Fantasy Team

[Zagi-CRO]

Just wanted to drop in here and put my team up for some advice. Any suggestions? Areas to try and improve...

C- Jorge Posada
1B- Albert Pujols
2B- BJ Upton
3B- Chipper Jones
SS- Yunel Escobar
OF- Magglio Ordonez
OF- Kosuke Fukudome
OF- Andruw Jones
UTIL- Jeremy Hermida

BENCH- Willy Taveras, Michael Bourne, Frank Thomas

SP- CC Sabathia
SP- Adam Wainwright
RP- Francisco Rodriguez
RP- Mariano Rivera
P- Rafael Soriano
P- Matt Garza
P- Mark Buehrle

BENCH- Andy Pettitte, Hiroki Kuroda, Franklin Morales


It's a 12 team league.

My suggestions:

C - Geovanny Soto
1B - Derrek Lee or lance Berkman
2B - Chasey Utley or Mark Ellis
3B - Ch.Jones or Mark Reynolds
SS - HanRam or Escobar
OF - Manny Ramirez
OF - Eric Byrnes
OF - Pat Burrel
UTIL - Josh Hamilton

SP - Webb
SP - Peavy
RP - Isringhausen
RP - Papelbon
P - Marmol
P - Gobble
P - Okajima

[Evangelion]

Since you have Hermida on the team, keeping Bourn or Taveras would be advise. Your starters late speed. I would start Bourn or Taveras in a OF spot or Util spot. Taveras might be better option since I don't see Bourn bring much in batting average while Taveras could land in .270-.300 range while I figure Bourn in .260-.270 range. I wonder what will happen to Bourn once Matsui back on the team.

Your team might deal with batting average issues. A. Jones never been one to bat for a high batting average and if you expect Posada to reach .330 again instead of .260-.270 range, which would his career range until last year. Even with high expectations, I see Posada at .290-.300 with high hopes. HR's and RBI's should could from Posada and Jones. The batting average could be made up with Escobar, but I wonder if he can maintain such a high batting average through entire year.

Outside Sabathia, you're SP isn't that strong. Buerhle and Pettitte are being drafted, but they're not as good as people think. They're serviceable. What you're looking for from Buerhle is W and ERA, if Buerhle in the middle 4 range for ERA, he's not worth since he's not bring much from the K and WHIP department. I highly doubt he'll be a great source for W. Pettitte will at least bring you a good amount of W, but don't expect much from him either. You could use a pitcher that will bring a regular amount of K's along with Sabathia. Don't believe Wainwright will give you a large number of K's, because he's not.

Also, like Colorado, keep a short leash on Morales. I like Morales' potential and what he did last season during the playoff run, but he hasn't looked sharp during ST. Don't reach too much into ST, but when the team keeping the young pitcher on a short leash, you do the same.

I like digglahhh's suggestion. Search the waiver wires for possible closers. One game into the year and speculation regarding the Washington closing job as begun. Remain on top on the closer situations for all teams, you gain a huge advantage if you do. You can then deal a closer and likely get more than what the actual closer is worth since I find the closer position to be over-rated in baseball and fantasy baseball.

[digglahhh]

Your weakest areas are OF and SP.

I'm not crazy about Yunel Escobar, but I figure you'll have your pick of a lot of similar SS options on the waiver wire throughout the year, since most Util spots are probably being filled by corner infielders or OFs. So, if Escobar doesn't work out, there are a lot of similar options. So, that's not a big deal either way.

I'm guessing the pick I wouldn't have made was Posada, though I can't be sure where you drafted him. If you have 12 teams, and three OFs, there is almost no chance a team drafts two catchers. I would have waited to the very end to pick a catcher. There was probably a handful of quality SPs to be had there. Drop the worst guy off your staff, and replace him with a real nice SP, now drop Posada off and replace him with the 12th best catcher out there (I dunno, Varitek, Hernandez, Molina, Soto, I-Rod, whoever), you'd probably be gaining at the margins there.

If you aren't going to play Bourn or Taveras, at least not regularly, you should probably look to trade one. There's usually a decent market for 40 steal potential. Though, from the looks of it, you have speed issues yourself, assuming you aren't going to play either regularly.

I'm thinking I may not have made the Chipper pick either, though from your roster, it looks like he could have been picked anywhere from round 3-6, so I can't tell right away. But 3B is pretty deep, and I'd probably rather have another top 15 OF and say, Edwin Encarnacion way late than Chipper and Fukudome.

You have three very good closers in a 12 team league, that's a big strength. Monitor the waiver wire closely, if you can snatch a guy who falls into a long-term closing position off an injury or a collapse (likely candidates: Accardo/Ryan combo, Turnbow (gagne), Gordon (Lidge), Benoit (Wilson) Pena (lyon)), you can probably hold on to that guy and deal one of your stud closers for just about anything you need and still be a head of the game.

30 closers/12 teams = 2.5 per - as long as you hold three, you're ahead of the game.

Good luck.

[mendoza line]

bourn might be a better option for you than fukudome for the first month or so until he gets used to the american game. assuming bourn leads off hes gonna get you steals and lots of runs seeing how he has berkman, tejada, and lee driving him in. other than that great team i love bj upton. you might want to trade garza if you can. they have no d in tampa and hell probably go 12-12 but hes never won more than 5 games in a season or pitched over 100 innings

[ChopShop]

Just wanted to drop in here and put my team up for some advice. Any suggestions? Areas to try and improve...

C- Jorge Posada
1B- Albert Pujols
2B- BJ Upton
3B- Chipper Jones
SS- Yunel Escobar
OF- Magglio Ordonez
OF- Kosuke Fukudome
OF- Andruw Jones
UTIL- Jeremy Hermida

BENCH- Willy Taveras, Michael Bourne, Frank Thomas

SP- CC Sabathia
SP- Adam Wainwright
RP- Francisco Rodriguez
RP- Mariano Rivera
P- Rafael Soriano
P- Matt Garza
P- Mark Buehrle

BENCH- Andy Pettitte, Hiroki Kuroda, Franklin Morales


It's a 12 team league.