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Subject: RIBC 2007: Retrospective
Posted by: Guru
- [330592710] Mon, Oct 01, 2007, 10:21
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 final standings of the qualifying leagues. It's helpful to consolidate that info all in one thread, to facilitate decisions about next year. Final Standings:
| Standings through games of Sep 30 |
|---|
| Rank | Team | R | RBI | SB | OBP | SLG | W | SV | K | ERA | WHIP | TOTAL |
|---|
| 1 | StLCards | 15 | 14 | 13 | 15 | 16 | 14 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 10 | 127 | | 2 | SANFORDORS | 11 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 12 | 10 | 11 | 16 | 14.5 | 16 | 116.5 | | 3 | Building 7 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 9.5 | 11 | 7 | 16 | 12 | 2 | 6.5 | 111 | | 4 | Tosh | 14 | 15 | 14 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 15 | 13 | 13 | 10 | 108 | | 5 | Blue Hen | 13 | 3 | 5 | 11.5 | 5 | 12.5 | 12 | 15 | 16 | 14.5 | 107.5 | | 6 | Flying Polack | 4 | 4 | 11 | 13 | 13.5 | 11 | 4.5 | 11 | 12 | 12.5 | 96.5 | | 7 | Chicago Serbs | 3 | 13 | 6 | 16 | 13.5 | 2 | 9 | 3 | 14.5 | 14.5 | 94.5 | | 8 | RotoGuru.com | 2 | 5.5 | 10 | 9.5 | 4 | 12.5 | 14 | 14 | 7 | 10 | 88.5 | | 9 | HOLT | 9 | 9 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 8.5 | 13 | 8 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 83.5 | | 10 | Filthy Ribc | 12 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 2.5 | 15.5 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 80 | | 11 | Oaktown A's | 8 | 10 | 3 | 14 | 15 | 5 | 3 | 4.5 | 3 | 6.5 | 72 | | 12 | Peter N. | 6 | 5.5 | 2 | 11.5 | 9.5 | 15.5 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 3.5 | 64.5 | | 13 | Kafenatid.net | 10 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 3.5 | 6 | 7 | 10 | 12.5 | 64 | | 14 | Philly Phanatic | 5 | 11 | 4 | 7 | 9.5 | 8.5 | 4.5 | 2 | 4.5 | 2 | 58 | | 15 | Day Trippers | 7 | 2 | 16 | 3 | 6 | 3.5 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 55.5 | | 16 | Rangers_Homer | 1 | 1 | 9 | 4 | 2.5 | 1 | 8 | 4.5 | 1 | 1 | 33 |
| Stats through games of Sep 30 |
|---|
| Rank | Team | R | RBI | SB | OBP | SLG | W | SV | K | ERA | WHIP | IP | AB |
|---|
| 1 | StLCards | 1060 | 1028 | 167 | .360 | .468 | 91 | 74 | 1055 | 3.90 | 1.30 | 1226.2 | 6681 | | 2 | SANFORDORS | 1004 | 984 | 127 | .349 | .462 | 83 | 77 | 1147 | 3.69 | 1.24 | 1344 | 6420 | | 3 | Building 7 | 1081 | 1078 | 183 | .354 | .453 | 77 | 108 | 1084 | 4.43 | 1.33 | 1385 | 7038 | | 4 | Tosh | 1045 | 1045 | 177 | .334 | .445 | 76 | 102 | 1085 | 3.71 | 1.30 | 1344.1 | 7275 | | 5 | Blue Hen | 1020 | 861 | 113 | .355 | .438 | 88 | 81 | 1123 | 3.66 | 1.27 | 1309.1 | 6508 | | 6 | Flying Polack | 953 | 896 | 140 | .356 | .464 | 87 | 50 | 1075 | 3.84 | 1.29 | 1275.2 | 6173 | | 7 | Chicago Serbs | 945 | 1008 | 116 | .365 | .464 | 71 | 68 | 998 | 3.69 | 1.27 | 1328.1 | 6467 | | 8 | RotoGuru.com | 935 | 901 | 137 | .354 | .434 | 88 | 98 | 1106 | 4.16 | 1.30 | 1359.1 | 6432 | | 9 | HOLT | 989 | 950 | 147 | .352 | .446 | 81 | 94 | 1048 | 4.21 | 1.36 | 1354.2 | 6790 | | 10 | Filthy Ribc | 1006 | 938 | 117 | .337 | .432 | 93 | 61 | 1070 | 4.04 | 1.31 | 1371 | 6715 | | 11 | Oaktown A's | 977 | 954 | 108 | .359 | .465 | 75 | 44 | 1018 | 4.28 | 1.33 | 1267 | 6535 | | 12 | Peter N. | 963 | 901 | 99 | .355 | .451 | 93 | 36 | 852 | 4.14 | 1.36 | 1292.2 | 6544 | | 13 | Kafenatid.net | 995 | 941 | 90 | .343 | .431 | 74 | 60 | 1035 | 3.98 | 1.29 | 1184.2 | 6781 | | 14 | Philly Phanatic | 960 | 969 | 110 | .351 | .451 | 81 | 50 | 966 | 4.21 | 1.39 | 1343.1 | 6842 | | 15 | Day Trippers | 973 | 830 | 203 | .338 | .443 | 74 | 35 | 1031 | 4.18 | 1.34 | 1254 | 6395 | | 16 | Rangers_Homer | 934 | 827 | 131 | .339 | .432 | 61 | 64 | 1018 | 4.53 | 1.40 | 1277.1 | 6492 |
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| 1 | blue hen
ID: 16322314
Mon, Oct 01, 2007, 11:20
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The Goal
My goal, as always, was to finish high enough to participate in RIBC 2008. With the second AAA league, the standard has risen, so I knew it would take some doing this season.
