OT: How's your fantasy baseball team doing?
Slow Thursday so far, so how's your team doing? What players have flamed out for you? Who's been a positive surprise? Have you been affected by the craziness of the closers this year?
For me, Heath Bell has been a huge disappointment. He was the first closer I drafted and, well, you know the story. I've seen 100% turnover in my closers. I drafted Bell, Andrew Bailey, Huston Street, and Addison Reed (he seemed like the frontrunner coming out of spring training). I now have Aceves, Cishek, Andrew Cashner, and Aroldis Chapman. So, not too great.
I've been pleasantly surprised with Jarrod Parker, though. He was somebody I picked up on a whim, and he's been great for the A's. They see him as their future ace, and while he hasn't pitched like one, he's been very good for a rookie. And he's only owned in 5.3% of ESPN leagues.
Feel free to ask any lineup or trade questions here. I know we've got some insightful folks around.
Same here. I was able to grab Brian LaHair in one of my leagues to offset that bad pick somewhat.
Me likey Josh Hamilton. Had a keeper league that disbanded this past year - would have had Kemp, Jennings, Kipnis, and Freddie Freeman as my keepers, so yeah.. pretty salty about that.
Albert Pujols. Boo.
Josh Hamilton. HUZZAH!
I'm in a 20-team keeper with huge rosters (50+ players per team including minor-leaguers.) I picked up LaHair last September on a lark, and cannot be more pleased.
Holy crap, man! That's the most insane league setup I've ever heard of! Which service do you use (Yahoo, ESPN, etc.)?
Although we track minor leaguers separately, as many aren't in the yahoo database. I'm in two leagues (with about 50% overlap in ownership) of this type -- one is entering season 11, the other season 10. It's time-consuming, and if you have a year where you can't put the effort into it (like I had in 2009) you can fall behind in a hurry.
For years I've been trying to get people interested in a league in which all players are kept and only new entries into the pool are drafted each year, but I can't get any takers. I always wanted to try a league where you have to try to assess career value instead of just the next season.
I finished dead last last year (admittedly somewhat by design, because last is better than 15th for top draft position in our annual minor league draft), but could still keep very active trying to find free agents for this year, like LaHair and the very serviceable Alejandro de Aza. From my experience in single-season leagues, the teams at the bottom tend to disappear by August, and that takes away the fun for all owners.
If you do join a league like this, however, I recommend waiting a few months to trade, especially if it's an existing league. Each league can have very peculiar valuations of prospects, rookies, and veterans, and it's best to see what other trades owners are making, because you can be taken for a ride very quickly. Every year we cycle in 1-2 new owners, and almost without fail they make 3-4 trades that they'll regret by the end of the season.
Mat Latos can rot in hell.
I have 5 players on the DL... FIVE
Longoria
Sandoval
Street
Hudson
Bailey
so things are going fucking swimmingly.
Yep, I drafted Hudson, Bailey, and Street too. Hoping to pick up Hudson back up before he comes back.
Picked up Latos on wavers last week, just in time for his 11k 0 ER win. Hope it wasn't just because he pitched to the Pirates.
'WHOOOO CARESSS'
trolling in an O.T. thread would be the point from the rest of us to you, Wettin 3's....
I thought he was just in need of some physical affection and he was wondering who around here could offer him that. I guess I misinterpreted his message.
Overall, pleased. Except for the "Peyton Manning disease" that Chris Carpenter came down with the day after I drafted him, and Fister missing the first month.
Matt Kemp and Granderson have been nice, and Peavy's been a plesent suprise. Hopefully David Wright can stay off the DL, and continue producing. First place in my division, with a mediocre record. It's way early though, was in this spot the last two years, and shit the bed down the stretch, so we'll see. Over the last 6 or so years, it's been the team who's essentially drafted at the appropriate spots, and stayed healthy........nothing but a crap shoot.
Oh, and it's never a great thing when your closer snaps his knee while shagging during BP, thanks Rivera!
so I should be screwed, but somehow I've got 6 top-20 guys in a 12-team league. Cargo, Ortiz, Adam Jones, Starlin Castro, Cueto, Gio Gonzalez.
32-6 start. But it's a marathon not a sprint, as they say....
How are you 32-6? Do you play daily H2H matchups or something?
is weekly but each category is counted as a separate win or loss. I'm 32-6-2 after 4 weeks.
My strategy has been solid the last couple years: draft big bats and then pitchers from the A's, Rangers, and D-backs, with a few other's mixed in.
I'm more angry at myself than the players I drafted. I gave up on J.J. Hardy and Y. Gallardo way too quickly, though what I picked up has performed pretty well. I teach myself the same lesson every year though, you can't react to early season results so quickly. I'll probably be kicking myself later on.
My biggest grab though was Colon. I pretty much picked him up for all my teams and he has been rock solid.
Started off hot killing the first two guys, but have since slowed to a 2-2 record. Drafted Jeter very late as a 2B/SS option and havent looked back. Encarnacion has been a pleasant surprise drafting him late as well. My injuries are Berkman and Cespedes right now with Cliff Lee coming off DL with a nice performance. Carlos Lee replaced Berkman and has been alright. Picked up Mike Trout cuz I missed out on Harper, he is up and down so far.
Austin Jackson and Starlin Castro have been some nice surprises for me. Dan Haren has been ruining my pitching. I am not high on my team but somehow I'm in 2nd and winning this week pretty easily.
