LL Longball 08 Final Draft Review

Longball kept an awful lot of his drafted offense, though an upgrade at Catcher was definitely possible at some point. Kenny Lofton didn't play one game last year. Tom Gordon was Philly's set up man, and he was drafted 5 spots ahead of Soto, who would have been a much better C for Longball. Go Philly Love!

LL Longball 08 Schedule

A Nice first month, but a rough next 4 weeks. Posted a winning record against Snot. Was throttled by Regs.

LL Longball 08 Weekly

Note the asterisk. Let this be a lesson to all... know the rules. Please. 17SB in week 11 is very nice.

LL Longball 08 Pitching Tracker

Bret Myers and Justin Verlander... ouch. The sad thing is, looking at Longball's 07 roster... there weren't many better options going on there. Blog is really impressed that Brad Penny lasted the entire season on a roster. Bravo. Oswalt had a redemptive 2nd half. Cole Hamels is now elite.

LL Longball 08 Offensive Tracker

First of all, not nearly as many Phillies as we're accustomed to seeing. Only 4? No Carlos Ruiz? Howard and Cabrera are still beasts. Victorino was a great cut by Regs... Cutting Carlos Quentin for Aaron Hill was probably a bad decision.

Papi's Space Cadets 08 Summary

Blog has a hard time really nailing down and summarizing the season for Papi’s Space Cadets. First, there is the record. 99-107-14 is not a very good number. It shouldn’t be a playoff number, but there Papi sat in the playoffs as the #6 seed. They were handled in the first round by Regs, but defeated Jobu in the 5th place consolation. But then Blog looks at the roster, and for some reason Blog can’t figure out why this roster wasn’t better. Ortiz, Vlad, Maggs, Markakis, Youk, Evan, Martin, Huff, Ludwick. Out of all those names, Ortiz had the worst ranking at 157. 6 of these guys (all but Martin and Ortiz) finished in the top 55! This should have been a potent offense! But look at the production categories: Runs: 10-10-2. HR: 6-14-2. RBI: 9-12-2. Those are terrible records, and Blog just doesn’t get it. Was Ortiz’s injury and down year that much of a factor? (possibly) Are the rankings really that worthless? (probably) Or was Papi just really unlucky? There is a hint of that. Look at week 7; an 8-2 loss to Jobu. Papi went 43-17-59 with a .293 average… and lost every category! There were 5 teams that never 17 home runs in a week all year! Papi hit 227 home runs for the season. That’s good for 4th, but he lost that category 14 times last season. There HAS to be a hint of bad luck there, right?

Now, the rotation. First off, taking Lackey in the 2nd round even though he was scheduled to miss the first few weeks could have been a disaster, but Lackey was serviceable once he got on the mound. Papi’s next pick in the 3rd round (Halladay) was a steal. Halladay was awesome in 08. But the rest of the rotation was pretty mediocre. Dempster was a nice surprise, as was Lester, but outside of those 4, there were some issues here. Joe Saunders was an all-star, but he had a terrible 2nd half. John Maine was a huge disappointment after being drafted in the 8th round. All of the closers that Papi drafted (Wagner, Capps, Street) either had big booboo’s or were ineffective. Danks, Lilly, Blanton, Meche et al had just as many bad starts as they had good starts. It’s really amazing that Roy Halladay basically by himself went 15-7 in WHIP for the year.


- Best Move: There are a few choices here: Drafting Youk #139, Grabbing Ludwick and Huff off waivers, but the BEST move still has to be grabbing Halladay in the 3rd round, #39. Anytime you get the #3 player for that year after 88 players have already been claimed… that’s good.

- Worst Move: Blog wants to say that keeping Chone Figgins was the worst move, but in looking at Papi’s 07 roster, the only other choices were Robinson Cano or Joe Mauer. Eh. Let’s go with drafting Ryan Zimmerman 47th overall. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but, like, he stunk. Plus, Papi got ridiculous 3B production from Youk, Longoria and Huff.