The Plan
I typically win two categories: on-base percentage and strikeouts. That's in line with my typical strategy: get players with high OBPs and pitchers who strike people out. Additionally, I try to concentrate on firepower early, and get hitters rather than the middle infielder who might look like a decent early pick. Then, in the middle rounds, I get strikeout pitchers, preferably who play in the National League, possibly in pitchers' parks, and on good teams. Also, I try to skimp on starting pitchers because I feel like you can make those innings up later. Finally, I try to keep up in saves, with at least one superstar closer.
The Execution
It went pretty well at the draft. My first three picks were David Ortiz, Jason Bay, and Francisco Rodriguez. I had a nice base of offense with two guys who walk a ton, and the superstar closer I coveted. From there, I had some issues, but came out of the draft with four NL strikeout-centric pitchers: Cole Hamels, Matt Cain, Ted Lilly, and Doug Davis. I would later snag Orlando Hernandez off waivers to make a very fearsome fivesome.
Best Picks
1. Chipper Jones (5.9)
2. Ted Lilly (15.9)
3. Jason Varitek (19.4 via trade)
4. Francisco Rodriguez (3.9)
5. Jeremy Hermida (12.8)
HM. Matt Kemp (25.9) and Luis Gonzalez (22.8)
The Revision
Sometimes things don't always go as planned. Here are the trades I made:
- Aug 26: Acquired J.J. Hardy for Manny Corpas
- Aug 1: Acquired Kenji Johjima, Brandon Webb, and Kevin Millar for Ted Lilly and Jason Varitek
- Draft: Acquired pick 19.4 (Jason Varitek) for draft picks.
Webb, as we know, was great, giving me 8 wins down the stretch. Hardy was not as great, although his .429 SLG was decent for a middle infielder. Johjima was a great catch, going .377/.462 in 145 AB.
And here are some waiver claims:
- Sept 19: Josh Fields (.394/.679)
- Sept 17: Micah Owings (CG shutout in spot start)
- Jul 23: Moises Alou (.406/.561)
- Jun 30: Manny Corpas (0.93 ERA, 11 sv)
- Jun 3: Melvin Mora (.360/.411)
- May 24: Antonio Alfonseca (3.38 ERA, 8 sv)
- March 28: Orlando Hernandez (1.17 WHIP, 128 K in 147 IP)
I also didn't make several trades, and I missed out on Jose Valverde, Felipe Lopez, Lance Berkman, Jose Reyes, Troy Glaus, and probably many others.
The Result
I met my goal, finishing well enough to be asked back (if you'll have me). I won with pitching, both from the guys I drafted, but also with the trade-acquired Webb (who makes Lilly my most important pick), the waiver-picked El Duque, and some spot starts, including Owings/Contreras/Wandy combining for 26 IP and 1 ER over 3 days. My hitting struggled, mostly due to Bay and Wells, two of my first two picks. But guys like Hermida and Gonzalez were solid all season, and I was able to match those guys up with studs like Chipper and Alou to cobble some hitting together.
The Conclusion
Fantasy baseball is all about tenacity, and I tried to be tenacious as possible. I think that's why I did well. But I definitely owe a debt of gratitude to Ref, Twarpy, and I Hate Philly, who aren't in the league, and to StLCards and Mach, who were, for their ears during this season. It was fun, and even though the Phillies are in the playoffs, I'll miss the regular season. See you guys the first week of January for the earlybird draft.
