i am a novice who needs a baseball gods advice

[shaahnoori]

alright guys HDH league. This is my first fantasy baseball team, and I need some advice. What positions am I weak, or strong. What players are dropable and which are not?

My Team
1. (5) Matt Holliday OF
2. (16) Ryan Braun 3B
3. (25) Brandon Phillips 2B
4. (36) Carlos Lee OF
5. (45) Travis Hafner 1B
6. (56) Rafael Furcal SS
7. (65) Brian McCann C
8. (76) Nick Markakis OF
9. (85) John Smoltz SP
10. (96) Billy Wagner RP
11. (105) Chris Young SP
12. (116) Brett Myers SP,RP
13. (125) Rich Hill SP
14. (136) Jason Bay OF
15. (145) Matt Capps RP
16. (156) Rafael Soriano RP
17. (165) Howie Kendrick 2B
18. (176) Alex Gordon 1B,3B
19. (185) Mike Cameron OF
20. (196) Ty Wigginton 1B,2B,3B
21. (205) Felipe López 2B,SS

1(C,1B,2B,3B,UTL), 3OF, 2RP, 2SP, 3P, 4Bench

I droped Mike Cameron for Bronson Arroyo

[r8rferg]

Dude, your team is pretty stacked. Nice draft for your first year. How many teams are in this league? Must be a 10 teamer? At any rate, I see you ending up in the top 3 no problem. You have a few gems in that draft. Markakis in the 8th is huge as is Hafner in the 5th and Bay in the 14th. I think you have a good balance of speed and power on offense. Pitching looks solid. You may have the resources to acquire a Peavy/Webb type pitcher if you package one of your starters with a marketable bat such as Markakis. To really kill it, you need to gamble on guys like Bay getting back to his form and make moves accordingly. That being said, given your talent level I would hold tight and see how you fare for the first few weeks before doing anything drastic. I think you did well to drop Cameron though.

[shaahnoori]

thanks a lot for the help. To answer your question it is a 10 player league. Anyone else with advice?

[shaahnoori]

bump

[yvomiasky]

You look pretty solid on offense! If I was you I would try to acquire some pitching help. That is the only thing that you look mediocre @! GOOD LUCK!!!!

[AnotherWalk]

Not bad for a 10 team league. At first glance I see some real steals here like Markakis, Gordon, Wigginton, and to an extent Bay, but I also see players that I have questions about.

I'm personally still not sold on Ryan Braun, but I guess that you already got Holliday its not a big deal, and 16 is pretty good value, just don't be extremely surprised if he doesn't perform.

I like Brett Myers this year but he's a question mark, an injury concern and has some personality issues, and that park is anything but friendly and that defense is anything but great ((although the addition of pedro feliz makes for a better left side of the infield)). The silver lining here is that he seemed to have polished his way of finishing off hitters, and I wouldn't be surprised if you see a jump in his Ks in comparison to his other years as a starter.

Chris Young is just an injury risk... He doesn't K ALOT of guys, but I guess in a loaded pitching staff hes worth a gamble. This is a guy who is helped to no end by that park, and getting Jim Edmonds is a blessing for him because he has a tendancy to let a few fly balls get by the infield, Edmonds will cover nearly the same amount of ground Cameron did.

You have two weaknesses in my mind, and they are weakness that most teams end up having ((speed and saves)). In a 10 team league, if you don't have 2 dominant or high/mid-tier closers then your not going to compete in saves. I like both of the guys you got, and am a fan of both Capps and Soriano, but Capps won't get many oportunities and Soriano still has some issues to work out, I would go out and try to acquire another closer, wheter it be a guy like Chad Cordero or another low/mid-tier closer. Check if Jeremy Accardo slipped through the cracks and is on the waiver wire because he is slated to get about a month of save chances while B.J. Ryan continues to slowly rehab his injury. Sure later on you might need to get some saves, but get whatever free saves you can if they are sitting on the wire.

In terms of speed you're OK, but if you want to dominate you need another guy with 15+ SB
Holliday - 10
Braun - 15
Phillips - 25 ((I see his steals falling off a little bit because his OBP is just so low and if you don't get on base then your won't get as many SB attempts. Also they are planning on batting him 5th, a spot in the order that disvalues speed))
Lee - 10
Furcal - 25
Markakis - 15


You have 100 SB, this is enough to win 1/2 of the time probably, as stats show that in most yahoo 12 team leagues you needed 117 SB to win your league in that category ((I believe it was 117, but it might've been 112)). Factor in inflation because this is a 12 team league, and if you want to win your league in the category you would probably want another guy who nets 10 or so. You need to start Gordon at UTL and he'll bring your SB up to around 112 or 115 or so, thats a good number, but I would also...

I might go back and pick up Cameron, because even if he was only playing 75 games ((he'll play in about 125 probably)) then he would get 8-10 SB. He is a power/speed threat, and even though his average is low he is a good insurance possibility if Jason Bay doesn't bounce back and if Alex Gordon doesn't perform for you at your UTL. Cameron has played in the worst hitters/HR park for the last 3 years running, now he's moving for a top 10 HR park and I wouldn't be surprised to see this guy hit, even in a shortened season, 22 HR with 14 SB and a .260 BA. This guy is a great 4th OF if you can deal until he comes back, and quite frankly Arroyo doesn't excite me.

You have a great core of SP here, but I wouldn't go around looking for another starter, I would employ a strategy called pitch or ditch in which you pick up and drop pitchers throughout the year that you think has a good matchup. Lets say on the 4th day of the season Chuck James is pitching against the nationals and the atlanta offense has been hot while washington has been cold, well then you pick him up for 1 day, take the statistics for his start, and drop him. This is also referred to as streaming. You, of course, have to do this in moderation because most leagues have an IP limit and you want to ge the best innings you can, no matter where they are in the season. Be careful with this because this can kill your ratio stats ((ERA and WHIP)) for the possibility of a W and some K depending on how good the start was, so be warned, this does take some skill and intuition, but if there is no one better than Arroyo on the roster I would do this.

I hope this helped, pm me if you have anymore questions =]