Don't have the time or inclination to compare every team, but a few thoughts on my own draft. I went into the draft with my usual focus on SP and non-1B IFs... and then picked exactly the opposite, getting mostly OFs and 1Bs early and then picking both of my RPs before I was able to get a single starting pitcher on a current major-league roster. I went with best available talent generally early and then tried to pick "upside" guys late. Time will tell, but I think my team might be OK if some of the prospect pitchers come through and my old guys can still produce. Without studying everyone's roster, I know I liked several of Jent's picks, and Smeg's pitching staff scares the crap out of me.
Frankly, I'm pretty disappointed with my team. My pitching rotation sucks, and I don't feel that I really came away with anything spectacular in the process. I found myself going for the "safe" pick way too often. Hope the Yankees have a good year with this roster. I kept picking them for some reason.
This is the first draft besides my first year that I had absolutely no clue what I was doing. I didn't pay much attention to the stat categories and when SP started jumping off the board right and left in the first two rounds I was all . I went back, read the scoring...but by then it was too late. I then proceeded to draft like a complete n00b tard. I gues I paid to finish in last place. How weak is that? My SP is the total suck.
Regarding my team... The first thing I would change about my draft would be to take back the Mark Prior pick. That was a mistake which forced me to take a 6th pitcher earlier than I should have had to. I do think I got Schilling at a huge bargain, though, so it shouldn't hurt me too much. In retrospect, I should have gone with Oswalt or Peavy over Prior. However, my thinking was that Oswalt had just finished two 20 win seasons in which he pitched a lot of innings. The chances of him becoming a 3-time 20 game winner in my opinion are pretty slim, and the Astros overachieved last year. Plus, I think Oswalt's ceiling tops out at 20 points per game, while a healthy Prior is capable of averaging much more. Peavy's nagging injuries (yes, I recognize the irony), the fact he is coming off a career year, and his poor performance in the WBC deterred me from him. Nevertheless, I should have taken him anyway. So, that was my worst pick. I think my best picks were Harden and Sheets. Both these guys are legit late first/early second rounders, so I feel I got a huge discount getting them at 3.10 & 4.1. I'm glad the issue with Sheets' back scared so many people off. He's a stud. I have always leaned toward taking players coming off down years. This strategy has given me tremendous success in the past. I definitely believe in regression toward the mean and I'd much rather take someone who underachieved last season than to take someone coming off a career year. This year, though, I think I've taken it a bit too far. Most of my key players -- Halladay, Prior, Harden, Sheets, Schmidt, Beltran, Schilling, Blalock, Huff, Ordonez, Beltre, Nomar, Foulke, Vidro, Perez, Loretta... even F.Cordero to an extent -- are all coming off some sort of down year for some reason or other. I should have mixed a few "safer" picks into my draft, although I still feel I have one of the strongest teams. Just a lot of "what ifs." Regarding other teams... I think a lot of you missed the boat on pitching this year, and will definitely end up regretting it. It's very difficult to win this league without stellar pitchers. It's not like a roto league. Hitters can only take you so far. It was weird how three teams (Smeg, Phi and I) focused almost completely on pitching while other teams (Sam, jent, Castor... Rook to a lesser degree) focused almost completely on hitters. Crazy stuff. Even with the Prior pick, I think I have the best overall pitching staff. I am also quite impressed with Smeg's staff. Santana, Pedro, Zambrano and Colon is a pretty fierce lineup (with Lidge in relief). I am not so impressed with PSJ's hurlers, which is surprising because he is usually "Mr. Pitching" in this league. Carpenter won't meet last year's #s, the Unit is on the decline, and I just don't have a good feeling about Oswalt and Pettitte this year. Felix could be a stud, but he's a bit risky too. Overall, Finn probably has the most well-balanced squad, although I don't like most of his late round picks at all. It will be an interesting season.