I got Jeter with the last pick in the draft. He's cooled off some, but he's proven to be a fantastic value pick. My pitching has been inconsistent as I have Lincicum and Ubaldo. Fortunately I have Verlander and managed to get Darvish in the late rounds.
Darvish has been surprisingly very good. I was just talking with someone about him though, and he hasn't faced the same team twice yet. I think it will be interesting to see how he does as teams begin to face him again.
I just traded for Darvish and Prince and gave up Joey Votto and Ian Kennedy. Win.
Wow, you kicked ass in that trade.
Yep, I just upvoted you for approving of my trade skills.
Wow, I would love to get my hands on the free agents available in that league. Are there only a handfully of teams? I think his average draft position was around 100th or something on ESPN.
He has been on fire, not bad for the last pick.
Disappointments: Nelson Cruz, Dan Haren, Mark Teixeira, Rickie Weeks
Pleasant Surprises: Jason Heyward, Mike Moustakas, Yadier Molina
Studly: Stephen Strasburg
I'm struggling in the power categories, but hopefully that comes back around when (if) Cruz and Teixeira start hitting.
I haven't played for 3 years, when after years of trying, I finally won my league. After I had won, I realized it literally took someone checking their team and doing drops/adds/trades every day to win a moderately competitve baseball league and missing a few too many days could be the difference. As much as I enjoy fantasy sports, I don't want to be that involved, yet I can't stand losing either. So, that's when I decided fantasy baseball is not for me. Good luck to all who still fight the good fight.
The season seems too long to stay engaged with it weekly. I'm not sure what type of league you were in, but there really isn't a ton of more time spent, as compared to a football league. Once a week you are able to grab free agents, etc, and then you set you line-up once per week.
I start to get lazy usually after the all star break, or into August, and usually drop off.
We always did weekly head to head with points for each stat category you won during the week on Yahoo. And I played the matchups on a daily basis as well, so to account for pitching changes, weather, stadium and lineups/bullpen availability, I checked and made changes pratically everyday. Whereas in football, I just set my lineup once a week and keep my ear to the ground for any injuries and what not before kickoff.
In retrospect, I may have gone too far with it, but hey, I eventually won the league and the pool of money and retired a champion.
We set lineups daily, which if you want to be thorough means checking lineups when they come out an hour or so before each game to make sure the guys you're starting are actually playing. Six months of that can be a grind.
Also Brennan Boesch was a late-round auction grab that I was hoping would be a really nice surprise as a 3rd OF. That has not happened. Like, at all.
I have two teams - one auto draft, one live - which are both middling right now. I am getting hammered by injuries, but this seems to happen to a degree annually.
A nice surprise has been Jake Peavy. No major dissapointments come to mind, although I'm sure I have some players that fit the bill.
Also, as another disappointment, I'll say Eric Hosmer. I was really high on him, and even drafted him a little late in the draft (mid-late rounds), and he's been terrible. He had a great spring, but he's just been awful. I have to imagine his .168 BABIP will rebound, but he's hitting more ground balls than the average player, and fewer line drives and fly balls. We'll see, I suppose.
but sit at 3-1
Luebke and the Panda are on the DL and my pitching staff short of Strasburg is atrocious
Having Weiters and Jones breakout has been huge along with the 4th round steal of Hamilton. Tulo is killing me though, and Votto is being Votto basically.
Point league though and Hitters are way over favored so my atrocious pitching staff hasn't cost me much.
Also a late round flier on the prohibitive favorite for AL comeback player of the Year Adam Dunn has been pleasant despite the K's
I wish I could say I was dominating, but I have won a couple weeks with smoke and mirrors. My team is top heavy in the outfield with Kemp (ultra stud) and Granderson. Darcish is turning out to be a great pick. Just picked up Dunn last week from waivers and that, surprisingly, is going well.
i got kemp,hamilton, napoli, encarncion, verlander,kershaw and gio gonzalez yet still am in 8th somehow in a 12 team league...wth
do you have all those guys in a 12 team league? Was it an auto draft or live?
Dan Haren could win a game now and then, that would be great. 1 win in this season??? Ug!
I am in a fairly competitive 11 team leauge. I am second thanks to aj, starlin castro, etc. However, I have fought injuries all year with utley (injured when drafted yes but i got him uber late), longoria (lucky to have freese to back up), 2 closers, etc. My biggest pitching steals have been bumgarner and samardzija.
Question to you guys: Earlier in the year IO made I trade i think I won but I would like the input.
I sent votto to a buddy for j. upton and freeman. Upton has been awful but I needed offensive depth.
I think that depends on who your other outfielders were. Freeman is looking more and more legit (although I'd like to see his K rate go down and his BB rate go up), so I would feel good about that.
I've never really been high on Upton, though. He doesn't hit for average, strikes out a lot, and he's hit 20 homers twice. He's doing pretty well right now, but I don't know how sustainable that is. He's got a really good K rate (8 percentage points down from his career norms) and that seems to be the biggest difference between .309 (where he's at now) and ~.240 (where he's been for the past few years). If he's really figured something out and can maintain a K rate < 20%, then I'd say you got a great deal (especially if you were weak in the OF before him).
Trick question: nobody cares about anybody else's fantasy team. We all just like talking about our own.