Crooked Pitch

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I remember a few leaguemates making fun of some of my picks and claiming my team would be weak. The fantasy baseball projections looked ugly too, placing me last in batting average and last overall. I noted during the draft that would not happen. I’ve been very competitive, and batting average has been my best stat. Conclusion: The projections do not account for day to day management.

Anyway, some of my players have overachieved: Chipper Jones isn’t going to keep hitting .478, and Jeff Keppinger might find it difficult to keep up his consistency when Alex Gonzalez comes back. McLouth produced four of his five RBIs in one game. I have also received positive stats from such waiver wire luminaries as Ryan Church, Mark Reynolds, and Geoff Jenkins.

However, I also have players who have underproduced in Sheffield, Carlos Pena, Orlando Cabrera, and Juan Pierre. I’m sure the first three will only get better, and Pierre has the potential if an injury or trade gives him a fulltime job.

I still think my strength is in pitching, despite Sabathia, Hoffman, Lilly, Tom Gordon, and Bonderman starting out cold. Peavy has justified his first round selection so far by going 2-0 with 12 Ks, a .56 ERA, and .56 WHIP. Cueto and Volquez have made up for poor performances from my veteran pitchers. Gordon has since been released, and Volquez and Randy Wolf had good starts from the waiver wire.

My team should stay in the race, considering the pitching stats should go up and my hitting is right around where I thought it would be.

The first week is in the books and here’s how we stand so far.

1. The Mercs - 101.5
2. Crooked Pitch - 93
3. The Rusty Kuntz - 87
4. Tigers - 84.5
5. Shock & Awe - 66
6. Victorius Secret - 63
7. Atl Snakes - 60.5
8. Da Bomb Cheifs - 57
9. Library Bats - 56.5
10. Impish - 51.5
11. Last Place Grabbers - 37.5
12. 12th MAN - 22

You can see the roto breakdown here.

I’m sharing a few more questions that I asked of the guys from the Crooked Pitch fantasy baseball league.

What do you think your best pick was?

• Matthew from the Rusty Knutz: Matt Diaz - Round 23: Very late draft pick on someone with an excellent avg to boost my BA challenged hitters and a chance to at least contribute to some other categories.
• Jason from the Tigers: My best pick was probably Sheffield. If he doesn’t miss too many games, he’s still a multi-stat threat.
• Mike from 12th MAN: Its hard but if I must I’d say Eugenio Velez 2B San Francisco in Round 25. The guy is a stolen base machine and led the Majors in SB during the spring. Especially with a team of power, I am going to need stolen bases from somewhere and this pick was huge. Also watch out for Jason Giambi in Round 20.
• Marc from Impish: Hunter Pence - this guy will be an all star 5 category man this year. Next year he’ll be an arguable 1st round pick. He’s that good…
• Mercs: Based off games played through 3/31, my best pick was Ben Sheets in the 11th round. 1 start, 6 innings, no runs 7 K’s. Hope he keeps it up all season. If he can stay relatively healthy, Kerry Wood in round 16 could be a huge steal. Big if, we’ll see how the season plays out.
• James from Shock & Awe: My round 20(230) selection of Rich Harden, If he stays healthy. He shut down Boston in Japan and at that pick number I’ll take the risk.
• Daniel from Da Bomb Cheifs: I think my biggest steal was another catcher with Pudge, I thought he was steal in the 15th round. Pudge has had a great spring and with the rest of the tigers line up should have a pretty solid season.
• Patrick from Library Bats: My best pick has to be Sizemore at 24. I think he’s the 2nd best OF after Holliday, and it wouldn’t shock me if he put up a top 10 season. I was shocked and delighted to see him fall to me. I like Feliz at 264 an awful lot as well. 80/25/90 wouldn’t shock me in that park and lineup.

What do you think your worst pick was?

• Matthew from the Rusty Knutz: Joba Chamberlain - Round 14: For some reason in another draft I had this grand plan where he would give me awesome lights out relief numbers for a bit then become a solid starter by the end of the year. In this league, with a cap of 1250, the Yankees would effectively help me with my own Joba Rules, maximizing how innings limit and his usage. This may still end up being the case and working out well, but Round 14 was too early.
  
• Jason from the Tigers: Worst pick was Pierre. I only took 11 seconds to decide between him and Victorino. I know I’d rather have Victorino, but was hoping he’d come back to me.
  
• Mike from 12th MAN: A couple here as well. Saltalamacchia in Round 13 as he’s gonna be in the minors for a while and Kazmir in Round 7. I love Kazmir but I probably could have gotten a legit healthy starter here instead.
  
• Marc from Impish: Probably Vlady Guerrero, considering the guys I passed on to snag him. His risk is greater than the reward. Lets hope he is just the recipient of some bad fantasy press. But everyone’s acting like he is done. Maybe the Angels will stink and he’ll get traded…
  
• Mercs: Josh Fields in 15th round. Two days later sent to the minors. I still think he was a great pick then, but by being sent to the minors, it pegged it as a wasted draft pick. Could have had Jeremy Bonderman or J.R. Towles.
  
• Patrick from Library Bats: Milledge at 145 was panned by the other managers. He was definitely a reach, though I think he can earn that position and more. My worst pick was absolutely Kelvim Escobar at 169. I had some browser problems and ended up with him and Gallardo at the turn. Whoops. I think Gallardo comes back to earn that value, but Escobar was obviously a waste.
  

