GameDayRitual Baseball Champion's Leagues

FAB eve!

noreply@blogger.com (A. Trent) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 04:48:00 +0000

10 ½ hours until the Ruth Conference FAB begins, and the pre-FAB jitters have kicked in. Is my first offer queue destined for a bunch of Big Red Zeroes? Am I overbidding on bullpen help? Do I really need that particular fourth outfielder? Will I actually get any work done at the office tomorrow? For the answers to all these questions (and more you never wanted to ask) stay tuned for the FAB recap.

Good luck to my fellow Ruthians. Except in cases where we're bidding on the same players, anyway.

A No Brainer For The Bees

noreply@blogger.com (A. Trent) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:22:00 +0000

The Ruth Conference is activated, huzzah! And now it's time for the returning champs to make some contract extensions.

Hmm... Chase Utley, Dan Haren and David Wright? Yes, yes and yes.

Concerns about Utley's hip aside, the only brief flicker of a question* is whether or not to extend Ichiro in place of one of the above. But Ichiro's contract - left over from when I took control of the team in their second year - is awfully pricey. At $11M he'd actually cost more than Utley, Haren or Wright. And as much as I love the way he plays, within the context of Gameday Ritual he's just not worth that much in place of one of these three. So I make my call and move on.

After all, maybe I can grab him in the FAB...

* One could also argue that I should at least have considered reupping Jose Valverde at $9M, but with Joakim Soria already on the team at only $4M, I don't think I'll regret my choices.

Multi position eligibility

noreply@blogger.com (billalex) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 04:53:00 +0000

We all know how valuable a player can be to a team when he is able to be used at multiple positions during the season. Well here is your cheat sheet for this season...

The following are the top 50 players from last year, based on FP/G, who are eligible at multiple positions going into this season:

And here are the remaining 50 players with multi position eligibility:

Hint: you can click on the table images to zoom in for a closer look.

Ah, .500

noreply@blogger.com (A. Trent) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:40:00 +0000

Well, this is a nice feeling. The Blackland Bees just won their 12th game of the season - the one that guarantees at least a .500 record - in time for a nice little break during All-Star Week. Of course, if the folks at Gameday Ritual hadn't dropped the .500 requirement to return to Champions Leagues I wouldn't be here celebrating this now slightly-less-meaningful milestone. But still, it's a victory worth pausing over.

The thing I find most interesting is the difference in this team between last year (when I couldn't get the team to .500 at all) and this year (when the team has not coasted, but not barely staggered, either, to .800). The answer lies entirely in the pitching. Being out from under the last of the really bad contracts that my predecessor left me with at the beginning of the 2007 season gave me a shot to do some serious work on the staff in the FAB this year.

In the end, I don't think it's necessarily that my pitchers are overly amazing (though new acquisitions Bannister and Kuroda have generally done well) as much as it is having pitchers who can be counted on to put up a good fight for the potentially game-changing SP Matchup bonus points that the Ruth League has turned on. Having a true ace (Haren, in my case) and solid guys at #s 2 and 3 seems to be critical in this format in a way that it isn't in leagues that don't have the SP matchup bonuses.

My predecessor had built a team of expensive hitters (Ichiro, Wright, Utley and an overpaid Michael Young) and had neglected pitching badly. He paid for it in his one season and I paid for it last year. But with those guys' contracts expiring after this season and some very nice prospects (Jay Bruce, Evan Longoria) already signed for that blessedly sweet league minimum .5M, I'm already starting to plan how the team will look in 2009. By the the Bees will resemble their roots so little that it will be hard to remember back when they were know by their original, first-season-performance-appropriate nickname, the Muckdogs.

In Like a Lion, Out Like Lion Food

noreply@blogger.com (slipdiesel) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 04:59:00 +0000

Just read a great post by yankeehawk in the Clemente League (A Tale of 2 Teams) who runs the USA Rangers. Great reading and the antithesis of what I thought would happen to my team when May rolled around. He makes a great point of knowing your team and where you're going after the first month of the season. I highly recommend it.

I decided to wait until the end of May to see if it was time to jump ship. After rolling off 4 straight wins, we're holding steady. Although the first week of June meant a 100 point GOFBW by a first place team who's beat beat me up down and crossways since this league started. But it was a very positive May, which is why I preached earlier about not giving up until June rolls around. Now we find out what June has in store, with a matchup against the 2nd place team in my league this week. 3 games out of first, 2 games out of playoff spot so this one is a bit important. I still don't have what I believe is a playoff caliber team, but we're going to ride this as long as it's going.

A Tale of 2 Teams

noreply@blogger.com (yankeehawk) — Sun, 25 May 2008 21:01:00 +0000

Its half way through the last day of the week and my USA Rangers are losing to Avid Hunters 219 to 285 in the Clemente Conference. Meanwhile the New York Yankees just picked up their 5th straight win. The USA Rangers started off fast and now were fading to a .500 record at the conclusion of this week. The MLB Yankees started off slow and are cruising to a .500 record. Both teams have had key injuries, yet were going in opposite directions.

So what is the deal here? Always the aggressive owner, I am always looking at my players and doing everything I can to make my teams better. Its not uncommon for me to make nearly 70 plus transactions over the course of the season through trades, waivers and free agency. However, before I make a move, I look at each player and try to determine if they are a keep or drop. And so... this week I was looking at my roster and began to notice a common thread developing. Being a lifelong Yankee fan, I noticed a similar, but opposite thread running through the Yankee lineup.

What did I learn? Well, simply put there is a significant difference in statistical output between April and May among or key offensive players. Huh? Let's take a deeper look without getting too sabermatic.

Here are the numbers for key offensive players on the USA Rangers for April and May...

APRIL MAY

NAME AVE OBP Key Stat AVE OBP Key Stat

Granderson .375 .531 3 doubles .217 .241 1 double

Sizemore .289 .402 2 HR .232 .232 5 HR

Weeks .208 .333 3 HR .222 .340 4 HR

Hunter .317 .367 4 HR .253 .325 2 HR

Cabrera M .299 .370 5 HR .200 .250 1 HR

Reynolds .255 .343 7 HR .209 .293 1 HR

For the six players above, they are currently averaging a drop of 0.069 points in their batting averages. OBP is worse at a negative average drop of 0.111. HR's with exception of Sizemore all dropped. The six players above hit 21 HR's in April, in May that number dropped to 13, a difference of 7 HR's. The best player in May so far is Hunter who is hitting a cool .253 with 2 homeruns. As for Granderson, the secret behind the number of doubles is the fact he missed most of April and despite playing all of May to date, as accumulated just 1 lousy double.

