Half Way There

Joined five more leagues today, all auto pick. You can see what leagues I hopped on in the sidebar.

Team 12 Roster

The first of many live drafts with some people I know. I think I did pretty well and have a lot of trade value on my team. I had the 9th pick in a 10 team league. My #1 choice was Jimmy Rollins and I didn't draft a pitcher until the 3rd round (Jake Peavy)
It wasn't until right before the draft that I found out it was a keeper league. No bad considering who I drafted.
In parenthesis are the rounds I drafted the player in.

C - Russell Matin (5)
1B - Joey Votto (8)
2B - Ian Kinsler (2)
3B - Aubrey Huff (9)
SS - Jimmy Rollins (1)
2B/SS - Michael Young (7)
3B/1B - Jorge Cantu (16)
OF - Jason Bay (4)
OF - Andre Either (12)
OF - Jayson Werth (13)
OF - Pat Burrell (15)
OF - Kosuke Fukudome (20)
UTL - Rickie Weeks (21)
P - Jake Peavy, SP (3)
P - Francisco Rodriguez, RP (6)
P - Scott Kazmir, SP (10)
P - Joba Chamberlain, SP (11)
P - Edinson Volquez, SP (14)
P - David Price, SP (17)
P - Chein-Ming Wang, SP (18)
P - George Sherrill, RP (19)
P - Jair Jurriens, SP (22)
BENCH - Lyle Overbay, 1B (24)
BENCH - Freddy Sanchez, 2B (25)
BENCH - Jered Weaver, SP (23)

I've already made a move to drop Overbay an pick up Justin Duchscherer off the waiver wire.

Trade Proposal (Team 4)

FEB 22 UPDATE
The trade was declined, however he countered as well.
Now he offered Mark Teixeira, Milton Bradley and Chad Billingsly for Lance Berkman, Carl Crawford and Willy Tavares.
I accepted on the fact that I will improve a lot of stat categories while losing in one.
I would still have plenty of SB on my team so losing the three won't hurt. Tex and Bradley will bring in more power and batting average while Billingsly should help out in strikeouts and ERA.


FEB 20

So, I was offered Mark Teixeira and Milton Bradley for Lance Berkman and Carl Crawford.

Hell no.

I do need starting pitching, so I declined and countered with Lance Berkman and Carl Crawford for Mark Teixeira and Chad Billingsly. I have a lot of speed on my team and can sacrifice some SB for quality pitching.

Team 4 Roster

Waaaay too many relievers. Worst pitching team so far in my quest for 50.

10 team league

C - Joe Mauer
1B - Albert Pujols
2B - Mark Ellis
3B - Alex Gordon
SS - Michael Young
2B/SS - Troy Tulowitzki
3B/1B - Lance Berkman
OF - Ichiro Suzuki
OF - Carl Crawford
OF - Willy Tavares
OF - Coco Crisp
UTL - Geovany Soto
P - Dan Haren, SP
P - Jonathon Papelbon, RP
P - Brian Fuentes, RP
P - Bobby Jenks, RP
P - B.J. Ryan, RP
P - Justin Verlander, SP
P - Frank Francisco, RP
P - Ryan Dempster, SP
P - J.J. Putz
BENCH - Carlos Pena, 1B
BENCH - Pablo Sandoval, 1B
BENCH - Ryan Theriot, 3B

Team 3 Roster

Another league that needs improvement in the pitching department. I have plenty of offense and I may trade some bats for arms.

10 team league

C - Geovany Soto
1B - Justin Morneau
2B - Freddy Sanchez
3B - Chris Davis
SS - Michael Young
2B/SS - Orlando Hudson
3B/1B - Pablo Sandoval
OF - Grady Sizemore
OF - Carlos Lee
OF - Nate McLouth
OF - Magglio Ordonez
OF - Adam Dunn
UTL - Mike Napoli
P - Brandon Webb, SP
P - Zach Greinke, SP
P - Rich Harden, SP
P - Jose Valverde, RP
P - Francisco Codero, RP
P - Brian Wilson, RP
P - Ryan Dempster, SP
P - David Price, SP
J.J. Putz, RP
BENCH - Jorge Posada, C
BENCH - Carlos Gomez, OF
BENCH - Jered Weaver, SP

Rules to Draft By

1) Never take a pitcher in the first round. Pitchers will pitch 1-2 games per week, a position player will play five to seven games a week. I don't know, you do the math.