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| 2 | JeffG
Leader
ID: 01584348
Mon, Oct 01, 2007, 12:26
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RIBC AAA Pacific Coast final standings
1. JL - 114.5
2. slackjawed yokels - 109.5
3. JeffG AAA - 108.5
4. Andrew's Athletes - 103.5
5. Allhair goes yard - 102.0
6. darkside of the moon - 95.0
7. who is ksoze? - 90.5
8. Da Bomb Squad - 87.5
8. Weykool - 87.5
10. Toral Wheatfarmers - 83.0
11. Hoboken Zephers (loki) - 74.5
12. MBT Popouts - 72.0
13. Cobwebs - 68.5
14. Smith32 - 61.5
15. Concho Renegades - 51.5
16. Endangered Species - 50.5
Details are here
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| 3 | mjd
Leader
ID: 501381415
Mon, Oct 01, 2007, 14:38
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RIBC AAA International League Final Standings
1. Taxman-125.5
2. Bash Brothers-116
3. Uptown Bombers-112.5
3. RoboGuru-112.5
5. TD-112
6. Bandos-106.5
7. Aggy-103
8. Hubble-91.5
9. JKaye-77.5
10. Mudge-72
11. Fosten-65.5
12. Electroman-62
13. mjd-58
14. jumpball-54.5
15. wolfer-51.5
16. wazaaap guy-39.5
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| 4 | Khahan
ID: 486552412
Mon, Oct 01, 2007, 14:43
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RIBC AA Eastern League:
1. The Red Scorpions 140
2. I Hate Philadelphia 118
3. R9's Crazy Crazies 115
4. Mikel's Seawolves 105.5
5. Sandwich Statics 102
6. Annihilators deux 101.5
7. Khahan's Killers 85
8. Nerfherders 81.5
9. youngroman's Luschen 78
10. wiggs 66.5
11. Tree says GO2SLEEP 66
12. Roll of the Dice-K? 64.5
13. philflyboy 62
14. Jack Hammers 61
15. Astade 58.5
16. dayton dragons 55
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| 5 | StLCards
Dude
ID: 31010716
Mon, Oct 01, 2007, 17:21
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Retrospective:
Needless to say a lot of things went right for me this year. Having 2 Cy Young favorites and a sure MVP didn't hurt. ARod was undoubtedly the best move and I'm glad I didn't pay attention to pre-season rankings that showed him 4th at best overall. As it turned out, taking the 2nd draft pick overall was my best move. Reading over my "What would you do over" part of my draft recap I said I would have opted for the 9th draft spot so I could take Wright/Bay. Glad we didn't get do-overs.
My strategy of taking a top hitter, pitcher, and closer with my first 3 picks worked out better than I could have hoped. Peavy had an incredible rebound year and Nathan was very strong. I almost didn't even draft Beckett as I was looking at Mussina there, but he had gotten taken at 11.01. Funny how little things like that can change a season, not to mention getting a Cy Young candidate with pick 12.15.
I think the real key to my team though was depth. I tried to get strong players with multiple position eligibilty so I would be able to cover whatever injuries came along. To that end I had Sheff(1B,OF), Kent(1B,2B), and Glaus(SS,3B) who were guys I could move around as needed. Kent and Glaus were especially useful as MI with power.
A couple of key in-season pickups also helped, namely Tulowitzki, Garrett Anderson, and Jeff Francis. Tulo was pretty awful when I got him as a reserve SS, but I was just hoping he'd come out of it. I took Anderson when he was hurt, but really wanted his decent power numbers in the OF and figured it was hard to go wrong with the clean-up hitter on the Angels. Little did I know he'd go on a huge streak later in the season.
When first Schmidt and then Wolf were lost for the season I got a bit panicked and thought for sure I was going to have to make a trade, but getting Francis shoared up my rotation where I didn't have to make a move. I was also concerned about saves as I had Nathan and Torres but thought I needed 3 to be in the top 5 of saves. I traded away Garko for Hennessey who did just enough to keep me in the middle of the pack in saves and I ended up needing him since Torres lost his job.
I had several opporunities to make a trade but most offers included me sending one or more of my power middle infielders and I just deemed them too valuable. Getting out to the strong start thanks to ARod made it easier for me to just play it safe and not be too aggressive. Blue Hen and I tried multiple times to make some kind of deal but I just felt like I didn't have that many holes that I needed to worry about and felt I could survive in pitching based on the strenght of Peavy, Beckett, and Nathan. At one point about mid-season my pitchers went into a big funk and my pitching points and lead started dwindling. I realized down the stretch pitching was going to be tough so I picked up Zumaya while he was still injured hoping he would return and help me with whip and era. I later picked up Tankersly for the same reason.
I don't feel like I did anything special but did get lucky with only having a few injuries and having the depth to weather them out. I'm pretty sure I was about as active as you could be, checking the site every single day looking for ways to improve my team. I decided not to worry about what other teams were doing when they started closing the gap on me, rather I monitored each category and only made a move when I saw something of concern.
It was a great year and certainly some very tough competition. I wasn't sure I would be able to hold that lead most of the year like I did, and was certainly glad it didn't slip away in the second half like I was worried about. Certainly looking forward to next year and defending the title. I'm not getting my hopes up too high though as there seems to be a new winner each year.
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| 6 | KrazyKoalaBears
ID: 228512619
Mon, Oct 01, 2007, 19:17
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There were a number of factors that made this baseball season one of my worst in some time. Limited access to my team and a busy life just kept me away at inopportune times. That said, I feel good about fighting my way out of the cellar and finishing 13th (14th, if the league were a hotel), all things considered.
Best Picks
There weren't many of them, but...