Now lets look at some key MLB Yankee players

APRIL MAY

NAME AVE OBP Key Stat AVE OBP Key Stat

Abreu .269 .319 4 doubles .329 .398 7 2B

Jeter .277 .303 0 HR .300 .378 2 HR

Giambi .164 .315 5 HR 3 2B .333 .478 4 HR 5 2B

Cano .151 .211 2 HR 3 2B .352 .395 2 HR 7 2B

A-Rod .289 .343 4 HR .333 .417 2 HR

Essentially, as the weather warmed up, so did the Yankees. The Yankee five are as a group averaging nearly 0.100 points better in the batting average and a nice 0.115 average increase in OBP. The Yankee five had 11 HR's in April vs 10 in May. That is not even counting the fact that A-Rod played 23 games in April vs only 6 to date in May. More importantly, look at the doubles. When I listed doubles in both graphs it was due to the fact there was a difference of at least 2 or more doubles.

In the USA Rangers case, the only mentioning was Granderson who is hitting 2 fewer doubles despite more games. In the Yankees case, Abreu is hitting three more doubles, Giambi 2 more and Cano 4 more. So not only have the Yankee 5 increase their batting averages and on base percentages, but they are hitting more homeruns and even more importantly, hitting far more doubles.

Its amazing how in two months of play, teams in real life and in fantasy can have a Dr. Jeckle Mr. Hyde complex. The challenge in fantasy, is trying to determine where your team is going as we head into June. This is make it or break it time. Even if your team sucks right now and your in last place, you still have a chance to make a run for the playoffs.

The question you face is... which team is your real team. The team you saw in April or the team playing in May. For the MLB Yankees, the team were seeing in May is the true Yankee team. For the GDR USA Rangers, its hard to tell. The players are there, but unlike real life, they do not play as a cohesive unit where they can feed off each other. As a result, this is where research and understanding your players come into play. For example, I know Sizemore's May is not realistic of his overall season production. Cabrera's sudden drop in May, highlights he is not a .300 ave and 5 hr a month player on average. Neither is he a .200 ave or 1 hr either. So I can expect some growth in numbers. Weeks, however, is another case. Sure he improved, but from .208 to 222 in average? That's like saying the Nationals won two games in a row and are now somehow improved. Fact is, looking at Weeks history, other than still picking up a few HR's, I can't really expect him to make any drastic improvements. Thus, he is a player I can target for putting on the trade market.

A Tale of 2 Teams, its a pain for any owner, fantasy or real. The real challenge is, knowing which team is the one you can expect for the remainder of the year and whether or not you need to make a move.

Losing Streaks

noreply@blogger.com (yankeehawk) — Thu, 22 May 2008 04:19:00 +0000

As we plod along during week 8 in the Clemente Conference, my early season high hopes have been swimming in the muck of a 2 game losing streak. Worse, I am losing against this week 170-110. Here are my games to date:

1-0 USA Rangers 244 Texas Hedge 214

2-0 USA Rangers 291 Nothing2Lose 198

2-1 USA Rangers 266 Jaleel White Sox 293

3-1 USA Rangers 284 Schrute's Recruits 247

4-1 USA Rangers 298 Angry Cavemen 293

4-2 USA Rangers 249 Sterling Aviators 353

4-3 USA Rangers 234 Carrsallstars_cl 309

USA Rangers 110 Advid Hunters 170 (as of wed. 11:32 PM)

At the beginning of the year, I thought I had a pretty good team. Despite early season injuries, we went 4-1. Now, however, my team is healthy (except Jorge Posada) and were losing? Go figure! What happened? Well, my all-star roster has failed to live up to expectations to date.

First we can start with the pitching staff. Fausto Carmona is pitching inconsistently and his current 14.8 FP is not helping the USA Rangers bring in wins. Despite his minute ERA this year of 2.25, 0.81 points below last year when he averaged over 18 FP's a game. Then we have Andy Pettitte who started fast, but lately been a real pain. His 10.1 FP average is bad, but over the past couple of weeks (my losing streak) his FP's have been -4, 1, 16, -3, 7 for an average of 3.2 per game. OUCH! Now add Chris Young's inconsistency and the lack meeting expectations by Ian Kennedy, Brandon Backe, Andrew Miller you can see where the USA Rangers are going wrong. Finally, the kicker these past couple of weeks, once hot Aaron Cook who started the season blazing has gone -4 FP and 3 FP in his last too outings, giving up 9 runs and 20 hits. Not good!

Then we have the hitting, which has been worse. Granderson started the year on the DL and recently went through a torrid slump. Torri Hunter is only averaging 2.5 FP's right now, which is his lowest total since the 2001 season when he was at 2.4. JJ Hardy backtracked in his development this year and is a full 1.1 FP below his 2007 average. Other players who have hit cold spells recently have been M Reynolds, M Grudzielanek, C Floyd, and M Cabrera.

To make matters worse, as of tonight, four of my offensive players are currently collecting negative points (Youkillis, Sizemore, Floyd and Rolen) matched by Greg Olson promptly gave up -14 points.

Naturally, my opponent has 5 offensive players already in double digits for points and three of his SP's have collected 71 pts to my three SP's whopping 15. Luckily, my RP's showed up for work this week, outscoring the entire rest of my team right now with 56 points out of a current total 110. RP's scoring more than the rest of your team combined is not really the recipe for victory.

Maybe, should my losing streak continue, I could rejoice in the fact if my current opponent keeps his pace, he will score over 300 points. Then maybe I can use the excuse its not so much the performance of my players, but the unfortunate fact my opponents recently have decided to have great weeks when they play my team. It sure beats not having to admit maybe my team is nothing more than average.

Lester You Bum

noreply@blogger.com (yankeehawk) — Thu, 22 May 2008 03:29:00 +0000

Okay, I want to see a hand of all those Jon Lester owners who were just screwed out of 64 points on Monday? It's one thing to have your team face a pitcher who throws the infamous no no. Nothing like trying to climb out of an immediate 64 point hole. However, it's a whole world of nightmares to be the owner of a player who tosses a no no, only to find out he's sitting on the bench or worse yet, in the minors.

