Poor Poor Aaron

A simple minded response from a simple minded person.

Phillitastically Yours,

Papa Kev

Fuck You Kevin

Fuck you Kevin,

Fuck you.

Bravely Yours,

Aaron

Greater Atlanta Area First Bapist Church Softball Team

That is the name I have given the Braves for the upcoming Season. Similar to how I call the Redskins the JV Team. The Braves will also be known as the B Squad, Third Place, The Worst of the East,GAAFBCST and Los Losers.
On Monday at 3:05 PM my boys in red will charge the field to begin their season. It will be a season of triumph. There will be many tears shed by the fans of the Greater Atlanta Area First Bapist Church Softball Team. Los Losers season of pain and anguish is about to begin. Aaron I give you a chance to repent your sins. In your haze you have actually turned to comparing pre-season stats. How can you lean on those. If that is all you have going for you then I feel very sorry for you and The Worst of the East. You can be a Phillies fan right here and now. No questions asked. We as the Phillies congregation will gladly accept you as our wayward son. We won't hold your years of supporting the B Squad against you. Come see the light brother. Seek Salvation!!! Cast off the restraints of Ted Turner!!!! Come see how it is to be part of a brotherhood!!!! A brotherhood of wins, celebration and MVP'S. There's a whole ocean of wins under our feet and nobody can get at it except Phillies fans. We are waiting to accept you.
Fuck the Braves. It's Utley time.

Let the season begin!

Pedroia just lead off the season with a single at 6 am.  

Let the games commence!!

Final Keepers?

Aaron:
David Wright
Jose Reyes
John Papelbon
Fausto Carmonoa
Chone Figgins

Brian
B.J. Upton
Russel Martin
Justin Verlander
Scott Kazmir
Dustin Pedroia

Fletcher:
Ryan Howard
Grady Sizemore
Roy Oswalt
Andruw Jones
Brian McCann

JOSH:
Santana
Chase Utley
Alfonso Soriano
Victor Martinez
Travis Hafner

JUSTIN:
Hanley Rameriez
Miguel Cabera
Ryan Braun
Mark Teixerra
Cole Hammels

KEVIN:
Jimmy Rollins
Aaron Harrang
King Felix
Rickie Weeks
Joe Mauer

If their is any problems with that let me know, I will be sending you all a spreadsheet that has it listed out better then that.

As far as the draft goes, it really doesn't matter. I hear Duke might be on TV on Sunday...so Fletcher would want to do it afterwards...or we could do the draft off line throughout the day. We can set the live draft for whaterver time we want whenever we want.

Final draft questions

I have a few questions to tie up some loose ends before the draft this Sunday.

1. Can we get a final official list of all of the keepers so they can be added to everyones "do not draft" list?

2. What time on Sunday is the draft?

Thanks, and good luck to everyone on the upcoming season.

Brian

Let the Smack Talk Continue

Ok I know its just spring training...but my boys in Atlanta are backing up what im saying with what there doin. Check out the current Grapefruit League standings.

GRAPEFRUIT W L GB RS RA Diff
Tampa Bay 7 3 -- 66 54 12
Minnesota 8 4 -- 68 55 13
NY Mets 8 4 -- 45 47 -2
Atlanta 8 5 .5 81 61 20
Detroit 8 5 .5 73 59 14
Florida 9 6 .5 74 58 16
NY Yankees 5 4 1.5 54 52 2
Baltimore 6 5 1.5 71 64 7
Cincinnati 7 6 1.5 88 90 -2
Cleveland 6 6 2.0 70 66 4
LA Dodgers 6 6 2.0 71 57 14
Washington 6 7 2.5 67 62 5
Houston 6 8 3.0 78 95 -17
St. Louis 5 8 3.5 55 76 -21
Pittsburgh 4 8 4.0 76 79 -3
Toronto 4 8 4.0 42 48 -6
Philadelphia 4 9 4.5 60 91 -31
Boston 3 8 4.5 43 68 -25


So the only team to score more runs so far than the braves is the Reds. But the reds have also allowed more runs than they have scored so it doesnt matter. The Braves however have a 20+ run differential, the best in the league. Now take a look at the teams in bold to see how we shape up against the rest of the Division. Florida is the closest with 16+ followed by the Nats at 5+. Now look at the two teams with better pre-season accolades than ¡Los Bravos!. The mets are -2 and the Philbo's are a pitiful -31. I dont know what the better stat is, that the braves are +20 or that the Phillies are -31.

Once again i know this is just spring training, and the mets have had some injuries that have made the mets games farm hand harvests, but -31, for the team with the most NL MVPs/Capita. Sucks.

