Fantasy Baseball All-Stars

July 5th, 2009 kNuke

As MLB announced its All-Stars today, it’s only fitting to unveil my Fantasy Baseball All-Star Selections.

C: Brandon Inge. Mauer and Victor Martinez will have better numbers at the end of the year, but right now, I give Inge the nod.

1B: Albert Pujols. If you need an explanation why, go crawl back under that rock.

2B: Aaron Hill. I wouldn’t argue against Utley or Kinsler, but Hill is helping his owners the most.

3B: Mark Reynolds. You think I’m crazy? Go check Reynold’s statistics. He’s helping in every category and his average isn’t hurting the team.

SS: Hanley Ramirez. Hanley has not disappointed one bit.

OF: Carl Crawford. Finding a guy who consistently steals bases while not hurting your team in other categories is hard to find; Crawford may be the only one.

OF: Ryan Braun. Behind Pujols, Braun is the best hitter in the game.

OF: Torii Hunter. Known more for his glove, Hunter is having a marvelous year; hitting for average and power, driving in runs, and stealing a few bases.

SP: Zach Greinke. Greinke has slowed down a bit since his torrid start, but what a surprise he’s been.

SP: Tim Lincecum. You’re getting what you expected when you drafted Lincecum, but 141 Ks in 121 IP is ridiculous.

RP: Jonathan Broxton. Even though Broxton gave up 3 runs today, he’s still the best closer right now.

RP: Ryan Franklin. Franklin doesn’t strike a lot of guys out and he’ll make you sweat, but he’s been nails. He, Aardsma, and Bailey are at the front of the “Best RP off the Waiver Wire” award line.

P: Chris Carpenter. Carpenter stumbled a little bit as of late, but he’s been a big time steal for any owner that drafted him. I was also thinking of Edwin Jackson here, but I gave the nod to Carpenter.

There you have it; not your list of usual suspects huh? I’m sure there are many other players that could be included on this list. If you think I missed someone, post a comment and state your case.

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First Quarter Fantasy Baseball Awards

May 18th, 2009 kNuke

We’ve pretty much closed the book on the first quarter of this year’s baseball season so I’ll hand out my First Quarter Fantasy Baseball Awards.

MVP: Raul Ibanez and Aaron Hill.  Ibanez is tearing it up right now batting .357 with 13 HR and 35 RBI while Hill ain’t too shabby either batting .345 with 11 HR and 34 RBI; Both Classic Sell High candidates.

Cy Young: Zack Greinke.  He’s got 65 Ks in 60 IP to go along with 7 W, 0.60 ERA, and 0.83 WHIP.  Since he is a high K guy, I would hang on for the ride.

Best “Everyone” Pick: Adam Jones. Just as good as advertised with a with a surprising .370 AVG.

Worst “Everyone” Pick: Alexei Ramirez.  Eek…

Biggest Bust: Jimmy Rollins. If you own him, you might as well go down with the ship.

Best Waiver Wire Pickup: Jason Bartlett and Brandon Inge.  Bartlett is giving owners a little bit of everthing and Inge has Catcher eligibility.

Oldie, but Goodie: Johnny Damon.  Batting .322 with 10 HR and 27 RBI.  Kudos to you for drafting him.

Nice to Know You: David Ortiz.  Sad to say, but Big Papi’s fantasy career is over.

Where Are You: Matt Wieters and David Price.  Both have yet to log an inning this season.

Category Star: Carl Crawford.  With his 24 SB, it’s possible he’ll put your team in the Top 3 for the category by himself.

Recount: Wandy Rodriguez, Jered Weaver, Ramon Ramirez, Edwin Jackson, Randy Wolf, Orlando Hudson, Marco Scutaro, Russell Branyan, Asdrubal Cabrera, Nick Johnson, Ryan Theriot, and Kendry Morales.  Yeah, go check their stats again.

Best Guy Still Available: Andrew Bailey.  He might not be the official closer in Oakland, but he’s worth the speculative add.

There you have it, my First Quarter Fantasy Baseball Award Winners.  Let me know if I missed any of your guys.

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Waiver Wire Work

April 13th, 2009 kNuke

Okay, about a week’s worth of games have been logged so let’s take a look at the Waiver Wire.

Guys like Emilio Bonifacio, Adam Lind, Jorge Cantu, and Brandon Inge are probably long gone. No matter, only Cantu and Inge will stick anyways. I’m not saying Inge will keep his current pace, but he’s Catcher eligible so he’ll play everyday, which makes him golden.

I’ll start throwing some names out:

Travis Hafner, Util
I think he’s returning to form. The only thing that sucks about Pronk is that he’s only Utility eligible.

Yunel Escobar, SS
I’m not real excited about this guy, but he’ll hit .300, score some Runs, and he has to hit more than 10 HR.

Aaron Hill, 2B
He did hit 17 HR in 2007.

Dexter Fowler, OF
He’s hot right now; play him until he cools off.

Ian Stewart, 2B/3B
If you have an extra bench slot, stash this guy. If he ever gets consistent playing time you’ll be a happy camper.

Kevin Millwood, SP
The Strikeouts are there so I’d take the chance. There are going to be rough outings when he pitches at home, but he might be a good matchup on the road.

David Aardsma, RP
Ryan Franklin, RP
Grant Balfour, RP
All three guys could be in line for Saves. If you’re hurting in that Category, think about it.

It’s still early in the season. Don’t hit the panic button just yet…

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Early Adds/Drops

April 7th, 2009 kNuke

I’ve been seeing a lot of Waiver Wire activity after the first few days of the MLB season.  My rule is to wait a week or two before evaluating players.  The exceptions are Injuries and Closer situations.  If I see that a borderline Closer had a bad outing (Jason Motte, Brandon Morrow, and Brandon Lyon), I look to pickup the other alternative on that team.

That being said, you shouldn’t completely ignore the Waiver Wire at this point in the season, because there may be dropped players to add.  Also, there may be players that are in nice lineup spots that weren’t foreseen (Khalil Greene and Mark Teahen).

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Sporting News Salary Cap Challenge

April 1st, 2009 kNuke

I just signed up for Sporting News Salary Cap Challenge.  This is a little different than the normal Roto Style game.  You build a 9-man roster under the $35M salary cap.  Each day, your team earns points based on your team’s performance.  The price of each player moves up and down in a dynamic price market, which determines your roster value.

Here’s my planned Opening Day Roster:

P  F. Francisco   $1.00M
P  K. Gregg        $2.50M
P  Y. Gallardo    $3.75M
C  P. Sandoval    $3.00M
OF C. Maybin     $3.50M
OF N. Cruz         $3.85M
CI C. Davis         $4.50M
MI A. Ramirez    $4.30M
DH M. DeRosa    $4.00M

I am $4.60M under the cap at the moment.  Many of my players have multiple position eligibility, which keeps my roster flexible as my players prices increase/decrease.  Hopefully they will all just increase!

I’ll be posting periodically as the season progresses.  Go check out the game and good luck!

http://www.sportingnews.com/games/baseball/season1/basic/home.php

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