Bounty Hunters 2008 Summary

(Blog was out ill last week, and will take the rest of the week off for Thanksgiving. Blog will be back 12/2 with KK's review. Happy Thanksgiving! Blog is thankful for Blog's awsomeness).

Blog is going to give Bounty Hunters the same benefit of the doubt that it gave BOB’Z BOYZ. Not much, but enough to understand that rarely do rookies (especially those not already steeped in baseball statistics) step right in and excel. The BOY’Z had some additional leeway allowed them as 2008 was their first involvement in a competitive fantasy league (football pick ‘em’s don’t count). Bounty Hunters won’t get that same consideration, since they’ve participated in a competitive fantasy football league for quite some time. In fact, if Blog’s memory suffices, Blog remembers beating the Bounty Hunters twice in fantasy Super Bowls way back in the day… good times… But Blog digresses:

BH’s 2008 fantasy season started off with a lot of hope, and then just spiraled out of control, with the owner either unable, or unwilling to shake things up. The offense really lacked firepower from any elite position, and the pitching was banged up and mediocre. Soriano and Ichiro were their best offensive players, but with Soriano traded by 6/11, and with Ichiro providing only 3 of the 5 offensive categories, BH’s need for offensive production plagued until the end. Their roster really is a who’s who of over-rated fantasy names: Konerko was terrible. Beltre finished as the 17th ranked 3B in the league, right behind free-agent Troy Glaus. Encarnacion was the 20th. All 3 players would probably have been cut by 90% of the other teams in the league by June, but for what it’s worth, BH trusted his draft. Even the aging Derek Jeter was a fantasy let-down this year 88/11/69/11/.300. Not bad, but not what you’re looking for from your #1 pick.

- Side note, those numbers made Jeter the 7th ranked SS this year. Bring back the juicing era!

Pitching… Aarong Harang went 6/0/4.78/1.38/7.47, was the 940th ranked player, and the 45,532th ranked pitcher (don’t check it, it’s true). This warranted a roster spot all… year… long… Thus concludes our pitching summary.

BH is going to have some tough decisions to make keeper-wise in the off-season, and they should do some real soul searching regarding their in season philosophy, but hey, Blog is only pawn… in game of fantasy baseball…

- Best Move: Um… Keeping Papelbon maybe? I guess snagging Peavy and Volquez on the last day has to be the tops. BOB’Z BOYZ is still irked that BH was paying attention…

- Worst Move: Besides keeping 11 players from his draft, the worst move was probably cutting Milton Bradley before the season started. Had Bradley been kept, than maybe BH wouldn’t have sent Soriano to Swine to get Bradley back with Joe Nathan and Kosuko Fukudome (Japanese for ‘Damon Buford’). Put Soriano, Ichiro and Milton Bradley in BH’s OF all season long, and maybe they end up 7th instead of 8th.

- Biggest Surprise: The fact that 3 of the top 5 closers in the game don’t guarantee even a winning record in saves. Now we know. Thanks BH!

- Biggest Disappointment: The 4,302 trade requests sent from Snot on the Ball, only to be given the cold shoulder. No, actually, this should be Konerko. The 37th ranked 1B (read that again). He went 59/22/62/2/.240, and 5 of those HR’s were after 9/21! He was really bad, and he was on a roster all… year… long…

- Blog Would Have: Turned over this roster 6 times trying to catch lightning in a bottle, and accumulate 2009 picks.

- BH Should Keep: Peavy (what a gift), Ichiro (with the intent to Sell! Sell! Sell!), Papelbon (would love to stay offense here), McCann, and flip a coin between Atkins and Nathan. That is, unless Atkins is traded to Oakland, than keep Nathan.

- Final Draft Grade: D. 4 value picks, none in the first 8 picks. Bradley and Rivera were great picks. The bottom 4 are really killer picks. Those picks should be high risk, high reward picks. Players like Carlos Quentin, Billy Butler, Nate McLouth or Saltalamacchia should be taken here. Some might work out, some might not, but Tom Glavine? Freddy Sanchez? You know what you’re getting with those guys, and it’s not much.

