BBGuys Partners With DailyJoust

 It’s that time people. In the words of Michael Buffer, Let’s Get Ready to Rumble!

The 2012 baseball season is underway with the Athletics and Mariners playing baseball in Japan (a terrible decision in the opinion of this scribe), but the “real” start of the major league season comes next week when the Cardinals take on the Marlins on April 4th. However, that’s still a mere appetizer for the first full day of games in major league baseball for the 2012 season, and that’s April 5th. Let me tell you why that date should be important to you – and it’s not just because you’ll have a chance to play hookie all day watching baseball.

BaseballGuys.com and DailyJoust.com have partnered for the 2012 baseball season. What is DailyJoust? “Daily Joust is a fantasy sports web site that lets you pick a fantasy team any time you want and win real money [based] on its performance.”

If you’re a traditionalist maybe you like the grind of 162 games in 180 days. However, the trend these days it to more immediate gratification. You can get a feel for that in H2H leagues as you get your weekly results (a winner and loser each week), but DailyJoust takes things a step further – you can select a new team every day. You don’t have to worry about your fantasy season being sunk if Albert Pujols blows out his knee or Cliff Lee needs Tommy John surgery. The reason is that you can choose a new team every single day if you want to with DailyJoust. DailyJoust allows you to set a roster of players for a single day using a salary cap game (players are giving set values, and you construct your roster with players until your allotted dollar amount runs out). Don’t like how your team did the first time around? Well go ahead and switch out the whole roster if you want the next time you play. No longer are you merely tied to whether or not you made the right choices on draft day.

The best part? You can win money playing the game. Show your skills at putting together the best fantasy sports squad, and DailyJoust will reward you with cash prizes. How do you win cash? Again, you do it by putting together the best daily fantasy baseball team in a league with the following scoring system (it’s a points league for those of you who really love that setup).

Scoring Breakdown

Scoring for hitting (C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, LF, CF, RF)

Total Bases (TB) = 1 pt for each base (Single = 1, Double = 2, Triple = 3, Home Run = 4)
Hit (H) = 1 pts
Run Scored (R) = 2 pts
Run Batted In (RBI) = 2 pts
Stolen Base (SB) = 2 pts
Walk (BB) = 1 pt
Hit By Pitch (HBP) = 1 pt
Sacrifice (SAC) = 1 pt
Strike Out (SO) = -1 pt
Grounded Into Double Play (GIDP) = -1 pt

Scoring for pitching (SP or P)

Inning Pitched (IP) = 1 pt for every 1/3 Inning Pitched (e.g. per out)
Strike Out (SO) = 1 pt
Earned Runs (ER) = -2 pts
Hit (H) = -1 pt
Walk (BB) = -1 pt
Hit Batsman (HBP) = -1 pt
Win (W) = 7 pts

I’d also like to draw special attention to the $250 Bonus Bucks Freeroll that is set to run on April 5th (located on the right hand side of the page underneat the BaseballGuys logo), that first day on the schedule with more than one game being played. Here is the payout breakdown for that Freeroll.

Top Prizes
1 – $50.00 BB
2 – $35.00 BB
3 – $30.00 BB

Don’t worry if you don’t finish in the top-3, the $250 Bonus Bucks Freeroll pays out all the way down to 16th spot, so you have plenty of chances to rack up some dough.

Obviously I’d suggest going to DailyJoust.com to get the ball rolling for 2012 for your Salary Cap experience. Get your Fantasy Baseball season off to a winning start.

FREE: Play Fantasy Baseball, Win $100

photo © 2007 Mark Sebastian | more info (via: Wylio)

I know it all. I tell you every day at BaseballGuys.com and I’m spouting off nonsense on my Sirius XM Radio show every day as well (Sirius 210, XM 87, M-F 5-8 PM EDT). Have you taken advantage of your chance to beat me and shut my pie hole as well as make a few bucks in the process?

DraftStreet.com and BaseballGuys.com have partnered up to give you a FREE chance to beat me in fantasy baseball. We’ve also tossed in the opportunity to win $100 in the event.

WHAT IS IT?
Simply click on the link to DraftStreet.com and sign up to take me on in a single day fantasy baseball challenge. You put together a squad of players, based on a salary cap, and see if your club can beat my club in the one day challenge.

WHEN IS IT?
The contest is today, Wednesday the 29th. You must have your lineup set by 7:00 PM EDT.

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?
You can win part of the $100 cash prize ($40 for first place on down).

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO ENTER?
The contest is FREE. All you have to do is sign up at DraftStreet.com.

WHAT ARE THE RULES?

ROSTER
C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, 3 OF, 2 U, 2 SP, 1 RP, 1 P and 2 Reserves (14 starters)

SCORING
Hitting         Pitching
1B     1 pt         BBI     -.25 pts
2B     2 pts         HA     -.25 pts
3B     3 pts         HB     -.25 pts
BB     .8 pts         ER     -.75 pts
HR     4 pts         INN     .75 pts
HP     .8 pts         K     .75 pts
R     1.5 pts         L     -.75 pts
RBI     1.5 pts         S     3 pts
SB     2 pts         W     1.5 pts
KO     -1 pt         CG     1 pt
GDP     -1 pt
CS     -1 pt
SAC     .8 pts

SALARIES
Your roster is put together based on a salary of $100,000 where the player values are set by DraftStreet.com. Are you going to spend $9,249 on Dustin Pedroia or $7,247 on Ian Kinlser? What about out of the pen? Do you drop $2,616 on Carlos Marmol or go the cheap route and dump $1,500 on Frank Francisco? It’s up to you.

