The game of baseball gives us everything from the smooth swings of Albert Pujols to the antics of Jose Valverde and everything in between. Unfortunately, in an age of salary caps and economic starvation issues arise that leave us blue with angst and frustration. No I'm not talking about Anna Bensons arival at the ballpark, I'm talking about the misuse of young pitching!
Nothing leaves you hurting like picking up a great young arm and finding that they are going to be strictly monitored with a demeaning pitch count. Or how about the famous saying "his performance has exceeded our expections unfortunatley I believe we will have to shut him down in September" The purity of the game is being comprimised by the games economics. Although I understand it, nothing can hurt you more than these sentences!
Not only do you not have your stud but you are denied the oportunity to see a bright new star in the making. You only get to see 2 innings of shut out ball from Neftali Feliz. Matt Latos has accumulated 3 wins in his month in the majors but will be shut down as well. This is only the tip of the iceburg though! Even Clay Buchholz, Tommy Hunter, Kris Medlen, and the like are being watched under a microscope. Unleash these beasts! The public and my fantasy team deserves these fine young prospects! Shame on you selfish owners!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Pitching is Power.
I am an overrated and overwhelmingly mediocre fantasy baseball player. This does not however mean that my methods cannot work, nor that I do not understand parts of the game. My problems arise entirely from disastrous preliminary picks. All of these early offensive picks truly turned out to be offensive... to me. The only reason that I find myself planted firmly in the upper half of my league was because of my ability to find pitching to fill stats and to trade away. Do not overlook pitching because it appears to have no rhyme or reason. In fact do the opposite. It could be where you win your league. Follow these simple rules and you will be well on your way:
1. Draft a workhorse that will anchor your staff. This must be a top tier pitcher that has continually proven himself. Make sure that you choose a pitcher that not only has good peripherals but also works late into games. These extra innings and proven durability could decide you match ups down the road.
2. The late rounds of the draft are all about upside. Begin the year with an over crowded pitching staff. You can dwindle down the number of starters that you own once they have earned a spot on your team. In these rounds draft solely on upside. If a few of your picks pan out you will find that they will more than make up for the misses that you will have.
3. Always be aware of minor league pitchers of pedigree. If a pitcher has been dominating competition in the minor leagues throughout his career he has a shot to do it in the majors as well. Hamels and the like tend to find their way to the majors after the all star break. Be on your toes.
4. Just as with batters, pitchers that have talent can slide off the charts for a few years and come back to help win championships. These come back years (think Kevin Millwood, old school Kevin Brown type) usually revolve around contract years. Do not waste your time drafting these pitchers but be aware of them on the waiver wire and snatch them quickly.
5. Young pitchers tend to tire more easily as the year progresses. Because these pitchers haven't seen a season as long as the major leagues they tend to fall off as the year comes to a close. With the exception of a few freaks out there, one notably, most will go the way of Chris Volstadt. Sell at the first signs of fatigue.
6. When scouting pitching look at the numbers and not at potential. This sounds contrary to what I said earlier but hear me out. When I spoke of potential I was speaking of pure numbers and not of velocity or break. Just because a pitcher can light up a gun does not mean he can get batters out. Pay more attention to his track record and how his club feels about him. Remember, there were pretty good carreers from Nagy, Maddux and Suppan without ever wowing with the fastball.
7. Pitchers will pitch to their averages. Just because Nick Blackburn, Ricky Nolasco, and Joe Blanton didn't start how you would have liked doesn't mean that they wont end that way. Patience is a virtue.
Now go my children and breathe this knowledge into your fantasy team and give it that life that it needs to make that money. Make it rain.
1. Draft a workhorse that will anchor your staff. This must be a top tier pitcher that has continually proven himself. Make sure that you choose a pitcher that not only has good peripherals but also works late into games. These extra innings and proven durability could decide you match ups down the road.
2. The late rounds of the draft are all about upside. Begin the year with an over crowded pitching staff. You can dwindle down the number of starters that you own once they have earned a spot on your team. In these rounds draft solely on upside. If a few of your picks pan out you will find that they will more than make up for the misses that you will have.
3. Always be aware of minor league pitchers of pedigree. If a pitcher has been dominating competition in the minor leagues throughout his career he has a shot to do it in the majors as well. Hamels and the like tend to find their way to the majors after the all star break. Be on your toes.
4. Just as with batters, pitchers that have talent can slide off the charts for a few years and come back to help win championships. These come back years (think Kevin Millwood, old school Kevin Brown type) usually revolve around contract years. Do not waste your time drafting these pitchers but be aware of them on the waiver wire and snatch them quickly.
5. Young pitchers tend to tire more easily as the year progresses. Because these pitchers haven't seen a season as long as the major leagues they tend to fall off as the year comes to a close. With the exception of a few freaks out there, one notably, most will go the way of Chris Volstadt. Sell at the first signs of fatigue.
6. When scouting pitching look at the numbers and not at potential. This sounds contrary to what I said earlier but hear me out. When I spoke of potential I was speaking of pure numbers and not of velocity or break. Just because a pitcher can light up a gun does not mean he can get batters out. Pay more attention to his track record and how his club feels about him. Remember, there were pretty good carreers from Nagy, Maddux and Suppan without ever wowing with the fastball.