Bobby Abreu (1.14): With the 14th pick in the draft, I got the #4 player in Runs, 101 RBI, 25 SB, and an okay OPS. True, he performed about to his draft pick, but that was considered great for my team.
Eric Bedard (8.03): Before going down with an injury, Bedard provided me with 13 W, 221 K (10.93 K/9), 3.16 ERA, and 1.09 WHIP. He completely outperformed his draft slot.
Chad Billingsley (25.14): Almost the last pick of the draft. He posted 12 W, 140 K (8.65 K/9), 3.09 ERA, and 1.28 WHIP. Just not for me... (more on that later)
Realistically, that's about it... which is why I finished 13th.
Worst Picks
Though there were plenty of bad ones, I'm only going with the worst...
Chris Carpenter (2.03): 6 IP. Enough said.
Houston Street (4.03): 16 Saves. Enough said.
Ryan Zimmerman (6.03): While he had 99 Runs, he only had 91 RBI (-19 from last year), 4 SB (-7), and a 792 OPS (-.030). I was picking for a breakout and it never materialized.
Carlos Quentin (11.14): 225 AB at .637 OPS.
Honorable Mentions go to Todd Helton (5.14, too high), Ray Durham (10.03), Boof Bonser (14.03), Wes Helms (15.14), Jose Contreras (16.03), and Juan Rincon (19.14).
Best Moves
Again, there weren't many of these either...
Rick Ankiel: He provided some much-needed offense for my team. It wasn't spectacular, but it's what I needed.
Heath Bell: Great K/9, ERA, and WHIP, plus a few W and Sv.
Juan Rincon: I dropped him before he completely killed my ERA/WHIP.
Worst Moves
Plenty of these...
Casey Blake: I traded him for an injured pitcher who was instantly re-injured (Burnett). I got some good late work out of Burnett, but losing Blake hurt my offense too much.
Chad Billingsley: Seriously, how do I drop one of the steals of the draft? Because I drafted him as a starter and he wasn't starting soon enough for my liking. That'll learn me.
And there were too many bad pickups to list. Ugh.
Final Thoughts
I felt like I kept shooting myself in the foot and looking back on my draft and my moves, I pretty much was doing that all season long. My draft was only horrible in hindsight, in my opinion at least, but the saying goes, "you can't win your league with your draft, but you can lose it," and I proved that right.
Despite all that, I still look forward to next baseball season and hope to play myself back into RIBC 2009.
Congrats to all who made it into RIBC 2008!
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| 7 | Flying Polack
Sustainer
ID: 378582811
Thu, Oct 04, 2007, 10:10
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Wow, what a grind. This was definitely the most competitive league I've ever played in, it was uncanny how I'd come up with an idea for a sleeper, thinking he'd be on the waiver wire, only to find him on another teams roster already.
Finishing 6th is a bummer because only the Top 5 are guaranteed a return; hopefully I'll get a chance.
Strategy My draft plan was to focus on hitters and starting pitching, compete in the 9 categories they provide and work the waiver wire and trade market for saves.
It worked fairly well, I did very well in the % categories but, the problem was I couldn't find enough AB's. I was also pretty pleased with my pitching stats, I wanted to avoid last place in saves, ended up tied for 13th so that was okay. Next year I'll probably make sure I come out of the draft with a closer.
Best Picks
Prince Fielder (4.11) - Amazing season for Prince. Not much too say, it's between him and Brandon Webb (4.02) for the best 4th round pick.
Barry Bonds (7.12) - This was a great pick, but also a source of one my teams problems, not enough AB's! I'm on the computer in the morning, not the evening. I wouldn't recommend owning Barry if that is your schedule. I could never get online to actually see if he was playing. Still .480/.565 from my 7th round pick was more than I hoped for in the draft.
Kelvim Escobar (11.06) - Always a favorite of mine, had his best season to-date.
Corey Hart (13.06) and Curtis Granderson (14.11) - Back-to-back I got 2 of the best young outfielders in the game. Both of them had solid OB% and SLG% along with 20 plus steals. Wish Hart would've been a full-time player earlier, I could've used those 100 additional AB's (Milwaukee could've used them too).
Oliver Perez (17.06) - He had a nice season 15 wins, almost a K/inning, 3.56 ERA and 1.31 WHIP. That was about the best case scenario when I drafted him.
Worsk Picks
Joe Mauer (2.11) - His OBP% was great, but he didn't get enough AB's. That's always the risk with catchers; I was never able to replace them because I couldn't carry 2 catchers with the roster limitations. Jimmy Rollins (2.12), Matt Holliday (2.13) or Jake Peavy (2.15) would've made a huge difference here. Ouch!
Ryan Freel (8.05) - I hoped he would excel in a full-time role, but he ended up with a very injury plagued season. This pick looks pretty bad considering Aaron Harang (8.06) and Jonathan Papelbon (8.07) were the next two picks.
Stephen Drew (9.06) - I expected more out of him than .313/.370. I can't believe I didn't have more faith in my Tiger, Justin Verlander (9.12).
