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DownloadYes a departure from normal logs but this was far from a normal week for those of us in FAAB leagues.
And really what better example is there than a weekend with Dee Gordon, Mike Moustakas, and Anthony Rizzo all available in most mixed league that leagues should not still be using a waiver wire regardless of whether that is FCFS, Inverse Standings, or Priority ranking based on lack of use. Give everyone in the league a fair shot to use whatever dollars they have left to try and grab one of these guys.
I am going to look at seven (maybe more) mixed leagues where two or three of this week’s youngsters were available and give you the winning bids.
The first two leagues many readers will be familiar with – fifteen team, mixed leagues for NFBC draft prep that draft in December and January that Todd, Jason M, and I and several members of the Mastersball community play in.
Jerry Beckham League: All three were available; here are the winning bids from Saturday night bidding (sadly I lost all three)
$438 Moustakas
$172 Rizzo
$150 Gordon
Patrick B. Young League: Here Moustakas was drafted in January, so only two available
$202 Rizzo
$136 Gordon (yeah, my lowball bid actually worked)
WCOFB Online Championship: All three available and there were three teams who had more money than we did, but this team has continued to fall after leading early and I wanted to go “ALL IN to try and get one. As fate would have it, C.J. Wilson was dropped in this league last week (likely an error but …) and we need the pitching help as much as hitting; and veteran versus rookie put Wilson at the top of our queue for $385 so we definitely get one. We will be on dollar days for the rest of the season but needed to get an impact player more than in other leagues.
$405 Wilson (to the guy who dropped him……sorry John)
$385 Moustakas (glad to roster him here this team needs more prayers)
$225 Rizzo
$33 Gordon (sorry I fail to understand why people are bidding more on Jemile Weeks who has even less job security)
WCOFB League 1 – where I drafted Moustakas in March thinking that he would be the first top prospect called up…okay wrong on that but I didn’t have to pony up on Sunday night either AND because there are two lineup periods per week I actually had Moose in for Fri-Sun and got his first major league home run.
$311 Rizzo
$116 Gordon (we needed the speed but again Weeks for $100?)
WCOFB League 4 – again all three available
$317 Moustakas (guilty)
$108 Rizzo (ratzo wish we had the money for both)
$ 54 Gordon
WCOFB League 5 – here only Gordon and Rizzo available as somebody else rostered Moustakas at the draft
$433 Rizzo (underbid of $227 was more than the winner in some leagues)
$226 Gordon
WCOFB League 9 – again, I drafted Moustakas, so only Rizzo and Gordon available
$321 Rizzo
$100 Gordon (again ??? Weeks for $103)
TOUT Mixed: Because of the ability to add minor leaguers via FAAB each week in addition to someone who might have drafted them in either the auction or reserve rounds in March, only Dee Gordon was available for bidding on Sunday night and he went for $28 (TOUT uses Vickery, so bid was $35 but next highest bid was $27)
NFBC Leagues: One incongruity here is that if a player is not drafted in March and is in the minor leagues, they can’t be bid on until they are activated by their major league club and posted, unless they were drafted in a particular league and then dropped in which case they remain on the free agent list for that league only. So while this was the first week that Gordon, Moustakas, or Rizzo could have been added via FAAB, only two of them were. Thus Mike Moustakas must have been rostered in all leagues in March.
Here are the bids for Dee Gordon – added in twenty two main event leagues at an average winning bid of $156. Highest winning bid was $293 while lowest was $62.
Anthony Rizzo was added in twenty six main event leagues with an average winning bid of $377. The highest winning bid was $539 while the lowest was $277.
So while none of the three were available in AL/NL only formats that I play in, mixed league players were definitely salivating over their arrival and willing to part with a good portion of their remaining FAAB dollars to roster all of them.
Now we all hope they are worth our investment.
For those of you who don’t get (okay take) the day off and don’t already have your plans for this afternoon, read on – this is an important day for your fantasy teams.
Read more: National Holiday - Get Your Popcorn & Score Sheet ready
Yes you have a day off from work on Monday. And yes you can watch baseball all day. Or, watch a couple of games sandwiched between a BBQ or family outing. And, all those things are great on this special holiday, but let’s not forget the name of the day.
