2008 FantasyMLBTips League Update

League parameters: 12 team mixed roto. C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, 3 OF, UTIL, 2 SP, 2 RP, 3 P and 5 BN (1 DL spot also available). Categories are standard 5x5. 

Sorry to be a few days late with the update fellas, but I was away at a baseball tournament and didn’t get a chance to write it. Anyway, now onto the article you’ve all been waiting for. 

There have been two more trades made, both involving TIPS founder, Jeff Lowe, and his team, All Eyez. All Eyez traded away Prince Fielder to Gordon’s Fisherman for Jose Reyes. GF needs power even more than I do, and All Eyez could use some help in steals. The trade works out well for both owners. The second trade saw All Eyez send Joe Mauer to the Vaporizers for Joe Nathan. All Eyez added a third closer and replaces Mauer with a more than capable, Ryan Doumit. The Vaporizers replaced Jason Kendall with Mauer and still has three solid closers without even including Troy Percival, who returns this week. Both trades are fair and make sense for both sides. 

There weren’t any youngsters brought up to drool over, although Charlie Morton is supposedly on his way up with the Braves. Yahoo! ought to be about a week late on that one too, so get your claim sheets ready. One thing you’ll notice on the waiver wire is that while spot-starting pitchers seem to be constantly moving from roster to roster, catchers and multiple position eligible players are also scattered throughout. With one starting catcher, owners can plan for a catcher having a day off and pick up a replacement. Players like Miguel Olivo and Kelly Shoppach have been picked up in this manner. Multi-position guys are also valuable because you can manipulate your roster around them. They can play almost anywhere for you, allowing an owner to keep his best lineup in there. Players like Mark DeRosa and Alexi Ramirez have been used this way. 

The message board featured a lot of trade talk and also some information about a beta test of a new site. I am really excited about it, but don’t want to say much about it yet. I do believe it is going to dramatically change the way people play this game though. Personally I liked Stadard Errors’ opinion on trades and vetoing. The fact that someone makes a bad deal for themselves doesn’t mean that we should save that owner from his own inexperience or stupidity. Too many people use the veto with a bitter taste in their mouth over not being able to pull off the deal themselves. 

A trade in another league was posted for advice by Mr. Met. He was offered Jon Lester and Jacoby Ellsbury for Aaron Harang and Todd Helton. My thoughts were that Helton and Ellsbury are pretty close in value from this point on — it just depends on what you need out of the spot. That makes the trade basically Lester for Harang and even with Harang’s struggles to get wins this year (he has thrown a lot of innings and pitches as well), I still like him better than Lester.   

Here are the standings as of the end of play Wednesday, June 11, 2008. The writers in this league own the following teams: Rosin Bag Grenadiers (Ron Vackar), UMustveMisremembered (myself) and All Eyez (Jeff Lowe). Check out the other blogs about the FantasyMLBTips league to view draft results and draft commentary by both the writers and the other owners.

WEEKLY ANALYSIS:

UMustveMisremembered says:
Best Pick Up — [6/7 & 6/8] Vernon Wells and Jose Guillen; Fence Riders and Vaporizers — Both players are hot right now. I’m still kicking myself for not picking up Wells a while back.

Worst Drop — [6/4] Max Sherzer; Papelbong Hitters — He used his number one waiver priority to get the guy and now just outright drops him. He hasn’t been that bad and could have been used in trade to get another RP.

Best/Worst Spot Start — [6/5] Jason Bergmann; Standard Errors — Edges out Scott Olsen by SE as well. 3 IP, 8 runs, 5 earned, 0 K and the loss.

Best Move/Non-Move — [6/4] Picking up Brandon Morrow; All Eyez — J.J. Putz recently couldn’t finish the game and Morrow came in to clean up his mess. Look for the youngster to take the job if Putz falters further or is injured. 

Rosin Bag Grenadiers says:
Best Pick Up — [6/7] Vernon Wells; Fence Riders — I'm not so sure if this is the best pick up of the week or the biggest flub by the 11 other teams in our TIPS league.

Worst Drop — [6/7] Darrell Rasner; Fear the Nut — Five of his six starts have been that of quality status.  This is the diamond in the rough that is the Yankee rotation and no, it did not slip my mind that they now have the jolly round fella named Joba in their rotation.

Best/Worst Spot Start — [6/7] Jeremy Guthrie; Papelbong Hitters — 7 IP, 6 K, 0 BB, 6 H, 1 ER W. Plucking Guthrie from the free agent pool to start against the poor hitting Blue Jays was a solid move that paid off with a nice ending line.

Best Move/Non-Move — [6/4] Picking up Alexei Ramirez; All Eyez — Tips founder, Jeff Lowe, was high on Alexei Ramirez at the start of the season so it comes as no surprise that he's picked him up as he's starting to show off his Alfonso Soriano-like talent.

Comments

[Doc]

Going forward, do you guys like Pedroia or Alexi Ramirez better as a 2nd base option. I'm currently using Pedroia, but Ramirez is available.