Bang the Gavel: SportsJudge.com Announces Docket Highlights

The SportsJudge.com Court of Fantasy Baseball had a very busy second half of April. Here are some highlights of our recent decisions:

1. In the case Commissioner Gary B. v. Team Sosa & The Doctor Is In, Index No. 1589 (April 11, 2008), the Court of Fantasy Baseball rejected the proposed trade of Hanley Ramirez (SS, Marlins), Matt Kemp (OF Dodgers) and Jorge Cantu (3B Marlins) for Mark Teixeria (1B Braves), Hunter Pence (OF Astros), Edgar Renteria (SS, Tigers), and Huston Street (RP A's). In finding that the proposed trade "is not reasonably likely to benefit both teams," the court rejected Team Sosa's argument that statistics from the first 10 days of the season should be given substantial weight.

2. In the case Teufel Shuffle v. Wally's Back Man, Index No. 1594 (April 17, 2008), the Court of Fantasy Baseball upheld the trade of David Wright for Jose Reyes as "adequately benefiting both teams." The court found that given the season was just three weeks old, the slow start of Jose Reyes was "at most, a very minor factor in the analysis."

3. In the case The Great Cornholio v. Bankers Dozen, Index No. 1596 (April 21, 2008), the Court of Fantasy Baseball ruled that a player placed by his minor league team on the minor league disabled list is not eligible for "disabled" status in a fantasy league with a constitution that states "any player placed on the 15-or 60-day disabled list by his Major League team shall be treated as 'disabled.'"

4. In the case Commissioner Gary B. v. 2 Sweet & Duro Sin Vase, Index No. 1602-T (May 1, 2008), the Court of Fantasy Baseball upheld the trade of Josh Beckett (SP, Red Sox) and Takashi Saito (RP, Dodgers) for Ryan Braun (3B/OF Brewers) and Manuel Copas (RP, Rockies), finding the trade "adequately benefits both teams." The court explained that a trade neither needs to be "even" or "ideal" for it to be "adequately beneficial."

5. In the case ESPN Nueve v. Hot Potato Fantasy League, Index No. 1603 (May 1, 2008), the Court of Fantasy Baseball ruled that all players, including pitchers, are eligible for the league's "utility" slot, meaning that the team ESPN Nueve may play Micah Owings (P Diamondbacks) as a utility player and accumulate his batting statistics. However, if ESPN Nueve uses Owings at utility, it may not on the same day use Owings as a pitcher.

Bang the Gavel: SportsJudge.com Announces Weekly Docket

Between opening week in Baseball and this week's playing of the NCAA Tournament, the SportsJudge.com court system has been busy. Here are three of our weekly highlights:

In the case Commissioner Gary B. v. 2 Legit 2 Quit & IT Byrnes (Index No. 1586-T), the Court of Fantasy Baseball upheld the trade of Corey Hart (OF, Brewers) and J.J. Hardy (SS, Cubs) for B.J. Upton (2B/OF Rays). In doing so, the court applied its default rule that a trade must "adequately benefit both teams." The court noted that "given the wide disparity in expert opinions regarding Hardy," there should be allowed "broad latitude for owners to reach their own conclusions."

In the case Commissioner Edward F. v. Scissor Hands (Index No. 1587-T), the Court of Fantasy Baseball upheld the trade of Fernando Martinez (NY Mets Minor League OF) for Jay Bruce (Cincinnati Reds Minor League OF), noting that "even though Bruce is closer to big-league ready than Martinez, in leagues that allow minor league carryover from one year to the next, some deference must be played to individual owner's long-term scouting projections."

In the case Michael F. v. Office Pool Manager (Index No. 1588), the Court of Fantasy Basketball held that an NCAA office pool manager may disqualify an owner for submitting his entry without predicting a final score as a tie breaker for each round; however, if an entrant is disqualified on these grounds, the entrant's funds should be returned.

Bang the Gavel: Sunday's Weekly Notes

On February 22nd, Major League Baseball asked the Supreme Court to review a lower court's decision that found the first amendment protects free use of baseball players’ names and statistics in fantasy sports games. For more details on MLB's petition, visit my recent column at Above the Law.

Derrick Eckhardt, the editor-in-chief of RotoNation declared Friday March 7, "Tell a Friend about RotoNation Day." Of course we are a tad late. However, Mr. Eckhardt runs one of the best fantasy news sites on the web. So, we're telling all of you about it.

