Comments on: Top 20 Outfielders, 2011 Fantasy Baseball

By: Ray

Ray — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:02:39 +0000

Grey-I can see McCutchen going 20-40 in 2012….thought that in 2011 too, but you say 25-40 with upside.

What is his upside, in your opinion? 30-40?

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 07:37:56 +0000

@royce!: Dirtbag! @Awesomus Maximus: Gotcha... All right, it's going on my iCal.

By: Awesomus Maximus

Awesomus Maximus — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 03:51:31 +0000

@Grey: I remember mentioning The League just before the beginning of the baseball season, and I think you got a bit annoyed that someone was talking football when you were just warming up for baseball. It's a very funny show. I'm not a fan of football, let alone fantasy football... my wife doesn't know jack about football... but we both laugh our asses off. There is fantasy humor that translates, but a lot of other humor that has nothing to do with sports.

By: royce!

royce! — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 03:35:17 +0000

“Dirtbag” should run for the GOP nomination. I think Bush would endorse him.

By: royce!

royce! — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 03:30:21 +0000

WTF was that? Is La Russa just trying the cold war tactic of convincing your opponent that you are insane? Does La Russa have a nuclear weapon?

By: royce!

royce! — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 01:47:21 +0000

@Grey: I’ll just keep on recycling other people’s genius then…

http://www.thehighdefinite.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Paul-Simon-Is-Art-Garfunkels-Mustache.jpg

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 01:38:14 +0000

@royce!: I feel like I read about something like that, yeah.

By: royce!

royce! — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 01:24:24 +0000

Or maybe I should just stick with my day job…

By: royce!

royce! — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 01:22:45 +0000

@Grey: Late to the party, apparently. How about a reality show about people pitching reality shows about people trying to get on a reality show?

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 01:13:14 +0000

@royce!: Never read The Pale King, I won't for the unfinished thing. I'm not that big of a completist of DFW. Now if it was a half completed Kubrick movie made with Tom Cruise and featuring weird scenes with masks, I'm there! I think that reality show has been pitched already. @chata: I think you'd change your mind about Rios if you read about how he doesn't want to be at the park and is very lackadaisical. He has a bad attitude, was why he was shipped out of Toronto.

By: chata

chata — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 01:08:35 +0000

@Grey: not a big fan of the espn player rater . sadly , i don't think any player rating system on the planet is going to have my boy alexei rios among the top 50 outfielders this year . not sure i'm ready to give up on him . especially , so soon after my break-up with hank blalock .

By: royce!

royce! — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 01:03:46 +0000

Wow. Some pop indeed.

By: royce!

royce! — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 01:01:11 +0000

This may seem a bit stonery or meta, but how about a reality TV show in which the contestants compete to see who can be the first to get on a reality TV show? It’s have to be on a network that does not have a reality show, which I suppose is none of them. So I just wrote myself into a corner.

Carry on.

By: royce!

royce! — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:56:51 +0000

@Grey: Or, "What really saved me was SAGNOF." I've been enjoying the Bryson "Short History..." (thanks again for that), but just got the new Murakami book in the mail. I love having a heavy book by a great author to look forward to. (I sound like someone who would be into cats and ice cream, but I'm a lactose intolerant dog person). Speaking of which, did you read "The Pale King"? I tend to avoid unfinished books. They seem unintended.

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:09:30 +0000

@Tony: Ha... Cool, thanks!

By: Tony

Tony — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 23:57:37 +0000

bring back roids, bring back roids, thats all i have for today….. grey im mailing the damn trophy this week, god i’ve been lazy, or busy, doesn’t matter, so Random Italicized Voice when a 35 lb package comes to your door, enjoy…..

By: Grey

Grey — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:43:25 +0000

@malacoda: Yeah, but he's always getting hurt except for 2010. @royce!: That's awesome, thanks for sharing. Too bad Hinkelman didn't say something like, "I missed in 2010 cause I had that schmohawk Hamilton."

By: royce!

royce! — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:09:12 +0000

An interesting article about a pig farmer that won NFBC twice in the past three years:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/sports/baseball/pig-farmers-true-prizewinner-his-fantasy-baseball-team.html?hp

Most surprising thing about this article is that the guy who he was battling with for first up until the end had drafted A-Rod in the first round. I’m going to assume that he was able to grab someone good to fill in at 3B.

