Early regrets…I had a few…
The Fantasy Roundtable this week is hosted by Tim Dierkes of RotoAuthority who I remain friendly with despite refusing my suggestion to add an animated Cartman to his site that says “Respect RotoAuthoritah“. His question:
Here on April 30th, what is your single biggest fantasy baseball regret of the year?
Fairly good mix of responses. Check it out…
My biggest regret is not going after the guys I had targeted in mock drafts in my “real” drafts. I drafted the snot out of Greinke, Lind, Cruz, Bell & Markakis in mocks, but failed to land any of them in my real drafts.
This was touched on by others much wiser than me in the previous thread, but doesn’t this season give you pause to drafting middle round middle infielders? I’m talking about guys like Peralta, Hardy, Aviles, etc.
Not being able to trade ManLamb, I tried, oh lord I tried.Then he produces and I stop trying to move him,and now this!
My biggest is thinking Price would get called up sooner. Coupled with Manny now I have two dead spots on my roster.
@IowaCubs: I hear you on this. Missing out on Greinke and Cruz really hurts in hindsight. I think as far as sleepers go, those two were pretty much no-brainers.
Then again, I had a draft strategy and stuck to it (mostly around what kind of players to draft in what rounds). I didn’t end up with any players I hate (Holliday) and did end up with a bunch I wanted (C-Bills; Gallardo; Frank Francisco).
For example, I took Capps in the 10th instead of Nelson Cruz. Capps was the last decent second-tier closer left, and I had no closers at the time. Similarly, I could have taken Greinke in the 13th round but Weiters fell that far and I jumped on him instead, figuring I’d get one of JJohnson, Danks, or Slowey in Round 14 or 15. (Got Slowey.)
Obviously, if I’d known Greinke would break out, Hamilton-style, I’d have done this differently. Hopefully Weiters does enough in 4 months to make this only mildly regrettable.
@IowaCubs: re: the middle infielders — Hardy’s going to come around as he always does. Ditto Alexei (I hope). I guess you could have grabbed guys like Hill and Theriot really late in the draft, but to my mind, it’s actually easier to get good OF midseason than good MIs.
My plan this year was to fill the INF by round 5 or 6 (depending on draft slot) and I did, getting Wright, Prince, Phillips, (Peavy) and Alexei. I think this strategy will be borne out by season’s end, and I sure as hell am glad I don’t have Kelly Johnson or Mike Aviles on any of my teams.
My biggest regret? Drafting Balfour and Kuo as if they’d replicate last year’s high Ks/low ratio awesomeness. I thought I was being so clever…
I’ve cut bait on Kuo, but I can’t bring myself to drop Balfour and his trade value is terrible.
passing on markakis for soto in 14 team keeper league
My biggest regret is that the Dodgers/Ned “idiot” Colletti bid against themselves in offering Manny Ramirez a second PLAYER OPTION!!! year, and flat-out gave him too much money per year when they could have added Adam Dunn for half as much.
Yeah, perhaps not on topic, but fuck you Ned Colletti.
My biggest regret is trading away Brian Roberts. I made some trades with guys I took in the middle-late rounds that I don’t like now, but won’t say I regret. I generally don’t trust my instincts enough and that led to trading…Andre Ethier, Adam Jones, Raul Ibanez, Jorge Cantu and Orlando Hudson in my main league.
I think they all have done well and what I expected of them, but I didn’t trust myself enough.
Reyes and Rollins in the 1st are my biggest regrets so far.
@jsp2014: I second Rollins. I took him 8th overall, when I should’ve had the stones to take Utley. (I can’t stand Howard, and I wouldn’t take a SP–even Santana–8th overall, so it was Utley or Rollins)
I regret not keeping Halladay for 5 dollars more than Webb.
I know he’s the better pitcher, but didn’t expect it to backfire this bad. If I had my boy Roy in both leagues……………..ah, forget it. It’s over and done.
We must adapt and overcome boys, full speed ahead, don’t look back, second place is the first loser.
But if I just had Halladay…..
SHUT UP!
Jason Bartlett just hit an opposite field home run. The Jetstream is alive and well.
I regret taking Shields over Bills! Sure hindsight is 20/20, but i’ve listened to Grey tout Bills for how long and failed to capitalize. Not that Shields is a huge disappointment, he’s simply not going to win the Cy Young. Nonetheless, as a wise hippo says, ” we must adapt and overcome.
Drinking the Mike Aviles kool-aid hasn’t payed off, but my undying love for Zach Greinke has helped out.
improvise,clint eastwood calls it@vinko:
not drafting billingsley – went 3 picks before i could.
drafting kelly johnson – could’ve gotten something better just from looking at what was drafted around there.
Coco Or Krispie Young?
My biggest regrets are Holliday in the 3rd and Vlad in the 4th, but I’m still keeping the faith on those two. Not that I have much choice at this point. I also regret taking Mariano in the 7th when Billingsley was still available, but I had just taken Halladay in the 5th, and my brain rebelled against taking two SPs so close together. Stupid brain.
Fortunately, I was lucky enough to avoid the worst of the middling infielders, since I drafted high enough to get Reyes and then ended up wating until the late rounds to grab Weeks and Felipe Lopez.
Hey guys, love the site. First time poster and fantasy rookie from Australia.
Coupla days ago I put in a trade offer that would see me end up with Manny B. Manny.
This morning Aussie time, (about an hour before first pitch on the east coast, in case you’re wondering) I wake up to the news that Manny’s out for 50 and – shocker – my trade has been accepted.
Most of the guys in my league live in Oz, but a couple are in North America (including my prospective trading partner, who has pulled a swifty, no?)
Surely the commissioner has to veto this, right?
@Gareth: the dude pulled a quick one… most likely. what time did the trade get accepted? what time was the first manny new’s report? if after that you find out that he dinged you, then the commissioner SHOULD veto it, but its at his discretion still.
@johnson21: It was accepted at 3.28am my time, ie. 1.28pm this afternoon US eastern time. I think the first Manny news report was this morning in the LA Times, was it not? I made the trade offer two days ago and obviously, had I not been asleep I world’ve pulled the deal immediately.
@Gareth: Tough break, it’s for that very reason that I never allow an offer to linger open for long.With multiple teams it’s easy to lose track
@Gareth: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AnS3rNBO4Jzx8VMtrOsWeHupu7YF?slug=ys-ramirezsuspension050709&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
yeah 10:00 am PT or 1:00pm ET is when the story first broke out. that guy is a dick that shouldnt be in the league. get the commish to veto.
@Doug Ault: Good advice and a lesson learned.
@johnson21: Still no word from the commish, but he’s a good guy and I trust him to do the right thing. Hopefully!
@johnson21: Whoa. Easy there. This same situation happened in one of my leagues where I accepted a trade for Man-Ram. I thought I blew it but I guess the guy lived in Australia or something. Woo-hoo! Oh wait….
i regret drafting too early on pitchers. It’s always a thing of luck and obviously i hadn’t have any…
Beckett, Liriano, Kazmir and Peavy are very disapponting for me thus far. But maybe i will change my opinion, lets see what these guys will do from now on.
In my auction league I got “stuck” with Beltran for $41. He is a great player and I wasn’t that upset about it except that it put me in the position of being unable to afford Greinke, Cruz, Cano, and M Young, all of whom were on my premade roster.
Oh God here we go with Adrian Gonzalez….9 homers in April then he won’t do anything for 20 games. Same old story with these major leaguers.
getting choo. trading bruce for snider.