Post by MGrage on May 6, 2006 12:13:46 GMT -5
Greeting and Salutations,
Welcome, my friend to the show that never ends. We're so glad you can attend. Come inside, come inside.
Yes, it's that time again. This year I decided to get this out before the All-Star break. And since I'm spending the day on the fireboat just off Navy Pier, I won't have any pesky runs to interrupt my two mile train of thought. I usually just sleep 15-16 hours while I'm here but I'll cut that back to 9-10 today in order to get Part I at least. So without further adieu (or should I say "delay" since we're still mad at the Frenchies), here comes the Review :
DaPaul Meisters
As long time listeners know, the order I go is according to the Excel spreadsheet. In no way do I think Paul has the best team.
We start where the Draft really starts, Roster Cutdown Day. What you do that day sometimes has a profound effect on what one can do on Draft Day. The only real questionable cut I see is Scott Olsen. It's was pretty much assumed that he had locked up the the #5 spot in the Marlins rotation. He could have been an excellent keeper at .06 but Scott hadn't had his mid-life crisis yet so Paul tossed him back. He could have gambled and kept Roger Clemens @ .11 but he too was released. Paul had plenty of cap space and even a half season of Rocket Roger would be well worth the investment.
His keepers were mostly solid. A couple of cheap OF, some nice starters and a future Hall of Fame 2B. Only Horacio Ramirez was a bad keeper to me. Luckily for Paul, HR got hurt early on and hasn't had a chance to torpedo the Meisters' ERA & WHIP. Paul got pretty unlucky when Brazoban underwent Tommy John surgery a couple weeks into the season. He was poised to clean up on Saves after Gagne got held back to start the year. I was surprised he didn't extend Glavine past this season though. A dime wasn't too much to gamble on his effectiveness in Shea Stadium the next two years.
After picking up a lock-down closer in Eric Gagne, Paul spent most of his remaining pennies on offense. He overpaid for Taguchi and Anderson and possibly LaRoche. One might start to get the idea that Paul and Vinny Castilla were once Siamese twins brutally separated at birth the way Vinny always seems to end up on the Meisters' roster. If Rolen can ever shake off his bronchitis, he can be a nice pickup and Mike Lieberthal was a nice pickup at 8 cents. Dannys Baez just might be the best value Paul picked up at the Draft. I do like Claussen as well though. Paul tried cornering the market on Dodger relievers by acquiring Duaner Sanchez who's been lights out so far this year. Duaner was the only player Paul cut and picked up, and saved nine cents in the process.
One of the big shocks for me was that Paul didn't pick up any Minor Leaguers this year. To me, he's only got 2 blue chip prospects in Braun & Pelfry. Neighborgall has been possessed by the spirit of Nuke LaLoosh. Anderson and Bourn (not Jason, though that would be cool)(I'd love to see Jason Kendall rush the mound against Jason Bourne and see him twist Kendall into a human sized pretzel) are pretty much the same player. Lots of speed, no power and little on base skills. One of these guys might make it, but they could easily turn into another Eric Reed, sorry Dr. Lamb. He really didn't help himself much in the rotation draft. Wandy Rodriguez could be a serviceable starter and Jose Mesa nicely raises Paul's average age comfortably into the mid 30's. Jose could vulture some saves in Coors but at what cost to his ratios?
I think Paul will spend most of the year somewhere in the middle of the pack. Nothing about his roster screams money finish to me and the best he can hope for is the #1 pick in the rotation draft.
David's Copperfields
Having the second highest payroll in the league, our esteemed Commish had to cut the fat. Sorry Dave, you knew I had to go there. You looked great in your size 32s though.
I can't even remember those heydays in my slender youth. Anyways, mission accomplished. He cut almost two whole bucks aided unfortunately by a couple of former Bulls. *sigh* I only have a minor quibble with keeping Ramon Castro, but he could pay dividends in the second half once LoDuca starts to wear down. Cliff Floyd went for .08 cents more in the draft but I guess he couldn't find any takers. He was also able to re-acquire Aaron Cook who's turning into a solid pitcher for the Rockies.
Following Paul's lead, Dave drafted the best pitcher available, Mike Remlinger. OK, I'll wait for Rich to clean off his monitor. Done yet Rich? Good. I'm of course referring to Clay Hensley. Nah, Ramon Hernandez is clearly the pick of the litter here. HA, I just wanted to boost my character count so maybe I can make this a three part series. Anyways, back to reality. I'm hoping Hernandez keeps catching Tracy's eye and steal some of Mike Gonzalez's saves. ;D He could be a very nice pickup for our league champs. Pedro should anchor his formidable rotation too. A-Ram has been a huge disappointment so far but he's got plenty of time to turn things around. Though Aramis probably misses DLee as much as Rich does. Bigbie and Finley were late round reaches, but with Cabrera & Pierre, he can afford them. Aaron Miles is slowly turning into a pumpkin and Hector Luna should pick up lots of PT there. Dave actually cut him but got him back for four cents less. Nice job. A big Bronx cheer goes out to Dave though for drafting Lance Niekro after refusing to trade me Brett Myers for him straight up in the offseason. You could have had him for a penny less dude ....
