Screw Fantasy Football. Its time to start prepping for

[Mephistopheles]

Fantasy Baseball!

 

If you're not getting started now, you're behind the curve.

 

So thoughts on sleepers, who to avoid, comebacks. etc!

 

I have a big sleeper and his name rhymes with Michael Jordan. I have an even bigger bust and his name rhymes with Ricky Gutierrez.

[Derwood]

good luck winning all those Yahoo Public leagues where the 13 year olds quit after week 2 again

[rawaction]

Sleepers: Alex Gordon, Yovani Gallardo, Brandon Morrow, Chris Carpenter

 

Huge Sleepers: Ryan Garko, Elijah Dukes

 

Comebacks: Alex Rios, Troy Tulowitzki, Victor Martinez, Justin Verlander,

 

Bust potential: Evan Longoria, Carlos Delgado, Milton Bradley, Josh Hamilton

 

Avoid: Jason Bay, Corey Hart, John Danks, Garrett Atkins

[imb]

Sleeper: jr towles

 

you can thank me when you guys win all your leagues

[Clem Fandango]

Curious question... I've been kicking around the idea of turning the league me and my friends do into a dynasty league. Is there any online leagues that allow this capability?

 

As far as sleepers go... well... I don't know how much of a sleeper he'll be after his playoff performances, but David Price might be able to be had in the middle rounds I would assume considering he was reliever in his call up and people who don't know much about him or don't pay attention to small market teams might think that's all he is

 

EDIT: Oh yeah... Joey Votto. That's another one of my sleepers. His overall numbers will, probably make him a mid to late round pick since 1B is a deep position, but he finished the year incredibly strong and if he continues that into next year he could put up huge numbers. Jay Bruce as well. Bruce really sucked most of the year but that last 2 months or so his power woke up in a big way. He put up 14HR in August and September. If he could put up 6 or 7 home runs each month over the course of a season like he did in August and September, and hitting in CIN he probably could, then he could have a 35+HR season easily.

 

Too bad he can't take a walk for crap

[Jehrico]

Curious question... I've been kicking around the idea of turning the league me and my friends do into a dynasty league. Is there any online leagues that allow this capability?

 

As far as sleepers go... well... I don't know how much of a sleeper he'll be after his playoff performances, but David Price might be able to be had in the middle rounds I would assume considering he was reliever in his call up and people who don't know much about him or don't pay attention to small market teams might think that's all he is

 

EDIT: Oh yeah... Joey Votto. That's another one of my sleepers. His overall numbers will, probably make him a mid to late round pick since 1B is a deep position, but he finished the year incredibly strong and if he continues that into next year he could put up huge numbers. Jay Bruce as well. Bruce really sucked most of the year but that last 2 months or so his power woke up in a big way. He put up 14HR in August and September. If he could put up 6 or 7 home runs each month over the course of a season like he did in August and September, and hitting in CIN he probably could, then he could have a 35+HR season easily.

 

Too bad he can't take a walk for crap

If/when Jocketty cans Dusty and hires his own manager, I'll be all over Bruce and Votto.

[CubbieBum]

yes no its FF playoff time

 

plus no one has signed yet so its hard to even start thinking about it

[TruffleShuffle]

Sleepers: Alex Gordon, Yovani Gallardo, Brandon Morrow, Chris Carpenter

 

Huge Sleepers: Ryan Garko, Elijah Dukes

 

Comebacks: Alex Rios, Troy Tulowitzki, Victor Martinez, Justin Verlander,

 

Bust potential: Evan Longoria, Carlos Delgado, Milton Bradley, Josh Hamilton

 

Avoid: Jason Bay, Corey Hart, John Danks, Garrett Atkins

 

i would think that bay would be a good option, playing in a hitter's park in a much better lineup than he's been in the past several years. he had 37 rbi and 39 runs in just 49 games with boston last year.

[17 Seconds]

hopefully marshall gets traded to the pads

[moochpuppy]

I fear to comment on these since there are too many of my league counterparts posting here. If I divulge my sleepers and busts how can I continue to screw them in trades? 8-[

 

Hey RAW, I just sent you a trade offer. ;)

[kujay]

I'm ready for baseball now.

 

I need to choose four keepers in a standard 5x5 roto league.

 

Hamels, Longoria, Tex, David Price, GEOVANYSOTO, Brandon Phillips and Vlad are my reasonable options.

 

Longoria and Tex are locks.

 

Who else would you choose? And btw, as much as I love Geo, I don't think I'll keep him. The idea is to keep as many guys who would be top-40 draft picks (10-team league), and I know he wouldn't be.