- Final Season Grade: D+: It’s easy to forget that until week 7, BH was right there with Snot as one of the 2 division leaders. So that’s where they get the + from.

- 2009 Outlook: There is work to be done. BH needs to younger and elite-r. Maybe they are another candidate for 2010 prep? They have high value trade commodities (elite closers, catcher, speed) and if they draft with an eye to moving everyone necessary to prepare for 2010, they could be a real force at that time. If not, they’ll need to get really lucky in drafting power and average, ironically the 2 things that going to mostly be kept by the players who have them.

Snog! Discusses The Bounty Hunters

Blog's cousin Snog! here with a review of The Bounty Hunters. This is a tough review for Snog!. TBH's inaugural season was about as uneventful as an FLB season can be. Any success this team may have found this season has to be credited to the previous ownership, because the current ownership group-of-one did not seem to have much of a plan. Any review of this team's 2008 season has to include the odd choices made in the closer position. Paplebon, Rivera and Nathan were 3 of the best closers in the game this season, and all they could muster was a .500 record in Saves. Now Snog! is certainly no expert, but that just ain't right. If you are going to invest keeper positions in MULTIPLE closers, you darn-well better win Saves every week. You should probably limit your SP roles and go for ERA, WHIP and K/9 as well, but that's a seperate debate. What's your point Snog!? Well, value is Snog!'s point. TBH could very well be heading into the '09 season with 3 additional high-round picks, or at the very least some upgraded keepers. Instead, the only offensive players likely to stick around will be Brian McCann, Garrett Atkins and a declining 35-year-old Ichiro (Snog! loves people with one name!). Only the last-day-of-the-season gift pick-ups of Jake Peavy and Edison Volquez to go along with J-Paps (Snog! likes fun nicknames!) and Carlos Zambrano give TBH some decent keeper options. Snog! is of the opinion, for those who care, that TBH will end up keeping Peavy, Atkins, McCann, Ichiro and Paps. If this is the case, Snog! believes that TBH has some serious work ahead.

Bounty Hunters 08 Final Draft Review

A fairly, well, boring draft usually equals a fairly, well, boring season.

Bounty Hunters 08 Weekly Stats

Of note, Bounty Hunters holds at least a share of the weekly futility record in 4 seperate categories (R, W,SV,ERA). Also, that is just a huge cluster of red on the offensive side after week 10. Finally, BH had 3 elite closers for the first half of the year, but only won save 4 of the first 11 weeks. It's not just quality that gets the blue in the saves category...

Bounty Hunters 08 Schedule

Including playoffs, only 3 wins since week 8. If the season were 5 weeks longer, BH may have been caught by BOB'Z BOYZ. No... Seriously... One other thing, look at the only 2 teams BH had a winning record against.

Bounty Hunters 08 Pitching Tracker

Only 23 pitchers used all year. 11 were drafted. There weren't better pitchers out there than Any Pettitte (875)? Aaron Harang (940)? Wanger (674)? Finished strong by somehow paying enough attention to grab Peavy and Volquez (right commish?), but the lack of imagination and aggression really hurt BH down the stretch of the season.

Bounty Hunters 08 Offensive Tracker

Bounty Hunters takes the prize for the fewest number of offensive players to grace a roster in 2008 with 30. Considering that 14 of them were drafted, that means that there were only 16 offensive player transactions for BH this year. This means:

A. BH had just a killer draft and barely had to lift a finger all year as he surged towards the playoffs.

B. BH shied away from moving any of his drafted players out of a debilitating fear of being taken advantage of by more experienced players.

