FantasyHeads - How'd ya do?

by AdjustedExpectations on Oct 6, 2009 11:18 PM EDT Comment 38 comments

I had a brutal year all in all. Top of my draft was HanRam due to getting a low draft spot. Struggled most of the year fighting to catch up to the El Hombre, Lincecum owners. Slid in and picked up Carp and things were looking really, really good.

Then Hamilton and Santana happened... I finished third. I think I'm getting tired of the draft approach as is and the way points are commonly awarded - though this could be some loser talk going on.

So I'm curious, how'd ya do? Any kickass trades/pickups that pulled you to the top? Where'd ya play? If the league you ran would do things differently, what would it be?

0 recs | Comment 38 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

I wish I could make myself commit to fantasy baseball...

But managing a fantasy football team about twice a week is all my attention span can handle.

V, b.

by LukeMP1186 on Oct 7, 2009 1:46 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

yeah

but the season’s don’t overlap much

Positronic Upgraded Juggernaut Optimized for Logical Sabotage

by Cards Fan in Chitown on Oct 7, 2009 1:19 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think he means

that having to manage a team every day for 6 months during the summer could be a bit taxing for his short attention span.

Apparently he has not heard of head-to-head leagues, which play much like fantasy football does.

"I just wish that the late Harry Caray were still around so I could hear him mispronounce 'Kosuke Fukudome' every fukun' night" -- Dennis Miller

by fourstick on Oct 7, 2009 2:40 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

or daily drafting

(I say this without knowing much about head-head)

Essentially on the day you care to be a fantasyhead, you play and draft for a day, otherwise you don’t have to have any investment.

Played some this year, ironically while there isn’t any day to day investment, there’s a lot of investment to play on that day (essentially everyday is draft day).

I wish there was a daily – nondraft based system that fit my “my team sucks, but i wanna play” persona.

One Century down, next on its way. Cardinals '09 : Preserving the Cubs tradition.
In Albert I Trust, In Colby I Believe.

by AdjustedExpectations on Oct 7, 2009 2:44 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Head to head

You choose a lineup for 7 days and then your team is pitted against another owner who does the same thing. Essentially it’s 5X5 ROTO for one week at at time.

Drafting is the same (beginning of the season, serpentine), and you keep the same players throughout the year, but the transactions are exactly like Fantasy Football usually, you can pick up players for DL’d players and then you get two pickups per week on the day you must set rosters for the next week.

Usually the weeks run from Monday to Sunday, and you’ll want to play the players with the fewest days off (so they can accumulate more stats that week) and you’ll want to start as many 2 start pitchers as you can. Your weekly position player lineup is virtually the same every week, although you might bump up your steals and drop some homers against a team that is weak in homers or something like that.

"I just wish that the late Harry Caray were still around so I could hear him mispronounce 'Kosuke Fukudome' every fukun' night" -- Dennis Miller

by fourstick on Oct 7, 2009 5:51 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

yeah, that's what I play

it hardly takes any time

Positronic Upgraded Juggernaut Optimized for Logical Sabotage

by Cards Fan in Chitown on Oct 8, 2009 4:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Won my league with this team:

C – Miguel Olivo
1B – Adrián González
2B – Chase Utley
3B – Ryan Zimmerman
SS – Hanley Ramírez
OF – Carlos Lee
OF – Nelson Cruz
OF – Cody Ross
Util – Joey Votto
BN – Ryan Ludwick
BN – Alexei Ramírez

SP – Chris Carpenter
SP – Adam Wainwright
RP – Heath Bell
RP – Ryan Franklin
P – Fernando Rodney
P – Matt Cain
P – Joel Piñeiro
BN – James Shields
BN – Aaron Cook
BN – Brett Anderson

This was in a Yahoo league. No trades the whole year. The lineup was virtually the same all year. I drafted Carp and Waino and later picked up Franklin and Pinieiro and the Cardinals pitching carried my staff.

by bosman on Oct 7, 2009 3:36 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Finished third with this team:

