One of the things I’ve always preached on this site and its preceding versions has been accountability. Most fantasy baseball magazines and sites will give you a list of players you should target in your draft; sleepers, comeback players, third year starters, etc. But once the drafts are over, once the season is in full swing, how many of those fantasy baseball resources come back to tell you that they were wrong about certain guys? Or how about writers that give you all sorts of advice and tell you how you should be doing things, but never show how they’ve implemented their own suggestions to their draft strategies? Well, not here, my friends. When I’m right about a player, I’ll be the first to tell you “I told you so” and when I’m wrong I’ll certainly come out and admit it. Remember this article last season? Yeesh!
The reason I’m saying all of this is because over this past weekend, my primary league, The Cooperstown Classic, had its draft and I wanted to share with you my results. I’ve spent the entire offseason hyping guys, talking sleepers, breakouts, and what not, and I believe that you should see my work in action. So without further ado, allow me to introduce to you the 2010 Lou Brown’s Boys, defending champions of the Cooperstown Classic Fantasy Baseball League.
For those of you new to the site, let me give you a quick rundown of the league. It is a 15 team mixed, keeper auction league with standard 5×5 rotisserie scoring. We start 2 players at every position with 6 outfielders and 9 pitchers. The draft is done using a Blind Bid system. You submit a draft sheet with the players’ names, your bid (a $260 cap), and a letter (A through Y, theoretically). If you are the highest bid, then you are awarded the player. If you are not, then that money moves to your second round. We repeat the process until every team has a full roster of 25. Usually it never goes beyond 5 or 6 rounds as most people fill the majority of their roster by the end of the second round. There’s definitely a certain amount of luck involved, but you can bypass some of your need for it if you know the rest of the owners well enough to anticipate their drafting tendencies.
One of the interesting aspects of this league is that there are only 2 opportunities this season to pick up additional players. Armed with 25 man starting rosters, we are allowed a 10 player bench. The first opportunity to grab new players is the Free Agent Draft held during the final week of April. However, one thing to note is that when you draft a player, you are doing so with the knowledge that his stas will be added to your team retroactive to the start of the season and will replace the stats of a player you originally drafted. For example, let’s say that you drafted Joe Nathan prior to the injury. In April, if he is an available free agent, you can draft Matt Guerrier and have his numbers replace the zeroes you are getting from Nathan. You then have the option to either put Nathan on your bench or drop him outright. Clear as mud? I’m sure.
The next opportunity you have to grab new players is the Taxi Squad Draft which is held roughly 2 weeks after the Free Agent Draft, so figure the second week of May. Players that you draft at this time are used to round out your bench. There is no stat trading or anything like that. This draft is strictly to build your depth as players picked up go right to your bench. After that, the only way to acquire a player is via trade.
Bottom line is that this league requires a lot of front-loaded knowledge. You need to know who the Septemeber call-ups will be at the start of the season. You need to know who the replacement guys will be if a team trades one of their regular starters. The system is certainly flawed in the sense that there are always unknown commodities that pop up all the time and cannot be picked up. For example, Casey McGehee wasn’t on anyone’s radar to start last year and when he made such a nice debut, no one was able to pick him up. However, on the other side of the coin, there are no waiver wire hounds that are able to snatch up the flavor of the week because they happen to be awake at the time the site rolls over.
The next thing I should add about the league is our protects system. Teams are allowed to keep up to 9 players from the previous season. However, rather than using salaries from previous years, our system is as such. The first guy you protect is free. The next guy costs you $10 from your $260 cap. The third guys costs $15, the fourth $20, the fifth $25, and so on. The average number of protects is usually 6 which would cost you a total of $100 from your draft cap.
That being said, let’s get down to my draft…
We had a bit of turnover coming into this season as the league lost 4 of its members due to a variety of issues. However, we added 4 teams that, overall, should prove to be stronger with more time to dedicate to the game. So with the expansion rules in play, these new teams each had only 2 players to protect (we run a one round supplemental draft in reverse order of last years standings prior to the date protects are due — new teams get the first picks and then the last picks as well) and $250 in bid money. With that in mind, I thought it better to keep more players and take my chances with some sneaky low bids. I kept the maximum of 9 players and was left with just $40 for the draft, but my core group of 9 was, in my opinion, spectacular.
| 2010 Protects — Lou Brown’s Boys | ||||
| 1B | Adrian Gonzalez | |||
| SS | Hanley Ramirez | |||
| 3B | Evan Longoria | |||
| OF | Jason Bay | |||
| OF | Michael Bourn | |||
| OF | Nick Markakis | |||
| SP | Roy Halladay | |||
| RP | Joakim Soria | |||
| RP | Jose Valverde | |||
Definitely a rock solid core group of players. There’s power, speed, a front line starter and two bonafide closers. Some people fault me for holding onto the relievers, but when you’re starting 9 pitchers and making weekly roster moves, having those two guys locked in does fantastic things for your ratios.