2) Grab two strong pitchers in the first 7 rounds. Two strong starters are better than four mediocre starters. You always want an ace and a #2 pitcher. Draft inning eaters with a decent ERA and WHIP to fil out the rest of your staff.

3) Relievers are overrated in fantasy baseball. Draft one after the 10th round. Few innings pitched, little affect on ERA, K, and IP. Only useful for saves. See tip #5 for the exception

4) If you find a pitcher that qualifies for both starter and reliever, won't sound like a bad idea to draft him. Especially if it's a big name pitcher (ahem Joba C.). Will help in all pitching categories.

5) Follow the draft. If you notice that one position is strong in one round, jump on the bandwagon and draft one before you are left with the scraps.

6) Take advantage of homers. If one player is drafting his favorite team, grab one of them and rob him in a trade. People like them exist.

7) Don't draft by name, draft by stats. Fantasy baseball does not care if Alex Rodriguez took steroids, they care about the numbers he puts up.

8) Always have a depth chart at least five players deep. Chances are, you won't have the best players from each position on your team. As a matter of fact, you won't...ever.

9) Don't stock up on one stat. Spread out your draft picks to cover all stats. If you draft for AVG, where will your HR and RBI totals come from?

10) Watch the weak positions. OF, 1B, and SP are very deep. 2B and C are two of the more shallow positions. Draft accordingly.

11) Pay attention to the latest injury reports. Hear about Ben Sheets?

12) Trade value. If you follow the first 11 rules, your team will have trade value that you can take advantage of.

13) Don't believe in the hype of sophomore seasons and contract years. That Varitek choice didn't pay out too well, did it?

14) Just because a player is ranked higher than another player does not mean they are statistically better. See #7.

15) Draft smart. Your #1 draft choice will not win you a title, but it can cost you one.

First Trade Offer of the Season

In my second team (2/50), I pointed out that my pitching needs work. The proposal I made may seem like suicide, but I have a decent SP core and was lacking in the relief department.
I decided to trade Carlos Zambrano, Aaron Harang, and Curtis Granderson in exchange for Brad Lidge, Joba Chamberlain, and Xavier Nady.

Even positional swap, no need to drop players or search the free agent market. Hopefully he accepts. Will you?

Team 6 Roster

Not proud of this roster. League wound up to be an 8-team league. I hate stacked rosters.
Plus, this league looks like it was poorly set up. Two 2B/SS? Three designated hitters? A left fielder and three additional outfielders? Four teams play, five teams have byes? What a joke. This team will probably go to the bottom of my priority list.

8 team league

C - John Baker
1B - Joey Votto
2B - Howie Kendrick
3B - Aramis Ramirez
SS - Hanley Ramirez
2B/SS - Orlando Hudson
2B/SS - Christian Guzman
3B/1B - Chris Davis
IF - Adrian Beltre
LF - Alfonso Soriano
OF - Matt Holliday
OF - Carl Crawford
OF - Bobby Abreu
DH - Johnny Damon
DH - Mike Sweeney
DH - Jon Knott
UTL - Brad Hawpe
UTL - Mike Cameron
UTL - Paul Konerko
UTL - Cameron Maybin
UTL - Edwin Encarnacion
P - James Shields, SP
P - Kevin Slowey, SP
P - Matt Garza, SP
P - Josh Johnson, SP
P - Joel Hanrahan, SP
P - John Danks, SP
P - Chris Volstad, SP
P - J.P. Howell, SP
SP - Johan Santana
SP - John Lackey
RP - Carlos Marmol
RP - Jonathon Broxton
RP - B.J. Ryan
RP - Fernando Rodney
RP - Tyler Walker
RP - Rafael Betancourt
BENCH - Eric Byrnes, OF
BENCH - Justin Masterson, SP
BENCH - Manny Parra, RP

Team 2 Roster

By the looks of it, this team needs some work. Not too happy with the pitching results, especially with my relievers. Offense looks great. Speed and power...lovely mix.

