4/6 Recap - Have a Day, Andre

Stud of the Day - Andre Ethier

He was 2/4, with 4 RBIs last night as the Dodgers are off to a hot start...

Dud of the Day - Curtis Granderson

He was 0/5, with 2 Ks, and a GDP....and the Yankees and Mo Rivera did their best Indians/Chris Perez impression and blew a 9th inning lead against TB...

26 Players are still looking for their 1st hit of the year...13 players have hit a HR, and 4 players share the RBI lead at 4 already...

44 players are still undefeated in the Team Picks, including 6 players that are 2-0...

4/5 Recap - Ho Hum for Bautista and Kemp

Well, Jose Bautista and Matt Kemp seem to have not missed a beat as both went deep on the first day...Also going deep was Jay Bruce for the Reds, who hit an absolute bomb.

RTTC Stud of the Day - Jose Bautista

Joey Bats went 3/4 with a HR and 2 RBIs...as the Blue Jays come back from 4-0 and beat the Tribe 7-4 in 16 innings...good game Chris Perez...I guess those 3 innings you threw in Spring didn't get you ready in time for yesterday...oh yeah, do some sit ups

RTTC Dud of the Day - Brett Lawrie

Another Jay, didn't do so well...he was 0/6 in his debut..

Not a good start for those who picked the Marlins...0-2 so far, and the offense has looked awful...

Season/Week 1 Preview

And we are off....(I am pissed that this site won't let me put up pictures anymore??)

RTTC 12 (5th season!) is back and better than ever (sorry, I am not a big Mike and Mike fan either). We have an all time high of 60 RTTCers this season including 13 rookies...which means we have over $3K in prizes to be had. We have RTTCers from Colorado, New Jersey, Philly, St Louis, Chicago, Minnesota, all over Ohio, Mississippi, Boston, Texas, Indy, and Shittsburgh (Sorry D)...and thats just those I know for sure...crazy...

The heart and soul of RTTC is the player picks. (95ish% of the total $ pot) This year we were able to bump up the weekly Stud of the Week payout to $60. So after 1 week, someone could have their season already paid for and playing with house money...

The new addition to RTTC is the Team Picks. (5ish% of the total pot) We added this as a side game and as a 1 year experiment. We may decide it is stupid after this year and never do it again...or we may decide it is great and make it more important next year. We will have a vote after the season to determine this side games fate. The regular season champ will get $80 and the WS Champ will get $120...

SEASON PREVIEW

Player Picks - This being our 5th year, have a pretty good handle on what to expect here. The season long leaders will be neck and neck with real life MLB season long leaders...it is crazily realistic number-wise. I am betting only 1 of these RTTC records gets broken this year, as they are pretty lofty:

HRs- 44 - Punches '11
RBI- 136 - T Krauss '09
AVG- .339 - Carroll '10

Some other lines from Vegas for RTTC...

Over/Under
7.5 times - Monday injuries that screw the whole week
3 - Separate Stud of the Week Awards by 1 person
Week 23 - When Kapcar goes on the DL for the rest of the year
15 times - Someone doesn't get a pick in on time and is ineligible for the week
1 time - An ineligible person would have won the Stud of the Week
1.5 - Number of rookies that finish in the season long money
80% - Chances Sunderman has a good 1st half and is an All Star, but chokes in 2nd half

Thats it for now...

TEAM PICKS - No idea what to expect here honestly...I would think it will be hard to get 90 wins since we have to use 26 of the 30 teams in the league, and pretty much forced to use shitty teams like the Tigers, etc. Remember week 14 All Star week and week 26 are shortened weeks. This will be interesting to see how this plays out...Also remember once you have a total of 162 games played, you will be done with the team picks. (This could happen in week 24 for example) At seasons end, the top 10 finishers will draft the 10 MLB playoff bound teams, and keep them for the entirety of the playoffs...

From Vegas -

Over/Under
6.5 - Most wins for a team during a week (not counting week 1)
1 - least wins for a team during a week
92 wins - Regular season champ
70.5 wins - Last place finisher

WEEK 1 PREVIEW -

Quick breakdown of this weeks picks...

37 different players picked...
Lots of Kinsler, Pujols, Han Ramirez, Hosmer, Kemp picks it seemed like

Elvis Andrus is a 1st time RTTC pick...When the hell did Mike Stanton become Giancarlo?? That news must have been buried under the Fausto Carmona debacle..He was 0-4 last night, so he may go back to Mike real quick...Congrats to K Roach...he has the first hits of the season via J Reyes...

15 different teams were picked...Rangers and Phillies were the big ones...3 guys went with the Marlins and are officially .5 games out of first place...

The Marathon has started...good luck this year to all...welcome, if you are now...feel free to use the comment section below to talk smack, or introduce yourself if you are a Rookie....later on!

HAPPPY MASTERS/OPENING/EASTER WEEKEND!

(I will TRY and update this blog w something everyday...if anyone would like to contribute with a weekly segment feel free to be a TEAM PICK Analyst, or a Player Pick Analyst, or a RBI correspondent, whatever...you can name your title...)

Game 1 is in the Books

Well, the 2012 season is official underway, as the M's beat the A's 3-1 in Japan...There were no player or team picks involving these teams for week 1. Ichiro had 4 hits, which probably would have been the best pick of these 2 teams...Also picking Seattle was tempting, knowing the King Felix will probably get at least 3 starts in before April 15th...

