I think Garza is going to have a huge yr, check his peripherals from the past 2 yrs, sure he is in the AL East but hes a solid K producer and I got him at 107 (not too bad). I liked Baker’s upside and low WHIP, he allowed me to take Burnett and Zambrano who I got at a ridiculous discount. And yes I tend to SAGNOF also but when a closer is available at 227 I am going to grab them (especially with the risk of my others).

I do appreciate the input though, should be a fun league. Looks like we have a bunch of knowledgeable guys to deal with.

I have an Excel application available on Google Docs if you wanted to check it out. Ideally, there are a couple of things to setup, but you could get by with just typing in player’s names and see your team totals if that’s what you’re after.

For anyone else interested, it’s simply a draft tracker at this point in time. There isn’t a ranked list of players or anything, you simply enter your league’s setup, and then you type in each player as they are drafted, and you will get the up-to-date standings (either aggregate or average, switched whenever you want) for your league. I have CHONE and ESPN projections loaded into it, or you can enter your own set (or optionally use mine as a 3rd set). These can be switched back and forth at will.

You can track up to 16 teams, up to 18 batters and 14 pitchers (positions can be selected for ease of use), and stat-wise you can select up to a 10×10 league from the following categories…

R, HR, RBI, SB, AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, H, XBH, 1B, 2B, 3B, BB, K, CS, NSB

W, SV, K, ERA, WHIP, QS, HD, SV+HD, BAA, OBA, BB, K/9, BB/9, K/BB, IP

Pretty sure I’ve fixed any bugs as I’ve played around with it, but no 100% guarantees (I also don’t know how it runs with older versions of Excel), but if anyone wants to check it out to see if it would be helpful, let me know. I could see some advantages/disadvantages compared to the War Room depending on what you’re looking for.

I don’t want to post anything without Rudy’s (or Grey’s) permission, so if he wants to chime in (or take a look at it first), I’ll wait before posting an email address or whatever would be appropriate.

I predict you will finish at best, in 2nd place.

@Stephen: RCL 8 (The Extroadinary League of Gentlemen) for the win!

@Rudy Gamble: Cheers for the comments! Yeah, I do need another hitter, I could rotate Cuddyer in the OF spot, but then i’d need a CI. I’m going to watch for a ‘Lind-type’ breakout from someone this year hopefully. I’m interested to follow Alvarez in spring at least, see where he ends up and how he performs. I just have one of those gut feelings about him being an above average contributor right away when (if) he gets the shot. We’ll see…

Ah, I see. Thanks for the heads up. Last year I was good at avoiding the mines in the risky pitcher segment (drafted Vazquez, Greinke, Baker), and I think with how deep my league is, it’s still worth taking the chance on him cause it’s just a desert wasteland in FA. The fact his FIP was below 4 is enough for me to throw a party.

I was definitely watching medlen last year and will grab him this year if he gets another chance.

At this point I’m also watching the Cards #5 situation and the Marlins young guys like a hawk.

Do you have any hope for any of those guys (Garcia/McClellan/Hill) or (Volstad/West/Miller)?

I’m especially interested in the Cards guys because if one of them wins the job and starts off hot I can deal him to somebody (all Cards fans league).

For the manager who ends up taking one of these guys, this overspending handicaps the rest of his draft. For the manager who DOESN’T take one of these guys, he’s probably going to be short on offense in some capacity, since you basically NEED a first-round bat to hit the projections you’ll need to win your league.

My thinking is, the best way to get a first round bat without paying for it at auction is to acquire a surplus of SP talent, since that is where the best values/deals will be, and this is where those handicapped managers will realize they’ve fallen short after the draft. For example, in a league where I employed this draft strategy, I just traded Votto/Johan (paid $20/$17) for Pujols/Blanton (other guy paid $44/$1). Essentially, I paid $36 for Pujols this way (if you assume Blanton would have gone for $1, which he always does). Ignoring whether or not I got the better end of the trade (which I believe I did, obviously), but I almost NEVER see Pujols go for under $41… so at the very least, I got him at a great price. The two factors that allowed me to do this were 1.) the manager who owned Pujols desperately needed solid SP and 2.) I stocked up at SP, so I still have F-Her, Ubaldo, Hamels, Burnett and Nolasco… losing Johan isn’t a loss.

Does this makes sense or am I out of my gourd?

Wow I just took a closer look at Hammel and I’m impressed. I will def pick him up as soon as the waiver period ends. Who should I drop for him though? Marshall, I’m guessing?

Ya, I kind of threw caution to the wind on AVG. and went for upside in the pitchers.

I wanted Tim Hudson, but he was taken one pick before mine and I had to start to scramble.

Richard, Bumgarner, Kennedy were all drafted.

Hammel looks to be worth a look, does Medlen have a spot in the rotation though?

Worth dropping anyone for either of them?

Thanks