Fantasy Baseball 2010

DMCarson said:

In the spirit of the season wrapping up, batting and pitching awards to be given out, Reply to this post with a sort of personal report card.

Who was one of your more risky surprise picks(draft or early season) who came through for you? pitcher/batter

Who was one of your expected low risk picks who weighed your team down or didnt quite perform to expectations? pitcher/batter

What was your most beneficial trade?

Which trade made you second guess its value the rest of the year?

Click to expand...

Thanks for putting this together. I'm already looking forward to next season, especially now that my hometown Rockies are mathematically eliminated from the postseason.

My best draft pick? Ubaldo, by a mile. I'd read interviews that he'd been working on mechanics during the offseason, and we've all seen how good he turned out to be, especially in the 1st half.

Best Trade? Probably Taylor Bucholtz for Tim Lincecum. I think I definitely ended up with the upper hand on that one.

Worst draft / Biggest Disappointment? Hanley Ramirez. Not that he's a bad player: Not at all. However, with a #2 draft choice, I could have done better, evidenced by the fact that some 25+ players outscored Ramirez this season. Hopefully, he'll get his elbow healthy in the offseason.

As for bad trades? I don;t think I made one. I didn't trade much this season: one trade acquired Taylor Bucholtz for Andre Ethier, and one acquired Lincecum for Bucholtz. I'd rate both as decent trades.

Looking forward to seeing you guys next season!

DMCarson said:

In the spirit of the season wrapping up, batting and pitching awards to be given out, Reply to this post with a sort of personal report card.

Who was one of your more risky surprise picks(draft or early season) who came through for you? pitcher/batter

Who was one of your expected low risk picks who weighed your team down or didnt quite perform to expectations? pitcher/batter

What was your most beneficial trade?

Which trade made you second guess its value the rest of the year?

Click to expand...

I think everyone would agree that it was a lot of fun and we appreciate all the hard work NEST (John ORourke) did to setting and keep everything going, posting trophys. With the changes everyone has suggested Im sure it will make his job easier in deciding certain things if sometime between now and next draft everyone spend an active week on here or on the espn league page postin and replying to how and what changes everyone would like to see. Also If people dont partake in that discussion Im sure everyone would also agree they have no grounds for complaints when things change. So for my polling answers...

RISKY PICK SUCCESS:
I would have to say my biggest risk to reward: either Alex Gonzales or Vlad Guerrero because I wasnt sure if he would improve that much with the park factor. I was not able to be present for the draft so I can only comment on where I adjusted the preranked list but I was most familiar with him because of seeing him slump when dodgers would play the angels but it worked out. Also Cliff Lee worked out.

LOW RISK BOMBS:
Ben Zobrist, he wasnt that bad, and he definitely helps that first match up of the playoffs but he wasnt all that was expected. Joe Nathan...

GREAT TRADE:
Definitely Car Go

SECOND GUESSED TRADE:
This depends on if Lee and Reyes contribute to my down fall during these final few days and of course next year because wainwright like kershaw has been shut down right before his last start but Im hoping looking forward wainwright will have another great 20 win year.

Slight variation on the categories:
Biggest surprise pick: 2B Martin Prado picked in 16th round. A league leader for most of the season in many batting categories.
Biggest Bust: OF Jacoby Ellsbury picked in round 2. OK, he has been hurt for most of the year and that is what makes him a disappointing pick. Didn't realize he was so fragile.
Questionable trade: I traded my 4th round(?) pick OF Nelson Cruz for OF Hunter Pence. Pence is by far the steadier of the two and I felt like that would be better in the long run over a very streaky player like Cruz. Cruz was on the DL at the time of the trade and I think he went on the DL twice more before the end of the season. If he hadn't gone to the DL again, this might not have been a good trade for me.

Thanks for the kind words, David. I'm looking forward to tweaking the league rules/scoring to make it an even better experience for all next year.

As for a season review, I'm lucky to be in our first HBT World Series considering that my 3rd round pick, Grady Sizemore was yet again fragile this year. Add to that the dumb decision to pick up Mark Reynolds in the fourth round who fell off the map this year.

I made two big trades this season. One of which has been paying off so far, one of which was a bust.

First was trading Wainright for Cliff Lee and Jose Reyes. I think that Wainright has much more upside than Lee, but adding Reyes to the deal was too sweet to pass up. When healthy, Reyes can be a #1 or #2 pick. Add to that my fandom of the mets, and the deal was too hard to pass up.