I was surprised that Dave didn't draft more minor leagues, but the ones he did were excellent. Carlos Gonzalez will be in every trade discussion the Coppers and I have for the next 5-6 years. *mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha* Denker is a top 2B prospect but that's generally not a good thing. He's got pop and some plate discipline but Denker says utility player to me. Dave picked up some nice pitchers and a couple of decent OF backups though. He has a nice, deep lineup and should have plenty of options every Friday. I think his biggest mistake was not going after more Minor Leaguers. Prospects are the dominant currency in many trades in the CFCL and I think he needs more bullets to make a bunch of trades like he did at the trade deadline last year.
Dave has a solid, all around roster. He should contend for a money spot this year. With a couple of deals and some good luck, he could possibly repeat. He's got to be considered a contender and with his trading skills a threat to be taken seriously.
Lambchops
Moving along to our federally mandated double team. To comply with the Civil Rights Act of 2000, the CFCL has to have at least one team with co-owners. First it was Bruce & Harry, now it's Eric/Paul. The Chops held onto their players like the Grinch's death grip on Whoville's presents. They could only bring themselves to waive 6 players, second fewest in the league. He could have disposed of Cory Lidle and Jose Guillen with pretty easily. If he just had to have them, they most likely would have been bought back at a discount. IMO he held onto too many prospects as well. Valdez is perpetually injured and DeWitt is in danger of being passed up by better Dodger prospects. The kids that he did waive shouldn't be missed. Dopirak might have had a career year in '04 and Gwynn is one of those all speed, no hit, toolsy "talents" littering every ML system. But his biggest mistake was waiving Craig Wilson. Granted, E/P had no clue that Sean Casey would suffer a traumatic back injury, but I felt that Craig's multi-position eligibility would insure him at least 400 ABs.
Eric made an early splash by spending exactly half his budget on a pair of All-Stars (Andruw Jones & Trevor Hoffman). Both should come close to earning their salaries though. I'm just not a big fan of Trevor's anymore. Late 30's closers off drop off the map with little warning so he scares me a little. As I pointed out in my stats post, Eric spent alot of money on his pitching staff but with mixed results. Oliver Perez's 2003 looks more and more like a fluke and Lieber has been brutal so far and pitches in the worst pitcher's park east of the Mississipp. They now have 2/5 of the Phillies' starting rotation which should send shivers down Eric's spine every home stand. Odalis Perez is an excellent candidate for Comeback Player of the Year though. I so wanted to re-draft him those dang Chops kept upping the bid. *shakes fist menacingly* They also won the Aaron Miles sweepstakes which is going to look more and more like a booby prize as the year progresses. Anderson Hernandez looks like a bust, but Hatteberg is providing some early benifits.
Having locked up the most reserve spots by holding onto too many prospects and Ryan Church, Eric had the fewest reserve picks in the league so he needed to get a few players with multiple position eligibility. He did that with Neifi Freakin' Perez and Eli Marrero. He picked up a couple of interesting pitchers for depth and yet two more Minor Leaguers. Hu was a huge reach and has since been waived but Montero was one of the best catcher prospects left. With so few picks, there's not much more to say.
There's really not too much here to be enthusiastic about here. They have a couple of young players to build around in the future, but that's not going to help this year. I see the Chops in the bottom third of the league with a slight possibility to finish in the upper half.
DoorMatts
And here we have the team with the fewest players cut in the league. Bobby Abreu and Raffy Furcal freed up over .80 cents so Matt wouldn't have to pull a Copperfield and have only a quarter to spend. Abreu went for 4 cents more in the Draft so it could be argued that he should have tried trading him to the Stones or cut others instead. Most of his keepers were very understandable but a couple, not so much. Jeromy Burnitz leads the pack in questionability to me. A very streaky hitter who is in the part of his career where one long bad streak could be his last. Right behind him are Clint Barmes and Chris Burke. Barmes has one great month last year before losing a race up a flight of stairs with a sack of venison. With Troy Tulowitzke coming up fast and Chris Nelson behind him, Clint will fall by the wayside in the very near future. When I asked my Magic 8 Ball if Clint will ever be worth .16 cents again, it answered Not Bloody Likely. It's an Old English 8 Ball ... As for Chris Burke, he might be a tad overpriced at ten cents. He's also yet another reason why I doubt I'll ever draft a Minor Leaguer at the 10 cent level again. One last thing, I was surprised he didn't extend Fuentes past the '06 season. Even at .06, Brian would return many times his salary.
