2008 RotoAuthority Fantasy League

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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RotoAuthority League - Best Pickups Recently

This feature is written by Jeff, owner of the Volvo Stationwagons.  Jeff has been moving and preparing to go back to graduate school for the past few weeks, so he's barely been able to follow his team, let alone write a weekly column.  However, he's back, and this week he plays catchup for the period of July 27th-August 24th. 

Strangely, there have not been any trades since the last post I made, since the 8/10 deadline has come and gone.  However, there have been a flurry of roster moves, especially during the first month in August as players start spot-starting pitchers in an effort to max out their innings pitched.  Here's the best of the last month or so:

8/6 - Los Genius picks up Brad Ziegler
Ziegler, a friend of Baseball Prospectus writer Kevin Goldstein, got some publicity earlier this season for his funky delivery and more recently, his Athletics franchise record-setting scoreless innings streak for a rookie pitcher.  With the furor involving Huston Street's fastball velocity reaching full bore (with the results just not there for Street), the A's bullpen became a bit of a free-for-all.  Ziegler's deception has proved worthy of absolutely insane ratios this year, and despite a fairly low K rate for a back-end reliever (21 K in 44 IP), he's picked up a few save chances of late.  He's 4 for 4 thus far since being given his first chance about a week ago.

8/6 - Volvo Stationwagons picks up Chris Perez
A personal anecdote: As a Cards fan, I had the pleasure of witnessing Perez's first major league save against the Dodgers in person at Busch Stadium.  The Cards' bullpen was a mess after the Isringhausen/Franklin tandem blew a 4-0 lead in the ninth the previous evening, but I was unaware that Perez had even been called up that day until midway through the game.  When it became apparent that Perez would pitch the ninth inning, I scrambled to call anyone I could trust to log onto the league page and pick him up for me, since I'd lost out to other saves-hungry owners before (see: Guardado, Eddie).  Unfortunately nobody answered, so in haste to get home and to a computer I skipped my traditional post-game Ted Drewes trip in order to make sure I got my man.  Sure enough, Perez was still out there, and thankfully he's been simply nasty in his second major-league stint - 8.1 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.72 WHIP, 9 K, and most importantly, a perfect 5/5 in saves while seeing the bulk of the ninth-inning work for the Cardinals.

8/15 - Los Genius picks up Jed Lowrie
Lowrie has done his best Dustin Pedroia impression since being called up in the wake of the Julio Lugo injury.  He's hit .308/.387/.495 in his 31 games with the Sox in that time.  He hasn't shown a whole lot of home run pop (only 1 HR in 125 PA in the above sample), but add in the fact that he's 24 with some decent upside and you could certainly do a lot worse at the SS/MI position.  You never know, maybe some of those doubles (11 in 125 PA) will start creeping over the Monster in September, assuming he keeps hold of the starting job. 

8/20 - RotoAuthority picks up Al Reyes
Tim jumped on Reyes when he was signed by the Mets, and rightfully so - he was a "veteran" closer going into a very inconsistent bullpen without its anchor, Billy Wagner.  He hasn't pitched for the major-league club yet, as the Mets sent him to the minors for a quick tune-up.  He has pitched one scoreless inning for AA Binghamton as of this writing.

8/24 - Ms. Behavin' picks up Rocco Baldelli
Quick, what would be your first guess for Rocco Baldelli's middle name?  I'll bet it wasn't Dan.  No, not Daniel, just Dan.  Rocco Dan Baldelli... one of the more incongruous name combinations out there.  You can't make this stuff up.  Anyway, another thing you can't make up is that Rocco has homered twice in the past three games - yeah, it's not earth-shattering, and he hadn't done much prior to that, and he's only a part time player, etc.  But we are talking about a 26-year old with 20/20 potential if he could remain healthy, which is not something you see on the waiver wire often.  It's certainly worth it for Ms. Behavin' to see if she can sneak some value out of a very talented, yet fragile player.

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RotoAuthority League - Best Pickups Last Week

This feature is written by Jeff, owner of the Volvo Stationwagons.  Jeff will be off next week, but will do a double feature after that.

7/22 – RotoAuthority picks up Joel Hanrahan
Tim was the quickest on the draw after the Jon Rauch trade, and his speculation of Hanrahan proved to be accurate (though he initially thought Saul Rivera was the man).  While the Nats are fairly awful and probably won’t generate too many save chances over the rest of the season, Hanrahan has been a pretty solid pitcher, posting average ratios and a K/9 of nearly 10.

