July 7 2014, 11:00AM EDT.
@Philabaseball
If you grew up playing travel baseball as a teenager in Philadelphia, chances are you remember the Devlin League.
If so, or if you have an interest in fantasy baseball, you may have some interest in this story.
I was approached by a fantasy baseball enthusiast from the far Northeast a few weeks ago about assisting in the creation of a Philadelphia-based fantasy baseball league. The catch being he wanted to find owners that had ties to various Devlin League teams and have them draft a fantasy team to represent Devlin League affiliates.
I thought the concept was odd at first, but after thinking about it I realized having a fantasy league with Philadelphia neighborhood teams managed by people from the actual neighborhoods was a neat idea. Basically, the trick was to find people that played as a teenager for teams like Moss or Somerton and have them draft a fantasy team with their Devlin League team name doubling as their fantasy team name.
Believe it or not, we found 16 guys over the past three months that fit the qualifications from different Devlin League teams and completed the draft last week.
The inaugural Devlin Fantasy Sabermetric League season begins tonight and runs through the remainder of the MLB season.
For those that care about these things, the league format is head-to-head with eight teams separated into two divisions.
North Division: Torresdale, Bustleton, Max Myers, Fairmount, Calvary, Somerton, Fox Rok, Rhawnhurst.
South Division: Juniata, Frankford, Fishtown, Olney, Tabor, Holy Terrors, Wissinoming.
The 14 scoring categories lean more to sabermetrics than traditional scoring: OPS, Net Stolen Bases, ISO, Runs Created, Errors, Total Bases, Outs Made, DICE, Quality Starts, Saves+Holds, WHIP, OPS Against, Net Wins, K/BB.
Rosters are comprised of 23 players with a starting lineup of a C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, RF, CF, U, SP, SP, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, RP, RP.
The schedule allows for a nine game (week) regular season with the top two teams in each division reaching the playoffs.
The Philadelphia Baseball Review will provide weekly coverage and standings with a single post each week - likely late Sunday night. We've added a scoreboard to the front page that will update every morning.
If you are interested in learning more about the league or possibly joining next year for the full season, send me a message and let me know.
- The Philadelphia Baseball Review is the top baseball news source in Philadelphia, providing news coverage and analysis of the 2014 Phillies and baseball in the Philadelphia region.
