Fantasy Football: Pick Me

Okay, one more diversion for this awesome series of videos...This is just a small sample of them.

Josh Hamilton’s Toughest Interview

A quick diversion away from Fantasy Baseball to indulge in loving one of my favorite players give an interview to the young daughter of one of my favorite bloggers.

A tip of the cap goes to The Gear Up Sports Rangers Blog.

Expert Leagues: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

NOTE: Apologies to those that received the incomplete version of this in their feeds. My big fat fingers struck the wrong keys.

In the last week I've had two expert league drafts - The Fantasy Baseball Search Expert League - a 12 team, mixed, 5x5 (OBA/Strikeouts), Head-to-Head league, and The Fantasy Sports Invitational Challenge - a fairly standard AL-only draft league. The two drafts could not have gone more differently.

The Fantasy Baseball Search Expert League

This draft took place on Mock Draft Central. It went quickly and smoothly. I was pretty much able to follow my very simple plan. The plan - draft a balanced offense but with an emphasis on power and pad the reserve list with lots of cheap steals and saves.

C Jorge Posada, New York Yankees

1B Mark Teixeira, New York Yankees
3B Kevin Youkilis, Boston Red Sox
CI Lance Berkman, Houston Astros

2B Brian Roberts, Baltimore Orioles
SS Derek Jeter, New York Yankees
MI Jose Lopez, Seattle Mariners

OF Johnny Damon, New York Yankees
OF Andre Ethier, Los Angeles Dodgers
OF Magglio Ordonez, Detroit Tigers
OF Brett Gardner, New York Yankees

U Mark DeRosa, Cleveland Indians

SP Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners
SP Jon Lester, Boston Red Sox
SP Josh Johnson, Florida Marlins
SP Chris Carpenter, St. Louis Cardinals
SP Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers
SP Justin Duchscherer, Oakland Athletics
SP Anibal Sanchez, Florida Marlins

RP Kevin Gregg, Chicago Cubs
RP Joey Devine, Oakland Athletics

Res C John Baker, Florida Marlins
Res 1B Jason Giambi, Oakland Athletics
Res 3B Edwin Encarnacion, Cincinnati Reds
Res OF Kendry Morales, Los Angeles Angels
Res OF Juan Pierre, Los Angeles Dodgers
Res SP David Huff, Cleveland Indians

Fantasy Sports Invitational Challenge - American League

This draft did not go so well for a variety of reasons. I spent two days inserting my draft lists into the CBSportsline.com system. I had another relatively simple plan - Draft an amazing offense and a low cost LIMA style pitching staff. I signed in 30 minutes early to queue up all of my sleeper picks and the pitchers I liked best. The draft began okay but then I and other noticed that the DH's were not listed under DH's. the draft was stopped to correct this problem. Then with the problem fixed autodraft took over and starting picking formy team and others. This required us to once again stop the draft. For some reason which I don't understand, we were unable to back out to the point the draft was originally stopped. It was decided that we would start the draft over an hour later and rebuild the draft thus far.

When we returned the draft was not rebuilt and owners who had previously been on auto-draft were now present. We attempted several times to rebuild the draft but it proved impossible. In addition the re-boot deleted my pre-ranks and all of the players I had put in my queue which meant I was going to have to wing it. The result was a pretty good offense and a bullpen dominated pitching staff.

This is not really intended as an excuse for my sorta lousy draft but just a description of the chaos of the draft itself. I should have been better prepared with a paper list but I was not. As a result I will probably be spending the first half of the season scrambling for innings.

C Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Texas Rangers

1B Kevin Youkilis, Boston Red Sox
3B Chris Davis, Texas Rangers
CI Mike Jacobs, Kansas City Royals

2B Mark DeRosa, Cleveland Indians
SS Bobby Crosby, Oakland Athletics
MI Ronny Cedeno, Seattle Mariners

OF B.J. Upton, Tampa Bay Rays
OF Magglio Ordonez, Detroit Tigers
OF Xavier Nady, New York Yankees
OF Delmon Young, Minnesota Twins
OF Justin Ruggiano, Tampa Bay Rays

U Jim Thome, Chicago White Sox

P David Aardsma, Seattle Mariners
P Grant Balfour, Tampa Bay Rays
P Dallas Braden, Oakland Athletics
P Brett Cecil, Toronto Blue Jays
P Scott Downs, Toronto Blue Jays
P Chris Ray, Baltimore Orioles
P George Sherrill, Baltimore Orioles
P Chris Tillman, Baltimore Orioles
P Joel Zumaya, Detroit Tigers

Res Max Ramirez, Texas Rangers
Res Brett Anderson, Oakland Athletics
Res Derek Holland, Texas Rangers
Res David Huff, Cleveland Indians
Res Ervin Santana, Los Angeles Angels

Okay, lets hear your thoughts...