7/24 – Volvo Stationwagons trade Jimmy Rollins to Dizzy Llamas for Brandon Webb
The Stationwagons finished the month of May atop the ERA and WHIP categories, but has struggled mightily ever since, falling all the way to 9th in each in tightly-bunched races.  Additionally, the Wagons had fallen all the way to 10th in W, and desperately needed another impact starting pitcher, having ridden their weaknesses all the way down to 3rd place overall after spending most of June atop the standings.  Enter the 2nd-place-overall Llamas, who led the league in W and had ratios in the top half, but needed an impact bat at a MI position.  The Wagons lead the league in R, HR, and SB, so losing Rollins hopefully shouldn’t hurt too badly with Alexi Casilla slotting into the MI position.  As one of the participants in the trade, here is my opinion: Rollins was underperforming slightly based on his inflated draft position, so getting a highly durable, quality SP in return when selling a bit low on my first round draft pick makes this particular owner feel pretty good.  This one could be one of those trades that benefits both teams, allowing each team to become a bit more balanced in their pursuit of Tim at the top of the standings.

7/24 – Los Genius picks up John Grabow
Grabow was picked up immediately after the trade that sent Damaso Marte to the Yankees.  Incumbent closer Matt Capps should return from the DL before the end of the season, and there is no clear favorite for saves at the moment, but Grabow should most likely figure into the mix.  However, he is a career lefty specialist and the Pirates could choose to go with the right-hander Tyler Yates to close games.

7/24 – Los Genius picks up Jim Johnson
Continuing with the save speculation theme, Johnson gets the call off the waiver wire in the hopes that a George Sherrill trade will open a closer position in Baltimore.  Johnson has been very hard to hit this year, allowing only 34 hits in 56.1 IP, despite only a 29/23 K/BB ratio.  If Sherrill is traded, Johnson could be first in line as he has seen a lot of eighth-inning setup duty lately, with veterans Jamie Walker and Chad Bradford seeing more specialized roles.

7/25 – Men With Wood picks up Tyler Yates
As mentioned above, the Pirates’ save mix could end up being pretty ugly until Matt Capps returns.  The journeyman Yates could be the last man standing if the Pirates choose not to use their best lefty specialist (Grabow) in the closer’s role.  Yates is a risky play even in the closer’s role, having walked 121 batters in 215 career major-league innings.  A save is a save, though, and if Yates gets the opportunities he’ll be worth the pickup.

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RotoAuthority League - Best Pickups Last Week

This feature is written by Jeff, owner of the Volvo Stationwagons.

Short week this week, not a whole lot of add/drop moves, but a couple of trades took place…

7/19 – Ms. Behavin’ picks up Nomar Garciaparra
Since he came off the disabled list on the 4th of July, Nomar has hit .333 with 3 home runs (.642 slugging) and 10 RBI in 14 games.  And given Joe Torre’s penchant this season for starting veterans over younger players (see: Jones, Andruw), Nomar could see plenty of playing time in the short term.  He started at shortstop and batted fifth in the Dodgers’ lineup on Sunday.  So while he’s not at his ridiculously productive late ‘90s best and still is very injury-prone, you could do a lot worse than a healthy Nomar Garciaparra at your MI position. 

7/19 – Men With Wood trade Delmon Young, Juan Pierre, and Jonathan Broxton to Ms. Behavin’ for Adam Dunn, Michael Bourn, and Octavio Dotel
This trade exchanges resources that appear to address each team’s weaknesses.  The Men With Wood sit atop the RotoAuthority league standings in the SB category, while Ms. Behavin’ finds herself first in RBI and second in HR.  Exchanging Dunn and Bourn for Young and Pierre seems to give the Wood a bit more pop while giving Ms. Behavin’ a tiny bit more speed. 

However, each team is taking a bit of the gamble; Pierre currently sits on the DL, while Bourn sits on the bench in favor of Darin Erstad.  It seems the two OF given up by Ms. Behavin’ are a bit more valuable, which is where the exchange of relievers comes in.  (Both teams are in the bottom half of the league in saves.)  Broxton currently seems to have a tiny bit more value due to Takashi Saito’s injury opening the door for Dodger saves, despite the fact that as discussed last week in this piece, Dotel is a strikeout machine.  Despite a fair bit of uncertainty with several of its components, this trade appears to benefit both teams at the moment.