Matt frustrated me early with his insistence of outbidding me for my favorite pitchers going into the Draft. I really wanted Webb and am going to regret not bidding into the upper 20s. He then refused to acquiesce to my insistent bidding on Carlos Zambrano, thus increasing my frustration level. He then spent most of his remaining budget on the recalcitrant Alfonzo Soriano. Grudgingly exiled to left field, Soriano was the one AL transplant I wanted no part of. Once NL pitchers adjust to his free swinging ways, the HRs will shrivel up and he'll lose most of his value. RFK doesn't do him any favors either. With only some loose pocket change left, Matt picked up a couple of bit players to round out his lineup. The best of the bunch is Chuck James. A long reliever serving out his apprenticeship in the pen until the inevitable Jorge Sosa implosion or Horacio Ramirez blowup.
In the reserve portion, Matt picked up a couple of nice Houston prospects. Hunter Pence has a huge ceiling but is a couple of years away from contributing on the ML level. Troy Patton is one of the top lefty starters down south. One big mistake Mr. Bentel made was his lack of offensive depth as he used all but 2 of his remaining picks on pitchers. If any of his infielders get hurt, he'll have to scrounge around on the waiver wire for a replacement. Fernando Nieve and Ricky Nolasco are his best selections. Both started in middle relief, but could be above average starters if given a chance. Nieve has already moved into the rotation.
I think Matt had one of the better drafts this year. He only needed to fill 8 spots and lots of money to fill them with. He drafted two of the best available starters out there and a potential 20/20 MI. Health permitting, the DoorMatts should duke it out for a money spot. But any lost time from Oswalt or Pujols, and he'll go down faster than Paris Hilton on a British submarine filled with Austin Powers clones.
Dem Rebels (or the Royals of the CFCL)
Yes, you're going to take a beating Rich. There were two players who were kept that made me scratch my head so much I started to resemble Homer Simpson. I've alluded to Jorge Sosa in my stats post. The other pitcher was Glendon Rusch. I assumed that he would fly through winter waivers but Rich made a liar out of me. In no way is he worth a dime, even in a league with a $260 cap. He might be a guy you'd take a $1 flyer on in the end game, but keeping him at 10X that price borders on madness. Hide the women and children because what he's going to do to your ratios makes Hannibal Lector look like Emerill. Looking at the players he cut, all were expendable so no problem there. Another surprise was the two year extension of Derrick Lee. It's not indefensible though. A case can be made that Derrick would earn his salary this year and next, but you rarely see anyone with that high a salary signed to a long term contract. Also, he has just 3 players taking up over $1.00 in cap space which makes it hard to fill 16 slots come Draft day. One more minor beef I had with his keepers was his LTC with his Happy Peter AKA Pedro Feliz. Granted he has a near mortal lock on third base for the Giants but I seriously doubt he'll pay many dividends the next two years even with the herky-JERKY return of Barry Bonds. Another questionable (I'm using that word alot) keeper is Chris Duffy. Pittsburg CFs are pretty much interchangeable and he could lose time to a former Baby Bull in Nate McLouth. They're not as bad as keeping Rusch though ....
With so many spots to fill and so few pennies to spend them on, Rich was out of the bidding for most of the first couple of rounds. His biggest purchase was Isringhausen @ .28 cents. Though he picked up a more cost effective closer in Weathers for just 1/4th the price. Jason has been shaky so far but should be able to straighten things out and do some good things for Rich or whatever team he deals him to like the Ruffins. Tony Womack was a reach but at that point in the draft, it was either him or the Nationals #8 OF. With 7 pitching slots to fill, Rich bought only one starter which only exaggerates the effect Rusch has on his ratios. The relievers he picked up are generally non-descript but effective nevertheless. Scotty "Cub Killer" Eyre has pitched in 20!! games already though. Hopefully, he won't turn into the 2006 version of Chad Fox under this workload. He didn't do himself any favors by bidding Jacque!! Jones up to 18 cents. We just might be seeing the biggest meltdown this side of Chernobyl. It wasn't a total loss as Betemit should get gobs of PT filling in for various injured Braves this year.
Another team that surprised me in regards to prospect mining was the Rebels. They do have a couple of nice prospects, but they needed a bigger talent injection. Bill Bray could get load of Holds soon enough though. Rich needed to select more starters but failed to do so. Clemens was a fantastic pick but on this team he's no more than trade bait. Mark Bellhorn was another nice selection too.
