Saturday, March 30, 2013

Fantasy Focus: Presenting the 2013 Savvy Vets

I finally had my fantasy baseball auction draft last night. Here are the 2013 Savvy Vets.  I'll list the players by position with their auction price and some comments.

C   Salvador Perez, Royals.  $6.  My targets were Wilin Rosario and Perez.  By the time they were nominated, I was getting a bit worried about how many $$ I had left.  When the bidding got to $10 for Rosario, I bailed and then got Perez later.  Jesus Montero was my Worst Case Scenario plan.

1B  Albert Pujols, Angels.  $39.  Pujols ended up as my most expensive player.  I think that's pretty good considering several players went up in the $50 range.  I had Pujols as my #5 overall player.

2B  Rickie Weeks, Brewers.  $2.  My first target was Aaron Hill, but when the bidding got into the 20's with him, I bailed and got Weeks in the bargain bin a few nominations later.

3B  Pablo Sandoval, Giants.  $16.  The draft started at 8 PM PDT, so I was unaware that Pablo's elbow had flared up again.  $16 is not a huge hit if he hits the DL, though.

SS  Ian Desmond, Nationals.  $19.  The price was a litte higher than I wanted to go, but I ended up with a few $$ on the table it all worked out in the end.  Their was a steep dropoff at the SS position after Desmond, so I felt I had to take him unless his price went through the roof.

IF  Allen Craig, Cardinals.  $21.  Again, a bit pricey, but Craig is being taken as high as the second round in a lot of expert drafts.

OF  Bryce Harper, Nationals.  $30.  Maybe a bit rich, but gotta love the upside here.

OF  Jason Heyward, Braves.  $22.  I've always been a Heyward fan going all the way back to the 2007 draft.  I think this might be Heyward's year to really bust out.  Even if he just repeats last year's stat line, $22 is still a bargain price.

OF  Adam Jones, Orioles.  $24.  I wanted my OF to be 3 out of Harper, Heyward, Cespedes and Jones.  I had Cespedes targeted before Jones, but I had to bail when the bidding for Cespedes went to $28.  Jones has improved his numbers every year of his career so far.  I think he is just hitting his stride as a player.

UT  Melky Cabrera, Blue Jays.  $4.  I wasn't particularly targeting Melky. He went for a lot more in the mock drafts I did.  When I had the opportunity to grab him in bargain time, I went for it.

UT  Pedro Alvarez, Pirates.  $2.  Alvarez is, at worst, a very cheap source of HR's.  In this case, he's insurance if Pablo goes on the DL too.

SP  CC Sabathia, Yankees.  $16.  I still can't believe CC was my first pitcher.  I was hoping for at least 1 higher ranked ace, but the early bidding for pitching got really crazy.  Even David Price went in the high $30's.

SP  Mat Latos, Reds.  $11.  Latos was not on my radar at all, but I just felt $11 was too cheap to pass up for him.

SP  Yu Darvish, Rangers.  $18.  I was expecting Darvish to go in the low $20's, but by this time, guys were starting to run out of cash.

SP  Ryan Vogelsong, Giants.  $4.  I thought Vogie would go a lot higher.  What a steal for $4!

SP  Hisashi Iwakuma, Mariners.  $2.  Nice bargain bin value here.

RP  Glen Perkins, Twins.  $1.  I was conflicted about drafting closers, but if you can get one for $1 in my league, I think you have to go for it.  He has trade value.

RP  Fujikawa, Cubs.  $1.  I mistakenly bid $3 on Carlos Marmol earlier, so I figured I'd at least handcuff him with Fujikawa since I was stuck with him.

RP  Carlos Marmol, Cubs.  $3.  I thought I was bidding $2 on Marmol, but someone else got their bid in first, so when I hit the button the bid was at $3.  Oh, well.  $3 ain't much even if I end up dumping him onto the waiver wire.

P   Hiroki Kuroda, Yankees.  $4.  Kuroda helped Savvy Vets a lot last year.  Does he have anything left in the tank?

P   Matt Harvey, Mets.  $2.  I thought I might have to go a lot higher for Harvey.  He's my big breakout pitcher this year.  I think this is a huge bargain.

BN  Alex Cobb, Rays.  $1.  Cobb is high on a lot of sleeper lists this year.  Is he for real?  I'll pay $1 to find out.

BN  Brett Anderson, A's.  $2.  Anderson is the A's #1 starter. I expected him to go way higher than this.

BN  Julio Teheran, Braves.  $1.  Teheran reportedly has his velocity and command back and was dominant in spring training.  Again, he's way worth $1 to see if it's for real.

BN  Dylan Bundy, Orioles.  $1.  A stash pick.  On talent, he should have broken camp with the Orioles, but he'll stay down until June for arbitration clock purposes.

BN  Gerrit Cole, Pirates.  $1 See Dylan Bundy above.

Analysis:

My offense is balanced.  I will ride with it and see if I need to add more power or SB's down the road.  I should do well in the BA category which mangers often overlook when they are focused on HR or SB's.  Alvarez and possibly Weeks are my only BA drags.

I would have liked a little more at the top of my pitching rotation, but I got all of the later round guys I targeted and more.  I'm not sure I can afford to stash Bundy and Cole until they come up, but if I can stay in the playoff hunt until then, I think it will pay off in the second half.

What to do with my RP's?  Should I keep then and try to acquire 1 or 2 more as the season goes along or should I just punt and put SP's with RP eligibility in there and go for wins in W's and K's?  I'm considering offering all 3 of my RP's to another guy who really likes closers for Alexi Ogando, then pick up Shelby Miller off the FA list.  I would then use Iwakuma, Ogando and Miller in my RP slots and pick up yet another SP.  That would put my rotation at 13 pitchers without Bundy and Cole.

3 comments:

  1. Look like you got a good team put together. You know me, I punt saves, so I would trade them, but I do not know Ogando. I think big steal for KC Perez at catcher, nice one. Overall, I just like quality pitching, so if you can pick up some good pitchers after the trade, all the better since you like Ogando.

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    1. WHIP is a category that most fantasy baseball managers ignore even though it is probably a much more stable stat than ERA and is definitely a lot more stable than W's. The thing I like about Ogando is in 2011 when he was starting, he put up a WHIP of 1.00 which is really excellent for a SP. He's now back in the Rangers' starting rotation. There was some question about his velocity early in spring training, but he seems to have built it back up as ST has progressed.

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    2. Yeah, I felt like when I landed Perez for just $6 I had a good draft. I waited on the category while others were spending down their $$ allocation. By the time Perez was nominated, most of the managers did not have the resources to big him up higher and the one guy who could have already had a catcher. I also still had Jesus Montero as my Worst Case Scenario plan available in case I wasn't able to land Perez. This was the pick where I felt my pre-draft preparation paid off big time.

      Rickie Weeks at 2B was another won that played out just like I had drawn it up.


      The only real surprise was how expensive ace SP's were. I was hoping to land at least one out of Verlander/Strasburg/Price, but the bidding was prohibitively high, so I had to start building my pitching staff with CC.

      One thing I'm really proud of it that every one of my pitchers, except Marmol, had a WHIP of less than 1.25 last year. Doesn't mean they will do it again this year, but I think I am going to be very competitive in the category even against teams that loaded up on RP to go with a few ace SP's.

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