The People's League

The People's League is a 5x5 roto fantasy baseball keeper league. It consists of a bunch of people I've known for nearly all my life plus some other decent guys. The Deutschs and the Eagles dominate this league with 5 out of 12 teams....though only two are perennial contenders: myself (of course) and THE CHAMP, and commish Jared. Jared is a force, but hes goin down this year. After my record setting 1st place finish in 2007 with 111 points out of a possible 120, and a 2nd place finish last year The Minnesota Smackdown and I are ready to reclaim our trophy!!!

The draft was two weeks ago, and I thought it went well for my team. Each team was allowed 8 keepers. My keepers were Prince Fielder, Stephen Drew, Nate McLouth, Ryan Braun, Scott Kazmir*, CC Sabathia, Josh Beckett, and Roy Oswalt. Studly...I know. Anyway, Kaz gets the asterisk because I shipped his ass to Halifax for AAAAAAAY BoBBAAAAAAAAAY, Bobby Abreu. Simply put, Kazmir is always an injury risk, and throws WAY too many pitches. By the 5th inning of every game the guy is always closing in on 100 pitches....can't have that from a top pitcher. Meanwhile, despite getting up in years, Abreu has been a model of consistency, and is a solid 5 category contributor......Moving on.

With a pretty solid core in place my goals going in to the draft were pretty simple. Get a stud OF in the 1st rd. Target a top pitcher in the 2nd, then just go for value and upside from there.

After some absurd 1st round hype and drama, I found myself trading up from 11 overall to 10 overall to get Carlos Beltran who imo was the top OF in the draft (over Soriano, C Lee, Markakis, and Rios who ALL went before carlos). I had to give up a 3rd rd pick (Bedard was taken in that spot.....hmmm) but I picked up an extra pick in the 5th. So far, so good.

2nd round. For me it was between "Tricky" Ricky Nolasco, and Yovanni Gallardo. Tough, tough choice for me. I also briefly considered the King, Felix Hernandez, but decided not to. For one thing, hes in the AL.....almost always NL over AL. No DH. Two, there is some injury concern. Three, I've been huge on the King for years. I was the first to draft him in this league and have been talking him up for years......but he still hasn't lived up to his TRUE potential. Perhaps he will one day, but that day has not come yet. Meanwhile, I took a flier on Nolasco middle of last year and boy did I cash in. Guy is a stud. Immaculate K/BB and K/9 ratios which are the best indicators of future success. And most of this dominance was in teh 2nd half alone. A full year of 2nd half Nolasco??? Where do I sign? Oh, yea. I did. Welcome back Rick. Gallardo will be a top guy, but gimme the guy whos actually done it already.

Rd 4 - With nobody jumping off the page, I grabbed the last "upper tier" closer in Brian Fuentes. Eh. I hate drafting closers, but you gotta grab a guy or two, and he was pretty damn good last year....I just gotta hope he keeps the job most of the year.

Round 5 - Two picks here: tough to resist a guy who hit 38 bombs last year. He wouldn't still be here if he wasn't so old, but taking a guy who seems a lock for 30-100 in the middle of the Mets potent offense seemed like a good idea. And with that, welcome Mr. Delgado.

Round 5, pt.2 - I'm never quite sure about these middle rounds. Was eyeing Jered Weaver, but he went the pick before. I went with who I felt was the best (re: most upside) pitcher on the board in Johnny "Vive" Cueto. Had him last year too. (Notice I have a thing for my guys) Cueto is a future stud, but hes not quite there yet. I watched him in frustration many times last year. He needs to learn how to pitch, but his fastball is popping and his slider is nasty. Has 200K potential right now, the rest will come. He could quite possibly put up a 2008 C-Bills type year, 200k's 1.30ish whip, and era in the 3's. I'll take that anyday.

sixth round - I took Mark Derosa planning to put him at 2B though the guys is eligible damn near everywhere. I was thinking Alex Gordon, who could be huge this year. Sigh, he went very next pick to Jared (shocker).....I shoulda taken Gordon. Instead....

7th round - good ole reliable Adrian Beltre. I'll say this, he's not spectacular, but hes damn solid and consistent. 25 jacks, handful of steals, decent run and rbi totals. Poor avg, oh well can't win em all. But, just remember.....CONTRACT YEAR. Beltre's last contract year? Oh, he only went about 48-130 with a .330 avg or so. Haha, in my wildest dreams, right? Well, one can dream.

In round 8, I went for another guy who could take another huge step this year. WAY-Rod as I believe Matt Berry calls him, or Wandy Rodriguez to the rest of us could be a really nice pitcher this year. I never liked the guy, but his numbers were VERY solid last yea,r. Almost a K per inning (superb), low walk totals (sound familiar?). If nothing else, historically, he's been fabulous at home at Enron, or is it Minute Maid, well whatever they're calling the Astros homefield. So welcome to the club.

Round 9 and I'm still holding out on pulling the trigger on my deep sleepers (who could be huge studs). I go with my second closer in Joel Hanrahan, who happens to be the last closer on the board who definitively has the job to start the year, and given little competition in Washington should hold down the fort all year. Great K numbers, mediocre control. Can't win em all.

Rounds 10 & 11 I take Elijah "The Prophet" Dukes, and Frenchy, AKA Jeff Franceur. With a full year of AB's Dukes could be a stud in the making. 20-20 potential with upside to boot. Avg might not be spectacular but thats a common theme to my teams. Meanwhile, Frenchy had two very very good seasons for a youngster in 2006 and 2007 before falling off the face of the baseball map in 2008. Just a setback, imo. Youngsters just don't lose their skills at random. He could be back in a HUGE way.

rds 12, 13, 14 - I finally snag my catcher in Mike Napoli, a guy who I had high up on my catcher list. Napoli had one of the highest slugging and OPS in baseball in the second half last year. Slugged about 20 bombs in half a years ab's.....HUGE POWER. Ian Snell was on his way to stardom until a really, really, really bad 2008. He's young, he's got huge strikeout potential, and hey, with a late rd pick you can't go wrong. And in the last regular draft round I take Aaron Hill. I really liked Hill last year, but was snagged by JP in one of I think 3 middle round picks....the bastard. Anyway, Hill became concussed at some point and his season was lost (Pujols did the same thing to Chris Young who I hope comes back strong this year....have him in another league). Good late middle infield sleeper.

Now, 6 rounds of reserves. I love this part. The guys I took: Tommy Hanson, Adam Lind, Brandon Wood, Anthony Reyes, Troy Percival and Clay Buchholz. There were lots of guys I wanted. Perhaps I shoulda went with Carpenter over Hanson seeing as how Carpenter looks to be in 2005 form right now, but oh well.

So there it is. Phew, lots of typing. I'm sure I'll need to make some crafty trades and pickups to take it down, but I'm up for the challenge. More to come...