- Biggest Surprise: Toss this one up between Huff (26) and Ludwick (20!). Blog will give this one to Ludwick, since he was on Papi’s roster longer: 5/16/08 vs. 6/4/08

- Biggest Disappointment: Big Papi ran into the slow start bug, and then the injury bug and then finished up ranked 157, which is not the top 25 producer that Papi’s namesake expected.

- Blog Would Have: Once Street lost his value as a closer, Blog would have taken Wagner and/or Capps and tried to move them for either speed or one more solid closer. Blog also would have cut John Maine long before 7/19.

- Papi’s Space Cadets Should Keep: Markakis, Longoria, Youkilis, Halladay… and here is the debate. Papi? That fills up your 3 CI positions right off the bat, but what if 08 wasn’t a fluke? Vlad? Eek… he is really getting up there. Maggs? Is Ordonez really a keeper? Blog would probably keep Papi based on upside, but quietly see if he has any trade value.

- Final Draft Grade: Blog has to give Papi a B- here. Some very big hits (Halladay, Youk, Lowe), some solid picks (Capps, Longoria) and some really close misses (Wagner, Hardy, Lilly). There were of course 7 or 8 whiffs (Willits, Saltalamacchia, Maine) but the value was there.


- Final Season Grade: Papi gets a C+, mostly because of that less than .500 record and 5th place finish. This roster had some potential and needed some minor tweaks (speed, saves) which could have been grabbed off the wire with a little more initiative.

- 2009 Outlook: 2009 can’t be any unluckier for PSC than 2008 was, so I guess that means maybe a 4th place finish?

Papi's Space Cadets 08 Draft Review

It's hard to figure this draft. Run down the names and it just doesn't seem like a good draft. Then look at the 15 Non Value Picks and it really smells funny. But if you look closer, you see that 4 of the non-value picks were better than a -14. It's safe to say that Wagner, Hawpe, Hardy and Lilly were all drafted at about the right spot, and they all had fairly productive seasons. Halladay was a GREAT pick. Youkilis and Longoria were both keeper level picks. There's certainly some junk here (Hello Mr. Willis, meet Mr. Lopez), but Blog thinks that it's safe to say if Papi's keepers had played at a keeper level, this draft could have been enough to sustain a much more successful season.

Papi's Space Cadets 08 Schedule

99-107-14 was good enough for the playoffs. Ouch. Papi also managed to post losing records against both Swine Nine and BOB'Z BOYZ. How?? They also did beat Jobu to finish 5th overall. (Editors note: Please note for the record that Regulators ended Papi's real season). Good thing this season wasn't a poker tournament...

Papi's Space Cadets 08 Weekly

For Offense, Papi had an overall winning record in average. This despite having 3 supposed elite boppers in Papi, Vlad and Maggs. Not a lot of speed here. A nice record for top weekly average (.356).

Papi's Space Cadets 08 Pitching Tracker

Papi took some grief (not much, but some) for grabbing Halladay's "innings" at # 39. What a great pick that was. Halladay finished #3 as he finally decided to strike a few guys out in 2008. No seriously, #3 overall. Yes! Right behind Pujols and David Wright! Lester was a nice grab off waivers, and Dempster was a big surprise. A lot of wreckage picked up down the stretch though, and a hospital ward full of pseudo-closers.

Papi Space Cadets 08 Offensive Tracker

For all of Longoria's hype, it seems like he should be ranked higher than 119th. Regardless, he was a solid grab at #102, right after Cameron Maybin and Clay Buchholz. The best grab though was # 139. Youk played his way into MVP and keeper discussions last year. Ortiz was a big dissapointment for this team, as was Zimmerman. Getting Ryan Ludwick (20) and Aubrey Huff (26) off waivers was very nice.