10 team league

C - Geovany Soto
1B - Mark Teixeira
2B - Rickie Weeks
3B - Garrett Atkins
SS - Jose Reyes
2B/SS - Elvin Andrus
3B/1B - Troy Glaus
OF - Nick Markakis
OF - Matt Kemp
OF - B.J. Upton
OF - Curtis Granderson
OF - Bobby Abreu
UTL - Hunter Pence
P - Adam Wainwright, SP
P - Jon Lester, SP
P - Derek Lowe, SP
P - Matt Cain, SP
P - Carlos Zambrano, SP
P - Aaron Harang, SP
P - Joel Hanrahan, SP
P - Chad Qualls, RP
P - Justin Duchscherer, RP
BENCH - Grant Balfour, RP
BENCH - Lastings Milledge, OF
BENCH - Cameron Maybin, OF

Team 1 Roster

One of the many auto drafts was completed earlier today. I am very satisfied with my #1 pick over at shortstop.

10 team league

C - Ramon Hernandez
1B - Adrian Gonzalez
2B - Chase Utley
3B - Alex Gordon
SS - Hanley Ramirez
2B/SS - Troy Tulowitzki
3B/1B - Adam LaRoche
OF - Ichiro Suzuki
OF - Jason Bay
OF - Adam Jones
OF - Delmon Young
OF - Willy Tavares
UTL - Robinson Cano
P - Dan Haren, SP
P - James Shields, SP
P - Joakim Soria, RP
P - Brad Lidge, RP
P - Bobby Jenks, RP
P - Kerry Wood, RP
P - Erik Bedard, SP
P - Chris Ray
P - Hiroki Kuroda
BENCH - Chase Headley, OF
BENCH - Dan Wheeler, SP
BENCH - Hong-Chih Kuo, RP

40% Of The Way!

Added myself to ten more teams over the past few days. A couple on Yahoo! and some more on ESPN.

Final Magazines

Just for the hell of it, I went over to Borders and checked out what they had on display for fantasy baseball. Low and behold Athlon's magazine was there!
I checked Athlon's site before I headed over and they were still accepting pre-payments.
Unlike what I have said before, the front cover featured both the Yankees and the Mets. Better than the Florida teams.
I haven't had the time to read through it yet, but I am sure it'll be like past issues.

I also picked up a copy of Beckett's Fantasy Baseball. Beckett is more commonly associated with pricing sports cards and memorabilia. I have never seen a fantasy magazine produced by them so I figure, what the hay, grab one.
It's still sitting next to the Athlon untouched.

Joined another league today making the total up to 11 now. Forgot the name, I'll post that on another day.

It appears to be I will be league manager with some more people I know over at RootZoo.com, not a big deal once the season starts, but making sure everyone is happy with the settings and rules is the tough part. April is a long ways off so I have plenty of time.

Till then...

Four More Teams

I joined three more leagues today and created a league with some members at RootZoo.com making this 10 teams out of 50 so far.

The three leagues I joined are:

the winner is

Fantasy Baseball '09

boston bombers (just for the hell of it, I'm a Yankees fan)


The league I created is a private league, but viewable to the public in case anyone wants to see how my league is coming along. 14 teams, live draft and some extra categories thrown in for a nice head-to-head competition.

The league is called Big B's Points League.

Members must pay a 500 point fee to join and the payout for the league champion is a nice hefty chunk. I am trying to make my league as competitive and enjoyable as possible. At the end of the season I will be passing out awards that I made on ESPN to the deserving winners including one for the member finishing in dead last.

40 more to go with plenty of time.

Five Down...45 to Go...

ESPN.com and MLB.com have opened their registration doors for the 2009 fantasy baseball season.
Guess who was waiting in line....

