Please someone check out my pitiful pitching staff

[davidoffgoodlife]

Alright guys, I drank too much coffee for the Live Draft and I think some evil spirit possessed me after my first pick in my keeper league. Take a look and tell me what I can possibly do....

7x7, 10 team keeper league H2H
- each team has 30 players, 10 keepers with 2 years of eligibility after 1st season

hitting: Hits, Runs, HR, RBI, SB, BB, AVG
pitching: Win, Loss, Saves, Ks, BBs, ERA, WHIP

My team (years of keeper elig. in parentheses...FA= Free Agent after this season):

C- Jason Varitek (1 Yr)
1B- Carlos Delgado (FA)
2B- Bret Boone (FA)
SS- Orlando Cabrera (2 yrs)
3B- Chipper Jones (2 yrs.)
OF- Miguel Cabrera (2 yrs)
OF- Hideki Matsui (1 yr)
OF- Gary Sheffield (FA)
Util- Brad Wilkerson (2 yrs)
Util- Moises Alou (1 yr)
Bench- Shawn Green (2 yrs)
Bench- Trot Nixon (2 yrs)
Bench- Jason Giambi (2 yrs)
Bench- Cesar Izturis (2 yrs)
Bench- Tadahito Iguchi (2 yrs)
Bench- Casey Blake (2 yrs)

SP:
- Javier Vazquez (FA)
- John Smoltz (FA)
- Odalis Perez (1 yr)
- Ted Lilly (2 yrs)
- Esteban Loaiza (2 yrs)
- Jon Lieber (2 yrs)
- Gil Meche (2 yrs)
- Joel Pineiro (2 yrs)

Closers:
- Jason Isringhausen (FA)
- Shingo Takatsu (2 yrs)
- Eddie Guardado (2 yrs)

RP:
- Tim Worrell (2 yrs)
- Yhency Brazoban (2 yrs)

[rajah]

I have not done H2H leagues, so take this for what it's worth. You have almost no speed in the starting lineup and your bench speed is at positions that you may not want to replace. Also, Green on the bench? Put him in for Wilkerson. Trot Nixon will be platooning this year (again), so I don't know how that will impact you.

Consider swapping a bat for an upgrade in SP - maybe Blake. Your pitching MAY not be that bad. A lot of things will have to go right for you, but you COULD get good years from Perez, Lieber and Pinero. I would dump Loaiza as soon as you can. He will blow up your ERA all by himself.

Good luck.

[davidoffgoodlife]

Loaiza was more of a joke...I picked him up with my 30th pick, the final pick in the draft. I had joked that I was going to take him #1 instead of Miguel Cabrera. I think he'll actually have a semi-decent season in the obscurity of Washington facing National Leaguers rather than the AL.

I was planning on using Nixon only in situations where he would be facing a right-handed SP, I know he might platoon, but that extra umph from the #2 spot in the lineup will help me get the runs I so desperately need.

The pitching is in shambles, there's no doubt about it. The Free Agent pool has the following starters:

Cliff Lee, Wakefield, Paul Byrd, Jose Contreras, Ryan Drese, Kenny Rogers, John Lackey, Al Leiter and Nate Robertson. Very slim pickings...

What I need more than anything is a guy who can get me 200 innings and 170+ K's.

[davidoffgoodlife]

I will say this about my offense, I picked guys who are undervalued and are likely to play the whole season. Here's how my guys are in their respective teams' batting lineups...


1. Izturis
2. Nixon, Iguchi
3. M. Cabrera, Sheffield, Wilkerson, Chipper, Alou
4. Delgado, Giambi
5. H. Matsui, Blake, S. Green, Varitek, B. Boone
6.
7. O. Cabrera
8.
9.

With the exception of Nixon who will be hitting in the 2-hole only when Boston faces a right-handed starter, I think I've got a lot of potential here for runs, HR, and RBI. I think my batting average and hits will be worthless, but in a head to head league, I only have to be good one week at a time

As for steals, I'll say that any league where Chone Figgins is the 4th overall pick, Reyes is the #8 pick, J. Rollins at #11, and Furcal at #19, most of the potential for steals was gone by the time I got to have my 2nd pick. I just bided my time and grabbed Izturis/O. Cabrera in the later rounds and focused on saves instead.