Week One Thoughts about my Team
Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2010 4:54 am
I've had several folks say they liked reading how another player views their team, the strategy involved, and thoughts in general. Not sure if I will be able to do this all year, but when I can I will. Hope it makes a nice distraction. So, to begin the paper trail on my annual exercise in futility... 
Week One FA - As I got ready for the first full week, I felt pretty good as I left the draft without much dead wood. So, true to form I decided to pick some up.
I saw Andruw Jones play a couple of exhibition games in Atlanta just prior to the season. Everyone has heard or read the stories about being in shape, and the pundits commenting that he is still not too old. Well, those stories plus seeing Andruw run (he has always been quick and I could, while he was in his prime, never understand why he did not steal more bases) for like four SB in spring training, was like dangling corn-dog spinner bait in front of this dork fish. Officiandos’ of Jeff Engvall and “Blue Collar Comedy” will pick up on the reference, but for the rest of the un-enlightened, it was probably something only a dork would fall for . His only competition is Mark Kotsay, but Jones only got eight AB last week (though he did steal a base). Unless he can pull out a full time gig, he is of no use to me.
I had drafted Chris Tillman, BLT, as I thought he was the second best arm in Baltimore (kind of like being the skinniest new guy at a Weight Watchers convention…all relative) and might be a useful sub from time to time. Baltimore sent him down, so with Kenshin Kawakami and still injured Brandon Webb as my only other options, I need a SP. I picked up Aaron Cook, COL. My hope was he could sneak by Braun and Fielder in his Week One start at Milwaukee, get a win against Doug Davis, and give me a few quality innings, though I had no real hope of decent K’s. He did get by the two big boppers, but proved hittable allowing three doubles and four earned runs. Only one walk shows he still has his control and five K’s were a plus.
Week One Results – Everyone has about the same targets, give or take. About 285 to 290 AB per week, 11 or 12 HR, 40+ Runs and RBI’s, and about six SB’s will, if you average that over 26 weeks, an elite year. My power was way down in Week One as six players went yard once. Brian Roberts and Rafael Furcal took a dip in the fountain of youth and gave me five SB out of my nine SB total for the week. Came close on the RBI’s (39), but Runs (33) and BA (0.2632 thanks to Medoza-ettes like Soto, Roberts, AmRam, and Victorino) were definitely lacking. Still it is early and even with Roberts and Ethier missing time, I got my 285 AB.
John Baker and Geo Soto only got me a combined 23 AB last week. I can take that from Baker because I expect it due to his strict platoon (though the Fish see five righties out of the next seven games so I hope for 20 AB from Baker this week). Soto needs to wake up. His only competition is Koyie Hill, who has already appeared in four games. Should be a no-brainer. I keep telling myself its early, but I am concerned.
On the corners, Votto and AmRam did not shine Week One, but I have only confidence that both will have put up the numbers by the end of the year. Ramirez ha only one HR this past week, and that was off my pitcher, Derek Lowe. I specifically sent each of my offensive players instructions not to hit HR’s off their fantasy team mates (though to be fair, most of the letters came back, either unopened or with words like “Restraining Order” in big red letters on them). Until former phenom and current poster boy for socialistic healthcare Alex Gordon comes back, I have been using Garret Atkins at the corner. I was the guy in our league who was willing to take a late gamble on him. I just do not believe he has totally lost it at age 30-31. He drove in three runs while batting 0.350 this past week, so I guess he had an OK week. When Gordon comes back, Atkins will be one of two players (Carlos Guillen the other) who could see lots of time at UT.
In the middle, Raffy and his six runs scored and three SB (Dan, in case you were wondering, that projects out to 156 Runs Scored and 78 SB this year) to go with a 0.308 BA is a nice Week One anomaly. Still, considering I got him near the middle of the draft, he is not a bad gamble and right now he is producing hitting in front of Kemp. Ethier should also help out there when he comes back. Tejada showed a little this first week driving in six with one dinger. Roberts was just getting started when he hurt himself sliding. That is the risk of these older players. They say he will be back Tuesday, but I may go with Valbuena or Iwamura for the first part of the week.
OF was a hot and cold group, but once Either comes back, with Kemp, Victorino, Willingham (nice finish to the week) and DeJesus, I am pretty satisfied. I would love to snag one more solid full time bat (in place of Andruw or Melky), so I will keep scubbing the waiver wires for something with a real chance to be better.
