Stuff...Questions and Answers

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DOUGHBOYS
Posts: 13088
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:00 pm

Stuff...Questions and Answers

Post by DOUGHBOYS » Sat Jun 11, 2022 10:49 am

What do Yordan Alvarez and Mike Trout have in common?

Neither have attempted a steal this year.

Who leads baseball in Hits, Extra Base Hits, and Total Bases?

It's the same guy who leads baseball in multi-hit games.
The same guy who has had more total bases than any player since 2019.

Rafael Devers

What team has hit the most Home Runs in baseball?

The New York Yankees

What team has given up the least Home Runs in the American League?

The New York Yankees

Pete Alonso has two stolen bases. Byron Buxton has one.

Only four players are well on there way to a .300/100/30/100/10 season. Who are they?

Bryce Harper .306/40/14/44/6
Manny Machado .332/39/10/37/7
Paul Goldschmidt .333/41/12/47/3
Aaron Judge .308/48/22/45/3

Judge could also have a chance to break Roger Maris single season home run record.

Three Players are in good contention for a 30/30 year. Who are they?

Jose Ramirez 16/9
Kyle Tucker 11/11
Jazz Chisholm 12/10

Who has been the best pitcher in baseball this year?

Of course, this is subjective.
But from what I've seen Shane McClanahan has been that guy.

Do you know who Peter Srtzelecki is?

He pitched two innings in relief for the Brewers. He got a Win.

In 60 innings, 11 Starts, a 3.02 ERA, and pitching for the best team in baseball thus far, Jordan Montgomery also has one victory.

Where were we looking for stolen bases in all the wrong places?

Ozzie Albies has attempted eight stolen bases.
He has been caught stealing a league leading five times.

Vidal Brujan has added positionality to his resume.
So far, Brujan has proven that he can't hit at any position.
Worse for his owners. He has only attempted four stolen bases. And worse worse. only been successful one time.

Do NFBC fantasy owners care if their hitter strikes out 200 times?

Ask owners of Trevor Story. Julio Rodriguez, and Austin Riley.

What's the date?

June 11.
And on June 11, Freddie Freeman has as many owners as...... Matt Carpenter.
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!

DOUGHBOYS
Posts: 13088
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:00 pm

Re: Stuff...Questions and Answers

Post by DOUGHBOYS » Sat Jun 18, 2022 11:30 pm

This week I had a choice. Pitch Cal Quantrill or Dakota Hudson. Quantrill, on the road vs. the Dodgers. Hudson, facing the Red Sox in Boston.
It was a lot like the school bully asking me if I'd rather get kicked in the left testicle or right testicle.
During draft season, we never foresee decisions like this. There were no delusions of grandeur about Quantrill or Hudson from me, but surely I would select a team good enough not to come down to these choices.
I didn't.
So for a day, I had Quantrill starting one hour and Hudson the next. The Roulette wheel stopped at Quantrill.
Tonight, the croupier took away my chips as Quantrill gave up five runs while the Indians offense (Jose Ramirez) sat on the bench.
Meanwhile Houdini, er, Hudson, worked his way out of jams well enough to actually get a Win.
Not good enough to help a fantasy team in ERA, WHIP, or K's but getting a W.
On this team, I have lost Buehler, Peralta, and Luzardo to injury. Not whining about that. Injuries happen.
But these damned injuries leave me with choices like Quantrill or Hudson. That I will whine about.
Damned if you do and damned if you do.
And please, the left one this time.
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!

DOUGHBOYS
Posts: 13088
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:00 pm

Re: Stuff...Questions and Answers

Post by DOUGHBOYS » Tue Jun 21, 2022 2:34 pm

Suwinski hits three home runs. Hmmm.
It got me thinking about three home run games.
Even with all the homers flying, three home run games are rare.

Sammy Sosa hit three home runs in three different games in 2001.
He is the only player to accomplish the feat in one year.
Several players have done it two times in a year.

Sosa and my good friend ,Johnny Mize, hit three homers in a game a whopping six times.
Mize is never talked about, but was one of the best power hitters to have ever played the game.
Mize is the only player to have two three-homer games in two separate years.
Albert Pujols has had a three-homer game three times, but the last time was 16 years ago.

35 hitters through the history of baseball have had three three-homer games.
Here is a list of the top three-homer hitters....

Mize 6
Sosa 6

McGwire 5
Kingman 5
Joe Carter 5
Delgado 5
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!

