SnakePit Fantasy Baseball: Form Teams, Start A League!

Time for an update on the Fantasy Baseball front. I've trawled through the previous thread, and extracted the names of all those who have so far expressed an interest in taking part - those have gone off to PhoenixFly, who has volunteered to take on the task of running Division II this year. Hopefully, he'll not vanish off the face of the Earth like Captain Nick did last season!

I've also finalized the line-up for Division I, so details of that and other stuff can be found after the jump. And it's still not too late, if you're interested in a spot on Division II.

Division I will see a dozen teams this year. Of the 16 that took part, two were relegated, and three did not respond to the invitation (more fool them), while the winner of Division II in 2009, Funny Team Name, under the guidance of paqs, gets promoted. Grace’s Flask Is Empty, the second-place finisher, also got an invite, but dbacksbj did not accept it in the allotted timeframe, so that expired and went the way of the Expos. However, that leaves us with a round dozen in Division I, and 14 have expressed an interest in Division II, so that works - really need an even number of participants in each division.

All the playoff teams from Division I have signed up again - amazing how success tends to make you more gung-ho about the next season! They are led by the championship-winning Balco's Boys. Having finished out of the post-season in 2008, Ridster09, guided his team to surge through the playoffs, outscoring their opponents over the three rounds by a margin of 21-7. They defeated the Shoryukens in the final, though Otacon's run of consistent success makes him one of the pre-season favorites: since 2006, he's gone 3rd, 1st, 2nd, 2nd.

Azreous finished third, with his 7-2 Offsuiters featuring a powerful line-up, that ended with six players who had 25+ home-runs. Fourth place went to John B's The Fighting Amish, who led the league at the end of the regular games, but then lost their form in the post-season, losing both in the semi-finals and then dropping the 3rd/4th-place playoff on the ERA tie-breaker. muu and snakecharmer also qualified, and will be back for another swing at the piñata in 2010.

We should probably discuss a good date and time for the draft. While you don't have to take part - you can create a pre-draft list and let the system assign the highest available player when it's your turn - it is recommended. The draft robot is a mindless automaton, and you may find yourself lumbered with an "interesting" shall we say, selection of players. Currently, the live draft for Division I is set to take place at 6:30pm [Arizona time] on Saturday 27th, leaving a week for arranging line-up prior to Opening Day.  I'm open to discussions as to this being changed - though note that Sunday 28th is right out, it being Wrestlemania.

There is a lot of information out there for owners - this page would be a good place to start mining the data, but I should warn you, it is perilously easy to get stuck in a morass of data, and agonize over all the possible scenarios. My personal tactic is to cross off a few obvious names I don't want to pick and then fly by the seat of my pants on draft day. Mind you, looking at my results, let's just say, you'd be better off asking Otacon for tips. But I am curious to see which Diamondbacks get selected and how early or late. We "should" know our own team better than any other - but will we also over-value them?

Don't forget, if you want to run your own league, you can get 50% off the regular price for the Commissioner Version by going through this link. That reduces the cost to $89.99. The features include:

• Customize entire league the way you want...rules, scores, teams + more
• LIVE scoring & stats so you can follow along as your teams rack up points
• Keeper league capability to carry on the tradition for many seasons to come [that might be fun!]
  
• Expert analysis provides up-to-date information on all players & teams
• Live chat/league messenger to trash talk with your competition [as if we didn't do that here already!]
  
• 14-Day Free Trial included

[CBSSports.com is an SB Nation partner and paying sponsor of the SB Nation baseball communities. This post is one of a series of sponsor endorsed posts related to the CBSSports.com Fantasy Baseball Commissioner League.]