It seemed that interest died down for a couple of days, but last night and this morning I received a few emails with details for new leagues. So let’s get back down to this.

RAB Robertson with the Save; ID: 59737; pw: heirapparent

RAB [Name unknown]; ID: 58314; pw: hiphipjorge

Go here to sign up for these leagues.

If you have a league and emailed it to me, and I haven’t posted it, re-send. I’m a disorganized fellow and I’m sure I’ve lost a few of the emails.

Remember, if the leagues full up and you want to create a new one, just follow these steps:

1) Go here to create your league. We’re doing head-to-head leagues with 12 teams. The stats we prefer to use are in the original post.

2) Email me — josephp (at) riveraveblues (dot) com — and give me the league info, including the ID and password, so I can add it to this post.
3) Email me again when the league fills up.

That about covers it. Questions can go through email, through the tip box, or, if you don’t need an immediate response, in the comments.

Yesterday we announced the 2012 RAB fantasy leagues. To get an idea of what we’re going for, I recommend you read the original fantasy leagues post. It explains the procedure that we’re using to make this as easy as possible for everyone.

We’ve already filled up plenty of leagues, but the fun shouldn’t stop there. We’re trying to get a pretty big series going here. And so from now until interest starts to die down we’re going to continue offering you new leagues. Here are a few from last night, and a few new ones, that presumably still have spots available (but might not for long after this post goes live).

RAB Pinstripe Pride; ID: 44914; password: pineda4life

RAB Ramiro Pena Pals; ID: 45421; password: canada

RAB BuckFoston; 45953; password: buck

RAB Bronx Bombers; 47082; dj24life

Go here to sign up for any of these leagues.

If yesterday is any indicator, the leagues will fill up pretty quickly. If you want to start a new league, please do so. We encourage it. Just put RAB as the first part of the league name, so we can keep track of all our leagues. The goal is to award a prize to the team with the best win percentage at the end of the season.

To create a league:

1) Go here to create your league. We’re doing head-to-head leagues with 12 teams. The stats we prefer to use are in the original post.

2) Email me — josephp (at) riveraveblues (dot) com — and give me the league info, including the ID and password, so I can add it to this post.

3) Email me again when the league fills up.

That about covers it. Questions can go through email, through the tip box, or, if you don’t need an immediate response, in the comments.

We got a good head start on the 2012 fantasy baseball season this afternoon. Mike and I each created a league, which filled up pretty quickly. We also put on display 7 additional fantasy leagues with an RAB affiliation. I’m currently trying to figure out which of these leagues still has openings, and I’ll update this post accordingly. (I’m 99% certain they’re all full, though.) Hopefully by tomorrow we’ll have everything figured out and semi-organized.

This afternoon I did forget to post one of the leagues:

RAB Eastbound & Down Division; ID: 42050; pw: kennypowers click here to sign up.

For the full lo-down, check the original post on the 2012 RAB fantasy leagues. For those who don’t want to click and read, here’s the short-short version.

Basically, we’re trying to keep the leagues loosely related, by using RAB as the first word in the league. I’d prefer they all have the same rules, as outlined in the original post, but since it’s not my league it’s not like I can require it. But we are going to give out a prize to the team with the highest win percentage at the end of the season, so there’s that incentive. The leagues are all head-to-head as well.

The process is somewhat chaotic, but it should help us fill plenty of leagues. Here’s how it goes.

1) If you want to simply participate, click on the link next to a league and enter in the required information (league ID and password). Bam. You’re in.

2) If all the leagues or full, someone has to start a new one. Go here to create a new league.

3) Then email me — josephp (at) riveraveblues (dot) com — and give me the league info, including ID and password, so I can post it here.

Important addition: Email me when your league is full, so I can remove it from future posts.

I’ll be posting new leagues at the bottom of this post, as they come in. I’ll also start deleting full leagues, to keep everything relatively sane. We’ll do this twice a day, once in the afternoon and then again in the evening, until interest slows down.

