Off-Topic Forum

We're now taking signups for new team managers to join our returning managers contending for a share of 36 card prizes. Play fantasy baseball against fellow TCDb members in a Yahoo head-to-head league.

All TCDb members are eligible to sign up, whether you're a TCDb  grizzled veteran or fresh-faced rookie.

Signing up:

• If you were not a manager in last year’s Prize League and want to be in it this year, you MUST send me your email address via a private message (just click on my avatar and then click on "Message") so I'll know where to send your league invitation. You can also include any questions/suggestions you may have about the league. Deadline to to PM me to join the league is Saturday March 11, 11:59 pm Pacific.
• If you were an active manager for the full season in last year’s Prize League, you have been automatically renewed for the 2023 season. However, I will be PMing you to confirm that you want to be in it this year.

Some important details:

• This will be a Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball league (most likely with two divisions). It will be run similar to last year’s league but with a few adjustments/enhancements.
• All team managers must agree to donate card(s) to the league prize pool. Team managers contribute three items (single card or packs), each valued at $10 or more and subject to approval of all league managers. eBay “Sold” prices were used to help determine if each contribution was to be accepted into the prize pool. This worked pretty well last year. In addition, I have a tentative plan to reward team managers who submit cards to the prize pool before a certain date (possibly the last day of June or maybe July 11 (MLB All-Star game) or maybe another earlier date).
• Our draft is tentatively set for Saturday March 25, 9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific. MLB's Opening Day is Thursday March 30. fwiw, this draft will not be conflicting with the other TCDb Fantasy Baseball Drafts (thanks Dan! )
• Fantasy Week 1 runs Thursday, March 30 - Sunday, Apr 9. The fantasy regular season runs for 21 weeks followed by three weeks of playoffs (ends Sunday Oct. 1).
• Top six teams make the playoffs and win prizes. Distribution of prizes for this year’s six playoff teams will likely be like this:

1st Place wins Eleven prizes from the prize pool.

2nd Place wins Nine prizes (selected after 1st Place selected their eleven picks).

3rd Place wins Seven prizes (selected after 2nd Place selected their nine picks).

4th Place wins Five prizes (selected after 3rd Place selected their seven picks).

5th Place wins Three prizes (selected after 4th Place selected their five picks).

6th Place wins the remaining One prize

Some caveats:

Setting your fantasy baseball lineup and evaluating potential roster changes every day can be a real grind—even for just 10 minutes per day. It takes a lot of determination, research and stick-to-it-iveness. Managers who abandon their team during the season will not be invited back for the following season. But managers who actively manage their team all season will be rewarded with a small bonus prize (TBD).

The draft order will be a semi-random snake draft. Last year's playoff teams will pick in the bottom half of the first round. The non-playoff teams and new teams would pick ahead of the playoff teams in the first round and then proceed snake-wise (is that a word?). Last year I was able to fix the order of the bottom half and still have the draft be online.

League settings will most likely remain similar to last year's league settings (see a screenshot of last year's settings below):

And in case anybody was wondering, you can be in this league and also participate in the other (free) TCDb Fantasy Baseball leagues. I myself have a team in one of Dan's (vrooomed) TCDb leagues.

So shall we count you in?

Update: So far we've had three new members sign up for this year's prize league. One more spot is available. PM me your email address if you would like to join.

Since my last post above, two more members PM'd me to say they wish to join the Prize League. That would give us more than 12 teams. I polled the current league managers and the consensus was that we will go ahead and expand to a 14-team league. So we still have one more spot for any member that wants to try their hand at winning some great cards/packs. Check out the winnings from our previous two Prize Leagues:

2021 TCDB H2H Fantasy Baseball PRIZE League

2022 TCDB H2H Fantasy Baseball PRIZE League

Still looking for one more team manager to fill out the league...

Just checking in are we looking at 14 teams?  Draft date still March 25th?

As of this post, we're still at 12 teams with one more member wanting to join. We still need one more member to PM me to join the league so that we'll have an even number of teams. I'll give it until midnight Saturday March 18 and then we'll go from there.

The draft is tentatively set for Saturday March 25, 9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific. So far it looks like we will have it on that date but I'm having thoughts of moving it up 90 minutes earlier.

Are you ready for some baseball? Fantasy baseball team managers are now at the starting line eagerly waiting for Opening Day. We welcome four new managers to the Prize League:

• schwitz (manager of Card Catalogers)
• astrosammy (manager of Rated Rookies)
• Midnight112x (manager of Midnight112x)
• johlamb (manager of Springfield Nuclear

The criteria for prize pool items will be the same as last year (three cards/packs from each manager, each item valued at $10 or more, each item approved by a majority of team managers). Here's a little incentive for managers who send in their prize pool items before June 30.

It's a factory mis-wrapped pack of 1987 Topps. I'll be PMing our managers soon with further details.

UPDATE: I've acquired a few boxes of Topps oddball products and have now upgraded the incentive for sending prize pool items before June 30. Team managers who send their prize pool items before June 30 will now get their choice of one pack of one of the following products:

1985 Topps 3-D Baseball Stars (Size: 4 3/8" x 6", one Action Pack-style embossed card per pack)

1989 Topps Doubleheader All-Stars (Size: 1 3/4" x 2 1/4", includes two cards with one holder)

1990 Topps Heads Up (Size: 5" x 6" die-cut, one pin-up with suction cup per pack)

1987 Topps (miswrapped, (17 cards w/bubble gum--ewww )

1989 Topps (miswrapped, (15 cards w/bubble gum--ewww )