Who do you think the best teams are before the draft?
Similar to sports talk, there’s no need not to revisit the same subject daily before a single game is played. Based on still incomplete, but more indepth team analysis, the following is my revisited assessment of the teams:
1. Ghosts of Sal Fasano – Best all around team in hitting stats. Zambrano isn’t ideal but still, solid pitching. No real negatives at this point.
2. Cuddle Rapers – Would be 1 if we flipped Matsui with Beckett, and a lot of downside risk with Pujols.
3. Dynasty Killas – Top 2 players at 4 positions, plus Aramis and Tulo. Needs work filling in power, but a repeat of last year’s pop from the 4 hitters might make average power guys work.
4. Wicked Obnoxious – I’m man enough to admit that I knocked him down a notch for trash talking purposes. Pitching was a huge piece of the championship last year and I don’t think he can fill his team with the same pitching quality he did last year. Probably wins the league after taking advantage of 40oz to Farney or Cy Hughes in a trade.
5. Clemens’DirtyNeedles – Strongest 1B, 2B, 3B combo, plus steals from Crawford. Three guys in the top 20 picks. Only concern/gamble is really Gallardo. Very strong team – a good draft and he could end up in the top 3, easily, a strong season from Gallardo and he could be on top.
6. Wally Backman – 1B, 3B and C are all studs for their position. Positioned to make moves if Young can find a way to get on base. Hernandez and Carmona are solid and young, and they have a ton of potential. If they can realize it, this team can get pretty high in the standings.
7. Adorable Baby Pandas – Terrible name, but he’s got the Rods, and then a strong outfield, and Sabathia. Hard to think they crack the top 5 though.
8. RA Dickey Dicks – Gun show in the outfield. Solid at 2B. Lee is good, but not as strong as 1B kept above. Dice-K and Francisco Cordero are dicey, and underwhelming as keepers.
9. 40oz to Farney – A lot of flexibility, has a chance to really move up in the post draft rankings. Solid in the infield, Beltran hopefully turns in a better season in the outfield. Bedard and Lackey are strong starters as long as they stay healthy. Question marks, but possibility of big moves.
10. Cy Hughes – I’d take a gamble on a Manny resurgence, and growth in Upton, Granderson and Cano. Liriano could be an incredible improvement from last year’s starters and Oswalt is too good to look down on. Good start in a team. Position diversity is an issue, and a likely hinderance to getting into the 80s in total points.
11. Angry Anteaters – Very strong pitching. Wide open hitting and the ability to fill in the best players available. Has the opportunity to end up in a strong spot.
12. Carlos Silva 40M – Santana is very good. Morneau is very solid. Pena is a keeper but I’m not a huge believer that he repeats a 40+ HR season or even a 35+. Uggla and Bay are marginal keepers, and Zimmerman is probably rated lower than 85. Plenty of downside and not a ton of upside. Really needs a spectacular draft.
13. Da Jesus – Huge fan of Sizemore, Teixiera and Hamels. I’m luke-warm on Abreu, who will probably be steady. Valverde isn’t likely to have the same kind of season and Mauer, even at his best, really seems like a one category player. I would have rather kept McCann from the team last year if I was going to bring a catcher into the draft.
14. Name to Come – Great name from last year, but a weak team. Magglio and Vlad will do their thing. Kinsler is solid at second. Halladay and Street are weak keepers and then there’s Cabrera. Not very much upside for a team that was weak last year.
Filed under: Lists, discussion | Tagged: "Rods", Draft, Mrs. Clemens' HGH, Sports Radio
Not saying my team is great, but you are seriously overvaluing your keepers. Dynasty Killers should be no better than 6th on this list, in my opinion.
I respectfully disagree and our opinions can differ. I think my team yields a better draft because it has tough to fill positions filled with solid stats for any position. I also don’t think it’s unreasonable that, in our league, Hanley goes in the top 3 picks, Phillips and Peavy go in the second round. Aramis goes in the 3rd round, with tulo and putz going in the 4th/5th. All 4 of those hitters hit more than 24 HRs last year, and only Aramis is older than 26, and he’s going to be 30 during the season, and you could look at Aramis as having a weak year last year. He’s definitely a threat to hit 30 HRs again. The 4 hitters put up 408/109/375/90 last year. That means I need to average 79/18/88/6 in 6 players that can include 4 outfielders, where more power is available. Not to mention that after the draft when someone has Felipe Lopez playing short for them, i have Tulowitzki and his 25 homeruns at SS to trade for a 1B/OF, but until then I have his 100/25/100/10 line at utility and i’m perfectly happy with that.