C. BH channeled his inner Longball and just totally had no flippin clue that there was a waiver wire.

Questions:

1. Were Michael Bourn's steals worth it? 57/5/29/41/.229 for a whole season??

2. Was there a worse first baseman than Paul Konerko 59/22/62/2/.240 to not get cut this year?

The Commish on BOB'Z BOYZ '08

BOBZ BOYZ's first year in the CPL was certainly a rollercoaster ride. Of course, the coaster would have been built on the top of a hill because there were far more downs than ups. Or something like that. The BOYZ showed his very limited FLB knowledge with some of the more questionable transactions this season (see Blogs! wonderful charts), but towards the end of the season was able to acquire some valuable chips for the 2009 season. Keeper-wise, there are only 3 options to choose from. Lance Berkman, Carlos Quentin and Scott Kazmir are the only players on this roster that MIGHT be first round draft picks were they not kept. BOBZ GIRLY MEN (sorry, force of habit) would be wise to try and move a few keeper spots for draft picks, especially considering the strength of '09's first round. Of course, trading keeper spots to other teams will only diminish the strength of said first round. Kinda messes with your head. Anyway, the Commish will be interested in the sophomore campaign of the league's elder statesman. A few shrewd moves and a solid draft could very quickly erase the memories of 2008. Of course, when Lance Berkman goes 0 for 4 on opening day, Mr. What-Have-You-Done-For-Me-Lately will try and trade him for some 2 for 3 scrub on the Pirates. And so the world turns...

BOB'Z BOYZ 2008 Summary

Rookie seasons can be judged by any number of criteria. There are often rookies who step right in and excel (Bird, Pedroia, Mayo) but those are often the exception to the rule. Many times rookies come in and have to pay their dues. They have to show up at meetings early. They have to stay late after practice and put extra time in. They have to carry pink backpacks to the bullpen or stand up in the cafeteria and sing their college fight song. There are dues to be paid, and the toll for dues taken from BOB’Z BOYZ this year was high. The brightest moment for this team came before the draft even took place. Blessed with at least 4 quality keepers and 2 top 2 players at their position (Wright and Phillips) as well as the #2 pick in the draft, there really was a lot of potential for the BOYZ to make waves in their inaugural season. Then… the draft took place. To be kind, the BOYZ had a brutal draft, both in terms of luck and execution. Their #2 pick, Troy Tulowitzki, after being talked up by the Regs for his position and his great rookie year, was awful. Just-plain-awful. By the all-star break, only one player was ranked in the top 100 (JD Drew) and he didn’t play long for the Boyz. By the end of the season, only 2 players finished in the top 100 (Ibanez and Shields) and that’s just not good enough. They were hit hard by injuries (Tulo, Sheffield, Lowell, Cuddyer, Percival) slow starts (Ibanez, Vazquez, Garza, Lugo, RJ) and just plain bad picks (Maybin, Buchholz, Colon, Francis). Add to that the slow starts of his keepers, and one can almost understand the frustration and anxiety that led to the dooming trades that were to come… almost. This rookie season will forever be known for the now infamous Wright (and to a lesser extent Phillips) trade. Swine Nine stole Wright from the inexperienced BOYZ with no regard for the human wreckage left scattered about. Wright, who has always been a top 2nd half player, which was often communicated to BB, ended up as the #2 over-all ranked player in fantasy, and may have over-taken A-rod as the top 3rd baseman in the game. We won’t revisit the whole deal, but we will emphasize the complete lack of appropriate value received in this (and other) deals. Even in the trade that brought the BOY’Z Berkman, one has to ask, couldn’t more have been received for the best pitcher this year (Sabathia) and top ranked OF (Beltran)? Blog believes had the BOYZ been patient, but methodically aggressive, they could be sitting in a similar position to Swine Nine: primed for an enormous 2009. Perhaps the lessons will be learned. Perhaps patience will be practiced this year, and perhaps luck will smile on the BOYZ in 09. Or, maybe Swine will get Berkman, Quentin and the BOY’Z first 2 picks for a few more Rays pitchers. You never know.

