Fantasy Baseball Manager of the Year

MOTY Talk

Week 2: Hot and Not Players

April 18, 2008 — So this Hot and Not entry is admittedly appearing quite a bit later than we like to post them. “Week 2 ended like almost a week ago, for crissakes!” right? True, true.

But there are two points in our defense. One, we’re all still in the honeymoon phase with our drafted rosters, but that’s quickly coming to and end. And, two, I’m on my acutal honeymoon. Seriously. And while “The Guys are MOTY” number more than just me, I write most of the Talks … namely the Hot and Nots. Sooooooo … a little tardy in getting this one out. I’m relying on your understanding here, gang.

Hopefully, though, you’re getting the swing of the MOTY system and are making it work to help you find and evaluate your fantasy baseball players. Especially now that you get the “Last Week” and the “YTD” rankings, giving you a greater sense of recent trends compared to overall production.

So, given the honeymoon phase we’re all in … some more “actual” than others … let’s just reel off the Hot and Not guys for Week 2, with minimal commentary, both AL and NL here in one Talk. One note — used a filter of “at least 10 at bats in Week 2” for the batters.

American League — Hot

Like every week, players appear in this list for 2 reasons — they’re the guys who’ve both risen to the top in the Last Week (LW) MOTY rankings AND, more than likely, are available in your league.

Stats for Week 2:   April 7 - April 13, 2008
Batter    
MOTY# r hr rbi sb avg ops
Mathis, Jeff LAA c 3.55 4 2 3 0 0.400 1.464
Huff, Aubrey BAL 1b 2.78 6 1 5 1 0.269 0.806
Casey, Sean BOS 1b 1.77 2 0 4 0 0.353 0.950
Ellis, Mark OAK 2b 3.59 4 0 5 2 0.385 1.087
Iwamura, Akinori TB 2b 1.23 4 0 2 1 0.280 0.686
Crosby, Bobby OAK ss 2.86 4 1 6 0 0.320 0.913
Aybar, Erick LAA ss 1.89 5 0 0 3 0.409 0.864
Kubel, Jason MIN of 3.06 4 2 7 0 0.300 0.886
Dellucci, David CLE of 2.15 5 0 3 0 0.400 1.126
Crisp, Coco BOS of 1.79 2 0 3 2 0.429 0.971
Scott, Luke BAL of 1.33 2 1 4 0 0.261 0.911
Buck, Travis OAK of 1.11 5 0 4 0 0.348 1.119
Gathright, Joey KC of 1.11 3 0 0 4 0.318 0.652
Pitcher    
MOTY# w sv K whip era bb/K
Lee, Cliff CLE sp 12.44 1 0 8 0.25 1.12 8.00
Jackson, Edwin TB sp 4.89 1 0 6 0.75 0.00 1.50
Hernandez, Livan MIN sp 3.67 1 0 3 1.14 0.00 3.00
Westbrook, Jake CLE sp 3.35 1 0 4 0.78 3.00 4.00
Eveland, Dana OAK sp 3.29 0 0 6 0.95 0.00 2.00
Floyd, Gavin CWS sp 1.88 1 0 4 0.68 0.00 1.00
Lopez, Aquilino DET mr 4.67 1 0 6 0.79 1.42 6.00
Downs, Scott TOR mr 1.01 0 1 3 1.50 0.00 1.00
Rowland-Smith, Ryan SEA ciw 0.45 0 1 3 0.38 0.00 3.00
Lowe, Mark SEA cl 0.18 0 1 1 0.50 0.00 1.00

American League — Not

Key to the “Not” list is that these guys are almost certainly on a roster in your league, possibly yours. And based on sluggish or declining Last Week (LW) MOTY#s, may be down trending … toward the bench for a while, (maybe) as trade bait or (gulp) dropped to the wire.

Stats for Week 2:   April 7 - April 13, 2008
Batter    
MOTY# r hr rbi sb avg ops
Pierzynski, A.J. CWS c -3.11 2 0 2 0 0.267 0.646
Martinez, Victor CLE c* -1.34 0 0 1 0 0.200 0.450
Ortiz, David BOS 1b -0.19 2 0 0 0 0.000 0.190
Thomas, Frank TOR 1b -0.12 2 1 2 0 0.118 0.694
Thome, Jim CWS 1b 0.37 4 0 1 0 0.176 0.476
Cano, Robinson NYY 2b 0.13 0 0 2 0 0.167 0.394
Polanco, Placido DET 2b 0.19 1 0 2 0 0.250 0.705
Alex, Rodriguez NYY 3b -0.14 2 1 3 0 0.207 0.603
Cabrera, Miguel DET 3b 0.36 1 0 1 0 0.227 0.593
Julio, Jorge BOS ss 0.27 2 0 1 0 0.238 0.558
Dye, Jermaine CWS of -1.39 2 0 2 0 0.222 0.500
Rios, Alex TOR of -0.85 3 0 1 1 0.200 0.563
Anderson, Garret LAA of 0.14 4 1 1 0 0.120 0.505
Sheffield, Gary DET of 0.19 0 0 0 2 0.167 0.540
Young, Delmon MIN of 0.32 2 0 2 1 0.167 0.417
Pitcher    
MOTY# w sv K whip era bb/K
Hernandez, Felix SEA sp -2.12 1 0 7 1.80 5.40 2.33
Weaver, Jered LAA sp -1.63 0 0 3 1.41 7.94 0.75
Hughes, Phillip NYY sp -1.22 0 0 5 3.80 16.20 0.71
Sabathia, C.C. CLE sp -0.42 0 0 4 4.20 24.30 2.00
Verlander, Justin DET sp -0.29 0 0 3 1.04 7.04 0.75
Perez, Rafael CLE mr -0.12 0 0 0 3.00 18.00 0.00
Sarfate, Dennis BAL mr -0.03 1 0 3 1.88 10.12 0.75
Speier, Justin LAA mr 0.01 0 0 3 1.20 8.10 1.50
Accardo, Jeremy TOR cl -0.06 0 0 2 2.14 19.29 1.00
Borowski, Joe CLE cl -0.05 0 0 1 3.00 27.00 0.50
Rodriguez, Francisco LAA cl 0.02 0 0 0 4.50 27.00 0.00

National League — Hot

Like the guys highlighted in the AL list, these players are pulled from the masses because of the up tick in their Last Week MOTY#s.