Peavy has had an ERA under 3 in 3 of the last 4 years and 200+Ks in the last 3 years. Putz has 2 years of sub-2.5 ERA, Sub-1.00 WHIP, 1+ Ks per inning and 35 plus saves.
I don’t think that i’m overvaluing my team when i look at what holes I have, and what is out there to fill them when compared to others.
I think that, just as you did last year when you vetoed the trade, you’re severely undervaluing Phillips.
McJunk, I understand you dont like my team, but 13th? Serously?
Consider that the average yahoo ranking of the 6 players on my team is 45.7, solid, but nothing spectacular. However, compare that with the following teams, who I believe I am better than, and their average rankings
RA Dicky Dicks: 57.3
Cy Hughes: 55.8
Angry Anteaters: 52.8
Carlos Silva 40M: 61.2
You could argue that Im using only one set of rankings, but it really isnt close. My team is also still young, with only one player over 27, so you cant even use that against me.
Im not asking you to adjust your rankings, I like being the underdog. Remember, nobody fucks with da jesus.
This year, i expect the standings to be a lot closer. It might have been better to put tiers than ranks.
Tier 1 90-100: Fasano and Rapers
Tier 2 80-90: Killas, Wicked Obnoxious, Clemens’DirtyNeedles, Wally Backman
Tier 3 70-80: Pandas, Dicks, Farney, Cy Hughes, Anteaters, Silva, Da Jesus
Tier 4 Under 70: Name to Come.
That might make it look a little bit better. Also, Cy Hughes’ average ranking is pretty substantially impacted by Liriano’s very low Yahoo ranking.
Regarding my pitching situation, Haren and Harang were both middle of the road pitchers heading into the draft last year and both had career years…so, again, I think saying that my pitching won’t be as good this year is unfair considering I did not have a pitcher chosen until round 7 last year…I look forward to jumpstarting the careers of two new young studs this season and creating a bomb squad the likes of which this league has never seen
I think it’s obvious that I ranked the teams subjectively based on my opinions. Feel free to disagree. This is how Yahoo! would have ranked our teams. Average rank is the number on the right.
Based on Yahoo! O-Ranks:
1 Killas 28.33
2 Fasano 31.83
3 Pandas 39.83
4 Farney 40.67
5 Wicked Obnoxious 41.67
6 Rapers 42.33
7 Da Jesus 45.67
8 Needles 46.83
9 Backman 51.67
10 Dicks 57.33
10 Ant Eaters 57.33
12 Silva 61.17
13 Name to Come 74.17
14 Cy Hughes 89.17
Based on Actual 2007:
1 Killas 27.67
1 Pandas 27.67
3 Ant Eaters 43.17
4 Fasano 43.33
5 Rapers 46.17
6 Farney 50.67
7 Needles 58.50
8 Cy Hughes 62.83
9 Backman 72.67
10 Wicked Obnoxious 74.17
11 Dicks 75.50
12 Name to Come 76.33
13 Silva 86.33
14 Da Jesus 89.50
Come on Wicked Obnoxious, you’re starting to sound defensive (maybe concerned?). It’s a discussion, i don’t control how the season, or the draft for that matter, plays out, but I’m going to make any prediction or statement that I think makes sense. You can feel free to refute it.
The only thing I will be getting defensive about is my title reign…I look forward to your March 19th rankings, Mr. Karabell
I’ll wait until March 24th for those rankings. I’ll be taking some vacation time after the draft to rest from the 2 weeks of fantasy baseball “war rooming” i’m currently engaged in.
This could have been a new post, but i couldnt figure out how to do that.
In my opinion, I think the issue is that it is different to rank the teams with only six players. There is definitely a split between the top half of the league and the bottom half. The way I see it right now is that there are seven teams significantly better than the other seven: Killas, Fasano, Pandas, Obnixious, Rapers, Needles, Backman. Depending on how these seven teams draft, any could potentially come out of the draft as the top team. The bottom seven teams have a significant amount of work to do if they plan on making the money.
McJunk probably covered a lot of these areas in his previews, but there are a few questions I have heading into the draft.
1) Can Obnixious find the pitchers to carry him to another championship? This has been beaten to death so I wont go into it further.
2) Can the Killas move a short stop to add some power? The currently have 2 of the top 4 shortstops and a top power hitter is the only thing to potentially hold this team back.
3) Can the Pandas find players at the scarce positions to fill out their team? My choice for sleeper team this season needs to have a good draft to make a run for the title. I still think this team has a top 3 set of keepers.
4) Can the rapers and needles rebound from disapointing seasons last year to make a run? Both team finished out of the top 5 last year but enter this season with 3 first round quality players.
well, well, I still have the best original artwork for a picture, damnit!
poop