So to review…

Sign up is FREE and takes mere moments.

You get a chance to face me and others to win part of the $100 prize package.

The game is based solely on evening games played on Wednesday, June 29th.

So what’s stopping you from signing up to enjoy the fun, get bragging rights over me, and to make a few bucks?

Visit DraftStreet.com at this special link to join the fun.

The End of Baseball?

“And I saw, and behold, a pale horse, and its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him; and they were given power over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the Earth.”
- The beginning of the Apocalypse in the Book of Revelation (by the way everyone, there is no “S” in the title of that work).

To transition this verse over to the world of baseball, are the Yankees “Death” and the Red Sox “Hades?”

The Red Sox traded for Adrian Gonzalez. Because of tax related issues, the club has a deal in place with Gonzalez (wink, wink) for a reported 7-years and $154 million (the announcement will have to wait until April. Oh, and I’m not buying Gonzalez saying earlier today that there is no deal in place).

Was that all the spending the Red Sox engaged in this week? Why of course not. They went out and added Carl Crawford on a deal that is being reported as a 7-years, $142 million (thanks to Jayson Werth for driving that price up – he can expect a huge flat screen TV under his tree from Mr. Crawford).

So, in the span of mere days, the Red Sox invested nearly $300 million in two players.

The Yankees? They have remained relatively quiet so far, a shock to be sure, but it’s only a matter of time before they land their man – Cliff Lee – on a deal that is expected to grow to well over $130 million (potentially as high as $150). Oh wait, I almost forgot. The Yankees did invest over $80 million to retain all-time greats Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, so it’s not like they have completely sat out the offseason party.

Welcome to the world of 21st century baseball folks.

This should come as no surprise though. According to ESPN, and I’ll get back to them in a moment, the Yankees payroll in 2010 was $206,738,389. No other team in baseball was over the $160,913,333 that the – you guessed it – Red Sox spent. In fact, they were the only teams in baseball over $150 million. Moreover, only eight teams in baseball, including the aforementioned Yanks and Sox, spent $100 million as the World Champion San Francisco Giants just missed joining the group at just slightly over $98.5 million.

Need something to talk about at your companies holiday party? If you add up the payrolls of the four lowest paying teams in 2010 – the Pirates, Padres, Diamondbacks and Athletics – you would just barely move past the Red Sox team salary at $172,424,366 – some $34 million short of the Yankees outlay.

You need some more data to share when the spiked eggnog starts to wear out? If we average out the prospective deals of Crawford and Gonzalez we end up with an annual salary for the duo of about $42.3 million. That’s more than either the Pirates or Padres spent on their entire teams in 2010.

I think you get the point.

I’m a free market guy, an ideas such as income redistribution that are often floated by people in our government disgust me. However, will you permit me to be a bit of a hypocrite here? Thank you.

Baseball has to do something to rectify this situation. You simply can’t have one team spending, literally, five times as much as others. How in the world can there be any competitive balance in such a world? Speaking of that, the real shock in all of this might be how in the world the Yankees or Red Sox don’t win the World Series every year given their financial commitments. Am I in favor of a salary cap? It hurts me to type this, but I think baseball has to move in that direction. It might be beneficial to not only have a cap, but also to have some kind of flooring like the NHL does. In truth, I would be in favor of there being a flooring more than an upper echelon limit that would impede teams from improving their club. Revenue sharing and the like could be brought into play, but whatever decisions are made, something must be done.

And this brings me back to ESPN. How are they culpable? Have you tried to watch your hometown team on ESPN lately? Unless you live in New York, Boston, Philadelphia or Chicago, ESPN doesn’t admit that you exist. Ever watch Sportscenter, or as I have dubbed it “Yankees – Red Sox television?” A whole generation of kids who don’t live in those cities are never exposed to any other clubs. Have 95 percent of people in the United States ever seen the wondrous Andrew McCutchen play? Does anyone outside of California realize that the Athletics had the best starting pitching in the American League last season? By focusing so heavily on the “big” markets, ESPN is effectively telling people, tangentially, that the other teams don’t matter. So, is anyone surprised that the Giants and Rangers World Series was the lowest rated Series in television history? I mean, for goodness sakes, it’s not like San Francisco isn’t a huge media market. Moreover, the Rangers had never won the World Series while the Giants hadn’t won since 1954, so there is no reason the baseball universe shouldn’t have been riveted by the matchup.

Baseball isn’t broken by any means, but the path they are currently on will one day end up in ruins. Before The Four Horseman come to wreak havoc on the land, hopefully the powers that be in baseball will avert the disaster by policing themselves a bit better to ensure the ultimately survival of the whole sport, and not just the well being of teams that play their home games in two cities.

By Ray Flowers