This happened to me on Monday. Seriously, I had every right to bench the kid. In his first 10 games this year, Jon Lester averaged 10.1 FP per game. Granted, the last four games he scored 25, 24, 6 and 13 FP's for an average of 17.0 FP per game. Still, those wins were against the struggling Blue Jays, Tampa (despite their fast start, they still suck), Minnesota and Baltimore. Not what I would say is your toughest offensive teams in the AL. So, sending the less than "WOW" Lester to the bench was the right thing to do.

Beyond the FP's, I was still justified in my decision. Of his first 10 games, only once did he go past 6-2/3rds of an inning. Four times he didn't even reach the 6th inning. Sure his ERA was fairly nice, but his highest strikeout total was 6 against the Blue Jays and in that game he gave up 4 walks . It also was his longest outing to date, 8 innings. However, his K to BB rate wasn't worth keeping him in when he is averaging just 10.1 FP's per game (3.1 k's to 2.9 walks per outing).

Then again, I should have known better. The signs were there. In that game against the Jays on April 29th, Lester gave up only 1 hit. Lester's ERA was decent and it was not his fault that 6 of his previous 10 games resulted in no decisions, including that gem against the Jays. Lester, if you remember was also the big stud pitcher in 2006 before fighting cancer. At 21 years of age, he went 7-2 with a 4.65 ERA. and averaged 11.7 FP's per game. He came back at 22 years of age in 2007, after winning his battle against cancer and went 4-0, with a 4.57 era and a 12.0 FP average. So the talent was there all along.

Then again, as my name says, I am a Yankee and despite owning Lester (the benefit of a nice prospect draft), I was not willing to admit he was poised to throw a gem. It's true, we Yankee fans truly hope for every possible disaster to befall the hated Red Sox. I also know they, wish the same for us and are more than content with my Yankees being in last place right now.

Whatever my reasoning, Jon Lester was sent to the minors the Sunday before his no no. A decision that will haunt me all week. Instead of taking in 64 points, I find myself facing an uphill battle. As of today, after most of Wednesday's games have been played, I am down 145-69. If only I had those 64 points, the deficit would be a small 145-133. To make matters worse, I would have had Lester in the SP2 slot where sits Aaron Cook and his 3.o FP outing in his first start of the week. That's a 61 point difference!

If only...

It's the tale of my season. I guess I can rejoice in the fact I finally decided to call up Joey Votto from the prospect list, just prior to his 3 home run game a couple weeks back. So I guess in the game of baseball, you win some and you lose some. But seriously, a 64 FP "could have been if only" is a tough pill to swallow when your down nearly 80 points half way through the week. Lester you bum!

Playing Both Sides Against the Middle

noreply@blogger.com (slipdiesel) — Wed, 21 May 2008 06:30:00 +0000

I love having two teams. I loved having one team, and then I jumped at the opportunity to have two. I can’t do three, won’t fathom four, and those of you with five-plus are simply playing both sides against the middle. Hell, when I had two teams I tried to draft them as similar as possible. At some point in time we have to hit the famed law of diminishing returns.

Even with two teams it happens to me every year. Twice a year, actually, considering the schedule. A possibility of three times if you consider the playoffs. On my team with my buddies I have Kendall, Lowell, Abreu, Harang, Hudson and Wood. Low(e) (and it’s not Derek) and behold, wouldn’t you know this week’s opponent in the Mantle League has Kendall, Lowell, Abreu, Harang, Hudson and Wood. It’s the epitome of lose-lose. I fail to see a win-win here. Win-Win comes when there are no similar pieces. That’s why you owners with five-plus teams astound me. You must run into this every week.

GDR is a business. A great one at that, and we’ve all enjoyed the fruits of its labor and its breakthrough into the world of fantasy sports. But I cannot do another team. This week won’t turn me grey, because I already am. This week will make the hairline recede. Here I am in my last post claiming May is when you can make or break (2-0 in the Mantle League, 8-5 in the other so things are going as planned.) But the way I see this week stacking up my May rationale takes a back seat to the diminishing returns. And I hope I’m wrong.

SIDE NOTE:

Our commish, one Gary Aloysius Bell, put together several of the best league posts you’ll ever read. One he calls TWIF (This Week in FICK). It is the best look back at the week that was and I encourage all leagues to put somebody on TWI_____ (fill in blank for league name) because I believe it does a great deal to promote league participation. Unfortunately I know that’s what some of you are going through.

Secondly, also from one Gary Bell. He put together a list of the top pitching performances for a single season. Phenomenal job and if anyone is interested I’ll ask him to share the info. And on this same vein the question came up about greatest single game performances. While the boxscores can be sketchy for games in the past, it looks like the pitching is won by Sandy Koufax’ 81 point perfect game in 1965 and Mark Whitten and Shawn Green sharing 32 points in their 4 HR performances. The offense I’m less sure about because I didn’t have time to find out if Whitten struck out once.

I’d be very interested in putting together a Top 100-200 list of all-time single game and single season performances according to GDR scoring. Anyone wanting to tackle it with me, let me know. Could be very interesting when someone comes up with a Lesteresque performance to know where it ranks all-time.

Lance Berkman is your new god

noreply@blogger.com (J.D. McGregor) — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:37:00 +0000

I'm thinking about just benching the rest of my lineup, see if he can single-handedly outproduce an opponent some week.

Just wanted to touch on this concept of "luck" today. A little more than a month into my first GDR Champions League season, I'm leading the league with 345.2 ppg, 17 more ppg than any team in the league. But I'm sitting at 4-2, third place in my division. I tell that to the fellas back in my home league (Planet Manny), and the reaction is some variation of "tough luck."

But at the same time, my best pitcher this season has been post-FAB signee Cliff Lee. I'd like to say I knew this middling starter would end up pitching like Sandy Koufax circa 1964 facing Little Leaguers after winter workouts with Brian McNamee. But in reality, I was just looking for some LHP depth for my rotation. Had Francisco Liriano started the year in the bigs, Lee probably would have headed to my minor league roster (the Orioles Magic Triple-A affiliate is in Bozeman, Montana). So in that respect, I've been lucky as hell. (Can I type "hell" in the GDRBC blog? Guess we'll find out.)

So I guess my point is, luck evens out. And looking back, that's not much of a point. So apparently I don't really have a point.

Big one against the 4-2 Rye Lions this week. I miss you Chase Utley.

Cinco de Mayo Starts Now

noreply@blogger.com (slipdiesel) — Sat, 03 May 2008 06:31:00 +0000

Cinco de Mayo might be the most important day of your GDR season. You have two days until it hits. Don’t claim anyone. Don’t waive anyone. Sit on your hands and pray the Cinco de Mayo gods are with you. (I’m sure that’s blasphemous in some sort of way but you can take that up with your own pastor on your own time.)