The second trade was one where my mets-emotions got the better of me. Trade Oswalt and Randy Wells for Barry Zito and Jason Bay. Zito was red hot at the time, and got ice cold VERY quickly afterward. Bay was on the verge of heating up, when he ran his face into the fence in LA.

All in all, though, there is nothing I can complain about considering I'm only 10 points behind David with three games to play. If you guys stopped paying attention, keep on eye on the scoreboard. Should be a pretty exciting finish to the season.

BTW good luck David.

my season wrap up

Nice FA pick-ups: (where were you guys?)
Adrian Gonzalez
Tori Hunter
Chris Young
Delmon Young
Denard Span
Jeff Niemann

I only added this part because if it werent for these pick ups I would have not been competitive at all.

Disappointments:
Brian Roberts (I called that when I saw the auto draft results wtf)
Aramis Ramaris (dropped)
Brandon Webb (dropped)
Johnathon Broxton
Carlos Quentin (dropped)
Jimmy Rollins

Nice Surprises:
Tim Hudson
David Price

Only made one trade:Tim Hudson for Ricky Romero (very late in the season) I like this trade for keeper purposes

Wanted to state that the new playoff set up looks awesome. Curious if its top 6 overall or top 3 from each Division?

Also curious about the draft order, I ask not because Im placed at 12 right now which im sure this concern seems to be why I am asking but because if this is how we are doing this(seemingly the reverse of the previous years draft) then that would mean next year im 1st again?, not a bad thing lol but didnt think everyone would be happy with that. I have a suggestion that Othon(lipstick city LA) and I were talking about that would hopefully encourage people who dont make the playoffs to keep trying during the consolation playoffs even after they dont have a chance to place in the top rankings.

Option 1:

(Taking last years post playoff results(final results):
Starting with the rankings of the consolation round then the reverse rankings of the championship bracket http://games.espn.go.com/flb/tools/finalstandings?leagueId=45708)

1 BridgeTown(joined right before playoffs, had least ability to place in consolation)
2 Furies
3 GooseBoners
4 LipstickCity
5 5280 Sluggers
6 Portland Perlicks
7 Bayou Brewers(unsure of when joined and opportunity to place in consolation)
8 Hickory BrewCrew(unsure of when joined and opportunity to place in consolation)
9 Desert Rat Squad
10 PEI Yankees
11 Carson Urban Achievers
12 New England Stout Troopers

Option 2:
(we dont worry about the consolation round and them trying and we just do the reverse results of the Final Standings: http://games.espn.go.com/flb/tools/finalstandings?leagueId=45708)

1 Bridgetown IPA Junkies
2 Hickory Brewcrew
3 Bayou Brewers
4 Portland Perlicks
5 5280 Sluggers
6 Lipstick City LA
7 Dirty South Goose Boners
8 Baseball Furies
9 Desert Rat Squad
10 PEI Yankees
11 Carson Urban Achievers
12 New England Stout Troopers

Option 3:

Another random draft order drawing until we have the permanent playoff set up like the newly organized one. (Top 6 make it 4 to the consolation round)

Also curious about having both a DH and a Utility spot?

Also what is the difference between P and SP

what is the pitcher spot not to be confused with starting pitcher?

I don't like option 3 at all, this is a keeper league. Of the other 2, I like Option 2 better. In option 1 a team that just missed the playoffs could have the #1 pick? Doesn't seem right to me. If you want to keep teams competitive, maybe go with a lottery of the 3 or 4 teams with the worst record, or maybe a winning % floor for the #1 pick?

As far as a utility position and a DH position... get rid of the DH. If we want to keep the same number of active positions as last season... go with 2 utility spots.

I am going to assume that the difference between SP and P is it forces you to carry SPs so you can't load up on relievers (wasn't an issue last season with SPs getting sooooo many points). Also it keeps a team from loading up on SPs. The only thing I really disliked about last season was the practice of dropping and adding starting pitchers to gain more points. Not pointing fingers at anyone since most of us did it to varying degrees (me included) and it was legal, but I would like to see something to curb that like lowering the number of weekly waiver transactions to like 2. Still not sure if that solves the problem or am I the only one who thinks this is a problem?

DMCarson said:

Also curious about having both a DH and a Utility spot?

Also what is the difference between P and SP

what is the pitcher spot not to be confused with starting pitcher?

Click to expand...

The Draft Order was determined based upon rankings from the entire season. I don't believe it took into account records from the playoffs. If you'd all rather it be based upon standings post-playoffs, we can do that.

