Roster Doctor - 4/3/09
by Paul SingmanApril 03, 2009
Welcome to THT Fantasy's Roster Doctor. If you'd like your team to be analyzed by one of our fantasy baseball experts, please send your full roster to this address. Also be sure to include your league's player pool (mixed, AL-only, NL-only), number of teams, scoring format (roto, head-to-head, points, etc.), categories, whether or not it's a keeper league, and any other pertinent information. If your roster is selected it will be analyzed in a future Roster Doctor column.
Today's roster looks like this:
Player pool: Mixed
No. of teams: 12
Categories: Traditional 5x5 except K/9 replaces K's
Scoring Type: Head-to-Head
Roster:
C - Victor Martinez
1B - Lance Berkman
2B - Robinson Cano
3B - David Wright
SS - Felipe Lopez
OF - Carlos Lee
OF - Alex Rios
OF - Torii Hunter
Util - Andre Ethier
Util - Brad Hawpe
BN - Coco Crisp
SP - Javier Vazquez
SP - Scott Baker
RP - Mariano Rivera
RP - Jonathan Broxton
P - Brian Fuentes
P - Huston Street
P - Manuel Corpas
BN - Manny Parra
BN - Gil Meche
BN - Chris Volstad
BN - David Price
BN - Anthony Reyes
This is a very good team right here. The hitting has decent power—not great, but solid power hitters with Lee, Wright, and Berkman. Alone, not one of this team's players can carry steals, but when added together their totals make the team above average in the speed department. Average is clearly a strong point of this team with Berkman, Wright, Lee, Ethier, and possibly V-Mart capable of above .300 averages.
How did this sizable investment in hitting leave the pitching staff? Not too bad actually.
What jumps out is the closing staff. Three entrenched closers with great skill sets and one unstable closer in Street, who is handcuffed nicely with Corpas, is impressive. So regardless of who the Colorado closer is, this team should have four dependable closers throughout most of the season, making it a force in saves.
A site favorite, Javier Vazquez is especially valuable in a K/9 league, as is Manny Parra. Baker and Meche, although lacking the strikeout potential of the others, will still post solid ratios and rack up enough strikeouts to make them worth starting.
Volstad and Reyes, on the other hand, probably are not even worth starting. Volstad may hold his own in the majors this year, but even if he does manage an ERA around 4.00, he does not figure to have a K/9 of over 6.0 being more of a groundball pitcher than a power one. His name has some value attached to it, so see if you can get something for him in a small trade, especially if he does well out of the gate.
Despite his strong Spring Training, I would not start Reyes right away. He does not figure to be much of a strikeout threat, so unless he is pitching well he will most likely be a detriment to your team. Bench him for a regular season start or two and depending on who he is playing and your current match up situation (are you down by only one win on Sunday?) decide if you will start him for that day.
David Price is a nice player to hang onto until he gets the call, but do not be fooled into thinking he is going to be dominant right away. An ERA around 4.00 and a 7.5 to 8.0 K/9 should be expected. If you feel somebody in your league has higher expectations of him, I would make him available in a trade.
Overall, though, I like this team a lot and I would rather see you keep it as it is than make a possibly harmful trade. I expect your team to go at least three and two in the hitting categories and if you start only Vazquez, Baker, Parra, and Meche plus your closers (and Corpas, I would keep him for now) your pitching should win Saves, ERA, WHIP, and K/9 the majority of the time.
Enjoy a successful season.
Paul has been managing fantasy baseball teams for many seasons and writing for THT Fantasy over the past three years. He is currently a student at UPenn welcomes readers' thoughts at his email here or in the comments below.
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