Thanks gents.  I look forward to trying one of these leagues out.

x

bump for Italyprof

Thanks so much bottomlee. Also for your explanations for some of my questions on other threads. The whole "prof just finished teaching for a month or so and is driving us crazy" thing is like the Damp effect - it only lasts for the start of the season. By mid-June I have a summer course to teach and in a few days work on a book and a translation. But for a few days "stop me before I post again" !

I can't remember if this is in here but here's some more advice:

Find a league with a commissioner (and maybe a few members) you cyberlike.   Playing in a league with some douches kinda sucks.

How often do new leagues get started ? One thing I have noticed is a certain weariness with the same old standard among progressives players, looking for new twists etc. which is perfectly understandable. But I would guess that I am not the only one that would feel comfortable at first in progressives that begin in a single year and progress simply, trying more complicated formula later on. 

I suspect joining one already in course first is the best idea. But that seems to mean having a roster that already exists, which is also an advantage in many ways. Still it seems like a nice idea to be there at the start, since everyone seems to say that part of the enjoyment is precisely following a franchise for some time and part of that can be setting it up in the first place. 

So is progressive world mostly one already in progress, or do new start ups still form and are at least some of them fairly standard, or all the experienced players looking for spice in their life instead ? I realize I will find this out for myself looking at the progressive classifieds regularly, but again, impressions and experiences of those who know and already play in them is helpful for the rest of us and I am probably not the only one just now overcoming a previous sense of being intimidated by how complicated they at first seemed. (Fulbright scholar who is translating a book on Kant from Italian as part of his summer project - trust me, what we do here playing baseball is more complicated than that stuff).

New leagues start about once a month or so.   The issues with them are that:

a. They take awhile to fill
b. The initial draft takes a month or so
c. If someone drops out in the middle of the draft it is a huge pain in the ***

Taking over a team is a lot easier if you are willing to wait a season or three to rebuild it.  Most teams available stink.   I would recommend starting with a single season version.   Leagues with complicated rules take a little time to get used to.

I think most progressive players are reasonably experienced.     I wouldn't be intimidated by that though, experience isn't a requirement for success.

 

Posted by Trentonjoe on 5/17/2012 10:20:00 AM (view original):
I can't remember if this is in here but here's some more advice:

Find a league with a commissioner (and maybe a few members) you cyberlike.   Playing in a league with some douches kinda sucks.

boy, ain't that the truth! 

Italyprof I see you're considering joing us in 1974 in the NWP progressive.  I joined this league (my first go at a Prog) in it's third season.  It took me a couple of seasons to get my bearings (getting lucky with a top draft pick never hurts) but now I swear by progs.  I am also a charter member of another prog (currently up to 2008) which is in it's 14th season.  Once you've joined progressive leagues you will not play in open leagues again.  BTW, Contrarian is a terrific commissioner who runs a tight ship regarding the drafts and moving everybody along between seasons in a timely manner.  You couldn't do better than his league for your first time.

 

 

   ....     

WIS: What is one feature you want to see implemented in a future update?

zlionsfan: The almost total lack of support for progressive leagues has made our commissioner pull his eyes out every season.

bagchucker: Progressives support. Keeper lists and draft lists and running the draft. In order to do this right, WIS has to play and run some progressives for a few cycles. Otherwise there are a thousand niggling details you are sure to get wrong.

smeric: The inability to run keeper leagues and annual drafts for said leagues automatically through the draft center. Progressive commissioners would have a much easier time sustaining their leagues if the draft center was more progressive friendly. From a business standpoint this should be a HIGH priority for WIS given the long-term nature of the PROGRESSIVE league concept. I've been in quite a number of progressive leagues that ceased operating due to commissioners being unable to maintain the incredible level of effort required over 20, 30 or 40+ seasons. Make it easier to run progressive league and you'll see more of them survive and therefore more recurring revenue for your company.

ernestleifB: I think that it would be rather easy to generate a players list automatically for an upcoming draft of an ongoing progressive league. The commissioner of the league, in this case ceez, could enter the league number of the previous season and a feature could be created to generate a list of players available in the next season's database that did not appear on any roster at any point during the previous season. I don't think it would be that hard to do.

rsp777: A-FREAKING-MEN TO THIS! That is one VERY simple idea that would make sim leagues SO much easier for commissioners to deal with, especially in our case where there is no IR and a guy returns to the draft pool if he misses a season. Sometimes the research needed in the Centennial League can be a bit much because of the no IR rule, and a feature such as this would make things WAY easier for the commish in doing an available players list and it would also make things WAY easier for owners because it would eliminate the need to dig deep to find guys who miss a season. That way another "Ian Kennedy"episode wouldn't happen and he wouldn't drop to me at the #6 pick.

Editor's note: Big plans are in the works to help progressive league play. Stay tuned!   ...   http://whatifsports.com/beyondtheboxscore/default.asp?article=interview_20111205

Bump this for the late Spring.

Going to announce a new progressive league sometime in the next week or so, and this is the best introduction there is for those owners who have not tried out the best kind of league there is at WIS. 

bump