Joel Zumaya (12.11) - Obviously it's difficult to predict injuries, I'm only putting this one down because of Josh Beckett (12.15). I remember looking at Beckett as early as the 8th round, but never pulling the trigger.
Brandon Inge (20.11) - I swear I drafted Mike Lowell (21.01) who went .378/.501. Inge was a pathetic .312/.376 and I was too much of a homer to drop him.
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| 8 | Guru
ID: 330592710
Thu, Oct 04, 2007, 10:28
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Here are the AA Sally League standings
1. Coldwater Coyotes 138 0 13 99
2. Donkey Hunter 130 1 15 19
3. Papa's Cubs 123 -0.5 11 68
4. Annihilators 97 3.5 1 17
5. gurudan 96 1 7 80
6. GoatLockers Bums 95 -2 12 14
7. Dilligad 89 -0.5 3 46
8. johnsrw14 86 1 16 52
9. Tired Knees 85 -1 4 25
10. Valkyrie13 78.5 -0.5 10 23
11. FTF Polar Bears 74 0 2 30
11. Psychos 74 -0.5 5 35
13. Tequila's monkeys 64.5 0.5 8 74
14. Tigers Strike Back 43.5 -0.5 14 40
14. Norfolk Neptunes 43.5 -0.5 6 13
16. smallwhirled 43 -1 9 2
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| 9 | I hate Philadelphia
ID: 114211415
Thu, Oct 04, 2007, 11:36
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I just looked at my draft and I'm dumfounded at how well my team finished. Out of the 25 picks in the draft I easily could qualify 12 of them as terrible:
2.13 Vernon Wells I could have had Jimmy Rollins here, and actually instantly regretted it.
8.13 Tom Gordon
9.04 Barry Zito I only had Peavy as a starting pitcher at this point so I felt as though I needed someone else. While that would prove true during the season, he wasnn't the guy
12.13 Marcus Giles My first MI so it made sense, to bad he played terribly
13.04 Scott Olsen I was expecting big things from him this year, and while he has great stuff he just seems too immature to pitch in the majors
15.04 Pedro Martinez Still weak on pitching I figured a good 12 - 15 starts from Pedro could help, too bad he got me 5
16.13 Jim Edmonds useless
17.04 Matt Lindstrom spent most of the year hurt
18.13 Mike Pelfrey By the time he produced anythign he was off my team
21.04 Nick Punto
22.13 Luke Scott
23.04 Braad Wilkerson
The lone good things in my season were:
1.04 Arod
5.04 Chipper
6.13 Helton
14.13 Alou
20.13 Gorzellany
Great Pickups through the season included: James Loney, Reggie Willits, Hunter Pence, Mark Ellis, Jeremy Accardo, Raphael Betancourt.
But what made my season was my trade to get back into the pitching categories. On July 25th, knowing I had to shake things up I traded Vernon Wells, Reggie Willits and Bobby Jenks for Scott Kazmir, Felix Hernandez and Phillip Hughes.
All in all disaster averted. Next year with an average draft I plan on making some noise.
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| 10 | Guru
ID: 330592710
Fri, Oct 05, 2007, 11:38
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For the second year in a row, my teams biggest problem can be summed up in one word: April. I was dismal in April. From May 1st on, the team ranked 5th overall. Some of the April problems were attributable to slow starts by players, but some were self inflicted, attributable to drafted players who had to be dumped.
On the hitting side, I had a few overachievers, the most notable being Eric Byrnes at 103-83-50-.353-.451. Those 50 steals were particularly unexpected. I had him pegged for about 18. Russell Martin also came in better than expected, although his performance slacked off somewhat in September. Still, 21 steals from the catcher slot was about double my projection.
Some hitters came in close to expectations, including Youkilis, Burrell (crappy first half, great 2nd half), & Ethier. Conor Jacks put up the averages I wanted, but failed to become an everyday player.
And then the disappointments. Hafner never earned his 1st round pick. Jeter wasn’t as productive as I hoped. Jermaine Dye was very pedestrian. Felipe Lopez disappointed. And Ryan Shealy was a bust.
I did deal away Carlos Guillen for Papelbon, and I think that worked out OK, although I’m not going to do any detailed analysis. I used a combo of Biggio and Esteban German to fill Guillen’s slot, and that hurt – but Papelbon probably gained those points back.
On the pitching side, Verlander overachieved, and Wagner and Cordero combined for the expted saves, although their ERAs and WHIPs were higher than I expected. Derek Lowe actually overachieved a bit in spite of some downtime. I got 20 extra Ks from him in 20 fewer IP than projected. While guys like Freddy Garcia, Jeremy Sowers, Cliff Lee, and Jake Westbrook all faltered early, I nabbed Wakefield and Carmona as free agents early, and they both provided solid contribution – particularly Carmona, who started strong, and
Never came back to earth. All told, my pitching stats were above average (57.5 out of a potential 80 ranking points), and since I waited until late to draft pitchers, I feel like that aspect of my strategy was vindicated.
