An Expert's Audit - baseball edition

I write for a fantasy baseball website, a fantasy hockey website and i have my own hockey blog at a 3rd website. i want to put my articles at a second sight just so that it can be seen elsewhere. if you have no interest in baseball and/or fantasy sports then you probably don't want to read the rest of this post ... otherwise enjoy.

Welcome once again to An Expert’s Audit – baseball edition. In this article we take a look at the fantasy team of a reader to see if there are areas we can improve so that we’re moving down a winning road. If you’re interested in getting your baseball team audited you can begin the procedure by emailing your league and team particulars to ian@dobberbaseball.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

I’d introduce you to Scott Wysocki but ... he never told me anything about himself. Life gets pretty busy sometimes, I get that, and that has meant a little less contact between us this month than is the norm. I think he was just in awe of my presence, either that or he just didn’t trust me much but nevertheless Scott plays in a 12 team 5x5 including R, HR, RBI, SB, AVG, W, SV, K, ERA and WHIP. When I came on the scene Scott had had just made a move that I hated and I told him so.

Let’s take a look at Boats ‘n Hoes.

C Jorge Posada NYY – the worst of the Yankees you roster but still an ok option in standard fantasy leagues. Well, he’s ok at best.

1b Mark Teixeira NYY – it’d be a lot easier to like this guy if he wasn’t a Yankee. Oh well, dude can mash.

2b Freddie Sanchez PIT – this is the move that I hated. Scott dropped Alexei Ramirez to pickup up Sanchez and the first words of advice out of my keyboard were to go get lexy back. It was too late. Ramirez had been selected in the 5th round of the draft and now a key member of your team was starting for someone else. I never drop anyone I take in the first 10 rounds unless they’re done for the season. If they start abysmally slow then they can be benched but don’t drop them.

3b Alex Rodriguez NYY – brrrr, is it cold in here? I dropped him so far down my draft lists that I didn’t end up with him on a single one of my teams. New York has a way of getting into a guy’s head and with all his troubles this season you can make an argument that you should buy low right now or you can make my argument that you should just stay away from ARod for a long while.

SS Derek Jeter NYY – he recently passed the Babe for career doubles, why do people call him overrated? You won’t find many better offensive options that you can stick at SS and get the leadership and consistency you’d find in Derek.

OF Nelson Cruz TEX – beware, the avg has been dropping like a stone in June (.183 for June as of the 24th of the month). He has the potential to put up numbers like Matt Holliday gave as a Rockie though so that’s some very valuable stats.

OF Matt Holliday OAK – well, he’s no longer a Rockie. At this pace he’d be really hard pressed to get to 20 HR and 100 RBI, which I thought was a given at the beginning of the season.

OF Shane Victorino PHI – I’m a believer in Rollins but I’ve got to think that Victorino could do decently well at the top of the order and then Rollins can relax lower in the order with less pressure on him. The criticism against the Flyin’ Hawaiian has been around OBP but … that looks pretty good to me (.372 which is higher than at any time in the bigs).

OF Elijah Dukes WAS – when healthy and contributing he can be phenomenal. Unfortunately he was hurt the last half of May and June has seen his avg drop 30 points.

Util Dexter Fowler COL – see Dexter run. Run Dexter run. He doesn’t have much fantasy value except in some SB’s and maybe some runs.

BN Nyjer Morgan WAS – see Dexter Fowler. He's got more value to his new team and they will also likely give him more runs to score. The Nats offense is one of their strong points.

BN Daniel Murphy NYM – well, I don’t think he brings anything to the table quite honestly. He doesn’t run, he doesn’t hit for avg and the power stats aren’t there either. No thanks.

SP James Shields TB – I say this guy has the tools to be Johan Santana good. He’s 6-5 right now and I for one will be targeting him more in any league where I need to make a SP move. The K’s are there, the ratios too and the W’s are on the horizon with that offense.

SP Cole Hamels PHI – The QS is still decent here, he’s not allowing many hits or runs and he also hasn’t won since a complete game shuttie on June 4. He’ll be fine … I hope.

RP Mariano Rivera NYY – as steady an RP option as there is in the game. No worries here.

RP Brad Lidge PHI – well ok, start worrying here. His most recent DL was coming along all season as he had several little implosions and few instances of shutdown behaviour.

P Ted Lilly CHC – only 4 starts this season that weren’t a QS and yet he’s only 7-5. The ratios and K’s are there though so I’m not worrying about him.

