Updated Positional Ranks
I've updated my positional rankings to reflect injuries and position battles.
You can download the spreadsheet here.
What to Bring to Draft Day
It's one of the best days of the year. Fantasy Baseball draft day is a long awaited, much anticipated and (hopefully) much prepared for event that gives fantasy owners the base for their season.
I had a reader email me with a very good question: "What do you bring to draft day?" What a great yet basic question!
This is something that I have messed around with for years and I've tried a bunch of different approaches. Do you bring your projections? ADP reports? NOTHING?? My goal is to keep it as simple as possible, which means I'll show up with one piece of paper that has my tiered positional rankings. Also a pen to cross off names that are taken.
Death, Taxes and Closer Turnover: Early Turnovers
It's only mid-March and already we are seeing closers having issues.
While Joe Nathan is still going to try and test his elbow this weekend, the chances of him feeling 100 percent are slim. Even if he decides to pitch through the pain he probably won't be effective enough to continue going forward. His likely replacement is Jon Rauch, who has 26 career saves on his resume. Rauch brings decent command, but below average strikeout rates to the table. He is also a fly ball pitcher, which has translated into some home run problems in the past. If Nathan is out for the year, which is likely, Rauch would become a low-end fantasy closer. Pat Neshek (10.6 career K/9 and 3.84 career K/BB) could be a dark horse challenger as he attempts to return Tommy John surgery.
Houston Street has been battling a sore shoulder all spring. This type of injury has plagued Street before, but he made a full recovery to post good numbers for Colorado last season. Franklin Morales should replace Street to begin the season. Morales has always been blessed with a great fastball, but control issues have haunted the lefty for much of his career. He did pick up seven saves in Street's place last season. Feel free to snag Morales at the end of drafts for a few cheap saves.
Draft Review: RotoCommunity.com's Blog Wars - 15 Team NFBC Style
Last night I participated in my first official draft of the season. A big thank you to Dave from RotoCommunity.com for the invite as he has put together a tremendous collection of talented fantasy baseball writers. Below are the results by round as well as a few notes on my picks. The league is 15 teams with positions of C (2), 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CI, MI, OF (5), UT, P (9), BN (7). I drafted from the two spot. Keep in mind that some of the participants couldn't make the start of the draft or had to leave at some point. All in all it was a great draft and I am very much looking forward to what should be a very competitive league.
Participants:
1. Fantasy Phenoms - Jason Sarney
2. Fantasy Baseball 365 - Yours truly
3. Fantasy Baseball Trade Market - Chris Spencer
4. Roto Savants - Ryan Restivo and Troy Patterson
5. Advanced Fantasy Baseball - Jon Williams
6. Chinstrap Ninjas - John Zaktanski
7. Lesters Legends - Ryan Lester and Delon Ferdinand
8. Fantasy Gameday - Ivar Anderson
9. Roto Rob - Tim McLeod and Buck D
10. Roto Professor - Eric Stashin and Jimmy Hascup
11. Roto Community - Dave Gawron and Pat Mayo
12. Fantasy Baseball Sherpa - Scott Swanay
13. Fantasy Baseball .com - Ed Lilly
14. Fantasy Baseball Geeks - Joe Pisapia
15. The Fantasy Man - Mike Kuchera
The 2010 FB365 All-Comeback Team
Now that all of the sleepers, comebacks and busts have been covered by position and I've looked at the best of the best as well as the worst of the worst, it's time to focus on players set to make a comeback in 2010. I'll pick one player at each position. So, here it is, The 2010 FB365 All-Comeback Team!!!
C Geovany Soto
1B Chris Davis
2B Rickie Weeks
3B Chipper Jones
SS Jose Reyes
OF Grady Sizemore
SP Cole Hamels
CL Brad Lidge
The 2010 FB365 All-Bust Team
Now that all of the sleepers, comebacks and busts have been covered by position and I've looked at the best of the best, it's time to see the worst of the worst (based on draft day value). I'll pick one player at each infield position, three outfielders, two starters and two closers. So, here it is: The 2010 FB365 All-Bust team!!!
C Jorge Posada
1B Derrek Lee
2B Aaron Hill
3B Mark Reynolds
SS Jason Bartlett
OF Alfonso Soriano
OF Josh Hamilton
OF Johnny Damon
SP Jair Jurrjens
SP Edwin Jackson
CL Francisco Rodriguez
CL Ryan Franklin
The 2010 FB365 All-Sleeper Team
Now that all of the sleepers, comebacks and busts have been covered by position, it's time to focus on the best of the best. I'll pick one player at each infield position, three outfielders, two starters and two closers. So, here it is, The 2010 FB365 All-Sleeper team!!!
C Chris Iannetta
1B Nick Johnson
2B Scott Sizemore
3B Brandon Wood
SS Asrdubal Cabrera
OF Carlos Gonzalez
OF Julio Borbon
OF Lastings Milledge
SP Francisco Liriano
SP Brian Matusz
CL Carlos Marmol
CL Rafael Soriano
2010 Sleepers, Comebacks and Busts: Closers
Death, taxes and closer turnover. It happens every year. It has happened already this year (see: Nathan, Joe). The closer carousel goes round and round. A number of things happen during the course of a season that cause closer turnover. What makes closers (all relievers for that matter) so volatile from year-to-year is the small sample size in which there numbers are derived from. We wouldn't judge a starting pitcher based on 50 innings, but sometimes relievers only throw 50-75 innings per season. That means a few bad outings or one really bad outing can throw the numbers all out of whack. To sort of simplify the equation, I base most of my closer rankings on two simple factors: Strikeouts and walks. Since there aren't really any "sleepers" in today's closers world, I'll use the term sleeper to suggest closers who might shoot up the rankings for next year (i.e. Jonathan Broxton last season).
