fantasy baseball league – The Fantasy Sports Coach

Ryan Braun Problems

Well folks, we are headed into the All Star break and it’s time to take stock of the first half of the fantasy baseball season. I am currently leading or in second place in all of my leagues, but I am in no mood to celebrate.

Why, you ask?

His name is Ryan Braun.

I was unlucky enough to pick third or fourth in four different leagues this year, and you guessed it…I drafted Braun across the board. I reassured myself with every draft that Braun is a beast. “Don’t worry Dennis, even if anything comes of this PED stuff it won’t be until after the season,” I said to myself. My mutterings became like white noise in the background as I was walking out of drafts with an ACME sized anvil hanging over my head.

You are probably saying, “Hey buddy you knew the risk. Why should I listen to you complain?”

You don’t have to listen. You can go back to your cozy beds filled with the Miguel Cabrera’s of the world. I’ll just be tossing some of my worthless Barry Bonds 1987 Fleer Rookie cards on the fire and reminiscing about times gone by when fantasy owners didn’t have to also be labor lawyers in their spare time.

It’s true that I knew the risk when I drafted him, but who can blame me? I’m a gambler at heart and I have the ATM receipts from Atlantic City to prove it (NOTE: I seem to have misplaced the massive deposit slips I promised my wife though). I saw a mark and I took it down. How could I turn down the clear cut 2nd or 3rd best player at #3 or #4 overall in every draft? It’s like Braun and I were destined to be together.

That last part scares me a little.

The entire reason I stopped doing fantasy baseball back in the late 1990’s in the first place was because of guys like Bret Boone and Barry Bonds. Drafting back then was like playing a dart toss carnival game at the Jersey shore. You would show up to a draft and toss a dart and hope the balloon (player) was filled with juice. Your eighth round pick might break records that were set during the Deadball era. They were wild times.

Now you have to check in Vegas’s black book as well as your draft day cheat sheets just to make a pick. (I think only NBA players are in that actually – see Charles Barkley and Antoine Walker).

I wouldn’t even be sweating the Biogenesis stuff so much if Braun could just play. When he was playing early in the season he wasn’t himself, but he was still very useful. Since then he’s been on every list possible. The disabled list, the bereavement list, the cheating-lying scumbag list. Oh wait that list hasn’t been announced yet, but has been leaked more times than if Pam and Tommy did another sex tape.

Braun has his injured thumb for an excuse, but it’s his head I’m worried about. How do you stare down a 90 MPH fastball when you know your entire legacy and life’s work hangs in the balance of an ongoing investigation? If it is proven that he cheated, Braun will face the biggest backlash the sport has ever seen, hands down. The common fan will never forgive Braun for going after his specimen collector Dino Laurenzi, Jr at a press conference when he happened to win his appeal.

I am more worried about the Brewers than my own fantasy baseball teams. It’s not like they can whip out a Yankee-sized checkbook and replace him. The way their farm system looks makes Mets’ fans pump out their chests. A season-long suspension might single-handedly kill baseball in Milwaukee. The Brewers chose to make him the face of the franchise. He rewarded them with an MVP and they rewarded him with the biggest contract in their history. Now he may kill their playoff hopes for the next ten years.

Don’t cry for me Argentina! Oops, I meant fantasy baseball gods. My fantasy teams won’t be in as bad a shape as the Brewers if Braun gets suspended. I made back-up plans. I even made back-up plans for my back-up plans and should at least keep my head above water. I traded for Chris Davis in the leagues that I could get him early and at a reasonable rate to make up for the homeruns and RBIs. I traded for Desmond Jennings and Starling Marte to make up for the stolen bases. I even took a shot on Jason Heyward using an ultimate buy low package where I sent two waiver wire pick-ups for Cole Hamels and Heyward.

I may be able to fill out a line-up, but I was much happier when Braun was stashed on my disabled list and I didn’t have to think about him every day (like the Yankees with Alex Rodriguez rehabbing in Tampa). Now he’s on the bereavement list and I can’t even clear a bench spot. In my three daily lineup change leagues that has become a big problem.

Braun is in fantasy roster limbo. He could come back after the break and play like an angel delivering my team to a championship while he fights to defend his name. He could be a demon that gets cast off of my roster when his appeal goes down in flames. Or he could just hang around my bench popping his head in and out of my lineup from day to day resembling a shell of his former self.

Either way, the torture of fielding terrible trade offers for Braun has put me in my own little circle of hell. You wouldn’t believe the names that have filled my inbox. At this point I would be happy if I got offered B.J. Upton for Ryan Braun. Not that I would take it. It would just be nice to be offered someone that was actually drafted instead of picked up off the waiver wire the day before.

