Written by: Ray Butler
Follow us on Twitter! @Prospects365
If you consider yourself an avid or consistent reader of the content published on Prospects365.com, it’s likely because you greatly enjoy dynasty fantasy baseball.
At the conclusion of the 2019 fantasy baseball season, I set out to find the right 19 people to join me in a deep, new dynasty league that I would commission. There was so much interest (over 300 people replied to various feelers on Twitter!) that I decided to start TWO dynasty leagues—one for fellow prospect/fantasy writers and one for myself and 19 fantastic Twitter followers.
The follower league (P365 FDL) is actually set to begin drafting on Halloween morning after a live selection show determined the draft order, but I’d like to dive into a few of the finer points of the Experts’ League (P365 XDL) that includes so many of the industry’s best and most popular prospect and fantasy writers.
I hope you follow along during our draft (beginning November 1st) and subsequent analysis from various members. It is the offseason, after all.
The Players
Ray Butler (Prospects 365)
Ralph Lifshitz (Prospects Live)/Matt Thompson (Prospects Live)
Eddy Almaguer (Prospects Live)
Tyler Spicer (Prospects 365)/Trevor Vernola
Rudy Verougstraete (Prospects1500)/Shelly Verougstraete (Prospects 365, Pitcher List, Rotographs)
Smada (Prospects Live)
James Anderson (Rotowire)
Jesse Roche (The Dynasty Guru)
Eric Cross (Fantrax)
John Calvagno (Notes From The Sally)/Lucas Biery (LouCas Baseball Podcast)
Scott Greene (Prospects1500)/Ben Wilson (Prospects1500)
Diego Solares (Prospects Live)
Connor Kurcon (Six Man Rotation)/Mike Esposito
Rhys White (Six Man Rotation)/Jason Gold (Six Man Rotation)
Trevor Hooth (Gaslamp Ball, Pitcher List)/Jake Drada
Greg Wellemeyer (Baseball Prospectus)/Tom Trudeau (The Dynasty Guru)
Cubby Nole (Fantasy Front Office)
FantasySportsAddicts (Fantasy Sports Addicts)
tony bps (Prospects 1500)
NotBurtReynolds (BaseballATeam, Rotoballer, Pitcher List)
There’s really no reason you shouldn’t be following these folks on Twitter. It costs zero dollars to improve your feed.
The Rules
P365 XDL is a 20-team, 5×5 roto league hosted by Fantrax. The categories are R, HR, RBI, OBP, NSB, QS, ERA, WHIP, K and SV+H. The positions are C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, MI, CI, OF, OF, OF, OF, UTIL, P, P, P, P, P, P, P, P, P. Acquisitions and lineup locks are weekly. Each team in the league will have a $1000 FAAB allotment to use at their discretion throughout the season. There is a 750 innings pitched minimum for each team. This isn’t a high-stakes league per se, but the annual champion will win over $1000. Second and third place will also cash.
Each roster consists of 60 slots. A team is free to build their roster as it fits their philosophy, but each team must be able to field a full active roster at all times. There are no Minors slots, so prospects will simply fill one of the 60 slots allotted to each team. Each offseason, a team can keep up to 55 players/prospects on their roster. The remaining slots will be filled during the annual First Year Player/Free Agent draft.
Randomizing the Draft Order
We debated on rolling with the Fantrax draft order randomization process or a Kentucky Derby Style system, but we ultimately opted to roll with the Invisible Hand. For those of you unfamiliar with the process, the Invisible Hand allows teams to bid keeper slots for next offseason on draft slots for our launch draft. If you bid the highest amount of keeper slots (amongst your league mates) on a certain draft slot, that’s where you’ll pick throughout the draft (and your winning bid amount will be subtracted from 55 to determine the amount of players/prospects you’re allowed to keep following the first season). Teams are not mandated to bid keeper slots for draft slots, and each team that chooses not to bid is randomly placed in a draft slot that is not bid on. I really like the way The Dynasty Guru further explains the process here. When you play in industry leagues with some of the best dynasty players in the world, even the draft selection process is an intricate competition. The arbiter of this process is Clay Link, who isn’t participating in the league but is graciously acting as our unbiased third party. Each team is submitting their bids to him. Draft slots will be announced on the morning of October 31st, with the draft slated to begin the following morning at 9:00 AM EST.
This league is going to incredibly fun and incredibly challenging. League drafts are one of the best ways to pass time during an offseason, and a deep-dynasty launch draft against a lot of my industry peers will be phenomenally entertaining and stressful.
Here’s to hoping your offseason research is going well. I look forward to sharing interesting picks throughout the two dynasty drafts via @Prospects365 on Twitter.
Follow us on Twitter! @Prospects365