Memorial Day: dedicated to the memory of those who served all of us by giving their limbs and lives in service to our great country just so we would all continue to have the freedom to do whatever we want today. So please give that at least a little thought today.
Okay, now aside from the tough questions of brats vs ribs vs hamburgers, how the hell are YOUR fantasy teams doing? And WHAT are you going to do to make some necessary changes?
Today we are through the first third of the 2011 season.
Think about that for a minute…one-third gone.
So if your best hitter is hitting .250 and you banked on him hitting .300 this year, he is going to have to hit .325 for the rest of the season to get there. Sorry buckaroo, that is not likely to happen. OTOH, there are so many offensive players struggling in another ‘year of the pitcher’ that as you may have noticed the batting averages in almost all your leagues is down.
So here is Part I of my Memorial Day advice: Don’t give up a contributing member of your fantasy team to try and fix your batting average. For, the situation will either right itself or it won’t, but you really cannot afford to lose production in one area to gain production elsewhere, for that isn’t going to fix it. Maybe Tulo will hit .325 for the rest of the year (but I would bet against).
Let’s look at your team’s hitting. What categories are you strong in? Where are you lagging behind? Is there a category where it would be realistic to make up several points if you rearranged your lineup?
You will have to fill in the answers for the first two questions, but I am pretty sure the answer to the last one is a maybe.
Maybe the rates of production for players on your team and on your opponent’s teams will stay the same. Maybe not. Hitters tend to go in streaks – lots of them – during the season. Sure if you got Jose Bautista you could gain some points in home runs; yes if you trade for Jose Reyes you will gain some points in stolen bases. (And, stolen bases -- adding a Reyes, Michael Bourn, or Jacoby Ellsbury-- is the easiest of all the categories to have a likely outcome of gaining points.)
The question is, what will you have to give up to get one of those guys? And yes there are several more who might work – Elvis Andrus, Coco Crisp, Rajai. Davis, and Juan Pierre – with "might" being the operative word, as those players will have to both continue to be successful and have their respective clubs to let them run.
But, if you give up more points in other categories than you are going to gain in stolen bases your trade not very effective. And, a deeper look suggests you may have introduced more instability in your lineup by making such a trade, which will break down and thus have a lower rate of production than your team has now.
The same is true on the pitching side. The easiest category to gain points in is saves. Add a good closer--or a couple of guys who are/will get save chances--and, you can gain a point or two (or even more). But again what is the cost to your team?
In either hitting or pitching, Part II of the Memorial Day advice is to look carefully to see which categories you can gain points in and of course the flip side – where you will lose points. It is rare that there is a clear play there that you are already not aware of but a nice, quiet, objective view if the categories and points and the your roster will help.
Finally if you find a good prospective trade based on the statistics of the players on your team please try and ignore who you should be trading. It doesn’t matter if Mariano Rivera cost you $23 on draft day, for if you have three closers you are just going to get further ahead in saves by keeping all three. But, it will not help your overall point totals.
Thus, you can and should trade Rivera for a player who cost ideally cost your trading partner a dollar on draft day, or was added as a free agent later. However, the names of the players and what they cost months ago are no longer relevant.
The question is will the trade help your team team gain points in the standings? Sometimes those answers are much clearer with no names on the player’s stat lines.
More so than any week I can remember so far this year, there are a lot of lineup questions. Some are pretty tough decisions, but try and make the decisions with your head and not your heart.
The Texas Rangers will likely welcome back both Nelson Cruz and Josh Hamilton to their outfield. Cruz seems automatic, while Hamilton is getting back about a week early. Still, they both hit home runs in minor league games this weekend and both should be activated for this week. It is not clear which Rangers will be sent down but I would guess one of Endy Chavez/Craig Gentry and Taylor Teagarden.
Matt Harrison certainly had a few brutal outings (compounded by terrible management decisions), but Harrison should be back in your lineup and if someone dropped him in any of your leagues, I would look to add him. Harrison pitched 8 1/3 scoreless innings today for the win and that means his last 12-plus innings he has given up no runs – the other four innings were rained out in the game earlier in the week in Chicago. Pounding strikes low in the zone is a wonderful tonic.
