Last season I produced an intensive, comprehensive seven-part series designed to help contestants competing in CDM Fantasy Baseball games. You can look at this as the revised second edition of that series. Be prepared though, to be successful in fantasy baseball challenges requires many, many hours of research (not to mention financial investment) before and throughout the course of the season, as baseball�s landscape changes on a daily basis. The goal is for your preparation to pay off and to make a profit at season�s end.
The grandaddy of fantasy baseball challenges is the USA TODAY Fantasy Baseball challenge run by CDM Sports (cdmsports.com). 2002 will mark the tenth year of this very popular contest, which nets between seven to ten-thousand entries on a yearly basis. The game contests of a simple 5 x 5 rotisserie style format where your 28-player lineup must fit under a 30-million dollar salary cap. CDM sets the salaries of most players, with unlisted players going for a set price of 750 K. Participating and contending in the CDM �paper-challenge� is not cheap. Be ready to set aside about $500 for the entire season (but as low as $39.95 to enter). You will see by the prize structure that you will need to finish in about the top 5 percent to make a profit. That may seem daunting, but by playing the game wisely you should be able to at least break even. If you get off to a bad start and find your team hopeless down in the standing, you always have the option of �tanking the team� � or quitting the challenge and thence cutting your losses.
If the cost of the paper challenge is out of your budget, don�t fret. CDM operates several other Fantasy Baseball games that fits virtually all price ranges. The prizes of course are always proportionate to the cost, but the competition is just as fierce. Besides the paper challenge, the other games are as follows�
USA Today Internet Challenge � Also known as the �on-line� challenge and features twice-a-week transactions, as opposed to once a week in the paper game. Fees are lower (about $250 for the entire year) but must be made on-line to avoid surcharges.
CDM Fantasy Baseball � Point-style format as opposed to rotisserie. Cost falls between the paper and on-line challenges (about $350)
Budget Baseball � Point-style format is only $29.95 for the entire season.
CDM Super Challenge � Enter all four games and be eligible to enter the Super Challenge. Best overall ranking amongst the four games nets a nice bonus (close to $1,000).
If you miss opening day there are still other CDM-run contests to enter throughout the season which include�
USA Today 2nd Season Challenge � Usually begins the first week of June. Same as the full-season challenge and the total cost runs about $300.
CDM Mid-Season Fantasy Baseball � Point-style game begins with games following the All-Star break in mid-July. Cost should run under $150.
USA Today Playoff Challenge � Challenge format using players participating in post-season play. $14.95 to enter. No salary cap, total costs runs somewhere in the range of $75-80.
There are other contests of similar stature that are advertised but be careful. Contests run without getting a MLBPA license to do so are libel to be shut down at any time, perhaps leading to a consumer headache.
Now let�s take a look at the prize structure for the paper challenge, which is as follows�
| PLACE | OVERALL | DIVISION (250 TEAMS) | LEAGUE (25 TEAMS | FIELD |
| 1 | $25,000 | $2,000 | $600 | 200 |
| 2 | $10,000 | $1,000 | $300 | $150 |
| 3 | $5,000 | $500 | $100 | $100 |
| 4 | $2,000 | $100 | $50 | $75 |
| 5 | $1,000 | $75 | FREE ENTRY | $50 |
| 6-10 | $500 | $50 | - | $25 |
| 11-25 | $250 | $25 | - | - |
| 26-100 | $100 | - | - | - |
In addition the overall leader nets an additional $100 per week. Top 25 overall finishers are guaranteed $2,850 regardless of their finish in their league or division. All 24 teams in the same league as the overall winner are given free entry to the following years challenge. The fourth category, the �leveling the playing field� competition, began last season and involves placing teams into 25 fields at midseason. All first place teams are placed in Field 1, all second place teams in Field 2, third place teams in Field 3, and so on all the way down to last place teams being placed in Field 25. The idea simply is to give teams down in the standings a reason to play for the entire season by placing them with other teams that are on the same level. All fields consist of approximately 300-400 teams.
Info on the prize structure of other CDM baseball games can be found on the CDM website (cdmsports.com).
ROSTER SELECTION
And then there is the fun of selecting your roster, which is as follows...
Your starting lineup consists of 28 players, broken down as such...
You will also have a 12 man taxi squad (expands to 14 in September). Those players can be of any denomination. One ideal option would be a catcher, a first basemen, a second basemen, a third basemen, a shortstop, two outfielders, three starting pitchers and a relief pitcher. For the on-line game you may want to have four or even five SP's on your bench, I'll explain later. For the point games, you are required to have 8 hitters and 4 pitchers on the taxi squad.
There is a major change regarding player switches. All bench switches are now $2.50 regardless of whether they are made on Sunday or not. In past years the fee was $2 before Sunday and $3 on Sunday.
Weekly deadline for the paper challenge is 12 Midnight ET on Sunday. Bi-weekly deadlines for on-line is 1 PM ET on Monday (covering Monday-Thursday games) and 1 PM on Friday (covering Friday-Sunday games). Free Agent Purchases refer to a list of players selected by CDM that can be purchased for free on a given week. CDM lists one player each from the catcher/infield positions, along with two outfielders, two starting pitchers, and a reliever.
Additional hints and tips on running your team can be found in PART II