P Edwin Jackson DET – I’m betting few pundits predicted these sorts of stats at the beginning of this season. He was one guy I was expecting a bounceback from but I was thinking a baseball bounceback not an Indian rubber ball bounceback.

P LaTroy Hawkins HOU – as soon as Valverde was healthy again then LaTroy’s value tanked.

BN Zach Duke PIT – Duke, Maholm and Ohlendorf are all over .500 for the Bucs. Think about that, the Bucs stink. Duke is leading the charge for a rebirth of decent pitching in Pitt.

BN Ricky Romero TOR – an injury for 5 weeks really puts a cramp in your ability to put up stats. Most recently he’s had 5 QS in a row and he’s 3-1 in that span. I like him.

BN Chris Volstad FLA – I was thinking he might have a shot at something decent this season but he’s been 1-4 over the last month and getting spanked around the park too much. I’d be cutting ties pretty quickly in any league I had him in.

Think maybe Scott’s a Yankee fan? His infield is loaded with 4 from “the Dark Side” and then he added the closer to the mix too. The only one I wouldn’t be thrilled to roster is Posada who I think has lost too much to be a full time viable fantasy starter.

What place was Scott in when I showed up? 11th. Yeah, that’d be because his pitching has more than struggled to start the year and his hitting lacks runs.

The things to target for this team over this period were all forms of pitching and on the hitting side we’d need runs.

FA Options

Clayton Kershaw – this kid is way too good to have this bad a record and stats. He’ll get K’s and with LAD he’s bound to get W’s over the course of what will be a very long and nice career.

Michael Cuddyer – I love it when you glean a hot bat off the wire and then flip him for a better option. See the Trading Options section to see what you were able to turn Cuddyer and a low end pitcher into.

Jerry Hairston Jr. – from the end of May until about mid-June he was on fire and we caught most of those stats as we searched for a run scoring 2b option.

David Price – doesn’t belong on a waiver wire in any standard league. He’ll get K’s and W’s and the ratios will be fine.

Dallas Braydon – nine of his last ten starts have been QS’s and he’s still only been 2-4 over that span. That says to me that the A’s just aren’t hitting enough. This kid could be something special if he got more support.

C.J. Wilson – while Lidge was shelved then C.J. was a nice short term addition to the lineup. Francisco can still take the job back and Easy Eddie might get some chances too but C.J. is still a strong option for saves in that pen.

Carlos Marmol – Gregg is the closer for the Cubs but the stats are pretty steep for him. The next and only real option other than Gregg is Marmol right now. He’ll probably vulture some saves and do a better job at keeping ratios down.

Trading Options

Traded John Baker, Nick Johnson, and Edwin Jackson to The Schist for Evan Longoria, Joe Mauer, and C.C. Sabathia – you had made this deal just prior to joining up with Expert’s Audit for a review. My reaction when I saw this deal was that you must’ve had pictures of Schist with a squirrel or a penguin or something. But no matter how you dissect it, this was a freaking steal.

Traded Michael Cuddyer and Zach Duke to The Mexicutioner for Chad Billingsley – this was another steal since you paid a price you could easily afford in order to add a SP that you needed pretty desperately. This was the 2nd elite SP you had added and it enabled you to start looking at the other areas you needed help on.

Traded Jorge Posada to dr c&b for Kevin Gregg – you needed to add a RP3 after Lidge has struggled all season and then went on the DL. You resisted this move because Gregg’s ratios are so poor but the additions to your SP corps will help your ratios and Gregg will get you saves that you won’t be getting with Lidge on the DL.

Traded Nyjer Morgan and David Price to Nats for Ben Zobrist and Francisco Cordero – you still need saves and you needed a 2b eligible player who gets runs, Zobrist and FCord fit the bill perfectly. The price tag was Price and a bench OF you could afford to part with.

Conclusions

That’s a lot of work in a month’s time actually. Over the course of the past 8 weeks your team has gained nearly 30 roto points and you’ve gained 5 places in the standings. There are some big moves in store for you once the “tweaks” you’ve made to your roster get to a place that guys actually add to your totals significantly.

You helped your pitching a lot, you added incredible quality in Mauer, Sabathia, Longoria, Billingsley and then you traded for specific needs in getting Gregg, Cordero and Zobrist. Great deals. Great talent off the FA. You’re on your way. Well done.