Beantown Sports Guys

FBB UPDATE - WEEK 8

Well it’s nearing the end of Week 8 and my team is not doing so hot. The lack of Runs, Home Runs and RBI’s accounted for this week’s downfall. With one day left I do not think my chances of even tying will become possible. Oh well, on to the next week. The following is a list of transactions that I have made during the past week and my reasons for making the move or pulling the trigger as some would say.

 

May 17^th – Dropped Jason Kendall {C} of Milwaukee Brewers 

- He started out strong with Runs and RBI’s but then started to slow down even though from behind the plate he has thrown out the first 12 of 20 base stealers, but you do not get points for that. 

May 17^th – Picked up Kazao Matsui {2B} of the Houston Astros 

-  I was looking for a base stealer and found Matsui who’s RBI’s are picking up as well. 

“BREAKING NEWS” JAKE PEAVY ON THE DL………….. 

Well I know or I hope Peavy will be back in a couple of weeks so in the mean time I just plane on doing a rotisserie {SP} pickup from time to time. It depends on how my week is going for the pitching categories.  

May 20^th – Picked up Andy Sonnastine {SP} of the Tampa Bay Rays 

- I picked him up soon after I found out that Peavy was on the DL. The plan was to only use him for one game that week to get the win, because of his record, but instead it ended up being his 2^nd loss of the season. 

May 21^st – Dropped Sonnastine for Edwin Jackson {SP} of the Tampa Bay Rays.
 

- I’ve had my eye on Jackson for awhile now, but didn’t have the slot for him so I figured this would be the perfect opportunity while Peavy is on the DL.  Even though Sonnastine had more wins and on paper and is ahead of Jackson in all the stats, I wanted to give him a try. 

May 23^rd – Dropped Jeremy Hermida {OF} of the Florida Marlins. 

-  Has only hit 4 for his last 32 times at bat. Not good. 

May 23^rd – Picked up J.D Drew {OF} of the BOSTON REDSOX 

- Although some may think of Drew as an injury prown player {lately with his wrist and banged up knee} I know he can get some RBI’s and Runs with lots of support from the Redsox lineup. 

May 24^th – Dropped Felipe Lopez {2B, SS, OF} of the Washington Nationals.

- Even though he was a multi-positional player, I felt it was time to pull the trigger and let him go. Besides being on a last place team in their division he was just not getting much support for Runs and RBI’s from the line up that is on.

May 24^th – Picked up Matt Joyce {OF} of the Detroit Tigers. 

- Joyce is new to the League with just being picked up from Triple A. In his last ten games he has shown potential with his homers and RBI’s with an average of .263. It may be very early yet, but I think this guy will produce. I just hope it is this year. 

Well it’s over for week 8 and my team ended up in the losing category. There was just no way I could catch up with my opponent on RUNS, HOME RUNS & RBI’s. Every time my team made progress his team would double it. 

 

So on to week 9 ……………… 

Fantasy Baseball Experiences

Fantasy Baseball Catchup

Okay, well I obviously fell behind in my weekly update for my experiences in my first full attentive Baseball Fantasy league. I say full attentive because the last time I was in a FBB league a few years ago I wasn't really in to it and could care less what players I had or what place I was in plus I knew far less then what I know now about the sport and the players. I was more or less talked into joining at that time to meet the quota for hosting a league.

Full Speed Ahead

  So now it is the 2008 fantasy baseball season and I'm in head first. I got so into fantasy football that I couldn't wait for Fantasy Baseball to begin.  Now we're nearing the end of week 6 of a new year and a new FBB league. Through the weeks I have replaced about 4 or 5 players, offered a few trades, which were declined and I declined some trades which I don't think would have helped me any. I think I had mentioned earlier I had missed the online draft, but I had pre ranked the players that I wanted and had a friend monitor it for me. Being a novice FBB player I have to say my draft wasn't all that bad, but with some of those players that I felt had failed to shine were dropped like a hot potato.  I think I had made some good pickups and some questionable, but I'm still learning the fantasy value side of things.

