2012 Bolts from the Blue

For years, I've been posting the roster of my entry in the Hardy House fantasy baseball league. On Saturday, April 14, in Louisville, I attended my 24th consecutive auction draft. Only one owner had to participate by phone, but the rest of us enjoyed the auction, a local baseball game, some beer, and camaraderie.

As a reminder: the league has 12 teams and uses American League players exclusively to accumulate statistics in various hitting and pitching categories. For 22 years, we tabulated results in the traditional 8 categories (HR, RBI, SBs, Batting Average, Wins, Saves, Earned Run Average and ratio/Walks-plus-Hits per Inning Pitched), but in the 2011 off-season we voted to dump BA in favor of On Base Average. Also, we added runs scored (R) for hitters and strikeouts (K) for pitchers.

My 2011 team finished 3rd, but was 10 points behind the championship squad. It featured terrific starting pitching as the squad won ERA, WHIP, and strikeouts and finished 2nd in wins. The team finished 7th in saves, so I hoped to do something about that this season. Offensively, the team had good power, lots of regulars (so plenty of RBI and runs scored), but was weak on speed and horrible at OBA.

Please note one roster quirk now in its fifth year: we added a 10th pitcher and subtracted an outfielder from the "normal" roto squad. We continue to believe that this better reflects roster management decisions that real baseball teams have made over the past 20 years. Again this year, we allowed the purchase of any player on an American League 40 man roster. After the auction, only players on 25 man active rosters or the major league Disabled List (DL) can be obtained. We did vote to allow teams to retain ownership of players sent packing to the National League.

The 2012 Bolts from the Blue (9 retained players in blue):

C Mike Napoli (TEX) $19
C Hank Conger (LAA) $1 (AAA)
1B Adam Dunn (CHX) $14

2B Chris Getz (KC) $1

3B Mike Moustakas (KC) $15

SS Elvis Andrus (TEX) $30

MI Jean Segura (LAA) $1 (AAA)

CR Mike Carp (SEA) $3

OF Eric Thames (TOR) $8

OF Ben Revere (Min) $3

OF Josh Willingham (MIN) $21
OF Michael Brantley (CLE) $11
DH Billy Butler (KC) $23

Hitting $150 (down $25 from last season, which is a lot)

P Jered Weaver (LAA) $24
P Jon Lester (BOS) $26
P Matt Moore (TB) $19
P Alex Cobb (TB) $1 (AAA)
P Francisco Cordero (TOR) $2
P Mark Melancon (BOS) $9
P Aaron Crow (KC) $4
P Glen Perkins (MIN) $5
P Greg Holland (KC) $3
P Matt Capps (MIN) $14 (acquired in pre-draft trade for C Jarrod Saltalamacchia TEX)

Pitching $107 ($24 more than last year)

Andrus cost about 10% more than his price in most guides or early expert drafts, but our league typically has an inflation rate of about that amount. I think he is the best shortstop in the AL and worth the gamble.

I kept Perkins because he seems to be the likely substitute for Capps if the latter should falter as the Twins closer. It meant spending $19 for a likely bad team's saves, but there are lots of potentially good innings there. I also took stabs at saves in the bullpens in Toronto, KC, and Boston.

I did not mean to buy Moore at the listed price, but because I spent the money there at that time of the auction, I barely lost out on the bidding for 2B Jason Kipnis (CLE) a short time later. Their salaries are identical and I was offered a straight-up 1:1 trade at the auction. My team would certainly look more as intended if I had taken that trade, but I didn't really like very many of the remaining starting pitchers.  So far, Kipnis is far outperforming Moore.

Additionally, I rejected the deal because I thought one team was hoarding cash and I therefore feared that inflationary pressures were about to kick in big time. It turned out that a team left a great deal of cash unspent -- over $30, which is enough to purchase a star player!

I left $3 on the table, but I had reserved some extra cash to purchase a few AAA players at the end of the auction to fill in my roster. The guys I really wanted went for too much money (or only qualified at positions I had already filled), so I ended up with several dime AAA players instead of a couple that cost a bit more. Because of injuries and roster limits, I've already had to release Hank Conger, who was injured in the minors.

