Clem Fandango

+1.

Never play fantasy sports with your heart. Drafting half of your favorite team is bound to cause you troubles in fantasy sports EDIt: Now that I look at it, it appears you drafted the entire offense and 5-man rotation. Unless the Cubs are immortals this season, you will lose. And lose bad EDIT: I'm looking ati t again, did you draft only Chicago players? I'm starting to think it's a joke. If not, you're done for

The Nate McLouth video that comes on afterwards, when he says "I'm Nate McLouth and I'm a Pirate" at the end, he looks really sad/frustrated to be on the team

Back to defend my title! Group A: Ryan Howard Group B: Ryan Braun, Miguel Cabrera Group C: Carlos Quentin, Carlos Pena, Carlos Lee (The 3 C's!) Group D: David Ortiz, Joey Votto, Justin Morneau, Jay Bruce, Chris Ianetta Wild Card: To be sent to Laura

I'm content with the fact that I've drafted virtually my whole offense already. minus a utility and a RF'er. Plus I've got 2 solid SP's already in Kazmir and Harden (although they're injury risks). I think there's a decent shot at contending, but it's all contingent on the health of the players on my team. There's a lot of DL comebacks and regulars on the list (Tulo, Crawford, Kazmir, Harden). I also like the fact that I have a potential call-up in Cahill sitting in the minor league system which would give me a mid-season boost if he were to succeed in the minors to start the season. My team so far C Chris Ianetta - Love his upside. Hopefully he'll reach his potential and playing in Colorado won't hurt. 1B Ryan Howard - CBS projects him to score more points than anyone else. Hopefully they're right 2B Brandon Phillips - I think Brandon Phillips is overrated, but he was the best/right player to take in my case when he was on the board and my turn came around 3B Alex Gordon - Big gamble. Hoping he reaches the potential he had as a prospect. SS Troy Tulowitzki - Still has one exempt year and appears to be doing well this spring. Hopefully the injury is behind him LF Carl Crawford - hopefully the injury won't hold him back and he'll improve upon his overall numbers. Entering his prime years this year CF Carlos Beltran - Just a good player to have. Almost a lock to put up 20-20 numbers, and a good chance for more than that SP Rich Harden - Injury risk yes. But if he has 25 starts of dominance it will be better than 33 starts of mediocrity from someone else SP Scott Kazmir - His # of start each year seem to teeter-totter. If that's the case, he's due for a 30+ start season. Minors 1B Eric Hosmer - Another potential KC super prospect. First full year in the minor coming up this year, here's hoping for impressive numbers. SS Tim Beckham - #1 draft pick last year. Will be nice to have on my team, if either for the future, or for a good trading piece SP Trevor Cahill - One of the best pitchers in the minors right now, might get called up this season

Making a pick now is difficult because there's so many question marks out there to choose from. After much deliberation, I'm going to make a risky decision and hope for the potential to finally be reached. I'll select 3B Alex Gordon, Royals

Kingsport selected Mark Reynolds, via the CBS board. Slainte on the board

That graphic is epic

Oooohhh... nice pick. I know someone who's not gonna be happy about that one! Here's a hint: he picks right after me and was targeting Ianetta- the catcher he traded for last year and hoped to keep for a few years. Weird. I'm looking looking at his team and it looks like he didn't bother keeping hardly any major leaguers. Why didn't he keep Ianetta? Looks like he still had one year of exemption status

That's a good read. Thanks for posting it

I'm going to take C Chris Ianetta, Colorado Rockies

one strategy I did implore which I feel works well is selecting a couple relievers who are battling for the closer spot this spring, like Zeigler and Devine, Mike Gonzales and Rafael Soriano, Gregg and Marmol, etc. If you get both, then you're almost guaranteed a closer AND a setup guy, since one of them is bound to take over the closer role while the other is relegated to setup duties.

A friend of mine said he heard on the radio that season tickets for field level seats down the 3rd base line cost $50,000 a season. Not sure how truthful that is, but if it's true that's absurd

Anyone who wants to make it as realistic as possible. I added it to my long running league this year. It made for interesting late round draft picks, and also adds a new dimension of strategy, and also makes it fair for teams who lost out on closers. There's always that one guy who drafts 4 or 5 closers hoping to trade some for something else. Now you can draft someone like Scot Shields to make up for the loss of a closer. As for the original question, the #1 setup man in baseball is arguably Scot Shields. If the Cubs make Gregg the closer, then you can argue that Marmol takes over that distinguished title. Not sure on the others in baseball though simply because setup man seems to be a revolving door that is played by ear for the most part on most teams. I'm not sure if Devine or Zeigler is going to be the closer in Oakland, but one of them is bound to be the setup guy, and they were both ridiculous last year.