Lessons Learned

Like for instance, when someone makes an offer or trade there are some things to know. The value you may place on one player may not be the same as another league members, so what I have learned is that if you offer someone up for a trade, you may need to spice it up a little in the presentation or sweeten the pot as some of my fellow league members would say and by that I mean possibly add another player or two with some value to get what you want.

Favorites

As for favorites, I fell into that same trap that lots of FBB players do. They fall in love with their star players {rookies or veterans} and it is hard to let them go when they slow down on the numbers, so you hold on to them from one week to the next and wonder if you should have dropped him right away and on the other hand you drop them to early and regret it when he starts producing for some lucky dude's FBB team. You just never know when is the right time to let go of your favorites, but that's all part of fantasy baseball. The way you manage your team can take you to the top or floundering at the bottom of the pot like a fish who got swooped up in a crab cage on "The Deadliest Catch".

My League Status 

The first week I started out somewhere in the middle of the 12 team league. The second week I made it to first and the third week I tied for first.  As for the 4th and 5th week I have dropped to third. We'll have to see what week 6 brings me, but for now I'm beating my opponent by 2 points and I still have 1 pitcher in the lineup for today which is Sunday. Wish me luck.

Say it Taint so

In picking my dog for this week’s football office pool picks, Steve and I had no idea who to choose. We’re in 2^nd overall with a few weeks left, and have been pretty smart picking the right dogs, but this wasn’t a week where we had the answers. So we turned to those we know to see what they thought.

The three key matchups we looked at that had dog potential (dogs in our league must win, and if they do, you get the point spread as your points) were Oakland (an 11 dog to Cincy), Denver (a 7 ½ dog to San Diego), and New Orleans (a 6 ½ dog to Dallas).

Out of the gate, Oakland looked good to us because they have the #1 pass defense in the league and Cincy loves to throw, not to mention the #3 defense overall. Our problem with them is if they were down a quick 14 points they would have no shot at coming back because they were the 32^nd ranked offense, which is good for dead last in the league.

Denver needed a win over the Chargers to keep their playoff hopes alive, and we thought they had a very balanced team both offensively and defensively. But the Chargers are the Chargers and have been killing everyone lately. LaDainian Tomlinson has been killing teams left and right by himself.

New Orleans has been running a nice hot streak, but so has Dallas and their savior Tony Romo. Dallas has a great defense and explosive offense. New Orleans has a great offense and isn’t really known that much for their defense. We’ve been riding New Orleans for a while so this seemed like the pick to go for.

Except we were really high on Oakland for some reason. A voice in my head said to ask your friends, see what they think.

Flack said to go with Denver, then New Orleans, then Oakland. In fact, he said to forget Oakland.

James said to go with New Orleans, then Denver, then Oakland, and pointed out that Oakland’s defensive numbers (at least aerially) are inflated because they play in a run happy division. Well noted my friend.

Mark said to go with New Orleans, he had zero faith in the Raiders, so if I didn’t want to, Denver was a good pick too.

I asked Niffy the other day when I was in the shower who we should pick, and the conversation went something like this.

“Oakland is awful. They are terrible. Why are you even thinking of picking them?”

”Because they have a good defense.”

“But the Bengals have a really good offense.”

“True.”

“Denver is playing who?”

“San Diego.”

“Tomlinson will kill them.”

“What do you think about New Orleans?”, I asked, being our only dog remaining.

“I think you should go with them. They’re playing really well right now, and everyone has been licking Tony Romo’s taint for the last 4 weeks. Plus the Cowboys just barely won with a Field Goal last week. They are due to lose and he will have an awful game.”

Yes. She said taint. If you don’t know what it is, look it up on Wikipedia.

Anyways, everything she said was true. Oakland was awful, was down 14-0 fast and never had a shot. Tomlinson single handedly beat the Broncos while capturing the NFL record for touchdowns in one season at 29.

And finally, the Cowboys bent over and took it from the Saints. Romo was terrible, and was 3 for 8 at halftime. He had an awful game, and they beat down the ‘Boys.

She is a prophet. A visionary. A psychic. A chick that knows football. In the immortal words of Paris Hilton, “That’s hot.”

