09 Fantasy Baseball Thread

[gobears 0]

This isnt the first year is it? If not who were your keepers?

This is the 19th year of the league. My keepers were Votto, Kinsler, Wright, Tulowitzki, Braun, Bruce, Ellsbury, Carpenter, Harden, Hamels, Fuentes, Capps, Francisco, Lindstrom, and Price

[cujo33 0]

Have a question for my team. My first base position is filled with Mike Jacobs, and Casey Kotchman. This team needs a RP and has offered me Derrek Lee for my RP BJ Ryan. Good trade?

[Moneyball16 0]

Nice Team especially getting Napoli, Chipper and Weeks. I wouldn't have kept Carpenter though. And for this years auction I wouldn't have went that high for Posada. Also not sure about Strasburgh at 7, seems pretty high for someone who will eat a bench spot for 7 this year and probably 12 for the next and I'm not sure if I would go with that many mediocre relievers for those prices.

[Moneyball16 0]

Have a question for my team. My first base position is filled with Mike Jacobs, and Casey Kotchman. This team needs a RP and has offered me Derrek Lee for my RP BJ Ryan. Good trade? If I did trade BJ Ryan these are the RP's on the waiver wire, who do you like?

Your first basemen are trash. Make the trade and drop both those guys. Also don't feel like you have to add a reliever just because your losing one with Ryan.

[runthemover 39]

Frankly, this team is awful so far. Reyes was an okay pick at 3 depending on who went one and two and Beltran is a decent pick, but the rest of these seem pretty terrible for the most part. The thing that stands out the most for me is that you reached for mediocre SPs way too early. Lester and Wang had no business being drafted where you picked them, same with Garland really same with Brian Wilson. Also, you and your friends are wayyyy over complicating fantasy baseball. Your draft set up is frankly insane. Outside of like round one or two, it really doesn't matter where you drafting. Just set up a standard snake draft and be done with it. I've drafted good teams from virtually every position in a draft. I didn't really look at your categories in depth, but I'm sure you've got too many.

I'm not trying to be all contrary when I asked for opinions but [sawyer paraphrase]you're just reacting. you didn't think. and how'd that turn out? people died[/sawyer paraphrase]. Our categories are definitely different from standard and I haven't done a league in a few years but I know strategy. I went to yahoo and looked at their rankings and guess who's right up there? yep mr. reyes. calling him an "OK" pick seems quite silly to me and makes me skeptical of your whole post. would you rather have a top SS or a top 1B? I'd go with the SS because the 14th best 1B is going to be worlds better than the 14th best SS. If I have better players at the weaker positions then I'm boosting my overall potential. that's just basic fantasy baseball which has served me well in the past. somehow I don't think that's changed. fyi, the top two picks were Hanley and Lincecum in that order. I'd call Lin an "okay" pick.I have to say, it was quite dumb of me to make my original post in here since the rules were obviously quite different from standard leagues. Also without you knowing who was drafted where and how the rules affect points, it's unfair of me to comment on your comments. BUT, lester was a top 15 pitcher (includes RP) in points last year for this format. So, he's definitely a good top SP in this league.One thing I have to say is I'm sorry that our league doesn't fit your preferences. btw, it's not my league so I wasn't the one setting up the rules but calling it overcomplicated is quite the exaggeration (it definitely evens out the draft). If you're going to give an opinion on it then you could at least figure out what's going on in the league or your post becomes useless and is a waste of time for everyone. but it was dumb of me to post it here anyway so we'll call it even. thanks for the post.

[Snamuh 0]

I'm not trying to be all contrary when I asked for opinions but [sawyer paraphrase]you're just reacting. you didn't think. and how'd that turn out? people died[/sawyer paraphrase]. Our categories are definitely different from standard and I haven't done a league in a few years but I know strategy. I went to yahoo and looked at their rankings and guess who's right up there? yep mr. reyes. calling him an "OK" pick seems quite silly to me and makes me skeptical of your whole post. would you rather have a top SS or a top 1B? I'd go with the SS because the 14th best 1B is going to be worlds better than the 14th best SS. If I have better players at the weaker positions then I'm boosting my overall potential. that's just basic fantasy baseball which has served me well in the past. somehow I don't think that's changed. fyi, the top two picks were Hanley and Lincecum in that order. I'd call Lin an "okay" pick.I have to say, it was quite dumb of me to make my original post in here since the rules were obviously quite different from standard leagues. Also without you knowing who was drafted where and how the rules affect points, it's unfair of me to comment on your comments. BUT, lester was a top 15 pitcher (includes RP) in points last year for this format. So, he's definitely a good top SP in this league.One thing I have to say is I'm sorry that our league doesn't fit your preferences. btw, it's not my league so I wasn't the one setting up the rules but calling it overcomplicated is quite the exaggeration (it definitely evens out the draft). If you're going to give an opinion on it then you could at least figure out what's going on in the league or your post becomes useless and is a waste of time for everyone. but it was dumb of me to post it here anyway so we'll call it even. thanks for the post.