With the NCAA Tournament quickly approaching, the SportsJudge team has invited basketball expert Dan Elzer to join us as a special columnist. Mr. Elzer will be helping our readers to prepare their March Madness brackets.

The National Fantasy Baseball Championship drafts begin this Friday. SportsJudge.com will be helping to run the New York City drafts. If you attend the draft, be sure to say "hello" to the folks wearing SportsJudge.com shirts. They may offer you a one-time only special promotional item.

Bang the Gavel: Should Pitchers' Batting Stats Count in NL-Only Leagues?

It is a good thing fantasy sports did not exist when Babe Ruth manned the mound for the Boston Red Sox because nobody had to address with the Sultan of Swat's hitting stats should count. However, after Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Micah Owings finished the 2007 season with a .333 batting average and a .683 slugging percentage, there is a real chance Owings will see time in the Snakes' lineup on days that he is not pitching. In fact, Tristan Cockroft of ESPN.com. reports as follows:

"Owings, perhaps baseball's best-hitting pitcher, served as the designated hitter and went 1-for-5 in Sunday's spring game. ... Owings batted eighth, and he'll hit seventh in the order when he starts on Monday, a sign that the Diamondbacks are seriously considering hitting him higher in the order on days he pitches. In addition, it might be an indication that the Diamondbacks are reconsidering the idea of getting Owings into the lineup even on days he doesn't pitch, like slotting him as the DH during interleague games or perhaps even trying him at first base." (Full article available here).

This raises an interesting question about whether NL-only leagues should count pitcher's batting statistics.

As someone who saw the Mets' Dwight Gooden hit a three-run home run in my very first inning of my very first game (a 12-1 Mets win over the Pirates), I would be open to adding pitchers' batting numbers into the equation.

Bang the Gavel: A Real Life Fantasy Team

Would you like to share a fantasy team with 52,999 co-owners? What if that team played in real games?

On November 13, 2007, a company called MyFootballClub Ltd. acquired ownership of the longstanding British soccer club Ebbsfleet United FC. MyFootballClub Ltd. then sold shares in the Ebbsfleet United FC club to 53,000 fans, located in 70 different countries. The shareholders get to “vote on all the major decisions … from ticket pricing … to stadium development.” All voting is conducted over the Internet.

For those interested in learning more about investing in Ebbsfleet United, as well as about other public sports investments, please visit my full article on this topic at Above the Law.

Bang the Gavel: Yahoo Acquisition may Signal an End to Free Fantasy Sports

On Friday Febuary 4, Microsoft Corporation made a $44.6 billion hostile bid to take over Yahoo. Since the bid was announced, Yahoo bankers have begun to seek rival bids to acquire the Yahoo! business either in its entirety or in subparts. This deal would have huge implications for fantasy sports contestants.

Currently, it seems that Yahoo and CBS Sports (Sportsline) share category leadership in hosting fantasy sports games, with ESPN.com a close third. Amongst these three main competitors, however, only Yahoo has regularly offered free hosting services for private leagues (with additional features available at an add-on cost). CBS Sports offers a private-league hosting feature through its Fantasy Baseball Commissioner product for $129.95. Meanwhile, ESPN.com has varied its strategy from year-to-year based on marketplace trends.

Although it is far too soon to tell how the proposed Yahoo takeover will shake out, if Yahoo is acquired by another company (and especially if Yahoo Sports ultimately ends up in the hands of ESPN.com or CBS Sports), the days of free fantasy hosting may be gone. That is bad news for fantasy sports contestants who have come to rely on free gaming.

For further legal analysis on this issue, including antitrust implications of a potential Yahoo acquisition, please see my more detailed posting on this issue at Sports Law Blog. Concerned readers may also feel free to contact me directly at info@sportsjudge.com, with the subject heading of "Yahoo".

Bang the Gavel: The Mitchell Report's Impact on Fantasy Baseball

Over the past few days, I have received many inquiries about how the 409 page Mitchell Report will impact fantasy baseball in 2008. Here are some thoughts:

1. Players Named in the Mitchell Report will Likely be Underrated in '08. Many fantasy owners are going to predict a decline in the statistics of players named in the Mitchell Report. Don't be one of them. The findings in the Mitchell Report are distant in time, and they only focus on a few teams based on witness availability (Mets, Yankees, Orioles, Giants, Athletics). Therefore, the Mitchell Report is not likely to help predict the specific players that will lose their power or velocity next season.

