A while back, I was invited to join the BP Kings Scoresheet Baseball league. As a refresher, the league is set up in a “24-team, split AL/NL format that allows interleague trading.”
Seven new owners came onboard this winter, and we recently concluded our dispersal draft, in which each of us procured talent (or some approximation thereof) from the pool of players left behind by the vacated teams. The draft lasted 16ish rounds (some folks just couldn’t stop making picks), and aside from missing out on Brian Matusz and Anthony Slama (go Toreros!), I’m reasonably satisfied with my effort.
Easy for me to say in January. I may be singing a different tune come August. Or, let’s be honest, come May.
I won’t bore you with the entire draft, but here’s how the first two rounds unfolded:
Round 1
Casey Stern: Evan Longoria
Matthew Pouliot: Prince Fielder
Pete McCarthy: Zach Greinke
Rob McQuown: Ryan Zimmerman
Matthew Leach: Dan Haren
Bill Baer: C.C. Sabathia
Geoff Young: Roy Halladay
Round 2
Geoff Young: Kevin Youkilis
Bill Baer: Ryan Howard
Matthew Leach: Cliff Lee
Rob McQuown: Yovani Gallardo (traded to King Kaufman/Rob Granick for Aramis Ramirez, Ervin Santana, Michael Bourn, and Angel Salome)
Pete McCarthy: Justin Morneau
Matthew Pouliot: Jose Reyes
Casey Stern: Robinson Cano
And this is what my team looks like:
Chad Billingsley
Roy Halladay
Jair Jurrjens
Jonathan Papelbon
Daniel Bard (rookie)
Carlos Rosa (rookie)
Tony Sipp (rookie)
Bobby Abreu
Michael Cuddyer
Johnny Damon
Vladimir Guerrero
Raul Ibanez
Kevin Youkilis
I ended up with an old team because that’s where the “soft spots” were in this draft. Most owners placed a premium (and rightfully so) on younger players with upside, so I largely ignored age, focusing instead on reliability.
On the pitching side, I took a fairly early flier on Billingsley, hoping he’ll rebound. He is young, and his home park helps, so I like my chances on that gamble.
And although I normally shy away from protecting relievers (especially in a soft 10, where we can keep a maximum of 10 non-rookie players but draft earlier if we keep fewer), there are exceptions: Papelbon is one of them. Yeah, it’s only 60-70 innings, but the guy is an out machine.
With the rookies, I passed on higher profile prospects and went with players who can help now. I’m hoping for 100 innings of 4.50 ERA from Bard, Rosa, and Sipp combined. That doesn’t sound like much, but the cost of keeping rookies (picks at the very end of the spring draft) is minimal when compared with what is typically available in the draft that late. (Last year’s draft had Jason Frasor as an end-game steal, but it also “featured” Matt Albers, Jose Molina, Matt Tolbert, and Dewayne Wise.) The way I figure, if those three rookies are who I think they are, that’s two picks I don’t have to blow on Kyle Farnsworth clones.
As for the hitters, I ignored position scarcity, going with the best lineup I could find. My team is on the AL side so I get to employ a DH. I’ll take a defensive hit for that outfield, but their production should make up for it.
My focus in the spring draft will be on catchers and middle infielders. I’ll probably pay more attention to defense with them since most of the good offensive performers at those positions will be gone already and to make up for my brutal outfield.
I fully expect some of my hitters to fall off the proverbial cliff. I’m feeling good about Youkilis, but out of those other five guys, my guess is that two or three won’t perform as well as I’d like (no clue which ones, of course, although Ibanez would seem to be a good candidate). That’s the risk I’ve assumed, and I’m okay with it. My strategy is basically the flip side of “this guy is young, I hope he gets better,” which is “this guy is old, I hope he doesn’t get worse.”
It might not work. Then again, it might. Either way, this should be fun.