DOUGHBOYS
Posts: 13088
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:00 pm

Re: Stuff...Questions and Answers

Post by DOUGHBOYS » Wed Jun 22, 2022 9:40 pm

It drives me crazy when I have good stats from a player ON MY BENCH.
Just this week, I benched Kole Calhoun because of a two game week. Calhoun hadn't been hitting well and his team had a two game series from Mon-Thurs.
Perfect excuse to bench his ass, right?
Well, it sounds good. Of course, Calhoun has a great two game series.
Is it right to root against our own players on the bench? Do we do so to help our ego's out?
I do it. I want to be right.
In fantasy baseball, I am wrong so much that I want to be right.

Tonight, Shohei Ohtani is pitching a gem.
He has 10 K's after five innings.
Last night, he had two homers and eight RBI.
These great performances are why I DON'T draft Ohtani.
In the NFBC, we have to pick pitcher or hitter.
If Ohtani has a hitting performance like last night and a pitching performance like tonight, it would drive me outta my gourd if owning him.
I'd feel screwed.
Even with getting wonderful stats for my team, I would look at my bench and get steamed.
It's a little like having wonderful sex with a girl you care about only to have your best friend enter the locker room the next day and tell a story about how he had sex with the same girl and she had told him it was the best sex she ever had.
You've still got the great stats (sex) but I would think more about my bench (best friend)
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!

DOUGHBOYS
Posts: 13088
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:00 pm

Re: Stuff...Questions and Answers

Post by DOUGHBOYS » Thu Jun 23, 2022 2:58 pm

We can say a lot of things are missing from baseball.

The ability of a pitcher to go deep in a game.
The hit and run.
The excitement of when a base stealer gets on first base.
Bunting for a hit.
Hell, even swinging for a hit.

It's a home run game.
But even given that, there is still something missing.
Consistency.
The two best home run hitters from the current era are Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera.
Both have over 500 homers.
We think of them as consistent.
But, are they?
Pujols has been in the top 10 of home run hitters nine times.
Cabrera, five.
It really is not very consistent when both players have had long careers.

Babe Ruth played at a time when he was not only a home run hitter, but one of the few home run hitters.
So, it's not surprising that Ruth has 18 seasons of being in the top 10 of home run hitters.
Mel Ott was a model of consistency.
He also had 18 seasons of placing in the top 10 of home runs.
But, one other player has 18 seasons.
More impressively, he did it during the golden era of baseball when Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Eddie Mathews, Ernie Banks, Frank Robinson, Mickey Mantle, Willie Stargell, Carl Yastrzemski, Billy Williams, and Reggie Jackson roamed the baseball earth.
All 10 of names, voracious home run hitters. All 10, in the Hall of Fame.

Hank Aaron was in the top 10 of home runs 18 seasons against some of the best.
Aaron was a 20/20 guy. He had at least 20 homers in 20 straight seasons.
Can you imagine any player doing that today?
For 15 straight seasons, Aaron missed an average of eight ball games a season.
Byron Buxton seemingly misses that many in a month. Even without his alluring dl stints.

All of this is to say just how difficult our fantasy jobs are.
Consistency is out the window.
We live in an era where a new kid can lead the league in any category. Where we can't count on any superstar to play most of a season.
And surely, we can't depend on any player to finish in the top 10 in home runs yearly.

Here is the list////

18
Ruth
Ott
Aaron

15
Ted Williams
Frank Robinson

14
Hornsby
Gehrig
Mays
Bonds
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!

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Edwards Kings
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Location: Duluth, Georgia

Re: Stuff...Questions and Answers

Post by Edwards Kings » Tue Jun 28, 2022 12:15 pm

The Golden Age really was the Golden Age, wasn't it. So, who are the players today then with the greatest chance of being that consistent HR hitter? From a list of ball players 27 years or younger with at least 100 HR maybe (Name, Age, HR to date):

Bellinger - 26 - 142 Sucking swamp water the last two years. Have we seen his best?
Correa - 27 - 141 Already in his eighth season. Not a big time fly ball hitter.
Alonso - 27 - 128 Only four years in AND a fly ball hitter. 6'3" and 245lb playing first...possible...possible
Acuna - 24 - 112 Mr. Excitment. Wonder if/when someone gonna stick one in his ear. So young so if he stays healthy...possible...possible
Soto - 23 - 112 Marvelous...marvelous. Poor support probably for a few years and none of those GB will run out and jump the fence.