Moustakas was on my 2011 team and I bought him again for a much lower salary than he cost as a minor league free agent last year. Butler is a long-time favorite and former member of the Bolts. Lester was on my 2010 championship team.

To replace minor league players Conger, Segura, Revere (sent down early), and Cobb on my active roster, I bought C Anthony Recker (OAK) for $1, MI Jason Donald (CLE) for $2, OF Bobby Abreu (LAA/LAD) for $11, and P Casey Janssen (TOR) for $3. I also nabbed CI Eric Sogard (OAK) for $2 to replace the then-injured Carp. Donald and Sogard have already been waived. So has Cordero, once he lost his job to Janssen.

Obviously, I'm hoping for a big bounce back year from Adam Dunn -- and the decision looks good to-date as his HR total in mid-May 2012 already exceeds his 2011 output. Also, I bought a large number of KC Royals, the hometown-favorite team of my youth. I've got a lot of confidence in Moustakas and Butler as hitters. Eric Hosmer cost too much for my tastes. I avoided KC starting pitching.

As I noted above, my team's OBA was terrible last year, so I intentionally sought to avoid guys with poor on-base skills. It was a major reason for trading Saltalamacchia. He and Vernon Wells were a bad 1-2 combination of sub-.300 OBA in 900 plate appearances during 2011.

You can find posts about the 2005, 2007 , 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 auctions elsewhere on this blog.

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2011 Bolts from the Blue

For some years, I've been posting the roster of my entry in the Hardy House fantasy baseball league. On Saturday, April 2, in Oak Park, IL, I attended my 23rd consecutive auction draft. Three owners had to participate by phone, but the rest of us enjoyed the draft, the food of Greektown, some college hoops, and camaraderie.

As previously discussed here, my 2010 squad won the league championship -- the team's first such success since 1998. I was not especially hopeful going into this season's auction because I traded away a number of discount-priced players in order to win last year. Other owners retained many of those guys. Unfortunately, I had few good alternative choices, so I kept a couple of overpriced star-level players who promise to produce a lot of value.

As a reminder: the league has 12 teams and uses American League players exclusively to accumulate statistics in various hitting and pitching categories. For 22 years, we tabulated results in the traditional 8 categories (HR, RBI, SBs, BA, Wins, Saves, ERA and WHIP), but this off-season we voted to dump BA in favor of OBA. Also, we added runs scored (R) for hitters and strikeouts (K) for pitchers.

Note also one roster quirk now in its fourth year: we added a 10th pitcher and subtracted an outfielder. We continue to believe that this better reflects roster management decisions that real baseball teams have made over the past 20 years. This year, we also reduced the maximum size of our reserve roster from 8 to 5 players, ended the 3-player reserve draft, and allowed the purchase of any player on the 40 man roster. After the auction, only players on 25 man active rosters or the major league DL could be obtained.

The 2011 Bolts from the Blue (7 retained players in blue)

C Mike Napoli (TEX) $16
C Jarrod Saltalamacchia (BOS) $6
1B Derrek Lee (BAL) $19

2B Robinson Cano (NYY) $33

3B Kevin Kouzmanoff (OAK) $13

SS Orlando Cabrera (CLE) $3

MI Gordon Beckham (CHX) $19
CR Brent Morel (CHX) $10

OF Vernon Wells (Tor) $19

OF J.D. Drew (BOS) $13

OF Torii Hunter (LAA) $18
OF Ben Revere (MIN) $1 (AAA)
DH Travis Hafner (CLE) $5
Hitting $175 (up $1 from last season)

P Felix Hernandez (SEA) $33

P Jered Weaver (LAA) $20

P Jeff Niemann (TB) $5 (acquired in pre-draft trade for P Jon Lester BOS)
P Jeff Francis (KC) $3
P Chris Tillman (BAL) $1
P Rafael Soriano (NYY) $9
P Brian Fuentes (OAK) $7
P Joaquin Benoit (DET) $3
P Juan Cruz (TB) $1
P J.P. Howell (TB) $1 (DL)
Pitching $83 ($2 less than last year)

I left $2 on the table, but I had reserved some extra cash to find steals or saves. That largely failed and I'm going to need them, eventually, if this team is to compete. I tried to buy steals, but they were very costly and one team ended up buying surplus.

