Well, here we are. Watching other teams in the post-season, wondering how it would feel, and cursing the epic collapse that "could never happen" when the Pirates were 16 games over .500. Since its a slow time of the year, we might as well recap the various fantasy leagues made up of Bucs Dugout posters. I believe that there are at least 5 and I think all the slide-rule totin', spray chart flippin' sabre-magicians need to 'fess up as to how well they did -- or didn't do -- in their respective leagues this year. So feel free to use this as an open thread to brag about your league and your success - real or imagined - this year.



I'm commissioner f/the The Bucs Dugout Death Match leauge. We have a 16-teams keeper league (you designate 4 players from this year's roster to keep for your 2013 team) over on ESPN. Players score points based on lots of stats; most are traditional (single = 1 point, doubles = 2 points; pitcher K's = 1 point, earned runs = -1, etc.) but there are a few extra categories that stat-heads would be sure to like - pitcher's wins, RBI, game-winning RBI's, holds, and such. You go head to head against a different team each week. Basically, like the MLB, if you have good pitchers and hitters, you have a good chance of winning, so finding the hidden talent throughout the season is key. Interestingly, even though its only a "fun" league, the trade theory seen in some threads - I'll trade two great prospects for Matt Kemp or I'll give you Josh Harrison and Jeff Karstens (they're MLB-ready, dontcha' know?) for Mike Trout (he's still in the minors) -- disappears when facing a decision affecting "your" team.

Anyway, like I said, we have 16 owners, most of whom are regular posters here. (A few are lurkers and one is an animated computer as far as I can tell.) Semi-regular (?) poster here adjj78 took this year's championship, trouncing Smoked's old team. (Smoked was apparently too busy in the off-season w/unimportant stuff, like, oh - graduating from West Point - so he didn't check in and got bumped; but see what new management will do? Cheap Beer, last year's champ, made the playoffs but got bumped early. My team, the Trogluddites was on fire early and then fell apart, barely scraping in as the last wild card.

PirateinVA keeps romping in the regular season, then exiting the first week of the playoffs - is Ron Washington managing his team? Maguro, Grambo119, Burgher King, and Garrett122 have been like the Marlins, on the outside looking in, with a strong core, but unable to push their way into the post-season. Wizard of Woz has been reliably fair-to-middling, winning his division once and CTapps is sort of like the Ned Colleti of the league. (I'm kidding!!)

thefutureisnear won his division this year, bobby Hill has had two winning seasons, and 2010 will be the year (he gave up hope) has been like the Astros - or like the 2007 Pirates. But, everyone had a great yaar. Hope everyone else had a good timei in their leagues.