7/20 – Los Genius trades Alex Gordon and Jonathan Sanchez to The Urine Troubles for Chris Davis and Grant Balfour
Gordon has struggled mightily this season for the Genius, so he is shipped off to the Troubles with Sanchez on an upside play for the youngster Davis, discussed in depth on this site, as well a saves candidate in Balfour.  To me, the key to this deal is Sanchez, who has quietly been the Giants’ second-best starting pitcher, posting an excellent 9.5 K/9 while racking up lots of wins in June during the team’s solid month.  His ratios leave a bit to be desired, though, which appears to be the reason he’s going from a high-strikeout team with poor ratios (11th in ERA, 12th in WHIP, 1st in K) to a team with solid ratios but few strikeouts (2nd in ERA, 2nd in WHIP, 11th in K), so in theory that portion of the move will likely benefit both teams. 

With the Troubles leading the league in saves, Balfour is expendable as merely a fill-in for Troy Percival for the Rays.  So at this point my gut tells me that the Troubles get the better end of this deal, as Gordon appears to be just as likely as (if not more than) Davis to have a productive second half of the season, and Sanchez provides a very good source of K and W for a team that can afford the ratio hit for a half-season.

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RotoAuthority League - Best Pickups Last Week

This feature is written by Jeff, owner of the Volvo Stationwagons.

7/8 – Philly Cheez Puffs picks up Hiroki Kuroda
This pickup came on the heels of two consecutive outings in which Kuroda did not allow an earned run after coming off the disabled list in early July.  He pitched decently in his next start for the Cheez Puffs, allowing 3 runs in 6.1 innings with 5 K.  With the Dodgers’ division full of struggling offenses, Kuroda could be a boost to the Puffs’ already-solid ratios. 

7/9 – Ms. Behavin picks up Octavio Dotel
Dotel recorded his first save of the season right before Ms. Behavin’ picked him up.  While his role as closer for the White Sox may be only temporary, if at all, Dotel is still a great source of K – he’s at a scorching 12.8 K/9 in 2008 and even 11.0 K/9 for his career.

7/11 – Ms. Behavin’ picks up Ben Francisco
Francisco has been a waiver-wire bouncer this season, going back and forth on various team’s rosters – he’s made two appearances on the Greek God of Walks, and one on the Cheez Puffs.  However, with all the injuries to the Indians’ lineup, Francisco has found his way into the third spot, ahead of the red-hot Jhonny Peralta.  As a result, Francisco is off to a great start in July, batting .343/.425/.600 through Saturday’s game, with a whopping 12 runs in 9 games.

7/13 – Volvo Stationwagons picks up Brett Myers
Myers made his third minor-league start in the Phillies’ organization on Sunday, and should be called up to the Phils soon after the All-Star Break.  While Myers struggled mightily with the longball at the major-league level this season, he has only allowed 1 HR in his 20.1 innings in the minors, while striking out 22.  If the minor-league assignment indeed helped clear his head, Myers could be a solid addition for the second half.

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RotoAuthority League - Best Pickups Last Week

This feature is written by Jeff, owner of the Volvo Stationwagons.

7/1 – Urine Troubles picks up Chris Davis (waiver claim)
The Troubles win the waiver derby for Davis, who was discussed a short time ago on this site.  Davis has displayed prodigious power in the minors, and hit three home runs in his first week in the bigs.  He’s played most days since his callup, but that could change once Hank Blalock comes off the DL.  Still, Davis is a nice, cheap power source that ought to contribute whenever he’s in the lineup.

7/1 – Philly Cheez Puffs picks up J.R. Towles
Talk about fortunate timing.  Towles was called up the next day and should take most of the starts for the Astros for the next few weeks at the very least.  After struggling mightily at the major league level, Towles hit .279/.380/.574 in 19 games for the AAA Round Rock Express - is he a post-hype sleeper already? 

7/2 – RotoAuthority picks up Masa Kobayashi
Joe Borowski blew a save on July 1, so Kobayashi was picked up the next day.  Luckily for Tim, Borowski’s time in Cleveland was indeed running short.  He was designated for assignment two days later, which puts Kobayashi first in line for saves.  If the Indians can pull out of their season-long funk, that title could mean that saves pile up in a hurry for the Japanese import.

