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Subject: RIBC - retrospective
Posted by: Guru
- [330592710] Mon, Oct 04, 2004, 11:20
Congrats to Peter N. for winning the first RotoGuru Invitational Baseball Challenge. The top 8 finishers win an opportunity to return for the second season next year:
1 Peter N
2 beastiemiked
3 Slackjawed Yokel
4 smartone
5 darkside
6 Species
7 jumpball
8 KrazyKoalaBears
The battle for the 8th spot was very close, with both Caper and Ref falling one point short. My 12th place finish was disappointing in the big picture, but after a horrendous start, I was glad to climb above 15th, where I spent most of the summer. If I could just wash out April altogether, I'd have finished in the top half. But alas, April counts...
If any RIBC managers would like to post any parting reflections - your best moves, what you wish you'd done differently, etc. - be my guest.
I'd also like to see the standings of the qualifying leagues. Since I get a free pass, we have seven spots to fill for next year. Once I see how the qualifying standings look, I'll make some decisions. |
| 1 | KrazyKoalaBears
Leader
ID: 517553018
Mon, Oct 04, 2004, 12:15
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2 weeks into the season, I was just hoping to not make a fool of myself in this league. I had already begun my charge towards being a Saves contender and can thank Hoffman and Cordero for putting up 90 combined saves, or 94% of my 3rd place finishing 96 team saves. I know some people punted this category, so I was more than happy to finish 3rd while essentially using just 2 roster spots. Overall, I'm very happy with my finish. My first goal was to not make a fool of myself. My second goal was to finish in the top 8. After that, everything was gravy. I didn't have too much gravy, but I've got something to work on for next year. BIG DRAFTS
Bobby Abreu - There was a lot of talk about my pick of Abreu over Sheffield, particularly with Abreu's recent decline. On the year, I ended up +1 R, -16 RBI, +35 SB, +.035 OBP, +.010 SLG by taking Abreu. The 16 RBI's would have given me 2 extra points in RBI, but that would have cost me 6 points in SB. Looks like Abreu was the right call here. Carlos Guillen - I had to double and triple-check that I actually drafted him! 17th round MI/CI pick that yielded 97 R, 97 RBI, 12 SB, .379 OBP, and .542 SLG. My second-best slugger behind Abreu. Nobody could have predicted 20 HR from Guillen, but I was a happy beneficiary. Hoffman and Cordero - As I already said, they combined for 90 saves. They also combined for 6 W and had 2.30/2.13 ERA and 0.91/1.28 WHIP and combined for just over 1 K/IP. What's not to like there? Brad Radke - Though he didn't have as many W's as I would have liked, I remember there being discussion over this pick as well at some point in time (I think it was regarding a potential trade). Well, Radke ended up with the lowest ERA he's posted in his career (3.48) and the second lowest WHIP he's posted in his career (1.16). His K/IP, though not spectacular, was his highest since 1998. All in all, I'm happy with getting him in the 12th round of such a deep draft... particularly considering I took Miguel Batista in the 8th round. BIG BUSTS
Angel Berroa - Forget that he actually got sent down to the minors at one point during the season, his 2004 was no where near his 2003 ROY performance. He was -20 R, -30 RBI, -7 SB, -.030 OBP, and -.067 SLG. Using a 5th round pick for him hurt bad. Raul Mondesi - One word: UGH! Three word: 13th round pick. One word: UGH! Jay Payton - I know, I know, he's not in COL anymore. Still, I was hoping he could maintain SOME of his power. Instead, he reverted back to his 8 HR/year (regardless of AB) self. His SLG was the worst of his career for any year with more than 15 games. Ouch! Bobby Kielty - Thankfully, he was a 24th round pick. That's the only positive to him. Miguel Batista - I was expecting big things from him, but I certainly wasn't expecting a big ERA and WHIP to the tune of 4.80 and 1.52. The 5 saves helped make up a little for only 10 wins. But nothing made up for using an 8th round pick on him. Tim Redding - So much for being the #5 starter for a stacked HOU rotation. Remind me to never listen to Jimy Williams... ever... regarding anything. Curt Leskanic - Mike MacDougal was out of the closer job, as expected, but Leskanic was horrible as a fill-in. However, none of that mattered as KAN ended up being horrible as a ballteam. 58 wins doesn't translate into a lot of save opportunities. BIG PICK-UPS
Jake Peavy - Traded straight-up for Raul Ibanez. Do I really need to say anything else? Zack Greinke - Only 8 wins, but a 3.97 ERA and 1.17 WHIP helped out quite a bit at a time when I was hurting in both categories. Matt Holliday - He played home games in COL and put up good numbers, particularly considering I dropped Jay Payton for him. Ryan Madson - Lights out when I needed him most. Rodrigo Lopez - Preferred him in the bullpen where he was helping to lower my team ERA/WHIP. BIG BONEHEAD
Rob Mackowiak - Dropped him after the COL series (05/13) for Alex Cora.