Speaking of time, if you got his far, God bless you. That will make the monotheistic happy right there. Blogging is an obligation of the Champion’s League. And a buddy of mine said you have to be personal and open up when you blog, just go Emily Dickinson on your keyboard.

“I didn’t date her,” I said.

“Nevermind,” was his reply.

So I just did that stream of conscience thing anyway.

GDR said “If you want a sub .500 team and want to stay in the league, get thee to a blog!”

1) Thank you for GDR letting us sub .500 owners stay in the Champions League and my apologies for the first blog coming 5 weeks into the season. To be honest, I went back and read my other blogs from the previous 2 years about what happens during the FAB and 1^st month of play, and I have absolutely nothing to add to it. Also, that previous statement is a great excuse for the fact that we’re remodeling 4 rooms and this week is the first time I’ve simultaneously had a tv and computer plugged in at the same time. Who knew Baseball Tonight still existed? Who knew sanding/priming/painting cabinets was the ultimate test of patience? Who knows where to find a piece of WM-81 molding to go around my ceiling? NO, I’M SERIOUS. Who knows where to find a piece of WM-81 molding to go around my ceiling?

2) Damned you GDR for keeping all those posts (back in the good ‘ol days of 2006 we called them “posts”) and blogs from past years. I just read the one from when my daughter had her first birthday and I was going to miss the FAB that weekend. Woe is me, right? Who would have thought a 1-year-old’s birthday would be easier than dealing with a 3-year-old on a daily basis?!?!

By the way, Max Scherzer just went for 2.5 mil! My league is full of MU grads, but this cat just cost one owner more than I had in the coffers for the rest of the year and I still need a SS after Tulo got hurt. Ian Kinsler’s now a steal for 0.5 mil.

Cathartic that was, and now we come to Cinco de Mayo. You knew we’d get there somehow. April is over, and our first week of true April-less baseball starts on the 5^th of May. This is a time when Nate McClouth passes Matt Holliday on McClouth’s way down. When Chris Young passes Randy Wolf on Young’s way up. Fact is, if you stuck with your guys this long and you’re down, your team is about to change. Nice thing about baseball is you can pick out slow starters, and know fast starters don’t stick around forever. It’s a trial of patience,

In that same vein, I’ll be the first to admit I blow too much cash on guys I keep waiting for the boat-to-come-in come summer. Other owners stash cash, pick up a McClouth/Wolfe/Jurjjens and reap the benefits in April. And in two leagues I’m in that deficit already seems insurmountable. So my advice is do what I have not. Find the hot bat early in the season and get ready to toss it or bench it when its time is up. Call it the Tuffy Rhodes syndrome if you must. But I’ve been waiting for the likes of Morneau (105 overall in points) and Teixeira (132 in points) to wake up. How pathetic is it that my meltdown closer Kerry Wood has as many points including his blown saves and loss as Big Tex? Trust me, between that and the hinges not fitting the cabinets I lose sleep. Probably more so over the hinges.

But A-Rod is not going to finish at 199 in points, Jimmy Rollins won’t be 269 and Victor Martinez won’t be 228. Granted, these are all injury cases. So do what I’ve preached never to do in every other blog I’ve had. Trade everything you got for whatever you need. Sacrifice limbs, tentacles and all other objects of reach to put together a team. If someone asks you for your entire farm club for a starter to make you competitive…do it. You give up umpteen teenagers for a major leaguer that can hit home runs, then do it. Don’t sit and think “Well, where are we going to be 3 years from now?” Here’s an idea. Go draft a better a team 3 years from now. Don’t rely on a bunch of phenoms with 1 week stands. I’m still quivering from what I call the Johny Cueto delirium tremors. As in I tremor every tie he takes the mound.

But there’s a dark side to this Cinco de Mayo. Wondering to what to do with certain players like Dontrelle and Anduw Jones. Ride them or waive them? Your guess is as good as mine. It comes down to contractual obligations. If it’s long-term for serious money you have to ride it out. You already committed. If it was a one-year deal and a cheapy there’s a way out. It’s called waiver wire. And of course there’s always that other owner looking to capitalize on knowing Dru-Pac isn’t going to hit .154 all year long. He’ll take a flier on him for a trade. Heck, maybe you could get his entire herd of minor leaguers! Then see where you are in three years.

One parting shot in honor of the late-great Dick Schaap. Read any post by abenner & leehaak. I’ve said it before these guys are crème de la crème for Champion League bloggers. Their track record speaks for itself.

Damned, I just went an entire 1^st season blog without mentioning I won the inaugural Mantle Champions League. Go figure.

Nugs Roll on to 4 - 0

noreply@blogger.com (shafferbctd) — Fri, 02 May 2008 23:12:00 +0000

The good times continue for the Blubber Nuggets, who now sport an unblemished 4 - 0 record and sole possession of first place in the division. This despite a very inconsistent start from number two pitcher Brett Myers, and a disappointing start by Hunter Pence. Hanley Ramirez and Brandon Webb have fueled the quick start with hot Aprils, and hopefully another Nugget or two will begin to heat up with the weather. That person won't be A-Rod however, as he has managed to find his way to the DL. Normally that would be panic time for the Nugs, but with Mark DeRosa backing up and off to a good start, we may be able to hold together until A-Rod returns.

Screaming towards .500

noreply@blogger.com (A. Trent) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:51:00 +0000

You win some, you lose some. But the ones you most hate to lose are the matchups you were winning all week but that slip away on Sunday night. Those are the weeks that you want to throw a 95 mhp fastball through your monitor. Then again, you can't throw high heat due to the carpal tunnel syndrome you developed by being a computer nerd instead of a jock - which is why you're playing fantasy baseball anyway, right?

Anyway, the Bees are on pace to be a .500 team, which is all I've ever really asked of them. So it's ok if they blow games like Gagne and Corpas on a bender. As long as they give it a rest half the time. Or at least don't mislead me all week only to let me down on Sunday.

Grrrrrr! Frustration Sets In!

noreply@blogger.com (Commish) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:01:00 +0000

Rio's Sun Dogs were very excited in anticipation of our second season in the Mays Conference of the Champion's League. After finishing 14-12 last season and having a lot of cash going into this year's FAB, we were extremely confident. The FAB went very well and we believed that we were the strongest team in the league. Then the season started...