7/2 – Philly Cheez Puffs picks up Jarrod Saltalamacchia (waiver claim)
Saltalamacchia was dropped by the Dizzy Llamas in favor of the resurgent Jason Kendall, and the Cheez Puffs took advantage, replacing the stagnant Kenji Johjima on their roster.  While both Salty and Johjima have struggled, Salty’s upside makes the pickup worthwhile.  Between this move and the Towles pickup, the Puffs greatly improved their catching corps in the span of a couple of days.

7/5 – Men With Wood picks up Eric Gagne
Gagne came off the DL this past week and pitched scoreless innings in his first two appearances, most importantly posting a 2.0 K/BB in those two innings.  His second time out, he got a win after pitching the ninth inning in a tie game.  The Brewers probably won’t let their $10 million man linger in middle relief if he finds his groove again, so it’s a good pickup for the Men With Wood to see if Gagne can produce any saves.

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RotoAuthority League - Best Pickups Last Week

This feature is written by Jeff, owner of the Volvo Stationwagons.

6/25 – Aubrey Huff’s $34.99ers picks up Mike Mussina
The veteran Mussina is in the midst of a bounceback season, leading the Yankees in victories with his 10-5 record.  Moose isn’t much of a source for strikeouts anymore, but he has walked a paltry 13 batters in his 89 innings so far in 2008.  He’s been very hittable, but with the vaunted Yankee offense behind him he ought to be able to get a few wins while not doing too much damage to the $34.99ers’ ratios.

6/25 – Philly Cheez Puffs picks up Adam Lind
The firing of John Gibbons as the Blue Jays’ manager coincided closely with the callup of Lind, who despite struggling at the major-league level still holds a career line in the minors of .318/.379/.509.  New manager Cito Gaston has publicly stated that he’s “going to play,” so he’ll certainly have the opportunity, and if he can finally make those pretty minor-league numbers translate to the majors he will be a nice find for the Cheez Puffs.

6/26 – Men With Wood picks up Jason Bartlett
Bartlett was nominated in this Fantasy Roundtable as a player who could be a sleeper for SB down the stretch.  His OBP and SLG still pretty poor and won’t contribute a whole lot in any of the other offensive counting stats, but he ought to provide the Men With Wood a few cheap SB to stay in first place in that category.

6/28 – Volvo Stationwagons picks up Billy Butler
Butler struggled early in 2008 and was demoted to the AAA Omaha Royals, which acted as a wakeup call of sorts.  After tearing apart minor league pitching to a tune of .337/.417/.564, Butler was promoted Saturday due to Alberto Callaspo’s personal troubles opening up a roster spot.  If given regular playing time, Butler could finally become a force in the Royals’ lineup, contributing a solid batting average to a Stationwagons team that desperately needs it.

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RotoAuthority League - Best Pickups Last Week

This feature is written by Jeff, owner of the Volvo Stationwagons.

Lots of good ones this week…

6/17 – RotoAuthority picks up Taylor Buchholz
Buchholz has been filthy all season, posting a 1.43 ERA and 0.77 WHIP through Saturday night.  He’s not a gaudy K/9 guy, but has had incredible command, only walking 9 batters in 37 2/3 innings.  The Rockies will likely field lots of calls about closer Brian Fuentes over the next month or so, and with Manny Corpas mostly out of the picture, Buchholz is the most likely successer to Fuentes.  A solid speculative move on Tim’s part.

6/18 – Aubrey Huff’s $34.99ers picks up… well, Aubrey Huff
This one stings.  Dropped by the Stationwagons the afternoon of June 10 as his season batting average dropped to .239, Huff proceeded to have a 4-hit game later that evening.  Including that game, Huff’s batted .435 with 5 HR since I dropped him.  Huff could be a sleeper for R and RBI in surprising Orioles lineup.

6/18 – Greek God of Walks picks up Elijah Dukes
Dukes has struggled out of the gate with injuries and ineffectiveness, but he’s finally healthy and playing every day due to a rash of injuries in the Nats’ outfield.  He’s opened June hitting .325 with 2 HR and 5 SB and offers pretty good upside – think Mike Cameron in his prime – so it’s a reasonable gamble for a team that’s in the bottom two in most of the offensive categories. 

