vintown Stay out of it, Nick Lachey.

Ideally

Hypothetical question: if I read about baseball every single day of the offseason via Al’s Ramblings, Fangraphs, USSMariner, Baseball Reference and everything else, am I more or less likely to finish higher than 12th out of 14 in fantasy baseball? I don’t think I can live through another Jeff Francouer/Ryan Garko/Rafael Furcal/Aaron Hill owning, Fred Lewis-releasing, Ryan Howard trading before he explodes type of season.

13.5 in batting, man that’s bad. I was third to last or worst in every offensive category except steals in which I was tied for 9th.

Next season should be better. I held a fire sale towards the end of the season so my 2009 roster looks like this. Of course, I have to figure out who’s staying and who’s going and what I need to target in the draft, but overall I think I got a solid nucleus that’s pretty cheap. Talking about fantasy is lame, but if you are as lame as I am follow me after the jump.

Active Batters	Salary	Pos
Coste, Chris C PHI	7	C
Davis, Chris 3B TEX	7	1B
Weeks, Rickie 2B MIL	22	2B
Reynolds, Mark 3B ARI	2	3B
Ramirez, Alexei 2B CHW	7	SS
Keppinger, Jeff SS CIN	7	MI
Hairston, Jerry LF CIN	7	CI
Abreu, Bobby RF NYY	25	OF
Hart, Corey C. RF MIL	24	OF
Hermida, Jeremy RF FLA	17	OF
Span, Denard RF MIN	7	OF
Upton, B.J. CF TB	29	OF
LaRoche, Andy 3B PIT	7	UT
Reserve Batters	Salary	Pos
Clement, Jeff C SEA	7	C
Ankiel, Rick CF STL	8	OF
Active Pitchers	Salary	Pos
Arroyo, Bronson SP CIN	7	P
Balfour, Grant RP TB	7	P
Danks, John SP CHW	1	P
Galarraga, Armando SP DET	7	P
Hernandez, Felix SP SEA	28	P
Morrow, Brandon SP SEA	7	P
Samardzija, Jeff RP CHC	7	P
Sherrill, George RP BAL	7	P
Sonnanstine, Andy SP TB	1	P
Reserve Pitchers	Salary	Pos
Buchholz, Taylor RP COL	7	P
Gallardo, Yovani SP MIL	16	P
Marcum, Shaun SP TOR	7	P

TOTALS Active: 22, Reserve: 5, Active Salary: 240, Total Salary: 285

We only keep 10 players and then re-draft the rest. I’m going to keep most of the value guys and try to shoot for the stars on some big time players. Last year everyone overpaid for the big superstars so I think I need to be prepared for that. If I had to do the draft today here’s who I would protect.

Jeff Clement C $10
Chris Davis 1B/3B $10
Mark Reynolds 3B $5
Alexei Ramirez 2B/SS $10
Corey Hart OF $27
John Danks $4
Andy Sonnastine $4
Brandon Morrow $10
George Sherrill $10
Yovanni Gallardo $19

There is a 3 dollar raise due each year on guys you keep so this would put my payroll at $109 leaving me $160 to play with in the draft. I’ll go into the draft with 4 top line starters, a solid closer and lots of flexibility on the field. The two high priced keepers, Gallardo and Hart, are probably close to what their actual value will be so they are worth keeping. I just don’t see BJ Upton being worth $32, maybe at 2nd but not as an OF. I really think Jeff Clement is going to have a good season next year (especially for a C) as he was starting to come around before getting injured and Chris Davis could probably hit 40 homeruns to go with Mark Reynolds 25. I want to keep Denard Span (!), but I’d have to deal Corey Hart and don’t know what type of value I can get that is worth keeping. Plus, Span is just underrated enough that I might be able to get him late for cheap.

Alright, that’s enough of that. I could seriously write 150,000 words about this and the draft isn’t until March.

Similar Posts:

• Allow me to gloat about my fantasy team real quick
• The audacity of hope, Mariners edition
• Arbitration
• Trade deadline
• CC you next year