Pitching was good this week. Really very good. I ended up with ten Games Started and 65 K’s. I want to average at least 50 and get four wins a week (I got five or 50% of GS). ERA was at 3.444, which is nose-bleed territory for me considering my pitching staffs of the last two years, though WHIP was high at 1.332. The Bluejays had a plethora of save chances and Frasor, after a rough start, got three. In his last three outings (3.0 IP), he gave up two hits, two walks, struck out five, and no runs. Nice. My “Ace” closer Soria tossed in one, so I am good against my Saves targets as well.
Lowe was uneven at best. He got lit up by the Cubbies on two dingers, but being such a ground ball pitcher, the long-ball risk is not too great and he will not have too many of those types of games. Of bigger concern was in his better game where he walked seven guys. As a matter of fact, of my 27 walks this week, he had ten of them. Still, he got me two wins, so I hope the control issue ends up an mirage due to some other factor.
Jered Weaver, and James Shields got me two pretty good starts each (though Shields was very hittable versus Baltimore an gave up three solo HR’s), but only one win. Danks, Garza, and Bonderman each got me solid starts as well. I know Bonderman will blow up sometime soon, but he will be out in Seattle next week. Not much of a chance to win facing King Felix, but the Mariners really scuffled on the road last week, so he with Cook or Kawakami (who looked decent last night, even though he only struck out one) will get two of my rotation spots. Cook gets the Mutts at home and Kawakami gets the Rockies in Atlanta, so none of the three are great but all three have serviceable matchups this coming week. I am only going to end up with eight GS this week, so I hope to win at least half and stay on track with my wins target.
Week Two FA – I looked and I looked and I just did not see much in the FA pool this past week that made me say “Buy”. It is too early to give up on certain of my players and what was in the pool had just as many questions as the guys I had. I put in a couple of half-hearted bids, but won none as there were guys willing to pay more for the likes of Jim Johnson. I did not bid on Snyder, though I should have, but even if I had, I would not have won as the number I had for his worth and the number that won were worlds apart.
What I really want is to snag an arm. I am going to watch Andruw for one more week. If he doesn’t look like he is pulling ahead of Kotsay so that he can really produce, I might toss him back in and grab an arm, if a good one is available. I can get by for a little while longer on what I have, so if not Week Two, I will snag an arm sometime soon.
Week One FA - As I got ready for the first full week, I felt pretty good as I left the draft without much dead wood. So, true to form I decided to pick some up.
I saw Andruw Jones play a couple of exhibition games in Atlanta just prior to the season. Everyone has heard or read the stories about being in shape, and the pundits commenting that he is still not too old. Well, those stories plus seeing Andruw run (he has always been quick and I could, while he was in his prime, never understand why he did not steal more bases) for like four SB in spring training, was like dangling corn-dog spinner bait in front of this dork fish. Officiandos’ of Jeff Engvall and “Blue Collar Comedy” will pick up on the reference, but for the rest of the un-enlightened, it was probably something only a dork would fall for . His only competition is Mark Kotsay, but Jones only got eight AB last week (though he did steal a base). Unless he can pull out a full time gig, he is of no use to me.
I had drafted Chris Tillman, BLT, as I thought he was the second best arm in Baltimore (kind of like being the skinniest new guy at a Weight Watchers convention…all relative) and might be a useful sub from time to time. Baltimore sent him down, so with Kenshin Kawakami and still injured Brandon Webb as my only other options, I need a SP. I picked up Aaron Cook, COL. My hope was he could sneak by Braun and Fielder in his Week One start at Milwaukee, get a win against Doug Davis, and give me a few quality innings, though I had no real hope of decent K’s. He did get by the two big boppers, but proved hittable allowing three doubles and four earned runs. Only one walk shows he still has his control and five K’s were a plus.
Week One Results – Everyone has about the same targets, give or take. About 285 to 290 AB per week, 11 or 12 HR, 40+ Runs and RBI’s, and about six SB’s will, if you average that over 26 weeks, an elite year. My power was way down in Week One as six players went yard once. Brian Roberts and Rafael Furcal took a dip in the fountain of youth and gave me five SB out of my nine SB total for the week. Came close on the RBI’s (39), but Runs (33) and BA (0.2632 thanks to Medoza-ettes like Soto, Roberts, AmRam, and Victorino) were definitely lacking. Still it is early and even with Roberts and Ethier missing time, I got my 285 AB.
