Friday, June 25, 2010

Analyzing my 2010 team

My 2010 12 team mixed league 5x5 roto keeper league draft:

2. Miguel Cabrera (k)
14. Mark Teixeira (k)
26. BJ Upton (k)
38. Felix Hernandez
50. Troy Tulowitzki
62. Kevin Youkilis
83. Adam Jones
86. Torii Hunter
107. Francisco Cordero
110. Jake Peavy
131. Jose Valverde
134. Asdrubal Cabrera
155. Rajai Davis
158. Max Scherzer
179. David Aardsma
182. Bobby Jenks
203. Ryan Dempster
206. Cody Ross
227. Lastings Milledge
230. Ben Sheets
251. Benji Molina
254. Bronson Arroyo
275. Edwin Encarnacion
278. Scott Podsednik
299. Orlando Hudson

My current team (as of 7/2/2010)

C Carlos Santana
1B Miguel Cabrera
2B Orlando Hudson*
3B Kevin Youkilis
SS Alexei Ramirez
2B/SS Aaron Hill
1B/3B Justin Morneau
OF Adam Jones
OF Torii Hunter
OF Shin-Soo Choo
OF Denard Span
OF Carlos Gonzalez
UTIL Mike Stanton
Bench Rajai Davis
DL Troy Tulowitzki
DL Kendry Morales

P Felix Hernandez
P Francisco Cordero
P Jake Peavy
P David Aardsma
P Ryan Dempster
P Frank Francisco
P Billy Wagner
P Mike Adams
P Takashi Saito
Bench Scott Baker
Bench Aaron Heilman

Bold - drafted
Italics - traded for
Normal - FA/Waiver pick up
* - drafted, however dropped and re-added later

Trades completed:

Give Jose Valverde
Receive Shin-Soo Choo

Choo is someone I really liked but didn't get a chance to draft him. So far, he's been a stud, and is on pace for at least a 25-25 season. I gave up arguably the best closer so far this year, but I got a decent amount out of him and I can't see him having a sub-one ERA the entire season so I proposed this trade early in the season, and the owner claimed Choo was worth more than one closer. I knew he desperately needed saves and waited him out, and eventually he caved.

*Update* I might rethink how solid this trade was now that Choo is out with a sprained thumb for 6-8 weeks. No way I could have seen this happening, however, so what can you do?

Give Bobby Jenks
Give BJ Upton
Receive Justin Morneau
Receive Denard Span

Even if I wasn't a huge Twins homer, I would have made this trade. Jenks was an extremely shaky closer at the time (he's settled down lately) and the downgrade of Upton to Span is minimal (at least when you consider all 5 categories). This was a no brainer that was proposed to me.

Give Mark Teixeira
Give Alberto Callaspo
Give Cody Ross
Receive Billy Wagner
Receive Carlos Gonzalez
Add Orlando Hudson

This trade, on the surface, looks terrible for me. Many people in my league thought I was crazy for trading away one of the premier first basemen in the league, and maybe I am. However, at the time of this trade I had Miguel Cabrera, Justin Morneau, Kevin Youkilis and Teixiera. There isn't a possible way I could keep all 4 for next season (Youkilis will lose his 3B eligibility next season) so I had to deal one, and Teixeira was my best bet. He's also been struggling and I was more than a bit fed up. The reason I went throuh with this trade was that I really wanted Wagner and Gonzalez. Adding Hudson back to my roster makes up for the gap that Callaspo leaves, and Gonzalez is a huge upgrade over Cody Ross (although he has been solid this year again). This was a need based trade and I don't regret it, as Teixeira has still largely struggled since this deal.

I can't exactly analyze my add and drops, as I have a daily strategy that involves adding and dropping players. Some of the big adds I've had so far, however, are Aaron Hill, Matt Weiters, Carlos Santana, Mike Stanton, Frank Francisco and Mike Adams. I have an infatuation with high strikeout rate set-up guys, and Santana (I call him "Oye-como-va") and Stanton have both been solid in their short MLB careers.

More anaylsis later in the season but I'll close this post with this. At the time of the draft, I was infatuated with my team. Looking back, I think I had a terrible draft! The only reason I'm succeeding this year is my constant roster changes, good trades and a little bit of luck.

Silly Little Game




















Fantasy Baseball represents a significant portion of the multi-million dollar industry that is Fantasy Sports. Each year more and more people play with their family, their friends, or complete strangers online. Any way you look at it, Fantasy Baseball is no longer a "silly little game."

This blog is mostly out of boredom, but when you combine that with my utter infatuation with the sport, the need to voice my opinions overrides my laziness.

Baseball is not just a game, it's a national past-time. It has the longest and most grueling season of all the major sports. The game is not perfect (that post, is for another day), but it is entertaining no matter what. Most kids envision themselves hitting the homerun to win Game 7 of the World Series. As we get older, however, and we realize that our dreams likely won't come true, a lot of us shift those dreams to managing a big league team. Fantasy Baseball lets you do this. Daily roster moves, free agents, trades, the works.

Hopefully throughout the course of this blog I give some solid fantasy advice, but if not I hope you at least enjoy reading my articles.