We have our first complete team:

C: Russell Martin & Mike Napoli
1B: Russell Branyan and Daric Barton when RB's back gives out
2B: Brian Roberts
3B: Chone Figgins
SS: Jimmy Rollins
OF: Shin-Soo Choo (!), Jack Cust (?), Mike Cameron, Alex Rios, Milton Bradley, and Cody Ross in case Milton Bradley chucks the bullpen phone at a fan
CIF & MIF: Casey Blake, maybe Daric Barton if he doesn't suck and Branyan is healthy (not likely) & Aaron ****ing Hill
Utility: Jim Thome or any of those other floaters

Rotation: Cliff Lee (!), A.J. Burnett (?), Jair Jurrjens, James Shields, Jered Weaver, Edwin Jackson, Randy Wolf
Bullpen: K-Rod, Carlos Marmol, Jose Valverde, Frank Francisco, Rafael Soriano, and Huston Street (get better buddy!)

Hope of the future: Sean Rodriguez

To be honest . . . I think I'm gonna win.

I think you're gonna win too, but only in Saves.

Na, I'm also going to win in Koreans.

I predict Sean Rodriguez is going to see a lot of playing time after Brian Roberts goes on the DL with a herniated disc.

Huh. Naturally I didn't know about that. Damn.

levarkin i think you dont have enough depth in pitching and that will be your weakness

I don't think he has enough depth in Home Runs.

His pitching is fine, i have him dead last in slugging and bottom 1/3rd in HR's though.

Let's hear about this exciting trade w/ Thunder!

i was joking

Dead last in slugging! I scoff at that projection. I like my power output overall. It's a balanced team.

Man I hope we're going to dump all over everyone's teams when they publish theirs. Way to kill my buzz.

I don't think you have anything to worry about.

im fairly certain the trash talk in this league will be epic

and if you cant handle trash talk... prob the wrong place to be haha

+1

of course no one can dump on my team because it's perfect

Only if you get MELLLLLLLLKKKKKKKYYYYYYYYYY!!!!

How did you draft Albert Pujols 30 times?

Whatever guys. MAYBE I'LL JUST TAKE MY BALL AND GO HOME.

Lev "thin skinned" Arkin

Karak "The Great One" (formerly)567

COOL STORY, BRO

I guess this is review your draft time...

Not really sure how I feel about my team. This was my first auction draft so I learned alot. For some reason everyone wants to diss my starting pitching. I guess thats like "hey you can't buy the pitching cats. We're smart managers and we'll draft so many gems you don't know about it won't matter who you overpaid for". Yeah bump that, I roll out Lincecum, Verlander, Gallardo, Jimenez, Kershaw and I got Romero and Porcello on the bench with Pettitte and Garland mixed in for Wins. So dream if ya wanna, but without major injuries nobody is f***ing with me in pitching.

Overall I'm pleased with the hitting I was able to pull together. I was honestly worried I spent too much on pitching and wouldn't be able to get enough hitters to at least be average. In that respect I did a hell of a job landing hitters. Kendry Morales for $3.9 mil really? Carlos Gonzalez at $3.1 mil is sick. Somehow I landed 2 top 10 catchers in a 13 team league for $2.5 mil. Then when you line up Chris Davis, Garrett Jones, Kyle Blanks, Brett Gardner, and Franklin Guiterrez at least 1 or 2 of those guys is going to have a big year. Considering all of that is anchored by Mark Reynolds, Nick Swisher, and Shane Victorino I feel pretty solid about my hitting being good enough.

What I didn't like....

I spent too much on Lincecum. If I had it to do over again I wouldn't spend over $9 mil for any player. There was just too much value out there in the later rounds. Damn near every big time pitcher went for less than $9 mil and with ppl like Kendry Morales going for $3.9 mil and Chris Coghlan for $2.6 mil, why pay anyone over $9 mil?

