how's your fantasy baseball team doing?

we already have a thread for those in the SportsJournalists.com idiots league, but how about the rest of us discuss our fantasy baseball teams.

mine sucks. i am mired in the bottom half of a 12-team league. my goal is now sixth place for this season, which would be my highest finish in this league in about three years. pathetic, i know. but i feel like i'd be positioned well for next year if i could just make the right decisions and finish strong this season.

we have an extremely complicated system of keepers in which we dole out contract years (CYs) to certain players and are awarded CYs after each season based on the standings. then you assign a CY to as many or as few players as you want so if you finish in last place and get 12 CYs, you can keep 12 players for one year, one guy for 12 years or something in between. you can bid CYs on someone else's players after the season. CYs are trade-able, too.

unfortunately i just can't seem to know when to hold onto players and drop them. when this season started i had jeff francouer, mike jacobs, aramis ramirez and adrian beltre and i dropped all of them in early may. in years past i've held onto players way too long. i kept beltre all last season and he just killed me.

i need a fantasy baseball consultant or something.

 

Missed my draft and had to auto-draft, but good hitting early and timely pickups let me stay near the top of my 12-team league for most of the first three months. In mid-June I hit a slump and nothing's been able to break it. I'm in ninth now, closer to 11th than first, and while most of the top teams are still bunched together (the leader is starting to pull away), I don't imagine I've got much chance at doing better than sixth. But this was the first time in a few years that I was able to keep interest in a league this long, so maybe next season I can get back into a money league.

 

I'll let you know in 28 hours.....

 

My team is in first-place in a 12-team league. This is by far and away, the best team I've ever put together. My late-round picks were beyond exceptional (Scott Kazmir, Jonathan Papelbon, Justin Verlander, Francisco Liriano, and of course, the opening month stud ... Chris Shelton).

None of the above players are on my team, and I must admit, I got absolutely ZERO value for Liriano. That was a dumb move on my part. Anyways, below is my team:

HITTERS

C - Joe Mauer (8 HR, 56 RBI, .371)
1B - David Ortiz (35 HR, 99 RBI, .285)
2B - Chase Utley (20 HR, 67 RBI, .324)
SS - Michael Young (8 HR, 67 RBI, .308)
3B - David Wright (22 HR, 81 RBI, .313)
OF - Vlad Guerrero (20 HR, 78 RBI, .314)
OF - Jermaine Dye (27 HR, 71 RBI, .317)
OF - Shawn Green (9 HR, 45 RBI, .296)
Util - Lyle Overbay (16 HR, 60 RBI, .302)
DL - Derrek Lee (pissing me off)
DL - Gary Sheffield (come back soon)

PITCHERS

SP - Johan Santana (12 wins, 3.04 ERA, 158 k's)
SP - Carlos Zambrano (11 wins, 3.27 ERA, 147 k's)
SP - Jason Schmidt (7 wins, 3.18 ERA, 119 k's)
RP - Francisco Rodriguez (25 saves, 2.55 ERA, 11.06  k/9)
RP - Joe Nathan (6 wins, 21 saves, 1.43 ERA, 13.09 ik/9)
P - Scott Olsen (9 wins, 3.79 ERA, 101 k's)
P - Jason Jennings (Rockies suck)
P - Ian Snell (Pirates suck)

*Right now, I have an offer that I made that will send David Ortiz FOR John Lackey (9-6, 2.89 ERA, 7.60 k/9), and Jason Johnson (8-5, 2.60 ERA, 8.0 k/9).

Sounds like a stupid trade on my part, but I think I have plenty of hitting, and hopefully D-Lee will return. It's all about pitching at the end, and there's a team close behind me that could be dangerous in the playoffs. He has Liriano, Pedro, Schilling, and Jered Weaver (why DIDN'T i pick him up!!??!!)

Anyways, does anybody have a team that could compete with mine? If so, please post. I'm curious to see what types of teams you guys have ... but in similar leagues (12-team minimum).

I'm pretty attached to my hitting. 7 of my 9 hitters were in the All-Star game. But I've gotta trade some of these guys for MORE pitching, right?

 

There's only one roto: one-league-only roto.

I'm in an NL-only league, and it's hella tough because after the first few rounds on draft day, you have to really find the middle-of-the-pack contributors and diamonds in the rough.

Playing both leagues can't be all that difficult.

Oh, I'm in 6th place out of 10 teams in my league. I'm bitter today because a trade proposal with another owner was shot down in a vote by the other 8 owners. That we have to vote for trades really makes me angry.