Lincecum at two would seem like a terrible pick. Most probably wouldn't take him top 15 and I wouldn't take him in the first 2 rounds. Reyes would normally be OK at 3, except you passed on Pujols to take him, which I'm not a fan of. Regardless, it's still an "acceptable" pick. Lester in round 2 and Wang in round 4 are pretty bad, it would seem.What are the rules regarding pitching? Unless it's ridiculously weighted towards starting pitching, I just can't see the Lincecum pick being good.

[runthemover 39]

Lincecum at two would seem like a terrible pick. Most probably wouldn't take him top 15 and I wouldn't take him in the first 2 rounds. Reyes would normally be OK at 3, except you passed on Pujols to take him, which I'm not a fan of. Regardless, it's still an "acceptable" pick. Lester in round 2 and Wang in round 4 are pretty bad, it would seem.

you're totally ignoring everything I said and just rehashing what what's his face said. I don't feel like re-typing what I said so go re-read my post(s)

What are the rules regarding pitching?

everything has been listed in my first post in the thread. SP are favoured because there's 14 teams and since there's Monday roster locks, it's important to get many pitchers so you have 2 starts in a week.no need to respond. there's no point.

[GeneralGeeWhiz 0]

AVGC Pablo Sandoval(SF - C,1B,3B) 53% -/- - - - - -1B Adam Dunn(Was - 1B,OF) 88% -/- - - - - -2B Mark DeRosa(Cle - 2B,3B,OF) 73% -/- - - - - -3B Álex Rodríguez(NYY - 3B) 51% -/- - - - - -SS Rafael Furcal(LAD - SS) 92% -/- - - - - -IF Ryan Theriot(ChC - SS) 34% -/- - - - - -OF Grady Sizemore(Cle - OF) 97% -/- - - - - -OF Matt Holliday(Oak - OF) 95% -/- - - - - -OF Chris Young(Ari - OF) 55% -/- - - - - -Util Bengie Molina(SF - C) 73% -/- - - - - -Util Khalil Greene(StL - SS) 22% -/- - - - - -BN Rick Ankiel(StL - OF) 28% -/- - - - - -BN Mark Reynolds(Ari - 3B) 29% -/- - - - - -BN Hank Blalock(Tex - 1B,3B) 15% -/- - - - - -BN Eric Byrnes(Ari - OF) 4% -/- - - - - -BN Mark Ellis(Oak - 2B) 3% -/- - - - - -BN Fred Lewis(SF - OF) 5% -/- - - - - -BN Yadier Molina(StL - C) 15% -/- - - - - -BN Carlos Gómez(Min - OF) 11% -/- - - - - -SP CC Sabathia(NYY - SP) 97% - - - - - -SP Jake Peavy(SD - SP) 96% - - - - - -SP Dan Haren(Ari - SP) 95% - - - - - -RP Francisco Rodríguez(NYM - RP) 97% - - - - - -RP Carlos Mármol(ChC - RP) 88% - - - - - -P Edinson Vólquez(Cin - SP) 89% - - - - - -P Carlos Zambrano(ChC - SP) 89% - - - - - -P Brian Wilson(SF - RP) 85% - - - - - -BN Troy Percival(TB - RP) 57% - - - - - -I like my team. Sandoval probably wont be the starting catcher. Depends on how Yadier and Bengie look.

[Moneyball16 0]

Sick pitching staff and outfield.

