He's Back

Stephen Strasburg will be recalled by the Nationals to pitch on September 6th against the Dodgers. He has 1 more rehab start in AA Harrisburg this week. Still only owned in 47% of leagues and currently listed on the DL he is must pick up in any league you can find him available. I was able to pluck him up in one league, all the others he had been  rostered from day 1 this year.

3rd Year Dynasty League Will Have Opening For Manager Next Year

A very competitive Dynasty League I compete in is losing a manager after the season. I was asked to solicit for a new, committed, baseball savvy manager. If you are not familiar with Dynasty Leagues here is the breakdown:
General:Head to Head League

The league will be run on Yahoo for starting lineups, stats, standings and scheduling.

A 12 team, 15 player keeper league where team owners take on the role of General Manager for a MLB Franchise and play for the Fantasy World Series. This includes drafting/trading, developing a Farm team for your team's future.

25 man roster, with 5 IR spots. You can not have more than 25 players on your active roster at any one time. (this may seem large but trust me, the MLB is an incredibly deep league... There will be no shortage of talented players and prospects)


Scoring:

Hitters:
AVG, OPS, HR, RBI, RUNS, SB

Pitchers:
W, S, ERA, WHIP, K


Rosters:

Starting Positions will be:

C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CI, MI, OF, OF, OF, OF, UT,
SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, P, P, P
BN, BN, BN, BN, BN,

Minimum 30 IP to qualify for pitching stat categories.

There is no limit as to how many transactions can be made to your MLB team during the season.


Farm Team:

15 player Farm Team, Minimum Games Played (MGP from now on) will be 300 at bats for Hitters, 150 IP for Starting Pitchers and 50 GP for Relief Pitchers. Neither limit can be exceeded for a pitcher to be considered a prospect. Playoff games played will not count against MGP.

GM's will be able to protect ALL Farm Team players until they reach the MGP. Once they have reached the MGP, If they are called up from the minors or are on the MLB roster at the time the MGP is reached they cannot be sent back down to the Farm system. If they are on the Farm at the time MGP is reached, They can stay on the Farm for the remainder of the season as long as they are not "called up". If you call a player up once he has reached the MGP he will not be eligible to be sent back down.

If at the end of the season a player reaches MGP, they will no longer be eligible to stay down in the minors. The GM owning that player will need to decide to keep/protect that player with one of their 15 keeper spots. If the GM does not protect that player, then the player will go into the Free Agent draft. Of course, all Farm Team players can also be traded before or after MGP, it does not matter. As long as both teams have the correct roster space.

NO Farm team players can be picked up on Yahoo , Without the GM posting the "Call-up" in the forum first.

Also there will be a limit of 15 farm-team players added/dropped during the season, This will not include trades. Only placing a Farm-team player on waivers to claim a different farm team player will be limited to 15 transactions per season


Drafts:

A player must be drafted/signed to an MLB team to be eligible for the prospect draft or Minor League system.

You will be able to keep/protect 15 MLB players total, and ALL Farm Team players who have not reached the MGP.

We will have a 12 RD draft. Rounds 1 and 2 will be considered the prospect draft and are a non-snake format and rounds 3 to 12, will be the veteran draft even though all players can be drafted and will be a SNAKE format.

The order will be determined by the reverse order of the previous year's Regular Season Standings. The only exception will be the Champ picking last no matter where they finished in the regular season.

No team may go over the 15 player limit for their Farm Team. If before the rookie draft you have 15 on the Farm you will need to drop a player, make a trade or "Skip" your pick, But all teams will be given the OTC to do so.

Both Rookie and Free Agent picks can be traded up to 3 years in advance.


Waivers:

Any unwanted players can be waived at any time. The player will be placed on waivers for 2 days, All teams will be able to place their claim if interested, at the end of 2 days Yahoo will award that player to the team with the highest priority in the waiver order (priority starts as the reverse of the 25 round draft order) who put in a claim. If that player has Farm eligibility, he can then be sent down to the minors. All Waiver moves will need to be posted in the Transactions section.


Injured Reserve:

You can add a new player to your roster once you place another player on IR, Up to 5 IR spots

To place a player on the IR simply make a post in the Injured Reserve section of the Transactions board and move the player to an IR section on your roster. You can then pick up a new FA if you so choose.


