Pyang, you are definitely right. We could do multiple war rooms around the country (and world?). I'd be happy to host at my house in Chicago. I have a high-speed connection that everyone can plug their laptops into.

I'd definitely be interested as well. I've used Yahoo and CBS Sportsline before in both Roto and head-to-head style Fantasy baseball leagues. While Sportsline tends to give you more up to date player info (a la ESPN), you do have to pay a price for it. Yahoo is free (at least it was last season) and would work just fine for me as well.

I'd be interested. I actually have to head to Chicago for a draft on Sunday, March 21, for a keeper league I'm in. If we do the "war room" suggestion in Chicago...that Friday night or sometime that Saturday for the draft would be great for me.

I have a perfect record on this forum after winning Jaimetown's Frozen Four contest last April, but I am willing to risk that batting average (pardon the pun). Count me in.

i'm game.

jheaviside@martinwine.com

If we went the route of the war-rooms across America I could meet in the following locations:

1) S.F. (I live down the peninsula)
2) Phoenix (in-laws there who would love to see the little rugrat)

3) Las Vegas (I will be there Feb 27th - Mar 2nd) so that time is very good for me. I doubt I could go again later that month for a draft.

Stood up and tried to focus
I hoped I wouldn't have to look far
I knew I could use a bloody mary
so I stumbled next door to the bar

So a brief look at where everyone is from, it's looking like Chicago will be the best place to have an off-line draft. As much fun as Vegas or Phoenix would be, just doesn't seem feasible for most of the forumites.

R2-D2 has volunteered to host a off-line draft at his office on either the first or second weekend of March. The draft will also be available live, on-line, via either yahoo.com or espn.com. Perhaps the rest of the Cali crowd can also form a local war-room in SF.

I will make the trip for the off-line draft in Chicago if it does indeed happen. Either weekend will work, but prefer Saturday March 13th as the draft date.

Please let me know if anyone has any major conflict with this particular date. If not, I will designate Saturday, March 13, 2004 as the inaugural draft date for Wine Fantasy Baseball.

1. pyang
2. Kieth Scott
3. jaimetown
4. Vino Me
5. R2-D2
6. DJ Hombre
7. thewinoandIknow
8. nmcbain
9. Emilio
10. wino4ever
11. dbw4
12. brian123
13. red4life
14. WineO
15. ChiTownWino
16. eyesintime
17. thelostverse
18. wine, women & song

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2003 Whirlwind Tour

pyang

i'd love a gig where i could take a few days off to fly to chicago JUST to draft a fantasy baseball team.

==================
AIM: Drunken Mariachi

pyang, I would also enjoy being a part of the league. I have been active for several seasons and also will cast a vote for the 5x5 roto format.
It does get pretty tough with more that 12 teams though. Easey to get the 'waiver wire blues!'

Keep me posted on our proceedings.

Off-Line draft planning is under way, headed up by R2-D2.

I will look into league hosting comes February when most of the sites are rolled out.

If it's okay for everyone, we will go with RD's suggestion of $50 or so bottle of wine to go in the prize pool. Depends on final head count, we will award those accordingly to top 3 finishers.

I will start with the first bottle of wine.

Prize Pool
1. 2001 Pride Petite Sirah

Team Owners
1. pyang
2. Kieth Scott
3. jaimetown
4. Vino Me
5. R2-D2
6. DJ Hombre
7. thewinoandIknow
8. nmcbain
9. Emilio
10. wino4ever
11. dbw4
12. brian123
13. red4life
14. WineO
15. ChiTownWino
16. eyesintime
17. thelostverse
18. wine, women & song
19. Scotty

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19 (and growing) is an awfully big number for 1 league. What do you say we split up to 2 leagues (10-12 teams a league is ideal, IMHO)? I don't want Jeff Cirillo as my starting 3B!

I may be interested in getting in this, but my wife is due in mid-March, so I cannot commit 100% to even being able to be in front of a computer for the draft. If you need me to make an even number count me in, otherwise, just keep us all posted so we can route for the teams. Any fantasy team is better than the Reds! Can't wait for football to start again! Speaking of which I won my league- AM very interested next year in a WS FF League! Perhaps I will start a post soon and take names.

Kevin

"If you get confused just listen to the music play!"

jaimetown,

Jeff Cirillo ain't going to be bad, I used to be in a NL only league with 12 teams, that was ugly...


