for one good guy in '11. Let me know if you're interested in any of the following:

De la Rosa 3.75
Eveland 4.01
Hanrahan 3.66
Wade 2.38
Punto 3.92

Thanks, -Dr. P.

North Ajax White Tornadoes

Drops:
Anderson, Garret
Bradford, Chad (no 2009 card)
Buck, Travis
Crosby, Bobby
Guillen, Jose
Lindstrom, Matt
Molina, Jose
Ohman, Will (no 2009 card)

20 Keepers:
Baldelli, Rocco
Barmes, Clint
Delgado, Carlos
Fielder, Prince
Fukudome, Kosuke
Guerrero, Vladimir
Halladay, Roy
Hamilton, Josh
Hudson, Orlando
Kuroda, Hiroki
Matsuzaka, Daisuke
Papelbon, Jonathan
Park, Chan Ho
Peavy, Jake
Pettitte, Andy
Ramirez, Aramis
Rhodes, Arthur
Shoppach, Kelly
Tejada, Miguel
Zito, Barry

Dropping:

Brandon Webb
Scott Olsen
Kameron Loe
Wil Nieves
Hank Blalock
Carlos Guillen
Pedro Feliz
Alfredo Amezaga

Keeping 20

The Great Balls of Fire are warming up Hernandez, Kershaw, Rivera and other flamethrowers for next season. As we do that, though, I see that we have 25 guys worth keeping -- so I'd be happy to trade 4 of them for draft picks:

Brendan Ryan - Great fielder at SS, 2009-2013, and even hits in 2009

Brandon Inge - Great fielder at 3B, 2009-2013

Willie Harris - Good in LF for 2009, with solid OBP

Scott Podsednik - Good in LF for 2009, also with solid OBP

I got an offer on Ryan. This is last call on Inge, Harris, and Podsednik before I post drops.