John Baker and Geo Soto only got me a combined 23 AB last week. I can take that from Baker because I expect it due to his strict platoon (though the Fish see five righties out of the next seven games so I hope for 20 AB from Baker this week). Soto needs to wake up. His only competition is Koyie Hill, who has already appeared in four games. Should be a no-brainer. I keep telling myself its early, but I am concerned.
On the corners, Votto and AmRam did not shine Week One, but I have only confidence that both will have put up the numbers by the end of the year. Ramirez ha only one HR this past week, and that was off my pitcher, Derek Lowe. I specifically sent each of my offensive players instructions not to hit HR’s off their fantasy team mates (though to be fair, most of the letters came back, either unopened or with words like “Restraining Order” in big red letters on them). Until former phenom and current poster boy for socialistic healthcare Alex Gordon comes back, I have been using Garret Atkins at the corner. I was the guy in our league who was willing to take a late gamble on him. I just do not believe he has totally lost it at age 30-31. He drove in three runs while batting 0.350 this past week, so I guess he had an OK week. When Gordon comes back, Atkins will be one of two players (Carlos Guillen the other) who could see lots of time at UT.
In the middle, Raffy and his six runs scored and three SB (Dan, in case you were wondering, that projects out to 156 Runs Scored and 78 SB this year) to go with a 0.308 BA is a nice Week One anomaly. Still, considering I got him near the middle of the draft, he is not a bad gamble and right now he is producing hitting in front of Kemp. Ethier should also help out there when he comes back. Tejada showed a little this first week driving in six with one dinger. Roberts was just getting started when he hurt himself sliding. That is the risk of these older players. They say he will be back Tuesday, but I may go with Valbuena or Iwamura for the first part of the week.
OF was a hot and cold group, but once Either comes back, with Kemp, Victorino, Willingham (nice finish to the week) and DeJesus, I am pretty satisfied. I would love to snag one more solid full time bat (in place of Andruw or Melky), so I will keep scubbing the waiver wires for something with a real chance to be better.
Pitching was good this week. Really very good. I ended up with ten Games Started and 65 K’s. I want to average at least 50 and get four wins a week (I got five or 50% of GS). ERA was at 3.444, which is nose-bleed territory for me considering my pitching staffs of the last two years, though WHIP was high at 1.332. The Bluejays had a plethora of save chances and Frasor, after a rough start, got three. In his last three outings (3.0 IP), he gave up two hits, two walks, struck out five, and no runs. Nice. My “Ace” closer Soria tossed in one, so I am good against my Saves targets as well.
Lowe was uneven at best. He got lit up by the Cubbies on two dingers, but being such a ground ball pitcher, the long-ball risk is not too great and he will not have too many of those types of games. Of bigger concern was in his better game where he walked seven guys. As a matter of fact, of my 27 walks this week, he had ten of them. Still, he got me two wins, so I hope the control issue ends up an mirage due to some other factor.
Jered Weaver, and James Shields got me two pretty good starts each (though Shields was very hittable versus Baltimore an gave up three solo HR’s), but only one win. Danks, Garza, and Bonderman each got me solid starts as well. I know Bonderman will blow up sometime soon, but he will be out in Seattle next week. Not much of a chance to win facing King Felix, but the Mariners really scuffled on the road last week, so he with Cook or Kawakami (who looked decent last night, even though he only struck out one) will get two of my rotation spots. Cook gets the Mutts at home and Kawakami gets the Rockies in Atlanta, so none of the three are great but all three have serviceable matchups this coming week. I am only going to end up with eight GS this week, so I hope to win at least half and stay on track with my wins target.
Week Two FA – I looked and I looked and I just did not see much in the FA pool this past week that made me say “Buy”. It is too early to give up on certain of my players and what was in the pool had just as many questions as the guys I had. I put in a couple of half-hearted bids, but won none as there were guys willing to pay more for the likes of Jim Johnson. I did not bid on Snyder, though I should have, but even if I had, I would not have won as the number I had for his worth and the number that won were worlds apart.
What I really want is to snag an arm. I am going to watch Andruw for one more week. If he doesn’t look like he is pulling ahead of Kotsay so that he can really produce, I might toss him back in and grab an arm, if a good one is available. I can get by for a little while longer on what I have, so if not Week Two, I will snag an arm sometime soon.
