2011 Louisville Sluggers

If you are really bored, I suppose the natural followup to yesterday's post on the 2011 Bolts from the Blue of the Hardy House League is a post about the 2011 Louisville Sluggers of the Original Bitnet Fantasy Baseball League.

The OBFLB crowns champions for both the "A" first half and "B" second half of the baseball season, divided by the All Star game. For obvious reason, I can only report results of the draft in preparation for the first half season. As I describe the team, keep in mind that the OBFLB is a 24 team head-to-head fantasy baseball league using 10 categories: HR, SB, batting average, runs produced average, plate appearances, innings pitched, wins, saves, ERA and "ratio."

Here are the 2011 Sluggers (players in red were retained from 2010). Since I retained 14 players, I started the draft in round 15:

Starters
C: John Jaso (19th round)
1B: Joey Votto (CIN)
2B: Gordon Beckham (CHX)
3B: Chipper Jones (ATL) (16th round)
SS: Troy Tulowitzki (COL)
OF: Peter Bourjos (LAA)
OF: Michael Brantley (CLE) (15th round)
OF: David DeJesus (OAK) (18th round)
DH: Billy Butler (KC)

SP: Tim Lincecum (SF)
SP: Josh Beckett (BOS)
SP: Brandon Morrow (TOR) (obtained in pre-draft trade)
SP: Ricky Nolasco (FLA)
SP: Jonathan Sanchez (SF)
RP: Chris Perez (CLE)
RP: Joel Hanrahan (PIT)
RP: Jesse Crain (MIN) (27th round)

Bench
C: Ramon Castro (28th round)
2B Jason Kipnis (CLE) (23rd round)
3B: Anthony Rendon (Rice University) (25th round)
IF: Ramon Santiago (DET) (26th round)
UT: Mark Teahan (CHX) (24th round)
OF: Chris Carter (OAK) (17th round) (AAA)
OF: Pat Burrell (20th round)

SP: Wade Davis (TB)
SP: Jonathan Niese (NYM)
SP John Lamb (KC) (21st round) (AA)
RP: Bobby Jenks (BOS) (22nd round)


The Kipnis, Rendon and Lamb picks indicate the premium my league puts on talented young prospects, especially at skill positions (2B/3B and pitcher in this case). In other words, I was drafting for the even longer-term future -- or perhaps for a mid-year trade in case I have an injury.

You may wonder why I have 7 starting pitchings retained in a league that uses only 5 per week. Basically, I couldn't get any value in trade talks for Wade Davis, Ricky Nolasco, or Jonathan Niese and traded for Brandon Morrow because I believe he's a breakout candidate.


I'll probably be looking to move one of my starting pitchers and the prospects before the second half season begins. My greatest needs are at catcher and perhaps outfielder.



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