Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Roster doctor
Posted by Jonathan Halket at 1:01amName: Ryan B.
Player Pool: Mixed
No of Teams: 11
Categories 8x8 Roto Normal Categories + K(batter), OBP, SLG, CG, Holds, SHO
C - Ryan Doumit
1B - Ryan Howard
2B - Mike Aviles
3B - Evan Longoria
SS - Derek Jeter
OF - Curtis Granderson
OF - Bobby Abreu
OF - Daniel Murphy
Util - Justin Morneau
Util - Cameron Maybin
BN - Johnny Damon
BN - Willy Taveras
SP - Cole Hamels
SP - Rich Harden
RP - Joe Nathan
RP - Jonathan Broxton
P - Frank Francisco
P - Chris Ray
P - Taylor Buchholz
BN - Ryan Dempster
BN - Randy Johnson
BN - Jair Jurrjens
BN - Jered Weaver
BN - Chris Volstad
Ryan, you have some interesting scoring stats and a fairly good combination of players. On your pitching, I see two areas with room for improvement. You have both complete games and shutouts as scoring stats, so there is a real premium on pitchers who can go the distance. I don't see Rich Harden going the distance in games, perhaps ever again. So finding room for Randy Johnson, who actually had two complete games last year, might mean a big improvement here. Of course, if you can lay your paws on Roy Halladay, by any means, do it.
Also, you are weak in holds. The best candidates for holds are setup men. Buchholz, when healthy, is still behind Manny Corpas for the setup role. Chris Ray is on a shaky team and might even end up closing some games. Obviously, if J.J. Putz or Scot Shields is still out there, grab them. But other good holds sources are: any of the many Red Sox setup men, Brian Bruney on the Yankees, Hong Chi Kuo, and of course Carlos Marmol.
As for your batters—Ryan Howard has had declining OBPs and SLGs for the last two seasons and is murder for your Ks. He'll obviously still help you in OBP and SLG but since you have Morneau for 1B, I would see if you can upgrade your outfield a bit by trading Howard. In any case, I would also start Johnny Damon over Daniel Murphy to start off the season and see how Murphy shakes out.
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I wouldn’t worry too much about not having enough holds guys right now. Those guys are available for free all season long. I like to cycle them through the lineup all season. I cut them for hitters on Monday, pick up different holds guys for Tuesday and Wednesday, cut them for hitters on Thursday, and pick up different guys for the weekend. Rinse and repeat.
Don’t value them highly, unless you can get someone who qualifies at SP (like Kuo and Villanueva do in Yahoo). That position eligibility gives you an advantage over everyone else because you can start 6 RPs instead of 5 on days where you only have one starter going.