So, MLB has started, but RTTC will officially begin on 4/4....All week 1 picks must be in 5PM on the 4th...

It is highly recommended that you submit a player list and team list of at least 5, that will act as your backup in case you ever forget to submit your pick on time.

Spring Update 3/21

Obviously spring training numbers do not mean much, but you can't ignore some players this spring. Here are the leaders with about 10 or so games left to be played...

Batting Avg-

1-Lorenzo Cain, should be the starting CF for the Royals this year is batting .500 for the spring (16-32)...not bad

2-Delmon Young, DH-OF for the Tigers is having a great spring and should have a big year behind that great offensive line of Miggy and Prince. he is batting .485 (16-33)

3-Howie Kendrick, 2B, LAA, should see all kinds of pitches this year hitting in front of King Albert...he is batting .467 (14-30)

Home Runs-

1-Ryan Ruburn, 2B, DET...He has 6 HRs this spring in 28 ABs, and he most likely will hit 8 or 9th in that Tigers lineup...dumb

2, 3-Bunch of players have 4...notable RTTC picks are Soriano, CHC, Uggla, ATL, and D Young, DET

RBIs-

1-Raburn 18...Grapefruit League MVP...hitting .465 as well

1-D Young 18

3. Hosmer, KC 16..He should have a huge year I believe, and KC will be improved if all their young talent can prosper...

TEAM

Break up the Tigers, they are 13-2 in spring training, OAK and TOR is 14-4...The Mets are 4-11...In the new RTTC Team Picks there are 26 weeks in the season...There are 30 teams to choose from...so that leaves 4 teams you will not choose for sure this year...the Mets may be a popular team left out...

2012 RTTC Overview - New Side Game

The basis of RTTC in 2012 will not change at all.

Quick Recap of how our simple game works.

-You will pick 1 player per week.

-This player can only be used once for the whole year.

-We keep track of only Hits, HRs, and RBIs for this player.

-Each week the person with the most "pts" (add up h, hr, and rbi's) will win $50 (split if tied)

-After 26 weeks compiles of this, the top 3 players (possibly top 4 depending on amount of entries) in each category will win the season long prizes ($$ determined by final count of entries)

-Each week starts on Monday (except week 1 which starts March 28th) Week 2 starts on April 16th.

-Your picks must be submitted to rttcpicks@gmail.com prior to the first game of the day. Failure to do so will result in ineligibility of the weekly prize. Each day the pick is late results in an 0-3.

-Every pick must be an eligible player - Pitchers can't be used, Injured players, DL players shouldn't be used....Use this site -> http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/fantasy/injuries/ to check every monday. Towards the end of the year benchwarmers cant be used to preserve batting averages. The Commish has the right to deny any picks that violate this rule.

-That is pretty much it I believe for the RTTC game

NEW TO 2012 - TEAM PICKS

This year we are going to try out a new side game to see how it goes. Every year once the regular season ends, RTTC abruptly ends. This year, some of us will have interest in the playoffs.

Every week along with your RTTC player pick, you will submit a Team pick as well.

-You can only pick a team once per year. And all we will care about is their wins and losses. We will accumulate these wins and losses until you have completed 162 games. (For instance your team picks my reach 162 total games played during week 24. At that point your team picks will be done. Or you may not reach 162 games played total after 26 weeks, and if not, your remaining games will be counted as losses. So for example after the season is done and your team picks are 80-80 (2 shy of 162 total...you will automatically gain 2 losses to make it 80-82

At the end of the season, the top 10 "teams" will advance to the playoffs, where there is now 10 teams.

A draft will ensue where the regular season champ will get 1st pick of the MLB team they think will win it all, and so on. The 10th best team will get whichever team is left - (in 2011, it may have been the Cards). Any ties in record will go to the player that has the highest RTTC pt total for the season.

Of the overall pot only $50-$100 will go towards the Team Picks Side Game. Probably pay out the Reg Season Champ and the World Series Champ. Input, Suggestions are welcome.

Email rttcpicks@gmail.com with any questions, concerns, whatever...also any new recruits should email me there, so I can add their email to the list.

RTTC 2012 - Opening Day 3 Weeks Away

Well its been a long off season, its time to get back on the horse...the RTTC horse. Opening Day is THIS month...March 28th (Mariners and A's have a 2 game series in Japan..the rest of the teams start up on April 4th-5th)....time to get recruiting and get geared up for another season...With March Madness starting soon and to distract us, Opening Day will be here before you know it.

2012 RTTC RULES RECAP

Everything will be the same this year when it comes to RTTC as last, with one slight change...The commish (me) will be able to disapprove picks...This most likely will only come into play in the last couple of weeks when a player is trying to keep their Batting Average from falling.

Week 1 Notes -

With MLB starting the season at an odd time, week 1 is kind of screwy. If your week 1 pick is going to be a player from Seattle or Oakland, that pick must be sent in prior to that game (March 28th) Otherwise all other picks must be in by April 4th. So in essence Week 1 will last from March 28th - April 15th)...and the way the schedule works out, Week 26 at the end of the year will only be 3 days long. Week 2 will start on Monday, April 16th, week 3 will start the following Monday and so on.

Next post will detail the new side game that we will try out this season...

If you have any friends that want to join, have them email me to confirm entry in RTTC12, send email to rttcpicks@gmail.com Also throw any questions that you may have to that email as well.