So hitting was the primary reason for my mediocrity. I’m not sure whether that was due to bad drafting, or unlucky drafting, or inattentive free agent watching – but somehow, with 9 of my first 12 draft picks being hitters, I should have fared better.
Best draft picks:
Byrnes (15.12)
Russ Martin (11.12)
Verlander (9.12)
Worst picks:
Dye (5.12)
Hafner (1.12)
Felipe Lopez (7.06)
Freddy Garcia (13.12)
Best pickups:
Carmona
Wakefield
Looks like the odd rounders were at the extremes.
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| 11 | Guru
ID: 330592710
Fri, Oct 05, 2007, 12:51
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I did this quickly, simply eyeballing the draft by round, trying to figure out the best pick of each round, excluding round 1. Round 12 was the killer round with both Magglio and Beckett taken in that round!
Here's my preminary list:
2 Holliday
3 Putz
4 Fielder
5 Saito
6 Sabathia
7 Hamels
8 A.Gonzalez
9 Verlander
10 B. Phillips
11 R. Martin
12 Magglio
13 Hardy
14 Penny
15 Byrnes
16 Wang
17 Blake
18 Pedroia
19 Rowand
20 Al Reyes
21 Lowell
22 G.Anderson
23 Betancourt
24 Loney
25 Billingsley
X Carmona
If you would have drafted this team by simply taking each player one round earlier than this, here's the lineup:
C R. Martin
1B Fielder
2B B. Phillips
SS Hardy
3B Lowell
CI Blake
MI Pedroia
OF Holliday
OF Magglio
OF Byrnes
OF Rowand
Util A.Gonzalez
Bench G.Anderson
Bench Loney
SP Verlander
RP Putz
P Saito
P Penny
P Wang
P Al Reyes
P Betancourt
P Hamels
P Sabathia
Bench Billingsley
Bench Carmona
I haven't figured out how that team would have done, but I'll bet it would have lapped the league. And I'm sure I didn't pick out the optimum choice in some rounds.
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| 12 | Dave R
SuperDude
ID: 3010361110
Sat, Oct 06, 2007, 22:36
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First of all, kudo's to StLCards. Wonderful job from start to finish.
Much the same as Guru, April was an awful month for team SANFORDORS. Ranking nearly dead last in 4 of 5 offensive categories can largely be attributed to my own fault, stubbornly sticking with part time players or struggling players, such as Emil Brown, Nelson Cruz, Josh Barfield. Coupling poor performances along with sporadic AB's hampered my team greatly at the onset, and left me at the end lacking in games played at nearly every position ( and behind most teams in AB's ). Oh, and Ryan Howard's slow start didn't help either.
But after May 1, my team ( or the manager ) woke up, and, filtered from 5/1 my team was overall #1, and actually ranked #1 filtered from the beginning of each subsequent month. Pitching was solid all season, ranking 1st in K's, and WHIP and tied for 2nd in ERA. A few more wins would have been nice, but it may have been at the expense of the ratio cats. We all had injury problems but losing a 3rd round pick ( BJ Ryan ) early really hurt. If he hadn't, and managed 32 saves ( not unrealistic ), I would have finished 1st in that cat as well and garnered 5 more points. Still not enough to pass StLCards, though.
Best Picks:
Jimmy Rollins ( 2.12 ) League MVP ( ? ) and my MVP
Ryan Howard ( 1.05 ) Amazing 2nd Half surge
Jose Valverde ( 9.05 ) 47 Saves
Javier Vazquez (10.12 ) 15 wins, nearly a K / inning
Mark Ellis ( 25.05) what can you say, he ended up ranked 140th overall for the season
Worst Picks:
Johnny Damon ( 4.12 ) Oft injured or rested
Josh Barfield (8.12 )
Best Pickups:
Carlos Pena ( subsequently traded for MI and OF help )
X. Nady ( until injuries limited him late )
In reviewing my whole draft rounds 1-12, for the most part, performed as good or better than I hoped. But for the 2nd year in a row, most of the picks I made in the 2nd half of the draft just didn't pan out and, only 4 of my final 13 picks lasted all season. So I need to be better prepared and do a better job in that area next year.
And as always, a great big thanks to Guru for organizing this league, extremely competative and a real blast to be in.
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| 13 | blue hen @Minny
ID: 1393723
Mon, Oct 08, 2007, 01:14
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Guru, that's a great list. My only contributions to it are Hamels and Betancourt, although I got the worst of Betancourt - he got hotter after I ditched him.
I could also make a case for 5 (Chipper over Saito), 3 (K-Rod over Putz), and 25 (Kemp over Billingsley). Plus Hardy was on my team by the end of the year, but his September is not why he's on this list.
And yes that team would have lapped the league by a country mile.
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| 14 | Tosh
Leader
ID: 057721710
Mon, Oct 08, 2007, 03:12
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First off, congrats to StLCards for a great season. I think I took the lead for only one day, then I just couldn't keep up. And thanks to Guru for letting me compete.