The Chicago Cubs are going to have a huge hole to fill in center as they placed Marlon Byrd on the disabled list on Sunday after several bones in his face were broken when hit in the head by a pitch in the second inning of Saturday’s game in Boston. Most likely candidate would be Tyler Colvin because prospect Brett Jackson has been out of action for a while. I am not sure if Randy Wells will be able to rejoin the Cubs rotation by Saturday to take Matt Garza’s spot but it certainly looks like Garza will join Byrd on the DL.
It appears now like Mike Minor will be recalled by the Atlanta Braves to fill in this week for Tim Hudson. I would jump all over Minor if there is a league where you can still add him. Even if this is a spot start I think he will be in the Braves rotation before the end of the year.
The Arizona Diamondbacks are on a six game winning streak after sweeping the Minnesota Twins in Interleague Play in Phoenix over the weekend. Kirk Gibson should buy a lottery ticket. The DBacks cut 1B Russell Branyan, a move I thought had been on the drawing board for a while – although I expected it to be coupled with a call-up of Paul Goldschmidt, who already has fourteen home runs at Triple-A Reno.
But Juan Miranda, given regular at-bats, had a great weekend – at least until the eighth inning on Sunday when he was hit in the hand. No results yet on the X-rays but while it looked like his hitting would keep Goldschmidt in Reno, a DL stint might make that a logical outcome. And while there were certainly questions about J.J. Putz in spring training, he has been perfect once the lights came on and looked very strong in back to back outings this weekend.
More X-rays – these negative on Dodger catcher Rod Barajas after a Juan Pierre collision at home plate on Sunday. Look for Barajas to be day-to-day but Dioner Navarro to catch the majority of the games this week. Shortstop Rafael Furcal was reinstated on Sunday, earlier than originally thought but the Dodgers needed to put Juan Uribe on the DL (since Mattingly apparently can put him on the bench where he belongs). Jamey Carroll will stay at second base and Casey Blake may be off the DL sometime this week sending Russ Mitchell back to the minors.
The Phillies will probably throw a party to welcome back second baseman Chase Utley, who I understand could be activated as soon as Monday. But I am not sure Utley will play every day for a while so moving him back into your lineup should be based on what kind of production you have been getting - or whether you use the extra week to construct a trade if you found a player who is really helping. This area of roster management is often given short shrift, but is very important in the success of your teams.
The Minnesota Twins activated both DH Jim Thome and outfielder Jason Repko after Sunday’s game. If Thome is normally in your lineup you should play him this week as the Twins play all six games at home and four of their opponents starting pitchers are scheduled to be right handed hurlers.
You have trouble if you have some Braves in your outfield. As expected Jason Heyward was placed on the DL on Sunday – they need to get him some rest for his shoulder. And unexpectedly Nate McLouth is likely headed to the DL with an oblique injury. Minor leaguer Wilkin Ramirez was called up for Heyward, I haven’t seen a good guess as to who might replace McLouth but look for more at bats for Eric Hinske.
If you have even a decent replacement for Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier you may want to keep them in your lineup. While x-rays on Ethier’s elbow, ankle and toe all came back negative, that is a lot of pain for him to play through and with the early series this week in Houston, they should be resting their best hitter.
Cleveland Indian’s rookie pitcher Alex White will miss the next 8-12 weeks….Yes at least two months with a tendon injury in the second finger on his pitching hand. Expect lefty Mitch Talbot to be activated into White’s spot in the rotation this week. Indians center fielder Grady Sizemore might be ready to play by next weekend. But they’re at Tampa Bay against James Shields, David Price and Jeremy Hellickson, and the risk combined with the matchups should keep him out of your lineup again this week.
Cardinals right fielder Lance Berkman was back in the lineup on Sunday and should be good to play this week.
Nationals first baseman Adam LaRoche is having his sore shoulder (and batting average) checked out and there is good reason to believe he may also be headed to the DL. Not sure how Washington would handle this but Mike Morse at first base would be one obvious solution. Hopefully you can do better.
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Having just hit the middle of May, it is the quarter pole for the 2011 regular season and thus, our fantasy baseball teams. How are your teams doing? And what are you going to do to improve them?
We all play in many different leagues and I can’t address all formats and rules, but the idea is to find out how to get more at bats from your lineup….and better at bats if you can. In very deep leagues this can be difficult so you will have to get a little creative.
