Comments on: Top 60 Starters for 2009 Fantasy Baseball

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:29:25 +0000

@Mike: He's not a #2, he's a borderline #4, so at the place where he's drafted, he's not that risky. I do agree with you, he's peripheral numbers show a regression might be forthcoming.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:19:24 +0000

Grey, question about Guthrie. Do you feel he has some innate ability to keep his BABIP lower than other pitchers? Like Neo in the Matrix, does he not believe in this fate crap and that he has control over his own luck? I only ask because his BABIP the last two years has been .277 & .267 and his FIP has been 4.41 & 4.53, yet he has posted ERAs of 3.70 & 3.63.

Shouldn’t he really be in line for some type of regression? I hope not because I picked him up.

By: Grey

Grey — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:47:11 +0000

@Andrew: He’s on the top 40 starters list:

(http://razzball.com/top-40-starters-for-2009-fantasy-baseball/)

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:39:11 +0000

How come you have John Danks projected at “176. John Danks – 2009 Projections: 14-10/3.90/1.28/160″ on your top 300 list (above Lilly, Myers, and Lowe) but you dont have him anywhere in the top 80 starters? It seems like everyone thinks he fell off the face of the earth, or did you just forget?
Whats the deal Grey!?

By: PWNightmare

PWNightmare — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 05:50:11 +0000

Jan Lingön Strudel…

By: Grey

Grey — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 02:30:47 +0000

@Joe: There's a few things going on with the rankings. First, there's tiers. So Dempster is in a tier of pitchers that I don't want. Then Lowe is in a tier of guys I do want. So you could take that whole first tier and chop it off if you like and you trust me. Second, if I ranked them for how I would draft them, Mauer would be at 140th on the list and you'd think I was crackers. Or Dempster wouldn't even be on the list and then you'd have people asking where's Dempster? So I need to explain each player and rank them. So my shorthand is tiering bad pitchers together and then explaining why you don't want them. I could start this list with Lowe and leave off all of those first guys but then no one will have any idea why I'm leaving them off. So you take my rankings and you watch as someone drafts Dempster and you chuckle to yourself, then you draft Lowe or Maine or Kuroda, etc. Sorry, if this is confusing, but it's the easiest method for me.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 01:38:09 +0000

Okay, but what I don’t understand is why you don’t just rank the guys you see as having better years AHEAD of those you don’t. For example, you have Ryan Dempster at #45 and Derek Lowe at #46. But your projection for Dempster is pretty bad: “9-7/4.50/1.35/120 and starts missed”. For Lowe, your projection is pretty good: “14-10/3.60/1.22/140″.

So why rank Dempster ahead of Lowe? Why not just rank ‘em as you see ‘em?

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:36:06 +0000

@Joe: I like them as late round fliers and they will get their own posts in the sleeper sections. Also, I like everyone from 46 to 54 with certain restrictions.

Then I sorta like others on this list… Notice where I say in Greinke’s, “It’s not that I won’t draft one, I just want to preach caution.”

Also, I listed the projections I see for people. So if you can handle Ollie Perez’s inability to throw a strike some time, then you can grab him for the Ks. I did give him 190 Ks. That’s a lot. I just said, I wouldn’t own him. I’d find Ks elsewhere.

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:21:03 +0000

Geez. How in the hell do you assemble a 6 to 7 pitcher starting staff (assuming the usual 9 pitcher roster spots) in a 12 team league when you’re basically down on EVERY pitcher? There has to be SOMEBODY you like from 41 to 60!

If you like Parra and Johnson, why not move them up above Top 80? Certainly they should be ahead of schleps like Bonderman and Guthrie?

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:51:51 +0000

@Moonlight’s Grahams: I'm only concerned if one of them gets hurt during a game or looks especially bad, like Rich Hill last year in the spring.