I spent too much in general. That list of sleepers I just rattled off I intended to be more like 10 deep not 5 deep. So that kinda bugs me while also worrying me. I missed out on Coghlan purely b/c of money. Even a guy like Drew Stubbs I missed out on b/c of money. I missed out on Travis Snider, Cameron Maybin, even solid guys that weren't prospects like Hunter Pence. I missed out on all of these ppl b/c of money. I couldn't afford to go after closers I wanted later b/c of money.

I would of liked to do more scouting b4 the auction started. When the auction came up too many names were coming out of nowhere for me. And I did like 3-5 hrs of prep so just being more in tune with baseball overall would of been helpful.

I'm short on closers, but I do have a deal in place with Levarkin which I guess we have to wait til the draft is over to post. But that deal should help me out there. On the brightside Closer is really the only position where I don't have depth. Literally any other position I could have a season ending injury and have someone else to slide in and play that position.

The big thing is I spent too much and only have $100k left in cap space. So thats my team. I don't know that I really feel that confident about winning the league or coming in 2nd or anything. I know I'll do extremely well in pitching if I stay healthy. And my team is very young for the most part so I'm going to be good in upcoming years. Thats kinda my team, if anyone else wants to self analyze their team.

I think your team's all right. Your pitching is not as good as you think it is, and if you want to prop bet head-to-head on some pitching cats, I'm open to it (and that's assuming we go through with our trade). They get Ks, but you're a bit weak in WHIP and ERA. Lincecum was a big overpay, but you only made that mistake once, which shows restraint. You got good deals in Cantu, Escobar, Felipe Lopez, and Jones. You'll compete.

Kendry Morales is overpaid at 3.9

Carlos Gonzalez is about right at 3.1, maybe slightly overpaid.

Montero is overpaid... so is Suzuki.


The difference between a low-end top 10 catcher and a top 20 or 30 catcher is not very big.

Catcher, fantasy wise, goes like this: Mauer >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> like 2-3 other names (none of the names on your team) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> a few others >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> everyone else

Your pitching is very good and assuming a swap with Levarkin it will only get better... however pitching is a lot easier to platoon and acquire in this league than hitting.

Here comes the obligatory gonna defend yourself? then your gonna have to educate response....

I said top 10 b/c I knew if I said top 6 somebody would say eh I don't think so. Yahoo has Suzuki ranked at 3 and Montero at 6 in 2009 season totals for catchers. And yeah there's a big difference Suzuki stole 8 bases, which only Russell Martin stole more (11). Think thats not a big deal? Thats how categories are won, not with 1 big giant base stealer when damn near everybody on your team steals bases. Look at my team and tell me if I can steal bases? Thats why I went to $1 mil on the guy, when I probably should have focused in on a better closer.

Montero is not overpaid he's the only catcher not named Mauer or Weiters or McCann or Napoli that hits 15+ HRs with a high SLG% (oh btw Suzuki hit 15 HRs last yr along with those 8 SBs..... seriously where are these top 20 and 30 catchers who can do that???). And unlike Napoli he'll log more than 125 games this year. I got 2 guys there so I'll get 162 games from my catcher position. 162 quality games.

Kendry Morales is overpaid at $3.9 mil??? This is a guy who was 6th last year in SLG... SIXTH!!! and tied for 14th in HRs..... .355 OBP with 86 runs and 3 SBs for good measure. From a kid who's only 26. In 3 years he'll still be killing it and I'll be paying him less than $5 mil. Meanwhile you're paying Chipper Jones $4.7 mil, Rickie Weeks $5.2 mil, Jose Reyes $9.1 mil, Nick Markakis $6.5 mil, Dan Uggla $5.9 mil.... I mean take your pick there all of those signings are horrific compared to Morales. None of those guys are top 6 in anything, probably not even top 14. I guess Reyes in SBs (if he's healthy).

Carlos Gonzalez is a pimp. I don't even have to say anything about him. He's like a mini Matt Kemp. I'm VERY happy with that signing.


We said this was going to be a smack talking league so I didn't hold anything back. Go ahead rip me back