Fantasy Baseball "Who should I start?" and General Discussion Thread (2011)

Danimal's fantasy football thread this past season was great. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to dish out advice for the upcoming baseball season. I just had my draft and I am very happy with the results. I've got Halladay AND Lincecum at the top of my rotation. Here is my roster:

C: B. McCann
1B: M. Cabrera
2B: R. Cano
3B: A. Beltre
SS: J. Rollins
IF: A. Dunn
OF: N. Cruz
OF: J. Ellsbury
OF: B.J. Upton
Util: V. Wells
BN: B. Zobrist
BN: B. Gardner
BN: D. Ortiz

SP: R. Halladay
SP: T. Lincecum
SP: C. Buchholz
SP: T. Hudson
P: M. Rivera
P: F. Cordero
P: K-Rod
BN: M. Bumgarner
BN: H. Kuroda

Hmm, this could be fun, just joined up for my first fantasy baseball league ever. I'm not really into baseball, so feel free to comment. Here's who I have:
C: J. Mauer
1B: J. Votto
2B: G. Beckham
SS: H. Ramirez
3B: A. Rod
OF: C. Gonzalez
OF: C. Quentin
OF: A. Jones

SP: C. Billingsley
SP: M. Sherzer
RP: C. Zambrono
RP: F. Cordero
P: J. Danks
P: J. Blanton
P: G. Floyd

Bench: C. Granderson
P. Fielder
A. Pierzyinski
B. Roberts
S. Drew

Why is Prince Fielder on you bench? How many teams in your league? Your roster looks insanely deep (at least in offense - your pitching could be better). If you can't start Fielder for some reason make a trade offer straight up for whoever has Halladay, Lincecum, King Felix or Cliff Lee.

How many teams? What round did you get Cabrera, Cano, etc at?

10 team, 5x5 ML roto:

C – Soto
C – Ianetta
1B – Teixeira
2B – Cano
3B – Chipper
SS – Furcal
MI – Kelly Johnson
CI – Justin Morneau
OF – McCutchen
OF – Pence
OF – Abreu
OF – Tabata
OF – Snider
U – Gaby Sanchez

P – Felix
P – Liriano
P – Carp
P – Hanson
P – Brett Anderson
P – T. Hudson
P – MadBum
P – Nolasco
P – Norris

B – Crisp
B – Freese
B – Bourjos
B – Peavy
B – J. Vasquez
B – Kuo

OP, how many people were in your draft?

[quote name='DestroVega']OP, how many people were in your draft?[/QUOTE]

Only 8 teams so the rosters are pretty good across the board. We do head to head and there are 15 categories per week (8 offense, 7 pitching). I had the #2 overall pick (Cabrera) but we do a keeper league so you can keep up to 4 players from the previous year (max of 3 years) and the draft value increases by 25% each season so if you took a guy in the 20th round and keep him he becomes a #15 pick the next year).

I kept Cruz as a 5th round pick, Cano as a 9th round pick and Beltre as a 12th round pick which is pretty good, IMO.

[quote name='Javery']Why is Prince Fielder on you bench? How many teams in your league? Your roster looks insanely deep (at least in offense - your pitching could be better). If you can't start Fielder for some reason make a trade offer straight up for whoever has Halladay, Lincecum, King Felix or Cliff Lee.[/QUOTE]

8 teams, Fielder is on the bench because Votto is already in the 1B slot. I was thinking my pitching looked pretty terrible, so I'll see if I can move him for a pitcher. Also, we did an auction style, so that's why I'm loaded up on offense.

Do you guys think Posada will be productive this year playing DH and 1B? I got him in my draft as my catcher, and am thinking that without having the day-to-day wear of being behind the plate, he may produce pretty well. He also should be able to avoid injury.

Let me know what you think.

[quote name='msuchancey']Do you guys think Posada will be productive this year playing DH and 1B? I got him in my draft as my catcher, and am thinking that without having the day-to-day wear of being behind the plate, he may produce pretty well. He also should be able to avoid injury.

Let me know what you think.[/QUOTE]

How many teams in your league? He didn't get drafted at all in my league but if you are in a 10 or 12 team league I think you could do worse. I agree that he should be more productive at DH plus he is in the Yankee lineup and they are going to score a ton.

10 teams -

There's a couple guys out there that could be good - John Buck, JP Arencibia.....Russell Martin and Saltalamachia are also out there, but I think Posada will out produce Martin, and don't know if Salty's gonna be a good enough catcher to stay in the lineup consistently......

Thanks,

[quote name='docvinh']8 teams, Fielder is on the bench because Votto is already in the 1B slot. I was thinking my pitching looked pretty terrible, so I'll see if I can move him for a pitcher. Also, we did an auction style, so that's why I'm loaded up on offense.[/QUOTE]

If you only have an 8 team league, do an NL or AL only draft. Shallow leagues are so boring.

