+----+----+-----+----+------+
| R  | HR | RBI | SB | AVG  |
+----+----+-----+----+------+
| 72 |  6 |  40 | 33 | .267 |
+----+----+-----+----+------+

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Posted by Paul Singman at 3:08am (10) Comments

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The usual suspects

I participated in four mixed league drafts over the past week. So, I decided that for this week’s column, I’d look at some players who have made appearances on more than one of my teams. I figure that if I was able to land a player in multiple league that is an indicator that he was either undervalued by the market, overvalued by me, or perhaps a bit of both.

Just to provide a bit of context, in all four of these leagues I chose to abstain from drafting a pitcher until somewhere in the neighborhood of pick 100. I was hoping to get Cole Hamels as my ace in as many leagues as possible, figuring he was the most undervalued truly elite pitcher. So, a fair amount of my repeat offenders will be upside pitchers who were there for the taking in the pick 150-240 range.

Without further ado, let’s get into the players who will make me very happy or rather frustrated over the next seven months.

4 for 4

Roy Oswalt. Full disclosure: I love Roy Oswalt and he was very good to me back when he was a perennial Cy Young candidate. So, there is a bit of the late night meet-up with the old flame thing going here. But there were other reasons Oswalt found his way to me so often. I think players returning from injury are generally undervalued. I was also shopping for a lot of high risk/reward types, so I felt Oswalt represented something of a more balanced risk asset. I still think there is fairly nice upside potential, especially considering how late I got him, but I also think that aside from injury, he doesn’t have nearly the bust potential of a Scott Kazmir or Jonathan Sanchez.

Max Scherzer … or Max Scherzer. Scherzer is one of my favorite of the high-ceiling, late-round starters though. If he can toss 185-200 innings, which remains to be seen, he could put up 200 Ks. Oliver seems to love him as well. The move to AL is reason for some concern, but any step forward in Scherzer’s development should easily outstrip the penalty of switching leagues. His run support should increase as well.

3 for 4

Nelson Cruz. Cruz is another player whom Oliver seems to really like, and I can’t say I disagree. He hit 33 homers and stole 20 bases (while getting caught just four times) in 128 games last year. He hits in a great park and in a potent line-up and he’ll start the season at 29 years of age. The only thing not to love is his batting average, which I tried to account for in my drafts.

I actually made a cognizant effort to draft better batting average candidates in my earliest picks than in years past. This was because as I kept looking for offensive players I thought would be bargains, the emerging trend was that batting average appeared the most common risk/deficiency. So, I thought to myself that in order to be able to carry such players, I’d need to have a strong core of .300 hitters. Cruz is likely to be a stud regardless, but even more so if you’ve already accounted for his potentially questionable batting average.

Aramis Ramirez. Although I thrice selected Aramis, I did so with a bit of trepidation each time. Every year there are high-ranked players whom I have every intention of avoiding but who slip far enough that it forces me to give serious consideration to said player’s upside. Basically, three times I was unable to resist Ramirez’s price. With 3B being fairly thin this year as well, I often looked at Ramirez as the last player available with the true elite potential. Ramirez has done it before and continues to do it so long as he remains in the line-up. And, frankly, I think his injury history is a tad overstated. Considering where I got him in some of the drafts, I think 130 games plus his replacement would actually be fair value.

Ted Lilly. I discussed Lilly last week. He’s the definition of underrated and he gets snubbed every year. This season he’s coming of an injury to boot but is only slated to miss the first two weeks of the season. Anything resembling his past three seasons will be a tremendous value considering how late I was able to snag him.

Brad Lidge. In one of my drafts, closers without any job security, including guys still in competition for a job (Matt Lindstrom, Chris Perez) were being drafted before Lidge. Now, I understand the reason to be skeptical of Lidge and I didn’t go into my drafts targeting him, per se, but if last year proved anything, it’s that he has as long a leash as any closer in the game. We also kind of went through this whole “what’s wrong with Brad Lidge?” act already, back in 2006. I made very small investments in a guy who has shown that he can be a truly elite closer in this league, even on the biggest stage there is. Once he comes back, how bad can it be? ... Famous last words, I know.

2 for 4

Though I will not go into these players in depth because it’s not as strong a statement that they found their way onto two of my teams, it’s still quite possible they are undervalued.

Ryan Braun – one of these was a keeper, the other time I took him with the fourth pick, so no undervaluing going on here
Victor Martinez – similar to the Aramis Ramirez dynamic, but I was actually more comfortable drafting him
Aaron Hill – even though I got him twice, I wouldn’t necessarily say I clearly saw him as a bargain
Andre Ethier – love the power potential, and at age 28, who’s to say his best isn’t yet to come?
Joakim Soria – the crop of top-tier closers was thinner than ever, and I like to get one
Lance Berkman – injury is a concern and he may not start the season with the team, but Puma’s never been this cheap, bonus points in OPS leagues
Cole Hamels – as I mentioned, my vote for best potential value among luxury brand pitchers
Ricky Nolasco – my first starter selected when I missed out on Hamels, ceiling is through the roof … even though I believe that’s architecturally impossible
Jake Peavy – twice my second starter selected, classic risk/reward pick
Rafael Soriano – top-five closer if he stays healthy
Hunter Pence – solid value, discipline improved last year, would love to see him score more runs though, not sure if that’s possible in the Astros line-up
Ryan Ludwick – would have to slip into a coma to not drive in 100 batting behind Pujols and Holliday
Rajai Davis – I love him, and so does Oliver. As high speed potential as Juan Pierre and likely more useful in other categories. I could totally see him out-producing Michael Bourn
Jonathan Sanchez – another potential 200 K starter way deep
Scott Kazmir – injury concerns started already, but the guy did lead the AL in Ks in 2007
Cody Ross – another player Oliver loves
Ryan Doumit – it’s criminal how far he slipped in some of my drafts