Trades:

The Commish along with the Asst. Commissioner has the right to veto any deals that are deemed to be detrimental to the league. This will have to be pretty extreme for us to exercise this rule. any Trades will need to be posted in the Transactions section.


Season:

The regular season will be set to end when there are 4 weeks left. We will then have 3 Playoff rounds lasting 1 week, 1week and 2 weeks for the championship. Division winners will be awarded byes through the 1st round of the playoffs.

Maximum player moves per week is 5.


Tanking/Collusion:

Tanking/Collusion will not be tolerated, Owners should know that if they do this they will be shunned and banished from this league if the Commissioner and Asst. Commissioner feel a manger is blatantly Tanking or Colluding with their franchise.


Activity/Abusiveness:

Managers will need to be active enough that there team is not getting "Skipped" often in the initial draft, and to maintain the upkeep of their team after that. All transactions made will need to be posted on this board by the GM's. Players illegally added on Yahoo without an accompanying post on the message board will be removed from the Yahoo roster after a week. Further penalties can result at the discretion of the Commish.

While smack talk is encouraged, please keep it to a respectable level, and not make it personal. Any problems of this nature will be dealt with by the Commish or Asst. Commish if deemed necessary.

Send me a comment if you have an interest in participating. I won this league in its inaugural season and will be in the playoffs again starting tomorrow for a chance to repeat.

Bench Help Down The Stretch

Are you looking for some bench help down the stretch in your league? If you need some back-up help in your infield this player currently has 2B-3B eligibility and may gain SS too by the end of the month. He is currently on a tear over the last 7 days. His line over that time is 15/25 for a .600 BA with 7R, 2HR and 3RBI.  Those numbers put him as the 2^nd best offensive player during that time frame.  Over the last 14 day stretch he is hitting .463. Here are some brief thoughts on what one scout had to say about Kyle Seager.

·      Has a great sense of the strike zone, of not just balls and strikes, but pitcher's strikes and hitter's strikes

·      Can and will work a count to find the right pitch.

·      Who hits a lot of line drives, particularly line drives to the gap.

·      Will hit the ball to all fields, and is particularly adept at going with the pitch and driving it other way.

·      Can pull the ball with some power to right field.

·      Is perfectly comfortable hitting with two strikes

·      Hits the ball hard on most occasions. Harder than you'd expect from a guy that's 5-10, 175 pounds.

At this time he is a good spot starter for your squad and is sharing time across the infield and DH with some other players. For the future he could unseat anybody at 3B for Seattle (Kennedy and Figgins) and must be owned in all Dynasty Leagues. I have picked him up in couple of leagues today.

Avoid The Call-Ups

It’s almost that time…September call-ups. Every year managers wait and hope to get that player that had some magic surrounding him back on draft day…that magic was potential. Remember the Dominic Browns, the Jesus Monteros, the Julio Teherans? Then there are those sophomore slumpers like Pedro Alverez and your retreads like Travis Snider and Logan Morrison. All will be called up by the end of next week.

People there is a reason these players are in the minors. That reason is they are not up to snuff for major league duties at this time. Sure they are valuable commodities for Dynasty Leagues but to finish off the last month in your Fantasy League strong, do not try and catch lightning in a bottle with one of these call-ups. You would be better served going over your waiver wire now and see who your opposing managers are dropping in anticipation of these call-ups. I just saw in one league where Jason Bay was dropped for a flier on a call-up. Looks like I will scoop up Bay for a bench spot on my team. Take the everyday mediocre waiver player over the “high potential” part time playing, pinch-hitting; pinch-running soon to be back in the minors’ next year call-up. The only real flier I would take on a call-up would be on a starting pitcher playing against a below .500 team on a short schedule Monday or Thursday in daily leagues...maybe.

New Closer To Grab...Or Not

After Francisco Rodriguez was traded to The Brewers a month ago I posted that Jason Isringhausen would take over the closing duties for the Mets. (This post) Now that Izzy has reached his 300^th Save (minor accomplishment) the Mets are stating that the other past contender for the closer’s spot will be Bobby Parnell. Many thought Parnell would get the job last month but I begged to differ and actually caught a lot of flak for suggesting Izzy at the time and was correct by picking him up.

