Results tagged ‘ Ryan Howard ’
Plagiarism-Gate Update
Okay, thank goodness it’s FRIDAY! Woot!
Let’s get into this. As some of you know, yesterday I touched on my poor start in my main leagues and that my two more casual free leagues were doing OK. I also stated that, since a good chunk of the league members condoned an owner who was blatantly plagiarizing several websites and blogs on a daily basis, I would be leaving that Yahoo league.
Well, here’s a little update. Turns out one of those owners read my blog yesterday and cut-and-pasted a portion of my post and put it up on the league message board. He also added his personal opinion on your beloved fantasy writer. Let’s see, to save time…the best way to describe his comment… is to say …he was… soooo proud of his opinion that he wanted it to be quoted for all to see! I’m touched and honored.
This owner is known to a lot of you out there, not by name, but by his fantasy style. It’s extremely easy to tell who his favorite MLB team is because his fantasy team is loaded with Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, Mickey Mantle, C.C. Sabathia, etc… Yeah, he’s that guy. Since he can no longer afford to see the Yankees in person, thanks to the outrageous prices at the new ballpark, he just owns as many as possible on his fantasy team.
I have a tremendous sense of satisfaction after reading Yankee-boy’s post, though. Remember, my problem with the league was the massive amount of plagiarized stuff on the message board. You see, Yankee-boy correctly posted a link directly back to this blog giving proper credit to the source. *wipes a tear* ArchiveMan has accomplished his task here! Up, up and away!
On a serious note, there is a ton of good information out there on fantasy baseball. If you are going to copy and paste something you find on the web, do the decent thing and at least post the source and add a link. I know for some people it may not seem like a big deal. But believe me it isn’t as easy as it looks to write a blog on a consistent basis.
Don’t fall into the trap of saying,”well I just read the posts, I don’t actually copy-and-paste myself”. If you enjoy the content, then don’t you want to know who the true author is? Maybe that author has even more stuff that you’d find enjoyment out of reading? Maybe the guy cut-and-pasting will stop and you won’t know where to find it on your own. At the very least it’s common courtesy to give credit to the creator of content, but when people take it and then claim as their own then it’s that much worse — and technically it’s illegal if the content is copyrighted.
Again, I understand, nobody wants to be lectured to about rules, laws or how to treat each other. But I can assure you, if you put the time and effort into writing a good article and then you found out someone was taking credit for it, you wouldn’t be very happy.
Moving on to some meaty fantasy baseball strategy talk. Yesterday, I spoke about what I was going to do in my NFBC leagues, where you cannot trade. Today, I want to discuss my other leagues, mainly my J.A.I.L. and FSWA leagues, where trades are allowed.
First step was to look at the rosters, not only mine, but the other owners’ as well. Spotting potential weaknesses with my team is only half of the project. I have to then find an owner who has a strength on their roster and ideally has depth so they would be willing to perhaps part with a player I covet.
For example, if I need a 1B and I find the team with Albert Pujos, but they have no other 1B eligible players then I know that I will either have to include a 1B in the deal or else there’s no way the owner will be able to accept my offer, regardless how good it is. So, before you shoot off a bunch of offers make sure they make sense, not just for you, but for the other guy, too. Not only will it save time, but it will demonstrate that you are serious about these negotiations.
I talked to Ward P. in the J.A.I.L. about the availibility of C.C. Sabathia and got the typical “anyone’s available”. While that maybe didn’t seem like much, at least he didn’t flat out say “no way” I’m keeping C.C. You see, Ward, is a fan of the pin-stripers and I was curious if he was angry over their recent homestand where they gave up a bunch of runs. Sometimes, people will get frustrated with their fav’ MLB team and the players on their fantasy team who happen to also be on their favorite MLB team. Sometimes they are more willing to move these players out of spite.
The guys in the J.A.I.L. are pretty experienced players, but with the struggles of Sabathia and the Yankees overall, even loyal fans have to be a bit concerned. With a glimmer of hope about the prospect of obtaining Sabathia, I took another look at my team and realized pitching was not my most pressing issue.
I was actually stunned that I had forgotten that my hitting in the J.A.I.L. is not good right now, wait that is not accurate, my hitting is atrocious. I’m last in HR/AVG/RBI. So, I decided to put the C.C. quest on hold. Let me add this though, sometimes when I go shopping and start opening up dialogues with owners I stumble onto a situation where a player I like is tossed my way. I will do a deal even if I don’t technically need that player right now.
So, don’t be absolutely averse about any aspect of your team when talking trade with a league mate. Just like in the draft, you always want to have your eyes open for value. Getting a solid 2nd or 3rd component in a trade who is undervalued is sometimes the key part of a trade.