[TheCinciKid 0]

I'm not trying to be all contrary when I asked for opinions but [sawyer paraphrase]you're just reacting. you didn't think. and how'd that turn out? people died[/sawyer paraphrase]. Our categories are definitely different from standard and I haven't done a league in a few years but I know strategy. I went to yahoo and looked at their rankings and guess who's right up there? yep mr. reyes. calling him an "OK" pick seems quite silly to me and makes me skeptical of your whole post. would you rather have a top SS or a top 1B? I'd go with the SS because the 14th best 1B is going to be worlds better than the 14th best SS. If I have better players at the weaker positions then I'm boosting my overall potential. that's just basic fantasy baseball which has served me well in the past. somehow I don't think that's changed. fyi, the top two picks were Hanley and Lincecum in that order. I'd call Lin an "okay" pick.I have to say, it was quite dumb of me to make my original post in here since the rules were obviously quite different from standard leagues. Also without you knowing who was drafted where and how the rules affect points, it's unfair of me to comment on your comments. BUT, lester was a top 15 pitcher (includes RP) in points last year for this format. So, he's definitely a good top SP in this league.One thing I have to say is I'm sorry that our league doesn't fit your preferences. btw, it's not my league so I wasn't the one setting up the rules but calling it overcomplicated is quite the exaggeration (it definitely evens out the draft). If you're going to give an opinion on it then you could at least figure out what's going on in the league or your post becomes useless and is a waste of time for everyone. but it was dumb of me to post it here anyway so we'll call it even. thanks for the post.

I have some biases. I personally prefer to draft power guys in the early rounds over speed guys. I tend to feel like I can get speed cheaper later in the draft. So, I will probably never own a guy like Jose Reyes b/c I don't want to pick him in the first round. That said, I said he was an okay pick because that's exactly what he was, without knowing who went one and two, he may well have been the best player on the board in which case, he was a good pick. You know what, I'll change that...he WAS a good pick, not just an okay pick. Really, in the first round...as long as you're going off of the top 10 list, there generally aren't any outstanding picks and there generally aren't any bad picks. Though I would submit that Lincecum at 2 is a bad pick. In your spot, I'd have probably taken Pujols, but that's just personal preference, Reyes is perfectly fine there. At any rate, I wasn't criticizing that pick again, IMO as long as you're taking a hitter that's ranked in the top 10, you can't really go wrong in the first round and you did shore up a relatively weak overall position by taking Reyes there. My big probably is with drafting pitching in earlier rounds. Pitching in fantasy baseball tends to be much easier to pick up in the later rounds of a draft or on the waiver wire than hitting is. Therefore, in most drafts, I have a complete infield and at least a couple of solid outfielders before I ever draft a pitcher. My first pitcher usually doesn't get drafted until at the least the 10th round. So, I really felt like your reached for guys like Lester and Wang (who I really don't like in fantasy) and Garland (who I also don't like in fantasy). As it turns out, Jon Lester put up better numbers last year than I've been giving him credit for. I don't value pitching very highly so I tend to stay away from guys like Lester. I guess that pick may have been okay, but personally I still don't really like taking a pitcher in the 2nd round and there must have been a real run on pitchers if Jon Lester was the best available in that spot. I mean, you said he was top 15 your format, but that means there were still a minimum of 10 guys definitely better than him. Also, I took a look at your format and it's much different from standard fantasy baseball. It's almost like trying to play Fantasy Football with baseball players. I'm guessing it's H2H and the rosters locking on Mondays certainly throws a monkey wrench in things (personally I would hate that b/c a lot of the fun for me is the day to day transactions and lineup changes, but I digress). I'm curious if there is an innings minimum for your pitchings stats to count because at first glance it seems like pitchers have a much better chance of getting you negative points than positive points. Which to me, means that you'd want to try to get your hands on like 3 or 4 elite pitchers and play no one else (then again, the best way to get points is IP, so I dunno, maybe you could just run as many pitchers out there as you can and hope that some of the other stats fall into place. Anyway, it's actually kind of an interesting format and I think you'd have to play a couple of weeks under it to get a feel for strategy. Final note, I really do think I would have taken Pujols over Jose Reyes because of the way your league counts stats. HRs are twice as valuable as steals and that's really the big tradeoff b/w Reyes and Pujols, plus Pujols scores runs, drives them in and never strikes out, whereas Reyes doesn't get many RBI and had more K's last season. But, all of that is water under the bridge for you. In your league, I would draft power guys who hit a lot of doubles and HRs and try to get guys who score and drive in runs. I'd be cognizant of K's b/c they can hurt you, but also cognizant of OBP, b/c it's going to be a better indicator than AVG of who's going to help you the most in your format. I'm now up way later than I'd planned to be tonight because I wrote all that. Sorry I came off like a dick in my earlier post. I still think your draft set up is silly, but it's not like you can change that. Your point system is unique and while I'm not necessarily a huge fan, I can embrace the fact that it would require a somewhat altered strategy from a regular draft.Incidentally where is this league being hosted that allows it to be set up that way?