Jobu's Hats for Bats 08 Summary

Again, so sorry for the delay in getting these reviews finished and posted. There should be a flurry in these next 2 weeks, so we can start to focus on 09…

Jobu certainly has to be disappointed by his 6th place finish this year. There was a time in the middle of the season where it looked like 2008 was going to be a 2 horse race between Jobu and Snot, especially after Jobu went 3 months without losing a matchup. However, a week 17 loss to the Swine Nine quite simply destroyed their season. Jobu was so devastated when Swine ended their streak that they just gave up on the rest of the season. That has to be the explanation. It certainly has nothing to do with the lack of quality starting pitching, made evident by the 42,583 SP transactions made by Jobu.

Jobu was able to secure 6 keeper slots at the beginning of the year, and he went 4 for 6, with no real disasters. Dunn and Chris B. Young still finished in the top 150, but better value would have been there in the first round of the draft. His other 4 keepers (Pujols, Braun, Berkman and Roberts) are fantasy elite. Berkman was a monster in the first half, and brought back two keeper lever players (Sabathia/Beltran) in a great trade with the BOYZ, and Pujols finished #1 overall.

Jobu never was able to really stabilize that MI position, as 3 of his last few picks (Johnson, Greene, Kent) were all MI eligible, and were all cut by mid May. Jobu also cut Milton Bradley and Raul Ibanez at various times, but offense was never Jobu’s main problem. As mentioned before, starting pitching cost Jobu all season long. Smoltz, Liriano and Pedro were his first 3 SP’s drafted, and not one delivered anything close to ace-ness. Not until 8/23 when Sabathia joined the fold was there any semblance of a quality ERA/WHIP starter. When Jorge Campillo finds his way onto your roster 8 different times, you know that there is a void in your rotation. We’ll see if Jobu’s strategy is adjusted in 2009.

- Best Move: Trading Berkman/2009 1st /Lilly for Sabathia/Beltran/Shields. Jobu trades Lance and someone not good enough to be kept for 2 top 20 players, one of whom was the #2 pitcher of 2008. AND he got Shields who was a top 100 pitcher. Runner Up: Drafting Soria 108th, one spot before Chad Cordero and Jeremy Bonderman. Soria finished ranked 34th. The other 2 didn’t even finish.

- Worst Move: Leaving Ian Kinsler on the board (#30) to take Francisco Liriano (#28). Also, Roy Halladay was there at this pick too. How different would Jobu’s season have been with Halladay (#3 overall… seriously) as that rotation anchor he missed all year?

- Biggest Surprise: It has to be Soria becoming Marianoeque for the awful Royals.

- Biggest Disappointment: Chris B. Young, after flirting with 30/30 in his rookie season, put numbers very comparable to Eric Hinske in his sophomore season. Not quite what Jobu was expecting from keeper #6.

- Blog would have: Traded offense for an ace much earlier. Would the BOYZ have sent Sabathia and Beltran to Jobu for Berkman straight up in say, May? Of course he would have!

- Jobu should keep: Pujols, Braun, Beltran, Roberts, Sabathia. He should then try really hard (tough with no 1st round pick) to get a 6th keeper slot for Matt Kemp. You listening teams with keeper slots to spare? Like the team who’s name rhymes with ROB’Z TOYZ?


- Final Draft Grade: C-. 9 drafted players on the final roster. 9 value picks. 2 top 50, and 2 top 100 players drafted. Not bad, but man… Smotlz in the 2nd, Liriano in the 3rd and Pedro in the 6th really put this team in a hole they never could climb out of. Getting Kemp in round 4 was a steal, as were Soria in the 11th and Wood in the 18th.

- Final Season Grade: C-. Made the playoffs, but as Blog has already covered, this offense should have done more than just make the playoffs.

- 2009 Outlook: Jobu has 4 possible keepers who finished in the top 25 last year. He gets Power and speed out of those keepers. The loss of the #1 stings a bit, but with those keepers and the need for Jobu to recover from the 2008 disappointment, they should be considered a threat to the 2009 crown.