Since I have a fantasy history with ESPN I have decided that I will have a large majority of my fantasy teams with ESPN.

I joined one live draft league and four auto-pick teams. For the live draft, I may not be able to make it because I have to be t work once the draft commences.
To make things easy on myself, all my team names will be based on when I create them. 1/50, 2/50, 3/50, etc...
Every league I will join will be free to the public and head-to-head.

LEAGUES JOINED:
Cowboys
-1/50

Midwest Baseball
-2/50

the nine innings
-3/50

WBC
-4/50

East Coast Skills
-5/50

Mock Draft #2

Second mock draft of the night. This one has both AL and NL players. Same as the last mock draft I just participated in. 10 teams, snake, and again, I'm the third pick.

1) Hanley Ramirez, SS (I wanted Alex Rodriguez, but that never happened. I can sacrifice a bit of power for speed.)

2) Lance Berkman, 1B (A relatively deep position, I wanted to grab one of the best out there before he was gone.)

3) Brandon Webb, SP (High win and strike out totals complimented by a healthy ERA and WHIP.)

4) Brandon Phillips, 2B (I almost picked Robinson Cano hoping for a comeback year, but wasn't too set on him yet.)

5) Brian McCann, C (Joe Mauer was drafted, McCann is his NL counterpart.)

6) Magglio Ordonez, OF (I was going to pick Curtis Granderson, then I saw Mags was still available, yoink!)

7) Jon Lackey, SP (second of my two strong starters. Not necessarily the best draft out there, but it was him or the injury prone Beckett.)

8) Garret Atkins, 3B (Although Chipper was still available, I wanted a 3B without any injury concerns.)

9) Pay Burrell, OF (Tough choice here. No idea where Bobby Abreu would wind up, so I lowered my standards a bit an went with the new Ray.)

10) Trevor Hoffman, RP (I nearly forgot to grab a reliever. With Hoffman now on the Brewers, I see 35+ saves headed his way on a potential playoff team.)

11) Joba Chamberlain, RP/SP

12) Raul Ibanez, OF

13) Derek Lowe, SP

14) Kevin Gregg, RP

15) George Sherrill, RP

16) Ryan Doumit, C

17) Andre Ethier, OF

18) Xavier Nady, OF

19) Gil Meche, SP

20) Andy Pettitte, SP

21) Jason Werth, OF

22) Lastings Milledge, OF


I feel a lot better with this draft. Even with my ignorance of the reliever category, I managed to pick up three solid closers. Obviously I was pitcher heavy in the later rounds, but I felt like I had enough offense to hgold me over and still got my two strong starters in.

I will probably participate in a couple more mock drafts in the next few weeks and prepare myself for the real deal come league formation.

Mock Draft #1

Over at CBSsports.com I joined one of the many mock drafts. The good part is I can practice my draft techniques, the bad, it was NL only...mildly disappointing.

Here are the round by round results of my draft. NL only, 10 teams, 3rd pick snake draft

1) Ryan Howard, 1B (was a toss up between him and David Wright. I could use the pop and grab some AVG next round.)

2) Brandon Webb, SP (with some of the top pitchers leaving early in the draft, I though it would be a wise choice to lock up last year's NL Cy Young winner as my #1 starter.)

3) Aramis Ramirez, 3B (Chipper Jones was available, but I am not a fan of his injuries.)

4) Geovanny Soto, C (catchers were going like hotcakes and I had to grab one before the better choices were gone.)

5) Stephen Drew, SS (a shortstop with some pop in his bat is not very common, Drew was a nice fit.)

6) Kelly Johnson, 2B (tough pick here between Johnson and Freddy Sanchez. Sanchez proveded a strong second half after an injury, however, Kelly was consistent throughout the entire season.)

7) Derek Lowe, SP (In an NL only league, I was surprised to see Lowe fall so far. Had to grab him for a more secure pitching staff.)