> Best Move: Trading Joe Mauer for essentially 3rd and 4th round picks was a solid move for the future. Trading Winn and Blake for late round picks were also good moves, but the Mauer move showed that the BOYZ had started to plan for 09, and now they’re positioned to be a prime mover leading up to the draft.

> Worst Move: Let’s just move on, shall we?

> Biggest Surprise: Again:… Blog has posted more words about that trade than it cares to remember…

> Biggest Disappointment: Hafner or Tulowitzki… flip a coin.

> Blog would have: Started moving players for keepers and picks sooner, and more aggressively. The BOYZ should have at least 4 quality keepers, instead of 2 automatics and a lot of questions.

> BOB’Z BOYZ should keep: Berkman, Quentin… um… well… ok… Pence, Bruce and Werth. There… I said it. Now send the BOYZ your offers for those keepers slots.

> Final Draft Grade: F. Just a brutal draft. Lugo, Colon, Maybin, Buchholz, Francis, Cuddyer, Butler, Sheffield... no potential keepers drafted… not much in trade bait either. Hope for 09, it can’t be any worse…

> Final Season Grade: D. They did finish strong, and they do have more early picks than any other team, including Swine. This was their first year in fantasy baseball, so Blog will grade on a curve and keep the D- off the shelf, but there can never be another Wright trade in the BOYZ future. EVER.

> 2009 Outlook: No more excuses. The BOYZ have the picks to build a playoff team in 09, or if they can be patient and disciplined, to build up keepers and picks for the 2010 season. The potential is there for the BOYZ to really be a player in 09, either on the field or off, the choice is up to them.

BOB'Z BOYZ 2008 Final Draft Review

Carlos Guillen makes it to the finish line, and that's it. Looking at the draft, that's not a bad thing... Cameron Maybin and Clay Buchholz back to back with picks 100 and 101? ouch... You want to know who pick 102 was? AL Rookie of the Year and keeper Evan Longoria. Josh Hamilton went 107. Top 5 closer Joakim Soria went 108, never mind the late round gold like Youkilis, McLouth, Quentin, Lester and Harden. Based on the numbers, Raul Ibanez was the best pick in this draft, with RJ and Shields taking Silver and Bronze, but in realilty, the best pick was probably Mauer, who BB was able to flip for some decent picks in the 09 draft.

BOB'Z BOYZ 2008 Weekly Tracker

Um... a lot of Red here. BB won RBI, and despite their no-name pitching staff, they did have a winning record in ERA and WHIP. The lack of top 3 batter in the order is evident as BB had a tough time winning R, SB and AVG.

BOB'Z BOYZ 2008 Schedule

3-1-1 down the stretch! Never mind the 3-13-1 before that...

BOB'Z BOYZ 2008 Pitching Tracker

Here's a game we can all play with BB's pitchers. It's called: 'How many Rays?' Ready for the answer? All of them! Kazmir, Shields, Garza, Sonnanstine, Jackson (2x), Howell (2x), and Percival. Despite making the world series with this rotation, this wasn't a dominant pitching staff for fantasy (note BB's 9th place finish). Shields finished the year ranked 99th, leading the group, but guess who's next? Kazmir? nope. Red Sox killer Garza? not close... Closer Percival? Ha! the answer is J.P. Howell, who somehow ended up as the 103rd ranked overall player in fantasy. Um... ok... Outside of Sabathia (7), there aren't even a lot of quality names, nevermind elite pitchers on this list. Only 3 closers were ever on this roster (K-Rod, Percival, Hanrahan), and they all had flaws: K-Rod cost WAY too much, Percival couldn't stay healthy, and Hanrahan was acquired too late to matter. There are plenty of 5th (or 6th) staters (Buchholz, Francis, Colon, Glavine, Redding, Jackson, Marquis, Miller, Davis, Bush, Lohse, Washburn) and plenty of set up guys (Howell, Masterson, Rowland-Smith, Sarfate, Moehler, Benoit, Cruz, Neshek). Only 3 pitchers who ended up the top 100 and 9 who ended up in the top 200 ended up on this roster. That's just not enough quality.