2. Don't Trust Anybody Over 35. Before 1995, it was very rare to find a power surge or velocity increase in any player over 35. Recently, we have seen examples of both. However, most of the players experiencing a renaissance in the twilight of their careers were cited in the Mitchell Report for allegedly doping. Without assessing the merits of any individual allegation, I would move any player over age 35 down a tad my draft list. (Unless, of course, the player is a knuckleball pitcher such as 41-year old Tim Wakefield).

3. Stop Predicting Random Power Surges. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had a great article yesterday analyzing the performance of players named in the Mitchell Report, explaining that many of the allegedly doping players were "journeymen," and that "[e]ight of the 33 all-stars named in the report were selected only in seasons after they reportedly began using performance-enhancing drugs." This analysis makes me skeptical about finding natural power surges of more than 10 home runs per season in any player over age 27. (They may happen on occasion, but not as frequently as we had been seeing.)

4. Go Bullish on Top Middle Infielders. When I began playing fantasy baseball in the late 1980s, the power differential separating the top middle infielders (e.g., Cal Ripken, Alan Trammell, Ryne Sandberg) from the rest of the pack (e.g., Tony Fernandez, Dick Schofield, Bill Doran) was dramatic. Then, over the past 20 years, middle-infielders that hit 15-20 home runs became a dime a dozen. My guess is that over the next few years, middle infielder home runs will decline substantially, save for the absolute elite.

5. Return of the Stolen Base (and the Defensive Catcher). With the three-run home run becoming less frequent, teams are beginning to return to playing small ball, and stolen bases are again on the rise. Expect this trend to continue into 2008. Also expect less offensive production out of the catcher position, as teams respond to the increased emphasis on the running game by employing more defensive-minded backstops. (This may explain the New York Mets' off-season obsession with trading for light-hitting Brian Schneider.)

Bang to Gavel: SportsJudge Decisions of Note (October 2007)

October brought many new and exciting fantasy sports disputes to SportsJudge.com's docket. Below are four of the staff's favorites from this month:

(1) In the case Team Anadrol v. Vegas Baby & Flathead Yankees, No. 955-C, the Court of Fantasy Baseball ruled in a fantasy baseball arbitration that an out-of-contention owner's decision to bench all of his hitters for the final six weeks of the season in a Yahoo! 5x5 rotisserie league amounted to "illegal sabotage." While the court acknowledged that an owner of an in-contention team may choose to strategically bench his hitters in Yahoo! games to maintain strength in ratio statistics (i.e. batting average), the court found that this same action is impermissible if done only to aid one in-contention team to pass another in the standings. As a remedy, the court ordered the league standings recalculated as if the benching had never occurred, and prizes awarded accordingly.

(2) In the case Cincinnati Bowtie v. Nellie's Nuts, Index No. 904, the Court of Fantasy Basketball ruled in a fantasy basketball arbitration that when during a Yahoo! fantasy draft one owner accidentally selected Jason Terry instead of Jason Kidd, and another owner using auto-draft selected Jason Kidd in the next round, the owner using auto-draft had no obligation to return Jason Kidd to the team that had intended to draft him.

(3) In the case Commissioner v. Defending Champs & Teram Hoon, Index No. 954-T, the Court of Fantasy Football in a fantasy football arbitration upheld the trade of Peyton Manning and Edgerrin James for TJ Houshmanzadeh, Jon Kitna and Travis Henry because the "trade adequately benefited both teams." The court noted that the team trading Peyton Manning also had Derak Anderson on his roster at quarterback, and that team had a tremendous weakness at wide receiver.

(4) In the case Commissioner v. Foilage and W&P, Index No. 991-T, the Court of Fantasy Football overturned the trade of Hines Ward, Shaun Alexander and Brandon Jacobs from Foilage to W&P for Joe Jurevicius and Warrick Dunn. Because this trade weakened Foilage in both the wide receiver and running back positions, the court noted "this trade is amongst the most nonsensical this court has ever reviewed."

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The SportsJudge.com Team also wishes to salute fantasy football expert John O'Malley on O'Malley's Tallies, which was rated as the "Most Read SportsJudge Blog" for the second month in a row.

Bang the Gavel: The Not So Talented Mr. Roto, and the than More Talented Ms. Bell

Last week, Matthew Berry (better known at ESPN as the "Talented Mr. Roto") advised fantasy owners to start the Cincinnati Bengals defense. The Browns then promptly scored a rousing 51 points on the Bengals "D" leading to a lot of bad will.