Another issue I have is when you are in last place, guess what? Yep, you have players who aren’t playing particularly good and thus don’t have the highest amount of interest. I have to decide is it worth it to offer up one of my elite guys like Ryan Howard — who not exactly on fire right now — or Curtis Granderson — who is on fire — in hopes of being able to get maybe a couple of players who could help me?
That question takes me back to my team.
Do I have a team I like that is filled with players who are simply struggling now, but I still feel will be fine once they get going or was my original valuation flawed when I drafted these players? I’m going to take a little break, then I’ll be back and we’ll run down some players on my teams and review their current values and how far off that is from what I orginially thought of them prior to the draft.
Be back soon…
-Johnny Archive
Zach Steinhorn Talks Fantasy With JA
I hope everyone had a nice Easter! Mine? Well, thank you for asking. It started good, with the little Archivers running amok franticly searching for the candy-filled eggs, which were left by the Easter Bunny, as Mrs. Archive and I looked on fondly.
Then it came time to get ready for the podcast, which was debuting it’s new extended format of 2 hours. I decided to record a few segments in advance to help me keep the show running smoothly and on time, but when I went to upload them I was face-to-face with the Easter Gremlin…and he won! I wasted like 3 hours, so I was concerned I wasn’t going to be as prepared as I wanted to be.
As it turned out, the show went well, I think. My special guest was Zach Steinhorn who does a great job at MLB.com assisting in the production of the Fantasy 411 and essentially makes the blog flow smoothly — which is a huge aspect of the show these days.
The show is an ever-evolving project, but I am focusing on making it a consistent product which provides good and useful content. I brought back the 2-Start Pitchers segment which will be a regular feature to help head-to-head league owners, mainly, prepare for the upcoming week.
I also introduced a new segment, the Johnny Archive Strategy Session or J.*****., which will focus on one particular strategy that is relevant to the current point of the season. For example, yesterday I discussed how I feel this is time of the year typically pitchers are ahead of hitters and the weather is more of a factor to hitting. Therefor, I think being aggressive in picking up low-end or unproven starting pitchers can increase the likelihood that you will get a good start and stumble onto this year’s Cliff Lee or Edinson Volquez.
Overall, I am excited about doing 2 hours every week, definitely gives me a chance to be more relaxed and not be rushed or run out of time. If you haven’t heard the show, you can check it out live at BlogTalkRadio every Sunday at 5pm-7pm ET or catch a replay at iTunes.
Good News from the Fantasy Hoops Department, I won the only basketball league I participated in this year. It was a tough battle with my friend and fellow J.A.I.L. owner, Firewyrm, who is real good at fantasy basketball.
I had suffered injuries to two of my top 5 picks, Amare Stoudamire and Michael Redd. Normally that means death to a fantasy season, but I did well with a few free agent pickups (Russell Westbrook, Nene and Eric Gordon) and was able to win the championship!
No, I don’t claim to be a fantasy hoops expert, but since I have played fantasy sports for 25 years now, I’m at a point where I can usually field a competitive team in just about any sport.
I play fantasy hoops mainly to help fill the void between football and baseball season, but it’s always nice to win! Ben Gordon saved me this week! Congrats to Firewyrm on having another great season.
Now, how about some baseball talk? Sounds good to me, too. I am currently in 2nd place in the J.A.I.L. league. Even with Ryan Howard and Geovany Soto not producing my hitters are putting up decent numbers, so that’s encouraging and I feel my pitching staff is going to be very solid all year, barring injuries.
In the NFBC leagues, I’m currently mid-pack 6th and 7th, which is fine. Even if I was in last I wouldn’t be too concerned, unless I had massive injuries to key players. I picked up David Aardsma, the relief pitcher who has picked up 2 Saves for the Mariners and appears to be the #2 guy if Brandon Morrow fails or needs rest, via the FAAB draft for $31. We start with $1000 and this is my first pickup. I was surprised nobody else bid on him, though.
I could have went with heavier on a 2-start pitcher, but I felt taking a flier on Aardsma was the smart play even though he may not have long term value. I’ll say it again, this is the time to take fliers on guys. Go for it!
I think I’ll take myself out to my first Round Rock Express game tonight. Have a great day everyone!
-Johnny Archive
Keeping Up With Keepers
Two posts in one day!?! Holy multiple reading options Batman!
I know, I know. But hey, I’m starting to get that little tingle in my tum-tum — and no it’s not gas!