C Brian McCann ATL
1B Nick Swisher NYY
2B Brian Roberts BAL
3B Miguel Cabrera DET
SS Cristian Guzman WAS
MI Jhonny Peralta CLE
CI Gordon Beckham CWS
OF Raul Ibanez PHI
OF Shin-Soo Choo CLE
OF Andre Ethier LAD
OF Andrew McCutchen PIT
OF Matt LaPorta CLE
UT Manny Ramirez LAD
UT Carl Crawford TB
P John Smoltz STL
P A.J. Burnett NYY
P Fernando Rodney DET
P Rafael Soriano ATL
P David Aardsma SEA
P Chad Billingsley LAD
P Homer Bailey CIN
P Daniel Bard BOS
P Wade Davis TB
Bench Tim Stauffer SD
Bench Tim Lincecum SF
Bench Alcides Escobar MLW
Bench Trevor Cahill OAK
Bench Daniel McCutchen PIT

Traded Jurrjens for Crawford in June.

The lack of wins by Lincecum, Billingsley, and Burnett really hurt me down the stretch. I finished 4 points out of first and 1.5 points out of second, and I lost 6 points in the “win” column from the end of July to the end of the season.

"I just wish that the late Harry Caray were still around so I could hear him mispronounce 'Kosuke Fukudome' every fukun' night" -- Dennis Miller

by fourstick on Oct 7, 2009 9:07 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I’ve got to say that’s one hell of a team to finish third with.

One Century down, next on its way. Cardinals '09 : Preserving the Cubs tradition.
In Albert I Trust, In Colby I Believe.

by AdjustedExpectations on Oct 7, 2009 2:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yah

especially in a 13 team league.

Here’s the first place team:

C Pablo Sandoval SF
1B Paul Konerko CWS
2B Brandon Phillips CIN
3B David Wright NYM
SS Troy Tulowitzki COL
MI Everth Cabrera SD
CI Chris Davis TEX
OF Johnny Damon NYY
OF Carlos Lee HOU
OF Nelson Cruz TEX
OF Garrett Jones PIT
OF Adam Lind TOR
UT Ryan Ludwick STL
UT Carlos Gonzalez COL
P Ryan Dempster CHC
P Roy Halladay TOR
P Heath Bell SD
P Felix Hernandez SEA
P Matt Capps PIT
P Jim Johnson BAL
P Franklin Morales COL
P Juan Gutierrez ARZ
P Max Scherzer ARZ
Bench Scott Kazmir LAA
Bench Ubaldo Jimenez COL
Bench Brendan Ryan STL
Bench Yovani Gallardo MLW
Bench Johnny Cueto CIN
Bench Tommy Hanson ATL

Here’s the second place team:

C Geovany Soto CHC
1B Albert Pujols STL
2B Aaron Hill TOR
3B Scott Rolen CIN
SS Yunel Escobar ATL
MI Kazuo Matsui HOU
CI Juan Uribe SF
OF Michael Cuddyer MIN
OF Juan Rivera LAA
OF B.J. Upton TB
OF Carlos Quentin CWS
OF Chris Coghlan FLA
UT David Ortiz BOS
UT Alexei Ramirez CWS
P Billy Wagner BOS
P Freddy Garcia CWS
P CC Sabathia NYY
P Tim Hudson ATL
P Jose Valverde HOU
P Daisuke Matsuzaka BOS
P Joe Blanton PHI
P Edwin Jackson DET
P George Sherrill LAD
Bench Scott Downs TOR
Bench Jorge Cantu FLA
Bench Matt Cain SF
Bench John Maine NYM
Bench Clay Buchholz BOS
Bench Travis Snider TOR

Don’t ask me how I finished second to either of them…

"I just wish that the late Harry Caray were still around so I could hear him mispronounce 'Kosuke Fukudome' every fukun' night" -- Dennis Miller

by fourstick on Oct 7, 2009 5:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Finished 3rd

out of 11 in a rotisserie NL only league. We (expensive, time consuming league, so I co-own a team with a friend) were 1st up until ASG, 3rd most of the time down the stretch.

Couldn’t score any runs at the end of the season, or else we would have made a run at it. Looking at you Beltran you bum.

Good picks at auction:
Cain
D. Lee
Adrian Gonzalez (trade)

Bad keepers:
JJ Hardy (ended up dropping him)
Nolasco over Matt Kemp (argh!)