7. Pitchers will pitch to their averages. Just because Nick Blackburn, Ricky Nolasco, and Joe Blanton didn't start how you would have liked doesn't mean that they wont end that way. Patience is a virtue.
Now go my children and breathe this knowledge into your fantasy team and give it that life that it needs to make that money. Make it rain.
Trade Deadline Tomfoolary!
Pundants and bloggers alike have been smearing the Tribe for the rash overhaul of their major league ball club. Yes, it is true the team that we saw tonight did look a lot like my favorite AAA team the Kansas City Royals (who are only a game and a half behind us). This does not mean that Mark Shapiro does not know what he is doing. We have heard that we didn't get any "Blue Chip" prospects and that this was merely a salary dump, that we are playing for 2012 and that the fans are the only ones that will suffer, and that even that the ownership may not have winning as a priority. These are nothing more than words that help the ignorant feel better about themselves; half truths if you will. The tribes record is 42 and 61, 12 games out of the lead for the Central Division. We accomplished this great feat with all of our core players, our stars, intact! Even if we kept these players their trade value would diminish and we would continue to lose. Our farm systems were depleted and thus there would be little help next year. We do however have some players that will be coming along in the near future... eta 2012. In fact, two of them are catchers (Toregas and Santana) and we just cleared room for them. But the media is right, lets not save money and continue to lose so that we don't have money to resign our closer (Wood) or starting pitching (Westbrook) that is soon to come off the books.
Enough with the negativity, this is my first post and we should be looking at potential! What are the positives? We dumped the overbearing contracts of Derosa and Betancourt... that's a start. But what about our prospects? 9 of 11 are pitchers which shows that the focus was on our greatest weakness in the minor league systems. The other two players, Marson and Donald are expected to fight for jobs with the ball club next year. Marson was said to be more big league ready then Santana and Donald is an ex-Olympian with a pedigree. Sounds okay so far... but what about the pitchers. Justin Masterson has been a part of the Redsox bullpen all season and may contend for a spot in our rotation next year. He is a proven big leaguer. Price and Hagadone were both 1st round draft picks that throw in the upper 90s. Both are young and have a pedigree. Carrasco, Knapp and Perez will also all either be on our 40 man roster or contend for spots out of spring training. That leaves Scott Barnes, Jess Todd, the 4th ranked prospect in the Phillies organization and minor league player of the year and BG native Connor Graham whom the Indians have scouted since high school. I guess we really didn't address any needs or receive any important prospects in return for our talent.
The Phillies did not give up any of the people that the Blue Jays wanted in a Halladay deal and thus the point that we didn't get them is moot. The Tribe felt that they still received more than enough talent in return. If we can't win with who we have we need players that we can win with. The real problem doesn't lie with our trading, it lies with the fact that many of our draft picks do not pan out. This leaves us looking for talent elsewhere and having to give up Cy Young winners to do so. The Indians made out in these deals and will have talent and cap room going forward into the future. We also kept Sizemore, Choo, and Cabrera which is a fine young core in itself.
Look, we could have depleted our minor league system for an Ace that won't get us into the playoffs( The White Sox, 51-51 going into today) or worse yet we could live in Kansas City. Thank Jobu that's not our case! Lastly, this message is for Jason Grimsley... who was named one of the players who tested positive for steroids... KARMAS A BITCH! Peace...I'm out.
Enough with the negativity, this is my first post and we should be looking at potential! What are the positives? We dumped the overbearing contracts of Derosa and Betancourt... that's a start. But what about our prospects? 9 of 11 are pitchers which shows that the focus was on our greatest weakness in the minor league systems. The other two players, Marson and Donald are expected to fight for jobs with the ball club next year. Marson was said to be more big league ready then Santana and Donald is an ex-Olympian with a pedigree. Sounds okay so far... but what about the pitchers. Justin Masterson has been a part of the Redsox bullpen all season and may contend for a spot in our rotation next year. He is a proven big leaguer. Price and Hagadone were both 1st round draft picks that throw in the upper 90s. Both are young and have a pedigree. Carrasco, Knapp and Perez will also all either be on our 40 man roster or contend for spots out of spring training. That leaves Scott Barnes, Jess Todd, the 4th ranked prospect in the Phillies organization and minor league player of the year and BG native Connor Graham whom the Indians have scouted since high school. I guess we really didn't address any needs or receive any important prospects in return for our talent.
The Phillies did not give up any of the people that the Blue Jays wanted in a Halladay deal and thus the point that we didn't get them is moot. The Tribe felt that they still received more than enough talent in return. If we can't win with who we have we need players that we can win with. The real problem doesn't lie with our trading, it lies with the fact that many of our draft picks do not pan out. This leaves us looking for talent elsewhere and having to give up Cy Young winners to do so. The Indians made out in these deals and will have talent and cap room going forward into the future. We also kept Sizemore, Choo, and Cabrera which is a fine young core in itself.
Look, we could have depleted our minor league system for an Ace that won't get us into the playoffs( The White Sox, 51-51 going into today) or worse yet we could live in Kansas City. Thank Jobu that's not our case! Lastly, this message is for Jason Grimsley... who was named one of the players who tested positive for steroids... KARMAS A BITCH! Peace...I'm out.
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