Since losing expensive Toronto closer B.J. Ryan to injury hours after the auction ended in 2007, I have avoided paying for saves on draft day. So, where may I find saves? Oakland's bullpen has been hit with injuries and Fuentes has nearly 200 career saves. Tampa does not have a healthy "proven" closer, but Howell had 17 saves in 2009 and is supposedly on the road to recovery. NYY's Mariano Rivera is 41 years old and will suffer injuries and/or face retirement eventually. Soriano was one of the top closers in the league last year and should get some random saves when Rivera has already pitched in multiple games in a row. Thus, I targeted those bullpens and players. Notably, closers were a little cheaper this year as we moved from 4x4 to 5x5.

Saltalamacchia was on my 2010 team and I bought him again for a lower salary.

To replace Revere and Howell on my active roster, I bought OF Mike Cameron (BOS) for $2 and P Adam Russell (TB) for $1. I also nabbed P Jake Arrieta (BAL) for $3 so that I can juggle my rotation regularly -- we moved to daily transactions this year too.

Clearly, I believe in drafting some players John Hunt used to call "post-hype." Those are guys who are still young, but their disappointing performance to-date has caused their value to decline a little.  Beckham, Tillman, and Saltalamacchia are my main post-hype picks, though Beckham was not especially cheap in this league that originated in Chicago.

Too many of my guys are deep into their 30s and I worry about OBA. I should be OK in R/RBI and HR, plus ERA/WHIP and K, and perhaps wins if that works out. If I can put myself into a position to compete later in the year, I can trade for steals and saves.

You can find posts about the 2005, 2007 , 2008, 2009 and 2010 drafts elsewhere on this blog.


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2010 Hardy House champs

I often blog about my Hardy House fantasy baseball auction/draft results in the spring of each year, but I've never blogged about the end-of-season results. This is largely because the Bolts From the Blue haven't won the league championship since 1998.

Until 2010, that is.

After week 17 (of 26 weeks in a season), the team's prospects looked pretty dismal in this 12 team fantasy American League. The league uses the ordinary 8 statistics and my team was 20.5 points behind the first place Trapper Keepers (managed by two very smart guys). That was good for second place, but TK appeared to be runaway winners and was genuinely great from top-to-bottom. TK had the best list of retained players heading into the auction and were widely expected to win the league. They had been in first place for many weeks and several owners feared the team had enough retainable talent to repeat in 2011.

Worse, that week 17, my team lost OF Scott Podsednik to the National League when the KC Royals traded him. Also, my top closer, Jon Rauch, was relegated to setup relief when the Minnesota Twins obtained Matt Capps at the end of July. As it happens, I was already next-to-last in saves and 7th in steals and had traded away some power hitters to acquire those guys to help fix the problem. Those were my team's worst categories, though the Bolts were also just 6th in batting average and tied for 6th/7th in pitching wins. My second closer, CLE P Kerry Woods, was also traded to the Yankees that week. It was a disaster.

Thanks to a good draft and a hot start, my team seemed to have plenty of RBI and home runs and because of LAA P Jered Weaver and SEA P "King" Felix Hernandez was doing very well in "ratio" (walks plus hits divided by innings pitched, or WHIP) and ERA. 42 of my 63.5 points were in those four categories.

Years of not being able to win had me feeling frustrated again, but a very careful study of the statistics after the Podsednik and Rauch deals made me wonder if I might be able to implement a mid-year "Sweeney plan," "a popular strategy where you punt the two power categories (HR/RBI) and try to win the remaining six. You buy a few speedsters who'll hit for good averages and pretty much blow the rest on buying yourself a pitching staff."

I already had a lot of points in HR/RBI and a solid base of starting pitching. What if I traded all my cheap prospects for high average "speedsters" and some relievers who garner saves?

