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RotoAuthority League Review
Today I'll review my team in the '08 RotoAuthority League. I snagged first place with 97 points in this roto league.
Description
Standard 5x5 12-team roto league. Normal-sized rosters, 1500 IP limit. $100 buy-in. I assembled this league by picking readers of this website. I wanted a competitive money league where the bottom four would be kicked out each year (but it is not a keeper league). I think we were successful in that goal. Here's a look at the 12 people who ran teams in '08. The average team made about 85 player moves; I made 96.
Results
First place with 97.0 points. Category points results for my team: 12 in runs, 9 in HR, 12 in RBI, 8 in SB, 11.5 in AVG, 8.5 in wins, 12 in saves, 10 in Ks, 7 in ERA, 7 in WHIP.
Drafted Players Retained All Year
Of the 26 players drafted, I finished the season with 12 of them (round drafted in parentheses): Ryan Doumit (21), Lance Berkman (3), David Wright (1), Carlos Lee (2), Michael Young (6), Conor Jackson (18), Corey Hart (4), Bobby Abreu (5), Jermaine Dye (10), Dan Haren (7), Ted Lilly (13), and Kerry Wood (19).
Key Pickups
Mark DeRosa, Fred Lewis, Brian Giles, Alexei Ramirez, David Murphy, Denard Span, Jody Gerut, Elijah Dukes, Cliff Lee, Ryan Franklin, Salomon Torres, Gil Meche, Randy Johnson, Grant Balfour, Joel Hanrahan, Jensen Lewis, and Ricky Nolasco. Like any unlimited transaction league, I constantly trolled the wire for closers. Over 70% of my saves came off the wire. I plugged up a weak middle infield, as I began the year with Freddy Sanchez and Mark Ellis. Still can't figure out why Nolasco was dropped. He contributed 57 strong innings to my makeshift rotation.
Dumb Drops
All kinds of hasty drops were made: Randy Winn, Derek Lowe, Hiroki Kuroda, Francisco Liriano, Scott Olsen, Todd Wellemeyer, Paul Maholm, Jon Lester, and Jesse Litsch. I actually drafted Liriano, Lowe, and Kuroda. So if I'd left my rotation alone it would've been solid as drafted.
Trades
- May 28th: Traded Jose Valverde for Felix Hernandez. After the trade Valverde posted a 2.93 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 51 Ks, and 29 saves in 46 innings. Felix posted a 3.37 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 113 Ks, and 7 wins in 125.6 innings. I think we were both satisfied with the results. I was able to recover the saves elsewhere.
- May 13th: Traded Cliff Lee for Rafael Furcal. Ouch! Lee posted a 3.13 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 126 Ks, and 16 wins in 169.6 innings after the trade. Furcal was on the DL at the time of the deal and never played a game for my team. So, I gave away the Cy Young winner for nothing. Lesson: acquiring disabled players is risky.
Summary
I made numerous mistakes but still managed to win. I need to calm down on dropping starting pitchers I liked on draft day. And I should rely on free agency rather than trades. I'm looking forward to an even more competitive league in 2009! I believe we'll have three spots open for readers, but we'll fill those in March.
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