The End of Fantasy Baseball
Jul/090
*DO NOT READ THIS IS ONLY INTERESTING TO ME AND ME ONLY
I hate to do it, but I am officially throwing in the towel on my 2009 fantasy baseball season. In the league I joined with my buddies from Philly (which I absolutely hate the rules of) I am just getting destroyed. Part of this is because I don’t like setting lineups day-to-day and part of this is because I have gotten injuries to my top 3 picks (Reyes, Beltran and Quentin as well as Volquez one of my top pitchers). That league has been done for awhile, but I wasn’t ready to quit on my keeper rotisserie league. We have been hanging around in 12th for most of the season, but have been right near the middle in most categories. Our pitching was starting to come around and we were climbing in most of the categories. The only thing that was hurting me was my offense. We were last in batting average which affected us right down the line in all the other hitting categories. I threw in the towel this week after Johnny Cueto gave up 9 runs in 0.2 innings thus ruining all the upward momentum I had in pitching and I just didn’t see a way to dig myself out of this even deeper hole. So, it’s over and I am having a firesale for next year. I’ve traded Felix Hernandez (*tear*) and am going to trade a few of my other good pitchers for next year’s offensive core.
The only question I have to ask myself is: why did this happen? Did I draft bad? Did I misevaluate talent? I think I did a pretty good job really. I just blame these guys.
JJ Hardy: Projection 270/24/75 On Pace 220/17/62
Chris Davis: Projection 265/31/100 On pace 200/29/64 (demoted to AAA)
Corey Hart: Projection 21 steals/21 HRs/85 RBIs On pace 9 steals/19 HRs/66 RBIs
Jeff Clement: Projection 274/329/424 Actual 0 games played
I really don’t have answers for the JJ Hardy situation and the Corey Hart thing, that’s just a deal with a new manager. I get it. Tough breaks, these things happen. Beyond that I might put a little too much faith in young people. Davis was hot at the end of last year, but he couldn’t make the necessary adjustments to pitchers and I was relying on him for some serious power numbers. Clement can hit, but he can’t catch so they don’t know what to do with him. I get it.
I just wish I had drafted Russell Branyan like I wanted to.
Allow me to gloat about my fantasy team real quick
Feb/090
Last season my fantasy baseball team wasn’t very good so I had a fire sale. I am in a keeper league so I could actually do this. I dropped payroll and got a lot of really underpaid guys. I had to set my keepers over the weekend. Here is a list of what I am paying versus what Baseball Forecaster has their projected value at. Keep in mind that my league’s budget is $270.
| Player | Pos | Team | Actual | Projected |
| Clement, Jeff | C | SEA | 10 | 10 |
| Davis, Chris | 1B/3B | TEX | 10 | 25 |
| Ramirez, Alexei | 2B/SS | CHW | 10 | 21 |
| Reynolds, Mark | 3B | ARI | 5 | 19 |
| Hairston, Jerry | OF/2B/3B | CIN | 10 | 9 |
| Ankiel, Rick | OF | STL | 11 | 18 |
| Hart, Corey | OF | MIL | 27 | 26 |
| Span, Denard | OF | MIN | 10 | 20 |
| Danks, John | SP | CHW | 4 | 19 |
| Galarraga, Armando | SP | DET | 10 | 9 |
| Gallardo, Yovani | SP | MIL | 19 | 20 |
| Hernandez, Felix | SP | SEA | 31 | 22 |
| Morrow, Brandon | SP | SEA | 10 | 15 |
| Sherrill, George | RP | BAL | 10 | 12 |
| Sonnanstine, Andy | SP | TBD | 4 | 19 |
| Total | 181 | 264 |
That’s right. $264 worth of players for $181. Meaning I have $89 to fill 12 roster spots. What does this mean? A-Rod! Prince! David Wright! JJ Hardy! Jake Peavy! Whoever I want because the world is my oyster! Championship here I come!
I’m just a little bit proud of this.
NFL Playoff Fantasy
Dec/080
We did our draft for playoff fantasy last year. I scored the #3 pick and am pretty sure I have the best team (but of course I think that.) The rules are there is no adding/dropping or trades. You draft your team, they play the games and when their eliminated that roster spot is eliminated. Simple is that. Here’s my team.
QB: Big Ben PIT
RB: Michael Turner ATL
RB: Chris Johnson TEN
RB: Jonathan Stewart CAR
WR: DeSean Jackson PHI
WR: Ted Ginn Jr MIA
TE: Visanthe Shiancoe MIN
K: John Kasay CAR
DST: NY Giants
I went in with a pretty clear strategy here. I am pretty sure that it’s either going to be Pittsburgh or Tennessee in the Super Bowl (I previously thought the Colts were, but then I realized EVERYONE thought they were so I knew that they wouldn’t) so I have the best player on their teams. I also think Carolina is a strong bet in the weak NFC so I have two players there. The Giants SHOULD make the NFC championship though and two games of that defense will be good. After that I tried to take guys that might play at least two games. I think the PHI/MIN game is a toss up so I have no one major from either team, but guys who could contribute some points. I think Turner could play two games and get 200/game, but even one 20-30 point game could be HUGE.
This should be fun, but the only thing is there is NO SITE offering this online. The only thing close is NFL.com’s free thing and that doesn’t even offer the flex position. And you re-sign guys every week. Seriously.
Ideally
Dec/080
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.
Vince Morales: fantasy unguru
Nov/080
(Talking about your fantasy team is annoying by rule. Feel free to ignore this post.)
What’s the opposite of guru? Idiot? Stupid idiot? Opposite guru? Unguru? Because I have no great wisdom, knowledge or authority when it comes to fantasy football. I traded Ryan Grant when I knew he was injured and I traded Anquan Boldin because I hate Kurt Warner. Who did I get in return? Chester Taylor and Matt Hasselbeck. Taylor is long gone. Hasselbeck has played a total of two games for me. Yet, somehow I was in position for the playoffs. All I had to do was win my remaining three games.
After Sunday’s game I need 33 points from Marshawn Lynch (my #2 pick) to win it for me. Result? 31. He gave it a good shot and probably should have gotten there for me (you have no idea how much I hate QB sneaks), but he didn’t. I lost my game by like 1.5 points. This is why I am the fantasy unguru because of my aforementioned fantasy trade. Had I started Tyler Thigpen and not been a stubborn asshole who thinks Matt Hasselbeck is one of the greatest QBs of all time I would have won and probably rolled into the playoffs. I lost this game with my heart, but I lost the season with my head.
I will say one thing, Marshawn Lynch is awesome.