I've previously realized that I have two main weaknesses as a fantasy manager, and I swore to overcome them. Looking back, I did nothing to solve them in 2007. My first weakness is that I have a general unwillingness to give up on my drafted players too early, and I miss out on a lot of good free agents. The second weakness is that I really know nothing about the NL. By the end of this season, I can still name most of the players on AL-teams, but have a hard time naming half of the NL-starting players. I watched about 140 games on TV, but the only time I saw an NL team was inter-conference versus the Mariners. I really need to work on both of these next season!
Except for Mark Teixeira, Ian Kinsler, and Hunter Pence all missing a month, I had good luck with health this season.
Good draft picks -
Francisco Cordero (6.11) - Thanks Guru for taking Chad Cordero and leaving me Francisco.
Torii Hunter (9.06) - Cooled off after the ASB, but what a 1st half!
Adrian Beltre (10.11) - We need to find a way to make defense count, because that is even better than his solid hitting.
James Shields (20.11) - He won't go in the 20th round in 2008. He's pretty slick.
Bad draft picks -
Julio Lugo (5.06) - The kid forgot how to hit.
Ivan Rodriguez (14.11) - In my draft recap, I compared him to fine wine. He's turned to vinegar.
I got what I was really hoping for out of most of my draftees, despite the Yahoo! rankings showing a number of them as underachievers. My first four picks of Crawford, Teixeira, Oswalt, and Konerko proved to be a solid base, and except for Lugo in the 5th round, and Pudge in the 14th, I was satisfied with my first 16 picks, and they all got regular playing time. But of course, except for James Shields, my final 8 picks all turned out to be duds.
Key moves -
Signing Hideki Okajima on 4/21. Solid middle relief numbers all season.
Signing Jeremy Accardo on 5/3. I finally had my 2nd closer.
Signing Hunter Pence on 5/4. Great all-around numbers.
Signing Melky Cabrera on 6/2. Not quite as good as Pence. But still very helpful
Signing Yovani Gallardo on 6/14. I got 7 wins, 3.96, 1.34, and 85Ks in 88 IP. Great for my #5 starter.
Bad moves -
Waiving Kevin Gregg on 5/3. He was announced closer on 5/16.
Waiving Garret Anderson on 5/12. I should have been more patient.
Holding Juan Uribe until 6/12. I rarely used him, and he was sucky when I did.
Holding Justin Duchscherer until 6/23. He last pitched on 5/14.
Giving Bobby Crosby 124 ABs on my squad. How could he fall so fast?
Even though I lost 7.5 points in the final two days of the season, I was able to hold onto 4th place ... so I'll be back next year. Thanks again to the Guru for such a fun league.
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| 15 | Dave R
SuperDude
ID: 3010361110
Mon, Oct 08, 2007, 07:43
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LMAO:
Ivan Rodriguez (14.11) - In my draft recap, I compared him to fine wine. He's turned to vinegar.
Good one, Tosh.
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| 16 | blue hen
ID: 16322314
Thu, Oct 11, 2007, 10:46
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We have recaps from Guru, Dave R, Tosh, StLCards, Flying Polack, KKB (plus I Hate Philly).
This is one of the real pleasures - reading about the season that was. I am eagerly awaiting reports from the other 9 RIBC managers.
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| 17 | Philsphan
ID: 2579209
Thu, Oct 11, 2007, 18:04
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I have been avoiding writing this recap. I don’t enjoy reliving the hard times. This has been the most difficult season I have ever had in fantasy baseball. The competition was clearly top-notch. Hopefully I learned enough lessons so that I can get back here and improve my performance.
First off, props to STLCards. Clearly he was the Best of the best.
My strategy was to first firm up my R RBI SLG OBP and then get starting pitching early. And since I missed the closer and MI runs I thought it was a sound strategy. That blew up in my face by Week 2 of the season. Zambrano had an absolutley horrible first half, Mussina had an even worse season (I think I even benched him for that great outing he had in Spetember), Arroyo was nothing like his 2006 form and even Smoltz started off slow. I waived Buerhle after one start and 1 1/3 innings. Needless to say I missed his no-hitter. Two more words should sum up my pitching prowess: Jorge Julio.
I thought I drafted a pitching staff with what I was certain were solid ERA and WHIP numbers, and I got 6.5 points total in those categories. The hole I dug for myself quickly killed any chances I had.
My other weakness was K’s. My top 3 pitchers were way off of last year’s totals. But even then, I never pay enough attention to strikeouts. I think I need to change strategy there.
Even my first pick hurt me. Had I picked A-Rod over Pujols, I would have finished in 12th just from the added runs and RBI’s. Your #1 pick MUST get more than 99 runs and 99 RBI’s. While his OBP was solid, the SLG was down about 10%. I felt I really needed more from my number one pick, especially when I had to wait 31 more picks before my next draft choice.
Worst Picks (in no particular order)
1. Pujols instead of A-Rod. I was originally torn between these 2 and Howard. Pujols wasn’t bad, but A-Rod was the missed pick here.