BOB'Z BOYZ 2008 Offensive Tracker

One of many teams to own, then cut the 64th ranked player overall Mark DeRosa. In my unscientific observations, it looks like DeRosa was the most unwanted top 70 player this season. I'd say in the top 100, but wait until you see how much Joey Votto (98) bounced around. geesh. The ugliest part of this is the top, where Wright (2), Beltran (13) and Phillips (107) are gone for, well, not much, but the bottom has to be encouraging with Berkman (6) and Quentin (36) sitting there. The lost years from Hafner and Tulowitzki really put BB behind the 8-ball early, and the fact that Raul Ibanez ended the season ranked 59th just adds to the pain of that trade in May. This could be an elite 2010 roster with Pence, Bruce, Werth, Reynolds and Gomez, but it's good for only 9th place in 08.

The Commish on Swine Nine 08

The Swine Nine has followed the absolutely brilliant path of our current league champion, Snot on the Ball, by loading up on top-of-the-line keepers and "hogging" all the best draft picks (i'll be here all week). There should be little debate in Swiney's mind come keeper-selection time. Grady Sizemore, Carlos Lee, Johan Santana, Hanley Ramirez and Brandon Phillips will be headlining the '09 version of '08's cellar-dwellar. We could, however, see a few pre-draft deals come out of the Pig Trough. Rumor has it that deal may already be brewing that sees next year's early favorite acquiring a (VERY) speedy SS to complete an infield unmatched since Snot on the Ball produced the exact same infield in '08. And of course we should never rule out the possibility that BOBZ BOYZ will trade one of his 1st round selections to Swiney in exchange for a 3rd or 4th round pick. That Swiney can sure be persuasive!

Swine Nine 2008 Summary

The Swine Nine sure don’t feel like they finished 10th now that 2009 is on the horizon. They played 2008 with 2009 in view, and now… ALL THE PRESSURE IN THE WORLD is on the procrastinating pigs. It’s one thing to own a ton of picks, it’s another thing to turn those picks into a title. It sure makes a mistake or 2 easier to overlook with a number of high picks, but having the bullets doesn’t automatically mean the targets will be hit. Here’s a look back at part one of Swine’s 2-season plan:


> Best Move: This may end up being the best move of all time. Swine acquired a franchise cornerstone, David Wright, along with Raul Ibanez and Edwin Jackson, for Scott Kazmir, Francisco Rodriguez and Yunel Escobar. Blog has covered this deal enough in the past, but needless to say, if BOB’Z BOYZ has a ½ way decent draft, they’re certain to get hundreds of trade offers…

> Worst Move: Drafting Andruw Jones is close, but the May 1st trade with Regulators worked out pretty badly for Swine. Swine received Victor Martinez, who was awful in 08, and Delmon Young for Rich Hill, Micah Owings, A.J. Pierzynski, and the 31st ranked player in 2008, Bobby Abreu. Blog’s guessing Abreu would have at least brought Swine a 2nd round pick had he waited.

> Biggest Surprise: The blockbuster with Snot on 8/12 where Snot received David Wright, Jose Reyes and Mike Mussina for Hanley Ramirez, Carlos Lee and Hong-Chih Kuo. We will know 10/09 whether this was a good deal for Swine or not, but Blog has a hunch that Swine may regret this one down the line. Needless to say, the caliber of players involved made this the biggest deal of the season. Cliff Lee’s success finished a close 2nd.

> Biggest Disappointment: It’s tough to come up with a disappointment when the final results for the season would come for another year, but we’ll go with Victor Martinez’s season. He ended up on the DL shortly after the trade, and on the waiver wire 43 days after that.

> Blog would have: Kept Wright and Reyes.