Out of this group, trying to pick a guy who might be top 10 for 10 much less 15 years is spitting in the wind, but I gotta lean more towards Acuna, with Alonso as Ms. Congeniality.
Baseball is a slow, boring, complex, cerebral game that doesn't lend itself to histrionics. You 'take in' a baseball game, something odd to say about a football or basketball game, with the clock running and the bodies flying.
Charles Krauthammer

DOUGHBOYS
Posts: 13088
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:00 pm

Re: Stuff...Questions and Answers

Post by DOUGHBOYS » Wed Jun 29, 2022 10:36 am

The Yankees have been the best team in baseball in the first half of the season.
No question.
It doesn't mean a lot. We don't give prizes for a job half done (unless they're doing that in schools now too).

The Yankees have had a lot of luck to go with their skills. They have more than a lineup of starting players. This has helped them through minor injuries to offensive players.
Their starting staff has not had an injury and are all firing on all cylinders. They even called up JP Sears just to give their starters a blow.
And of course, Sears was brilliant.
Chad Green went down to injury and Jonathon Loaisiga has been crap, but the Yankees have perservered by having King, Schmidt, Peralta, and others stand up.
Chapman gets hurt? It's ok. Holmes becomes one of the best Closers in baseball.
A team has to have this typre of luck and skill to do what the Yankees have done.
Brian Cashman deserves the lions share of the credit.
He finally let go go of the offense of Gary Sanchez and 'settled' for defensive catching.
He moved Torres to second and got a real shortstop.
The defensive changes have gone under the radar, but last night the Yankees gave up an unearned run.
It was the first unearned run given up in 32 games.
The 10th longest such run in baseball history.
Good for the Yanks.
But as said, they don't give trophies for the first half.

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If reading in this area, you know that I am not a fan of most 'new' statistics.
Statcast is for announcers who want to say that Giancarlo Stanton hit a ball 110 mph instead of saying that he hit the ball really hard.
Slashes are not a category in fantasy, so I don't care.
For fantasy, I would love to see a BB/SB or a BB/RUN stat, giving a percentage of how many times a BB led to a stat in our realm.
But, the powers that be are only interested in glorifying the walk itself, it's too bad.

Anyway, I've simplified some things to see who the best offensive player, for our purposes, was in the first half of the season.
I have to admit, I was going to write this Monday morning, so the stats will be off a bit, but you'll get the idea....

I have three cats to determine wiho our best fantasy player is.

The all important HR/SB leaders.
The AVG/Runs leaders.
The HR/RBI/RUNS leaders.
This may seem redundant, but it works.
HR/SB is the backbone of our fantasy game. Avg, rbi, and runs will follow if having leaders in HR/SB
The AVG/RUNS leaders include players who are keeping our AVG alive while contributing with that AVG. Not just an empty average.
While the HR/RBI/RUNS more includes the powerful hitters.

HR/SB

Julio Rodriguez 11/19
Trea Turner 10/15
Kyle Tucker 14/13
Jazz Chisholm 14/12
Jose Ramirez 16/12
Adolis Garcia 15/11
Dansby Swanson 13/11
Bobby Witt 11/11
Trevor Story 11/10

AVG/RUNS

Rafael Devers .334/55
Paul Goldschmidt .337/54
Bryce Harper .318/49
Dansby Swanson .304/48
Yordan Alvarez .312/47
Freddie Freeman .305/47
Jose Ramirez .303/45
Xander Bogaerts .330/44
JD Martinez .329/43
Luis Arraez .349/40
Trea Turner .317/40

HR/RBI/RUNS

Pete Alonso 22/69/45
Mike Trout 22/45/51
Jose Ramirez 16/63/45
Paul Goldschmidt 18/62/45
Aaron Judge 28/56/59
Francisco Lindor 12/56/45
Yordan Alvarez 22/57/45
CJ Cron 17/53/45
Anthony Rizzo 19/49/42

If not having at least one of the players above, I would dare say that your offensive side of the standings is lacking in places.
With this process, it is easy to crown the best first half offensive player for our game.
Jose Ramirez is the only player on all three lists.
He is THE five category player.
Trea Turner comes as close as anybody for runner-up. 10 homers being his achilles.
For most other players, one category is also the weakness. Stolen bases hurts most.
Kyle Tucker is hurt by his lineup placement. His RUNS totals are atrocious for a player doing as well as he has.

Fist round players not appearing on these lists are Juan Soto, Bo Bichette, and Vlad Guerrero.
The best buy on these lists may be Dansby Swanson who had an ADP of 116.

Sure, the process is simplistic.
But, most try to make too much of just five categories.
In the end, the five categories are what matter most.
The rest, the rest is just for others to talk about....a lot.
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!

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