Let the Smack Talk Begin - Aaron

So I just wanted to get this season goin with a little smack talk for everyone. I know we dont even have teams yet, so there isn't much to talk smack about with our league. I can however talk a some smack about one league that is very far along, the NL East. There hasn't been as much talk about ¡Los Bravos! so far, but there are a smart few, Peter Gammons included, who are giving the NL East to ¡Los Bravos! Not Los Metropolitanos, not Las Pontracas, ¡Los Bravos! I don't know how everybody hasn't seen this yet. The Mets aren't that much better than last year. Santana will prove to be huge if they make it to the playoffs. But they have to get by some good teams to get there. The Phillbos are the same team this year, except for the fact that Howard has an extra $7,200,000.00 in his pocket. I think we all know how this ends up. Like this, or like this, or this.
¡Los Bravos! on the other hand have a lineup that looks a little like this:
1 Kelly Johnson (a bit of an odd leadoff, but good power and speed)

2 Yunel Escobar (MLBs next sensation. Saw this guy have a 4-4, 5RBI night in person)

3 Chipper Jones (MLBs best active switch hitter)

4 Mark Teixeira (The Heir to the best switch hitter Throne)

5 Jeff Francoeur (Got bigger and smarter, I actually saw him lay off some pitches)

6 Brian McCann (One of the top 3 hitting Catchers in the Majors)

7 Mark Kotsay (Great contact hitter that will get pleanty of RBI opp.)

8. Matt Diaz (Finished the season hot and has started the spring just as hot)

9. Tim Hudson (Coming off his best hitting season ever with an average of .263. {Andruw's last year was .222.})

Then of course there is the pitching, which is better than ¡Los Bravos! have had in a few years for sure. As long as they stay healthy you can't say that Smoltz, Hudson, Glavine, Hampton isn't one of the best rotations around. Right now the #5 is Chuck James, who has the best chance out of all of the pitchers on the rotation last year that has the chance of having what you could call a Career, as an MLB pitcher.

Long story short, fuck the Mets and fuckthe Phillies. Fuck em' right in their loser buttholes.

josh keepers 1.3

allright, i think i can stick with this one. i've run a few mocks, and the draft really falls off right at the break of rounds 2-3. i don't love who i could get there, and peavy will be gone, so i am going to keep Santana with round 3, pick 13. sorry for jerking anyone around. I will be, gulp, giving up pence in round 25. that feel dumb too, but i'm in the same boat as the comish; i could legitimately keep 7-8 guys b/c of value or overall nastyness.

and santana can only be traded for reyes or hanley. (or fielder or howard plus a hand job).

justin call me even if that's out of the question. i have something to run by you.

again:
Santana 3rd
Utley 4th
Soriano 8th
VMart 11th
Pronk 22nd

i only have off sunday, and i won't make any changes unless i'm on the phone with all of you or something because it's time for the dust to settle. thanks fellas.

J.West Keepers

So I'm going to try to go ahead and wrap this league up with my keepers.

1st-Hanley Ramirez
3rd-Miguel Cabrera
4th-Ryan Braun
8th- Mark Tex

then either
Carl crawford in the 5th
or Lincecum in the 30th

But i'm trying to work out a trade with Josh for Santana or Webb.

Trying to make a keeper trade

Anyone want Albert Pujols in the 3rd Round of Prince Fielder in the 2nd Round.

Aaron's Keepers 1.1

Ok guys I said it would probably be coming so here it is. I am changing my final keeper.
The new list is as follows:

David Wright - 1
Jose Reyes - 2
Jonathan Papelbon - 8
Fausto Carmona - 9
Chone Figgins - 15

Let me know if there is any protest to this. I want to make sure the league approves before this is set in stone...

keeper change

I've been back and forth for days, and I am going to make a switch. Instead of Gallardo with my last pick, I would now like to keep Victor Martinez in the 11th round. Let me know when the deadline for keepers is, because until that day i will agonize about keeping or leaving Johan. And if you can, confirm that the draft is Sunday March 16th, not that later day it says on Yahoo. thanks

Kevin's Keepers

Im posting kevin's keepers for him since he hasn't been added as an author yet.

Jimmy Rollins - 2

Aaron Harang - 8

Felix Hernandez - 28

Rickie Weeks - 29

Joe Mauer - 30

Aaron's Keepers 1.0

David Wright - 1
Jose Reyes - 2
Jonathan Papelbon - 8
Fausto Carmona - 9
Kelly Johnson - 26

Im calling this 1.0 because im still not sure who im keeping at 2B. It will either be kelly in the 26th, or Chone in the 15th. There is still an outside chance that it could be Placido Polanco in the 12th but i doubt it. Any comments are greatly appreciated.

Brian's Keeper

bj upton rd. 9
russell martin rd 12
verlander rd 14
kazmir rd 19
pedroia rd 29

Josh's Keeper Team

Chase Utley - 4th Round
Alfonso Soriano - 8th Round
Travis Hafner - 22nd Round
Hunter Pence - 25th Round
Yovani Gallardo - 30th Round


That means Holliday and Santana are going back into the draft.

draft day

so i moved my dates to be in Wilmington starting sunday march 16th.
I think we said we could do the draft that night. Is that correct? I hope so.
Thanks.

Fletcher Keeper List

Our newest member Fletcher has sent me his initial keeper list:

Brian McCann - 30th Round
Andruw Jones - 29th Round
Roy Oswalt - 20th Round
Grady Sizemore - 5th Round
Ryan Howard - 4th Round


Thats a damn good keeper list.