I love that quote. This is going to be a fun season.

It looks great. Joomla, I take it?

The later rounds always take the longest because the talent is so slim, it causes people to make much more thought out decisions. It's a lot tougher to decide between Christian Guzman and Mike Aviles than it is Jose Reyes or Hanley Ramirez because you never know what to expect with the weaker, inconsistent players. In one of my drafts we cruised throug hthe first 10 or so rounds, but the last half of the draft took almost double the time it took in the beginning. And with this draft, by the time we start it, it will be nearing the halfway point with all the keepers and top players already off the market. After the first 4-5 rounds of the live draft some of us will be on the brink of selecting our backup players.

I'm assuming there is a minimum PA requirement of 3,000 to be on that list? Otherwise I'm pretty sure Frank Thomas would be tied for 2nd on that list. His first 4 years in the majors (Ages 22-25)he had a combined OPS+ of 177

http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/desperate-yankees-cant-sell-new-premium-seats-22688 Well, not in a legal way... people just don't want to buy them. Ha!

I'm gonna take LF Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay Rays Round 2: 1 White Soxaholics: Jose Lopez, 2B, SEA 2 Bronx DSB: Matt Cain, SP, SF 3 New York A-Roids: Carlos Pena, 1B, Tampa Bay Rays 4 The Big City Sliders: Carl Crawford, TAM 5 Hosak: ON THE CLOCK 6 Cubbiebummin 7 Canuckophiles 8 Kingsport Copperheads 9 Slainte 10 Hosak 11 SoCal Cubs 12 Minnesota Masterbatters 13 Czar Nikita 14 Roady 15 Team Bouldin 16 Nuke's Bombers

I said it obviously wouldn't happen in a Vlad sitaution if you are talking about what I wrote. The reason it is worth talking about is he is a big time perhaps hall of famer (I would say yes) that has admitted to it. It's showing that just about every prospect from DR has lied about their age. I was just making a general comment about the whole issue and how it's making headlines. There's bound to be someone who overreacts, when the point is there's no need. And I agree, he's a first ballot hall of famer IMO. If he ends up being a permanent DH after this season and he can pull out 5 more productive years, there' a chance he could hit 3000 hits and 500HR before his career is over. Unfortunately I don't know how long his legs are gonna hold up thanks to playing in Montreal. Even if he falls short of both milestones, his batting average and consistent MVP consideration should get him in.

Grrrrrrrrrrrr I was hoping Davis would fall to me in the 2nd round

Cubbiebummin selected Jay Bruce. Hosak on the clock! Round 1 1 Nuke's Bombers: BJ Upton, CF, TB 2 Team Bouldin: Brian Roberts, 2B, Bal 3 Roady: David Ortiz, DH, BoSox 4 Czar Nikita: James Shields, SP, TB 5 Minnesota Masterbatters: Alexei Ramirez, SS/2B, CHW 6 SoCal Cubs: Derrek Lee, 1B, CHC 7 The Big City Sliders: Brandon Phillips, 2B, CIN 8 Slainte: Nate McLouth, CF, PIT 9 Kingsport Copperheads: Andre Either, RF, LAD 10 Canuckophiles: Jhonny Peralta, SS, CLE 11 Cubbiebummin: Jay Bruce, OF, CIN 12 Hosak ON THE CLOCK 13 Hosak 14 New York A-Roids 15 Bronx DSB 16 White Soxaholics

Round 1 1 Nuke's Bombers: BJ Upton, CF, TB 2 Team Bouldin: Brian Roberts, 2B, Bal 3 Roady: David Ortiz, DH, BoSox 4 Czar Nikita: James Shields, SP, TB 5 Minnesota Masterbatters: Alexei Ramirez, SS/2B, CHW 6 SoCal Cubs: Derrek Lee, 1B, CHC 7 The Big City Sliders: Brandon Phillips, 2B, CIN 8 Slainte: Nate McLouth, CF, PIT 9 Kingsport Copperheads: Andre Either, RF, LAD 10 Canuckophiles: Jhonny Peralta, SS, CLE 11 Cubbiebummin ON THE CLOCK 12 Hosak 13 Hosak 14 New York A-Roids 15 Bronx DSB 16 White Soxaholics

Those guys are right for the wrong reasons with regard to PECOTA. The good folks at BP should probably just give ranges and confidence intervals, because PECOTA as reported like that and used as a predictive statistic is not that reliable. Something like, "with 90% confidence PECOTA predicts Youkilis will have a BA anywhere from .290-.260." PECOTA does do that. http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd256/gallow737/youk.jpg