It seemed like a possible pathway to victory. My spreadsheet showed that it could work.

The Hardy House League is a "keeper" league, which means that owner-managers can retain players for an additional season or two. Inexpensive potential "keepers" are highly valued by teams far out of the running for the current season title. Given that my team was in second place and far behind the leaders, I figured it might be a buyer's market.

Plus, that weekend, one team near the bottom of the standings sent a very pricey 1B Miguel Cabrera (DET), OF Nelson Cruz (TEX) (2011 free agent) and P Rafael Soriano (TB) ($36 in 2011) to the third place team (not far behind the Bolts) in exchange for OF Josh Hamilton (TEX), who would be $26 in 2011 and $30 in 2012.

That deal seemed to confirm that the market would be soft. Hamilton is MVP material, but it was a load of talent traded for maybe a few dollars savings at next year's auction. Who pays more than $30 for a player who doesn't steal bases?

On the morning of August 2, I made the following trades (2011/2012 prices in parenthesis):

1. Sent KC 3B Alex Gordon ($13/$16), LAA P Joel Piniero ($5/$7), TB P Grant Balfour ($3/$5) and DET P Daniel Schlereth ($5/$7) for TB OF Carl Crawford, CWS 3B Dayan Viciedo, NYY P CC Sabathia, and CWS P Matt Thornton. All the guys I acquired are very expensive to retain or 2011 free agents. Viciedo was basically a 3B throw-in until I could fix my positional needs -- but even he was very pricey (his owner, a Sox fan, paid over $30 for him in free agent cash).

2. Sent TB C John Jaso ($3/$5) and CLE OF Trever Crowe ($7/$9) for CWS P Bobby Jenks and SEA OF Ichiro Suzuki, two more pricey guys.

3. Sent CLE SS Jason Donald ($3/$5), TOR P Brett Cecil ($4/$6), and MIN P Jon Rauch ($5) for NYY 2B Robinson Cano, BOS P Jonathan Papelbon and TEX C Taylor Teagarden ($7). Cano and Papelbon have very high salaries.

That gave me two new closers and two of the league's top basestealers that also hit for high average. The trades also brought a top hitting 2B and a third ace starter to go with my top two of Weaver and Hernandez.

I also pressured some teams into including additional free agent cash as part of the deals. Why?

The week also brought some new talent into the league thanks to real baseball deadline trades. Thus, I spent $30 of my newly bolstered free agent cash for LAA P Dan Haren. Four aces? Haren has pitched like an ace in the past, but was having a difficult 2010 in Arizona. I tried to buy Capps, but someone with more resources bought him.

Rather than spending on other marginal new NL talent (mostly power), I also picked up rookie outfielders Ryan Kalish (BOS) and Mitch Moreland (TEX). Indeed, part of my strategy was now built around picking up young free agent talent for relatively low prices and then peddling those very same players in trade to fill needs on the fly.

The first place team responded the following week with a trade or two that potentially undermined some of what I accomplished.

Thus, on August 16, I made two more deals:

4. Traded SEA P Brandon League ($5) for LAA P Brian Fuentes. Unfortunately, Fuentes was almost immediately traded by LA to the Twins to become a setup reliever. League ended the season with a handful of saves versus 1 for Fuentes. This trade was a bust for me and it was clear almost immediately. The owner with Capps and NYY P Mariano Rivera was not available that morning. Sigh.

5. Traded TB 1B Dan Johnson ($3/$5) and BOS IF Jed Lowrie ($3/$5) for SEA IF Chone Figgins. Johnson and Lowrie ended up hitting a lot of September homers, but Figgins was another basestealer with a history of good batting average. This was a gamble since he was not hitting for average in 2010.

By now, Bobby Jenks was injured and it was clear I needed another closer. Plus, wins was a tight category. So, on August 23, I made these trades:

6. Traded BOS OF Ryan Kalish ($15/$18) for MIN P Capps.

7. Traded TEX 1B/OF Mitch Moreland ($13/$16) for BOS P Jon Lester. The other team really wanted Moreland and offered a fifth ace. How could I refuse now?

