I am already keeping 6 hitters (R. Martin, C. Jackson, Kinsler, Aviles, Braun, and Hart) on my roster for 2009. We have to draft a total of 14 hitters.

How do you feel about the "studs and scrubs" approach where i could buy 4 big bats from the Teixeira, A-Rod, Wright, Holliday, Beltran, Cabrera, C Lee fold and spend my other 4 offensive spots on 1-3$ fliers?

Or would you rather look for value across the board?

Or would you see how the draft goes and try to do a mix of both?

Depends on who the scrubs are. You don't want to go out of your way to acquire Brian Giles, but if you can get Kubel for a $1 that wouldn't be awful. In general, I don't think you should go in saying you're not going to get anyone in the $10 range and only get scrubs or studs. You'll be at a huge disadvantage if you need say 3 hitters and you only have $6 left. Everyone can outbid you on everyone you want.

I'm like a coupon clipper in my auction draft. I usually end up with huge amounts of guys like Nick Johnson for a buck, but every once in a while, you can slip by and grab someone like Chase Headley for 2, or Randy Winn and Fred Lewis for 2-3. Cheap guys are great trading chips and give you a nice return if one or two of them pan out. This year, I'm looking out for guys who had both bad seasons and high cost contracts last year like John Maine (22 in my league) and Aaron Harang (19), and hoping to snag them for 7-8 or so.

Clearly, you can't build a team around those guys and don't be too stingy on the studs, but at least make sure you have enough cash left over near the end to grab guys on the cheap.

I see what you guys are saying...

on paper, the studs and scrubs approach looks good until people outbid you on your sleepers and your hands are tied.

I'm looking to target a safe outfielder in the 15 dollar range that can give me .280-90-25-100.

Is Jermaine Dye that guy? Is he a safe bet for these numbers playing in the cracker jack box of U.S. Cellular Field?

He has had some injury problems but those have not shown up for a while. His batting average seems to jump all over the place from year to year but it seems to me his BABIP seems to be pretty consistent, around the .330 mark. I know 06 was somewhat of a smokeshow and won't happen again but obviously the guy can be productive. Also, is he in a contract year?

What are your thoughts on Dye for 2009???

thoughts in previous post about dye?

I went over Dye in the top 40 outfielders for 2009 post. I like him for what he is.