nilodnayr

way to completely miss the point perhaps the point wouldn't have been missed had he used a relevant example. no, you missed it. the point was to compare to players with nearly identical OBP's (but vastly different other stats), not to compare to players who are candidates to bat 2nd on the Cubs. umm, but the discussion is who should bat 2nd for the cubs. :banghead: if that's too hard for you to understand, maybe you should just stop trying. So talking about the importance of power has no place? He was using Dunn as an EXAMPLE.

I don't want my #2 hitter to move runners over. I want him to get on base and drive runs in. If your offensive philosophy is to waste outs having your #2 guy just get your leadoff man into scoring position, you're doing yourself a disservice. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but the odds of scoring a run with a man on 1st and 0 outs is a lot higher than a man on 2nd with 1 out. well, your odds of scoring runs also greatly increase when you have your highest OBP guy hitting 2nd rather than 8th. all things being equal, yes, sure. But if you can get nearly the same OBP but far better SLG, the decision is a no-brainer. agreed. but that's far from a lock. hell, fukudome's slg last year was .02 better than theriot's. do i expect that gap to widen this year? of course. but it's far from a lock. theriots iso was .052, fukudomes was .122, they DID NOT hit for equal power

Theriot needs to bat 8th. why? Because hes not that good? among regulars he led the team in both average and obp last year. if that's "not that good" then what are the rest of the players? If only avg and obp were everything...unfortunately for theriot they arent. Save for fukudome, he was worst on the team in woba. Guess what, its a lot easier to score when you make it past first. Hes fine as a SS for 400k, but itd be a poor use of resources to bat him 2nd.

Theriot needs to bat 8th. why? Because hes not that good?

If you take into consideration regular season AND playoffs, Upton of 2008 looks a lot more like Upton of 2009. Regardless though hes definitely a top 7 especially in a keeper league. If you seen my other posts I'm going crazy over the lack of anything usable at 3B outside the top tier guys, so I think you should take a long hard look at Atkins. Drew...eh, hes overrated and would have to improve significantly to be worth a top 7 pick. Holliday and Quentin are definitely top 7 picks despite my hesitation about both so throwing Soto back and keeping both of them is certainly a fine decision, my only concern is that leaves you with 4 OF...how many can you start? Have you looked into trades?

So to sum up my potential trade action... I'm in negotiations to move Hart (a guy I'm not keeping) and a 10th rounder (or so) for Longoria. If that goes through, I'm also in negotiations to deal Phillips for an 8th rounder and a 10th rounder (or so). If I deal Phillips, I'm also in negotiations to trade Hamilton straight up for Utley. And finally, I threw a proposal of Longoria and McCann (a guy I'm not keeping but I know the other manager likes) for Wright out there, God I hope he bites. I'd for sure throw in my 8th rounder to sweeten the pot. The oposing manager has A.J. Burnett has his 5th keeper (eww) so theres definitely value to him in upgrading to McCann for the downgrade from Wright to Longoria. What do people think of trading Hamilton for Utley? On the one hand, the 2b pool is shallow and Utley appears to be healthy for opening day, on the other, I'm way way more bullish than the projections for Hamilton and it looks like his ADP agrees with me. But its an non-restricted keeper league and Utley is going to be the class of the position for a long long time. I'm leaning toward Utley by quite a decent margin, but what does everyone else think? So potentially I could net net on draft picks, utilize my non-keeper players and upgrade from Phillips to Utley and Hamilton to Wright. Its a lot of work, but that would be fantastic.

Ok, to start out the guys you can eliminate right away. Zambrano (not a top 10 rounder in a 5x5 and K/BB additional stat really kills his value) Kershaw (see K/BB) Billingsley (see above, but to a lesser degree, I like him but in this league his BBs hurt doubly) Bedard (love him, but you can grab him in the teens) Scherzer (you can probably pick him up a few rounds into the draft) Now the guys you definitely need to keep Fielder Kemp Upton Phillips (even with a not great OBP, hes still a sure bet in a shallow 2b pool) Liriano (you can't go without a pitcher and he's your best bet not only skill-wise but playing time too) Guys to think about Soto (I imagine all other top tier catchers will be kept, but take a look. I like 10 catchers this year, its an oddly deep position (assuming 1 C league)) Holliday (depends on how much you think the stadium change hurts him...I say a lot) Quentin (depends on how much you think the broken wrist hurts him...I say a lot) Harden (just too big of an injury risk for me to be taken in the top 7) Joba (innings will be an issue and hes started out really poorly this spring) Kazmir (I like him, but not top 7) I really like all your pitchers as a whole, but a lot of these guys in the No and Maybe groups are 8-10th rounders, not top 7. With 7 keepers you could get away with only taking 1 pitcher, theres always lots of value to be had for pitchers 8-12 (and even at the end of the draft with guys like Escobar, Carpenter, and Smoltz or Sheets). I think you should pick Soto and one of Holliday/Quentin considering you already are keeping 2 other OFs.

All depends on what you have to give up to get longoria. He already said the net would be Phillips for Longoria with his other keepers not being affected. Yeah, ideally it will actually be two trades. The first being Phillips for a couple draft picks and the second being one of my non-keepers and a draft pick for Longoria. So my hope is net net I give up Phillips and a non-keeper for Longoria and a draft pick. There is value in allowing some of your keeper worth non-keepers to go back in the draft leaving you with better options on the board for your first draft pick, but in baseball with 5 keepers (and I'm picking 7th) its value is much much less than getting a decent draft pick.

Jesus, April/May Mets tickets go on sale March 15th. Maybe September Cubs tickets will go on sale by the all-star break. What the heck is their problem?