Update: A few leagues rolled in while I was sleeping. Here goes.

RAB Pinstripe Pride; ID: 44914; password: pineda4life

RAB Upper Decki From Hideki; ID: 45344; password: ballsohard

RAB Ramiro Pena Pals; ID: 45421; password: canada

Go here to sign up for any of these leagues.

The countdown to pitchers and catchers has reached its final week, but we all know what that means. Yep, a few benign press briefings and not much else. It’ll be a while before we get into the swing of things. In the meantime, we have a perfect opportunity to set up the 2012 RAB fantasy baseball leagues. This should be similar to what we did last year, but also slightly different.

One thing we’ve failed to maintain in these leagues is continuity. Years ago we tried instituting a relegation system, but that requires far too much management. We’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that these leagues are one-year deals. We make ’em and them scrap ’em. So know that coming in.

Last year we had plenty of interest in RAB-based leagues; there were around a dozen total. We’re going for something similar this year. We’ve started the first two leagues, but we’re going to create many, many more. Here’s the procedure.

1) Click here to join the RAB fantasy league. We have two leagues set up right now, RAB League 1 (ID# 39765) and RAB League 2 (ID# 40171). I’m the commissioner of the first league, Mike is the commissioner for the second league. The password for both leagues is salbograntlanny, and both drafts are scheduled for Monday March 5 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.

Update (1:09 p.m.): We have a new league: RAB League of Champs; ID: 41028; Password: Yankees#1 click here to sign up.

Update (1:36 p.m.): Another league: RAB New England Yankees Fans; ID: 41247; pw: salbograntlanny click here to sign up.

Update: RAB League of Leagues; ID: 41280; pw: nyy baseball click here to sign up.

Update: RAB Ballad of Mariano; ID: 41337; pw: Mariano42 click here to sign up.

Update: RAB The Grandyman Can; ID: 41619; pw: salbograntlanny click here to sign up.

Update: RAB Flags Fly; ID: 41209; pw: salbograntlanny click here to sign up.

Update: RAB Sports Bar All-Stars; ID: 42568; pw: hamandswish click here to sign up.

2) Once those leagues fill up, it’s time to create a new RAB fantasy league. If you want to be commissioner, click here to create a new league. Name it whatever you want, but make sure to make the first word RAB.

3) Email me — joseph p (at) riveraveblues (dot) com — and let me know the league details (name and password). I’ll then update the post accordingly.

We’ll keep doing this until there is no longer any interest.

I’d like the leagues to have uniform rules, so we can compete among the leagues. That is, while your primary competition will be with the teams in your specific league, I’d also like to do some comparisons among the leagues. In fact, we’re going to give away a prize to the team with the highest winning percentage during the season. I’m not sure what the prize is yet, since we’re months away. But it’ll be something good: a bit of memorabilia or a book.

Here’s what we’ve created in the first fantasy leagues.

• 12-team league. I think this will work a bit better, and be easier to manage, than the 20-team leagues from last year.
• Offensive categories: Runs, RBI, OBP, Total Bases, Net Stolen Bases (stolen bases minus caught stealing).
• Pitching categories: Innings Pitched, Saves, Strikeouts, ERA, WHIP.

And we’ll use the following position distributions. It’s only a small change from the default settings:

C: 1
1B: 1
2B: 1
3B: 1
SS: 1
OF: 3
UTIL: 1
SP: 2
RP: 2
P: 4
DL: 1
Bench: 5

Also, I recommend turning on the feature that locks eliminated teams. There’s no reason for an eliminated team to be making a trade, since it cannot benefit them in any way. It’s totally bush league to fire sale anyway, but this is just some insurance against it. Everything else, from what I can tell, goes along with the default league settings.

That’s all I have for now. Again, sign up using the links above, or the spot below. If you have any questions, email me or hit us up using the submit a tip box.