Navigation: Jump to content areas:


Pro Quality. Fan Perspective.
Login-facebook
Around SBN: Tiger Woods, Tony Romo Grouped Together At Pebble Beach

Fantasy Baseball: Jason's 1st AL-only League

I've been playing fantasy baseball for about 6 years now, but I decided that this year would be the first one where I played in an AL or NL only league.

I signed up for a standard ESPN 10-team AL only league. Snake draft, 25 rounds.

My team, and then some thoughts on this team and its' chances:

C - Kurt Suzuki (OAK)
1B - Miguel Cabrera (DET)
2B - Ben Zobrist (TAM)
3B - Gordon Beckham (CHW)
SS - Erick Aybar (LAA)
MI - Jose Lopez (SEA)
CI - Jake Fox (OAK)
OF - Adam Lind (TOR)
OF - Torii Hunter (LAA)
OF - J.D. Drew (BOS)
OF - Coco Crisp (OAK)
OF - MIlton Bradley (SEA)
UT - Chris Getz (KC)
P - Brett Anderson (OAK)
P - Rich Harden (TEX)
P - Mark Buehrle (CHW)
P - Chris Perez (CLE)
P - Matt Thornton (CHW)
P - Justin Duchscherer (OAK)
P - Brandon League (SEA)
P - Joey Devine (OAK)
P - Pat Neshek (MIN)
BN - Fausto Carmona (CLE)
BN - Chris Carter (OAK)
BN - Brett Cecil (TOR)

Projected Finish:1st
Projected Stats based on ESPN's projections:

  • 991 R, 243 HR, 968 RBI, 135 SB, .286
  • 79 W, 23 SV, 1026 K, 3.81 ERA, 1.30 WHIP

My thoughts:

  • The thing that stands out to me about this team is the ridiculous amount of positional flexibility I will have soon into the season. In ESPN leagues, Zobrist (OF), Beckham (2B), Lopez (3B potentially), Fox (OF and potentially C) will all qualifiy at more than one position, giving me a lot of possibilities as the season progresses.
  • I went offense early, and didn't really get a true #1 starter as a result. After doing that, I decided to punt saves, and went with high strikeout relivers who have a possibility of closing sometime during the season.
  • It was a bit of a mental shift, but I found myself going toward players who, while they wouldn't always provide a huge number in any one category, would not hurt me in any category particularly. A perfect example was UT Chris Getz, who they had projected to post a .270+ average with 20+ steals. Definitely a mental shift from my normal drafts.
  • I wanted to take someone with a lot of potential upside, and when I was looking in the draft, Chris Carter was the best option available. I think he'll be up by the All-Star break, and could provide double digit homers in that short time.
  • Batting average is a huge strength according to the projections, as I am currently projected to hit almost 10 points higher than the next closest team. If that plays out over the span of the season, I could see moving someone with a high batting average around mid season to pick up whatever I am missing.
  • There's a lot of risk, but I think with an AL-only you're going to have some of that. MIlton Bradley, Justin Duchscherer, Rich Harden, Coco Crisp, and Joey Devine all pop out at me as players who could cause a problem.
  • Playing time doesn't look like a huge concern, except at CI (Fox), and of course injury concerns of J.D. Drew, Bradley, and Crisp.

Overall, I think it went pretty well and am looking forward to seeing how the season goes.

 

Your thoughts?

Poll
Did I do well with my AL-only team?
Yes, you're going to be just fine.
40 votes
No, it's pretty clear that you've never drafted AL only before.
15 votes

55 votes | Poll has closed

Comment 0 comments  |  0 recs  | 

Do you like this story?

Comments

Display:

Comments For This Post Are Closed


User Tools

Welcome to the SB Nation blog covering Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Football, Fantasy Hockey, Fantasy Basketball and Fantasy MMA.

FanPosts

Community blog posts and discussion.

Recommended FanPosts

Small
Mike Stanton is Overrated
Small
Understanding the "injury prone" roster
Small
Smart Predictions for 2012

Recent FanPosts

Small
First Daft of the Season
Razor_ramon_small
Pick 2 Pitchers Please
Med_boy_walking_with_belarus_flag_pt_res_thm_small
4 Huge Fantasy Basketball Trades
Small
Sticky Situations
Small
Brand new to competitive fantasy baseball
Small
Perfect Draft
Boxedchild_small
Is David Freese the Real Deal?
Small
30 Team Roto League starting up(need 10 or so owners)
Small
He's Not Dunn
Small
When to take pitchers (and a lot of them)

+ New FanPost All FanPosts >


Managers

Img00006-20101226-1702_small Ray Guilfoyle

Editors

Dsc00490_-_version_2_small Jason Hunt

Matt1_small PostmanMatt

897267_o_small Kenneth Arthur

23-tmb_small dukeallstar

Small eklevine

Beer_small Michael Barr

Markus_fltc_fav30_small Markus Potter

To_crying_small smokeymcpots

5456_556618485132_20100932_33160415_3487226_n_small mahoney1213

Calvin-and-hobbes_small Robert L. Bishop

Image-1_small ZombieMonta

Small MikeGallagher

Coolguy_small stephenkaczmar

Bwhead_small Ben Bauman

Twitter_small JustBlogGuy

Bruce_campbell_army_of_darkness_small Paul Rice

Fixed_small Chris Buckley

Photo_18_small Kevin Boger

2011-03-10_at_13-38-09__1__small Todd McMacken

Small Craig Goldstein

Raptors_small Maxmillien

Twitter_eb_2_small Marc Normandin

Vikingpose_reasonably_small_small bretsayre

Authors

Head_shot1_small Dave Halprin