This article originally appeared at www.fantasyjudgment.com as part of an ongoing diary series.

Don’t Drink The Sand

The perception of starting pitching depth on a fantasy baseball team is the same mirage that exists with respect to depth at running back in fantasy football leagues. You are always one pitch or one carry away from being in a bind. With pitchers, it could be age and frailty such as with Andy Pettitte and Jake Peavy. Or perhaps it is flawed mechanics that have caused your fantasy ace, Stephen Strasburg, to start drawing comparisons to Mark Prior. From forearm tightness to sore shoulders, fantasy GMs are constantly trying to avoid season-ending injuries to their starting pitchers. On the other hand, running backs are just a few fumbles or a lethal hit away from being relegated to the bench. The mere sight of your player on the week’s injury report will send many GM’s running to the waiver wire. In the end, GM’s who thought they had plenty of depth at the position realize how shallow their rosters really are.

Coming into this fantasy baseball season, the best advice I received was to grab as many quality starting pitchers as possible. Sure, draft the great position players early but make sure I stockpile as many arms as I could because you never know when injuries may occur. I heeded this advice throughout the season thus far and picked up additional quality starting pitching even though I thought I had sufficient depth at the position to start the year. I drafted Adam Wainwright, Max Scherzer, Jake Peavy, Brandon Morrow, Julio Teheran, Andy Pettitte, Jason Hammel, and Dan Haren. I quickly dropped Hammel and Haren for Shelby Miller and Justin Masterson. I then dropped Pettitte for Patrick Corbin as I didn’t want another injury prone starter in my rotation.

We all knew Peavy was eventually going to be on the disabled list…we just didn’t know when. Drafting Peavy was the equivalent of drafting Ryan Mathews or Darren McFadden in a fantasy football league. Doing either of these things requires you back them up with quality options. Peavy had been performing well up until his last two outings. I was relieved it was an injury (non-displaced rib fracture) and not ineffectiveness that caused his recent poor outings.

Well, the dreaded time has come for many fantasy owners including myself. While I lost Peavy to the DL, he was not alone. Johnny Cueto, Stephen Strasburg and Brendon Morrow were also placed on the disabled list. Morrow’s DL stint is a blessing after the way he has pitched. But for Cueto, he just recently came back and started to look like his old self. However, Strasburg is the one that scares me the most. He was likely drafted very high and was counted on to perform at an almost Verlander/Kershaw level. That hasn’t happened up to date and now he is injured again. I’m pretty sure GM’s are cursing at themselves watching Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki tearing it up while Strasburg is on the mend.

I am happy to roll out my rotation week after week and try and weather this injury storm. I am reluctant to trade my pitching because this is what can happen. I may think I’m six deep at quality starters, but I’m always one pitch, batted ball, or slip in the shower away from combing the waiver wire.

This article was originally featured at www.FantasyJudgment.com

Bad Trades = Cell Phone Voicemails (How to ignore and discourage both)

Is there anything more annoying than a terrible trade offer in one of your fantasy leagues? The only thing comparable would be voicemails on my cell phone. I avoid responding to both out of sheer principle.

One has become an epidemic since I last played fantasy baseball in the 1990’s. The other is a dinosaur that should be avoidable with all of the easier ways to say “hello” or to see how I am doing. Hasn’t anyone ever heard of even trades, email, text messages, Google chat, or even Facebook messenger?

Bad trade offers were much tougher to even attempt when everything was done face to face or over the phone. If someone offered me Edward Mujica for Troy Tulowitski in a bar, I could at least make them buy me a beer for having to listen to that nonsense. If they tried that over the phone, I could actually hang up and let them know how offended I was. But now sitting behind a keyboard, fantasy GMs have no conscience when sending out their offers.

I understand the impulse to ask for the ridiculous. You never know unless you ask. But the anonymity of the computer age has made leagues almost unbearable. A fellow GM offered me two waiver pick ups (who should still be on the waiver wire BTW) for my best starting pitcher. He then got offended when I didn’t answer back in a timely manner.

I’m sorry I didn’t know I was holding up his attempt at league domination by not responding to the crap currently in my inbox. I have even got the halfhearted messages explaining to me how this awful trade makes my team better. Really? A fourth closer for the number one fantasy shortstop is my ticket to a championship? Who knew? I guess all that work I do breaking down numbers and trying to make my team the best it can be is all for nothing. I should just have this guy put together my team and the league championship is all mine.

I could have instantly rejected the idiotic trade offer, but I chose to avoid it like the long-winded drunken catch-up voice mail from my old college buddy currently blinking away on my cell phone. I am keeping both for posterity. The next time I see someone from my league, I will whip open my phone and say “look at this!” Can you believe he actually tried that? Then we will try and one up each other with all the bad offer stories we have from our multiple leagues.