[runthemover 39]

the draft in done live so I don't think that portion of the league can be replicated. the hosting is done via cbs. I've never done a draft like that before but the people who run it are statisticians so it's not for show.your roster has to be full so you can't start 3 pitchers. You have to start either 5 SP and 2 RP or 6 SP and 1 RP. people that have been in the league for a few years+ told me that generally people pick up a few more pitchers and leave a few everyday positions without backups just so they can guarantee double starts more often.I think you misunderstood something/I didn't make it clear because HR vs SB or whatever doesn't matter. It's all points. My points > your points and I win the week. Categories are only for designating points. It's football style scoring for the week. TDs. yards. doesn't matter. same here. to continue with this reyes vs pujols thing, think about it like this. I might be giving up 20 points (based on 2008 points) by not taking Puzols but I'm gaining them elsewhere in the difference from the 1B I will take vs the SS I would have to take.EG: Carlos Pena 14th ranked 1B had 446 points last year. The 14th best SS had 362 points last year. Only 7 SS had more than 446 points.So, in Reyes I get a guy who will most likely be a top 5 player and I strengthen my overall position by allowing myself to get a more productive player in the 1B position.I'm not saying ALL my decisions are gold but that is one I'm very confident was the right one.

[TheCinciKid 0]

the draft in done live so I don't think that portion of the league can be replicated. the hosting is done via cbs. I've never done a draft like that before but the people who run it are statisticians so it's not for show.your roster has to be full so you can't start 3 pitchers. You have to start either 5 SP and 2 RP or 6 SP and 1 RP. people that have been in the league for a few years+ told me that generally people pick up a few more pitchers and leave a few everyday positions without backups just so they can guarantee double starts more often.I think you misunderstood something/I didn't make it clear because HR vs SB or whatever doesn't matter. It's all points. My points > your points and I win the week. Categories are only for designating points. It's football style scoring for the week. TDs. yards. doesn't matter. same here. to continue with this reyes vs pujols thing, think about it like this. I might be giving up 20 points (based on 2008 points) by not taking Puzols but I'm gaining them elsewhere in the difference from the 1B I will take vs the SS I would have to take.EG: Carlos Pena 14th ranked 1B had 446 points last year. The 14th best SS had 362 points last year. Only 7 SS had more than 446 points.So, in Reyes I get a guy who will most likely be a top 5 player and I strengthen my overall position by allowing myself to get a more productive player in the 1B position.I'm not saying ALL my decisions are gold but that is one I'm very confident was the right one.

Haven't read/digested your whole post, but the bolded part jumped out at me. HR vs. SB absolutely DOES matter. HRs are twice as useful as SB in your format since you get 4 points for a HR and 2 for a SB. Not to mention that most HR hitters are going to get more extra base hits than guys like Reyes who get a lot of singles and steal bases. That said, your position scarcity argument makes some sense. It's hard for me to get a good idea of the values in your particular format without being able to see the total point rankings, but it certainly could be that getting a guy like Reyes is more important than having a guy like Pujols.Very intriguing and unique format at any rate. Is it something your friends made up, or just how the game is played on CBS?

[Moneyball16 0]

I plugged in the values in Baseball Prospectus's PFM and it had Pujols having more points over the season than Reyes, but when you consider the replacement levels of 1B and SS Reyes is more valuable.

[cujo33 0]

This may sound like a dumb question but...... I'm in a H2H league and this is my first time playing fantasy baseball. How does the scoring go down, for example my score compared to my opponents score at the moment is 3-4-3 compared to his 4-3-3. What does this mean?

[Moneyball16 0]

You get one win for every category you win for the week. So a 3-4-3 record means that you are winning 3 categories, losing 4 and tied for 3.