Our league allows owners to add a player for September and my pickings were slim. Thus, on August 30

8. Traded NYY P Kerry Wood ($17/$20) for a very pricey NYY 1B Lance Berkman. Wood has an outside shot of serving as a closer in 2011, while Berkman was definitely going to be in the auction pool at his price.

By now, the Bolts were gathering steam with steals, improving average, wins and some saves. However, a few teams were starting to mount challenges in HR/RBI. Thanks to the Jenks injuries and Fuentes trade, the saves were not increasing fast enough.

The Hardy House League doesn't have a trade deadline!

September 20, week 25. The Bolts finished week 24 in first place! TK kept making more trades (the third place team sent them Cabrera, Cruz and Soriano) and the competition for available talent was now quite fierce. TK was grabbing relief pitchers they didn't need just to keep the Bolts from garnering more saves. They also traded for a bunch of two-start pitchers to maximize their chance of pulling ahead of the Bolts in wins:

9. Traded TEX C Teagarden ($7) for BAL C Matt Wieters. I decided not to acquire more starters and stuck with my five aces, plus CLE P Carlos Carrasco, obtained as a September free agent.

September 27, week 26. Every save, homer, win and steal was potentially important for a point or two in a tight contest:

10. Traded LAA Hideki Matsui ($14/$17) and LAA P Fuentes for CLE OF Shin-Soo Choo and DET P Jose Valverde who was supposed to be healthy at long last (he was available for trade for weeks).

And that was barely enough.

In the end, the Bolts finished with 83.5 points and TK had 81.5 (down from 84 on August 2). The Bolts concluded the season with 7 of 13 original offensive players, but only 3 of 10 pitchers. One of those 3 was reserved for the stretch run to make room for Carrasco. The Bolts won batting average, ERA, WHIP, tied for 2nd in wins, and finished 3rd in HR and RBI. Steals (4th) and saves (5th) didn't go quite as planned, but still were much improved over the July totals.

Whew.

Of course, the 2011 keeper list looks kind of thin....Weaver, TOR OF Vernon Wells, TB P Joaquin Benoit, maybe OAK P Henry Rodriguez, and likely one or two very pricey stars.


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2010 Bolts from the Blue

For some years, I've been posting the roster of my entry in the Hardy House fantasy baseball league. On Saturday, April 3, on Singer Island in West Palm Beach, FL, I attended my 22nd consecutive auction draft. Three owners had to participate by phone, but the rest of us enjoyed the weather, scenery, seafood, and camaraderie.

My 2009 squad finished fifth in the league, though it spent the second half of the season in steady decline from a June peak when the team was in second for about a month. I was not especially hopeful going into the draft because my retained players seemed somewhat overpriced. Unfortunately, I had few good alternative choices, so I kept mostly star-level players who promise to produce a lot of value.

As a reminder: the league has 12 teams and uses American League players exclusively to accumulate statistics in the traditional 8 categories (HR, RBI, SBs, BA, Wins, Saves, ERA and WHIP). One roster quirk now in its third year: we added a 10th pitcher and subtracted an outfielder. We thought this better reflected a change that real baseball teams made over the past 20 years.

The 2010 Bolts from the Blue (6 retained players in blue)

C Mike Redmond (CLE) $1
C Jarrod Saltalamacchia (TEX) $7
1B Billy Butler (KC) $27
2B Orlando Hudson (MIN) $12
3B Evan Longoria (TB) $37
SS Derek Jeter (NYY) $25
MI Alex Gonzalez (TB) $3
CR Alex Gordon (KC) $10
OF Vernon Wells (Tor) $16
OF J.D. Drew (BOS) $10
OF Jeremy Hermida (BOS) $3
OF Travis Snider (TOR) $12
DH Hideki Matsui (KC) $11
Hitting $174

P Felix Hernandez (SEA) $29
P Jered Weaver (LAA) $17
P Kerry Wood (CLE) $14 (DL)
P Brian Matusz (BAL) $9
P Joel Piniero (LAA) $3
P Brandon League (SEA) $3
P David Robertson (NYY) $3
P Shane Kelley (SEA) $3
P Joey Devine (OAK) $3 (DL)
P Grant Balfour (TB) $1
Pitching $85

I left $1 on the table, but I had some extra cash in the endgame and spent some of it trying to find a relief pitcher with an outside shot at saves. Oakland's bullpen has been riddled with injuries, Tampa's Rafael Soriano has been a poor health risk throughout his career, and David Aardsma of Seattle has long-time control problems. Thus, I targeted those bullpens.