DirtySouth,

Keep us posted.

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It figures. You're going to have an offline draft practically in my backyard, and I'll be in the Twin Cities the weekend of the 13th for a hockey tournament. I don't know if I'll have access to a computer, but I'll work something out. Let me know if you change the draft date.

thelostverse,

The worst case scenario for you or anyone else that can't make the off-line draft or via cyberspace, we can always take your ranking list of top 500 player in order of preference and do an absentee draft for you.

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As Pyang mentioned I am working on Draft weekend events for Friday, March 12th and Saturday, March 13th. I know Pyang is jonesin' for Bulls-Lakers Tickets, so I will purchase as many tix as their are people interested. Please post if you will seriously be coming to Chicago for the Draft.

We'll probably make reservations for a friday night dinner in downtown Chicago, everyone is invited to this. While my office is not in Downtown Chicago, that's really the best place to make hotel reservations.

So, to reitirate:
Friday Evening - Dinner at 6 or 7
Saturday Afternoon - Start Online Draft about 12 or 1
Saturday late Afternoon - Drinks at the Tasting Room
Saturday Night - Bulls-Lakers game
Saturday Lat Night - More drinks at the Tasting Room

Pyang

Thanks. I know the hotel has high speed internet access, I just don't what the game schedule will be and if it will conflict with the draft time. I'll know more as we flesh out the details.

If there is still room, I would very much like to be a part. I could attend offline (Napa, Peninsula, Sacramento area) or hang out on line.

One $50 bottle or 25 bottles of Strawberry Hill???

pyang-

If that's the case and we can do a pre-rank in case I am at the hospital. I am in!

Kevin

I vote for 2 leagues.

"If you get confused just listen to the music play!"

The league will be capped at 24 teams, which is slightly better player ratio than a 12 team NL only league.

Doing two leagues/divisions will likely make things too complicated and involving a head-to-head format, so I am going to make the call here and stick with one league.

If we do end up with 20-24 owners, we can probably award the top four finishers.

Do your homework, it's going to be ugly...

Prize Pool
1. 2001 Pride Petite Sirah

Team Owners
1. pyang
2. Kieth Scott
3. jaimetown
4. Vino Me
5. R2-D2
6. DJ Hombre
7. thewinoandIknow
8. nmcbain
9. Emilio
10. wino4ever
11. dbw4
12. brian123
13. red4life
14. WineO
15. ChiTownWino
16. eyesintime
17. thelostverse
18. wine, women & song
19. Scotty
20. Dom'n'Vin'sDad
21. DirtySouth

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2003 Whirlwind Tour

Pyang,
Do you already have a roster type in mind and a point system? Can't start too early ya know.

24 teams! I'm in a 16 team roto, and I thought that was ugly. Talk about scraping the barrell. It looks like a Detroit Tiger will finally make it onto someones roster.

Cheers to GrapeFriends!

Scoring will be 5x5, five categories each on hitting and pitching. Points will be awarded in reserve order of finish for each particular category, equal weight for all 10 categories.

So for a 20 team league, best possible scoring would be 20 x 10 at 200pts, while worst would be 1 x 10 at 10 pts.

Hitting categories will be the following:
Avg.
HR
SB
Runs
RBI

Pitching categories will be the following:
Win
Save
ERA
K
WHIP

***

Roster will consists of 22 active slots, 3 bench, and 1 DL spot if this option is provided by the hosting site.
Only the players in the active slots contribute to the team totals.

Active roster will include one each of the following position: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CI, MI, UTIL, 5 OF, and 9 pitchers.

As soon as I find out the hosting site, I will give more details on position elgibility.

***

Can someone that used yahoo.com in the past for hosting shoot me an e-mail? Thanks.
pyang@inreach.com

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2003 Whirlwind Tour

Hummm...

A little digging turned up that yahoo.com can't support a league over 20 teams...

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pyang-

why don't you cap it off at 20 people and I will stay on the sidelines and watch. Perhaps you could send me a bottle of Neal as a consolation prize or something

If you find something to take more than 20 teams, I'm still interested, but otherwise- go with the 20.

(It will be quite funny to see Devil Rays/Tigers/Reds on rosters- hell you may be able to draft me because I am thinking of trying out for the Reds rotation !)

Kevin

"If you get confused just listen to the music play!"