Mackowiak (MAY): 95 AB, 20 R, 24 RBI, 3 SB, .356, .621
Cora (MAY): 65 AB, 9 R, 6 RBI, 1 SB, .468, .538
Should have held onto him at least a few more series.
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| 2 | darkside
Dude
ID: 3590317
Mon, Oct 04, 2004, 15:34
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I liked my team going into the season, but soon began to worry when I realized I was very weak in most hitting categories. Having taken pitchers (RJ and Schmidt) with my first two picks, that was to be expected, but it soon had me worried that I wouldn't be able to compete at all. But, some of them came around and I made some good pickups on the waiver wire.
What I learned:
Be more patient with some guys, less with others. I was too partial to my original draftees and gave up too easily on unknowns and waiver pickups. Passing up on Lew Ford who Guru then had for the entire year, dropping Omar Infante because I thought Vina would be back soon, dropping El Duque since Moose and Brown were supposed to be back. Holding on to Gibbons, Carl Everett and Jamie Moyer were definitely mistakes.
Draft mistakes
Bagwell at #3
Javy at #4
Moyer at #10
Wickman at #12 - I played w/ fire and was burned.
Bagwell and Javy weren't bad, but they didn't produce like 3rd and 4th round picks. Moyer was just awful.
Draft successes
Mesa at #16 - easily my best draft choice!
Ohtsuka at #21 - solid whip, era, so and a few wins and saves
David Wells at #20 - solid SP to fill out my excellent staff
Rollins at #7 and A. Ramirez at #8 - both had excellent years producing above my expectations (especially after Rollins' horrible start)
RJ and Schmidt at #1 and #2 - validated my choice of them in the first 2 rounds.
Big pickups
I was the most active on the wire, but that was mainly due to impatience. But, it did pay off at times:
David Eckstein
David Wright
Aaron Rowand
Jason Werth
All performed well while I had them on my team (and I had Eckstein, Wright and Rowand for quite a while).
All in all a great amount of fun and a learning experience that I think will help improve my play next year. Thanks to all, especially Guru!
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| 3 | rockafellerskank
Dude
ID: 27652109
Mon, Oct 04, 2004, 15:49
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Guru,
Although neither of these were qualifying leagues, might I nominate the folowing league winners (or highest placing Gurupie Patron) as a participant next year. Yes, I realize I am on these lists, but i made the same nomination at the end of season #1 of RIHC on behalf of AP10. These lists also include some RIBC participants as well.
The G20 final standings can be seen here: G20 final standings
The Political Baseball Final Standings can be seen here: 2004 Political Gurupies
These were very quality leagues in roto format (though slightly different than RIBC), but the winners certainly demonstarted a high degree of baseball accumen.
Just $0.02. By the way, congrats to Peter N.
