Back in the 90's, I ran this contest at the company I worked for for six years. It was wildly successful, with at one point over 50 of the 170 that worked in my office playing. After the success of spaceace's NFL contest this past fall, I thought maybe this might interest some CCF members.. I'm going to put up some pretty nice prizes for the top three finishers, and it will require little work on your part to participate, so if you have more than a casual interest in Major League Baseball (this might be a little overwhelming for the more casual fan) this might be right up your alley!
First...to get everybody interested, THE PRIZES!
The second and third place prizes will be provided by myself.
Third place will get a US silver half dollar of my choice.
Second place will get a
Morgan dollar of my choice.
Both coins will be as problem-free as possible, and will make nice additions to your collection (I have not purchased them yet).
FIRST prize will be something from ALL of the entrants that don't finish in the top three. Second and third place do not have to send the winner a prize. All other participants will send the overall winner at the end of the contest a numismatic item valued at at least $5, with a $5 to $10 value being the general guideline. If you want to send something of a higher value that will be entirely up to you. At the conclusion of the contest, with the winner's permission, I will forward the winner's mailing address to all contest participants so they can send their prize. Obviously, this makes the first place prize potentially VERY valuable! There's a lot to play for!
Now, THE CONTEST.
Each person in the contest will have a nine player team that they will choose. The contest will last until the last day of the 2013 MLB regular season (Sept. 29, 2013) The object of the contest will be to create a team that will hit the most home runs for the 2013 season. The top twenty-five home run hitters from last season will be broken down into 5 five player "Silver Slugger Groups". Your first five picks will be one player from each of these five groups. The remaining four players will be of your choosing. They can be anybody, as long as they are not in the above five groups. Somebody that had an off year that you feel might break out this year. Somebody injured most of last season, but usually hits a ton of homers. A rookie prospect that you feel has potential. Somebody that you just have a hunch will have a great year. Somebody that just missed being in the Silver Slugger groups. The remaining four players can be just about ANYBODY!
Now for some rules.
Only a player's official Home Runs will be eligible to count for your team. Home runs from exhibition games, rainouts, or the All-Star Game will not count.
You will be allowed ONE trade from both the first five Silver Slugger Group players and the last four wild-card players for the entire season, for a total of two trades. Use these wisely; you only have these two trades! A trade of a group player must be for another of the four remaining players in that group. A wild-card trade can be for any player not in the five groups. Again, choose these wisely, because if these players do not work out, YOU ARE STUCK WITH THEM!
Unless.....
THEY GET INJURED!
You are also permitted TWO injury trades per season. The player to trade is not eligible to be traded as an injury trade unless they are OFFICIALLY put on the Disabled List. For example, a player sat by the manager for two or three games because he tweaked a hamstring would not be eligible for an injury trade. One that tweaked it bad enough to be put on the 15-day (or longer) DL would be eligible. Once again, a Silver Slugger Group player (one of the first five on your team) can only be traded for another of the four players in that group. Wild cards can be traded for any player, except from the five groups. An injury trade CAN be reversed if you choose once the traded player comes off the Disabled list. If you choose to reverse the injury trade you have to give back the new player you got for the trade. If you want to keep the player that you got in the injury trade, you can choose to do so. Again, you are only allowed two of these per season; if you have a situation after using your two injury trades of needing to dump a player that might be out for a long period of time YOU ARE OUT OF LUCK. So, use the injury trades wisely also.
You can submit a trade at any time by sending me a PM. Please be patient; my work occasionally takes me from the computer for a day or sometimes even two so if I don't get back to you immediately don't worry, I will!
THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE:
Nobody can have the exact same team as somebody else. With the wide number of possible team combinations created by the wild cards, the chances of two having the same team are pretty slim, but if it does happen, the order in which you show interest in being in this contest will be your team number, and those who show interest soonest will have team priority over those that choose later. For example, if you are the first to put your name below in this post as wanting to play, you will be Team #1. If somebody wants to have the exact same team as you they will have to make a change, because you have the priority Team #. If you are Team #5, and somebody from either Teams 1,2,3, or 4 has the same team that you want, you would need to make a change. If your change affects somebody below you, they will have to make a change. Again, this will probably not happen; there are too many players to choose from.
For the same reason as above, any trades you want to make during the season fall under the above rule.
TIEBREAKERS:
In the event of a tie at the end of the season, the first tiebreaker will be the total number of home runs hit by your wild-card players. If needed, the second tiebreaker will be the number of players from your team that make the MLB playoffs.
ELIGIBILITY:
Any CCF member in good standing with at least 100 posts is eligible to play. You need to remain in good standing; a permanent ban from CCF for some reason will disqualify you (obviously).
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS:
I feel that we will need at least 15 people playing to make it exciting. I'm going to limit it to no more than 30 because from past experience I know any more than that and this will become a monster that will take over my life! Of course, I am going to play, and to be fair to other entrants my team # will be right in the middle of the number of participants (if 20 people want to play, I will have Team #10; if 30 play, I will have Team #15, etc.). If we don't get at least 15 who are interested, it's probably not worth doing the contest.
TIMELINE:
The season (and the contest) begins March 31st. CCF members expressing interest in playing will be accepted up until midnight March 20th, or until 30 people show interest. Team lineups from those interested in playing will be accepted up until midnight March 29th. CHANGES CAN BE MADE IN YOUR TEAMS UP UNTIL THIS DATE; after this the team you submitted is what you are playing with, except subject to the trade rules.
There will be a post in this contest thread that will show weekly updated stats for each CCF member in the contest, as well as weekly updates of the number of home runs hit by all players that CCF members are using. I am going to try to do the updates on Sunday nights but if work or life ties me up they could occasionally be a day or two late.
I think I've covered everything! If you can think of any questions, or anything I might have left out post below or send me a PM.
NOW, THE FIVE SILVER SLUGGER GROUPS! (number of home runs last season after the player's name)
Group #1
1. Miguel Cabrera 44
2. Josh Hamilton 43
3. Curtis Granderson 43
4. Edwin Encarnacion 42
5. Adam Dunn 41
Group #2
1. Ryan Braun 41
2. Giancarlo Stanton 37
3. Adrian Beltre 36
4. Josh Willingham 35
5. Jay Bruce 34
Group #3
1. Adam Laroche 33
2. Robinson Cano 33
3. Chris Davis 33
4. Carlos Beltran 32
5. Ike Davis 32
Group #4
1. Alfonso Soriano 32
2. Adam Jones 32
3. Mark Trumbo 32
4. Josh Reddick 32
5. Chase Headley 31
Group #5
1. Andrew McCutchen 31
2. Corey Hart 30
3. Jason Kubel 30
4. Pedro Alvarez 30
5. Prince Fielder 30
When you choose your team, the first five players have to be chosen one from the five groups above (one chosen from each group). The other four players can be anybody except from the five above groups. Hope we get plenty of interest, and BEST OF LUCK TO ALL!
Posted 02/21/2013 1:00 pm