Question: Should I pick up Bryce Harper? Anyone I pick up between now and opening day takes the value of the person I drop. So I can slot Harper in as a 23 for Ortiz or a 22 for Kuroda. He isn't going to play much this year if at all but he is supposedly a can't-miss prospect who will get called up in September and then be on the roster next year so I could have him as a 2012 17th round pick and a 2013 13th round pick which would be sick if he puts up Pujols-type numbers right out of the gate (which is what people are projecting). The problem is that he will take up a roster spot all season. Other guys in my league drafted Johan Santana, Strassburg and Brandon Webb with high round picks hoping that whenever they come back they will be a steal in 2012 to keep. I think I'm going to go for it and drop Kuroda. Any thoughts?

If you must pick him up, I'd go with Ortiz, not Kuroda. Who are the top pitchers on the wire? Chacin?

20 Team, H2H, 7 Keeper League

C: Matt Wieters (K)
1B: Ryan Howard (K)
2B: Chone Figgins (K)
3B: Ty Wigginton
SS: Tsuyoshi Nishioka
LF: Carlos Lee
CF: Rajai Davis
RF: Ryan Ludwick
Util: Kevin Youkilis (K) - Eventually 3B by game 5
Util: Hideki Matsui
BN: Bryce Harper
BN: Desmond Jennings (K)
BN: Jarrod Saltalamacchia
BN: Melvin Mora
BN: Michael Saunders

SP: Dan Haren (K)
SP: Gio Gonzalez
SP: Hiroki Kuroda
RP: Aroldis Chapman (K)
RP: Sean Marshall
RP: Clay Hensley
P: John Lackey
P: Mike Pelfrey
P: Matt Guerrier
P: Pat Neshek

Facing defending champ TheRock_88 in Week 1.

[quote name='Feeding the Abscess']If you must pick him up, I'd go with Ortiz, not Kuroda. Who are the top pitchers on the wire? Chacin?[/QUOTE]

Really? Ortiz was my last pick but if you look at his numbers from last year he was actually very good - 32HRs, 100+ RBIs, .270 average. That's not bad considering power is down. Of course, he's old and the past 2 seasons his starts have been beyond abysmal.... but still.

The top SPs available are Rickey Romero, Jordan Zimmerman, Brett Myers, Johnny Cueto, Javier Vazquez, Ervin Santana, etc. I feel like Kuroda is interchangable with all of those guys. Chacin is taken. Also, with Halladay, Lincecum, Buchholz and Hudson as my rotation I feel like my pitching is solid.

You're better sticking with what you have. Harper might not even be up next year, so to sacrifice this season in a shallow league with shallow rosters is misguided. If you have to have Harper, trade Ortiz and Kuroda as a package for a CI/U option then pick up Harper.

This is my main league that I drafted Saturday. Think I did alright. Had the 10th spot in my draft.

C - Miguel Montero
1B - Adrian Gonzalez
2B - Dan Uggla
SS - Alexei Ramirez
3B - David Wright
OF - Shin-Soo Choo
OF - Jay Bruce
OF - Travis Snider
DH - Casey McGehee
B - Kendrys Morales
B - Kila Ka'aihue
B - Johnny Peralta
B - Jason Bay
B - Delmon Young

P - Josh Johnson
P - Gio Gonzalez
P - Ryan Dempster
P - Maz Scherzer
P - CJ Wilson
B - Brandon Morrow
B - Jhoulys Chacin

Looking at my team, you may notice I lack saves and steals, but stolen bases are not very valuable in this league while sluggers are (plus it's head-2-head). And a closer can be valuable one week, but can be worthless the next. The league values power hitters and strikeout inning eaters the most. I do have some question marks with my pitching and outfield, but I think my outfield will be fine. My pitching, I'd like to think these guys will do fine, and while short staffed, I am looking to pick up two guys when the DL moves start working.

Also, for Kila, most likely going to drop him for a pitcher when Kendry Morales is healthy. I see it difficult for him to get in to my DH spot as is and only really drafted him for the kitty pool since he's having a great spring.

Also a question. For Johnny Peralta, do you think I should keep him to back up Alexei Ramirez (only reason I have him as I do feel iffy on my SS situation)?

20 man keepers league

C - Rod Barajas
1B - Paul Konerko
2B - Sean Rodriguez
3B - Neil Walker
SS - Starlin Castro
LF - Ryan Braun
CF - Andrew McCutchen
RF - Andres Torres
UTIL - Lance Berkman
UTIL - Brad Hawpe
BN - Dominic Brown
BN - Lonnie Chisenhall

SP - Tim Lincecum
SP - Mat Latos
SP - Trevor Cahill
RP - Craig Kimbrel
RP - Ryan Franklin
RP - Joe Nathan
P - Joaquin Benoit
P - Jordan Walden
P - Sergio Santos
P -Wilton Lopez
BN - Ivan Nova
BN - Joe Blanton
BN - Jose Contreras

[quote name='JStryke']This is my main league that I drafted Saturday. Think I did alright. Had the 10th spot in my draft.