[moochpuppy]

Hamels, Longoria, Tex, David Price, GEOVANYSOTO, Brandon Phillips and Vlad are my reasonable options.

 

Longoria and Tex are locks.

 

Who else would you choose?

 

I agree with you on Soto and that is why I traded him this offseason. I would go with Hamels and Phillips.

[kujay]

Hamels, Longoria, Tex, David Price, GEOVANYSOTO, Brandon Phillips and Vlad are my reasonable options.

 

Longoria and Tex are locks.

 

Who else would you choose?

 

I agree with you on Soto and that is why I traded him this offseason. I would go with Hamels and Phillips.

 

That was my feeling as well. Before last season my keepers were Hamels, Tex, Vlad and Phillips. Vlad is on the decline and I like replacing him with Longoria.

 

I have some pause about keeping Hamels over Price though. Hamels is good for Ks, but the rest of his stats aren't eye-popping. We haven't had a limit on the number of years a player can be kept until this year. Starting this year, it's three seasons.

 

Not that it matters, but I think two years from now I'll wish I had Price.

[moochpuppy]

Hamels, Longoria, Tex, David Price, GEOVANYSOTO, Brandon Phillips and Vlad are my reasonable options.

 

Longoria and Tex are locks.

 

Who else would you choose?

 

I agree with you on Soto and that is why I traded him this offseason. I would go with Hamels and Phillips.

 

That was my feeling as well. Before last season my keepers were Hamels, Tex, Vlad and Phillips. Vlad is on the decline and I like replacing him with Longoria.

 

I have some pause about keeping Hamels over Price though. Hamels is good for Ks, but the rest of his stats aren't eye-popping. We haven't had a limit on the number of years a player can be kept until this year. Starting this year, it's three seasons.

 

Not that it matters, but I think two years from now I'll wish I had Price.

 

Like you said earlier though....it's about keeping players that could/would/should be top 40 picks. Right now that's Hamels and not Price. Price is a great prospect but still unproven. Plus, couldn't you still pick him up in the draft?

[kujay]

Hamels, Longoria, Tex, David Price, GEOVANYSOTO, Brandon Phillips and Vlad are my reasonable options.

 

Longoria and Tex are locks.

 

Who else would you choose?

 

I agree with you on Soto and that is why I traded him this offseason. I would go with Hamels and Phillips.

 

That was my feeling as well. Before last season my keepers were Hamels, Tex, Vlad and Phillips. Vlad is on the decline and I like replacing him with Longoria.

 

I have some pause about keeping Hamels over Price though. Hamels is good for Ks, but the rest of his stats aren't eye-popping. We haven't had a limit on the number of years a player can be kept until this year. Starting this year, it's three seasons.

 

Not that it matters, but I think two years from now I'll wish I had Price.

 

Like you said earlier though....it's about keeping players that could/would/should be top 40 picks. Right now that's Hamels and not Price. Price is a great prospect but still unproven. Plus, couldn't you still pick him up in the draft?

 

Probably. We do a serpentine draft after the keepers with the order going in reverse of standings. In 2007 I finished 9th so I drafted 2nd. The first pick was Braun and I picked Tulo. Ugh.

 

This past season I finished 5th, so I'll have the 6th overall pick. I haven't looked at an early cheat sheets to see what our board will look like, and keepers aren't due yet so I don't know what will be available. But I'll bet Price is a 1st or 2nd round pick.

[nilodnayr]

Sleepers: Alex Gordon, Yovani Gallardo, Brandon Morrow, Chris Carpenter

 

Huge Sleepers: Ryan Garko, Elijah Dukes

 

Comebacks: Alex Rios, Troy Tulowitzki, Victor Martinez, Justin Verlander,

 

Bust potential: Evan Longoria, Carlos Delgado, Milton Bradley, Josh Hamilton

 

Avoid: Jason Bay, Corey Hart, John Danks, Garrett Atkins

 

I wouldn't say Hart is an avoid, I think he may be slightly overvalued in the 5th round, but definitely someone to grab, should he fall. His BA should bounce up to average (not below average like last year or above average like the year before) and hes a 20-20 80-80 guy.

[nilodnayr]

I'm keeping Braun, Rollins, Hamilton, Lincecum, and Phillips. McCann has to go back in the draft, although this might be a deep year for catchers (in 1 catcher league)

[sneakypower]

i'd keep McCann over Phillips in 5x5

[nilodnayr]

i'd keep McCann over Phillips in 5x5

 

 

I really love McCann, but as the time grows near I'll have to evaluate which pool is deeper, MI or catcher. I'll probably be selecting around the 6th pick or so, so theres a decent chance I could draft whoever I don't pick.

