Hi all,

I'm a long time lurker who is trying to improve his knowledge of baseball from the other side of the pond. This will only be my third year of Fantasy Baseball.

I joined a 12 team H2H league last year part way through the season, I wasn't great but I managed to make the play-offs. I eventually finished fifth. It's a 7x7 league (the usual 5x5 with BB and TB for batters and HLDS and QS for Pitchers). Roster consists of C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, Of x 3, UT x 2, Sp x 2, RP x 2, P x5, BN x 6 and DL x 3. There is a minimum innings pitched of 30 per week and a limit on acquisitions per week of 12.

I've been invited back and have been told that I can keep 8 players from last years roster. These will replace my first 8 draft picks. If I keep less than 8 players I will get an extra draft pick at the end of the draft (I will be keeping 8 then....)

My roster consists of the following 6 who I expect to keep
M. Trout (OF), M. Kemp (OF), J. Votto (1B), G. Stanton (OF), H. Ramirez (3B/SS), A. Jones (OF)

but then I have several options Phillips (2B), Zobrist (2B, SS, OF), Rizzo (1B)
or pitching MadBum, Wainwright, Latos

Balance would say I take MadBum and Wainwright but I'm tempted by Zobrist and Phillips and intrigued by Rizzo's long term potential.

Any Advice?

Thanks,

Dan

Before I even answer this, I just need to ask a question: how do people end up with these absolutely ridiculous teams? You have Votto, Stanton, Trout, Kemp, Jones, Ramirez, Bumgarner, and Wainwright? All on the same team? How?

That said, keep MadBum and Wainwright.

Sorry - I made a mistake it's a 10 (not 12) team league which would explain some of your issues with the strength of my roster. In addition I added Trout about 1 month before he was called up and let him sit on my bench for a while.

I guess the league I'm in isn't that competitive but it was a way adding to my knowledge in-season by taking over a team that wasn't being managed at all.

Out of interest I just looked at a spreadsheet I had with a set of 2012 rankings on them (i'm not sure of the source). The players I have selected to keep into next year are below with their 2012 pre-season ranking beside them in brackets. I don't know what happened in the league before I joinedbut there were 2 or 3 available teams at the same time.

Kemp(3), Votto(8), Ramirez(17), Stanton(25), MadBum(79), Jones (83), Wainwright (88), Trout (283)

Thanks for the advice, it's appreciated. I thought might be the best move but I wasn't sure if stacking my team with hitters might be a strategy some would recommend.

Dan