Here are the owners and affiliations of the Kings owners:
AL 1 Geoff Young BP/Hardball Times
AL 2 Jeff Erickson Rotowire
AL 3 King Kaufman/Rob Granick Salon.com
AL 4 Brent Hershey/Ray Murphy BaseballHQ
AL 5 Pete McCarthy MLB.com
AL 6 Jason Grey/Todd Zola Mastersball
AL 7 Casey Stern XM
AL 8 Matthew Leach MLB.com
AL 9 Jeff Angus/Grant Sterling Management By Baseball
AL 10 Matthew Pouliot NBC Sports/Rotoworld
AL 11 David Laurila Baseball Prospectus
AL 12 Brady Gardiner/Jordan Greenberg XM
NL 1 Nate Stephes Rotoworld
NL 2 Jeff Ma ProTrade
NL 3 Will Leitch New York Magazine
NL 4 Bil Burke Baseball Prospectus
NL 5 Rob McQuown Baseball Daily Digest
NL 6 Mike Ferrin XM
NL 7 Jeff Passan/Mark Pesavento Yahoo! Sports
NL 8 Bill Baer Baseball Daily Digest
NL 9 Brent Gambill XM
NL 10 Ben Murphy/Ian Lefkowitz Baseball Prospectus
NL 11 Josh Levin/Steve Ehrenberg Slate
NL 12 Jay Jaffe Baseball Prospectus
You know, that would be something intensely interesting. A fantasy league or two of BP commentators (since the regular writers might be too busy), perhaps with weekly updates, notes on trades/trade evaluations and strategies, etc. Scoresheet would be fun to do that for, and it could even be a keeper league with the teams passed to other BP commentators as older ones retire.
Or something that would be cool, would be a "sister" league like BP Kings (maybe BP Jesters) of some of the newer BP writers, readers, and some of the similar outlets that have BP Kings....
Just saying (and yes I'm plugging this because I'd be willing to learn how to play Scoresheet)...
I'm starting a new AL keeper scoresheet league for 2010. I already have some good owners lined up, but we're looking for a few more. Scoresheet is the way to go for people interested playing GM but put off by the out of context treatment of stats in roto. In scoresheet, your lineup/pitching staff plays simulated games using current stats. Defense counts, etc.
If you're interested, send me a email (dantroy@hotmail.com)
To echo "Smallflowers" -- After decades of playing various table-top baseball games and participating in rotisserie-format fantasy leagues, I was introduced to the fun and realism of Scoresheet Fantasy Baseball ten seasons ago and have never looked back. Scoresheet is quite simply the ultimate in computer-based simulations and easily gives the serious baseball fan the most bang for their buck. Owning a Scoresheet baseball franchise puts you in both the General Manager’s office drafting players, making trades, and crafting rosters as well as in the dugout setting lineups, strategies and player usage.
I'll echo that view. I've been playing Scoresheet for 19 years, and have never quite been able to understand the attraction of rotisserie. The improvements to Scoresheet's SIM over the last five or six years have made the needed expertise and research much easier to cope with, so its hard to figure why serious statheads still play rotisserie.
Am I missing something regarding Jose Reyes? How would a premium SS drop that low, below a 7th or 8th-best first basemen like Morneau? Is he that much of an injury risk for 2010? Is he projected to lose a lot of SBs because of his injury? He's got an incredible track record to drop to 13th best on that list, and everything I've read suggests full recovery.
Same question came to mind for me. Top 5 player in the whole league in 2009 dropped this low in a supplemental draft? Must be some serious questions about his recovery...
A better question is how so much talent was available. That looks like five teams worth of talent up for grabs. Was it that hard to find replacements from the participating organizations?
Happy to give you (or anyone) all the info you need & guide you along the way! If you're up on BP, you're for Scoresheet. I've been playing since I was a mid-teen & know the ropes well. There're tons of leagues and openings, nice folks, and bull-dog competitors.
Totally email me if you want: (user name) @yahoo.com
Never tried Scoresheet, but I like that Strat uses defense, as it is much more complete than Rotisserie. I loved seeing the draft results (and would actually love to see more rounds), as that's one more set of data points for my upcoming drafts this year.
Sorry, I can't respond directly under the comments for some reason. Jose Reyes was a top 5 player in the whole league in 2009? Has he ever been a top 5 player in the whole league?
Did you update to IE8 recently? I had the same problem when I went from IE7 to IE8, but when I run IE8 in compatability view (the button that looks like a broken page) it all works for me.
To correct my "top 5" categorization for Reyes, he generally regarded as a Top 5 fantasy pick in 2009. That was what I meant. Seeing him in the bottom half of the second round raised my curiosity level. You explained the reasoning above. Thanks!
Chiming in late here, but I just wanted to add that I've known medeaschild and Brian DewBerry-Jones for a very long time, and both are tremendous resources for anyone who is interested in learning more about Scoresheet. I highly recommend taking them up on their offers of assistance.
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Woah. How was the dispersal managed? Longo & some of these other guys hitting any open draft is pretty wild.
I like your team so far. He who hath Halladay hath a chance.
Seven teams decided to bail at the end of the season, and the entirety of their rosters were released into the dispersal draft.