Excuse me for a moment. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
M****F***ing Bobby Cox cost me yet another QS by tossing Kyle Davies out to the dogs by throwing his carcass out to give up 2 more hits in the 7th. McBride promptly lets both runners score and I get screwed again. *ggrrrrrr*
Anyways, needless to say, the Rebs won't be finishing in the money this year. Since I hope to someday make another trade with Rich, I won't say anything more.
Graging Bulls
Now we come to the 2006 Champions, the newly christened Graging Bulls. Showing terrific money management skills and shrewd decision making, the Bulls left the rest of the league in his dust. Perhaps the league was distracted by his devastatingly handsome looks or his keen sense of humor or his state of the art notebook supercomputer. Deftly bidding up players he didn't want to extract the maximum amount of money from his competitors and picking up bargain sleepers left and right, the Bulls worked the room like a maestro. His beaten and disheveled combatants left the room shaking their heads and started making plans for next year.
Well, that might have happened in some Bizzaro-world parallel universe, but it was a nice place to visit. I was mostly happy with the decisions I made on who to keep except for one incredibly bad faux pas. Cutting Mark Prior was the toughest cut I ever had to make. I knew he wouldn't be on my team his whole career but I wanted to delay that inevitability until '07. That wasn't my mistake though. Keeping Junior "Mr. March" Spivey over Todd Walker was. I knew he was having a bad spring, but all my research was telling me that LaRussa was sticking by his man. Then like two days after the roster freeze date, that jerkoff cuts bait and goes with the hot stick, Aaron Miles. It just frosts my hide when dumbass managers make roster decisions based on a couple dozen at bats in the spring. SPRING TRAINING STATISTICS ARE MEANINGLESS!!!! There dozens of stories every spring about breakout performances against overmatched A ball pitchers and hitter in early April. None of them ever do anything in the regular season. And naturally all the literature out there was predicting that Jerry Hairston JR would be getting all the ABs at 2B. DOH!!! Stupid Dusty Baker. All those cuts left me with the most money to spend at 2.19, but as I reiterated all day long, "It's not enough".
My plan was to try to pick up a couple #1 starters and a closer or two, then concentrate on hitting. After losing out on Zambrano, Martinez and Webb, I ended up with Hudson who got crushed early but has started to turn it around in his last couple of starts. I also wanted to buy a couple of front line OF but was thwarted again and again until I was forced to overpay for Preston "Mr 200 K" Wilson. There were no bargains to be found anywhere and my chip lead was gone in no time. Even late round players were being bid up to full value. It was amazing. My endgame pitchers have been pretty disappointing so far. And I was happy to get Navarro for my 2nd catcher, though I am very disappointed that the dessicated corpse of Sandy Alomar JR is taking ABs from him. Hanley Ramirez should be an excellent source of SBs and Runs. DeVanon should be good for about a dozen more stolen bases. I haven't seen the FAAB bids yet, but I'm hoping that my .12 will be enough to pick up another 2B in Kevin Frandsen. I knew I had to get two starters there to make up for the Spivey demotion.
I was mostly happy with my reserve list picks too, except for Matt LeCroy. The guy I wanted there was already taken and I made a panic pick. All's well that ends well because I was able to claim Jorge Julio from the Stones though. Denorfia should be a nice fill-in for any Reds OF on the DL. Gross should be the starting center fielder for the Brew Crew, but Ned Yost keeps running out the ghost of 2004 Brady Clark out there instead. I missed out on my top 2 or 3 prospects but Tulowitzki was still there and it'll be nice to have a power hitting SS who plays half his games at Coors. Anibal Sanchez is a power pitcher with command of 3 pitches and is pitching great at AA. Instead of taking a flyer on a college or HS player this year, I decided to try to mine the Rookie leagues and picked up Pawelek. It might take him 5 years to get to the majors though. I tried something different and selected a couple of SSs currently on the DL for the middle part of the season. Wolf too might be a nice pitcher around the All-Star Break. The starters I selected have been mostly disappointing so far though.
I'd like to say that I'm going to contend for a money spot so I am. It's a total certainty that I'll finish in 3rd place. It's my post and I can say whatever I want. *nyah* The cynic in me says that I'll be keeping Rich company down in the 7th circle of hell, especially if I make any of these trades that the vultures circling my body are suggesting.
Well, that's it for Part One. Like Underdog, I shall return in the second half of our show. *insert Underdog theme here* It's now the middle of the 7th inning in the Cubs/Padres game and the Cubs have a grand total of *1* hit. Off of Chan Ho Park?
