Fantasy Baseball Cafe Forums

by **Roberto Clemente** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 11:56 pm

Zain1two3 wrote:I do think that Braun is a better player, I just don't know how much better. If Howard has the likes of Utley, Werth, Ibanez etc hitting around him in the batting order, shouldn't he technically be able to put up higher numbers than Braun, even if his batting average is lower and he strikes out alot?

This is really not a difficult decision. R.Braun is the choice.

Braun will hit for a higher average. You forgot to mention also that Braun will steal alot more bases.

The Phillies offense is down this year. R.Ibanez has been awful. C.Utley and R.Howard's averages have been slipping. J.Rollins is hurt.

by **Zain1two3** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 11:23 am

I didn't mention that Braun will steal "alot more bases" because I don't beleive it to be true. Howard stole 8 bases last year and Braun stole only 20. That's not a big enough edge. And as I mentioned earlier, my league doesn't reward batting average. Howard has been taking care of his body and I think his average was respectable last year (.270 around that mark). I'm pulling the trigger on this one, taking Howard. We will see at the end of the season, if it was good or bad.

by **MrAccoe** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 12:30 pm

Tron5000 wrote:I am assuming that you drafted Braun. I am also assuming that Howard was drafted after Braun, as he was in my league and almost every draft I've seen. That begs the question: If you think Howard is better than Braun, why didn't you draft Howard instead?

I go back to this question that was posed to you. Why didn't you just draft Howard instead of Braun in the first place? All of your support towards Howard (better lineup, etc...) didn't come out of nowhere, so you knew that coming into the season.

Also Howard's 8 sb's last year was an aberration, he had 2 career sb's going into 2009. You can't count on more than a couple from Howard. If you think he's going to steal 8 again, you're mistaken. You can count on 15-20 from Braun. That's the major difference especially if your league doesn't reward Avg.

by **Zain1two3** » Thu Apr 29, 2010 1:28 am

ofcourse i don't really expect howard to steal another 8 bases..but he is getting into better shape..that could translate into a better average as well as a few stolen bases...you never know, baseball is a funny game...i think Braun is awesome but doesn't have nearly the same protection in the lineup as howard does with the phillies...i didn't draft howard because he was already taken in the third pick...i picked up braun in 4th but obviously i was looking for howard.....

do you think that 20SB by Braun will more than make up for the 10HRS and 15-20 rbis howard hits over brauns numbers? sure SB's could lead to more runs being scored but i don't think that would be enough to close the gap...the only trouble is, that braun has the potential to smack .330, 40+HRS and 130+RBIS..but for now, i'll take the guy thats averaged 49.5HRS and 143RBIs over the last 4 years...