First, feel free to overpay for what you need. Especially when you are getting what you know to be a quality player who might be underappreciated by your trading partner, or when you can trade a player whose stats look better to others than they do to you. An example of the first type of player might be Raul Ibanez who started very slowly this season and was hitting under .200 for a while, and is now up to .240 because he has been hitting well for the last two weeks. I think he has made the necessary adjustments and would bet on better production for the balance of the year. His owner may just look at the .240 and only three home runs and be tired of Ibanez in his lineup. You may be the owner of Vicente Padilla or Eduardo Sanchez who have been getting some saves recently. Neither of these pitchers is likely in my opinion to hold their job much longer or continue to get those nice cheap saves.
If you could package one of those closers and an outfielder who you think will not be as valuable as Ibanez for the balance of the season – let’s say the Padres Will Venable who is hitting the same as Ibanez but has ten stolen bases to go with it instead of the three home runs – this might be attractive to a prospective trading partner – some cheap bags and saves for an underperforming, older outfielder. I think the closer will be put out to pasture and even if Venable stays in the lineup to steal more bases, I would bet on his batting average for the balance of the year being lower than that of Ibanez.
Another player to trade would be a starting pitcher who may have been very fortunate to date but is unlikely to continue to put up solid ratio numbers or get wins at the same rate for the balance of the season. I really liked the Cardinals’ Kyle McClellan coming into this season, bringing some nice peripheral stats from the bullpen to a starting gig in front of a good defensive team who figured to be contending in their division. Well to date my investment on McClellan has worked out fine. He is 5-0 with a 3.30 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP.
But, McClellan has benefitted from a lower than normal hit rate – especially in his last few starts, and a declining strikeout rate. That doesn’t auger well for the ERA staying at that level or wins to come as easily. The point is you may find a profit in trading McClellan now. Get something else you need believing that you can plug in a less fortunate starter. If McClellan continue to regress even slightly you don’t have to find Jair Jurrjens, you can live with Paul Maholm. In the meantime you have improved your offense.
Secondly, you can often better your spot in your league’s standings without gaining points.
Yes your read that correctly…..if your main competition loses points you will have more of a lead even if you don’t gain points. The way you can do that is to find a specific trading partner. Let’s say you can trade saves for stolen bases in your league. IF you trade your saves to a team that is currently behind your targeted opponent so that they may overtake them in the standings you will have a net gain even if your side of the trade does not produce a gain in the SB category. This type of trade can help you in two ways (long time readers will remember this article as “Rotisserie Baseball Math”).
Here is an outdated but still strong example of this type of trade:
Let’s take a look at a different league – the Cannonball Run III American League.
Here are the current standings
Rank |
Team |
Total Pts |
1 |
Pt. Loma Quahogs |
82.0 |
2 |
Surprise Royals |
76.0 |
3 |
Framingham |
72.5 |
4 |
Boston |
71.0 |
5 |
Kilbourne |
68.0 |
6 |
St. Paul |
67.0 |
7 |
Beverly Hills Coyotes |
65.0 |
8 |
Cape Cod |
62.5 |
9 |
Brooklyn Cyclones |
62.0 |
10 |
Salem |
58.0 |
11 |
Scarsdale |
54.5 |
12 |
Silver Lake Lookouts |
41.5 |
Note how close the teams are –especially from 9th at 62 points really all the way up to 2nd at 76.0. And of course some of the categories are so close that point totals and places can shift from day to day.
Now let’s look at two categories – Strikeouts
Salem 562
Point Loma 466
Surprise 449
Boston 444
Scarsdale 437
Cape Cod 434
Framingham 425
Brooklyn 419
St. Paul 413
…and Saves
St. Paul 56 and leading
Surprise 38
Boston 33
Beverly Hills 28
Kilbourne 24
Silver Lake 21
Framingham 21
Scarsdale 19
If St. Paul could trade one of his premier closers – Mariano Rivera or Joakim Soria…..AND trade him to Scarsdale for a SP who would add a decent amount of strikeouts, he could not only gain four+ points in K (and take away a point each from Framingham and Cape Cod), but Scarsdale with the additional saves would take away another point from Framingham AND Kilbourne. With any additional improvement in other categories, this one trade would put him in a battle for 2nd place in the league with only one point of downside.
Addition by Subtraction – watch for it in your leagues. It is a great way to make a useful trade for your team and also reduce the points your opponents have at the same time
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