[cujo33 0]

Thanks for the clear-up

[3A 0]

This is an NL only keeper league, keep up to 9 players. From the year their drafted you get to keep players for 3 years and before the 3rd year starts you may extend up to 3 more years for $5 per year. Rosters are 23 players C,C,1b,2b,3b,ss,ci,mi,of,of,of,of,of,util and 9 pitchers.This league has been going for 15+ years and I took over for the last place team, this is my 3rd year now. My Keepers:Cantu $1 (10')Reynolds $5 (09')Theriot $8 (09')Kemp $16 (11') extended 2 yearsChurch $8 (09')Duncan $5 ($9)Cook $5 (10')Marshall $5 (10')Rauch $3 (09')I considered extending Reynolds also, and I wish I had at this point since I had $8 left over after the draft, but thats whe way it rolls. The draft went as follows:Hamels $26Helton $25A Ramirez $31Bradley $25K. Johnson $19Winn $17Parra $5K Matsui $15Schneider $6Castro $3A Miller $11DeLaRosa $1R Soriano $11Ohlendorf $1Thats pretty much the order I got everyone. Catchers were pretty thin to start so I just decided to handcuff the Mets cacthers and pray for the best. I realize my pitching is very scetchy aside from having Hamels and even he has me scared with injury possiblity. Last year I tried to corner closers and I had 5 to try to trade for value, unfortunately 3 of them got injured 1 traded and turned into the set up man. Valverde would have ended up my loan closer, but he ended up being the one I got to trade off early... so I was frusterated with closers in general so I stayed away from them this year and just hope to pick up vulter saves later and try not to be in the bottom 3 in saves.. good luck me.My hitting has been lights out so far, out categories are HR, RBI, R, SB, OBP and currently in my 12 team league I'm in 1st, 1st, 5th, 3rd, 1st. And the bad news.K, ERA, WHIP, W, S 12th,12th,12th,10th,8th. So I got off to a bad start pitching... Cook giving up 4 7 runs or something in 3 innings will do that with no others starters going yet. I do wish I had shelled out for 1 or two better pitching upgrades before all the talent was gone. Also players with upside are there, but not enough. I almost went with Bonifico instead of Helton, but it was so early I wanted to get some proven guys and ended up snagging Ramirez in utility so I had no more room for him. The good news is I can't get much worse in pitching. I might just field these type of pitchers or find guys with less SO's and lower ERA/WHIP just to meet innings qouta then drop them all for middle relievers to try to climb in ERA/WHIP if I can maintain my batting categories.Surprisingly there were so many studs kept this year for 40+ dollars the top talent wasnt their to draft.My prospects here for having good keepers is bad. My idea right now is to push well into the all star break and then pick out the "losers" and trade off my stud keepers like Cantu for $1 and Kemp for $16. With the goal of picking up 2 or 3 good players for them to try to win the championship this year and just blow up the team and draft youth next year and try to rebuild.Any comments or suggestions with the team are welcome. We do live pick up meetings every Monday night, no other pick ups can happen aside from trades. All moves cost $5 for a DL or sending someone to the minors and the new player gets that contract or if you just don't like a player you can drop them and pick up a new player for $10. The buy in for the league is $275, $260 of which is draft salary cap and $15 for live updates on CBSsportsline.com. I think last year 1st place was nearly $1500, and we pay top 5 places. Not sure on the breakdown as I've taken 12th and 8th so far.

[TB17 0]

35 HRs in one week in both my leagues, sustainable?

[cujo33 0]

Should I be keeping any of these pitchers?Brandon WebbErvin SantanaJoey Devine

[gobears 0]

Should I be keeping any of these pitchers?Brandon WebbErvin SantanaJoey Devine

Webb: Keep, he'll be back soonE. Santana: depends on who's available in your league and how deep your league is. The shallower the league, the more likely you should let him go. He supposedly is due back soonDevine: Put him on the DL in a keeper league, otherwise if this is just a one year league (no keepers), get rid of him as he won't be much use this year (60 day DL)

[wsox8 10]

I give BJ Upton and I get Ichiro. It's a keeper league. Thoughts?

[Moneyball16 0]

Id rather have BJ in a keeper.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

do um.. yeah, do I drop manny in a 10 team mixed league. I have 3 bench spots.

[3A 0]

I don't think I would drop him, possibly trade him to another team or just eat the bench spot.

[TB17 0]

I wouldnt trade him he has such little value right now, I'd eat the spot and hope he comes back strong