This is hockey, not basketball Uhh the Bruins guy had a blow out and they got a PP leading 4-0. Ladd actually tripped and no call when there should have been in the final minutes, terrible. Oh well... this one is 100% on Campbell... single handedly lost this game for us, good job carrot top. Except on the replay that apparent blow out turned out to be he got his legs kicked out from under him.

Ohh well, I'm glad they actually stepped it up in the third. Hopefully they can build off of it. They showed a lot of heart by not giving up in a game that everyone thought was turning into a blow out.

This is hockey, not basketball

That was all Bouwer on the screen

God, if we could pull of at least 1 point here...

you lose and edge you lose an edge, what are you gonna do? Did you miss goals #1 and #3? yeah well you posted that right after goal 4...hes played terrible for a while now, but you said you wanted him off your team after he lost an edge and fell down. I wouldn't be terribly mad at him for that, especially in a game that we have 0% chance of winning.

If you lose an edge, you lose an edge, what are you gonna do?

Can't it be both?

5x5 standard roto 12 teams 5 keepers Rollins, Braun, Hamilton, Lincecum are most definitely being kept. I've got Brandon Phillips in the last keeper slot now and definitely don't mind him. I've also got keeper worthy guys in McCann and Hart (and to a lesser extent Beckett and K-Rod). However, I've been agonizing over the fact that 3B is crazy shallow this year. The only guy who I kinda like who isn't being kept by other teams is Atkins. Other than that its Zimmerman, Huff, Figgins, Encarnacion, Beltre, Cantu, etc. Nothing exciting. So what are people's thoughts to doing a couple trades that would switch out Phillips for Longoria? Of course, 2B isn't terribly deep either. I'm kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place here.

Wow, 20 teams, 10 keepers...that sure makes for an interesting (or uninteresting) draft.... I assume 5x5 with normal stats roto. How many positions per team? Yes, Manny, Martin, Utley, and Santana are obvious. For 1B, there actually might be some pretty decent players outside of the top 200. Butler, Konerko, LaRoche, Giambi, Garko are all guys I wouldn't mind on my team even in a 12 team league. Jackson would be one of the worst 1B kept for reference. Thats something to take into consideration. Same thing with Escobar, hes around 200 with guys like Theriot, Cabrera, Guzman, Bartlett around him. I'm not a big fan of Wood in real life, but if hes SS eligible and gets playing time, he might not be a terrible investment. Then again, you could probably pick him up in the draft at least a few rounds in. I'd keep all of your OF, Tori, Ibanez, and Chris Young are all solidly low 100s level players. So thats 7. I love Scherzer, hes a for sure keeper, thats 8. If you need saves, Sherrill ha the closers job locked down in Balt, correct? I'd say theres more risk with Francisco considering the Rangers have relied more on Wilson and Benoit as closers the last couple of years (despite not being great), so if he falters they've got two other guys that have experience. Of course, as soon as Chris Ray is healthy, the same can be said about Sherrill. Both are probably very bottom closers. Tough call. Jurrgens has decent upside, Kuroda is serviceable, but both could be had in your draft if you don't keep them. I think I'd probably take Jackson and Escobar over any of the other pitchers. Neither reliever is going to be a sure thing on saves so unless you have holds, they'll be fairly useless. Either that or I would try to make some 1 for 2 or 3 trades to bring back quality players. Escobar and Kuroda wouldn't be a bad last 2 either.

You're being a bit extreme. I would rather have a more sure backup OF than Snider when Justin Upton and Maybin are starters, but there are a lot of OFs out there so he can just pick one up from the WW if all 3 of those young guys fail. Same thing with pitchers. If there are any positions to take risks on its those. Since there are obviously more OFs and SPs on real major league teams theres a much better chance that quality minor leaguers get brought up and guys break out.

Catcher is pretty deep (although VMart is a pretty darn awesome value in the 11th round). Save your U for later in case someone you really like falls. Plus there are great 1B deals later on in Konerko or Giambi or even Blalock. 2B is a pretty shallow position, whos on the board there?

Take a look around your league and see what everyone else is taking. I'm guessing with 3 keepers maybe only 3 pitchers will be taken (Johan, CC, and Lincecum). Those are the top tier. Hamels, Webb, Peavy, Halladay, and Haren are the next tier. Expect those guys to go in the 4th and 5th round. So what you have to ask yourself is if you don't keep a pitcher, can you get a pitcher of similar value in the 4th round. I think the answer is a resounding YES. Now ask yourself if you can get an OF of Hamilton's talent in the 4th round. Maybe Vlad or Markakis drop, but maybe they don't...then you're looking at guys like Ganderson and Rios. Those guys are nowhere near Hamilton. Now ask yourself if you can get a 3B of Longoria's talent in the 4th round. BTW, 3B is insanely shallow this year and definitely in the next few years as well (as Miggy loses eligibility and possibly Youk, Atkins, and Davis). Longoria certainly has some risk as a sophomore and may not help you in average, but with the scarcity of the 3B market, his value increases significantly. The only thing you could hope for is that whoever has ARam doesn't keep him (but ARam ain't gettin any better). Otherwise theres a big dropoff. Take a look at who you think other guys in your league are going to be keeping, but I think its a pretty easy decision to keep Pujols (obviously), Hamilton, and Longoria. If you really like Webb, then go for him in the 4th round, and if hes taken before you then pick one of the handful of pitchers that are just as good as him. I know its a cliche to say don't take pitchers early in fantasy baseball but there are soooooooo many really really good pitchers in rounds 9-14 and some pretty darn good reclamation projects in Escobar, Smoltz, and Carpeter that you can grab at the end of your draft.

God, I'll need to change my pants.

OMG there are wizards in Fort Wayne??!?!?!?

Ha, if you thought 300 posts in a game was a lot, with this title is should at least double!