Currently, Rio's Sun Dogs are 1-1, but the injuries are killing us. We currently have 6 players on the DL and no cash to spend for replacements. The players currently gracing our DL include the likes of Pedro, Lowell, Schmidt, Garza, Borowoski, and Jack Wilson.

Our trainers are working hard to get these guys back on the diamond, but it may take a couple of months until we are back at full strength. Even with the injuries, this team is much improved over the '07 version. Here's what our starters look like now:

C: Buck
1B: Konerko
2B: Polanco
SS: Tejada
3B: A. Ramirez
OF: Byrnes, Matthews, B. Giles
DH: Bradley
SP: Sheets, Vazquez, Westbrook, Zambrano, L. Hernandez, Burnett
RP: Downs, T. Walker, Isringhausen

We're looking forward to improving as the season moves along. We hope to be peaking at playoff time as we fully expect to win this league!

Commish
Rio's Sun Dogs

Nugs Get First Win

noreply@blogger.com (shafferbctd) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:22:00 +0000

The first week of competition in the Aaron Conference ended with a convincing win for the Blubber Nuggets. It's always good to start out on the right foot.

There are some obvious trouble spots though. My decision to pay heavily for three cornerstone players, (A-Rod, Hanley Ramirez, and Brandon Webb) left me thin. Other than Webb, the pitching is spotty. Prices for the second teir pitchers were high as other owners were anxious to land at least one quality arm. The Nuggets season will really hinge on whether Bret Myers comes through as a dependable number two starter. In the first week he disappointed, but the hitting was good enough to make it through. Fortunately Ryan Dempster has been a nice surprise and has offset the underachieving Myers. However it isn't likely to continue that way, and if Myers doesn't come around I'll be in trouble. I also need a return to form by Randy Johnson once he's off the DL if I'm gonna make a push for the crown. That may be too many ifs.

The other concern is with the young outfielders I have. Rios, Hamilton, Pence and D.Young all have the talent, but will they be consistent enough? At least two of them need to come through and live up to their potential for the Nuggets to be sucessfull.

If I am fortunate enough to avoid injuries to key players, and if Myers and some of the young lions in the outfield come through, the Nuggets will be playoff bound.

The Journey Of A Thousand Miles...

noreply@blogger.com (A. Trent) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 17:27:00 +0000

Begins with a single win.

That's the way to start the season. No matter what happens now, I can't be thoroughly embarrassed. I mean, sure, I could still be utterly embarrassed or seriously embarrassed or even mostly embarrassed. But not thoroughly.

I'd like to thank Hiroki Kuroda, and my bullpen (Pat Neshek and Joakim Soria, especially) for providing me with the edge I needed.

Also, Ryan Church is now my hero. Xavier Nady would be, too, but I'd somewhat foolishly (in hindsight, anyway) stuck him in as a backup. There's no telling, of course, if these guys will keep mashing like they did in Week 1, but I sure hope they do. Check back in seven.

My First Champions League FAB

noreply@blogger.com (shafferbctd) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:00:00 +0000

I've been looking forward to, and preparing for, this FAB ever since I accepted the invitation to join the new Aaron Conference of the GDR Champion's League. It had been a while since I had been in a FAB to start a league, and frankly on those occasions when I did try to build a team from scratch, I didn't do all that well. I have had much better luck salvaging orphaned teams, perhaps because there were fewer choices to be made. In any case, I gave some thought as to how I wanted to approach this FAB, and came up with a plan.

I decided that I wanted to designate three players to serve as the cornerstones of my franchise, and to go after them aggressively. Those would be the players that I would use large dollar, three year, no trade contracts on. I made the decision to go for two position players and one pitcher. I chose not to go after more than one pitcher with a huge offer because I am always concerned about their durability. I decided to go after A-Rod, and Hanley Ramirez because I thought they both were exceptional power, average and speed guys. I decided on Brandon Webb to anchor my staff, good win totals and strikeout numbers, and also pretty durable.

My previous experiences in 16 team leagues led me to expect higher than normal salaries being offered, so I decided to make strong first offers to each of my cornerstone players, and to do it right at the start of the FAB. I had to make second offers on all three, and a third offer on both A-Rod and Ramirez in order to stay in the hunt. All three final offers were in the yellow, so I had my doubts and was beginning to draft alternate plans, but the following day I was fortunate enough to land all three! At 17/3/NT for A-Rod, 12.5/3/NT for Ramirez, and 12/3/NT for Webb, it was costly, but I think worth it.

That was really all the "plan" I had. The rest of my strategy was to just see how the FAB unfolded, and to make solid first offers.

Beyond my "cornerstone players", the first wave offered up a lot of young outfield talent so I decided to make a play for it. I was aggressive and came away with Hunter Pence, Alex Rios, and Josh Hamilton. I hadn't intended to go so young in the outfield, but I have to say that I wasn't unhappy that that was how it played out. One thing that surprised me in the first day was how dominant the three year offers were. Each and every time I offered less I was beaten out, so in the end all of my first wave signings were for three years, with the exception of Randy Johnson. This may cause me problems down the road, but it's what I had to do to get the talent I wanted. My first day signings were: A-Rod, B. Webb, H. Pence, H. Ramirez, J. Hamilton, A. Rios, R. Johnson, B. Myers, and A. Gonzalez.

So after the first day of signings I had most of my key pieces in place. The second day I just tried to flesh out the rest of the squad, and ended up with another young outfielder inDelmon Young, relievers Michael Wuertz, Pat Neshak and Mariano Rivera, starting pitcher John Maine, and Dionner Navarro behind the plate.

Having exhausted most of my resources in the first and second rounds, the third round was just for filling in the hole at second base, which I did with Tadihito Iguchi, adding a utility player in mark DeRosa, and adding a young arm with Andrew Miller of the Marlins.

All that remains now is to add some depth with free agent signings, and then go out and try to manage this team to a title!

Rolling in the Dough.... Again

noreply@blogger.com (leehaak) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:06:00 +0000

For the first time since the inception of GDR three years ago, many long term, NT contracts are expiring. In leagues where lots of players were given three year deals right off the bat, this may well change the dynamic of your FAB. Where last year, you were putting out low priced players and desperately trying to get that GM rating up, this year may afford a whole different opportunity. So, with that in mind, here are some recommended do’s and don’ts for legacy leagues where you’ve got some dough and NTs to spend.