6/20 – Ms. Behavin’ picks up Eddie Guardado
C.J. Wilson gave up 3 runs in a tie game to take the loss on Wednesday night, and was relieved by Jamey Wright with the tying run on third base (who would later score) and one out on Thursday night.  While the Rangers plan on sticking with Wilson in the short term, a speculative pickup of Guardado – who’s pitched pretty well so far – makes sense in any league.

6/20 – Los Genius picks up Alex Hinshaw
Hinshaw was a relative unknown before being featured in a Yahoo article a couple of weeks back.  He was hailed in that article as the “closer of the future” for the Giants, and that may well be the case, although it seems unlikely that he’d get first crack if Brian Wilson falters this season.  But what sticks out right now is the shiny strikeout rate so far – 21 K in 15 IP.  Like fellow closer heir Chris Perez of the Cardinals, Hinshaw’s value this season will likely primarily be based on that strikeout rate and solid ERA/WHIP.

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RotoAuthority League - Best Pickups Last Week

This feature is written by Jeff, owner of the Volvo Stationwagons.

6/11 – Los Genius picks up Brandon Morrow
Morrow was immediately picked up after J.J. Putz left the Mariners’ Wednesday afternoon game with an elbow injury.  Putz was placed on the DL on Friday, and despite the fact that an MRI showed no structural damage his return date is still uncertain.  Morrow picked up the save Wednesday afternoon and will get the opportunities as long as Putz is out.

6/12 – Greek God of Walks picks up Chris Duncan
Albert Pujols is out for a few weeks, and Duncan was called up to take Adam Wainwright’s spot on the Cardinal roster.  He’s struggled this year (enough to get sent down to Triple A) but still has 48 HR in 921 career PA.  That’s roughly 30 HR potential over a full season; he could be a short-term sleeper with regular starts at first base, free of the pressure of playing the outfield.

6/13 – Santa’s Magic Janitor picks up Kelly Shoppach
With Victor Martinez likely out about a month, Shoppach finally gets some regular playing time.  The power potential is there; Shoppach hit 48 HR playing for the Triple A Pawtucket Red Sox in 2004-05, but he hasn’t risen above the backup role in Cleveland.  Any regular catcher with some pop has potential in the RotoAuthority league, where the likes of Jason Kendall, Kurt Suzuki and Kenji Johjima are on active rosters.

6/13 – Philly Cheez Puffs picks up Ryan Spilborghs
With Willy Taveras (aside from last night) and Scott Podsednik struggling mightily, Spilborghs and his .405 OBP are likely going to get a regular shot batting leadoff for the Rockies.  While Spilly doesn’t have the SB potential of the other two Colorado center fielders, he ought to score plenty of runs batting atop a lineup that has Matt Holliday back and Troy Tulowitzki returning very soon.

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RotoAuthority League - Best Pickups Last Week

This feature is written by Jeff, owner of the Volvo Stationwagons.

6/2 - Philly Cheez Puffs picks up Ryan Garko
The Stationwagons regret not making this move, since he made it through the one-day waiver process and was picked up as a free agent.  Garko was picked up Monday; he went 10/17 with 6 R, 1 HR, and 8 RBI over the next four days.  As a good sleeper candidate off to a slow start in '08, he's got too much potential to be waiver-wire material.

6/2 - RotoAuthority picks up Rod Barajas
Shocking, isn't it?  As Tim suggested, Gregg Zaun's on the DL, Barajas is hitting well, and with two starting catchers in the RotoAuthority League there's not a lot of depth.  The other catchers on the RotoAuthority roster are the injury-prone Posada and Doumit, so Barajas should slot right in and contribute as long as he stays hot.

6/4 - Greek God of Walks picks up Joey Gathright
The Royals matched up against the Yankees over the weekend, which coincided with the return of Jorge Posada off the DL.  Posada's shoulder injury limited him enough in extended spring training/rehab to the point that his team would institute a gentleman's agreement to prevent the other team from running on him.  That didn’t happen with the Royals, and despite the fact that Gathright didn’t pick up any SB Friday or Saturday, it was still a smart gamble.

6/7 – Volvo Stationwagons picks up Mike Gonzalez
With John Smoltz now out for the year, Gonzalez’s only competition for saves is the fragile Rafael Soriano and the inconsistent Manny Acosta.  Gonzalez is due back off the DL within the next week so worst case, he ought to vulture a few saves with a good ERA and K/9.

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