The Hardball Times Fantasy

Roster doctor

by Jonathan Halket
April 01, 2009

Name: 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.

If you have a question for the Roster Doctor email here. Emails in simple text with players' full names properly spelled are much more likely to get responses. 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.

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