Bad auction picks:
Russell Martin
Beltran

Keepers for next year:
Billingsley (assuming he fixes his problems)
???

by creativereason on Oct 7, 2009 10:04 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I had Billingsley in my other league

Traded him at the deadline for Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis, even though Pedroia is having a down year, I am still happy about that trade.

I would pretty much do the same thing next year until he proves he can handle that amny innings of work.

"Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does all the work"
-Mark Twain

by Taskmaster on Oct 7, 2009 10:17 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Lost.

Grady Sizemore.

Who needs affection when you can have blind hatred?

by ClemsonGirl on Oct 7, 2009 10:14 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Played 2 teams

1 was the standard ESPN head to head type thin, which I won. The other was a point system over the entire season.

This is the championship one
C-Yadier Molina (Off waivers, originally had Soto, what a bum)
1B-Albert Pujols (had the 3rd pick and he fell to me, i was ecstatic)
2B-Orlando Hudson (Great start, was eventually platooned with Uggla)
3B-Ryan Zimmermann (Great future, and solid all season)
SS-Ryan Theriot (Decent for a last round pick, top 5 SS on the player rater)
2B/SS-Gordon Beckham (Great Keeper choice)
1B/3B Derrek Lee (Was offered to me for Adam Laroche RIGHT before he caught fire)
OF-Matt Holliday (Was high on him in Oakland, yikes, the Wallace trade bailed me out)
OF-Carl Crawford (Nothing to say here, steals are great to have)
OF-Justin Upton (Snatched him late in the draft, going to be a star in this league soon)
OF-Andre Ethier (So many double plays, but great numbers otherwise)
OF-Andrew Mccutcheon
Bench-AJ Pierzynski (Solid backup)
Bench-Uggla/Hudson (Whichever had a better matchup)
Bench-Adam Lind (Picked him off waivers before the season instead of taking

Adam Wainwright
Francisco Rodriguez
Matt Garza
Max Scherzer
Chris Carpenter-(Thank Jesus he worked out)
David Aardsma-(I had whoever was the closer for TB before, saved my relief corp)
Scott Feldman
Joel Pineiro

Coulda had Verlander, but instead drafted Cameron friggin Maybin

"Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does all the work"
-Mark Twain

by Taskmaster on Oct 7, 2009 10:15 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Nice outfield. Carp fell low on the board on mine as well, and a fellow cards fan picked him up, then dropped him after injury, i swooped. Saved my year from being a disaster.

One Century down, next on its way. Cardinals '09 : Preserving the Cubs tradition.
In Albert I Trust, In Colby I Believe.

by AdjustedExpectations on Oct 7, 2009 2:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I won my league

Mostly on the back of my starting pitching. I drafted Vazquez pretty low, no one seemed to want him. Also got Jurrjens later than I would have thought. But the kicker was getting Verlander for nothing after his owner dropped him after his first 4 horrible starts.

Yep, every Hall of Famer did something unique. Mike Schmidt played with his hat sideways. Roberto Clemente chewed other people's fingernails. Tris Speaker was Japanese. Lou Boudreau rode a dolphin into the batter's box. Nap Lajoie would only use John Wilkes Booth's dismembered leg as a bat. And he corked it. Johnny Mize was from the future. - FJM

by Choix003 on Oct 7, 2009 10:26 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I played in kind of a weird league, and it was my first real try at fantasy baseball

It was a Yahoo league with some (due to my stats inclinations) rather unfortunate stats for scoring. It was also a pretty shallow league (only 9 teams) so at times it seemed like every team was entirely filled with studs, and usually some very good waiver options. Anyway, I ended up finished 4th. The first place team was in the low 80s in points, whereas 2, 3, and 4 were all within 1 point of each other in the mid-70s. It was frustrating that the other spots were so close since I just barely missed out on getting my money back, so I consider myself the wild card.
I think I did pretty well for my first time. My draft went incredibly well and I was in 1st place for much of the season by an absurd amount, then my players slowly reverted back to the mean.
I was particularly proud of getting both HanRam and Utley, snagging Adrian Gonzalez since nobody else seemed to realize how good he is, getting both McCann and Sandoval (there were two C slots on our teams), drafting Wainwright who obviously had a pleasant season, drafting Kemp (another guy that was surprisingly under the radar) and putting together a pretty strong bullpen, mostly on waivers. Some dud moves of mine included passing up Zimmerman in favor of Beltre for 3B (ugh) hanging on to Jay Bruce perhaps too long (though he did provide homers and ribbies) and trading away Aardsma (best waiver pick up ever) for Edwin Jackson when my buddy originally offered Happ. I thought, no way is Happ this good, his numbers will start to fall, and Jackson will stay good. Blah.
Over all, my initial success was my undoing; I was too hesitant to makes moves and trades and kept hoping my team would bounce back, especially my starters and outfield. Definitely look forward to more fantasy baseball in the future.