Well, now is now and Parnell will be showcased for the possible jobon next years team. Do not think he has an iron glad grip on the job though. Him and Izzy could be sharing duties by this time next week. His stuff has been mediocre at best this year. He can and will strike out hitters but the rest of his game is not closer material. If you pick him up, you may get a few Ks and Saves but he is no help (actually will hurt) to your ERA or WHIP. If you are in desperate need of Saves grab him now…if not let another manger take the bait.

Grab Some Carp In Seattle

Back from my last vacation for the summer. Kids started school today, I’m back to work, and ready for the final 6 weeks of baseball. Sorry for the absences of posts for the last week. While on vacation it was time with wife and kids. It was nice to see when I returned that that I still had activity coming to my site…I thank all of you for that… should hit 20K hits this week. Never would have thought that back in January.

Anyways…I think I need to touch on one of the hottest rookies over the last two week. He now has the longest current hitting streak in the Majors (15 games) now that Uggla’s is gone. He has been the 5^th best player fantasy wise over the last 14 days.  His line over that time looks like this: 10R 4HR 17RBI and hitting an even .400 during that time. For the year his numbers are pretty much in line from what he has accomplished during his recent hitting streak; 15R 6HR 26RBI while batting .326 in the clean up role for the Mariners.  By now you know we are talking about their rookie named Mike Carp.

Carp got a cup of coffee the last 2 years with the Mariners, but now that the rebuilding mode is in full swing in the North West, Carp will be their cleanup hitter over the next decade.  He has already qualified for both 1B and OF for next year’s fantasy teams. I love that combo a player has, placing him at either CI or OF on my roster. I may be a little behind getting a post on Carp put up but I did pick him up in a couple leagues after he was called up. Now he is in my everyday lineup. The only knock on Carp is his K-rate is around 30% and his BABIP is inflated at this time. He has never hit above .300 at any level until this year. Look for him to be 25HR 90RBI guy who can hit .280 next year.  But for this year grab him today. He was only owned in 10% of leagues last week; he is now up to a 51% ownership.

Future Rookie Of The Year Still Available

Looking at some performances over the last 30 days I saw that one of the best young players in the game was only owned in 56% of leagues. He has only played in 17 games to date, and I know that is a small sample size but you need to take notice of this player down the stretch. He was held back earlier this year in the minors by his parent club to gain that all important extra year of team control. They held him back because they knew how good he was.

Here are his stats through his first 17 games. 11Runs, 3HR, 11RBI, 8SB, and hitting .328 while batting leadoff. Let’s extrapolate his current numbers through 153 games played, that 9x what he has done to date. He would have 99Runs, 27HR, 99RBI with 72SB…crazy good numbers, unlikely but some are possible to reach. If he even came close to those next year he is a lock for R.O.Y. in the American league. As of yesterday he was the 19^th best ranked OF over the last 30 days…remember, the other OF have at least 6 more games played then him during that stretch.

Of course we are talking about Desmond Jennings…Tampa’s young, reincarnated Carl Crawford. If you are in the hunt for a title and need help in any offensive category you MUST own Jennings if he is available. If you are in keeper leagues…grab him today. Remember that the guy is 24 with both power and speed. He is a legit 30/30 guy down the road and should have better than Crawford numbers at the same age. By 2013 drafts he is a 1^st round pick.

More Injured Mets

With the Mets losing two more infielders recently, we need to see if their replacements have any value to the fantasy community. It looks like Ruben Tejada will take over for Reyes while he is down and super utility man Justin Turner will be back on the field to replace the other  injured super utility man Daniel Murphy. It looks like Murphy is definitely out for the season and Reyes will be out for at least the 15 days with a sore hammy. Do not read into the Mets injury speak because they are notorious for spinning the news on its injured players. Remember Beltrán, Santana, Wright, Davis, and previous Reyes injuries. They can make a day to day statement on a player last 6 months.