Balfour was on my 2009 team and I bought him again for a lower salary.

To replace Gordon, Devine, and Wood on my active roster, I am seeking various free agents. Hopefully, all of those guys will get healthy soon and contribute to their teams.

Clearly, I believe in drafting players John Hunt used to call "post-hype." Those are guys who are still young, but their disappointing performance to-date has caused their value to decline. Gordon, Snider, and Saltalamacchia are my main post-hype picks, though Devine may belong in this category too.

As usual, I didn't pay full cost for a "proven closer" at the draft. I last paid big bucks for a closer in 2007. Hours later, $34 Blue Jay B.J. Ryan pitched his last game of the season. Closers at this year's draft again went for $30 and up.

Here are my reserve picks this year:

1. DH Randy Ruiz (TOR) $3
2. P Jeremy Accardo (Tor) $2
3. SS Jed Lowrie (Bos) $1

If Ruiz plays a few games at firstbase, he could take Gordon's spot in my lineup and hit a few homers. He's also insurance against a Matsui (or Wells or Snider) injury. Accardo paid big dividends as a reserve pick for me in 2007 when he saved 30 games. Toronto's bullpen is again somewhat uncertain. Lowrie is another post-hype player, currently sidelined with mono after losing virtually all of 2009 to other injuries.

You can find posts about the 2005, 2007 , 2008, and 2009 drafts elsewhere on this blog.


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Bolts from the Blue 2009

For the past few seasons, I've been posting the roster of my entry in the Hardy House fantasy baseball league. On Saturday, April 4, in Lexington, KY, I attended my 21st consecutive auction draft. We rarely pick rosters before opening day, but the season started a week late this year because of the World Baseball Classic.

My 2008 squad finished second in the league and I was hopeful going into the draft because my retained players seemed fairly strong to me.

As a reminder: the league has 12 teams and uses American League players exclusively to accumulate statistics in the traditional 8 categories (HR, RBI, SBs, BA, Wins, Saves, ERA and WHIP). One roster quirk now in its second year: we added a 10th pitcher and subtracted an outfielder. We thought this better reflected a change that real baseball teams made over the past 20 years.

The 2009 Bolts from the Blue (7 retained players in blue)

C Chad Moeller (BAL) $1
C Kelly Shoppach (CLE) $5
1B Billy Butler (KC) $23
2B Alexei Ramirez (CHX) $13
3B Scott Rolen (TOR) $7
SS Derek Jeter (NYY) $21
MI Akinora Iwamura (TB) $11
CR Jed Lowrie (BOS) $10
OF Grady Sizemore (CLE) $40
OF Ben Francisco (CLE) $13
OF Felix Pie (BAL) $5
OF Delmon Young (MIN) $20
DH Mark Teahan (KC) $11
Hitting $180

P Roy Halladay (TOR) $28
P Felix Hernandez (SEA) $25
P James Shields (TB) $8
P Rich Hill (BAL) $1 (DL)
P Gio Gonzalez (OAK) $1 (AAA the next day)
P Grant Balfour (TB) $6
P Jerry Blevins (OAK) $5
P Jose Arredondo (LAA) $3
P Joe Smith (CLE) $1
P Ramon Ramirez (BOS) $1
Pitching $79

I left only $1 on the table, but I had some extra cash in the endgame and clearly overpaid for Jerry Blevins when I was trying to find a relief pitcher with an outside shot at saves. Oakland's Joey Devine had just been placed on the 60-day DL and most of the A's bullpen sold at inflated prices.

Butler, Jeter and Sizemore were on my 2008 team and I drafted them again.