8) Justin Upton, OF (Francoure was my first choice, but with him drafted right before me, Upton was the next best choice)

9) Milton Bradley, OF (I probably should have drafted a pitcher this round)

10) Yovani Gallardo, SP (missed most of last season with a knee injury, came back and helked the Brewers in the playoff race. Will be the ace of the staff with Sabathia gone.)

11) Max Scherzer, SP (showed a lot of promise in his rookie season last year, as my fourth drafted pitcher, it could pay off)

12) Adam LaRoche, 1B

13) Ryan Church, OF

14) Kosuke Fukudome, OF

15) Luis Castillo, 2B

16) Kyle Lohse, SP

17) Chad Qualls, RP

18) Barry Zito, SP

19) Ryan Franklin, RP

20) Brian Schneider, C

21) Jerry Hairston, OF

22) J. J. Putz, RP


I'm not too happy with my draft results, and I don't think this is a league winning team. Playoff team, yes, win it all, no.

Mock Drafts

They sound pointless, they mean nothing, and it's a general waste of time.
However, if one would have 50 different teams, a little practice never hurts. Over at CBSsports.com I will participate in a few mock drafts just to warm up before I participate in live drafts.
I'll post every roster that I draft just to track my picks and the general picks of the rest of the mock league. I am up against real people and not bots, unless one decides not to show up.

Wish me mock luck.

Small Update

I have verbally committed to three leagues so far. One of which I may be a league manager. I doubt I will create my own league, but that could change.

Bummer...

I just found out that Street & Smith's parent company bought SportingNews. This just means I will only buy two titles instead of three.
Bummer.

Athlon Sports will be releasing their 2009 fantasy baseball magazine soon. No exact date set. Some of their magazines will be for a fan base, some multiple fan bases. For example, I am a Yankees fan, my copy will reach out to three different fan bases; the Yankees, Rays, and Marlins.
Don't know why a New York team will share the cover with two Florida teams. Not a big deal for me, the info inside is what I want.

Fantasy Magazines

So, while I was out shopping for food to survive these next two weeks, I stopped by the magazine rack to see if there were any fantasy baseball magazines.
There were two out on display. One, I forget the company, looked too bland. Nothing but stats. I like to do a little leisure reading while preparing my draft and cheat sheets.
The second one was from Sporting News. This is the one I bought.
I have my stats, pre-season rankings, and a few pages of quality reading material and expectations of rookies and other players.
They have Alex Rodriguez listed as their number 1 draft choice, a choice I didn't agree with initially, but after reading what they were looking for in their ranking I understand why.
Sporting News and the baseball experts, I use that term loosely, are looking for 5-tool players and since A-Rod can steal bases, they found it fitting to rank him #1 overall.

Their top 10 ranks are as follows:
1) Alex Rodriguez, 3B
2) Albert Pujols, 1B
3) Hanley Ramirez, SS
4) David Wright, 3B
5) Matt Holiday, OF
6) Grady Sizemore, OF
7) Josh Hamilton, OF
8) Jose Reyes, SS
9) Ryan Howard, 1B
10) Ryan Braun, OF


There will be two other fantasy magazines that I will buy in the upcoming weeks, one from Street & Smith, the other from Athlon Sports. Both that I have been purchasing since the turn of the century.

Thinking, Planning, and Craziness

Late December of last year I was thinking about participating in 100 fantasy baseball teams.
That was quickly dismissed.
The thought came back, but instead of 100 teams, I'll cut it in half and participate in 50 different leagues, mostly on ESPN.

I think that all 100 teams will be scored head-to-head with at least 90 leagues using a basic scoring system.

There is no chance I will be able to participate in 50 separate drafts, so the majority of my leagues will be auto draft and I will have to deal with the cards given to me. Almost like a real manager taking over a team in mid-season.

There are a select few drafts that I will in fact attend. Those will be leagues that I am invited in by some friends, co-workers, and ones that I will set up.

I believe once all the drafting has concluded, my job will be a lot simpler. Set up trades, pick up free agents, drop player, and of course, manage the injuries.

It's January, pitchers and catcher report in a matter of weeks, spring training in six weeks...SIX WEEKS!!!! I cannot wait until baseball season starts.