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| 4 | Species
Leader
ID: 07724916
Mon, Oct 04, 2004, 17:07
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It was quite an up-and-down year for me. I started off red-hot early on, riding Adam Dunn and Marcus Giles, to name a few....but Giles got hurt and many MANY players faltered. Thank goodness patience paid off and guys like Teixeira and Jeter went off, allowing me to salvage a 6th place finish and a guaranteed spot in next year's RIBC.
DRAFT SUCCESSES
Curt Schilling lead the majors in wins, had 200 strikeouts, a 3.26 ERA and 1.06 WHIP. Just what I wanted from my 1st round horse.
Mark Teixeira exceeded expectations in the 6th round with over 100 RBI and 100 runs with spectacular .370 OBP and .560 SLG....all this and he qualified at 3b to boot. And of course, most of that damage came in a monster 2nd half.
Adam Dunn had the best OBP and SLG of all of my draftees AND had the double-100 of RBI and runs for a great steal in the 7th round.
Marcus Giles was okay but got hurt and missed 2 months. Derek Jeter was pathetic into May, but had a monster 2nd half that carried my team (along with Teixeira).
DRAFT BUSTS!
I use an exclamation point because I had a LOT of busts!
Brian Giles has to be considered a bust. I pegged him for his 3-year averages of .427 OBP and .576 SLG, while in my mind giving him a little slack in SLG because of Petco. He gave me .374 OBP and .475 SLG! YUCK!
Greg Maddux was just a poor pick at the time I picked him in the 5th round. I should have taken a closer or went with Zambrano (who I loved). That said, I asked for 15 wins, a 3.50 ERA and 1.20 WHIP and got 16 wins, a 4.02 ERA and 1.18 WHIP, so he wasn't horrible.
Trot Nixon - I knew he was hurt, but he never got healthy and despite being a great value in round 9, was a bust because he never really contributed.
Brad Fullmer (Round 10)was going from one of the worst hitting ballparks to one of the best. But I guess he couldn't handle it and flopped worse than New Coke.
Jason Phillips (Round 11) was such a huge bust he deserves his own "bust" category. He's in the top 5 of busts in the whole league.
My "late closer" strategy - The saves that Matt Herges and Billy Koch got me were very expensive in WHIP and ERA. In the end I only had 1.5 pts in saves so I would've been MUCH better off punting from the start.
Bonehead moves of the year
Good news: I drafted Adrian Beltre.
Bad news: When he moved from 3rd in the batting order to 7th, I figured he was worthless and dumped him.
Drafting Dave Roberts over Vinny Castilla! lmao
Or....drafting Luis Ayala over Victor Martinez.
WAIVER MOVES THAT WORKED
JT Snow was incredible. OBP for the year? .429! SLG? .529?!?!?!?
Tony Womack got a lot of discussion....but he also got a lot of runs (91) and steals (26).
Justin Morneau did very well once he came up for good (.876 OPS).
Craig Monroe (.869 OPS last month) and Jay Payton (.929 OPS! last month) tore the cover off the ball once I got them.
KC catcher John Buck who came from HOU in the Beltran deal did pretty well as a fill in catcher.
El Duque was dropped after some elbow stiffness 2 or 3 starts in and I got him off waivers and he proceeded to kick ass.
MORAL TO THE STORY
Don't ever give up. I was dying on the vine and down as low as 12th I believe as late as mid-August. The right pick ups and resurgence from your existing roster can do wonders. While paling in comparison to bmd's big run, I think my team was near the top in September in overall production - especially offensively - and it carried me to a return invitation to RIBC 2005. Thank goodness!