2. My entire pitching staff. The only real dependable pitcher was Smotlz.
3. Jason Giambi in the 4th Round. Plantar Fasciitis, Steriods, you name it. And to think I picked Rowand in Round 19 and Lowell in Round 21.
4. Waiting so long to pick a MI. That hurt me all year. I never got enough games played from those slots
5. Michael Cuddyer. I really thought 2006 was the beginning of great things from him.
There are several more, but those are the lowlights.
Best Picks (not many)
1. Rowand in the 19th and Lowell in the 21st. Rowand led my team in R and Lowell in RBI.
2. Khalil Greene in the 15th. He was an afterthought there and had a solid year.
3. Orlando Husdon. For a 12th Round pick he was pretty solid until he got hurt.
As for wire pickups, Kyle Kendrick was one of my better performers. Bengie Molina gave me a lot of RBI’s. Sean Casey was solid in the percentages, but he never produced any runs.
Many thanks to Guru for allowing me to participate. I never thought I would get to the Big Show when I started playing in the RIBC 3 years ago. After being here, I want to get back. So I will get ready for AAA next year and see if I can return in 2009.
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| 18 | filthy
ID: 186293016
Sun, Oct 14x, 2007, 02:32
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Don't really know what I'm waiting for. Took a nice little break to enjoy some playoff action after an exhausting season. Thank you to Guru for the site and the league. Congrats STLCards and thanks to everybody for the competition. I am in no way ashamed to finish in 10th place. It took a lot of effort and a mild blowing up of my team to remain in 10th and until the last week or so I still had hope of some of my hail marys connecting. Unfortunately noone else above me wanted to choke too badly so I will look forward to proving myself in AAA yet again. One thing is certain, no winging the draft next year.
Discussing my draft would be a good place to start, despite a fast start to the season I think the draft was the top reason my team didn't do better. I picked up quite a few good players and surprises, but a lot of my anchor picks underperformed and the lack of a plan really left me hanging and forced me into some foolish moves.
Top Picks: Rios(6), Gagne(7), Dempster(8), Polanco(11), Hardy(13), Hill(16).
Worst Picks: Morneau(2), AJones(3), RaHernandez(9), Patterson(10).
Looking through the draft results, there aren't a lot of my picks that I wouldn't do again. There was a lot of upside wasted by my squad but I did put myself in that position with a lot of risky picks. Many of my late picks were replaceable by design, but I at least thought I would catch fire with a couple of them. All of them flopping did turn out to help me find some gems on the waiver wire throughout the year however.
I lucked into Ryan Doumit for his first surge of the season when I really needed catching help. Lucked into Willits during his initial streak just hoping for a couple steals. Found a couple spot starts and some nice guys down the stretch but nothing noteworthy. Wasted my waiver position on Aubrey Huff?? Orioles are officially my least favourite team. Dropped Corey Patterson about 2 weeks before he woke up. Stupid new manager. Should've dropped Ramon Hernandez on his first DL trip in April. Probably shouldn't have drafted Melvin Mora to start with, he turned out better with someone else. At least my Jays picks turn out to be golden. Marcum and McGowan absolutely saved my horrid pitching staff at the perfect time. They actually turned my staff into a strength I could trade from when my lineup needed help.
Speaking of trades... the funnest part of playing for me is the trading and I got in my good share of trades this season. Wish I had started looking to trade earlier and wish I didn't have so much faith in Andruw Jones or Justin Morneau. I hate trading low on guys though since it's hard to get a fair return. At least they remained healthy, some other teams got hit much harder with injuries than mine. Anyways, I had some success trading and definitely addressed some serious needs via trade too many times.
My trades include:
Jered Weaver for JD Drew/Kaz Matsui....Drew and Matsui both didn't really pan out, but Weaver didn't really meet expectations either. This really helped my offensive depth and I had pitching to spare so it was a success to me.
Placido Polanco/Reggie Willits for Carlos Pena/A Otsuka....Hated to give up Polanco and Willits was iffy for playing time, they both did well away from me, but it was definitely worth Pena. What a monster he became, too bad I had dug a hole too big earlier on.
Shaun Marcum for Kevin Gregg...Ouch, sorry Holt. Marcum was amazing for my team but promptly exploded away from it. Gregg might've gained me a point or two but avoiding those Marcum blowups made this trade worth while.
Roy Halladay for James Shields/Josh Fields...well I was right that Shields would outperform Doc down the stretch. But I really dropped the ball on Fields. Took about a 2 for 40 in his first week or two and dropped him just before a player of the week award plus one other strong week. D'OH.
JJ Hardy for Manny Corpas...Got a huge start from Hardy and some sporadic homers at various other times but he was somewhat frustrating to own and once my MI felt deep enough I gladly traded him to pick up a few saves. Turned out well for me, especially since Hardy's replacement Jack Wilson went off once I picked him up.
So there it is. The breakdown of a 10th place RIBC finish. I learned a lot this year, especially how underprepared I was, and I look forward to earning my way back up.
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