JustSayin.net

My first deal.

Let me first say that I love a league where a post to the trading block brings 5 trades with it.  I'm in 3 other leagues who think the trading block is a local cheese shop.

I tried to hold off on trading until at least a month into the season.  This way you can wait and see what you actually have.  Turns out I have power and need pitching.  I tried to eye some buy-low, slow-start candidates and came across Josh Beckett.  I'm normally not a Beckett fan, but feel like he's been extremely unlucky so far.

Batters' BABIP against him is .370 right now.  League average is around .300.  His strikeout to walk ratio is 3.5:1, which is really good.  Combine that with the fact that 44% of runners that get on base against him score and you've got one unlucky pitcher (30% is the norm).  

I gave up Adam Dunn for him.  I'm tops in the league in power.  Donne Baseballers and DejaBrew are 1 & 2 with no one else really close right now.  So I feel like I can spare the HR's and hopefully get a reliable starter.

Thanks to Ross and Lew for being so responsive on the trade front.  I hope it vaults you all the way up to 2nd place, right behind "The Brew".  

It's working!!!

It's really working.

So as is customary for this blog, I'm doing well in DCRoto and thus, I'm writing about it.  Here are the standings.

Rank	Team	Batting	Pitching	Total	Dif	Behind
1	The Derek Corbett Experience	67.0	60.5	127.5	24.0	0.0
2	Donnie Baseballers	64.5	55.5	120.0	-11.0	7.5
3	DejaBrew All Over Again	70.5	26.5	97.0	25.0	30.5
3	Berkshire Lumber Company	64.0	33.0	97.0	9.0	30.5
5	Rebuilding Cleveland	47.0	49.5	96.5	2.5	31.0
6	Raleigh Rednecks Redux	37.0	55.0	92.0	-6.0	35.5
7	Lesbian Spank Inferno	36.0	55.5	91.5	-4.5	36.0
8	Lite Brigade	33.0	49.5	82.5	-3.5	45.0
8	Boats N Hoes	33.5	49.0	82.5	5.5	45.0
10	Purple Submarine	55.5	23.5	79.0	6.0	48.5
11	Scrubbies	25.0	53.0	78.0	-3.0	49.5
12	BigPoppaLip	39.0	38.0	77.0	5.0	50.5
13	Logan's Monsters	32.5	39.0	71.5	-4.5	56.0
14	Tools of Ignorance	23.5	37.0	60.5	-13.0	67.0
15	Naked Britney Statue Giving Birth on Bear Skin Rug	14.5	40.5	55.0	-3.5	72.5
16	Closer by Committee	37.5	15.0	52.5	-28.0	75.0
Standings Updated as of: 5/12/10 4:47 AM EST

My pitching still stinks on ice, but my batting average is coming around.  Not only that, but Kerry Wood and Huston Street are throwing again and should be accumulating saves very soon.  I'll be last in wins and K's for the year, but could be top 5 in every other category.

As far as the other teams go, "The Derek Corbett Experience" is crushing right now, mainly anchored by a ridiculous pitching staff.  Jered Weaver, Justin Verlander, James Shields, David Price, and A.J. Burnett.  Not bad.  The offense is anchored by a strong outfield.  Jason Bay, Garrett Jones, Angel Pagan, Scott Podsednik.  

Evidence points to the contrary, but I don't see this offense holding up.  Hence the trading block update recently where DC offers pitching for offense.  He's putting up a good fight in his first year, but watch out for the late season trades Mr. Corbett, especially ones involving Edwin Jackson.  My prediction is top 5 for Mr. Corbett, but I would be surprised if he finished in the money.

In a word.  Not good.

Craptastic.

Epic fail.

Yeah, it's a lot of words, but I need to get the point across.  America, if you see Billy Wagner, please politely tell him to get some friggin' saves.  Here are the standings as of right now.

Rank	Team	Batting	Pitching	Total	Dif	Behind
1	Donnie Baseballers	69.5	61.5	131.0	131.0	0.0
2	The Derek Corbett Experience	53.0	50.5	103.5	103.5	27.5
3	Raleigh Rednecks Redux	44.5	53.5	98.0	98.0	33.0
4	Lesbian Spank Inferno	45.0	51.0	96.0	96.0	35.0
5	Rebuilding Cleveland	43.5	50.5	94.0	94.0	37.0
6	Berkshire Lumber Company	59.0	29.0	88.0	88.0	43.0
7	Lite Brigade	33.0	53.0	86.0	86.0	45.0
8	Scrubbies	33.5	47.5	81.0	81.0	50.0
9	Closer by Committee	57.0	23.5	80.5	80.5	50.5
10	Boats N Hoes	22.0	55.0	77.0	77.0	54.0
11	Logan's Monsters	36.5	39.5	76.0	76.0	55.0
12	Tools of Ignorance	34.0	39.5	73.5	73.5	57.5
13	Purple Submarine	44.0	29.0	73.0	73.0	58.0
14	DejaBrew All Over Again	50.0	22.0	72.0	72.0	59.0
14	BigPoppaLip	38.5	33.5	72.0	72.0	59.0
16	Naked Britney Statue Giving Birth on Bear Skin Rug	17.0	41.5	58.5	58.5	72.5
Standings Updated as of: 5/1/10 4:38 AM EST