To replace Hill and Gonzalez on my active roster, I picked up free agent relievers Joe Nelson (TB) and Robinson Tejeda (KC). Hopefully, Hill can find his control and return to form and Gonzalez will either get a shot at Oakland's rotation or closer job (a common spot for failed starters).

Clearly, I'm a big believer in drafting players John Hunt used to call "post-hype." Those are guys who are still young, but their disappointing performance to-date has caused their value to decline. Young and Pie are my main post-hype picks, though Teahan may belong in this category too.

As usual, I didn't pay for a "proven closer" at the draft. I last paid big bucks for a closer in 2007. Hours later, $34 Blue Jay B.J. Ryan pitched his last game of the season. Luckily, I had picked teammate Jeremy Accardo in the final round of the reserve draft.

Here are my reserve picks this year:

1. OF Matt Joyce (TB) $3
2. OF Gabe Gross (TB) $2
3. UT Jose Bautista (Tor) $1

Gross will be active this coming week thanks to the Lowrie injury, which moves Teahan to the infield.

You can find posts about the 2005, 2007 and 2008 drafts elsewhere on this blog.


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Baseball 2008: Bolts from the Blue

Last weekend, I participated in my 20th Hardy House fantasy baseball league auction (draft). We have 12 teams and use American League players exclusively. One new roster quirk this year: we added a 10th pitcher and subtracted an outfielder. We thought this better reflected a change that real baseball teams have been making over the past 20 years.

The 2008 Bolts from the Blue (8 retained players in blue)

C Kevin Cash (BOS) $1
C Kelly Shoppach (CLE) $3
1B Nick Swisher (CHX) $22
2B Alexei Ramirez (CHX) $10
3B Wilson Betemit (NYY) $4
SS Derek Jeter (NYY) $30
MI Ben Zobrist (TB)$1
CR Ben Broussard (TEX) $5
OF Alex Rios (TOR) $28
OF Melky Cabrera (NYY) $11
OF Jason Kubel (MIN) $15
OF Grady Sizemore (CLE) $35
DH Billy Butler (KC) $22
Hitting $187

P Roy Halladay (TOR) $24
P Jeremy Bonderman (DET) $16
P Zach Greinke (KC) $7
P James Shields (TB) $6
P Dana Eveland (OAK) $3
P Jeremy Accardo (TOR) $3
P Joaquin Benoit (TEX) $3
P Manny Delcarmen (BOS) $3
P Chad Bradford (BAL) $2
P Brandon League (TOR) $1
Pitching $68

I left $5 on the table, unfortunately. I desperately tried to spend it, but other owners had even more money left to buy the few guys in the end-game that I wanted (namely C Jeff Mathis $3, IF Donnie Murphy $4, P Dan Wheeler $6, and P Joel Zumaya $7, named in that order and reflecting my increased willingness to burn my cash).

Reserve picks
1. OF Rocco Baldelli (TB) $3
2. UT Ryan Raburn (DET) $2
3. P Sean Green (SEA) $1

I'm really hoping Alexei Ramirez plays, because he can apparently hit and run.

As a Royals fan, I'm also pretty excited about Billy Butler and the rejuvenated career of Zack Greinke.

I didn't learn about the seriousness of Baldelli's injuries until another owner told me after I picked him. Ugh.


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Bolts from the Blue, 2007

The Hardy House League fantasy baseball draft ended last Saturday about 7 pm Pacific Time -- in Vegas. It didn't take long for my team to suffer its first catastrophe of the season -- my "closer" revealed an elbow injury after pitching horribly in Saturday's game.

