Sodo Oh No

Mike:
Sports and Bremertonians have set up an M's blogger fantasy league. As the hosts of the M's blogger simulated league you'd think I'd be interested. I love all kinds of games (card, board, video) and baseball is my favorite sport so I've played all kinds of baseball games (tabletop, computer simulation, arcade-type video games). But I have never played in a fantasy league. I just have a really hard time rooting for anyone not on the Mariners! I mean, obviously I can't have anyone from the AL West on my team. But I don't want any American Leaguers at all really. Are there NL only fantasy leagues? But eventually the M's will play someone with a player on my team. Is this a weird attitude that I have? My other problem is that the scoring systems don't translate all that well to real life - stealing is way to over-valued. Have you ever played in a fantasy league? Should I try to get over this problem?

John:
I play fantasy football but I've never played rotisserie baseball. There are several reasons I've played one and not the other. Football takes very little time. Having all the games on 1 weekend day means that I can gather information pretty easily. Fantasy baseball just seems like it takes a large time investment. I spend enough time following the M's I don't think there are enough hours in the day for me to try and follow all of MLB or even just the AL or NL.

From what I know about fantasy baseball I also have a problem with the popular scoring systems that appear to over value steals, saves and RBI. Steals are overvalued because caught stealing doesn't enter into the equation, saves are strictly a factor of when you pitch, not the value of the effort and RBI is very dependent on where you bat in the order and how good your team mates are at getting on base.

Yes, in fantasy football the point gatherers are very dependent on the supporting cast but it just doesn't rub me wrong in the same the way fantasy baseball scoring systems work.

I also would have a tough time rooting for my fantasy pitcher to strike out Edgar. I guess the confrontations are more personal in baseball than football. That's probably the crux of the issue for me. I don't really have a "favorite" football team. Yes I root for the 'Hawks and my old home town team the Patriots but neither team has taken part of my soul like the M's and Red Sox have. Thus the combination of team loyalty and personal challenge in baseball are the two biggest reasons why I've never participated in a fantasy baseball league.

Mike:
The one thing that is the same with sim leagues and fantasy leagues - OTHER PEOPLE DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR TEAM! I feel bad about the nice people I ride with on the shuttle to the ferry after work. There are three owners of teams from the FSBL and every day they are being subjected to the lasted imaginary events from the league. It must be brutal.

Unbeknownst to me when I started this thread, the current ESPN.com Writers' Bloc segment is about the pros and cons of fantasy leagues.

posted by Mike @ 10:44 PM