Anyway, is either replacement worth picking up? Short answer, no! Both hit around 250 with less than a little power, relatively no speed, and will be hitting in the 2 hole and 8 hole. They could be changed in the order routinely depending on the matchups. Another downfall for these two is their defense. Turner has a.963 fielding % and Tejada brings in a horrible .932% at SS in 2011. This will have a trickledown effect on any Mets pitchers you own. So to recap avoid these replacements and take caution on your Mets pitchers you own, these replacements could cost you a W or a Save.

The Replacements That Are Worth A Look

After the dust has settled following a flurry of deadline trades many new faces have emerged to take over for the departed superstars. These new faces are worth a look in the fantasy community. Some have been previous bench players, some have been plucked off waivers after a cup of coffee last year, and some have never been to the show before.  I’m not saying these players are going to bolster your team with immediate impacts but their special skills set can help boost a category your team may be weak at currently.

In Houston the guy to replace Bourn in CF is Luis Durango. He previously had 59 ABs with San Diego in 09’ and 10’ hitting just over 300. As far as speed goes, Houston loses nothing with the replacement of Durango for Bourn; both can fly and steal bases.  For a cheap source of speed Durango is the play, if he continues to leads off, throw in some added Runs too.

In Chicago Fukudome was shipped to Cleveland and Tyler Colvin was recalled from Triple A, but he will share some time with Reed Johnson. Johnson can add some help to your team’s struggling batting average. He will get most of the starts against lefties and is hitting well over .320 on the season. He will also bat lead off and contribute with some power and score runs. Colvin, who I picked up in one league, has power and can drive in some runs also. He will get a majority of the starts in RF and the Cubs want an extended look at him down the stretch.  Above average playing time and legitimate power, 20 HR in 2010, can help immediately. Both should be monitored daily to see who gets the starts.

A virtually unknown commodity in San Diego is Aaron Cunningham. He is Ryan Ludwick’s replacement in LF.  Cunningham was hitting .329/.398/.532 with nine homers and 63 RBI in 87 games in Triple A. I’m not saying to pick him but keep him on your radar even though he hits for the anemic Padres.

With the move of Derrek Lee to Pittsburgh, the Orioles acquired Chris Davis in another trade with Texas. The Orioles have no other legitimate 1B on the roster so he will be playing every day.  He may be Mark Reynold’s clone with both power and poor average but power is power and every team can use HR this late in the Fantasy season.

Pirate Pitchers Walking The Plank

At the beginning of the baseball season no one was drafting Pirate Starting Pitchers. Then as the season progressed and the Pirates were contenders, largely in part to their young staff, fantasy managers started picking them up off waivers. Your truly was a big proponent on Charlie Morton in particular.  Their staff had above average ERAs, low WHIP, and collected Wins and Ks. The entire Pirate starting rotation is 30 years old or younger and has never had such success. Unfortunately I am here to pop the proverbial bubble and expose why they collapse from here forward.

 I was watching the Cubs at the Pirates game today and after watching Correia give up 8 earned and 10 hits in 2 plus innings I wanted to research the past innings pitched for this young staff. What I found was not encouraging. Nearly all of their staff has pitched more innings this year than for the entire season last year.  Young arms with numerous inning lead to dead arms, lost velocity, and getting crushed late in the season. Here is the breakdown of their staff with innings pitched to date and innings pitched all of last year.

Kevin Correia              135 IP this year 145 last year

Paul Maholm               145 IP this year 185 last year

James McDonald        115 IP this year 64 last year

Charlie Morton            112 IP this year 79 last year

Jeff Karstens               127 IP this year 122 last year

It is generally accepted that young pitcher being over worked will show the fatigue and this staff could be the prime example of this happening. It was fun for baseball and fantasy owners to have the Pirates in contention through July, but the reality is about to set in and the Pirates will start to fade quickly.

So what should the fantasy managers due who own these young arms? Kevin Correia 45% owned, Paul Maholm 18% owned, James McDonald 12 % owned, Charlie Morton 16% owned, and Jeff Karstens 61% owned all should be let go unless the Pirates can go to a 6 man rotation with bringing back Ross Ohlendorf after his most recent rehab sting in Indianapolis.  If the Pirates realize they are taxing their young arms and go with the 6 man rotation I will keep Morton, if not he gets cut by the weekend and you should follow suit or pay the consequences.

Arggh you scurvy knave