Yahoo!:
3rd place (barring collapse) in a 12-team H2H league (1st in regular season)
4th place (barring comeback) in a 14-team H2H league (5th in regular season)
5th place? (3rd two days ago; I might regain the points I lost) in a 15-team roto
Scoresheet:
75-81 going into the final week of NL (team won 43 games in 2004, 61 in 2005)
74-82 going into the final week of AL (team won its division in 2005)
Draft recaps (actually "just" two recaps for now: these things are absurdly time-consuming) after the jump, despite the "nobody cares about some other guy's fantasy teams!" maxim clearly in mind.
Breakouts in green, busts in red, bold for especially notable. Note that green can mean either "did better than I expected him to" or "did better than a nth-round pick typically does," since some of these I was surprised fell that far.
Alameda Islanders (198-110 regular season, 1st place by 26 games, crushed in semifinal, cruising in 3rd place game)
Head to head: 12 teams, 14 categories (R, HR, RBI, SB, FPCT, AVG, OBP, SLG; W, SV, K, HLD, ERA, WHIP), each team froze eight players from the previous year.
Of the eight keeps you see below, all but Konerko were on the team I inherited during the 2004-05 offseason. Note also that, from the team I inherited pre-2005, I kept Zach Greinke instead of Johnny Damon, Michael Young, Jason Varitek, et al. It should be obvious which GM gets the credit for this juggernaut. Somebody's ex-girlfriend could have made quite a run had she not quit the league, though I suppose fantasy baseball dominance can't singlehandedly keep a relationship going.
KEEP. Derrek Lee
KEEP. Carl Crawford
KEEP. David Wright
KEEP. Derek Jeter
KEEP. Paul Konerko
KEEP. Barry Bonds
KEEP. Carlos Zambrano
KEEP. Mariano Rivera
9. Jim Edmonds (dropped August 30)
10. J.D. Drew
11. Brad Wilkerson (dropped July 26)
12. Austin Kearns
(Just a brief interlude here to mention that I'd been dead certain all four of these guys would -- at least should-- go in the ninth round. Shows what I know.)
13. Justin Morneau
14. Dan Johnson (dropped June 1)
15. Luis Castillo (dropped July 14)
16. Ray Durham
17. Brian McCann
18. Greg Maddux
19. Dan Wheeler (dropped April 20 - oops...)
20. Trot Nixon
21. Brandon McCarthy (dropped July 4)
22. Aaron Harang
23. Ryan Klesko
24. Jeff Suppan
25. Paul Byrd (dropped May 21 and July 7)
26. Rafael Betancourt (dropped April 18)
27. Rafael Soriano (dropped September 8)
28. Justin Verlander
Notable Pickups:
Fernando Rodney (April 3, waivers)
Ben Broussard (April 18) (dropped August 21)
Jered Weaver (May 31, waivers)
Mike Napoli (July 4) (dropped August 3)
Fausto Carmona (July 7) (dropped August 9)
Jason Bartlett (July 14)
Scott Hatteberg (July 25) (dropped September 18)
Ryan Church (July 26) (dropped August 28)
Carlos Quentin (July 27, waivers)
Jason Jennings (July 30)
Derek Lowe (August 21)
What went right:
Almost everything. This team won 12 straight games (Week 7-Week 18), the first 11 of which were routs.
What went wrong:
Week 24 (semifinal) was a perfect storm of injuries (Mariano Rivera) and bad weeks. With way more than eight solid keepers I'd meant to trade young studs for 2006 superstars but didn't pull the trigger on anything.