[kujay]

i'd keep McCann over Phillips in 5x5

 

 

I really love McCann, but as the time grows near I'll have to evaluate which pool is deeper, MI or catcher. I'll probably be selecting around the 6th pick or so, so theres a decent chance I could draft whoever I don't pick.

 

I have to imagine the difference between Phillips and the other 2Bs will be greater than the difference between McCann and the other available catchers. So even if you keep Phillips and don't get McCann in the draft, it won't be terrible.

 

I'm just always skeptical about putting too much stock in catchers. They are almost always easily replaceable.

[hankp101]

Meph, will you be putting together that massive excel workbook again this year?

[sneakypower]

possibly the best sleeper out there is Holliday. Oakland Coliseum or not, it's unfathomable that he's slipping to the 3rd round in even expert drafts.

[nilodnayr]

i'd keep McCann over Phillips in 5x5

 

 

I really love McCann, but as the time grows near I'll have to evaluate which pool is deeper, MI or catcher. I'll probably be selecting around the 6th pick or so, so theres a decent chance I could draft whoever I don't pick.

 

I have to imagine the difference between Phillips and the other 2Bs will be greater than the difference between McCann and the other available catchers. So even if you keep Phillips and don't get McCann in the draft, it won't be terrible.

 

I'm just always skeptical about putting too much stock in catchers. They are almost always easily replaceable.

 

Yeah, looking at catchers this year it seems like a pretty darn deep position this year in a 12 team 1 catcher league. This year it isn't just the M's (Mauer, McCann, Martinez, and Martin) and a bunch of slop. With Soto, Wieters, Doumit, Napoli, and Iannetta there are a lot of other options out there to not have to waste a keeper on. Even ending up with Posada, Clement, or Molina wouldn't be the end of the world and there you go, thats 13 catchers in a 12 catcher league.

 

Its looking to me that beyond the 5th round (since our first 5 rounds are keeper) that 1b and 3B are pretty shallow. At 1B I'm guessing Pujols, Miggy, Howard, Berkman, Tex, Morneau, Fielder, Adrian Gonz, and Youk will be kept. Leaving DLee, Chris Davis, Carlos Pena, and Votto as reasonable alternatives (and since we play with a CI, teams are going to end up with 2-3 1Bs). At 3B ARod, Wright, Longoria, ARam, and Chipper will be kept. But after that theres not a lot of greatness. Theres Atkins and Figgins and then a whole lotta meh.

[Cubswin11]

Just did 2 drafts tonight on CBSsportsline (Format is kind of sucky, but I couldn't wait for Yahoo/ESPN to open up) here are my teams.

 

This is a 8 team league H2H

 

C- R.Hernandez

1B- Pujols

2B-Jose Lopez

SS-Johnny Peralta

3B-Zimmerman

OF-Bay

OF-Markakis

0F-Holliday

U/DH- Morneau

P

Cain

Danks

Ubaldo Jimenez

Ervin Santana

Wainright

Street

Matt Lindstrom

 

Reserves

Nelson Cruz

Carlos Lee

Hunter Pence

Ichiro

Chris B. Young

 

Then I offered a trade of

Morneau

Markakis

Peralta

Ichiro

 

For

Halladay

Hanley

Francoeur

Josh Johnson

 

I also did a 10 team standard roto

 

C-Soto

C-Weiters

1B-Morneau

2B-Kelly Johnson

SS-Hanley

3B-Zimmerman

MI-Fontenot

CI-Chris Davis

OF-Milton Bradley

OF-Conor Jackson

OF-Matt Kemp

OF-Jayson Werth

OF-Swisher

U/DH-Shin-Shoo Choo

 

P

Jose Arredondo

Yovani Gallardo

Halladay

Felix Hernandez

John Lackey

Hiroki Kuroda

Francisco Liriano

Street

Chad Qualls

 

Reserves

Giambi

Mark Ellis

Gerald Laird

Zito

Percival

Chris Volstad

 

Overall I think I did decent probably need another closer in both leagues, at least in the roto and I got SP depth to deal for one. I could also use a MI/2B in the roto but between Johnson/Ellis/Fontenot 1-2 of them should be at league average. In the H2H league I auto picked the last 5 or so rounds and it took all OF so I could use some more depth but that could be added through FA/Waivers. I could use a legit Ace and I think i got a decent trade out there and have enough OF depth to make up for trading Markakis/Ichiro and with Pujols at 1B Morneau is tradeable.

[Clem Fandango]

This is a 8 team league H2H

 

C- R.Hernandez

 

Yeesh, how long did you wait to draft a catcher? You should've been able to get a much better catcher than Ramon Hernandez in an 8-team league