Fantasy Baseball Manager of the Year

Who Is MOTY?

Three guys, friends and baseball fans of varying degrees. The first two, Shawn and Eric, used to work together and kept in touch over the years. Shawn started playing fantasy baseball. Couldn’t stop. And got pretty good at it. At the same time, Eric started designing websites. Couldn’t stop. And got even better at that than Shawn did at fantasy baseball. Which was good, because it was Eric’s job, not his hobby.

Then, not too long after, the third guy, Pete, took a job where Eric worked. In passing, Eric asked him about the AM radio on his desk, launching Pete into a 20 minute diatribe describing the agony of a lifelong Cubs fan. Finally, the three guys got together, wondered if fantasy baseball fans would find the MOTY System, it’s trade secret algorithms and an easy-to-use website worthwhile and decided to give it a try. Because, to quote Joaquin Andujar, “Youneverknow.”

By the way, thanks for visiting the site.

The History of MOTY

By Shawn

(Also known as, “Feel Free to Stop Reading at Any Time and Go To the ‘Sign Up’ Page — Really, We Don’t Mind.”)

I’ve always been a baseball fan. Played growing up — decent infielder, not much with the bat. Watched Monday Night Baseball with my dad. Went to games, major and minor league. Ate hot dogs, collected cards, played “500” in the backyard. But I never got into the fantasy game. And, for some reason, wasn’t really interested.

Then, back in 1999, a friend of mine kept badgering me to join his league — I think they just needed one more team or they wouldn’t be able to draft. Regardless, I finally gave in, more than anything, to get him off my back.

Five minutes before the draft, my friend called me up, “Hey, where are you?” To be honest, I was asleep, had forgotten all about the draft, didn’t know it was the most exciting day of the fantasy season. And the kicker — I’m not even a “nap” person. But I got there. And pretty quickly realized, “Hey, this is a lot of fun.”

Having fun is one thing. Being clueless another. Which became clearly evident when I drafted my 1b, since the guy had … retired the year before.

Needless to say, it was a long first season. Though, not without its rewards. I started figuring things out, picked up a few free agents, made a few trades – Edgar Martinez for Matt Mantei helped a lot – and clawed my way out of the basement finishing in 7th place for the season. Most importantly though, I was hooked on the game.

Let me clarify something — I’m a competitive person. Not over the top, but I like to do as well as I can at anything I try. Call it “healthy competitive.” So, I studied all the fantasy magazines, read everything Peter Gammons wrote and watched Baseball Tonight religiously. Until it dawned on me — I was only catching up to the other guys in the league, only learning everything they already knew, thinking the way they already thought.

I needed an edge, a unique approach. I needed an objective way to figure out a fantasy player’s true value, not just someone else’s subjective opinion. I needed to be able to find the hidden gems in the draft and the free agent pool. I needed to be able to work better deals — and not get suckered into bad ones.

Understand, redemption and saving face were strong motivations for season #2.

So, I started working on what has become the MOTY System. And whattayaknow, I won the league the next year. And have done pretty well, including many championships, every year since in a variety of leagues.

Of course, I kept refining and improving the system, making it more precise, more consistent, more reliable. Then, in early 2003, while browsing through a bookstore, I picked up a pretty hefty book, opened it, flipped through it and … mother lode!

It was The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, The Classic — Completely Revised by Bill James. If you haven’t read it, get up from your computer – right now – and go find it. Well, sign up for MOTY first — then go find it. I think you will, like I did, completely love it (the section on Ernie Lombardi is my personal favorite).

Before then, I’d heard of Bill James, but never read any of his stuff. And I’d never heard of a “Win Share,” James’ unit of value for evaluating players within the context of the real game. The more I read his book, though, the more I realized, Win Shares were a lot like MOTY#s (I wasn’t calling them “MOTY#s” at that point, just “values,” but the analogy remained).

This told me two things. One, people might think I took the idea for the MOTY System from Bill James’ Win Shares system — which I didn’t, any similarities are purely coincidental. And, two, if I had come up with an evaluation system for fantasy baseball that’s similar, though obviously less complex, to the system Bill James came up with for real baseball, I might be on to something.

I mean, it worked for me, but that was just … me. Would other people find it useful?

Then Moneyball by Michael Lewis, another must read, came out and I realized I was studying the same types of stats to evaluate players that Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland A’s, and his staff were — I was just doing it for the fantasy game, not the actual one. Oh, and I wasn’t throwing chairs through walls. Remember, “healthy competitive.”

Reading Moneyball was the tipping point — it was time to make the Fantasy Baseball Manager of the Year System available to fans of the game and see what happened.

Which is why you’re able to read this today.

One last note. I really, really hope the guys in my keeper league don’t find out about the site. Well, okay, if they do, they do. But a MOTY subscription for them is $899.99 a season. All right, all right, I’m joking.

It’s only $499.99 for them.