Fantasy Focus: Savvy Vets Makes First Pick Up

With a scattering of games in the books, my Savvy Vets fantasy baseball team currently leads its head-to-head matchup by a score of 6-2. Jose Bautista came through in a big way yesterday to lead the offense. I'm a bit worried about Dee Gordon who went 0 for 5(the problem with drafting Dodgers is what's good for the Giants is bad for my fantasy team). Anyway, I drafted Gordon to do one thing, steal bases, but you can't steal first base! My opponent had several starters going yesterday, including Justin Masterson, so he got off to a jumpstart in K's. I expect to catch up in that category as he only has 5 SP's and I'll be coming at him with waves of starters(the games from Japan and this week are added to next week's games for the first H2H week).

With Kyle Farnsworth hitting the DL, I needed to replace him on my active roster. I chose to add another Starter in Bartolo Colon. Colon pitched a great game for the A's in Japan and faces the Mariners again this weekend in a much more pitcher friendly park. I had Colon all last year and he was solid for me with 8 wins and a 4.00 ERA. He put up a K/9 of almost 8 with a BB/9 of just 2.19. He was pitching in the toughest environment for pitchers in Yankee Stadium in the AL East and his FIP and xFIP were in the mid-3's. I might only hold onto him while Farnsworth is out, or if he's going good, I might keep him for the season. I expect him to put up solid numbers in a much more pitcher friendly environment although he may not get many W's with the A's.

I have Brian Wilson, Joe Nathan and Grant Balfour as my 3 RP's and have a closer-in-waiting in Vinnie Pestano so I didn't feel like I needed to replace Farnsworth with a RP.

Oh yeah, here's the current Savvy Vets roster as it stands today:

C Matt Wieters
1B Prince Fielder
2B Dustin Ackley
3B Jose Bautista
SS Dee Gordon
IF Pablo Sandoval
OF Andrew McCutchen
OF Melky Cabrera
OF Alejandro De Aza
UT Freddie Freeman
UT David Ortiz
SP Zach Grienke
SP Madison Bumgarner
SP Ricky Romero
SP Cory Luebke
SP Brandon Beachy
RP Brian Wilson
RP Joe Nathan
RP Grant Balfour
P Vinnie Pestano
P Bartolo Colon
BN Jordan Zimmerman
BN Brandon Morrow
BN Ervin Santana
BN Chris Capuano
BN Matt Harrison
DL Kyle Farnsworth.

I've gotten some criticism for having all pitchers on the bench. This is by design. We can re-set our lineups each day in my league, so the SP's on the bench just serve as an extended rotation, so I really don't have a bench, per se. We are allowed 40 FA pickups during the season so if somebody gets hurt or is underperforming, I can easily drop them and pick up a replacment on the FA market. The only reason to put a hitter on the bench is if you think they have great upside and don't want to risk losing them to someone else.

My other option was to pick up Brennan Boesch and stash him on my bench, but I don't like to waste roster space on hitters who don't play so I went with the SP. I'm a bit torn between the guy I drafted, Alejandro De Aza and Boesch. I've considered dropping De Aza for Boesch several times. I need the extra steals I think De Aza will give me more than I need Boesch's power, so I'm sticking with De Aza for now. Of course, Boesch may be picked up by another team by the time I'm ready to dump De Aza, if it comes to that, so that would be an argument for stashing Boesch on my bench. My general philosophy in managing my fantasy team is to take care of the present and let the future work itself out though.

Other SP candidates I considered were Henderson Alvarez and Juan Nicasio, but my familiarity with Colon from last year gave me a bit more confidence in him.