? Who do they think he is, Roger Clemens of Zach Duke? *sigh* Now I know why I didn't want any Cubs on my roster this year. Mahalo
Matt
Welcome, my friend to the show that never ends. We're so glad you can attend. Come inside, come inside.
Yes, it's that time again. This year I decided to get this out before the All-Star break. And since I'm spending the day on the fireboat just off Navy Pier, I won't have any pesky runs to interrupt my two mile train of thought. I usually just sleep 15-16 hours while I'm here but I'll cut that back to 9-10 today in order to get Part I at least. So without further adieu (or should I say "delay" since we're still mad at the Frenchies), here comes the Review :
DaPaul Meisters
As long time listeners know, the order I go is according to the Excel spreadsheet. In no way do I think Paul has the best team.
We start where the Draft really starts, Roster Cutdown Day. What you do that day sometimes has a profound effect on what one can do on Draft Day. The only real questionable cut I see is Scott Olsen. It's was pretty much assumed that he had locked up the the #5 spot in the Marlins rotation. He could have been an excellent keeper at .06 but Scott hadn't had his mid-life crisis yet so Paul tossed him back. He could have gambled and kept Roger Clemens @ .11 but he too was released. Paul had plenty of cap space and even a half season of Rocket Roger would be well worth the investment.His keepers were mostly solid. A couple of cheap OF, some nice starters and a future Hall of Fame 2B. Only Horacio Ramirez was a bad keeper to me. Luckily for Paul, HR got hurt early on and hasn't had a chance to torpedo the Meisters' ERA & WHIP. Paul got pretty unlucky when Brazoban underwent Tommy John surgery a couple weeks into the season. He was poised to clean up on Saves after Gagne got held back to start the year. I was surprised he didn't extend Glavine past this season though. A dime wasn't too much to gamble on his effectiveness in Shea Stadium the next two years.
After picking up a lock-down closer in Eric Gagne, Paul spent most of his remaining pennies on offense. He overpaid for Taguchi and Anderson and possibly LaRoche. One might start to get the idea that Paul and Vinny Castilla were once Siamese twins brutally separated at birth the way Vinny always seems to end up on the Meisters' roster. If Rolen can ever shake off his bronchitis, he can be a nice pickup and Mike Lieberthal was a nice pickup at 8 cents. Dannys Baez just might be the best value Paul picked up at the Draft. I do like Claussen as well though. Paul tried cornering the market on Dodger relievers by acquiring Duaner Sanchez who's been lights out so far this year. Duaner was the only player Paul cut and picked up, and saved nine cents in the process.
One of the big shocks for me was that Paul didn't pick up any Minor Leaguers this year. To me, he's only got 2 blue chip prospects in Braun & Pelfry. Neighborgall has been possessed by the spirit of Nuke LaLoosh. Anderson and Bourn (not Jason, though that would be cool)(I'd love to see Jason Kendall rush the mound against Jason Bourne and see him twist Kendall into a human sized pretzel) are pretty much the same player. Lots of speed, no power and little on base skills. One of these guys might make it, but they could easily turn into another Eric Reed, sorry Dr. Lamb. He really didn't help himself much in the rotation draft. Wandy Rodriguez could be a serviceable starter and Jose Mesa nicely raises Paul's average age comfortably into the mid 30's. Jose could vulture some saves in Coors but at what cost to his ratios?
I think Paul will spend most of the year somewhere in the middle of the pack. Nothing about his roster screams money finish to me and the best he can hope for is the #1 pick in the rotation draft.
David's Copperfields
Having the second highest payroll in the league, our esteemed Commish had to cut the fat. Sorry Dave, you knew I had to go there. You looked great in your size 32s though.
I can't even remember those heydays in my slender youth. Anyways, mission accomplished. He cut almost two whole bucks aided unfortunately by a couple of former Bulls. *sigh* I only have a minor quibble with keeping Ramon Castro, but he could pay dividends in the second half once LoDuca starts to wear down. Cliff Floyd went for .08 cents more in the draft but I guess he couldn't find any takers. He was also able to re-acquire Aaron Cook who's turning into a solid pitcher for the Rockies. Following Paul's lead, Dave drafted the best pitcher available, Mike Remlinger. OK, I'll wait for Rich to clean off his monitor. Done yet Rich? Good. I'm of course referring to Clay Hensley. Nah, Ramon Hernandez is clearly the pick of the litter here. HA, I just wanted to boost my character count so maybe I can make this a three part series.
