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.