Albert Pujols does not have "down" years. He has "~6 WAR" years.

by mattybobo on Oct 7, 2009 10:48 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I was in a similar one last year

some idiot traded me Miggy Cabrera for Magglio and at one point I had an infield of Russel Martin, Miggy, Pedroia, Theriot and Braun. Had a pretty awesome outfield too. I won the league by a distance, surprisingly.

Felonius Monk - bitching to contact since 2008

by Felonius_Monk on Oct 7, 2009 1:36 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It is really still kind of tough for me to get used to the "fantasy stats" approach

The offensive stats were average, RBI, runs, HRs, SB, and K’s. The pitching stats were wins, ERA, WHIP, K’s, Saves and holds (seriously who cares about holds?). A big problem was that I had some very productive hitters with relatively high amounts of strike outs and not great average. Hanley and Bartlett helped out with that however. Still, I’ve become inclined to the sabr-type reasoning that production is more than traditional stats, and fantasy baseball is pretty much the opposite; you try for certain cherry-picked stats, actual player value be damned.

Albert Pujols does not have "down" years. He has "~6 WAR" years.

by mattybobo on Oct 7, 2009 2:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Who cares about K's?

except of maybe J.P. Ricciardi?

"I just wish that the late Harry Caray were still around so I could hear him mispronounce 'Kosuke Fukudome' every fukun' night" -- Dennis Miller

by fourstick on Oct 7, 2009 2:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

That’s what’s irritating. If you have a three true outcome player, should he be placed a hair over average? Should a productive pitcher on a shit offense be considered the same because his win total isn’t high? Was Joel really all that useless even though he carried the low K rate and win rate?

Fantasy stats may be “dumbed down”, but there’s a lot of situations where they box out very productive players

One Century down, next on its way. Cardinals '09 : Preserving the Cubs tradition.
In Albert I Trust, In Colby I Believe.

by AdjustedExpectations on Oct 7, 2009 2:51 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Piniero

was valuable because of WHIP.

Three true outcomes guys (the good ones anyway, like Cust, Dunn, Swisher) are valuable because they fill up two stat columns, HR and RBI’s, but if you’re going to use them, you have offset their low averages with a high average player. Pujols makes it easier to take a three true outcomes guy. In fact, last year I got Pujols, then built my whole outfield around 3 true outcomes players and ended up winning the league, because I was able to spend rounds 2-8 on starting pitching and one good middle infielder.

"I just wish that the late Harry Caray were still around so I could hear him mispronounce 'Kosuke Fukudome' every fukun' night" -- Dennis Miller

by fourstick on Oct 7, 2009 5:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Won the league (3rd after "regular" season)

C Posada
1B Gonzalez
2B Figgins
3B Longoria
SS Rollins
OF Crawford, Kemp, Rasmus
Util D Lee
Bench Wright, V Wells, Rod Barajas, S Drew

SP Billingsley, Lester, Hamels, Jered Weaver, Javier Vázquez,
Edinson Vólquez (DL’d most of the season),
Max Scherzer (benched usually)
RP Nathan, Franklin

"Come test me every day if you want," says Pujols, "Everything I ever made in this game I would give back to the Cardinals if I got caught."

by StLHugo on Oct 7, 2009 11:55 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

#1 of 11

C Jorge Posada
1B Joey Votto
2B Chase Utley
3B Miguel Cabrera (thanks Yahoo!)
SS Derek Jeter
OF Matt Holiday
OF Carl Crawford
OF Curtis Granderson
Util Mark Reynolds

Bench: Hunter Pence, Ben Zobrist, Troy Tulowitski

SP Jake Peavy
SP Josh Beckett
SP Yovani Gallardo
SP Ricky Nolasco
SP Erik Bedard

RP Ryan Franklin
RP Trevor Hoffman
RP Johnathon Broxton
RP Mike Gonzalez

Fast and friendly with the waiver wire. Zobrist, Reynolds early on, then a whole slew of pitchers once Gallardo and Bedard went down.

by edgesofsanity on Oct 7, 2009 12:28 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I finished 4th in one league

and in the middle of the pack in my other league.