Anyways, back to reality. I'm hoping Hernandez keeps catching Tracy's eye and steal some of Mike Gonzalez's saves. ;D He could be a very nice pickup for our league champs. Pedro should anchor his formidable rotation too. A-Ram has been a huge disappointment so far but he's got plenty of time to turn things around. Though Aramis probably misses DLee as much as Rich does. Bigbie and Finley were late round reaches, but with Cabrera & Pierre, he can afford them. Aaron Miles is slowly turning into a pumpkin and Hector Luna should pick up lots of PT there. Dave actually cut him but got him back for four cents less. Nice job. A big Bronx cheer goes out to Dave though for drafting Lance Niekro after refusing to trade me Brett Myers for him straight up in the offseason. You could have had him for a penny less dude ....I was surprised that Dave didn't draft more minor leagues, but the ones he did were excellent. Carlos Gonzalez will be in every trade discussion the Coppers and I have for the next 5-6 years. *mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha* Denker is a top 2B prospect but that's generally not a good thing. He's got pop and some plate discipline but Denker says utility player to me. Dave picked up some nice pitchers and a couple of decent OF backups though. He has a nice, deep lineup and should have plenty of options every Friday. I think his biggest mistake was not going after more Minor Leaguers. Prospects are the dominant currency in many trades in the CFCL and I think he needs more bullets to make a bunch of trades like he did at the trade deadline last year.
Dave has a solid, all around roster. He should contend for a money spot this year. With a couple of deals and some good luck, he could possibly repeat. He's got to be considered a contender and with his trading skills a threat to be taken seriously.
Lambchops
Moving along to our federally mandated double team. To comply with the Civil Rights Act of 2000, the CFCL has to have at least one team with co-owners. First it was Bruce & Harry, now it's Eric/Paul. The Chops held onto their players like the Grinch's death grip on Whoville's presents. They could only bring themselves to waive 6 players, second fewest in the league. He could have disposed of Cory Lidle and Jose Guillen with pretty easily. If he just had to have them, they most likely would have been bought back at a discount. IMO he held onto too many prospects as well. Valdez is perpetually injured and DeWitt is in danger of being passed up by better Dodger prospects. The kids that he did waive shouldn't be missed. Dopirak might have had a career year in '04 and Gwynn is one of those all speed, no hit, toolsy "talents" littering every ML system. But his biggest mistake was waiving Craig Wilson. Granted, E/P had no clue that Sean Casey would suffer a traumatic back injury, but I felt that Craig's multi-position eligibility would insure him at least 400 ABs.
Eric made an early splash by spending exactly half his budget on a pair of All-Stars (Andruw Jones & Trevor Hoffman). Both should come close to earning their salaries though. I'm just not a big fan of Trevor's anymore. Late 30's closers off drop off the map with little warning so he scares me a little. As I pointed out in my stats post, Eric spent alot of money on his pitching staff but with mixed results. Oliver Perez's 2003 looks more and more like a fluke and Lieber has been brutal so far and pitches in the worst pitcher's park east of the Mississipp. They now have 2/5 of the Phillies' starting rotation which should send shivers down Eric's spine every home stand. Odalis Perez is an excellent candidate for Comeback Player of the Year though. I so wanted to re-draft him those dang Chops kept upping the bid. *shakes fist menacingly* They also won the Aaron Miles sweepstakes which is going to look more and more like a booby prize as the year progresses. Anderson Hernandez looks like a bust, but Hatteberg is providing some early benifits.
Having locked up the most reserve spots by holding onto too many prospects and Ryan Church, Eric had the fewest reserve picks in the league so he needed to get a few players with multiple position eligibility. He did that with Neifi Freakin' Perez and Eli Marrero. He picked up a couple of interesting pitchers for depth and yet two more Minor Leaguers. Hu was a huge reach and has since been waived but Montero was one of the best catcher prospects left. With so few picks, there's not much more to say.
There's really not too much here to be enthusiastic about here. They have a couple of young players to build around in the future, but that's not going to help this year. I see the Chops in the bottom third of the league with a slight possibility to finish in the upper half.
DoorMatts
And here we have the team with the fewest players cut in the league. Bobby Abreu and Raffy Furcal freed up over .80 cents so Matt wouldn't have to pull a Copperfield and have only a quarter to spend.