One RP slot was changed to a P slot. P slot allows the manager to have any type of pitcher in that active slot (SP or RP), as far as I can tell.

eagle61 said:

I don't like option 3 at all, this is a keeper league. Of the other 2, I like Option 2 better. In option 1 a team that just missed the playoffs could have the #1 pick? Doesn't seem right to me. If you want to keep teams competitive, maybe go with a lottery of the 3 or 4 teams with the worst record, or maybe a winning % floor for the #1 pick?

As far as a utility position and a DH position... get rid of the DH. If we want to keep the same number of active positions as last season... go with 2 utility spots.

I am going to assume that the difference between SP and P is it forces you to carry SPs so you can't load up on relievers (wasn't an issue last season with SPs getting sooooo many points). Also it keeps a team from loading up on SPs. The only thing I really disliked about last season was the practice of dropping and adding starting pitchers to gain more points. Not pointing fingers at anyone since most of us did it to varying degrees (me included) and it was legal, but I would like to see something to curb that like lowering the number of weekly waiver transactions to like 2. Still not sure if that solves the problem or am I the only one who thinks this is a problem?

Click to expand...

Interesting. I am completely in favor of dropping the DH. Having 2 Utility slots is a nice idea too. How does everyone feel about that?

I'm also in favor of looking at limiting the amount of weekly waiver claims. I used that strategy to my favor many times last season, and is the major reason I took the trophy. However, I can see how it can become a problem. Anyone else in favor of looking at this?

Lastly, I started a thread for this year's league here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f19/2011-hbt-fantasy-baseball-season-222460/

eagle61 said:

I don't like option 3 at all,

Click to expand...

lol, Wasnt really a serious proposal more of a push to see if we can make it a little fairer for our new league members in some way.

eagle61 said:

Also it keeps a team from loading up on SPs. The only thing I really disliked about last season was the practice of dropping and adding starting pitchers to gain more points. Not pointing fingers at anyone since most of us did it to varying degrees (me included) and it was legal, but I would like to see something to curb that like lowering the number of weekly waiver transactions to like 2. Still not sure if that solves the problem or am I the only one who thinks this is a problem?

Click to expand...

At first thought I agreed because it definitely takes a lot of time to pick up and drop guys and plan out the week to try and manufacture a win.

But then after thinking more about it, Those with "good" SP's for the most part wont be dropping their star Sabathias, Lees, and Lesters, so the points that a star pitcher like them can make would possibly match that of a team who wasnt fortunate enough to draft solid SPs they could just throw out there, or even in my position last year: to make up for saves with the lack of RPs(from drafting 2 IR closers dumby me).

It takes more time but I do think it is an important part of the strategy in head to head offsetting it from roto.

I was just looking at the rules again and its 7 acquisitions total and 12 pitching starts. With the change from SP to P that means if you have 5 SPs in those spots only 5 of them can start on the same day, plus maybe you have 2 more on your bench, there goes almost half your pitching starts for the week. You could keep the acquisitions at 7 and maybe drop the pitching start limit to 10? or 11? Only the luckiest guys would have a 2 start week out of all 7 of the SPs he can have on his team. He would have to pick which 10 of the 14 possible starts he wants to trust in and thats without any pitching acquisitions on that very lucky week. On a bad week maybe only 2 of his pitchers have a 2 start week: thats 9 total starts already without a single aquisition.

JohnnyO said:

The Draft Order was determined based upon rankings from the entire season. I don't believe it took into account records from the playoffs. If you'd all rather it be based upon standings post-playoffs, we can do that.

Click to expand...

no problem I didnt think of that(reg. season standings) I had it in my head it was from the first draft order. Its up to everyone else and their opinion because it would only move me by 1, maybe if more people have input on if we care about people in the consolation bracket continuing to try?

JohnnyO said:

One RP slot was changed to a P slot. P slot allows the manager to have any type of pitcher in that active slot (SP or RP), as far as I can tell.

Click to expand...

I like that, Theres not many closers out there than you can actually trust in getting saves, did holds go up in point value?

JohnnyO said:

Interesting. I am completely in favor of dropping the DH. Having 2 Utility slots is a nice idea too. How does everyone feel about that?

Click to expand...

Sweet

JohnnyO said:

I'm also in favor of looking at limiting the amount of weekly waiver claims. I used that strategy to my favor many times last season, and is the major reason I took the trophy. However, I can see how it can become a problem. Anyone else in favor of looking at this?

Click to expand...

See my novel above

JohnnyO said:

Lastly, I started a thread for this year's league here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f19/2011-hbt-fantasy-baseball-season-222460/

Click to expand...

Ill try and copy this to the new feed.