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| 5 | loki
Dude
ID: 4211201420
Mon, Oct 04, 2004, 17:14
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Guru,
Following are the final standings for our qualifying league. Hoping for an invitation to RIBC 2005.-loki
Overview: RIBC Qualifying AAA
Season Standings View Complete Standings
Rank Team Points Pts Change Waiver Moves
1 Oaktown Jermainiacs 128 +3 15 58
2 Down in Flames 124.5 +1.5 16 31
3 loki 104 0 5 61
4 The Say EH Kid 101.5 +2 11 23
5 Blade Runners 93 -1 13 24
5 azdbacker 93 -2.5 9 41
7 JeffG AAA 91 -1 3 30
8 Dilligads 82 -1 1 66
9 Donkey Hunters 77.5 -0.5 2 1
10 Fun Loving Criminals 76 +1 4 10
11 Pink's Pimp's 75.5 +1.5 7 57
12 Mikel's Name of Team 74.5 -1.5 6 4
13 Leicester Cubbies 69 -2 8 17
14 Twarpy's Tdotters 63 +1 12 14
15 Perm Duders 56 +0.5 10 33
16 Ragamuffin Sluggers 51.5 -1 14 29
= on Yahoo! Messenger now
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| 6 | youngroman
ID: 298482214
Mon, Oct 04, 2004, 17:26
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Guru - the results of the 3rd qualifying league can be found here (in post 100)
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| 7 | Ref
Donor
ID: 539581218
Mon, Oct 04, 2004, 22:50
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My draft wasn't very good. Injuries and outright busts plagued my lineup.
#2 Delgado's s-l-o-w start and injury was devastating. #3 Smoltz started off slow as well but picked it up. #4 Oswalt: see above. #5 Green, slow start and never really got it going as I'd thought. #6 Reyes' injury just killed me. #7 Loaiza was just bad #8 Pods--who knew he wasn't going to be able to hit after his fast start. He did get his steals...when he could get on base!!!
Manny at #1, Varitek and Kolb at #9 and #10 were good. The rest of my draft either stunk or were injured or both.
Best FA pickup J. Wilson. He gets 200 hits. Who would have thought?
My pitchers couldn't get the wins it needed. Couldn't strike anyone out. The guys I had to try cost me big in ERA and WHIP.
The injuries to Reyes and Hairston hurt even more as I couldn't find a 2B, SS and MI at one time. Benches were short so injured players filled those up and it was impossible it seems to find a trade partner that had an extra MI that needed something I had extras of (namely CIs). Also my plethora of SP who couldn't win or strike out anyone put my innings way over the projected max early. Guys like Suppan, Oswalt, Loaiza etc. were just not getting it done and I couldn't recover. At least Oswalt got a few Ks.
As bad as this seems, I was still in 2nd place somehow when I started being a little risky and take some chances to make a run at Pete. That turned into a freefall. Accidently dropping the wrong Hairston really hurt me for a couple weeks. But then he didn't get the memo that he wasn't on my team anymore I guess because he got hurt again.
In the end, it was a great league and very competitive which I love. But ultimately, being handcuffed from bad draft picks and injuries just proved too much. Bouncing back though out of 14th place to tie for 9th was a real victory for me after the horrid freefall. One point out of 8th, but again I still feel like a winner.
Thanks again guys for a great league and Grats again to Pete for dominating all of us!!!
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| 8 | J
Leader
ID: 49346417
Mon, Oct 04, 2004, 22:56
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My only good move of the year: plucking Beltre off the WW.
Thanks for the opportunity, but my terrible draft, combined with my lack of true internet access at work was too much for me to overcome!!!!
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| 9 | blue hen
ID: 353412123
Mon, Oct 04, 2004, 23:56
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I don't have as much to say as some of the other guys. It was hard to keep up with this team when I fell out of contention, especially with some tight races in other leagues. That said, the managers at the top of this league are some of the best that I've ever played with, especially PeterN and Beastiemiked. I knew it would be a challenge, and it was. Everyone should pat yourself on the back, just for being selected. Except Guru - he selected himself.
As for my crappy team, it was more about great picks and crappy picks - not much in between. I struggled at the middle infield (all three slots) all season long, and I maintain that was more of a killer than my first two picks. Which brings me to:
The Bad
Mark Prior and Jason Giambi. Without first and second round type production, I was dead from the start. And nobody saw it coming, either, I don't think. Well, not that they told me.
