Today's Fantasy Rx

Internet Fantasy Baseball Contest Review of:

Baseball Weekly Diamond Challenge

We have played some challenges like Sporting News on and off over the last few years, but we never won anything because we didn't pay much attention during the season. The transaction fees were ridiculous, and after plummeting down the standings fairly rapidly, there was no reason to pump in more cash to a failing team.

Last year, we fielded three teams in the Diamond Challenge. We tried three different rosters, although we found out later that some owners played the same roster on several different teams. Our final standings looked like:

Shadow of the Umpire, 1st in League, 7th in Division, 102nd Overall
Silence of Mike Lamb, 17th in League, 152nd in Division, 4871st Overall
Al Martin Guerre, 20th in League, 200th in Division, 6719th Overall

Why such a difference in finish? After meeting Gene McCaffrey at the 2000 AFL conference, we ordered his book, Wise Guy Baseball. We decided to employ his strategies for one team, and go our own way on the other two.

So aside from "Don't play BBWDC until you read Wise Guy Baseball", what is there to say about the game?

Most people focus on one number:

1st Place Prize: $25,000 and an invitation to 2003 LABR.

Many people ignore the fine print on costs, which reads:

$39.95/entry by February 28th; $44.95/entry after February 28th
$2.50/taxi squad switch
$10/new player purchase, and you'll use all 12
$2.00/DH shift
$5/August taxi squad expansion, and you'll use both

Since you'll likely need at least three or four taxi squad moves a week, let's round up to figure out the total entry fee to compete with the top players:
$39.95
+ $250 ($2.50 * 4 * 25 weeks)
+ $120 ($10 * 12)
+ $10 ($5 *2)
Minimum Cost = $419.95 to have a chance at competing with the top players.

The good news is that by employing a few simple, play-the-percentages strategies, you can likely guarantee a finish in the top 500, and quite possibly in the top 250. Anyone can make the top 250 based on skill. Even the top 100 should be feasible for anyone who's willing to spend the time and money necessary. However, be warned that moving up to the top 10 requires great luck. Dozens of owners have gotten extremely good at this game, and know that they'll have to spend to compete.

I would recommend budgeting about $500 for a single 2002 BBWDC team. While the grand prize is quite alluring, there's little reason you can't recoup all of that. League winners receive $600 this year, so all you need to do is win your league. Once we realized last year that the two teams we didn't use the Wise Guy strategy for were going nowhere we stopped making transactions, further contributing to their downfall.

Style: 5x5 with a salary cap; you can own any player you want, as long as you can fit their salary under the cap.

League size: 25 team leagues, 10 teams per division. Last year there were about 8200 teams overall.

League standings are determined by summing your ten category ranks in league(25 points for 1st in HR, etc.), division standings by totaling your ten category ranks in division(250 points for 1st in HR, etc.), and the overall standings are compiled by adding the same ten category ranks compared against every other competing team(8200 for 1st in HR, etc.).

Roster Breakdown: 2C, 2-1B, 2-3B, 2-2B, 2-SS, 6OF, 2DH, 6SP, 4RP, 12 taxi.

Upside
The money, the fame, and the prestige: Diamond Challenge is THE Challenge for serious players, but there's no reason for even novices not to win significant money.

Downside
You have to be willing to put in the time necessary to manage your roster. You'll likely need to spend 15-30 minutes every Sunday night within a few hours prior to 11pm Central to look at every team's schedule for the next week and find the best match-ups.

Again, you'll need to spend somewhere between $400-$500 to have a chance to win your league, and there's still no guarantee. Diamond Challenge is not meant for casual fantasy participants.

Actually that's not true. All Challenge games operate based on taking your transaction money, spending part of that cash on prizes, and adding up the rest for profit. Serious players will also spend on transactions, but they'll also be the ones winning the prizes.

If you still want to play, here's how to win:

1. Buy Wise Guy Baseball from Gene McCaffrey. Incidentally, our copy of WGB2002 arrived yesterday, and I finished reading it before writing this article. Go to wiseguynews.com to read recent Challenge questions, and of course, to contact Gene to buy his book.

2. Buy Wise Guy Baseball. No we're not receiving any commissions for throwing business over to Gene, but there's no reason that you can't at least win your $600 league after reading the book. The strategies are relatively simple, there's less prep work because projections really don't matter that much, and you can even employ the tactics to gain a substantial advantage in other leagues.

We only played last season on the recommendation of BBHQ's Doug Dennis. Doug was kind enough to provide transportation for us around Phoenix at the 2000 AFL Symposium when we lacked a rental. He also attended Gene's Challenge break-out session while we stayed with the roto groupies, and then regaled us with tales of Gene telling everyone how easy it was to win lots of cash, especially for people already committed enough to attend the Symposium. So we got the book from Gene, used the strategies, and turned a nice profit on that one team. This year, we'll run two teams with the same roster in the hopes of earning significantly more money, since each Division winner nets $2,000, along with the $600 league prize.

One more time: buy and internalize Wise Guy Baseball, written by Gene McCaffrey, and available via wiseguynews.com. I doubt any novice can finish in the top 100 without reading this annual publication.

To give you an idea of what you're getting, Gene espouses a few simple principles. Use the top starters because their roster spots are more valuable than any offensive players. Maximize two start pitchers(Mon/Sat or Tue/Sun starts) because without two starts, a pitcher can't earn two wins. Focus on home games for both hitters and pitchers, as player generally perform better at home. Use a few Rockies on offense since no one can match their offensive stats, and avoid Rockies' pitchers like the plague.

Our Shadow of the Umpire team finished with the following stats:
.298 BA, 1723 R, 494 HR, 1772 RBI, and 256 SB on offense,
and 127 W, 131 S, 3.09 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, and 1927 K.

The first place team, Cobra Kai, finished with:
.306 BA, 1772 R, 488 HR, 1731 RBI, and 299 SB on offense,
and 131 W, 147 S, 2.97 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, and 1952K.

As you can see, we were competitive in most categories except for SB, Saves, and to some extent, ERA. Our SB problems originated from never purchasing Ichiro, Jimmy Rollins, or Alfonso Soriano, while our save problems stemmed from really bad luck: picking up Rocker two days before the trade, and beginning the year with Crabtree, Kohlmeier, and Yan in our bullpen with Foulke. One of the primary Wise Guy principles is to find cheap saves since closers only really help in one category, so we accordingly went with almost the cheapest closers. All these guys were good plays at the time, but we'll probably spend a little more of our cap on saves in the future.

While I could elaborate on our probably roster for our two teams this year, there's no reason for any of us to set our rosters this early because so much will change by Opening Day. Actually, as I'm writing this, we just received a generic e-mail from CDM inviting us to sign up for Challenge by Thursday to save money. We signed up our teams in January and saved another $5/team, but there's no reason not to take advantage of this last discount, so I'll leave you with:

Today's Fantasy Rx: If you have the time and money and want to elbow us out for the real money, its time to purchase your Diamond Challenge team. Head on over to diamondchallenge.com to sign up and save five dollars per team before March.

Okay, and one final reminder: even if you're not playing challenge this year but just want to add a solid set of strategies to your rotisserie repertoire, head on over to wiseguynews.com and tell Gene you want his book. His book is as useful and essential for Challenge players as Baseball Forecaster is for roto owners.