Potential Breakout: Lastings Milledge

Lastings Milledge will turn 24-years old on opening day. Although it appears that he broke out in 2008, I believe there is quite a bit more fantasy baseball goodness coming in 2009. Milledge was moved around a injury (and talent lacking) lineup often last year. He also appears to have been a little unlucky with his BABIP judging by his line drive and ground ball rates and very good speed.

Washington Nationals manager Manny Acta recently announced more good news for Milledge owners. Milledge will act as the Nationals leadoff hitter this season with the manager's blessing to steal bases. An improved on-base percentage and a stable place in the batting order should significantly increase his stolen base opportunities. The Nationals have an all-star cast of former center fielders and leadoff hitters (Marquis Grissom and Devon White among them) in camp working with Milledge on improving his defense and his base stealing techniques and early reports have been very positive.

The Nationals' healthier (and more talented) 2009 lineup should also allow Milledge to score more runs and provide more RBI opportunities. Adam Dunn, a momentarily healthy Nick Johnson, Josh Willingham, a fulltime contribution from Elijah Dukes, and a healthy Ryan Zimmerman should transform a weak lineup into a potential powerhouse.

2009 UPSIDE: 600 at-bats, .280/.340/.440 with 20 HR, 50 RBI, 90 Runs, 40 SB

Trevor Hoffman and the Milwaukee Brewers Bullpen

Thanks to a strain in his rib cage it appears that the Brewers slightly used closer, Trevor Hoffman, will not be available to start the season. This of course kicks speculation about the next in line into overdrive. A serious oblique injury (and it appears that Hoffman's is serious) can take four to six weeks or more to heal properly. The wise money should be on the 41-year old coming in on the long side of that healing time.

From MLB.com:

"It's looking dim," manager Ken Macha said. Macha made that pronouncement after head athletic trainer Roger Caplinger told him that Hoffman won't be back on a mound for another week or so. Because he would probably need to work a few side sessions before getting into a game, it's increasingly likely that Hoffman will be sidelined, and perhaps on the disabled list, when the Brewers play their regular-season opener on April 7 in San Francisco.

Ken Macha seems to prefer right-hander Seth McClung as the temporary replacement. McClung has improved significantly since joining the Brewers and has the stuff to close. Many fantasy analysts have projected Carlos Villanueva as the next in line to close. Villanueva showcased awesome skills as the 2008 season came to an end and many expect him to breakout this season. Unfortunately, Villanueva has pitched poorly in camp, bad enough for Macha to announce publically that he has been disappointing thus far.

Daniel Murphy Moving Up

I was already excited about Dan Murphy but this news has me positively giddy. This will ensure that his RBI and Runs totals are approaching the century mark. I see his value approaching $20-25 which is awesome considering his 216.17 ADP in NL-only leagues.

2009 UPSIDE: 500 at-bats/ .300/15/80/90/15

From the New York Daily News:

Daniel Murphy recently took some ribbing from teammates after adding his few-year-old Honda Civic to a sign-up sheet for transport to New York. After all, the car stood out on a list that included new Mercedes, BMWs and Cadillac Escalades.

Murphy, frankly, is more concerned with his hitting. And it's his bat that will land him in the No. 2 spot in the Mets' lineup on Opening Day and beyond.

Despite only 131 big-league at-bats on his resume, Murphy's approach at the plate has impressed Jerry Manuel so much that the skipper plans to place Murphy directly after Jose Reyes in his lineup. The plan would also entail placing Luis Castillo in the No. 8 hole.

Manuel didn't list his complete lineup, but it's reasonable to expect Murphy would be followed by Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, David Wright, Ryan Church, Brian Schneider, Castillo and the pitcher.

Sleeper Alert: David Murphy

David Murphy is expected to open the 2009 season as the starting left fielder for the Texas Rangers. Yet in AL-only leagues he has an ADP of just 209.69 behind odd choices such as Andruw Jones, George Kottaras, Daric Barton, and Melky Cabrera. The Rangers expect Murphy to set a career high in at-bats as Club President Nolan Ryan thinks he should be left in the lineup everyday to achieve his full potential. What is that potential?

Murphy should draw more walks and his plate discipline still has room for growth. However, he is a good contact hitter with plenty of power. He hits too many groundballs which limits his homerun potential to about 25 in a full season (without a major adjustment). He should hit for a solid average in the .280-.290 range. Murphy will bat in the middle of a loaded lineup which boads well for his Runs and RBI potential.

At his present draft position Murphy makes a great bargain selection in the later rounds of AL-only and even deeper mixed league drafts.