Rickie Weeks also fits here. He was supposed to solve my middle infield problems. I should have stuck with Alex Gonzalez.
Troy Glaus was leading the majors in homers when he got hurt.
The Good
Oliver Perez, Roger Clemens, Mariano Rivera. Rivera was an excellent pick - started a closer run that included Joe Borowski.
Clemens was a guy I didn't think I'd get and I really wanted. You just had to know this guy was going to be huge. He's Nolan Ryan, only better.
Olly, naturally, was my best pick in every league that I got him. In the mock draft, I took Olly and Peavy back to back much earlier than I got him here. Chris kept convincing me I could wait. I'm glad I didn't wait too long.
For the record, Jesse Crain finished strong, so I feel a little better.
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| 10 | Matt S
ID: 5195150
Tue, Oct 05, 2004, 03:09
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Here's the results of the #2 league. STLCards was just too much in the second half for me to catch him. Congrats to him for having such a dominant team.
Season Standings View Complete Standings
Rank Team Points Pts Change Waiver Moves
1 StL Cards 136.5 -1 13 35
2 The Burrill Clan 129 -1.5 12 66
3 Toral Maple Leafs 118 +1 14 151
4 ProudestMonkey 104.5 +3.5 3 50
5 Khahan's Killers 101 +1.5 7 31
6 UpChuckers 94.5 -0.5 9 25
7 GoatLockers Slugs 89.5 -2 1 10
8 SANFORDORS BATS 88.5 +0.5 16 35
9 WG 79.5 +0.5 15 66
10 Delmarva Rockfisher 79 0 8 31
11 Pokerface Destroyers 70 -0.5 2 4
12 wiggs 63.5 -2 4 2
13 Roguing Rogues 58 0 5 19
14 GF's BrewCrew 53.5 -1 6 18
15 deepsnapper 47.5 0 11 35
15 Baldwin's Berserkers 47.5 +1.5 10 24
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| 11 | StLCards
Leader
ID: 31010716
Tue, Oct 05, 2004, 14:47
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The post in 10 above is for RQL #1.
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| 12 | Guru
ID: 330592710
Mon, Nov 01, 2004, 12:20
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I'm considering taking the top 2 from each of the qualifying leagues. Some of the team names are easy to identify, but some are not. Can someone please identify the manager of each of the following teams:
Oaktown Jermaniacs
Down in Flames
The Burrill Clan
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| 13 | Dave R
Dude
ID: 3010361110
Mon, Nov 01, 2004, 12:30
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I believe the Burrill Clan is Matt S
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| 14 | blue hen
ID: 372102211
Mon, Nov 01, 2004, 12:52
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Oaktown Jermainiacs has several names:
Mach
Ichiro
Athletics_Guy
Raider_Guy
Guy_Smiley
For what it's worth, I'd give him my full endorsement for RIBC.
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| 15 | JeffG
Leader
ID: 1584348
Mon, Nov 01, 2004, 13:34
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From RIBC #2
Oaktown Jermaniacs is the gurupie known as Athletics Guy, Down in Flames is gurupie Chris.
I will send an email to Guru with both of these guy's email addresses as listed in our league managers tools.
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| 16 | ProudestMonkey
ID: 429141414
Fri, Nov 05, 2004, 19:00
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Surely the 4th best team in the original RQL must be better than the top option in one of the other qualifying leagues?? ;)
In all seriousness, it was a ton of fun competing against a group of guys that really take their fantasy sports seriously. If I hadn't banked the saves category on Rhodes And Borkowski I bet I would have finished 2nd/3rd. Bad guess work on my part there.
I hope that we keep this going and maybe I can qualify for the big leagues next year...
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| 17 | Matt S
ID: 4165223
Mon, Nov 15, 2004, 13:56
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Correct, the Burril Clan is my team. Thank you for the invite. It would be an honour to participate next year in your league, Guru.
Matt S
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