Sometime in mid-January I began messing around with configuring a roster for the upcoming season of Fanball’s Diamond Challenge game. This year will be my twelfth, I believe, year of playing the game and I haven’t had a great deal of success.
I’m attracted to the Rotisserie format and the big-time money available if you can put together a winning team. The most I have won in any season is $1600. The grand prize kahuna wins in excess of $25,000. Hey, you never know!
There is a salary cap in this game: $30 million. Rosters consist of an active lineup of eighteen position players and ten pitchers, and a twelve player taxi squad. It’s the cap that creates all the preseason gyrations as one attempts to maximize the money angle to create the best team possible.
I’ve probably made over a hundred changes since day one, when I casually selected a team to get things rolling. The free transaction clock is running down to zero now; moves have to be finalized before the season begins and stats start to accumulate for real. Changes can be made as the season progresses, but they are limited and cost money. Having a quality team beginning opening day is a key to success.
I’ve narrowed my options. There are three or four openings on my team and I keep playing with them and researching alternative players, trying to come up with the best combination. Pressure is mounting, as is the excitement of the opening of “real” baseball.
This time of year reminds of Thanksgiving when I was a kid. I associated Thanksgiving with “a month before Christmas;” the day itself didn’t seem such a big deal to me. Well, here we are, a month before Opening Day. I can’t wait!