Stats for Week 2:   April 7 - April 13, 2008
Batter    
MOTY# r hr rbi sb avg ops
Towels, J.R. HOU c 2.04 3 2 4 0 0.231 1.166
Bako, Paul CIN c 1.73 2 0 2 0 0.438 1.214
Jacobs, Mike FLA 1b 4.99 4 3 5 0 0.391 1.243
Votto, Joey CIN 1b 0.70 2 0 1 0 0.429 0.857
Hudson, Orlando ARI 2b 3.51 6 2 7 1 0.250 1.035
Cantu, Jorge FLA 3b 2.22 4 2 5 0 0.280 0.893
Feliz, Pedro PHI 3b 1.10 2 2 4 0 0.192 0.737
Guzman, Christian WAS ss 3.51 5 1 4 0 0.400 1.127
Drew, Stephen ARI ss 2.64 3 0 2 0 0.421 1.139
Kapler, Gabe MIL of 7.34 4 2 5 0 0.400 1.700
Ludwick, Ryan STL of 6.15 3 3 7 0 0.375 1.444
Werth, Jayson PHI of 5.58 2 1 4 2 0.500 1.436
Pagan, Angel NYM of 4.19 4 0 4 0 0.435 1.047
Ethier, Andre LAD of 2.80 4 1 6 0 0.304 0.862
Duncan, Chris STL of 2.46 5 1 3 0 0.318 0.953
Pitcher    
MOTY# w sv K whip era bb/K
Rodriguez, Wandy HOU sp 6.30 1 0 13 0.63 0.63 13.00
Dempster, Ryan CHC sp 4.32 0 0 5 0.43 0.00 2.50
Maddux, Greg SD sp 3.98 2 0 7 0.67 0.75 2.33
Germano, Justin SD sp 3.89 0 0 3 0.71 0.00 3.00
Duke, Zach PIT sp 1.52 0 0 6 1.29 1.29 6.00
Correia, Kevin SF sp 1.40 1 0 4 0.91 0.00 2.00
Grabow, John PIT mr 1.62 1 0 3 1.38 0.00 1.50
Moylan, Peter ATL cl 0.94 0 1 3 0.60 0.00 3.00

National League — Not

When the “Last Week” MOTY# goes down, the player’s name goes up … on this list.

Stats for Week 2:   April 7 - April 13, 2008
Batter    
MOTY# r hr rbi sb avg ops
Kendall, Jason MIL c 0.15 2 0 3 0 0.364 0.800
Martin, Russell LAD c 0.34 1 0 1 0 0.200 0.523
Fielder, Prince MIL 1b -1.81 0 0 1 0 0.087 0.290
LaRoche, Adam PIT 1b 0.20 1 1 2 0 0.125 0.535
Johnson, Kelly ATL 2b -0.65 2 0 0 1 0.222 0.509
Sanchez, Freddy PIT 2b -0.21 1 0 2 0 0.091 0.251
Zimmerman, Ryan WAS 3b -0.48 0 0 3 0 0.136 0.413
Keppinger, Jeff CIN ss -2.28 1 0 4 0 0.222 0.525
Tulowitzki, Troy COL ss 0.03 2 0 0 0 0.111 0.405
Reyes, Jose NYM ss 0.33 3 0 1 1 0.167 0.433
Fukudome, Kosuke CHC of -2.22 2 0 1 1 0.240 0.585
Braun, Ryan J. MIL of* -1.19 1 1 3 0 0.120 0.360
Pence, Hunter HOU of 0.00 1 0 0 0 0.158 0.554
Rowand, Aaron SF of 0.04 2 0 1 0 0.176 0.458
Jones, Andruw LAD of 0.08 3 0 0 0 0.056 0.283
Hart, Corey MIL of 0.40 3 0 1 0 0.286 0.590
Pitcher    
MOTY# w sv K whip era bb/K
Peavy, Jake SD sp -3.21 1 0 4 1.83 4.50 2.00
Zambrano, Carlos CHC sp -2.22 0 0 6 1.67 7.50 6.00
Young, Chris SD sp -1.04 0 0 2 3.67 18.00 0.50
Santana, Johan NYM sp -0.47 0 0 7 1.20 5.40 3.50
Francis, Jeff COL sp -0.36 0 0 2 2.00 12.60 0.67
Lilly, Ted CHC sp -0.34 0 0 4 2.25 11.25 1.00
Miller, Andrew FLA sp -0.20 0 0 9 2.52 11.88 1.80
Pena, Tony ARI mr -0.12 0 0 1 2.57 15.43 0.50
Valverde, Jose HOU cl 0.36 1 0 4 3.00 9.00 1.33
Hoffman, Trevor SD cl 0.42 0 2 3 2.50 4.50 1.50

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.