And yes, I’m going to start getting into some actual numbers. Last year, I went back and forth, sometimes I put in too much math and other times not enough. Writing a good fantasy baseball post is kinda like making a batch of spaghetti, too much sauce and it turns into a sloppy joe mix, not enough sauce and it’s like mac & cheese, less the cheese part.
So, let’s see if we can add the proper amount of numbers to justify my thinking without putting you to sleep.
I’m going to start by talking about MY keepers from the JAIL league. We can keep up to 3 player from last year’s team, 1 from each tier/round of the 2008 draft. The tiers are 1-7 / 8-14 / 15-26. If you chose to keep a player who went undrafted, he counted towards your 15-26 tier as your 26th round pick. That’s the other twist: you lose the round of the player in 2008. For example, if you kept a 1st rounder from last year, you give up your 1st round pick in this year’s draft.
I know alot of leagues use various types of keeper systems, but at this point, I really like how we’re doing this. It allows owners to keep enough players to build around, while not draining the draft pool so much that any new owners have almost no shot of getting anyone good. It also challenges owners to make some tough decisions.
For example, A-Rod could have been kept in exchange for the 6th overall selection in this year’s draft, but the owner elected not to keep him. Instead, he decided to keep B.J. Upton and give up his 3rd rounder. This may look strange now, but if A-Rod folds under the pressure this year and BJ continues to improve and put up round 1 or 2 production, this could be a major boom for his team. We shall see how it plays out.
Another interesting dilemma I thought was dealing with the top overall pick in the draft. The team that had that spot elected to keep Albert Pujols and give up the #1 pick. Couple things come to mind: He didn’t know exactly who was being kept by other owners, so he didn’t know was going to be available. And how risky is Pooh-Bear this year health wise? Again, time will tell how this plays out. I just like that the owners were faced with tough calls. I mean, hey, the JAIL is all about toughness.
Oh yeah, some other yahoo had a decision to make in round uno. What would you have done? Remember that the JAIL is a 14-team mixed 5X5 league. I had Ryan Howard on my team who would cost me my 1st rounder this year, and because I won the league in 2008 (Oh yeah, I’m still milkin’ it, baby!) that meant it would be the last 1st rounder, pick #14.
I obtained Howard last season with about 7 weeks or so to go in the season. I gave up Ryan Braun for him, who was my 1st round pick in 2008. At the time, Braun was dealing with a back issue that had kept him out of a few games and Howard was still trying to overcome an absolutely horrible start to the season. I also knew that Howard has proven to be a pretty good 2nd half, more specifically Aug/Sept, player and I need a little punch in my power categories.
The trade worked out well for me as Howard stayed hot for most of August, basically carrying my team offensively. Braun put up some good numbers as well, so the deal helped both teams overall.
So, I have some favorable feelings when it comes to Howard, probably much more so than others who drafted him and endured his full season numbers, which included 3 AVG-wrecking months (April .168/May .238/June .234) to start the season. At #14, that’s about where alot of people think Howard will be drafted, though many people feel his low AVG should drop him into the 2nd round and just out of the elite player status.
I decided to keep him, focusing on the fact that his lowest HR total for a season, in the last 3 years, was 47 in 2007. That year he had his lowest RBI total as well, 136, compared to ’06 and ’08 when he tallied 149 and 146. It’s true, he has punished his owners in AVG and SO the last couple of seasons, though we don’t use Strikeouts as a category in the JAIL, so no biggie. But this guy hit .313 in ’06 in 704 PA, so I’m looking for a bit of a rebound in ’09. I’m not expecting or needing .300+, but more like .275ish. Especially if that is bundled with a his normal bucket of HR/RBIs.
My advice is to play up his poor start during pre-draft bantering and then snag yourself a bargain the late 1st or 2nd round.
My tier #2 player was about as much a no-brainer as there is, I think. Cubs catcher, Geo Soto, in place of a 12th rounder is pretty-close to eternal fantasy bliss. I’ll even take a sophomore drop-off from his ’08 numbers (494AB/.285/23HR/86RBI) and still be very satisfied. Catchers continue to be one of the biggest reasons fantasy owners typically go through more malox/advil/paxil in a season then most LA suburbs put together. I won’t lie, I’m quite happy to enter the season with my catching taken care of, regardless of whom I get to pair with Geo.
If you remember, I actually made catching a priority last year when I snagged Joe Mauer and Russell Martin in my 411 league. I’m going to talk more in the upcoming weeks about Martin and his percieved huge dropoff last year. I would guess most Martin owners felt major drafter’s remorse after the season. His numbers (650 PA/13HR/69RBI/18SB) were lower than his ’07 stats (620PA/19HR/87RBI/21), but that’s only part of the story. He was another player who got off to a slow start and so by the time he started contributing, it was probably too late for his fantasy owners.