Abreu went for 4 cents more in the Draft so it could be argued that he should have tried trading him to the Stones or cut others instead. Most of his keepers were very understandable but a couple, not so much. Jeromy Burnitz leads the pack in questionability to me. A very streaky hitter who is in the part of his career where one long bad streak could be his last. Right behind him are Clint Barmes and Chris Burke. Barmes has one great month last year before losing a race up a flight of stairs with a sack of venison. With Troy Tulowitzke coming up fast and Chris Nelson behind him, Clint will fall by the wayside in the very near future. When I asked my Magic 8 Ball if Clint will ever be worth .16 cents again, it answered Not Bloody Likely. It's an Old English 8 Ball ... As for Chris Burke, he might be a tad overpriced at ten cents. He's also yet another reason why I doubt I'll ever draft a Minor Leaguer at the 10 cent level again. One last thing, I was surprised he didn't extend Fuentes past the '06 season. Even at .06, Brian would return many times his salary.Matt frustrated me early with his insistence of outbidding me for my favorite pitchers going into the Draft. I really wanted Webb and am going to regret not bidding into the upper 20s. He then refused to acquiesce to my insistent bidding on Carlos Zambrano, thus increasing my frustration level. He then spent most of his remaining budget on the recalcitrant Alfonzo Soriano. Grudgingly exiled to left field, Soriano was the one AL transplant I wanted no part of. Once NL pitchers adjust to his free swinging ways, the HRs will shrivel up and he'll lose most of his value. RFK doesn't do him any favors either. With only some loose pocket change left, Matt picked up a couple of bit players to round out his lineup. The best of the bunch is Chuck James. A long reliever serving out his apprenticeship in the pen until the inevitable Jorge Sosa implosion or Horacio Ramirez blowup.
In the reserve portion, Matt picked up a couple of nice Houston prospects. Hunter Pence has a huge ceiling but is a couple of years away from contributing on the ML level. Troy Patton is one of the top lefty starters down south. One big mistake Mr. Bentel made was his lack of offensive depth as he used all but 2 of his remaining picks on pitchers. If any of his infielders get hurt, he'll have to scrounge around on the waiver wire for a replacement. Fernando Nieve and Ricky Nolasco are his best selections. Both started in middle relief, but could be above average starters if given a chance. Nieve has already moved into the rotation.
I think Matt had one of the better drafts this year. He only needed to fill 8 spots and lots of money to fill them with. He drafted two of the best available starters out there and a potential 20/20 MI. Health permitting, the DoorMatts should duke it out for a money spot. But any lost time from Oswalt or Pujols, and he'll go down faster than Paris Hilton on a British submarine filled with Austin Powers clones.
Dem Rebels (or the Royals of the CFCL)
Yes, you're going to take a beating Rich. There were two players who were kept that made me scratch my head so much I started to resemble Homer Simpson. I've alluded to Jorge Sosa in my stats post. The other pitcher was Glendon Rusch. I assumed that he would fly through winter waivers but Rich made a liar out of me. In no way is he worth a dime, even in a league with a $260 cap. He might be a guy you'd take a $1 flyer on in the end game, but keeping him at 10X that price borders on madness. Hide the women and children because what he's going to do to your ratios makes Hannibal Lector look like Emerill. Looking at the players he cut, all were expendable so no problem there. Another surprise was the two year extension of Derrick Lee. It's not indefensible though. A case can be made that Derrick would earn his salary this year and next, but you rarely see anyone with that high a salary signed to a long term contract. Also, he has just 3 players taking up over $1.00 in cap space which makes it hard to fill 16 slots come Draft day. One more minor beef I had with his keepers was his LTC with his Happy Peter AKA Pedro Feliz. Granted he has a near mortal lock on third base for the Giants but I seriously doubt he'll pay many dividends the next two years even with the herky-JERKY return of Barry Bonds. Another questionable (I'm using that word alot) keeper is Chris Duffy. Pittsburg CFs are pretty much interchangeable and he could lose time to a former Baby Bull in Nate McLouth. They're not as bad as keeping Rusch though ....
With so many spots to fill and so few pennies to spend them on, Rich was out of the bidding for most of the first couple of rounds. His biggest purchase was Isringhausen @ .28 cents. Though he picked up a more cost effective closer in Weathers for just 1/4th the price. Jason has been shaky so far but should be able to straighten things out and do some good things for Rich or whatever team he deals him to like the Ruffins.
Tony Womack was a reach but at that point in the draft, it was either him or the Nationals #8 OF. With 7 pitching slots to fill, Rich bought only one starter which only exaggerates the effect Rusch has on his ratios. The relievers he picked up are generally non-descript but effective nevertheless. Scotty "Cub Killer" Eyre has pitched in 20!! games already though. Hopefully, he won't turn into the 2006 version of Chad Fox under this workload. He didn't do himself any favors by bidding Jacque!! Jones up to 18 cents. We just might be seeing the biggest meltdown this side of Chernobyl. It wasn't a total loss as Betemit should get gobs of PT filling in for various injured Braves this year. Another team that surprised me in regards to prospect mining was the Rebels. They do have a couple of nice prospects, but they needed a bigger talent injection. Bill Bray could get load of Holds soon enough though. Rich needed to select more starters but failed to do so. Clemens was a fantastic pick but on this team he's no more than trade bait. Mark Bellhorn was another nice selection too.
