FTW
Diva On A Dime: Fantasy Baseball Edition
March 25, 2009 by kris · Leave a Comment
Diva on a Dime is a downright awful show, that I believe is truly 100% Canadian Goodness. If left unchecked, Canadian televisions stations would just play American TV shows all day, every day — this is how we end up with CANCON, which forces Canadians to sit through hours of awful television.
Anyways, it’s time to create a fantasy baseball roster without using a single player drafted in the top-200 picks according to ESPN’s Average Live Draft Position. Obviously, with fun little gimmicks like this, we’re going to be going high-risk/high-reward.
Diva On A Dime Hitters (ADP>200)
C: Kelly Shoppach – Pick 211: Shoppach had 21 homers in 352 AB. A lot of people are going to shy away from him because he doesn’t have a spot to play. A healthy Victor Martinez, Travis Hafner and Ryan Garko really clog up his options. Lucky for you, good hitters find spots in the line-up.
If you think all three of the aforementioned players stay healthy, then maybe go with Ramon Hernandez (Pick 202) or Jeff Clement (Pick 245). I’d also take a risk on Saltalamacchia who doesn’t even register with ESPN at this point.
1B: Big Ole Billy Butler – Pick 242: At this point in the draft it makes sense to go with a lighter hitting first baseman with a solid batting average, rather than a masher like Mike Jacobs / Adam LaRoche. Butler’s competition comes from Loney (ADP: 166), Kotchman (ADP: 237) and a few over-the-hill sluggers (Helton, Giambi, Konerko).
Butler however brings the best value, and best power potential of the doubles-machines. Loney has the better line-up, and batting directly after Manny will allow him ample opportunity to drive in runs, but Butler has a shot at 22-25HR. Toss in his .300+ average, and an improved Royal’s squad and we have our first baseman.
Bill James’ Projection Model has Butler at: 73 R/ 18HR / 87 RBI / .295 BA with 15 SB — just kidding, but Zips and Marcel have Butler stealing 2 bases in 3 attempts.
2B: Felipe Lopez – Pick 216: I’m all over Lopez like white on rice. 2005 was a 23HR season, and 2006 brought us 44SB. Lopez is still only 28 years old (turns 29 in May) but it seems like he’s been around forever.
With Lopez on a good team, and apparently wanting to play again — I expect big things.
SS: Khalil Greene – Pick 224: Greene has been smashing the hell out of spring-training pitching to the tune of a .400 average and .560 SLG percentage. I’ve been high on Greene all winter, and this doesn’t change my mind. I wouldn’t rate him terribly higher based on these spring training stats because he’s still Khalil Greene, which you can clearly see by comparing his .400 AVG to his .429 OBP.
MI: Orlando Cabrera – Pick 204: I was tempted to go with Elvis Andrus (ADP 228) here, because we’re going to need some serious steals — but we’ve already got Greene killing our BA.
I like Cabrera in the new and improved Oakland line-up, and expecting 20SB to go along with a solid .280 BA, and at least decent Run totals should fill the hole.
The potential for Andrus and his 50SB is tantalizing.
3B: Edwin Encarnacion – Pick 198: Hey, up until a couple days ago he was ranked right at 200th overall. Every thing’s in-line for a break-out season. I did a write-up on Edwin a couple days ago, it’ll do all the ’splainin’
CI: Mark Reynods – Pick 202: We need 30 HR from this spot, so this comes down to a brutal battle between Reynolds and Jason Giambi. I’d like to take a chance of Kendry Morales, who doesn’t even register on ESPN — but I’ll save him for later.
The battle between Reynolds and Giambi comes down to BA, and strangely enough Reynolds wins. All of the projection models believe his 2008 average of .239 was a mistake, and he should rebound to anywhere from .249 to .269. I can live with that, so long as the HR, R, RBI are there.
We also just nabbed ourselves 10 more SB.
