Project keeper team, look at 2007

[Dumb Meat Head]

I took over this team in may and it was a mess. It had a couple of tradable commodities like Mulder, Clement, Wagner but mostly it had a bunch of spare parts and was a bottom of the rung team. So after a ton of trades I'm trying to assemble a team to compete from 2007 on.

CATCHERS (2) – Gerald Laird, Texas; Joe Mauer, Minnesota
FIRST BASEMEN (2) – Travis Hafner, Cleveland; Ryan Howard, Philadelphia
SECOND BASEMEN (3) – Ryan Freel, Cincinnati; Ruben Gotay, Kansas City; Ian Kinsler, Texas
SHORTSTOPS (3) – Joel Guzman, L.A. Dodgers; JJ Hardy, Milwaukee; Hanley Ramirez, Boston
THIRD BASEMEN (3) - Hank Blalock, Texas; Brendan Harris, Washington; Ian Stewart, Colorado
OUTFIELDERS (6) - Jeff Francouer, Atlanta; Scott Hairston, Arizona; Xavier Nady, San Diego; Carlos Quentin, Arizona;
Alexis Rios, Toronto; Nick Swisher, Oakland
STARTING PITCHERS (14) - Ezequiel Astacio, Houston; Matt Cain, San Francisco; Chris Capuano, Milwaukee;
Kyle Davies, Atlanta; Casey Fossum, Tampa Bay; Edwin Jackson, L.A. Dodgers; Wil Ledesma, Detroit;
Francisco Liriano, Minnesota; Adam Miller, Cleveland; Yusemeiro Petit, N.Y. Mets; Kirk Saarloos, Oakland;
Jorge Sosa, Atlanta; Claudio Vargas, Arizona; Joel Zumaya, Detroit
RELIEF PITCHERS (7) – Jeremy Affeldt, Kansas City; Yhency Brazoban, L.A. Dodgers; Jesse Crain, Minnesota;
Justin Duchscherer, Oakland; Aaron Heilman, New York Mets; Ryan Madson, Philadelphia; Huston Street, Oakland
I have the 2nd pick overall in a standard draft(non-snakiing)
Also the 14th and 26th overall

The league has an odd scoring structure on pitching which I will sum up later, but offensive goes like this:

Single= 1pt
Double= 2pt
Triple= 3pts
Homer= 4 points(+1 for grandslam)
run= 1pt
walk=1pt
sb=1pt
rbi=1pt

Pitching is heavy on wins and longer outtings. Solid outtings without a win aren't that valuable. No matter how many starters you have going on one night they take the best outting and the rest can be used later in the week, which makes top end pitching depth extremely important. There are a lot of points but the main ones are below:

wins=10 points
Cg=5pt
SO=5pt
ks= 1pt
Then there are a bunch of quality outting points which i wont get into

Three of your top closers/relievers can score in a night, but only one save allowed.

k=1pt
save=5pt
win=5 pts
plus bonuses for good outtings

Anyways, I'm looking to start being competative in 2007 in this league which is pretty top heavy. How does my team look for then?

[San D]

I think your middle infield is weak. Kinsler is your best 2B, and he's only OK. At SS, Guzman will probably end up in the OF, and who knows if Hanley will figure out his tools.

Your outfield is filled with people who will be pretty good, but not great.

I like everything else. Your starters could use some work, but there's a lot of very good up and comers. They could work out, but it's risky.

[GoatCurse03]

A lot things will have to break yor way for this to pay off, but I'd say you've done a pretty good job of acquiring guys who could break through in '07.

With the limited number of quality arms now, however, you don't have anyone to count on carrying you unless several of them make their team's rotation, and perform. Capuano and Sosa are the most likely to contribute in '05, and neither of them is better than 3rd on their team. Usually you need at least one, if not two, aces to compete, unless your league is very large (16+ teams).

I agree with the MI comment and note that you lack much pop in the OF beyond Francouer and Swisher, who are both too untested to say you could count on them to consistently produce. They could, but you can't say that with great certainty.

Keep a close eye on the WW out of ST for anyone who looks like they're breaking through. After all, Pujols was a FA his rookie year in most leagues through April.