Here’s a monthly look at where my teams are and some moves I’ve made. I know it’s boring as crizzap to read about other people’s teams, so I’ll keep it midget-sized. Though my league updates aren’t completely a case of narcissism gone wild (which would make a great show. Clear skin to win! Show your mirror!). Perhaps you can gleam something from my team updates on what you can be doing in your league. Or maybe not. Anyway, here’s my fantasy baseball team updates:
15 Team, mixed league, 5×5; host: Tim of RotoRob, Currently in 1st place, 12 points in front.
Key Pickup – If I sat here (and I am indeed sitting) and told you I’ve made some great pickups to mollywop into first, I’d be more or less lying. In the past month, I’ve picked up Tony Pena, Dan Wheeler, The Dread Pirate and Dallas Braden to varying degrees of success, but they haven’t done all that much. Steal here, vulture win there. As a recurring theme with all my teams, Captain Fancypants for this team is/has/hopefully will be Mark Reynolds.
Debilitating Loss – Oh, Peavy, I give and give and give and you hurt me. Now I know how Ben Affleck feels about movie critics.
16 Team, mixed league, 5×5; host: Andy Behrens of Yahoo! Roto Arcade, Currently in 1st place, 14 points in front.
Key Pickup – I picked up Edward Mujica, Jon Rauch and David Murphy, but if anyone outside the Mujica, Rauch or Murphy family considers them key pickups, I’d like some of what they’re smoking. (Mujica, Rauch, Murphy — We don’t just do immigration law, we’re illegal!)
Debilitating Loss – The loss of Lidge and Frank2 has put a slight damper on my saves. Casey Kotchman went down some time in the last month too, but that’s just given me an excuse to not bench Branyan, which has probably been for the best. Thanks, Kotchman! May you contract some social anxiety disorder!
12 Team, mixed league, 5×5 (with OBP/SLG instead of AVG/HR) ; host: FSWA, Currently in 4th place, 6.5 points out of first.
Debilitating Loss – First, I lost Carlos Quentin. Then a few days before Jose Reyes was supposed to return, I traded Dunn and Theriot for him. Since then, I’m in a tailspin trying to stop the bleeding with a tourniquet of Gordon Beckham, Adam Kennedy, Sean Rodriguez, Tony Gwynn, Mark Teahen, Luke Scott, Gerardo Parra and Ben Francisco.
Egregious Pickups – See 1/8th of an inch above and my schmohawk tourniquet.
12 Team, NL, 5×5; host: FantasyPros911, Currently in 2nd place, 2.5 points out of first.
NOTE: Hey all this is Rudy. I’m writing now since I’m the sole manager of the next two teams. I co-manage the other teams but Grey only knows how to write in the first person so you’d never know it. (To his credit, he does most of the short-term adds/drops – he’s better at that than me) Anyway…
Key Pickup – In a 12-team NL league, there’s not a lot of great pickups to be had. Given my top two OFs coming out of the draft were Conor Jackson and Cameron Maybin, it’s been shopping off the OF bargain bin all year. With draft-day stash Andrew McCutchen joining Bourn & Rasmus as respectable starting OFs, I’ve managed to get at least some performance out of 4th OF types Tony Gwynn, Jonny Gomes and Delwyn Young.
Debilitating Loss – See Conor Jackson. I’ve survived so far without Edinson Volquez and John Maine but hopefully they come back soon as I can pick up a few points in Wins with a good week or two.
Dizzying Pickups – With a plethora of relievers (F-Cord, Street, Franklin, Hawkins) and a crappy team AVG, I packaged Franklin w/ Uggla to get Joey Votto…..right before he went on the DL. Ugh. Hopefully he’s back next week. But if Votto does come back strong and I get something this year out of bench players Conor Jackson, Cameron Maybin, Jesus Guzman (SF) or Jake Fox (trade him to the AL already!), my team’s looking pretty damn good.
Here are the league standings if you’re interested.
12 Team, mixed, H2H points; host: Rudy’s friend, Currently tied for 1st at 9-1
Here’s the background on this one. A friend of mine at work cajoled me into this league. It’s ESPN’s default points structure for head-to-head leagues (1 point per Run, Total Base, RBI, and SB. -1 for a hitter K. 3 pts per IP, 1 pt per K, 10 pts per Win, 5 points per Save, -5 pts per Loss, -1 per hit/walk, -2 per Earned Run)
On the plus side, I like it better than H2H leagues where you compete on the 10 categories. Those always felt fluky to me. It’s been a lot of fun trash-talking with my opposing players (especially since I’m chillin’ like Matt Cain at 9-1). And I’ve never had a team on a better starting pitching run than this team – Verlander, Jered Weaver, Cain, Beckett, Cueto, Wandy, and Broxton!
On the negative side, it feels like the game is too dependent on pitching. The average start gives positive points so teams are incented to max out their 12 starts. With wins being worth twice a save, relievers are devalued vs. starters. So if you’re going to play this format, draft a LOT of 2nd/3rd tier starters as SP depth is more important than having an ace or two at the top. On the hitting side, it’s just a downer that a HR is worth only 1 point more than a Triple – I’d add a HR bonus.
Key Pickups – I swapped out Gordon Beckham for Jose Lopez in the middle of the week and his series @ COL this weekend helped me get the win. I picked up Luke Scott when he got off the DL and he’s put up nearly the same amount of points in 16 games as Garrett Atkins had in 43 games. In a league with perhaps 50-60 SPs owned, snagging Ubaldo Jiminez for a complete game victory was pretty sweet.
Egregious Drops – Dropping Ian Stewart. I just got tired of him clogging up my bench during his May swoon.
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