I came in third place this year - a really good finish considering there were stretches of weeks at a time when checking my team completely slipped my mind. I also didn't follow my players as closely as I could have. For instance, if I were aware that last year's AL Cy Young Award winner had been carrying an ERA north of 4.00, I probably would have been shopping around a lot sooner.
Here's a list depicting how my roster looked at the end of the season, organized by the first position they have listed:
| POS | Name | Team(s) | swp | swp/g |
| C | Kurt Suzuki | OAK | 1,238 | 9.5 |
| C/DH | Jorge Posada | NYY | 1,227 | 10.2 |
| 1B | Albert Pujols | STL | 2,843 | 17.9 |
| 1B/RF | Garrett Jones | PIT | 1,594 | 10.1 |
| 2B/3B | Ian Stewart | COL | 1,208 | 10.0 |
| 3B/2B | Chone Figgins | SEA | 1,364 | 8.5 |
| 3B/2B | Neil Walker | PIT | 1,320 | 12.0 |
| SS | Troy Tulowitzki | COL | 2,089 | 17.1 |
| LF/1B/DH | Luke Scott | BAL | 1,680 | 12.8 |
| LF/2B/RF | Ryan Raburn | DET | 1,202 | 10.6 |
| CF | Shane Victorino | PHI | 1,988 | 13.5 |
| CF/LF/RF | Andres Torres | SF | 1,828 | 13.2 |
| CF/LF/RF | Rajai Davis | OAK | 1,634 | 11.4 |
| RF/LF | Shin-Soo Choo | CLE | 2,129 | 14.8 |
| RF | Andre Ethier | LAD | 1,755 | 12.6 |
| RF/LF/DH | Jack Cust | OAK | 1,112 | 9.9 |
| SP | Roy Oswalt | HOU/PHI | 2,189 | 66.3 |
| SP | Clayton Kershaw | LAD | 2,041 | 63.8 |
| SP/RP | Brett Myers | HOU | 2,010 | 60.9 |
| SP | Hiroki Kuroda | LAD | 1,652 | 53.3 |
| SP | Zack Greinke | KC | 1,508 | 45.7 |
| SP | Mike Pelfrey | NYM | 1,479 | 43.5 |
| RP | Heath Bell | SD | 2,308 | 34.4 |
| RP | Jonathan Broxton | LAD | 1,124 | 17.6 |
| RP | Matt Guerrier | MIN | 611 | 8.3 |
| RP | Scott Downs | TOR | 634 | 9.5 |
(This list also represents my first dabbling into swp of the 2010 season. GET EXCITED!)
Of the 25 players I drafted, 17 remained on my end-of-year roster. One of the notable exceptions (Josh Johnson / 2,043 / 73.0) had a fine season, but I dropped him in early September when he landed on the DL for the rest of the season. Another one (Ryan Ludwick / 1,323 / 9.7) I only noticed his futility way too late. Had I been paying attention to the performances of the guys I eventually found to replace them (Brett Myers and Andres Torres, respectively), I likely would have made the switches months ago. But fantasy neglect is rather common over a 162 game season.
A couple of my regulars were injured for extended periods of time, so I had to find replacements on the fly. For Posada I eventually picked up Kurt Suzuki, after whom I had lusted since round 11 of our draft in March. He wasn't much better, but you at least need a warm body behind the plate, otherwise a lot of pitched balls would sail to the backstop or hit the ump in the groin.
When Tulo went down, I picked up Cubs phenom Starlin Castro (1,155 / 9.2), who also wasn't anything special. I dropped him later in the season to get some reinforcement for my absolutely lousy 2B/3B combination. I settled on Ryan Raburn and rookie Neil Walker, despite overwhelming evidence of mediocrity.
I just couldn't find anyone decent to play 2B or 3B for the LIFE of me. The one good thing about Chon-eh is that he stole a lot of bases. His 42, along with Victorino's 36 and Rajai Davis's 50 (!), gave me a potent force on the basepaths - my 116 Net Steals (SB - CS) was good for second-most in the league!
Other good categories for me: second-most home runs (242), second-most walks (695), second-fewest walks allowed (353, tie), and second-fewest home runs allowed (79). Also: third-best OPS (.808), third-best ERA (3.29), third-fewest hits allowed (1,005), and third-fewest losses (61).
Bad categories: second-fewest runs scored (868, which appears important, but is really just a measure of circumstance, really), and absolute-fewest doubles (329).
I'm pretty happy with my showing. Later I'll expound on my absolute ideal setup for Fantasy Baseball, both in terms of team organization and scoring. But that will likely not come until after the playoff fervor has died down.
No comments:
Post a Comment