By: malacoda

malacoda — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:56:26 +0000

CarGo would not have “disappointed” if he had not gotten hurt twice. Both times he got hurt he was absolutely scorching the ball, and lost both momentum and opportunity (100 ab) with those freak injuries. I didn’t expect him to bat .340 or hit 40 hr like some. He could produce 35-25-.300 going forward, and he will be just 26 next season.

By: Grey

Grey — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 18:55:58 +0000

@Salty Balty: Thanks! I'd want Upton over Grandy, yeah.

By: Salty Balty

Salty Balty — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 18:46:28 +0000

Based on your comments here, you’d be keeping J. Upton over Grandy, even though I got Upton 3 rounds before Grandy, no? Thanks for all your help this season. Finished second for a third year in a row in a 14 team, five year keeper league. Have a solid group of keepers going into the last year (1) Bautista (2) Tulo (3) Braun (4) Verlander (5) J. Up or Grandy. Only 7 points back of the leader (with points doubled next year).

I really enjoy your site (the best around IMO), keep up the great work, and enjoy the ‘ritas. See you next year!

By: Grey

Grey — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 18:44:04 +0000

@royce!: Gotcha... I loved Sega Hockey and never watched a hockey game, except a few in person when someone had tickets. It's actually fun in person.

By: royce!

royce! — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 18:37:39 +0000

@Grey: No, you need to know about as much an any American needs to know to survive the football season. Or about as much as I'll need to know about shooting guns in order to enjoy Top Shot. Weird that there isn't a movie named Top Shot. Watched part of Slap Shot during a charity poker tournament on Saturday. I couldn't pay much attention, but recalled enjoying it when I was a kid. And I don't know anything about hockey.

By: Grey

Grey — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:59:55 +0000

@sean: .280 wins most leagues, so is .300 the benchmark?

By: sean

sean — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:58:24 +0000

I know this is hardly Razzballian of me, but at some point we’re going to have to figure out what to do with the average. I understand that most of the commercial site ratings/rankings overvalue it, but as long as we are playing 5×5 it counts. I like the common sense approach to average espoused here: get to .280 and don’t load up with Dunn, Reynolds and Krispie on the same squad.

It just doesn’t seem to be enough to me. Some interesting numbers concerning AVG:

1. Only 24 players hit .300 or better while getting over 500 ABs
2. Of those 24, only 4 were “empty” average hitters (not more than 20 HR or 20 SB) — Young, VMart, Kotchman, and Brandon Phillips (18/14)
3. Only 11 players hit .300 or better while getting over 600 ABs
4. Just one of those 11 was “empty” — Phillips (18/14, which isn’t all that empty).

By: Grey

Grey — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:49:06 +0000

@royce!: It's on Instant Streaming? Oh, I'll check it out then. Do you need to know football at all? I've been watching Top Shot, which I'm enjoying a lot.

By: royce!

royce! — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:44:38 +0000

@Grey: Re: Crawford- totally. I didn't count that one in the tally because it wasn't in the list. The League is good, really funny stuff. I watched a few on netflix on my phone while staying somewhere without a TV, and enjoyed it enough to watch the whole first season. I'm actually glad that it isn't about FBB because I would probably end up yelling at the TV when they make some unreal trades or something. I also would probably want them to discuss xFIP or other sabermetric stats, which would make for less comedy, I'm sure.

By: Grey

Grey — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:26:16 +0000

@royce!: Never actually seen the show. Is it good? I think that Berry opens the column with what a lock Crawford is says everything you need to know.

By: royce!

royce! — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:18:00 +0000

I watched an episode of the League last night with my wife. I usually rant a little about how much better FBB is that FFB, and my wife puts up with it, to a point (that point being when she can get a word in edgewise and says, “You say this every time we watch the League”). Anyhow, Matthew Berry was on it, which led me to an extended rant (already being warmed up from the first).

This morning, I decided to check out Berry’s predictions from the start of the year. (http://sports.espn.go.com/fantasy/baseball/flb/story?page=mlbdk2k11_tmrheardme ).

By my math, he was wrong on 28 predictions, right on 4, and one was a push. (The ones he was right on- Jhonny, A. Sanchez, Walden, and Morse).

There is no punchline, because this isn’t a joke.

By: Grey

Grey — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:13:29 +0000

@ETMcgee: I think he's a lock for 25/40 with upside. It's gonna be a good year to own The Dread Pirate.