I guess it goes to show that there is a feeling out process when joining a new league. People don’t know each other all that well and feel like they need to try and see who the sucker is. I understand that we all have made terrible trades when we first started playing fantasy sports. Mine was trading Jerome Bettis for Reggie Rivers (the man who took over for Barry Sanders) when I was introduced to fantasy football. I have never forgiven myself and have never done business with that GM again. That was almost 15 years ago and it still stings like it was yesterday.

Luckily nowadays, newbies to fantasy sports are protected by league votes and impartial commissioners. If both are in cahoots, you can even go to an arbitrator to try and reach a resolution. I know if there was a problem in my league we would immediately go to fantasyjudgment.com and let someone outside of the situation rule on a league controversy.

You didn’t have that back in 1999. All you could do was complain to an uncaring bartender at your local watering hole and learn from your mistakes. I don’t know which I prefer; the old face to face handshake deals or the faceless emails. Both have their pro’s and con’s, but I think I miss sealing a trade over a nice tall Yuengling Lager.

The Challenge of Running Into Hot Fantasy Baseball Players

It appears that my luck (or lack thereof) has followed me from fantasy football into fantasy baseball. I feel I drafted a very solid team, but my early season results have been nothing to write home about. I drafted Ryan Braun with the third overall pick and he has been as good as advertised. Braun is a fantasy stud who can carry a fantasy team throughout the year. My infield is very solid with the likes of Adrian Gonzalez, Ian Kinsler and Evan Longoria. Besides Braun, my outfield consists of some late round gems such as Dexter Fowler and Starling Marte. My top starting pitchers are Adam Wainwright, Max Scherzer, and Jake Peavy. But my closers have been a mixed bag. Sergio Romo has been excellent thus far, but Joel Hanrahan seemingly has lost his closing duties to the reinvigorated Andrew Bailey in Boston.

While trying to figure out why my team was not dominating in the early going, I quickly found some players to blame. I missed the boat towards the end of the draft with selections such as Brandon Belt and Aaron Hicks who were quickly sacrificed to the waiver wire. In hindsight, I really regret picking Brandon Morrow over Jon Lester. I also rue the day of my gamble on Corey Hart’s injured knee and not targeting a solid right fielder earlier in the draft. Hart’s placement on the 60-day DL has forced me to play Adrian Gonzalez in right field and start one of my bench players (Todd Frazier and Matt Carpenter) at first base. I am losing significant power numbers when Carpenter is slotted at First Base as opposed to filling in at other positions periodically.

Before the draft, I targeted Paul Goldschmidt and Matt Moore but missed out on them by a pick or two. I have been scrambling to make up for missing out on both players ever since. That is probably why I reached for Belt and reluctantly took Brandon Morrow during the draft. I blame my poor time management for drafting Morrow, as I was down to the final five seconds on the draft clock.

Despite those shortcomings, I have made some quality early season pick-ups such as Jed Lowrie and Kyle Seager to partially offset those draft day mistakes. I even took a flier on Mark Teixeira who was dropped after the draft. Hopefully he does come back and can fill my all-important first base slot. He and Hart are stashed on my DL waiting to be utilized in June (fingers crossed). I also picked up Jose Valverde to fill the closer slot vacated by Hanrahan, and Shelby Miller to add some strike out power to my pitching staff.

Being honest with myself, I really cannot blame my team for some of my early season losses. Instead, I had the misfortune of playing against some players who produced extraordinary results. Two that come to mind are Carlos Gonzales who battered and abused the Mets, as well as Mike Napoli when he was doing his best Tony Conigliaro impression. I swear, the Green Monster is a magnet for that guy. I watched him rain double after double off that little league fence with the bases seemingly always loaded. Then incredibly, I was up against Anibal Sanchez last week when he decided to set a Tigers’ record of 17 strikeouts in one game.

Weeks like that reminded me of some fantasy football weeks your quarterback throws for 300 yards and 3 touchdowns in the early game, only to be outdone by Drew Brees and his videogame-like numbers later in the day. Or if Chris Johnson (that would be CJ2K of the Tennessee Titans and not the pasty third baseman on the Braves) finally breaks out for you with a 100-yard day and a touchdown only to be outscored by Adrian Peterson during one of his record-breaking romps. I guess I didn’t realize that this type of misfortune also applied in fantasy baseball.

However, running into a couple of hot teams and players during the early part of the season is not going to get me off my game. I am going to stick to my strategy of playing match-ups and making some shrewd moves on the waiver wire. I will not hit the panic button and make a bad trade just to just to get a shaky closer or retread first baseman. After all, the fantasy baseball season is long and my luck is bound to even out. Right? Right???