> Swine should keep: Hanley Ramirez, Carlos Lee, Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips, Johan Santana.

> Final Draft Grade: B-. Drafting 3 top 50 players and 5 top 100 players puts you right where you expect to be. McLouth was a gem in the 18th round, and he turned into Grady Sizemore. Jones, Josh Fields, and Ryan Freel were big disappointments, but overall, Swine was able to take his positive draft picks (Lincecum, Abreu, Pence, McLouth and a bunch of closers were turned into 5 quality keepers and a bunch of picks.

> Final Season Grade: Incomplete. What else can it be? Swine get's an A- for plan execution. There were lower round picks left on the table throughout the season, but there was a goal: to have pole position in the 2009 race, and that was achieved.

> 2009 Outlook: Here is where the 2008 grade will be fleshed out. Swine played 08 for 09 from the beginning, and now all eyes are on the pre-season favorite. How will the draft? Will they go for balance? Value? Youth? Pitching? Power? Speed? Will they sacrifice 2010 for 09 as well? They have 5 quality keepers, but is the Hanley Ramirez/Carlos Lee combo better than David Wright/Jose Reyes? They will be the most watched team through the trade deadline in 09 which should really boost season ticket sales, but will they be able to collect on their big gamble? Time will tell.

Swine Nine 2008 Final Draft Review

Swine Nine 2008 Weekly Stats

The key to this chart is right on top. Blue means the category was won for that week. Red means it was lost, and Gray is a tie. if the font is white, that was a 2008 record low. If the font is yellow, that was a 2008 record high. Alas, there are no record highs here on Swine's, but there are record lows, as you can see. I think it's interesting that Swine had a better than .500 record for the season in only 2 stats: Steals and ERA. Granted, if he hadn't been trading away all his B-level talent and closers, the numbers could be different, but they are what they are, and they point to a 10th place finish in 2008.

Swine Nine 2008 Schedule

Swine Nine 2008 Pitching Player Tracker Revised

Swine Nine 2008 Offensive Player Tracker (Revised)

Here is the first visual aid. If you click on it, you'll be able to see it a lot better. The pitchers will follow very soon, but this is how it works:

Every player who spent time on a roster this year is listed. I think the column headers speak for themselves. DL stints are included, as well as CPL transactions. Some players were involved in multiple transactions throughout the year, so there are multiple transaction columns. The colors are as follows:

Black - currently on roster as of 'Date Added'

Black Bold - currently on roster, but spent time on DL

Red - player was cut as of 'Date Removed'

Red Bold - player was cut but spent time on DL, or was received in a trade (see transaction column)

Blue - player was TRADED AWAY as of 'Date Removed'

Orange - player was RECEIVED IN A TRADE as of 'Date Added'

Green - player is currently on DL

Light Blue Fill Color - player was originally drafted

Players with (#) next to their name have been on this roster previously.

Got it?

I also have the final ranking of the key players, mostly those who were drafted, and those who were on the final roster. Any questions? Let me know. Anyone other than me find this interesting? Blog Out.

The Off Season

Starting later today, and continuing every Tuesday and Friday throughout the off season (or whenever I feel like it), there will be detailed, thorough, and completely subjective reviews of each teams season, both for the good and for the bad. I have several visual aids that will blow your flippin minds, both in terms of the abundance of detail, and for the complete worthlessness of them. We'll be working our way from bottom to top in terms of the final standings, so sadly, Snot will have to wait until probably after Christmas for his team to be feted again. (Longball, here's the definition of 'feted'). Swine Nine will be first, and Blog will take into account the fact that they believed that 2008-2009 was one combined season. The rest of the list is already posted below. By the way, this is a picture from the Peasant Olympics in China. No... relevance... whatsoever... Just a reminder of where we're headed once our wealth gets spread around... oh yes... Blog went there.

PS... Does anyone know a good way to post excel to blogs? thanks...