In his follow-up article, Mr. Berry acknowledged his misdeed. What followed, however, was the general laundry-list of excuses of generally follows a failed gamler, including Mr. Berry's own defense that he should be forgiven for his terrible pick -- and maybe even lauded -- because he, unlike others, was willing to take a risk. Simply preposterous!

ESPN.com is the largest fantasy sports site in the world, and Berry is ESPN's no. 1 featured "expert". Fantasy sports players rely on these so-called "experts" to provide accurate advice, much as how individual stock investors rely on the stock-picking advice of investment fund managers. This does not mean someone like Berry is expected to be correct 100% of the time. But an "expert" prognosticator's performance needs to be closer to the likes of Mr. Bill Miller -- the Legg Mason fund manager beat the market 15 consecutive years. When prognosticators cannot yield consistent accuracy, they should lose the pulpit to project.

Before I blast ESPN.com and its fantasy "expertise" too far, however, I also have to give the website kudos from hiring away from Rotowire.com a fantasy prognosticator that truly is talented: Board Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist and a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist Stephania Bell. Ms. Bell's work is a positive innovation over that of most fantasy "experts" because she focuses her writing on the estimated time for players to recover from injuries, and her expertise is based on real training in that subject area. The work of academic experts like Bell in the arena of fantasy sports is the kind of innovation that will allow our game to transcend its perception as quasi-gambling. Ideally, Bell's work would be supplemented on the major sites by others with similar expertise that tie comfortably to sport.

Where the major sites drop the ball is where I hope SportsJudge Blog to pick it up and run into the endzone. In coming weeks, we plan to launch regular columns from a staff of statisticians and medical doctors. It remains our steadfast belief that while sports reporters are best at writing post-week recaps, pre-game predictions should remain a job for those with a different set of expertise.

Fantasy Sports Arbitration: SportsJudge.com Decisions of Note (Sept. 1 - 8, 2007)

Week One of the NFL season (not to mention week 21 of the baseball season) brought an interesting docket of cases to SportsJudge.com. As I will do each Monday, here are a few of our highlights:

(1) In the case Stampeding Walruses v. Enter Sandman, Index No. 542, the Court of Fantasy Baseball ruled that based on league precedent, an accidentally dropped player should be awarded back to his original owner. This opinion resolved a dispute in a Maryland-based league. It was reported about by Liz Farmer in the the legal section of Sept. 10th Maryland Daily Record.

(2) In the case Dr. A. Rhim v. Westminster Football League, Index No. 735, the Court of Fantasy Football ruled that where a Yahoo! search engine unexpectedly crashed in the middle of a draft, the league commissioner must re-input the names of the players selected prior to the crash, and that the commissioner may not require an absolute re-draft. This opinion resolved a dispute in a Georgia-based league composed of friends from the Westminster Class of '95.

(3) In the case E. Fenster v. Pick-ems Pool, Index No. 761, the Court of Fantasy Football ruled that where a Pick-ems competition requires that "all picks for an entire week must be submitted before the start of the first game of that week -- no exceptions," no exceptions may be made for an owner that submitted her weekly picks after the Thursday night game had begun. This opinion resolved a dispute in a New York-based work contest.

(4) In the case P.Perotti v. Team One and Team Two, Index No. 686(T), the Court of Fantasy Football upheld a six-to-four trade that featured T.J. Houshmandzadeh moving from Team One to Team Two. This opinion was based on a dispute in a California football league.

(5) In the case P. Ochoa v. Football League, Index No. 604(T), the Court of Fantasy Football upheld the trade of Matt Hasselbeck and Thomas Jones for Donovan McNabb and Vincent Jackson. This opinion was also based on a dispute in a California football league.

Full copies of certain of these decisions are available with purchase of the SportsJudge newsletter. Courtesy copies are available to interested members of the media.

Bang the Gavel: Yahoo! Muffs Draft Data

This morning I was awakened with many inquiries about how to handle Yahoo!'s losing draft data for a number of leagues. Although Sports Judge is in the process of writing about a half dozen opinions on this issue, I strongly recommend that all team owners make sure to hand copy their selections at the end of the draft. That way, draft results are saved, even if Yahoo! servers overflow.

With respect to the many leagues that have lost draft data, replication (where feasible) is the preferred solution. To alleviate any future controversy about how to handle lost draft data, leagues should explicitly include in their constitution an obligation for each team owner to write down all picks (however, presumably SportsJudge.com will soon offer case law on how to handle this issue in the alternative).