I'm DejaBrew.  Good hitting horrible pitching.  Another word I would use to describe our league is lumpy.  We have the bottom lump, Naked Brittany Long Named Team, acting very lonely down there.  I'm still interested in Nyjer Morgan if you're still offering :).

Then there's the 70's lump.  No it's not that thing old people get at the top of their back from too much time in a Denny's booth.  It's a volatile lump.  Today I moved to the top of it, but tomorrow I'll probably fall back down.

Then we have the 80's and the 90's.  Seems like each decade is separated by a few points.  Until you get to Donnie Baseballers, who are up 30 points on everyone.  It's an ugly race for 2nd place right now.  Could the Ballers set a record for DCRoto scoring?  We'll have to wait and see.  

In the meantime, stay on the lookout for Wagner.

One of the beauties of DCRoto is the League Trading Block.  If you post something up there, you can bet you'll be contacted within 24 hours by another owner with an offer.  It's clockwork, like a Philly fan doing something subhuman at a sporting event.

I was last in the league in stolen bases.  I was first in the league in home runs.  So as I tend to do, I started panicking because Pedroia, Andrus, Cruz, Choo, and Milledge weren't running.  I posted a "power for speed" message on the block.

"Naked Brittany Statue Giving Birth on a Bearskin Rug" contacted me shortly thereafter.  They were offering Nyjer Morgan for someone like Adam Dunn, Nelson Cruz, Andre Ethier, or Josh Willingham.  I initially offered Willingham because, well you have to try right?  Plus I've always been a Willingham guy.  He's the hammer to my nail (gross).  I kind of always see him as a .280, 25 HR, 85 RBI's, 5 SB guy.  But apparently no one else does.

So he countered with Adam Dunn.  That would be a classic power for speed trade.  Morgan gets average and steals.  Dun gets HR's and RBI's.  They are about even on runs usually.  

The next night, the Texas Rangers stole 9 bases on Tim Wakefield and Victor Martinez.  Andrus had 3 and Cruz had 3.  Not that I'm in 1st place or anything now, but that just kind of reminded me that it's still early.  I drafted this team for a reason.  I didn't draft them for the first 3 weeks of the year.  There are going to be stretches where my guys don't steal, hit HR's, or just plain hit.  Why should the first 3 weeks be more valuable than any other three?

Andrus has stolen bases in the majority of games since then and Cruz has too.  I'm hoping this was the kick start they needed.  

Let's hope so.

In an effort to expand on the blog a little bit (and because I'm realizing more and more of my fellow DCRoto owners are reading this thing), I'm going to do something a little different this year.  

Most guys commented on how I wrote a lot while I was winning, and not so much when losing.  Well my team currently stinks like cheese, and here I am.  And I'm not even going to write about my team.  I'm going to write about the current leader.  A.K.A., guys who don't have 11 points in all pitching categories combined.  Gross.

First Place - Donnie Baseballers

Last year "the Ballers" went with the "I don't want to have to watch west coast games" strategy and drafted all east-coasters.  It got him an 8th place finish, 30 points out of first.  He changed it up this year and went with a variation on "stars and scrubs, with a pitching twist" it seems.  He took Hanley, Santana, Hamels, K-Rod, Papelbon.

He's pretty closer heavy, which is a strategy I like, not that that means anything.  However, in a league this deep, saves are hard to come by, and if you can get 2-3 reliable guys, that's one less category to worry about.  That said, his offense needs help.  It's not going to hold up.  I love Rod Barajas as much as the next guy (unless the next guy is Stacie Barajas, his wife, who couldn't be the next guy because she's a woman, so I guess I do like him as much as the next guy, anyways...), but he can't help Han-Ram elevate this offense.  

The infield of Hanley, Chone, A. Gonzalez, Weeks, and Cantu is serviceable, but the OF is cheaper than potted meat at your local IGA.  Cuddyer, B. Gardner, Rasmus, L. Scott, and J. Guillen.  Ick.  I suppose OF is easier to find than IF, but there's some work to be done here.  If anyone needs pitching and has outfield to spare, talk to the Ballers.

Come to think of it, I need to go make a trade offer.

In closing, this is a team that can compete all year if their offense holds up and Hanley stays healthy.