My final keeper was Nelson Cruz who was called up by the Rangers after absolutely tearing up triple A. Not only was Cruz putting huge power numbers in minors (448PA/37HR/18DBL/99RBI/) but he stole 24 bags! He continued to perform in the Bigs adding another 9 HRs, 26 RBIs and 3 SBs, while hitting .330. At 28, he’s still fairly young and opportunity is sitting at his feet, well at least ABs are anyway. A good start will essentially cement his place on the roster for the ’09 season. (*drools* at the prospect of a full season of stats from him in that ballpark)
Overall, like most people at this time of the year, I’m quite happy with my 3 keepers going into the draft. I’ll touch on some of the other teams and the players they did and did NOT keep in the next few days.
I have updated my BlogTalkRadio.com page and scheduled several upcoming shows, including a special draft episode on Saturday, February 28th. Yep, I’m getting back in the swing of things now. I’ve kissed my wife and kids and told them I’ll see’m in September sometime! heh
-JA
Freaky Friday
It’s that favorite day, the day when everyone is happy and gay! Well, you know what I mean. Unfortunately, I am being pulled in several different directions these days with my boys starting school, some other real-life issues and, of course, football season just around the corner. So, my writing time is being severly reduced. Boooo.
I should be back to normal next week, just in time to gear up for the sprint to the finish in fantasy baseball. Of course, you can always get your Johnny Archive fix by checking out my podcasts over at BlogTalkRadio.com. The links are just over there. ———->
I did make a couple of trades in the JAIL league. I have built up a 17 Save league, so it was definitely time to unload some closers since I had seven of them. So, here’s what I did:
I traded away Ryan Braun, Jonathan Broxton and Brad Ziegler for Ryan Howard and Aubrey Huff.
I traded away B.J. Ryan and Brian Fuentes for King Felix.
Not only will these deals help my team with the addition of the new players, but by adding Saves to my trading partners, I hopefully have placed some Saves which may help me as well.
Have a great weekend and I’ll be doing my Friday Night Football podcast tonight at 9:30PM ET and The Johnny Archive Fantasy Baseball Show on Sunday morning at 11:30AM ET. Tune in if you can!
-Johnny Archive
Just Pondering Another Loss
It’s Monday, so let’s keep it light and ponder a few things going on in the world of baseball.
- I’m getting tired of trying to cope with the loss of someone involved with baseball that I’ve come to regard as a friend, even though I’ve never met them. Skip Caray, who passed away on Sunday, is the latest baseball “friend” that has been taken from us. I will always remember him for those TBS games in the 80′s when the Braves weren’t very good and he would use his wonderful sense of humor to make those games very entertaining. He was a wonderful man from a great baseball family.
- As good as Mark Teixeira is, he might actually hurt K-Rod’s chances of setting the single season Saves record. If Tex continues to thump, those 1-2 winning margains could easily become 4 or more and thus hurt Save opps.
- Brian Cashman, who I have not been a big fan of as the Yankees’ GM in the past, stepped up and made some moves around the trade deadline that will actually benefit the Yankees down the stretch. Nady, Pudge and Marte all addressed needs.
- Francisco Liriano looked amazing in his first start back from a lengthy minor league stint. Not only did he not give up a run, but every pitch was down and he was in complete control of his emotions.
- Denard Span and Cory Patterson, who appear to have locked up regular playing time, might actually be decent additions to fantasy rosters down the stretch.
- I happily missed out missed out on 2 Wins and quality pitching stats this weekend. You see, I benched A.J. Burnett (in Texas) and Earvin Santana (in New York) who both ended up pitching well. I’m not about to wreck 4 months + of solid pitching stats for a win or two.
- Trading for a player who helps in 3 categories can be easier if the 3 categories are AVG/RUNS/SB compared to HR/RBI/RUNS. For example, it’s easier to land Ichiro these days then it is Ryan Howard.
- Chasing Saves is a never-ending quest, though this time of year it can be especially painful to see a Save or two slip through your fingers. B.J. Ryan blew a Save in Texas over the weekend as his fastball only maxed out at 89 mph. He came back the next night, however, and regained a little velocity and nailed down the Save. An 89 mph, straight fastball can easily be turned around and into a HR, while a 92 mph heater is a routine flyball to left field.
I’m keeping it brief today, have a great week everyone. I have decided to do a fantasy football podcast every Friday Night during the football season — the first show is this Friday August 8th at 10:30PM and will last for 30 mintes. To check it out, cruise on over to BlogTalkRadio.com and search for FridayNightFootball.
-Johnny Archive
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