Ask the King: Fantasy Baseball King's mail bag

[fantasybaseballking]

Dear Fellow Fantasy Baseball Enthusiasts,

Years ago, I authored a popular fantasy baseball website, Fantasy Baseball King. Unfortunately, I lost the URL rights and thus stopped writing. I missed doing so, however, and have recently attempted to get back into the industry. I now have a new blog, http://thefantasybaseballking.blogspot.com

I would like to dedicate this thread to answering questions you may have regarding fantasy baseball.

Feel free to fire away! Although I cannot guarantee to know everything, I love a good challenge

[Fenris-77]

Lotta mailbags son. Lot ... of... mailbags. The Russian army might think that quantity has a quality all it's own, but that doesn't necessarily hold true for forum posting. So unless you're massing posts to retake parts of Poland....

[STEEL68]

Ok - I'll bite - which 3 of these SP would you start for the 1st week.
CBS points league - Win = 10, Loss =-5, 1 point for Inn and K, -1 for Earned Run
Oswalt, Danks, J Sanchez, Marcum, Delarosa, Lilly, Zimmerman or Bedard
Thanks

[urbanbreez]

Oh look..he's back! I love this guy.

How do you like my draft/team?

Note that it's a 7x7 yahoo! h2h 12 teamer redraft leauge with OPS k/9 and QS. i know, strange settings which is why i'm asking you the question.

Roster Positions: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF, Util, SP, SP, RP, RP, P, P, P, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, DL

Runs (R), Hits (H), Home Runs (HR), Runs Batted In (RBI), Stolen Bases (SB), Batting Average (AVG), On-base + Slugging Percentage (OPS)

Wins (W), Saves (SV), Strikeouts (K), Earned Run Average (ERA), (Walks + Hits)/ Innings Pitched (WHIP), Strikeouts per Nine Innings (K/9), Quality Starts (QS)


1. (9) Ryan Braun (Mil - OF)
2. (16) Ryan Howard (Phi - 1B)
3. (33) Adam Dunn (CWS - 1B)
4. (40) Brandon Phillips (Cin - 2B)
5. (57) Jayson Werth (Was - OF)
6. (64) Mark Reynolds (Bal - 3B)
7. (81) Cole Hamels (Phi - SP)
8. (88) Dan Haren (LAA - SP)
9. (105) Max Scherzer (Det - SP)
10. (112) Colby Rasmus (StL - OF)
11. (129) Andrew Bailey (Oak - RP)
12. (136) C.J. Wilson (Tex - SP)
13. (153) Chris Pérez (Cle - RP)
14. (160) Drew Storen (Was - RP)
15. (177) Brett Anderson (Oak - SP)
16. (184) Miguel Montero (Ari - C)
17. (201) Michael Bourn (Hou - OF)
18. (208) Aaron Hill (Tor - 2B)
19. (225) Álex González (Atl - SS)
20. (232) Brandon League (Sea - RP)
21. (249) José Contreras (Phi - RP)
22. (256) Frank Francisco (Tor - RP)
23. (273) Luke Gregerson (SD - RP)

[fantasybaseballking]

Hi UrbanBreez,

I like your team quite a bit, actually. Your power should be incredible, with Howard, Reynolds, Dunn, and Braun all capable of 40~ homers. Montero is great value at catcher, and Werth, Rasmus, and Phillips should provide some speed balance to your starting lineup. I'm a little concerned about having Alex Gonzalez as your starting SS, however. Who is on the waiver wire?

Michael Bourn and Aaron Hill are nice bench options, as Bourn could address your relative speed deficiency, whereas Hill will allow you to make a trade and hopefully upgrade SS.

As for pitching, I'm worried about Haren's decline, and never been a believer in CJ Wilson (no particular real reason). Anderson and Scherzer could be great or...they could suffer from the curse of youth.

Your bullpen philosophy is exactly mine- grab a known quantity (in this case Bailey, although his injury doesn't help), and fill in the gaps with closers-in-waiting and stud setup men.

My advice-

Trade one of your 2B to upgrade at SS and scour the waiver wire for SP options. Are any of the following available?

Bud Norris
Jon Niese
Jhoulys Chacin
James McDonald

If so, stash Bailey on your DL and grab one of these guys for added starting depth.

Hope that helped; good luck!

[urbanbreez]

Hi UrbanBreez,

I like your team quite a bit, actually. Your power should be incredible, with Howard, Reynolds, Dunn, and Braun all capable of 40~ homers. Montero is great value at catcher, and Werth, Rasmus, and Phillips should provide some speed balance to your starting lineup. I'm a little concerned about having Alex Gonzalez as your starting SS, however. Who is on the waiver wire?

Michael Bourn and Aaron Hill are nice bench options, as Bourn could address your relative speed deficiency, whereas Hill will allow you to make a trade and hopefully upgrade SS.

As for pitching, I'm worried about Haren's decline, and never been a believer in CJ Wilson (no particular real reason). Anderson and Scherzer could be great or...they could suffer from the curse of youth.

Your bullpen philosophy is exactly mine- grab a known quantity (in this case Bailey, although his injury doesn't help), and fill in the gaps with closers-in-waiting and stud setup men.

My advice-

Trade one of your 2B to upgrade at SS and scour the waiver wire for SP options. Are any of the following available?

Bud Norris
Jon Niese
Jhoulys Chacin
James McDonald

If so, stash Bailey on your DL and grab one of these guys for added starting depth.

Hope that helped; good luck!

very informative and helpful response indeed. thanks! basically have the same concerns you mentioned with my team. juan uribe is the only other ss of note. i'm hoping either phillips or hill start the season red hot so i can trade for an upgrade at ss. thoughts on who i should target with a red hot hill of luke warm phillips?

i'm waiting for yahoo to make bailey dl-able then i'll add bud norris. as for haren, i've got an aggregate projection line of: 3.59 era/1.17 whip/201 k/14 wins. you don't see him even close to those numbers?

[snuau]

Would you start Stauffer tomorrow on the road against Carpenter? No inning limit but im just still a little skeptical about Stauffer though i took a flyer on him mainly for his home starts in petco so i could certainly afford to bench him but you know what usually happens when you bench a guy.

[fantasybaseballking]

Stauffer had a decent spring, and I think he's for real. I personally drafted him in a number of my leagues, myself.

Look at it this way-- if Stauffer is going to do anything this year, he'll need to produce. Otherwise, he'll be out. So start him. It's early, take the risk and (hopefully) reap whatever rewards are there.

[snuau]

Stauffer had a decent spring, and I think he's for real. I personally drafted him in a number of my leagues, myself.

Look at it this way-- if Stauffer is going to do anything this year, he'll need to produce. Otherwise, he'll be out. So start him. It's early, take the risk and (hopefully) reap whatever rewards are there.

Let's see if you really are the king. jk thanks for the advice. I'm going to roll the dice and see what happens.

[snuau]

well not really impressive but not bad either. pulled some houdini acts or it wouldve been a lot worse. i think ill mainly stick to petco with him.