The Braves and Reds made a minor deal on Sunday. The Braves sent right-handed minor league pitcher J.J. Hoover for Reds third baseman Juan Francisco. Francisco was out of options, and that likely played a role in this dealing taking place. Hoover has yet to pitch in the majors, and reached Triple-A in the middle of August. Let's take a look at the fantasy impact of this deal.

Key Stats: Robinson Cano has laid out consistent numbers for three straight years now. He has topped 100 runs, had an average over .300, at least 25 home runs, and at least 85 RBI (the last two seasons topping 100) during that time. In the three seasons that Cano has accomplished this, there have been just 8 other seasons by second basemen that they have scored more than 100 runs alone. 

Skeptics Say: Cano is sort of the guy that you don't want on your team. That's because the top 6 are clearly ahead of him (as we'll go over in the peer comparison) and the guys that are ranked in the same neighborhood as Cano are very close to him. 

Statistically, Cano does not steal bases. Obviously that's being a bit picky given how much of an elite player he is at the second base position with every other category, but stealing bases is something that many other players at the position do well. Realistically 7 out of the top 10 second basemen off the board will steal bases. Thus drafting Cano forces your hand a little when considering outfielders later in the draft. 

Key Stats: Since 2006, Hanley Ramirez's first year in baseball (minus the 2 PA's in '05), he has averaged a .301 AVG, 22 HR, 103 R, 72 RBI and 36 steals. Toss out the 92 game 2011 season caused by injury, and his numbers turn into a .313 AVG,  25 HR, 112 R, 78 RBI and 39 steals. Hanley is an elite talent and depending on your skills preference is arguably the best shortstop in baseball. Of course Hanley isn't playing SS, this year, he's playing 3B, but he gets to keep SS eligibility in your league, so now he is that much more valuable.

Key Stats: Carlos Gonzalez played in only 127 games last season (the equivalent of missing more than a month) and still managed more than 90 runs and RBI, and got at least 20 steals and home runs. He is an all-around fantathlete, and at the age of 26 let's not say that he's injury proned. He ran into a wall at full speed last year and that eventually caused him to miss much of the action that he did miss. 

Skeptics Say: If he's not injury proned, he's an injury risk. Even in 2010 when Cargo was the best player in all of fantasy baseball, he missed 17 games. In 2011 he missed 20 games as a result of that collision with the wall, but in 2010 he missed games as a result of several bumps and bruises (though he never needed to be placed on the DL). Perhaps it's pain tolerance or perhaps it's the way he plays the game, but in any case it's not good for the risk-averse. 

The Yankees system took a hit when they dealt Jesus Montero, but remains chock full of high ceiling talent. A healthy blend of bats and arms. The hitters are a few years from the majors, but the Yankees have a few prospect pitchers who could see the bigs this season. no comments

Key Stats: Evan Longoria has averaged 28 home runs and 100 RBI over his first four MLB seasons. He is only going to be 26 years old this season, and if you ask most people they think he has not played his best season yet. The numbers suggest that he’s becoming a more disciplined hitter every season. In his rookie season Longoria had a strikeout rate of 24% and a walk rate of 9.1%. He has improved each of these every season to the point where his strikeout rate is down to 16.2% and his walk rate is up to 13.9%.

Skeptics Say: The first round pick is only justified if we think that that best season is coming this year. Relative to players taken before him (Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera types), Longoria’s numbers have never matched up. He has never scored more than 100 runs, stolen more than 15 bases, or hit .300 in his career. no comments

I'm one of the new kids here at FB365. There are a few things you need to know about me before we get much further in this relationship.

1. I have an irrational love of Brett Lawrie. It's not like restraining order irrational, but just your standard player man crush.
2. There is a similar feeling with Andrew McCutchen.
3. Lucas Duda is creeping in too.
4. I love looking at other people's fantasy teams.
5. Because I love looking at other people's fantasy teams, I have this false sense that tells me everyone else wants to look at my teams too. Mark can attest to this as I will email him a roster of my teams, or call him on the way home from work to talk baseball strategy. I'm sure he'll look at his caller ID and ignore it 75% of the time at least.
6. Aside from mocks, this is the first real auction draft I have done. I am in two ESPN public leagues that were auction as well, but I used them as more of a mock for this one since in the mocks most of the drafters are auto.

With that out of the way, we're going to dive into my roster from last nights FB365 H2H league auction draft. We had a crazy fun time and it was a challenging night for me, as we have some pretty intelligent readers. Or at least I tell myself that since they keep coming to us for info, or entertainment... or maybe I'm just an ego boost to them. Whatever the reason may be, we should have a fun and competitive year. 

Standard positions with 4 OF, CI, MI and 9 pitching spots of any variety, 5 player bench and 2 DL spots. Standard $260 budget applies.

So with all the above in mind, how do I think I did?

The FB365 Roto League draft was held last night. We have 12 teams and went 26 rounds in snake format. I drew the eighth pick.

In year’s past I have promoted a 7/10 strategy, which is means that I would target my first pitcher in the seventh round and first closer in the tenth round. However, this time I wanted to try something different. For this draft, my strategy was to load up with some power and speed in rounds 1-3 or 1-4 and then lock up at least one high-end starting pitcher followed a round or two later with another high-end starter. I accomplished that goal…

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