I went into the auction with this roster:

C Gerald Laird (TEX) $6
1B Kevin Youkilis (BOS) $6
SS Jason Bartlett (MIN) $10
OF Alex Rios (TOR) $24
DH Travis Hafner (CLE) $31
P Zack Greinke (KC) $5

And my auction results:

C Kenji Johjima (SEA) $15
2B Josh Barfield (CLE) $22
3B Dallas McPherson (LAA) $1
CR Ben Broussard (SEA) $3
MI Alex Cintron (CHX) $1
OF Carl Crawford (TB) $42
OF David DeJesus (KC) $15
OF Melky Cabrera (NYY) $9
OF Eric Hinske (BOS) $1

P B.J. Ryan (TOR) $34
P Rich Harden (OAK) $24
P Jamie Shields (TB) $4
P Miguel Batista (SEA) $1
P Jason Davis (CLE) $1
P Jimmy Gobble (KC) $1
P Wil Ledezma (DET) $1
P Chris Reitsma (SEA) $1

I left $2 on the table, unfortunately. My last half dozen one dollar picks were uncontested because I was the last person buying players.

Reserve draft results:

1. OF Rob Mackowiak (CHX) $3
2. P Tom Mastny (CLE) $2
3. P Jeremy Accardo (TOR) $1

For the injured McPherson, I picked up IF Matt Kata (TEX). I also grabbed P Brandon League (TOR) because Blue Jay saves could be volatile this year after Ryan's injury.


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Roto report

This past weekend, I flew to Chicago for just over 24 hours in order to participate in an annual fantasy baseball draft auction.

Nobody cares about fantasy baseball, save for fantasy players, so I'd encourage most readers to skip this post. If you play the game, feel free to evaluate my team in comments. I'm not 100% happy with it...but I can explain my decisions.

To me, Billy Beane's handling of the Oakland A's epitomizes what I would do with a real major league baseball team -- if a rich owner named me General Manager.

So, naturally, I picked a number of prominent A's players for my team: new C Jason Kendall, 3B Eric Chavez (MVP candidate), young hard thrower P Rich Harden (a Cy Young candidate in the near future), and relief P Juan Cruz. I also retained P Kirk Saarloos, which means that I have 5 A's on my 23 man roster. Four of them are really good players.

Cleveland is a bit of a "Moneyball" team too, and I took DH Travis Hafner and retained from last year C Victor Martinez. another potential league MVP. Oh, I also kept P Bob Howry, on the chance that he might become a bullpen closer again.

Toronto's GM, JP Ricciardi used to work for Billy Beane...so I took one of his pitchers too, Ted Lilly.

I also picked a couple of guys on the reigning World Series Champs. These Red Sox, though, were NLers last season: SS Edgar Renteria and P Matt Clement. I think their prices were a bit low because their talents were mostly unknown in my AL-only league. Derek Jeter, for example, went for more cash in our draft (I finished second in the bidding). But look at these numbers for the two shortstops over the past 3 seasons:

Player Name ABs Rns Hts HR BI BB SB BAvg OBPct SLG
Derek Jeter 590 107 178 17 68 54 22 .302 0.370 0.446
Ed.Renteria 572 086 176 11 85 51 24 .308 0.362 0.439

In fantasy baseball terms, Renteria "wins" three of the four counting categories (we don't use runs). Jeter has a bit more HR power. That's it.

Other players of note on my roster: Twins OF Lew Ford and 2B Mike Cuddyer, along with Rangers OF Kevin Mench and (chair-throwing) relief P Frank Francisco were all retained from last season.

That's 15 players...and most of my draft cash. I took some chances: injured Devil Ray OF Rocco Baldelli , his teammate who missed most of last year, Travis Lee, new Angels 4th or 5th OFer Juan Rivera, young Tiger starting P Wil Ledezma , his OF teammate Nook Logan , and White Sox lefty reliever Damaso Marte.

My team name is Bolts from the Blue.

This virtually forced me to take Nook.

More of desperation than anything else, at the end of the draft, I bought a couple of guys from my favorite team, the lowly KC Royals: former Pirate OF prospect Emil Brown , who hasn't played in the majors since 2001, and injured 3B Chris Truby. Oh, and I selected raw Rule 5 flamethrower Andy Sisco in the last reserve round.

Summary: I have very few saves and not that much speed (I'm not counting on much from backup infielder Nick Punto). I should have plenty of power and I'm relying upon the starting pitching to provide wins and good ERA.

We'll see, eh?

Play ball!

I'll be back to more serious business tomorrow.