Posts belonging to Category fantasy baseball

Another week and another healthy helping of goodness, baseball is well under way with what can finally be considered a “worth-while” sample size.  By now, you have had enough time to watch baseball games, dissect saber-stats, and formulate a nice feel for your team and league.  It is the primetime to find an unsatisfied owner and score some fine product; the perfect opportunity to pry away some prime real estate at Target prices.

Unfortunately for this week, I have no new trades to report in the Denslow Cup.  I have been in negotiations on a couple deals involving some weight…Jose Bautista, Chipper Jones, Joey Votto, Yovani Gallardo, and C.C. Sabathia.  Not that these are all guys I will be talking about in this article, but I just love negotiating with other owners to find out how their opinions have changed on different guys and see if I can bring back a guy, or two, for under market value.

Speaking of negotiating, I can speak enough on how important it is to love the hunt as much as the kill.  In order to pull off successful trades, it requires many discussions and proposals with different owners in your league.  If your mind has  changed on guys you drafted, be sure that the same has happened all across the league.  Knowing how certain players on the fringe of bust or bounce-back years are being reevaluated is key to hitting pay dirt.  The following is a list of great Trade Bait.

(more…)

---

Subscribe to The Golden Sombrero by Email

---

---

Playing fantasy baseball is fashionable for many reasons.  It appeals to not only rad people, such as myself, but also has qualities that attract the nerdiest guy you know from your AP stats class back in high school.  People love the stats, and people love trying to predict the future.  If they didn’t, then why are psychic hotlines so popular?  For me, though, it is not really about the stats.  It is all about playing the role of the Fantasy GM.

I am sure that there are others who feel this way.  Maybe it is just the fact that I am now a baseball coach/manager, or maybe it is because I can’t stand being drug through the mud for another season as an Astros’ fan.  Whatever the reason, I love to play the role of the GM.  The best part about being the GM: the trades.  Oh, yes.

Trading is maybe the most exciting part of any fantasy season.  I love trying to negotiate a deal on a buy low candidate or trying to convince another owner that so-and-so is not really as good as he thinks he is.  Or maybe I just want some new blood in the lineup.  Regardless, I love trading and think that it is one of the most crucial components to a successful fantasy season.

With the one month mark rapidly approaching, I would like to introduce the first article in a new series I plan on putting out every other week this year.  I call it, Trade Bait.  It is a list of some players that I would like to acquire, as well as guys I am getting rid of as if they were the plague.  I will also start each article off with the list of trades that have gone down in the Denslow Cup before introducing each list.

(more…)

---

Subscribe to The Golden Sombrero by Email

---

---

When I say this is my first week of fantasy, I don’t mean the first of the season—I mean I’ve never participated in fantasy sports before this year. Previously, I assumed that I would make too big of a time commitment just to be stomped around by guys (and possibly girls) that have done this before and have, you know, strategies and such. When fellow Sombrero contributor Rick Berdelle invited me to his league, “The Sober Valley Lodge,” I thought this was a great opportunity to finally make the plunge into fantasy. The Lodge’s settings look like this:

(more…)

After reading Dee’s write-up of his draft picks, I would like to add my own review of the Denslow Cup 2011 draft.  Before we get into my picks and reasoning, let me tell you this: the league is filled with nerds, and playing in an OBP league drastically changes the way our draft goes as compared to other 5×5 leagues.  The draft was highly competitive, and was fantastic.  As Dee mentioned in his article, he and I gathered with a couple friends of the league, shared some suds and BBQ, and had our spring Christmas.  Just as with Christmas, entering draft day you never know what you are going to get.  By the end of it, you got a ton of stuff (or guys) and now it is time to see how it all works out.  I am incredibly optimistic about this year’s squad, So Fresh ‘n So Sheen Sheen, and where we can finish.  Last year was a debacle, with me finishing 13^th out of 16 teams.  This year we shaved 4 teams, and the rosters are representative of that.  So, without further ado, I present to you a team flowing with tiger’s blood and bi-winning, and that is about to right all the wrongs of 2010: So Fresh ‘n So Sheen Sheen.

(more…)

Last Tuesday evening was the annual Denslow Cup draft.  Luckily I was back home in Farmington so that Griff and I could get together and drink some beers and eat some BBQ courtesy of my mom and buddy/Sombrero enthusiast, Benji.  The Cup’s draft day is one of my favorite days of the year, and this was absolutely no exception.  I was totally amped all day and could barely hold my hand still to click the mouse to select my first pick.  As usual, we played in a 7 X 7 league with R, RBI, BA, Slug %, OBP, SB, and HR as our offensive categories and W, SV, WHIP, ERA, K’s, K/BB, and IP as our pitching categories.  We have tried to incorporate stats we view as essential to Big League success such as K/BB and OBP in an effort to discourage profiting from players who don’t contribute proportionately to their actual teams.  Anyway, I wanted to present my team, the Milk Steak Knives (named after both the Cup’s founder, Robert Vincent Unsell, and Charlie Kelly’s favorite dish), to our readers and offer some justification for my picks.

(more…)