DO know the dynamics of your league. Are owners getting more conservative? Is a ton of money suddenly freed up because those long term contracts just went off the books? Know the other owners. I hope you’ve been paying attention, this is your chance to take advantage.

DO understand the value of NT clauses. Unless there is a very good reason for it, NT clauses should be given to your highest price players, and used on three year contracts. Why? Well, let’s take a look at a couple of scenarios here. Let’s say I offer Johan Santana a 10 million, 3 year NT contract. How many ‘dollars’ is it worth? How does 38.3 million sound. What is the NT worth? 9.2 million. Now, what if I offer that same NT contract to Torii Hunter, 7 million 2 year NT. 23.8 million. Without the NT? 19.8. The NT is worth only 4 million. You’ve just taken 5 million of negotiating power out of your hands. It just doesn’t make sense. If you find that you can’t use your NTs that way, use them to steal a player on a one year deal, so you’ll have an opportunity to extend that player at a bargain, and reuse the NT next year.

DON’T wait for the bargains. Spend, and spend big on the top players in your draft. This years two most important targets? ARod and Chase Utley. If they are available in your league, spend what it takes to get them. Let someone else put them OTM, unless it’s apparent that everyone is working on GM ratings. If that happens, drop those huge players on the market. And make sure your first bid is your best one. Many times, you’ll simply eliminate the competition for that player before anyone can bid.

DON’T forget that second level of players. There are a bunch of them this year, who are just a notch below the studs. David Wright, Hanley Ramirez, Miguel Cabrera. And don’t give up on Albert Pujols just yet. I still think he may play 150 games, and he will certainly be back next year, perhaps better than ever. Just make sure you have a good backup, preferably someone there who is DH caliber, but can step in if Pujols goes down. There are no must haves in the outfield. It’s a bad place to spend your money.

Don’t spend a ton of money on bench players. If you have 30+ players on your roster before the free agent period starts, you might have spent too much on guys that will never score a point for you. Depth is good, but a 2.5 million backup catcher makes zero sense. Spend big and spend small, but keep those 4-8 million dollar contracts, and 2-3 million dollar backup contracts to a minimum.

And of course, most importantly, DON”T spend money on relief pitching. Can you say ‘Joel Zumaya’? How about ‘B.J. Ryan’? Okay, now ask yourself if you had Jose Valverde or Hideki Okajima on your roster last year. Good for you. How much did you spend on them? I rest my case. At least for now.

I’ve completed five FABs already, and the most noticeable trend this year seems to be Fiscal responsibility. What does that mean for you in a league with lots of money to spend? Zig when they zag. Offer Chase Utley that big contract, then sit back and enjoy the view.

2008 Draft Post-mortem

noreply@blogger.com (kem99) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:16:00 +0000

The 2008 draft is now over and I am generally happier with my team than I was at this time last year. Prior to the draft, I extended Fausto Carmona at $5M and James Shields at $4M. The good news was that set my starting pitching. The bad news was it left me short on funds to fill other holes. So, I was looking at going into the draft, I had only around $18M or so to work with to fill 5-6 roster spots. Specifically, I had needs at C, 2B and CL. I had secondary needs for another OF, a SU/MR and/or another SP. Not liking the outlook, I pursued trade possibilities by dangling Carmona. I ended up with a couple of serious offers, one of which I took. The other was a 1 for 1 swap of an emerging OF that I really wanted to accept BUT, since the money would work out relatively evenly, thought it was a luxury I could not afford at the time. So I ended up sending Carmona and 2 prospects for C. Billingsley, J. Hermida and E. Encarnacion. This allowed me to plug Billingsley into my starting rotation and gave me a 4th OF that really came on in the 2nd half of last year. Encarnacion gave me some depth at 3B that I thought might come in handy later. I still felt good about my SPs, had filled a secondary need with Hermida and had not incurred any additional costs. This left me with now needing 4-5 players for the same $18M.

As the FAB started, I threw out Mariano Rivera for my first "First Offer" and received a green "2" for his minimum bid of $3M (1 year), which is what I got him for. This filled a need at CL for less than the $4M-$4.5M I had to spend per player. The timing was based on an observation over the last couple of years that Rivera had gone undrafted in 4 FABs I had participated in, though his minimum bid was higher. Knowing that, I thought I could sneak him through and not have to get into a bidding war later that I probably could not win for a closer. Yeah, I know its a bit of a gamble given his age but his peripheral numbers actually were better than the year before, especially if you take out his rough start. So, I think its a worthwhile gamble. I was pretty much on the sidelines the rest of the first round. Others had more $$$ to spend. It was best to let them come down to me somewhat for Wave 2.

Each FAB has a life of its own. In this case Wave 2 ended up being the key time for me. Brian McCann and Kelly Johnson were among the players at C and 2B respectively that I had targeted but was unsure if I had enough $$$ to sign them. They both ended up receiving first offers from other teams. With the use of 2 NT's, I was able to sign both for $4M and $3M respectively. Both should be huge upgrades for me from last year waiting for Michael Barrett and Josh Barfield come around, which they never did. And, again, I was able to fill those C and 2B holes at or below the $4M to $4.5M per player budget. Wave 2 also landed me Manny Delcarmen as a SU for a minimum bid of $0.5M. I was kind of surprised to get a green "2" and have it stay that way until his signing. I thought as a member of the Red Sox plus Francona's recent comments that he and Okijima would be setting-up Paplebon and that he could be in line for some vulture saves since the Red Sox monitor Paplebon's work load carefully would have created more of a market for him. But, I was glad to take him at that price. I also fell into Scott Olsen after initially getting a red "0" for my bid that later turned to a yellow (or green, don't remember exactly) "0" later when another team apparently rescinded an offer. Obviously he was a bust last year and the Marlins are rebuilding again but at $0.5M if his head and arm are right, there is upside there that could be useful. I can live with him initially as a 5th starter.

By the end of Wave 2, my major needs had been filled but there were still some good players out there. I tried to work a trade with Encarnacion for cap relief but could not get anything done so with 3B options for other teams growing more limited as the FAB continued I decided to try waiving him at $3M figuring I could use the $1.5M immediately and had a decent shot at having him claimed so I would receive the remaining $1.5M as well, which is exactly what ended up happening.