Positronic Upgraded Juggernaut Optimized for Logical Sabotage

by Cards Fan in Chitown on Oct 7, 2009 1:20 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

VEB-14 Team League

I finished 5th in the 14-team VEB 5X5 league Joey Bombs started. It was fun and hope to do it again.

Note to self: Do not draft Francisco Liriano ever again!

by Salti Cracker on Oct 7, 2009 1:29 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I have no idea where I finished in that one

I was 3rd or 4th when access at work got blocked and I kinda lost interest. Best free agent pickup – Ben Zobrist.

Felonius Monk - bitching to contact since 2008

by Felonius_Monk on Oct 7, 2009 1:37 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Zobrist was a good pickup

I picked him up too

Best moment I've ever seen at a game in person
Looking forward to Cardinals baseball in 2010!

by zoomzoomj88 on Oct 15, 2009 7:52 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

homer's homers

finish 8th, barely in the top half

Positronic Upgraded Juggernaut Optimized for Logical Sabotage

by Cards Fan in Chitown on Oct 8, 2009 4:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

er

maybe it was 7th heh

Positronic Upgraded Juggernaut Optimized for Logical Sabotage

by Cards Fan in Chitown on Oct 11, 2009 11:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

6th in ESPN keeper league

C – Inge (DET)
1B – Berkman (HOU)
2B – Pedroia (BOS)
3B – Cantu (FLA)
SS – Barmes (COL)
2B/SS – Uggla (FLA)
1B/3B – Swisher (NYY)
OF – Pence (HOU), Dunn (WAS), Lind (TOR), Zobrist (TB), Luddy
UTIL – Lopez (MIL)
BENCH – Huff (DET 1B/3B), Scutaro (TOR 2B/3B/ SS), Barajas (TOR C)
P – Cliff Lee (PHI), Brian Fuentes (LAA), Lohse, Sherrill (LA Dodgers), Aardsma (SEA), Jurrjens (ATL), Sabathia, Marquis, Duke (PIT), Peavy (CWS)

5 keepers for next season, have til Feb. 17 2010 to decide.

2009 NL CENTRAL CHAMPIONS!

by zoomzoomj88 on Oct 7, 2009 7:14 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Well If you are asking for keepers

I’d say Peavy, Sabathia, Lee, Pence, and Pedroia(Maybe scutaro, depends where he signs). It’s a bit pitching heavy, but I like my teams to have a great pitching staff rather than a great all around team.

"Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does all the work"
-Mark Twain

by Taskmaster on Oct 7, 2009 8:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ehhh

Taking Berkman instead of Pence either isn’t a bad idea, since the Outfield is the easiest place to find depth.

"Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does all the work"
-Mark Twain

by Taskmaster on Oct 7, 2009 8:20 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Really?

I’d keep Lee, Sabathia, Berkman, Pence, and Uggla.

Not to many 2B out there that are going to hit 20 homers, and he might end up in a more pitcher friendly park.

"I just wish that the late Harry Caray were still around so I could hear him mispronounce 'Kosuke Fukudome' every fukun' night" -- Dennis Miller

by fourstick on Oct 8, 2009 12:43 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I assume you mean hitter-friendly ball park

I guess my philosophy is different in that I will take a potentially dominant Cy young pitcher (Peavy) instead of a potential All star OF, which is a great position of depth in baseball. My teams are commonly stacked with great pitching because they win leagues in my opinion.

Now debating if Pedroia is worth more than Uggla is a different argument, since Pedroia had a pretty down year. Uggla could very well land in a launching pad ball park, but he could also end up in Citi Field or SF. It would be a much easier decision to make come April.

"Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does all the work"
-Mark Twain

by Taskmaster on Oct 9, 2009 10:57 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs