Fantasy Baseball Manager of the Year

2008 MOTY Subscriber Q&A #2

March 23, 2008 — Subscribers are always encouraged and free to submit questions, thoughts or anecdotes to MOTY Talk. Periodically, when we feel a subscriber’s email would be helpful to other fantasy baseball fans, we’ll post it and MOTY’s response for all to read.

“Rate My Team”

While we get a fair amount of requests from people asking us to review their fantasy baseball draft results and offer thoughts/suggestions, we don’t often post them here. There are simply too many. And often, many of the scenarios wind up being very similar. But this is a good one for 2008, a nice example of things you might consider when reviewing your team and how the MOTY System can help you put the finishing touches on a solid draft.

I am in an 11-team, mixed league using roto scoring. It is a 5x5 league with the usual catagories except Holds instead of WHIP. We have 21 players on a team. Thank You very much for your help and I love the website.

John H.

Important to know is that John’s league only starts 3 outfielders, NO “ci” (1b/3b) or “mi” (2b/ss), 1 utility player and, interestingly … only 2 bench spots (looks like a customized Yahoo! league, maybe). With that, let’s take a look at the team John drafted, and MOTY’s 2008 projections for them (partial). First his offense:

First general impressions, this is a pretty good lineup. John got our #1 overall in ARod, an “elite” catcher, a solid shortstop, and a couple of base stealers. Overall, nice runs scored and rbi’s, with pretty solid avg (only 2 guys under .275) and a very nice overall ops, only 2 players under .800, those being John’s two base stealers, who aren’t power hitters (re: lower slugging percentage).

What’s especially nice about John’s picks is the flexibility he’s created for himself with the multiple position eligibility a lot of his players give him: VMart at c/1b, Swisher at 1b/of and Figgins at 2b/3b (though, we have to wonder how Chone qualifies at 2b … he only played 9 games there last year, so only qualifies at 3b in most leagues for ’08 thus far. Maybe John’s league only uses 5 games or 1 game played to qualify. Who knows? It’s their party, they can invite who they want.)

Figgins aside, he’s covered nicely for Konerko should he start slow again this year as he did last. Especially if Soto comes out of the blocks hot — he fills the catcher slot, Victor moves to 1b or util. Or Swisher moves to 1b and John can use his OF slot for … we’ll come back to that.

Dye should bounce back and have a better ’08 than ’07, too. And Hawpe is a very solid (re: under appreciated) #2 outfielder.

We like John’s pitching staff, too. We wouldn’t call it “league elite,” but solid: The B- to B range with nice potential upside. He made some smart picks here as well. Though a couple of hitches could become hang ups. Notably, Harden. He just hasn’t been able to stay healthy the last couple of years, so if that happens again, John’s going to have to adjust. But there are always sp’s who come out of nowhere. HOWEVER, if John can get 25+ gs out of Harden, he could be the key to a good staff becoming great.

Bedard should be the ace we all think he will be in SEA. McGowan is poised for that breakout season. Hudson should be solid. And Wang is one of the most under-appreciated sp because of his low K #s … but we’ll take 15+ wins and a sub 4.00 era all day long too.

Nice picks. Watch Harden early, keeping an eye on his K/bb ratio as a sign for how his arm is holding up. The higher the better. As it it’s an indication for command/control.

John’s middies are VERY good picks. Most especially because Nathan is rumored to be on the block in MIN, even more likely if/when the Twins fall out of contention. If they move him, Neshek is his likely replacement at closer … so John’s practically got a ciw built in. (This just in!: The Twins and Nathan agreed to a 4-year extension today, so ixnay that umor-ray about him being on the block. Still, it was an insightful draft strategy on John's part. And all the more reason for him to now look for another possible ciw.)

Which he might need. C.J. and Percival do have the nod to open the season as closers, but are somewhat shaky and have able “committees” behind them. One or both could hit the DL (Percival), or lose the job. If that happens, John should move quickly to replace one or both with another ciw like Tony Pena ARI, David Riske MIL, Wood/Marmol/Howry (whoever isn’t the closer du jour in CHI), Fukumori/Guardado TEX (to back up C.J.) or … if George Sherrill BAL is available, him — he went to the Orioles in the Bedard trade and has been penciled in as the closer to start the year.

If everybody stays healthy, John should be good. And if not, he’s already built in some nice flexibility.

All in all, John has a nice lineup to start the season with. He should just think about steals and moving quickly to cover his mr/cl/ciw situation if need be. Once the season starts, MOTY’s rankings and the MOTY Scope™ will help him find the undrafted upstarts and sleepers to address any glaring holes that develop in his lineup. And, of course, he can track his team with his personal watch list … and those guys on the wire he’s zeroing in on. (Keep an eye on Percival, Wilson and your steals totals John).

The Guys at MOTY

Questions, thoughts, cool stories of how the MOTY System has helped your fantasy baseball team? Drop us an email. Your comments might show up here in a future MOTY Talk.

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