So now it was time to assemble my sheet. Now with only $40, I had to be very careful as to who I was choosing to bid on. My thoughts were to stay away from a lot of the hot, up and comers like Jason Heyward, Drew Stubbs and Julio Borbon, as well as some of the guys that I know everyone looks to pick up like Clayton Kershaw, Andre Ethier and Billy Butler. I just didn’t have the bid money to compete and there was no way the more popular guys were going to slip through for a dollar. I decided to look for good rebound candidates, possible 2009 injuries that wouldn’t have a lingering effect, and just guys that everyone seems to be down on, but that I thought would bounce back in 2010. Not to mention I figured I’d also be mixing in a few names of some of my personal sleepers that I thought I could sneak through. So here’s how it all went down. I’ll just give you my full roster with a small blurb at each spot.
C Kelly Shoppach, TB – Cost me $1 in the first round and I actually expect him to get more work than Dioner Navarro in the long run. Good cheap power behind the dish.
C Jeff Clement, PIT – I tried to sneak Bengie Molina, who had been dropping in a lot of drafts, past everyone but lost out on him. In the second round I took my own advice and scooped up Clement for $2. Playing first but qualifying behind the plate? Why not?
1B Troy Glaus, ATL – Taking a shot here that playing first will be less taxing on the big guy’s body. Could be in for a very nice season in Atlanta so long as he’s healthy and it was only $2.
2B Sean Rodriguez, TB – I told you I was going to do it! Despite the words from my colleague, Jason Collette, I scooped up Rodriguez for $1. I say he’s getting full time at bats no later than mid-season.
2B Kelly Johnson, ARI – Once again, a guy I’ve discussed in the past. I think the change of scenery will be good for him and he moves to a more favorable park for hitters. Only cost me $1.
3B Mark Teahen, CHW – Call me a homer in the sense that I cover the White Sox for Fanball.com, but like Johnson, I think Teahen will flourish in his new home. If he can get me somewhere in the neighborhood of 18 HR then he’s definitely worth the $2 I spent on him.
SS Tommy Manzella, HOU — Huge bummer here. I tried throwing $4 on Yunel Escobar and that failed. Then I went with $4 on Ian Desmond who slipped to the second round but lost that too. Finally, Manzella was the only full timer left and I was forced to use $3 to get him in the third round. I’m sure you feel my pain if you read what I wrote about him last week; ironically, the day before my draft started.
OF Alfonso Soriano, CHC — Here you go. Eveyone’s down on Soriano and I’ll agree that he’s not the same player he once was. He doesn’t run as much, doesn’t have the same power, and doen’t hit for as good an average as he once did. But for a guy who should still pop 20+ HR and steal atleast 15 bases, I thought I’d try sneaking him through. Success! And it only cost me a buck.
OF Raul Ibanez, PHI — Same logic as with Soriano, pushing aside the slow spring. If Ibanez can get me 25 HR and 80 RBI, then he should definitely be worth the dollar I just stole him for!
OF Andruw Jones, CHW — He wasn’t my first choice, but I lost out on trying to sneak Juan Pierre through. Jones is having a great spring and could prove to be a great 6th outfielder. Again, $1 — this time in round 2.
SP Ricky Nolasco, FLA — He was my big bid in the first round at $12, and the only reason I put that much on him was because of the added exposure from my FIP article. I was right as I edged out one of my competitors who had a $10 bid on him.
SP Gavin Floyd, CHW — Another guy I’ve been expecting for a breakout 2010 campaign. I wanted a sound #3 guy in there so my second highest bid, $8, went successfully on Floyd, just edging out a $6 bid from one of my biggest rivals.
SP Max Scherzer, DET — I’ve said before that Scherzer was going to do in Detroit what Edwin Jackson did last year. Very surprised I was able to steal him for $1 in the first round.
SP Paul Maholm, PIT — Nothing flashy about this guy, but I wanted one of my lesser pitchers to atleast keep his ratios in check, and based on my FIP research, Maholm could be headed for a decent year with the Pirates. Again, cost me a buck.
SP Justin Masterson, CLE — After an unsuccessful sneak through of Cole Hamels and a subsequent second round defeat going after Tim Hudson, I settled on Masterson who I have touted as a sleeper this year. His spring ERA stinks, but his Ks are deeeee-lish! 2 bucks in the third round…not too shabby.
RP Matt Lindstrom, HOU — Even though I already had 2 closers, I figured why not grab a cheap third to maybe trade away later on since I came up short on Jorge De La Rosa in the first round. A little $1 bid scooped him up in the second round.
So there it is, folks. The 2010 Lou Brown’s Boys. I took all of my own advice and ended up with atleast 8 to 10 guys that I’ve specifically suggested for you as well. There’s lots of things that need to happen, but I think I’m pretty well set for the start of the year. If all things go as I think they will, I’ll have solid power, real nice starting pitching and a sound relief corps. Might need a bit more speed, but we’ll see what happens as the season progresses. Can always trade a closer for some stolen bases.
Good luck to all of us and we’ll hopefully be seeing each other in the money this year!
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