Wave 3 had its ups and downs. I decided I could use some OF depth and tried to add J. Dye. I thought given his off year, I probably would not have a problem getting him. It looked that way initially but in the end I was outbid by another team with a lot more $$$. That left me scrambling a bit. I thought I could also add Pat Burrell without much difficulty. Again, it started out that way until another team got involved. I did end up winning that one. Burrell has his faults but he's consistent, plays in a hitter's park and has a great line-up around him so despite having to pay a little more than I had originally planned, he's a good addition. The remainder of Round 3 left me on the outside looking in as I was outbid on a handful of other players I had hoped to add for depth purposes.

At the end of the day, I definitely like my hitting and pitching more than this time last year. I'm confident that barring major injuries, my line-up from top to bottom will be more complete with McCann and Johnson replacing Barrett and Barfield. The real question for the season going in is whether the pitchers as a group can perform as well as they did last year when I was lucky enough to take a flyer on Carmona as a $0.5M end-pick in the FAB and added Lincecum later in the year after he came up from the minors before the prospect draft.

New Year, New Team..... Same league.

noreply@blogger.com (BBG) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 03:10:00 +0000

The FAB, once again, proved to be very interesting and quite unpredictable. With two new owners taking over teams in our league both chose to firesale. This meant me and my lackluster starting pitching staff (Pre-FAB) might not improve due to being outbid on at least one but preferably two top-level pitchers to anchor my starting rotation.

The FAB has now arrived and I have a modest 28.8 Million to spend on about what I though would be about 20-22 players to fill the active and part of the minor roster.

The FAB didn't start well because I didn't anticipate the learning curve concerning how to inject a player properly!!! (it had been a year, ya know) How soon we do forget and as a result ended up with a proposed 1Y bid for 3M for Gil Meche! Not that he is all that bad but not my first choice. Fortunately, I was outbid and no harm no foul.

Leaning on improving my pitching day 1 I lost out on my next 3 bids for D. McGowan, P. Hughes and K. Slowey. After losing out on these player I placed bids on players I had my eye on that were OTM at the time and ended day 1 signing:

RP: M. Lindstrom - .5M/1Y
RP: P. Moyland -.5M/1Y
P: C. Zambrano - 6.5M/1Y NT (The anchor I needed)
C: C. Ruiz - 1.0M/1Y (backup)

I was fortunate to only lose out on 1 more player the rest of the way and that was a backup SS but I planned to take care of that post-FAB.

Prior to day 2 I made two trades that helped me out (I think). I gave 1M to get K. Kouzmanoff - .5M/1Y and I traded prospect C. Kershaw for J. Lester - 2.0M/2Y. Trading a prospect that promising was tough but I wanted a good young starter that is on a winning team starting today.
Day 2 signings were centered around improving my SP as well as the corners:

P: J. Jurrjens - 2.0M/3Y (flyer?)
P: K. Kendrick - 1.5M/1Y
3B: C. Headly - 1.5M/2Y
1B: R. Garko - 3.0M/3Y (didn't want to spend that much but was challenged)
SP: N. Lowery - 2.0M/2Y
RP: C. Marmol - 2.0M/1Y

Moving on to day 3 signings I tried to wrap up getting my backup at 2nd and yes, more pitching!!:

2B: K. Matsui - 1.0M/1Y
SP: J. Saunders - .5M/1Y
RP: M. Corpas - 2.5M/2Y

Post-FAB I concentrated on more depth and picked up:
OF: B. Hall - 3.0M/1Y (soon to be 3rd eligable)
SS: J. Lugo - 2.5M/1Y
1B: C. Kotchman - 1.5M/1Y
SP: E. Santana - 1.5M/1Y

All in all very happy with the team. Below is my full roster, what do you think?

1st Base:
Garko, R. - $3.0M/3Y
Kotchman, C. - $1.5M/1Y
Jackson, C. - $2.0M/2Y

2nd Base:
Phillips, B. - $3.5M/1Y
Matsui, K. - $1.0M/1Y

3rd Base:
Headley, C. - $1.5M/2Y
Kouzmanoff, K. - $0.5M/1Y

SS:
Lugo, J. - $2.5M/1Y
Renteria, E. - $5.0M/1Y

C:
Martin, R. - $4.5M/2Y
Ruiz, C. - $1.0M/1Y

OF:
Soriano, A. - $11.0M/2YNT
Jones, A. - $10.0M/2YNT
Bay, J. - $8.0M/2Y
Hall, B. - $3.0M/1Y
Swisher, N. - $4.0M/2Y
Hawpe, B. - $3.0M/1YX

SP:
Zambrano, C. - $6.5M/1YNT
Beckett, J. - $5.5M/1Y
Perez, O. - $4.0M/2YX
Lester, J. - $2.0M/2Y
Lowry, N. - $2.0M/2Y
Saunders, J. - $0.5M/1Y
Sanchez, A. - $5.5M/2Y
Jurrjens, J. - $2.0M/3Y
Chacin, G. - $1.5M/1Y
Santana, E. - $1.5M/1Y
Kendrick, K. - $1.5M/1Y

RP:
Corpas, M. - $2.5M/2Y
Soriano, R. - $2.5M/1Y
Marmol, C. - $2.0M/1Y
Moylan, P. - $0.5M/1Y
Lindstrom, M. - $0.5M/1Y

- Will G.
- Nashville Salamanders

Is it wrong for a grown man to cry...

noreply@blogger.com (J.D. McGregor) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:00:00 +0000

after losing out on Chase Utley? I don't know what I'm going to do without him.

But overall, I think I recovered nicely and have no complaints about my FAB in the start-up Gehrig Division. It wasn't necessarily the plan, but I ended up inking my entire offense for three years:

C: Joe Mauer (6.0/3 NT)
1B: Lance Berkman (5.0/3 NT)
2B: Rickie Weeks (3.0/3)
3B: Adrian Beltre (6.5/3)
SS: Hanley Ramirez (10.0/3 NT)
OF1: Bobby Abreu (7.0/3)
OF2: Andruw Jones (4.0/3)
OF3: Kosuke (Welcome to the) Fukudome (3.0/3)
DH: David Ortiz (10.5/3)

With the exception of Beltre (I was in danger of turning to the Kouzmanoffs/Credes/Garciaparras of the world), I feel like I got everyone at bargain-to-reasonable prices. I also will have to build some depth during free agency. Conor Jackson (1.0/3) and Andy LaRoche (0.5/3) are the only bats on my bench right now.