2007:
At least 10 of these guys seem like must-keeps. Alas, there's no trading between now and next February's roster deadline, so all but eight of them will be set free. If I had to set a keeper list today:
1. McCann (.334/.391/.578 as a catcher)
2. Konerko (.313/.381/.551; 35 HR, 113 RBI)
3. Morneau (.320/.375/.560; 34 HR, 129 RBI)
4. Jeter (.341/.415/.483; 115 runs)
5. Wright (.310/.381/.528; 25 HR, 113 RBI, still only 24)
6. Crawford (.305/.348/.482; 58 steals, 25 and improving every year)
7. Rivera (34 saves, more importantly 1.82/0.96)
8. Weaver (2.56/1.03, will be 25)
The above list crowds out Barry Bonds, Derrek Lee, Justin Verlander, Carlos Zambrano, and 2006 NL strikeout leader Aaron Harang. With three batting rate stats (21% of your weekly score!) Bonds is a monster to this day, arguably the league's MVP even with his 2006 numbers. But he won't contribute much in 2008...
Various Artists (114-106 in regular season, 5th place; eked out a quarterfinal win, crushed in semi, getting shut out in 3rd place game)
Head to head: 14 teams, 10 categories (R, RBI, SB, TB, OBP; W, SV, K, ERA, WHIP), no keepers
1. Randy Johnson
2. Jake Peavy
3. Brad Lidge
4. Joe Nathan
5. Barry Bonds
6. Brad Wilkerson (dropped July 26)
7. Brandon Webb
8. Mike Gonzalez (dropped August 29)
9. Aubrey Huff
10. Tadihito Iguchi (dropped August 28)
11. Curtis Granderson
12. Livan Hernandez (dropped June 1)
13. Francisco Liriano (dropped September 16)
14. Brandon McCarthy
15. Mike Sweeney (dropped August 21)
16. Lyle Overbay
17. Russ Adams (dropped May 22)
18. Brian McCann
19. Kevin Youkilis
20. Corey Patterson (dropped September 12)
21. Ryan Doumit (dropped April 11)
22. Justin Verlander
23. Carlos Silva (dropped April 20)
24. Juan Uribe (dropped April 12)
25. Chris Duffy (dropped April 11)
Notable Pickups:
Dan Johnson (April 11) (dropped July 13)
Craig Wilson (April 13) (dropped June 8)
Mark DeRosa (May 8)
Freddy Sanchez (May 22)
Jered Weaver (June 1, waivers)
Andre Ethier (June 8)
Scott Hatteberg (July 9)
B.J. Upton (July 12)
Jeremy Sowers (July 22) (dropped September 2)
Ryan Church (July 26)
Trot Nixon (August 29)
What went right:
The young pitching worked out pretty well. Webb, Liriano, Weaver, Verlander makes for a very nice front four. (And even nicer 3-6 on a team that spent its first two picks on ace pitchers.) Some fantastic middle infielders fell into my lap on free agency: McCann, Sancez, DeRosa is championship-caliber up the middle especially for a pitching-heavy team.
What went wrong:
Those top two aces (Unit, Peavy) underachieved (Unit way more than Peavy) and the skill position offense was just execrable. Too much time wasted on Russ Adams, Brad Wilkerson, and Dan Johnson. Lyle Overbay hit exactly the way you'd expect Lyle Overbay to hit (i.e. like a 16th rounder), but taking your first non-Bonds "slugger" in the 16th round is a whole lot of offense to give up.
In the end, the completely predictable breakdown/shutdown of the rookie pitchers (and also the sudden coldness Granderson/Ethier/DeRosa) made it impossible to go far in the playoffs.
2007:
Sure, I'd go pitching-heavy again. (Incidentally, my 2005 team in this league was bad (12th of 16). I'd gone hitter-heavy in that draft and had a horrendous pitching staff that year. Then I noticed in the 2006 draft that the league was generally going hitter-heavy.)
Actually it's odd that my only non-keeper baseball league is the league where I'm least connected to my fellow owners (all friends of Joon). There's no obvious reason for me to stay in the league other than that it's fun and that there's equally no reason for me not to stay. So I imagine I'll be back.
Posted by Matt Bruce at September 30, 2006 03:16 PM