I did a miserable job of documenting my experience in BP Kings Scoresheet League last season, which is unfortunate since my team won 90 94 games and reached the finals. I’ve been playing Scoresheet for nearly 20 years, and that ranks among my most satisfying debuts. Now that I’ve resolved to write more about the league, I’m sure my team will stink.

There are 24 teams. Each can keep up to 10 veteran players from the previous season and a more-or-less unlimited number of rookies. Keeping fewer veterans allows you to draft earlier; keeping fewer rookies allows you to draft longer.

I made one trade this off-season (not always an easy thing to do in this league). Just before protection lists were due, I swapped Twins outfielder Delmon Young for Red Sox outfield prospect Ryan Westmoreland and the first pick in round 12 (I was down two picks thanks to trades made during the 2010 pennant chase).

Despite last year’s success, I am a minimalist at heart and kept just six players (three veterans, three rookies):

• Roy Halladay
• Chad Billingsley
• Rickie Weeks
• Ernesto Frieri (r)
• Bobby Borchering (r)
• Ryan Westmoreland (r)

The draft began on Friday. Sky and I were the only teams to keep three veterans, which means we ping-ponged for the first few rounds. Here’s what I’ve gotten so far:

• Round 4 – Kelly Johnson (he and Pablo Sandoval were the best hitters available; I went for position scarcity)
• Round 5 – Ike Davis (I would have taken Sandoval here, but Sky snagged him)
• Round 6 – Gavin Floyd (I was guaranteed to get one of the two pitchers I wanted; Sky took the other, Edwin Jackson, with the preceding pick)
• Round 7 – Michael Young (my backup plan if I missed on Sandoval; drama notwithstanding, the guy can hit)

Bear in mind that Scoresheet more closely resembles actual baseball than do most fantasy games (which more closely resemble accounting). If something is useful to a real baseball team, it probably is useful to a Scoresheet team.

That’s where we stand. Feel free to follow the draft if that’s your thing. Comments, criticism, and suggestions are welcome…

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Linkage…

• Raising Aces: Perceived Velocity (Baseball Daily Digest). Doug Thorburn discusses the current and possible future state of evaluating pitchers: “Pitchers with great extension are often described as ‘sneaky fast’, due to the mismatch between radar-gun velocity of the pitch and hitter reaction time.” Chris Young, anyone?
• Do pitch counts protect pitchers? (SweetSpot). Joe Janish wants to know.
• Is Gary Sheffield A Hall Of Famer? (FanGraphs). The former Padres third baseman retired. Several folks weighed in [h/t reader LynchMob] on the subject.
• Ranking baseball’s farm systems (Hardball Times). Matt Hagen puts the Padres at no. 5, which seems crazy optimistic to me.
• With Frieri, it’s substance over style (U-T). Frieri was a different pitcher when I saw him out of the bullpen last summer at Portland and in San Diego than he had been as a starter at Elsinore a few years ago. Quoth pitching coach Darren Balsley: “Deception is the same as any other talent. It is a big tool.” Frieri is plenty deceptive, but he’s also plenty aggressive, which I love.
• Doctor shoulders task of keeping Padres pitchers healthy (U-T). How’s the shoulder feeling? There’s an app for that.
• Qualls’ return to form starts with healthy knee (Padres.com). As someone who has had a fair share of knee problems, all I can say is… ouch.
• In Syracuse, a groundbreaking umpire finds himself called out (Syracuse Post-Standard). Sean Kirst tells the story of Jacob Francis, “the first black to umpire in a ‘white’ professional league.” [h/t tommy_bennett]
• Success and Failure Rates of Top MLB Prospects (Royals Review). Here’s an interesting study. I did something like this many moons ago. [h/t reader Didi]
• Chat: A.J. Hinch (Baseball Prospectus). The Padres’ VP of Professional Scouting answered reader questions. My personal favorite: “Certainly, small market teams face a few more challenges and have to adjust rosters at a more rapid pace, but in my experience, no one would ever want to use it as an excuse or crutch for not winning.”
• Messing with numbers (Joe Blogs). I won’t try to describe this; trust me, it’s fun.

Tagged as: a.j. hinch, andy pettitte, bp kings, chad qualls, darren balsley, ernesto frieri, Fantasy Baseball, gary sheffield, hall of fame, pitch counts, scoresheet baseball, velocity