Maybe I should do this every week for my picks…   

 

Patriot Fantasy Players to draft - Part 1: QBs

We all know the Patriots will win the title again, its a given. What we don't know is who will win the title in your fantasy league... and if you're not in one, whats wrong with you? I'm going to take a look at Patriot players that could help you win it all, unless you're playing me, then you should give up now.

The first guy is Tom Brady. Perhaps you've heard of him, he is a pro-bowler and Superbowl MVP. Why this guy is not rated in the top 5 QBs this year is beyond me. His field awareness is the best in the biz and has a strong running game so they have to respect the run. That stuff we all know. Lets look at the stuff I know...which is more than you know.

The Patriots lost their Offensive coordinator this year and they did not replace him. What does that mean you ask? It means this: Tom and B squared are going to be calling the plays. If you were the QB of your team and they asked you what play to run, would you say "Lets run the ball" or would you say "Lets throw it deep and get my stats up so people will respect not only my winning percentage but the fact I can throw 400 TDs as well."

So what I'm saying, in case you didn't notice, is that Tom Brady has an ego like most professional athletes and is gonna call his own number whenever the chance presents itself. The other reason he is going to be a fantasy juggernaut is who the ball will be thrown to. Deion Branch, David Givens, David Terrel, Troy Brown, Daniel Graham, and Ben Watson are the major names he will work with. They can work so many mismatches in any game against any opponent. Branch was a Superbowl MVP himself, Terrell was a first round pick, Watson a first rounder, Graham a first rounder, and Troy brown was a pro-bowler.

If you think about it it makes sense, Tom Brady has won multiple Superbowls yet people still underrate him. Think of it in terms of your own life. You are a salesman and compete with a rival salesman (named Peyton for the sake of the story). Peyton has the top computers and a cushy indoor artificial turf office, while you have average equipment. Yet Peyton cannot seal the big deal with the big client. That's where you step in and always come through, yet all people talk about is how Peyton with his fancy PCs and cushy indoor office always gets these other sales...but never the big sale. So what do you do? You show the world you are every bit the salesman he is AND you can close the big deal too. That's right, Tom Brady has accomplished everything Peyton Manning has not. So what's left for Tom to do? He is gonna show people he is an elite QB by exploding this year.

Tom Brady in a 10 team draft should be a late second rd or early third rd pick, he should be the 3rd or 4th QB taken. His season stats will be 3800 YDs, 36 TDs... as long as he is healthy.  Oh yeah, don't draft Flutie he is too old.

Next will be the Running Backs. I bet you can't wait.

WTSox?

Listen to this fantasy lineup:

C - Jason Varitek
1B - David Ortiz
2B - Craig Biggio
3B - Troy Glaus
SS - Edgar Renteria
OF - Manny Ramirez
OF - Johnny Damon
OF - Kevin Millar
UTIL - Sammy Sosa

Bench - Bill Mueller (2B/3B)
Bench - Ryan Klesko (1B/OF)

SP - Wade Miller
SP - David Wells
RP - Danys Baez
RP - Eddie Guardado
P - Greg Maddux
P - Jason Schmidt
P - Brad Penny

Bench - Jose Mesa
Bench - Kris Benson
Bench - Derek Lowe
Bench - Corey Lidle
Bench - Curt Schilling

Now what kind of an idiot would stack up on just about every Red Sox player they could get their hands on?? Yup. Me.

The trades I made to get this far are about even. I gave up Helton to get Ortiz and that alone is probably the best move I've made. Schilling I just traded for since I don't really need pitching now so that deal may work out in the long run. I just grabbed Wells to fill up a spot I had since I let Jay Payton go.

Originally, I wanted every position player so I could manage the roster EXACTLY like Francona does. This is an experiment that will have to wait until next year: 3 or 4 of my buddies and I will each draft an ENTIRE TEAM and switch up our rosters as they are switched as best as we can, and we'll just do total points to see which team is the best overall.

I couldn't pry Trot Nixon away from this kid in my league so after that, I just filled up my spots with role players (ie: Mueller is extremely flexible for more, as is Millar and Klesko).

In a 10 team league, I'm stuck in the 8th slot, but the difference between the 8th and 6th spots are only about 2 games.

We'll see how this works. Hopefully I'll make the playoffs and shine like my buddy Wun did last year when he tried something similar.