Verlander or Harden?

[yanks924]

Yoda you seem to just ignore the fact that Harden is out there dominating start after start and pretty much seems like you just don't like him. But FROM HERE ON OUT AND EVEN WHEN THIS THREAD STARTED I personally think if anyone chose Verlander over Harden they would A. not know much about fantasy or B. be banking on that Harden will be hurt again. As 90% of the rest of the posts on this thread 100 IP of Harden will help your team more than 200 IP of Verlander

[Philliebuster]

I'll take Verlander from here on out, Harden's not going to help me when he's not pitching. Same reason I take Atkins over Chipper, or Abreu over Bonds, or Halladay over Sheets. The latter in each case has more talent and over a small sample size will embarrass the other fantasy wise...but I need reliable production over a full season. Reliability, it's all about the balance between reliability and talent.

[fezzik]

At this moment in time I would take Verlander for the rest of the season...my mind changes though depending on what I put in my stomach. I just ate a big plate of lasagna ( ) and it's telling me Verlander.

After I drink a monster or a red bull I lean towards Harden...I think it's the stimulants messing with my brain.

I would like either on my team...I targeted both in my drafts, so I think they're both pretty cool pitchers...I hope that in-depth analysis helped.

[Inukchuk]

But FROM HERE ON OUT AND EVEN WHEN THIS THREAD STARTED I personally think if anyone chose Verlander over Harden they would A. not know much about fantasy or B. be banking on that Harden will be hurt again.

You're exactly right, but only about option B. You just basically made the case of all the people that are choosing Verlander.

[Yoda]

Yoda you seem to just ignore the fact that Harden is out there dominating start after start and pretty much seems like you just don't like him. But FROM HERE ON OUT AND EVEN WHEN THIS THREAD STARTED I personally think if anyone chose Verlander over Harden they would A. not know much about fantasy or B. be banking on that Harden will be hurt again. As 90% of the rest of the posts on this thread 100 IP of Harden will help your team more than 200 IP of Verlander

You are right I don't know much about fantasy baseball.

[yanks924]

i never said you don't know anything about fantasy baseball, it was me only thinking of 2 possible reasons you would choose Verlander over Harden.

[AussieDodger]

Yoda you seem to just ignore the fact that Harden is out there dominating start after start and pretty much seems like you just don't like him. But FROM HERE ON OUT AND EVEN WHEN THIS THREAD STARTED I personally think if anyone chose Verlander over Harden they would A. not know much about fantasy or B. be banking on that Harden will be hurt again. As 90% of the rest of the posts on this thread 100 IP of Harden will help your team more than 200 IP of Verlander

You are right I don't know much about fantasy baseball.

Yoda, just say you love Harden long time and it will all be over.

I know I got lucky that he panned out in the two leagues I grabbed him...I would never argue against that. I'm not popping any champagne yet either...in a few months hopefully, but not yet...

I wouldn't be popping anything this week b____.

[AcidRock23]

I will try to avoid almost all players with lengthy injury histories if I can at all help it and, despite his astronomical potential, I steered clear of Harden. As a Cubs fan, reading about Wood/ Prior for the last like 5 years has been horrible and it would make me sick to have that sort of thing on my fantasy team. I had a few guys I couldn't pass up who have been shut down (Furcal/ Hamilton) but I figured I would lose about 4 weeks of Furcal b/c he gets hurt all the time and I only paid $6 for Hamilton b/c his history scared off my leaguemates. I have enjoyed the ride but have ok depth so neither of them will kill me.

[RedHopeful]

But FROM HERE ON OUT AND EVEN WHEN THIS THREAD STARTED I personally think if anyone chose Verlander over Harden they would A. not know much about fantasy or B. be banking on that Harden will be hurt again.

You're exactly right, but only about option B. You just basically made the case of all the people that are choosing Verlander.

Aren't options A and B intertwined? IMO good fantasy players factor a number of things. Minimizing risk is one of them. Banking on Harden getting injured at some point means you DO know something about fantasy.

[Inukchuk]

But FROM HERE ON OUT AND EVEN WHEN THIS THREAD STARTED I personally think if anyone chose Verlander over Harden they would A. not know much about fantasy or B. be banking on that Harden will be hurt again.

You're exactly right, but only about option B. You just basically made the case of all the people that are choosing Verlander.

Aren't options A and B intertwined? IMO good fantasy players factor a number of things. Minimizing risk is one of them. Banking on Harden getting injured at some point means you DO know something about fantasy.

Um, yeah...I have a sneaky suspicion that we're in total agreement but neither of us realizes it. Or maybe it's just me.

This is my interpretation of yanks924's statement: he seems to be a Harden backer (or just a guy who wants to argue with Yoda), and he's trying to say that anyone that prefers Verlander is either an idiot or they can predict that Harden gets hurt which he believes to be a ridiculous precognitive ability. If that's not what he meant, then the options (as Red said) are mutually exclusive and it was a totally useless thing to say.

I was implying that the keen manager will take into account the fact that Harden is injury prone and use that to go after the safer bet (Verlander) which, as RedHopeful said, implies that you do know something about fantasy baseball. That's why I said he was right, but only on option B. In other words, if you choose Verlander then you do know something about fantasy baseball. If you go with Harden, you're maximizing risk, which will kill you in the long run.

Harden may very well continue to be dominant for the rest of this year. However, that's like seeing a bunch of black numbers on the roulette board (aka a bunch of healthy starts by Harden) and assuming they will continue. The problem with that is, if you're a poor gambler (or fantasy baseball player), you'll put more stock in the short term, and lose sight of the long term fact that the house always wins (or Harden gets hurt a lot, in our little analogy), and you'll ride black (or Harden) until you're out of money.

I think that it would be great if Harden tore it up for the rest of the year. Then all those people who were "geniuses" for having drafted Harden won't learn the valuable lesson of never trusting the injury prone guy. That's better for me, because I don't like to pay for high risk guys, and they'll have less money.