OF: Nelson Cruz – Pick 202: Bill James has him coming in at 31HR, 81R, 92RBI with a .280 average. While i’m not completely sold, and I still somewhat see Cruz as a quad-A player — Cant turn him away at pick 202.
OF: Elijah Dukes – Pick 226: Oh Me, Oh My. Dukes has all the talent in the world, and could easily go 25HR/25SB but he could also hit 3 HR and steal .75 Bases. This is the high-risk/high-reward thing I was talking about.
OF: Chris Dickerson – Pick, I dont Know: Let’s drop the bomb and select another potential 25/25 guy with a whole lot of risk. BJ Robot has him at 37 Steals and 21 HR! I’ll take that. His skill set is nice, and Reds fan’s will appreciate him.
UTIL: Shin-Soo Choo – Pick 204: Might as well throw in another solid Power / Speed combo guy with a solid average. At this point, the outfield and util spots have really saved this team. Choo’s on many folks lists to break out in 2009, and I can’t blame ‘em.
…now onto pitching
SP1: Brandon Morrow – Pick 217: I thought with the hype Morrow was getting he’d be way above this point. Take Morrow and Run. He’s got a great K-rate, and while he’s a bit wild, don’t worry be happy.
SP2: Chris Young – Pick 219: Chris Young has bad luck, but isn’t a huge injury concern unless you think he’s been psychologically broken by that Pujols line-drive to the face. With Young you’re getting the potential for a Golden-WHIP (1.13 in 2006, and 1.10 in 2007) and at least 8K per 9.
SP3: Ubaldo Jiminez – Pick 227: You’ll notice we’re loading up on high-strikeout pitchers. With the lack of saves available to us at this point, we’re probably going to have to punt the category and thus draft some very solid late-inning relievers. They’ll be bringing low-era, low-whip to offset our massive control issues.
Jiminez is posed for a break-out year, even if half his games are pitched at Coors.
RP1: Jason Motte – Pick 210: Motte’s value will keep rising with the news that he’s won the closer role over Chris Perez, in St. Louis. We’ve got a shot at some saves here, so we might as well take it.
RP2: Jose Arredondo – Pick 233: There’s still a couple closers, but that’s no fun. If you’re into Huston Street or George Sherrill, the choice is yours. At this point though, Arredondo brings a lot of goodies, like a solid era and a very good K-rate.
Expecting a return to 10-win-land is ridiculous, but pitching in late relief for the Angels will provide him with plenty of chances to nab those random-wins or even saves. He should be one of the first non-closers off the board.
P: John Maine – Pick 226: Maine regressed in every possible category last year. If he levels out, you should expect a sub-4.00 ERA, 180K, and round about 1.30ish WHIP. This is pretty solid for a player who’s upside could easily eclipse these numbers.
P: Manny Parra – Pick 234: I’m banking on Parra improving in 2009, along with him pitching a full-season. Parra’s a solid lefty that should be able to put up 8ish K per 9. The K:BB ratio is only going to be around 1.5, which’ll limit your WHIP to around 1.40ish with a good amount of upside. Parra won’t repeat the 1.54 disaster that he called his 2008 WHIP, again.
P: Jared Weaver – Pick 216: Weaver was once a top-prospect that all the fantasy folk were drooling over. Now, he seems to be an afterthought. The man’s got terrible hair, but all the potential in the world. His nearly 8 K per 9, combined with a very solid 2.81 strikesouts per walk, makes for a steal at this pick.
P: Hong Chih-Kuo – Pick 244: I figured I’d toss another reliever in here that’ll put up some solid rate stats. We’ve got all these high-strikeout, high-walk rate starters that we need to offset. Kuo struck out 96 to only 21 walks in 2008, and in doing so posted a beautiful 4.57 K:BB ratio.
You can use this as a list of sleepers, or just something to kill time but each of these players are available after pick 200 and each could contribute to your team in even the shallowest of standard-leagues.
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