Fantasy Baseball Cafe Forums

by **Grounded Polo** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 10:34 pm

Mohillian wrote:I would go with Lester. Lester still has a ton of upside in my opinion. His stuff is not close to topping out and he will only get better. Kennedy is young but I can't see him being better than what he is doing now.

by **hoopsgalnyc** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:35 am

Fast Dogs, thanks for your thoughts.

1) Let's assume I am keeping Hamilton. Would you keep Lester or Kennedy?

2) My thoughts on Hamilton.

Hamilton is a difficult player to have on your roster.

Yes, this year he will only have about 25 home runs.

BUT, look at the number of games he's played. This year he'll end up at about 120, fewer than 150 or whatever a "normal" season for him would be. He had 32 homers last year in 133 games.

Trouble is, what is a normal season for an injury-prone former hardcore drug addict? There is no precedent.

Still, he's ranked 42nd overall in the yahoo game, despite playing far fewer games than his peers. I may try to trade him, but if I'm unsuccessful, I'm going to keep him.

I play in a 5x5 roto yahoo league with the old yahoo settings..there are 3 OF spots, and one util spot, and my util spot is taken by teixeira, since I have Votto at 1b, just FYI.

by **hoopsgalnyc** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:42 am

Mohilian, thanks for responding. Why do you think Lester still has tons of upside? His #s have been pretty consistent the last couple years, and his K-rate is down this year.

by **TheJordanRulz** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 12:22 pm

lester for me, thx for the help on mine

by **hoopsgalnyc** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 12:26 pm

JordanRulz, thank you. What is your reasoning?

by **DrDC** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 1:18 pm

Thanks for your help with mine. I ended up agreeing with you and dropping Utley.

Tough decision on your end- you have two great guys of the same age. Lester has a higher K rate, but Kennedy has better control. In an almost toss-up situation here, I'm looking at what the "experts" out there are saying. For instance, ESPN has Lester higher up for 2012.

by **fast dogs** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 1:19 pm

I would keep Lester over Kennedy just based on more years being successful
I was just trying to give you a different option to consider. In leagues that start 3 OF its pretty easy to fill with studs. 20 game winners are tougher to find. Theres nothing saying Hamilton won't play 150 games next year, I just know that once injuries and games missed starts, it rarely reverses.

by **DLRBusiness** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 2:48 pm

Thanks for your help on my question. On yours, I'm not too familiar w Roto rules but if this was H2H, I would lean towards Lester. They're both around the same age, Lester being a little bit older. Lester did have Cancer so that's scary but most pitchers get injured at some point, I think Ian had some bursitis as far as I read which obviosuly is not near to cancer as far as all aspects of health. The thing that sets Lester apart is consistency. Lester has done it every year for at least the past three. Ian cracked the top 30 in my league for the first time I think just this year. Ian is having a better year than Lester but that consistency is hard to beat. I don't know how your roto league awards ko points so i won't discuss that, im just looking at the situation from a h2h standpoint. hope this helps.

by **Cream** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 4:39 pm

Thanks for the help.

I think Kennedy is good, but a lot of his draft "Value" next year is going to come from the 21 wins. I don't think you can bank on that again next year. My vote goes for Lester for most of the reasons already stated. I think he is hitting a rough patch right now, but that shouldn't last. I think he has a better chance of putting up 20 wins next year than Kennedy, even though the stat is really a crap-shoot.