As for my staff, I didn't get a true top-notch starter and completely missed out on middle relievers. But I did get six secondary starters who I'm high on, as well as Joe Nathan at the back. I'm pretty happy with it, even if I am a little righty-heavy:

Brett Myers (5.5/3)
Javier Vazquez (5.5/1)
A.J. Burnett (4.5/3)
Chad Billingsley (3.5/3)
Francisco Liriano (4.0/3)
Matt Garza (2.5/3)
Joe Nathan (5.0/1)

I've got plenty of work to do post-FAB, but I've got $23M to work with.

Ruth FAB, Round 2

noreply@blogger.com (A. Trent) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:55:00 +0000

Day two was much quieter for the Bees. I only signed one player the entire day - Michael Wuertz, a Cubs RP - to round out my bullpen. The only other player I was actually after went for much more than I could offer. So enjoy your Tim Lincecum, PLDS. $7M/3Y No-Trade was too rich for my blood. Actually, until next season I don't have any NTs to use, thanks to the previous owner of the team.

I made a few initial offers today to try to fill those last key holes in my lineup. But even if they go through tomorrow I'll still need to sign a couple of additional folks. Again, though, not bad at all.

Koufax, End of Round 2

noreply@blogger.com (Rick) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:43:00 +0000

The end is near, the end is near, oh its here.

Generally, I would wait until the end of the FAB to write this summary, but I am out of money, so why wait.

Going into the FAB, I had about 25 mil to spend, and some major holes. Last year, I tried too hard to be both a great offensive and a great pitching team. I ended up old and very thin. So, this year I aimed to get younger, and to shore up my pitching staff. I think I accomplished my goals, but we will have to wait and see.

Pre-FAB Roster

C - M. Piazza 6m/3y, J. Lopez .5m /1y
1B - F. Thomas 3.5m/1y, N. Johnson 2m/1y
2B - B. Roberts 8.0m/2y
3B - J. Crede 2.0/2y, J Goedert 0.0M/2y/p
SS - R. Furcal 7.5m/2y
OF - M. Ramirez 10m/2y/NT, L. Berkman 9.5m/2y/NT, A. Jones 0.0m/2y/P, C. Gomez 0.0/2y/P, C. Gonzalez 0.0m/2y/P
SP - B. Webb 10.5m/2y/NT, Felix H 7.5m/2, C. James 3.5m/2y, C. Baek .5m/1y, A. Sanchez 0.0y/2y/P
RP - P. Neshek 3.5m/2y, J. Pineiro 1.5m/1y

So, after 25 mil or so and 2 days of signings, my new squad looks like the following:

C - M. Napoli 1m/2y
1B - F. Thomas 3.5m/1y, N. Johnson 2m/1y
2B - B. Roberts 8m/2y
3B - M. Lowell 5m/3y, M. Lamb .5m/1y, J. Goedert 0m/2y/P
SS - R. Furcal 7.5m/2y, R. Theriot 2.5m/3y (SS & 2B Eligibility)
OF - L. Berkman 9.5m/2y/NT, S. Victorino 4.0m/3y, A. Jones .5m/3y, C. Gomez .5m/3y, C. Gonzalez 0m/2y/P
SP - B. Webb 10.5m/2y/NT, C. Sabathia 10.5m/2y/NT, Felix H 7.5m/2y, P. Hughes 6m/3y, C. Buchholz 5m/3y, C. James 3.5m/2y, C. Baek .5m/1y, J. Pineiro 1.5m/1, A. Sanchez 0m/2y/P
RP - M. Gonzalez 1m/1y, D. Sanchez 1m/1y

I sent Crede, Piazza, and Lopez packing via the waiver wire. Activated my prospects A. Jones, and C. Gomez. During the FAB, I waived M. Ramirez and another owner picked him up which allowed me to pickup a tier 1 pitcher with the available NT clause.

Obviously, I still need to pickup a closer, and maybe a couple of backups, but all in all, I am pretty happy with my FAB.

Good Luck and may your BRZ's be few.

Mays Conference, FAB

noreply@blogger.com (Chicago Cougars) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 22:19:00 +0000

Champions Leagues are tough the first couple of years, because you have to rebuild a ton generally. The main problem is you are playing against Champions who have a lot of the good talent and prospects. I am in my second year and made some improvements and have gotten rid of some big contracts (Brad Lidge 10.5 million) which I inherited and is on the books.

I only had 21.5million to spend in the FAB (after a waiver or two) and had some major holes to fill....luckily I had 4 pretty good starting pitchers so I did not have to allocate resources to them.

Going in I had:

Position Players

Bill Hall 2.0/1 yr - ok price if he plays up to his potential...
Ryan Church 1.o / 1yr
Delmont Young 0.5 / 2yr Bargain from last FAB
C. Granderson 0.5 /2yr Another bargain from last FAB
Robinson Cano 4.5 / 1 yr decent price
F. Sanchez 3.5 / 2yr good if he hits like 2 years ago and stays injury free
I. Rodriguez 2.0 / 1yr weak spot I need to address
D. Ortiz 17.5 1/yr overpriced but I need someone to hit (inherited)
M. Teixeira 12.5 / 1 yr inherited...but last yr of contract a bit overpriced

Pitchers

B Myers 7.5 / 1yr - worth it if he returns to form
S. Kazmir 6.5 / 1yr - we will see
J. Patterson - 4.5 / 1yr - good price if he pitches like Patterson
U. Jiminez - 0.5 / 3 yr - signed prospect

I had 30 million on the books for this year which I will get back for next year...

So here is what I did with my 21 million...

F. Pie 0.5 /3yr - hope springs eternal...could be a steal or a waste of 0.5
A. Rowand 3.5 - 3 yr - gives me 3 solid outfielders for a total of 5 million...
A. Iwamura 4.0 / 3yr - decent for the price but couldn't afford the studs..
D. Jeter 6.0 / 3 yr - had to get a quality SS...maybe a little pricy
J. Keppinger 0.5 / 3yr - future investment like Pie
J Rauch 4 / 2 yr - set up man
G. Sherill 3.5 / 2yr - banking on him winning the job otherwise I will have to wait for another

Do I think this is a championship team...probably not but it will take a couple of more seasons to rebuild and maybe if I get lucky some prospects will blossom and I can make a run next year. I am in a rebuilding year, but overall I should be competitive.

That is it for now...good luck in your FAB's

Chicago Cougars
(rilio)

great young pitchers

noreply@blogger.com (big boy) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 05:04:00 +0000

it looks like we have some good young pitchers coming this year,baltimore has a few young ones ready and so does atlanta. i hope i get lucky i can get one of those to build for the future