Rudy Gamble

Rudy Gamble

Fantasy Razzball ’09 Standings – April 28th

| 2009 Fantasy Baseball Leagues, Rudy Gamble | 8 Comments

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As the first month of the season winds down, it’s time to finally look in on our Fantasy Razzball leagues to see how well our participants are doing at sucking.

For those unfamiliar with ‘Fantasy Razzball’, it’s a fantasy baseball variation where you aim to manage the worst team possible.  (See here for rules).  We expanded from one Blogger league last year (won by me – suck it Grey) to 6 10-team divisions:  3 blogger leagues and 3 commenter divisions (note:  we may actually have some satellite leagues – need to check on this).  We then compile a total standings based on each team’s total points and an index based on league performance (basically, it’s total points of league divided by average league points).

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Rudy Gamble

Fantasy Roundtable – Slow Starts & Hill vs. Kendrick

| Fantasy Roundtable, Rudy Gamble | 163 Comments

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I’ve got a double Roundtable post this afternoon as I got too busy with life and whatnot to post the one from last week.

The first one was hosted by Patrick Cain of the Albany Times-Union Fantasy Baseball section.  His advantageous location in the heart of New York State politics makes his blog the must read for the Governor and his staff (as in his staff must read it to him – the NY Guvn’r is blind, people!  If he can’t see prostitutes, we New Yorkers assume he’s much less likely to frequent them.  Wonder if he does the Ray Charles thing and feels their wrists to know if they’re skinny or not?).  Anyway, here’s the link and the question:

What cold starts should I be reading into…and why?

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Rudy Gamble

2009 Risky Pitchers – Verducci Voices In

| Rudy Gamble | 26 Comments

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Tom Verducci of SI has posted his annual ‘Year After Effect’ post which poses that young pitchers who threw more than 30 innings last year than they had the year before as injury risks.  I had reference this theory as part of my risky pitchers tests.  For those who haven’t read this and are too lazy to click on it now…..or even now….I did find that significant pitching volume increases year-over-year does seem to have a carry-0ver effect but pitchers who threw high percentages of breaking pitches were more vulnerable (and a combination even worse).

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Rudy Gamble

Exclusive! Excerpt From Buddy Bell’s ‘The Royal Years’

| Book Previews, Rudy Gamble | 39 Comments

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Fantasy baseball fans and bloggers (ourselves included) sometimes fail to appreciate the human toll that baseball takes on its participants.  They are not just statistics, commodities, and tabloid stories.  They are flesh and blood.

Joe Torre and SI’s Tom Verducci recently penned ‘The Yankee Years’, a book that provided a glimpse into the challenges that a manager on a high-profile team must endure – the pressure to succeed, the delicate balance of egos, the difficulties in finding relievers that can pitch 120 games a year and still perform in the postseason, etc.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Rudy Gamble

Rudy’s NL 12 Team Draft – Catcher Fever!

| 2009 Fantasy Baseball Draft, 2009 Fantasy Baseball Leagues, Rudy Gamble | 41 Comments

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We’re in the final days of fantasy baseball draft season and I’m taking a breather this weekend to survey my squads. This season’s drafts have been a lot more fun than last year’s as I’ve left the comfortable womb of undergrad 10-12 MLB drafts to graduate school formats like 12-team single league and 16-team mixed leagues.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Rudy Gamble

Assessing 2009′s Bounceback Pitchers

| 2009 Fantasy Baseball Draft, Rudy Gamble | 49 Comments

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Everyone likes a comeback story.  Especially if you snag one at a discount on draft day because they either fell off the radars or they were deemed too risky.

There are a number of intriguing bounceback candidates in 2008 (Bedard, Wainwright, Bonderman, etc.) so we thought we’d look back over the past couple of years to see if there were any learnings that can help in assessing this year’s crop.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Rudy Gamble

Fantasy Roundtable – Player Evaluation vs. Strategy

| Fantasy Roundtable, Rudy Gamble | 11 Comments

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Derek Carty of The Hardball Times was the host this past week of Fantasy Roundtable. Besides serving a lovely crumb cake and spicing up the coffee with a little Bailey’s, he posed the following question:

What do you think has a greater impact on one’s ability to win a fantasy baseball league: player evaluation or strategy?

Please, blog, may I have some more?