Excuse me for a moment. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
M****F***ing Bobby Cox cost me yet another QS by tossing Kyle Davies out to the dogs by throwing his carcass out to give up 2 more hits in the 7th. McBride promptly lets both runners score and I get screwed again. *ggrrrrrr*
Anyways, needless to say, the Rebs won't be finishing in the money this year. Since I hope to someday make another trade with Rich, I won't say anything more.
Graging Bulls
Now we come to the 2006 Champions, the newly christened Graging Bulls. Showing terrific money management skills and shrewd decision making, the Bulls left the rest of the league in his dust. Perhaps the league was distracted by his devastatingly handsome looks or his keen sense of humor or his state of the art notebook supercomputer. Deftly bidding up players he didn't want to extract the maximum amount of money from his competitors and picking up bargain sleepers left and right, the Bulls worked the room like a maestro. His beaten and disheveled combatants left the room shaking their heads and started making plans for next year.
Well, that might have happened in some Bizzaro-world parallel universe, but it was a nice place to visit.
I was mostly happy with the decisions I made on who to keep except for one incredibly bad faux pas. Cutting Mark Prior was the toughest cut I ever had to make. I knew he wouldn't be on my team his whole career but I wanted to delay that inevitability until '07. That wasn't my mistake though. Keeping Junior "Mr. March" Spivey over Todd Walker was. I knew he was having a bad spring, but all my research was telling me that LaRussa was sticking by his man. Then like two days after the roster freeze date, that jerkoff cuts bait and goes with the hot stick, Aaron Miles. It just frosts my hide when dumbass managers make roster decisions based on a couple dozen at bats in the spring. SPRING TRAINING STATISTICS ARE MEANINGLESS!!!! There dozens of stories every spring about breakout performances against overmatched A ball pitchers and hitter in early April. None of them ever do anything in the regular season. And naturally all the literature out there was predicting that Jerry Hairston JR would be getting all the ABs at 2B. DOH!!! Stupid Dusty Baker. All those cuts left me with the most money to spend at 2.19, but as I reiterated all day long, "It's not enough".My plan was to try to pick up a couple #1 starters and a closer or two, then concentrate on hitting. After losing out on Zambrano, Martinez and Webb, I ended up with Hudson who got crushed early but has started to turn it around in his last couple of starts. I also wanted to buy a couple of front line OF but was thwarted again and again until I was forced to overpay for Preston "Mr 200 K" Wilson. There were no bargains to be found anywhere and my chip lead was gone in no time. Even late round players were being bid up to full value. It was amazing. My endgame pitchers have been pretty disappointing so far. And I was happy to get Navarro for my 2nd catcher, though I am very disappointed that the dessicated corpse of Sandy Alomar JR is taking ABs from him. Hanley Ramirez should be an excellent source of SBs and Runs. DeVanon should be good for about a dozen more stolen bases. I haven't seen the FAAB bids yet, but I'm hoping that my .12 will be enough to pick up another 2B in Kevin Frandsen. I knew I had to get two starters there to make up for the Spivey demotion.
I was mostly happy with my reserve list picks too, except for Matt LeCroy. The guy I wanted there was already taken and I made a panic pick. All's well that ends well because I was able to claim Jorge Julio from the Stones though. Denorfia should be a nice fill-in for any Reds OF on the DL. Gross should be the starting center fielder for the Brew Crew, but Ned Yost keeps running out the ghost of 2004 Brady Clark out there instead. I missed out on my top 2 or 3 prospects but Tulowitzki was still there and it'll be nice to have a power hitting SS who plays half his games at Coors. Anibal Sanchez is a power pitcher with command of 3 pitches and is pitching great at AA. Instead of taking a flyer on a college or HS player this year, I decided to try to mine the Rookie leagues and picked up Pawelek. It might take him 5 years to get to the majors though.
I tried something different and selected a couple of SSs currently on the DL for the middle part of the season. Wolf too might be a nice pitcher around the All-Star Break. The starters I selected have been mostly disappointing so far though.I'd like to say that I'm going to contend for a money spot so I am.
It's a total certainty that I'll finish in 3rd place. It's my post and I can say whatever I want. *nyah* The cynic in me says that I'll be keeping Rich company down in the 7th circle of hell, especially if I make any of these trades that the vultures circling my body are suggesting. Well, that's it for Part One. Like Underdog, I shall return in the second half of our show. *insert Underdog theme here* It's now the middle of the 7th inning in the Cubs/Padres game and the Cubs have a grand total of *1* hit. Off of Chan Ho Park?
? Who do they think he is, Roger Clemens of Zach Duke? *sigh* Now I know why I didn't want any Cubs on my roster this year. MahaloMatt
(lookit that, Rich made a funny.)