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.
This week
we had some more Yahoo bashing, making it easily the most hated and worst
fantasy site that we as a collective group have experienced. Most of the
discussion centered around the DL status of Troy Tulowitzki and Michael
Cuddyer and the callups of players
such as Max Scherzer and Jeff Clement. Yahoo is painfully slow
at reacting to changing fantasy news and notorious for having players
unavailable for pickup. All fantasy league hosting sites should have at least
every player on the 40-man roster available for pickup at all times. Everything
from position eligibility, player availability, DL status, draft room and
paying for live stats was criticized. I never have had such bad fantasy
experiences than on Yahoo.
The most
popular fantasy pickup this week was Max
Scherzer. He was called up on April 27th and was finally available for pickup
by Papelbong Hitters on May 2nd. Another host site miracle. Other key
acquisitions included Chad Billingsley
(who trails only John Smoltz among qualifying
starting pitchers with his 11.76 K/9), Jeff
Keppinger, and Ryan Garko. Big
name drops included first and foremost minor leaguers, Francisco Liriano and Rich
Hill, whom I was chastised for dropping. Maybe we can edit that blog. Also
dropped were Homer Bailey, Jay Bruce, Yovani Gallardo, Jorge
Posada and Kevin Kouzmanoff. The
league size and the number of starting roster spots have made for a good deal
of roster movement.
Here are
the standings as of the end of play Tuesday, May 6, 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:
Best
Pick Up — [5/2] Jeff Keppinger; Vaporizers —
Keppinger has multi-position eligibility
and has always been able to hit. He’ll be a valuable asset to fill in empty
spots for injuries and off days for your studs.
Worst
Drop — [5/4] Jorge Posada; Vaporizers —
The guy is still a top- 5 fantasy catcher when healthy. Weather the storm until
he comes back.
Best/Worst
Spot Start — [5/2] John Lannan; Fence Riders — L, 3 IP, 5 ER, 0 K’s. Only a matter of time if you look at the peripherals
— 22 K’s and 15 BB coming into the game.
Best
Move/Non-Move — [5/2] Max Scherzer; Papelbong
Hitters — A must move to make, but let’s
see what he does from here. Will PH take the opportunity to sell high if
presented with an opportunity like All Eyez was with Johnny Cueto?
Rosin Bag Grenadiers
says:
Best Pick Up — [5/4] Juan Pierre; Vaporizers
— While all of us were enthralled with
the likes of Willy Taveras, who is in a semi-time split, and Michael Bourn, who
is just barely gasping for air above the Mendoza line, Pierre is doing what
he’s always done. The more boos that get poured down on Andruw Jones, the
better this pickup looks by the day.
Worst Drop — [5/3] Kelly Johnson; Mr. Met —
The reason I don’t like this drop is
largely due to the player picked up to replace Johnson. Placido Polanco will never
be the stat filler that Johnson can be and for that reason he’s fairly two
dimensional as a run scorer/batting average balancer type. Johnson could
realistically go 20/20 or better in the HR/SB categories and hits at the top of
a lineup that may be just as good as the Tiger lineup that Polanco finds
himself in.
Best/Worst Spot
Start
— [5/2] John
Lannan; Fence-Riders — 3 IP, 5 ER, 0
K’s, 8 BB+H. John Lannan finally looked
like, well, John Lannan. Bad pitcher, bad team, bad spot start.
Best Move/Non-Move — [5/4] Greg Smith and [5/5] Dana Eveland; Standard Errors — Standard Errors keeps going back to the well
with these two parts of the Dan Haren off-season trade from Oakland to Arizona.
This is a great use of the free agent pool which Standard Errors has
essentially used as an extension of his roster with these two pick ups.
All Eyez says:
Best
Pick Up — [5/1] Chad Billingsley; Rosin Bag Grenadiers — With both Billingsley and Max Scherzer sitting on the waiver wire, I
was hoping that the six teams that had higher waiver priorities than mine would
all hold out for a chance to nab Scherzer and bypass Billingsley, who was
eligible to come off of waivers a day before Scherzer. Of course, RBG probably had
the same strategy as he used his 5th waiver position to grab the up-and-coming
Dodger ace.
Worst
Drop — [5/2] Jair Jurrjens; Vaporizers — It’s
not like Jurrjens is the next Brandon Webb, but he’s had five terrific quality
starts in a row, and he has the third most K’s among rookie pitchers. I don’t
know if Vaporizers tried to trade Jurrjens, but I would have either tried
trading him or simply held on to him rather than dropping him and that 2.84 ERA
and 1.08 WHIP.
Best/Worst
Spot Start — [5/4] Greg Smith, [5/5] Dana
Eveland; Standard Errors — I hate to
be a copycat, but I can’t argue with this one. Standard Errors has simply
mastered the art of spot-starting. He didn’t get a “W” out of the two Oakland
hurlers, but he did get: 13 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 6 BB, 14 K’s.
Best
Move/Non-Move — [5/3] Aaron Cook; Fence-Riders — Cook
has now won five games in a row. The lack of strikeouts leave more to be desired,
but Cook has been consistently strong all season — more so than supposed ace
Jeff Francis. Fence-Riders has done a nice job of strengtening his rotation
through free agent picks up such as Cliff Lee and now Cook.






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