On offense we score on average, total bases plus walks, RBIs, runs, stolen bases

C -- LoDuca .311, 3 HR, 32 RBI, 153 TB, 149 R, 3 SB
C -- Piazza .303 16-47-166-25-0
1B -- Lamb .295 2-11-51-15-1
2B -- Utley .324 20-67-265-86-11
SS -- Eckstein .299 1-19-167-59-7
3B -- Rolen (picked up in a trade last month) .270 5-16-66-18-2
CO -- Huff .243 0-1-21-5-0
MI -- Phillips .279 5-32-134-40-18
OF -- Abercrombi (my 1st-round pick after a monster spring training) .214 5-19-93-32-6
OF -- Byrnes (trade) .297 1-9-47-13-5
OF -- DaVanon .257 4-19-93-29-8
OF -- Ethier .374 5-24-90-18-2
OF -- Griffey .238 19-53-162-37-0
OF -- Repko .303 3-12-46-14-9
OF -- Edmonds .261 16-57-184-45-4

Reserves/Farm: Andy LaRoche, James Loney


Pitching stats are saves, ERA, WHIP, strikeouts, wins/quality starts

P -- Backe 13 IP, 4.85 ERA, 1.538 WHIP, 6 K, 2 W/QS
P -- Baez 49.2, 4.35, 1.28, 29, 5 (9 saves)
P -- Batista 131.2, 4.65, 1.51, 74, 19
P -- Clemens 40.1, 2.45, 1.16, 31, 6
P -- Duke 130.2, 5.51, 1.63, 77, 16
P -- Harang 143.1, 3.52, 1.25, 135, 23
P -- Hendrickson 24, 5.63, 1.54, 12, 1
P -- Jennings 143.2, 3.70, 1.32, 100, 20
P -- Maine 7.0, 0.00, 0.857, 7, 1
P -- Saito 26.2, 2.36, 1.050, 38 (7 saves)

DL pitchers -- Bannister, Clausson, Hill, Wandy Rodriguez (minors)

 

6th place in a 16-team league, and that's with the best position player (Soriano) and arguably the best pitcher (Johan Santana) in terms of fantasy value. We do standard 5x5, and you all will agree, the best team does not always win.

I'm just hoping to snag one of 6 playoff berths and get hot.

 

I'm in first in my 10-team league. I'm up by 5 games (we play head-to-head).

I got Liriano in free agency in late April, but after him and Johan Santana my pitching is a bit suspect.
Bobby Abreu is my big disappointment. I drafted him in the third round (after Soriano and Santana), and he has no homers in over a month.

C - McCann, B.
1B - Delgado, C.
2B - Soriano, A.
3B - Jones, C.
SS - Rollins, J.
OF - Blake, C.
OF - Francouer, J.
OF - Sizemore, G.
Util - Abreu, B.
Bench - Fielder, P.
Bench - Lowell, M.
Bench - Posada, J.

SP - Liriano, F.
SP - Santana, J.
SP - Millwood, K.
SP - Burnett, A.
SP - Santana, E.
SP - James, C.
RP - Isringhausen, J.
RP - Street, H.
RP - Ray, K.

 

Wait a minute. You drafted Scott Kazmir, Jonathan Papelbon, Justin Verlander, Francisco Liriano and none of them is on your team now? I mean, I can understand giving up on Liriano too early when he was in the bullpen, but the other three were studs in April.

And as far as my team....which one? I've got 3, including the 2nd-place team in the SportsJournalists.com money league, another money-league team in first place and a third keeper league team in 2nd place.

Hello, my name is outofplace and I'm a rotoholic....

 

First place, 12 team league. 5x5, plus doubles and tripes for offense, complete games and home runs allowed for pitchers.

C: Michael Barrett
1B: Justin Morneau
2B: Tad Iguchi (trade in May)
3B: Scott Rolen (May trade)
SS: Jose Reyes
OF: Grady Sizemore
OF: Manny Ramirez
OF: Mike Cameron (picked up two weeks ago)
Util: Todd Helton
Bench: Johnny Gomes (stuck with him way too long, probably based onto my attachment with him since draft day)
Bench: Hank Blalock

And then this mix of starters:
In for every start: Francisco Liriano, John Lackey, Justin Verlander. Most starst: Roger Clemens. Spot starts: Noah Lowry. Making his first start in months for me today: Ben Sheets.
Relievers: Bobby Jenks, Joe Nathan, Joe Borowski, Fausto Carmona.

The key to my season has been Morenau. Thought about dropping him in May, then his re-insertion into my lineup has taken me to first place. That, and trading Coco Crisp for Rolen, to a guy who thought he could use steals more than Roeln.

 

R, H, HR, RBI, SB, BB, TB, AVG, SLG

C - B McCann
1B - J Morneau
2B - J Cantu
3B - S Hillenbrand
SS - J Lugo
OF - J Bay
OF - Ca Lee
OF - K Lofton
UTIL - D Jeter
UTIL - N Johnson
DL - T Hunter

IP, W, L, SV, H, BB, K, ERA, WHIP

RP - B Jenks
RP - Ma Rivera
RP - J Isringhausen
SP - J Vazquez
SP - J Santana
SP - S Kazmir
SP - C Billingsley
SP - K Benson
SP - C Hamels
SP - D Bush
SP - J Maine (recently added for injured Wakefield)
DL - T Wakefield

I'm eighth in a 12-team league. First half, my pitching ruled and my offense sucked. Now I can hit, but my pitching is on the decline. Only the top six teams make the playoffs.

 

I'm glad I drafted Beltran...dude's carrying my second-place Yahoo team right now.