New lineup with 30 guy max

here is a lineup i came up with aaron given this new limit by yahoo. Aaron simplified a point i tried to make earlier; he wants to have the perfect number of scoring hitters each week so that the last few at bats on a sunday can still move the scores. not a lot, but some. so this lineup creates the position scarcity we want and doesn't water down the averages.

2 at every infield except for 1 C (9)
5 OF
1 Utl
10 P (just like last year)
5 bench spots

i think it would be hard to shrink anything else down and still get everything we want. your thoughts are appreciated.

it will be easier to pick keepers once we know this and the scoring, so let's get on it. i'm trying to come to wilmington March 17-19. I would LOVE to have the draft then.

So here is the problem

For some reason Yahoo only allows for 30 roster positions.

With 2 of each pos
6of
10 p
that brings us to 26 players and 4 bench spots. (does not include 2 utl)

I'm not a big fan of only having 4 bench spots, you all know I'm a prospect speculator and would love to have a deeper bench. So the question is 1. big starting rosters, shallow bench, or shallow starting rosters and deep bench.

Draft Order

Just to double check the draft order is:

Josh
Brian
Aaron
Justin
New Owner 1
New Owner 2

right?

and we gotta get JWest a trophy

2008 changes

Good to be back. I almost had to start playing Japaneese league fantasy to get my fix. I will try to hit most of JWest's questions in my ramblings.

I like 2 at every infield position. My question is stop there, or also have one IF, bringing total infielders to 11? ...but it goes to eleven...

After that I think I'm a little more prudent as far as line-up changes go. I think I prefer general OF as opposed to LF RF CF. I could be swayed on this, but maybe just 5 general OF. Same number of UTL as before. We only needed to nudge the number of starters a little so that not every starting line-up is basically equally jacked. I think the line-ups should do more to increase position scarcity (a la all those extra infield positions). More importantly, I don't think you want too many more SCORING players than we are dealing with. Larger groups hurt us in two ways: averages start to regress to a mean, and counting stats can get too spread out too fast. Both of these things can hurt the fun of the weekly scores and reduce the point of creating a really good team, as wierd as that sounds. I like the open P spots also, so lets's stick with 5 SP, 2 RP, and 3 P, unless you want to add a SP and/or RP to thin out the talent a little, as long as it doesn't hurt scoring.

On the flip side, I love the large bench idea. Why not? We keep the scoring fluid by increasing the number of scoring players by only a few (those extra IF's, maybe an OF or P here or there). We are sill waiver maniacs because we can speculate like crazy. And we are less frugal in trades, especially multi-player, lower-tier-player deals. JWest can hustle his brains out like we were a daily league, which i still do not want to be.

My only rule is that we figure it out in a way that JWest doesn't simply vaccum up every prospect possible taking the point out of all of this. Ah, it must be spring training, the smell of JWest paranoia is in the air. Anyway, the answer is finding the right size so that even he runs out of room and has to make tough choices.

As for scoring, we have to get rid of OPS, because it was redundant, but we should replace it, because the 8/7 scoring for hitters/pitches was money. Just pick a fun one. 2B's? I worry that hits or walks would again be redundant. Let me know.

Brian's pitchers stats are very different, and I think I like them. I subject W, L, SV, K, BAA, BB, ERA. Guys who give up HR's will still be punished with ERA, and ERA is a better fantasy stat than it is a real-world pitching tool. Everything else gets addressed with equal weight. I like whip, and K/BB, but they are covered without redundancy by K, BB, and BAA

So this year I say we experiment with the large bench idea. We were pretty close to perfect last year. I don't think drastic change is necessary anywhere else. Last year the waiver wire was not skimpy enough, and no one was worried about positionality. I think we have addresses this. Size of scoring lineup was not a problem, so let's only bump it up as much as necessary.

Let me know what you think about the IF, number of pitchers and OF's and the size of this big bench.

2008 Draft

Here is what i'm thinking the 2008 draft will work wtih our keeper system/

step 1: Prior to the draft everyone will submit their keeper lists to me.
step2: Once I have those lists I will email everyone with the people we cannotn draft
step 3: Once we have a league created in Yahoo, we go into our draft pre rankings and select everyone elses keepers and move them into the "never draft" list. This will ensure that none of us accidently pick someone elses keeper, or the computer doesnt if their is some sort of problem.

Welcome Back

Let's start talking about the 2008 season. These are just random thoughts I had at work today.

I think we all said we wanted to do 2 of each position

question 1: do we want 6 outfielders or 2lf 2rf 2cf?

question 2: how many pitchers do we want? 7sp and 4rp

question 3: what categories do we want Hitters: AVG/OBP/SLG/R/RBI/HR/SB

question 4: what categories do we want for pitchers?

question 5: How many roster spots do we want.

my thought is we have a very deep league, if were having 2 of each position plus 11 pitchers thats already 29 players....we should just go all out and have 35 to 40 players...this will mean less bargains on the waiver wire and encourage more trading amongst us.

Question 6: Scoring. Roto or Head to head, Daily transactions or weekly?


If you guys could post your comments we can figure this thing out.