C - Miguel Montero
1B - Adrian Gonzalez
2B - Dan Uggla
SS - Alexei Ramirez
3B - David Wright
OF - Shin-Soo Choo
OF - Jay Bruce
OF - Travis Snider
DH - Casey McGehee
B - Kendrys Morales
B - Kila Ka'aihue
B - Johnny Peralta
B - Jason Bay
B - Delmon Young

P - Josh Johnson
P - Gio Gonzalez
P - Ryan Dempster
P - Maz Scherzer
P - CJ Wilson
B - Brandon Morrow
B - Jhoulys Chacin

Looking at my team, you may notice I lack saves and steals, but stolen bases are not very valuable in this league while sluggers are (plus it's head-2-head). And a closer can be valuable one week, but can be worthless the next. The league values power hitters and strikeout inning eaters the most. I do have some question marks with my pitching and outfield, but I think my outfield will be fine. My pitching, I'd like to think these guys will do fine, and while short staffed, I am looking to pick up two guys when the DL moves start working.

Also, for Kila, most likely going to drop him for a pitcher when Kendry Morales is healthy. I see it difficult for him to get in to my DH spot as is and only really drafted him for the kitty pool since he's having a great spring.

Also a question. For Johnny Peralta, do you think I should keep him to back up Alexei Ramirez (only reason I have him as I do feel iffy on my SS situation)?[/QUOTE]

How many teams in the league? I'd probably trade Wilson and Delmon Young for a slugger (buy low on Morneau, possibly). Throw in McGehee if that team needs 3B, too, and you could snag a closer.

10 teams. The only bad move I think I made is I should've gone A-rod over Wight, but I was being stupid there. I think I value McGehee higher than others so I don't know how likely trading him is.

For a closer, there's one or two decent ones (Joe Nathan I know comes to mind and I plan to snag him when I can put somebody on the DL), but like I said, they're not really valuable. You're typical closer will get you maybe 6 points any night he gets a save. Point for the inning, point for a strikeout, and four for the save. But if he gets no saves that week...

Your league does points? That's interesting. My head to head league just tracks stats so steals are just as important as errors or any other category. Your record adds up to 15 every week (so if you win steals but lose errors for the week you get one win and one loss) and then the teams with the top 4 records at the end of the year go to the playoffs.

[quote name='JStryke']10 teams. The only bad move I think I made is I should've gone A-rod over Wight, but I was being stupid there. I think I value McGehee higher than others so I don't know how likely trading him is.

For a closer, there's one or two decent ones (Joe Nathan I know comes to mind and I plan to snag him when I can put somebody on the DL), but like I said, they're not really valuable. You're typical closer will get you maybe 6 points any night he gets a save. Point for the inning, point for a strikeout, and four for the save. But if he gets no saves that week...[/QUOTE]

Point taken on the closers.

You already have a better 3B option than McGehee in Wright, if you want an upgrade at 3B trade Wilson and Wright for Longo or something. In any event, I'm willing to bet that Morrow and Chacin will both have better years than Wilson, so package Wilson with one of Wright, McGehee, or Morales for an OF or a stud DH option. It's worth a shot. Morales might not be a good trade piece, since he's coming off injury. Either way, you could do better than McGehee at DH. You're probably going to get about 70 HR, 225~250 R and RBI from your outfield. Maybe you could target Braun with some combo from the above group.

My team is off to a sick start. Here is my pitching line this week so far:

4 W, 5 SV, 49 Ks, 1.66 ERA, 0.88 WHIP, 9.06 K/9 and 5 QS.

Halladay and Lincecum are ridiculous. I'm up 12-1-2 right now but we play through Sunday and the batting categories are all really close. Wednesday I was only up 8-6-1.

Manny retired!

I have two teams one regular league on salary cap league. Reg on the left salary cap on right

C Posada ........ Martin
1 Puljos ........ Moreland
2 Zobrist ....... Cano
3 Rolen ...... Arod
ss Jeter ..... Gonzalez
of Huff ........ Borbon
of Ellsbury ....... D. Young
of Hunter ........ Braun
dh Boomquist ....... Napoli
bn I. Davis
bn Abreu
bn Mauer
bn Valencia
bn Aviles
dl Bay
dl
sp Lee ....... Nova
sp Hamels ....... Hamels
sp Oswalt ...... Price
sp Pavano ...... Jurrjens
rp Papelbon ...... Rauch
rp Soriano
p Hughes

Alright my team is pretty decent but I have a little outfielder dilemma. I need to start five: (bold=obvious starters)
Shane Victorino, Phi OF
Nick Markakis, Bal OF
Chris Coghlan, Fla OF
Coco Crisp, Oak OF
Jose Tabata, Pit OF
Corey Hart*, Mil OF (when hes not injured)
Garrett Jones, Pit 1B, OF
Ben Francisco, Phi OF