I stole borrowed a few questions from Cory over at Seamless Baseball, and asked them of the managers who are participating in the Crooked Pitch fantasy baseball league. Here are a few of the answers.

Your first round pick: Skill, luck or fate?

• Matthew from the Rusty Knutz: Category 4: Planned Reach. Santana will likely return value equal to where I picked him, but 5 to me does seem a bit too high.
• Jason from the Tigers: I was hoping Santana would fall to me in the late first round. Because he went at number five, I took Peavy at eight. It looked like a surprise pick, but Peavy has the obvious potential to be better than Santana. He will probably be closer than any other starter. In two previous Yahoo roto leagues I performed well in, pitching was a strength, especially K’s.
• Mike from 12th MAN: My pick was based on more luck than anything else as Miggy Cabrera dropped a couple slots from his ADP. I had Cabrera as the 5th player on my board so was especially lucky to steal him at 10. I see Cabrera having his finest season of his already impressive career, so for 9 owners to pass him by, I needed to be lucky.
• Marc from Impish: I am absolutely thrilled to own David Wright. I think he will be the next A-Rod sooner than later. He has the power and mentality to put up big numbers. Plus, hate it or love it, he plays on the stacked Mets team. He will be up to bat with several RBIs ops. Pre-Draft I was prepared to take Wright 2nd after Arod.
• Mercs: Jose Reyes with 4th pick Combination of luck and fate. Figured A-Rod would go first, which he did. Thought Ramirez and Reyes would go 2 and 3, and had built my draft strategy around getting Wright.
• James from Shock & Awe: Utley 11th pick? Steal. So I guess it’s a bit of luck. Mock Draft Central seemed to me to have odd rankings of players. That helped me out.
• Daniel from Da Bomb Cheifs: Drafting in the 6th position my intention was to go with an up the middle strategy figuring I could get Rollins with the pick and then getting Phillips or Upton with my second pick. That would also help with steals and I could get power later. I thought the top 5 would be A-rod, Han Ram, Reyes Wright and Holiday. With those gone I wanted Rollins, but since Holiday was still there I couldnt pass on him.
• Patrick from Library Bats: Picking first was lucky and easy, as A-Rod is far and away the best bet to be the game’s most dominate player once again.

There are more questions and commentary. I’ll share with you all later.

While we were gone, we still took care of some business. Mainly, we held the draft for the first annual Crooked Pitch Fantasy Baseball League. It’s a 5X5 mixed league with 12 teams using two Catchers, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, MI, CI, five OF’s, one Utility Player, nine Pitchers and three bench spots.

We’re playing for a 2009 copy of The Baseball Prospectus as well as a 2009 Baseball Preseason Package, generously donated by the folks over at Mock Draft Central.

We held the draft at Mock Draft Central, before inporting the results to Yahoo. You can view the draft results at MDC.

Here are the results first two rounds.

1. Library Bats - Rodriguez, Alex
2. ATL Snakes - Ramirez, Hanley
3. Impish - Wright, David
4. Mercs - Reyes, Jose
5. The Rusty Kuntz - Santana, Johan
6. Da Bomch Cheifs - Holliday, Matt
7. Crooked Pitch - Rollins, Jimmy
8. Tigers - Peavy, Jake
9. Last Place Grabbers - Pujols, Albert
10. 12th MAN - Cabrera, Miguel
11. Shock & Awe - Utley, Chase
12. Victorious Secret - Crawford, Carl
13. Victorious Secret - Soriano, Alfonso
14. Shock & Awe - Braun, Ryan
15. 12th MAN - Howard, Ryan
16. Last Place Grabbers - Fielder, Prince
17. Tigers - Martinez, Victor
18. Crooked Pitch - Lee, Carlos
19. Da Bomch Cheifs - Martin, Russell
20. The Rusty Kuntz - Ortiz, David
21. Mercs - Phillips, Brandon
22. Impish - Upton, B.J.
23. ATL Snakes - Teixeira, Mark
24. Library Bats - Sizemore, Grady

The biggest surprise for me was that 2 starting pitchers went in the first round. I was also surprised that two catchers went in the second round. We’ll see how that plays out.

If you want to get into the Crooked Pitch Fantasy Baseball League, you’d better hurry. We only have one spot left in our 12-team mixed league using standard 5X5 roto rules.

The winner of the league will receive a 2009 copy of The Baseball Prospectus as well as a 2009 Baseball Preseason Package, generously donated by the folks over at Mock Draft Central.

So, shoot me an e-mail or IM and let me know you want this final spot in the league. We’re going to be drafting Tuesday night, March 25th at 7:30.

It’s probably a little late in the game to be asking this question as most of you are, most assuredly, involved in one or more fantasy baseball leagues (I’m involved in four, so far), but is anyone out there interested in a Crooked Pitch fantasy league?

If the interest is there, I would be excited to host a 12 team, mixed format league. And if there is even more interest I’d also host an AL and an NL only league. Obviously, if we filled these leagues, I’d drum up some cool prizes for the winners.

So, shoot me an e-mail or contact me through the comments or contact form and let me know if you want in.