The Aliens (Sam Cassell) has the best offensive team by far. If he hits the waiver wire during the season and picks up some starting pitching he will be tough to beat. 4 solid OF's, 2 of the best 1B's in the league. Throw in 2 very good closers (Izzy and Hoffman) and you can say Championship contender. I used that strategy last year and I won it all. Not to pick on you fade, but your OF leaves a lot to be desired, Magglio has been injured 3 of the last 4 years, huge risk. LG's numbers are decling every year. Beltran plays in a pitchers park ( I learned that lesson last year) Maybe Green and Swisher will bail you out. I doubt it. The reason I avoided Schilling is, he wasn't even getting minor league hitters out. Oh sure he was striking out 8 of them a game but he was giving up 8-10 runs a start (and this was against minor leaguers). The scouts say his ball has no movement anymore. He will get shelled by Major League hitters. The one guy that pissed me off this draft was PSJ. He took at least 6 players that I wanted. He has a very good team, although his closers are very weak. I never knew DarkHorse was a closet Yankee fan
Bob -- we disagree, obviously. I will enjoy shoving it in your face at the end of the year. This is not the first time you have doubted me.
Yea, I know my team is flawed, but I think Fade talks alot of trash for a guy who drafter Mark Prior with the 11th pick in the draft. And I tried to follow the pitcher trend last year, drafted alot of good starters like Carpenter and the Unit, and finished worse than I did in 04, when I was in 2nd place all year with an offense heavy, pitching weak group. There's no magical draft strategy that works, the team that has the most fantasy points each week (from offense and pitching) is going to win, and in the long run that is going to be the team that has the most overall talent.
Pretty happy with my team, have done the amazing batting thing before and been disappointed every week with my pitching, so decided to go pitching first and foremost, so love my 4 headed moster of Santana, Pedro, Zambrano and Colon (can't believe how long Colon lasted), especially with so many team not touching pitching early. like my two closers in Lidge and Benitez, think the with the way scoring is in the game closer are almost the most important part, certainly close to neck and neck with SPs as for my batting really not that sure but glad i am not sure about my batting rather than not sure about pitching, hopefully Sizemore, Cantu, Figgins, Dunn and Damon can get the job done and give my pitchers the support they need as for the draft pretty happy although PSJ seemed to take a few players i was watching and ready to draft as for other teams, the finn, fade and PSJ squads worrry me and maybe the aliens if clemens plays again at the standard he did last year good luck yall
Deja-vu all over again.... My second year playing with you guys and I am starting to notice a trend, the same couple of teams talking up their teams as the next great thing and giving no one else a chance.......I like that. As I remember last year I was toughted as having one of the worse teams, but finished with the best record and possibly could of won the championship if I did not conceded after the first week of the finals when I was down - didn't realize it was suppose to be two weeks. The truth be told it appears as though everyone has good strength in some areas and obvious weaknesses in others, but we will see how it plays out because injuries as well as up and down years can make all the difference. And as far as the pitching wins in this league having the overall consensus, keep in mind I played last year with one ace and a bunch of mediocre players (Lackey, C. Lee, J. Weaver and so on). The problem is you have to monitor pitcher usage to not exceed maximum appearances, therefore equalizing that somewhat - but we will see how it all plays out. I will make a prediction since it seems myself and LH Chalupa are seen as weaker teams....then history tells me.... Chalupa, I will see you in the FINALS!!!
Question from the noob. I'm still a little bit confused while looking through the league site. Are our lineups daily changes or weekly? BTW- I completely dominating Smeg -2 to 0. Make your time.
No they can be changed twice a week before the start of each game period, which are the following: Monday-Thursday and Friday-Sunday. So basically, once the game period starts you cannot change until the following one. I apologize if that doesn't make enough sense, I am just half way through my hooked on phonics program..... but hopefully, you get the idea..
Yeah what Rocketball said except that you can go in and change your lineup anytime, but if it is after the deadline for that particular game, the changes won't go into effect until the next game. For example; if you go in and make changes Tuesday morning, they won't take effect until the Friday-Sunday game period. One thing I also noticed is that it looks like you can set your lineups well in advance. It gives you the option of setting a lineup for later weeks. This may be helpful if you are going to be out for an extended period. You can set up lineups ahead of time
Yup. The other guys explained it pretty well. Sam or Castor -- could you modify the first post in the thread to include a link to the site? Thanks.
Don't see a way to edit that post, so hope this helps some: http://www.fantasybaseballsite.com/baseball/clutchcity/
Schilling sure didn't get shelled today down in the hitter's haven of Arlington. He was the one doing the shelling. Of course, Nomar had to go and hurt himself wiping his butt. What a pansy.
Why did I know you were going to post something along these lines? It's one game. Will he hold up all season? I say no way. Oh yeah, and Phi is gonna kick your ass
I'd see you earlier than that in the basketball playoffs, but you didn't make it. Burn! Sorry... I couldn't resist.
