Ryan Carey's NFBC DP Live Team

[southpaw]

Love the moves you made. Surprised you didn't get outbid for Lowrie. I've been reading the tea leaves with Francona and he's going all in on Lowrie at this point. That may change if he comes back to earth but I say ride him while he's bucking.
I also bid on Herrera in my WCOFB league and lost out. I bid $38 and he went for $78 so I wasn't that close. I wanted him pretty bad so I guess I should have been more aggressive. Oh well. One notable drop in FAAB this week was D. Brown so like you did this week, I will look to grab him on Sunday.
I also took a flyer on Gee. Got him for $7. No other bids. Colon and Maholm went for much higher amounts. Hopefully Gee can have another solid outing and put pressure on the Mets brass to keep him in the big leagues.
I'm 2nd in my league but injuries are taking it's toll on me with Hamilton and Torres out. Luckily I drafted David Murphy for the sole reason that he would be my handcuff for Hamilton. I also have sorry ass Ludwick in for Torres. It was a tough call between him and newly acquired Milton Bradley ($3).

[deansdaddy]

You are playing in a deeper league than my DP - so the pickings will be slimmer. I think if you have the room, it is worth taking a shot at Brown while he won't cost you much. That said if I see something better hit the wire I won't hesitate to go after it at the expense of Brown. Francisco has played well enough - so Brown will likely be in a platoon at best when he makes it back. I think he might really start to pay dividends later in the season - so you have to weigh your other options and if you can carry him until he is ready to be an every week starter again (which might not be until June). Being that you already have a dead spot occupied by Hamilton for a couple weeks you might not have the luxury of taking on another injury case. Still - this does shine a light on a type of player that you should always be on the lookout for. In a league like WCOFB or NFBC without any DL spots, it can sometimes be difficult for owners to wait on injured players and if they drop them and you have room, you can scoop them up at a discount often.

[emoryup]

Southpaw-
We are in the same WCOFB league. Your team is solidly constructed (as evidenced by your current place atop the standings--nicely done). As for me, I'm a *bit* further down but I have to hope that some of my guys (Crawford, Gardner, Jeter, Kila, Maggs) get going as they have contributed a big fat ZERO so far. Crawford might be waking up as he looked better in Monday's Patriots Day game. Injuries are killing me as well--Braden's situation could be serious and it looks like V-Mart could be headed to the DL for awhile.
I was able to get Herrera to hopefully be a spark for me. I think the Rockies organization calls him the Human Spark Plug. Now that he's on my team, he'll cool off quickly for sure.
Sizemore is back and could provide another much-needed boost for my sorry squad.
Anyway, best of luck and we'll see what happens this Sunday's FAAB. It will be interesting!

Ryan-
I always enjoy reading your stuff. Please keep it up!

Cheers,
Emory

[deansdaddy]

Southpaw-

I was able to get Herrera to hopefully be a spark for me. I think the Rockies organization calls him the Human Spark Plug. Now that he's on my team, he'll cool off quickly for sure.

Ryan-
I always enjoy reading your stuff. Please keep it up!

Cheers,
Emory

Hey Emory - thanks for checking in. I caught some of your preseason work over at FantasyPros911 so I see you are expanding your horizons as well. I highlighted your Herrera quote because I said the same thing to one of my pals about him yesterday since I brought him on board to a couple of teams.

This is the first season I haven't played in a league against you in awhile - I'm jumping in a WCOFB next year for sure. Good luck in all your leagues and feel free to keep us updated on your WCOFB league with southpaw.

[southpaw]

emory - that's right, I forgot that it was you who stole Herrera from me.
Guess I need to watch what I say around here now....give away all my secrets....

[emoryup]

Ryan-
I'm kind of glad we aren't in a league together since you always beat me! Somewhat more seriously, I'll be glad to post some updates about the WCOFB teams. I have a couple entries in their Online Championship and thus far they run the gamut from first place to last place. I'm OK with a last place team as long as my first overall team stays right where it currently sits!

Let's hope there IS a WCOFB next year. Plenty of angry folks on the football side of things due to delayed payments. I love their baseball format so I hope they can survive the current storm.

Southpaw--
I HAD to get Herrera since my team was performing so terribly. Like I said, he'll go from sparkplug to wet blanket now that I rostered him.

Alright, I need to at least pretend that I'm doing my real job for awhile. I'll try to check into these boards every day or so to see what Southpaw's planning for FAAB and check on Ryan's musings...

[deansdaddy]

Week 4 was a solid week for my DP squad. My offense woke back up and when the week was over I was back in first place with 86 points.

I also rebounded in the overall standings moving up to #19 out of 220 in the Live DP and #65 out of 780 in the Overall DP standings.

My team hit .318 for the week with 49 runs, 9 HR's and 48 RBI's. We only managed 2 steals - and sit in last place in this category with a paltry 11 for the season.

On the Pitching side I had a 2.85 ERA, 4 W's, 1.07 ERA, 56 K's and 2 SV's.

Last weeks pickups Lowrie and Herrera were a mixed bag as Lowrie had a great week and Jon Herrera went back to being Jon Herrera. Hopefully he can get back to being a sparkplug, cause I need someone to provide a little speed with both Angel Pagan and Andres Torres on the DL and Phillips not running since returning from his own injury.

My third pickup last week was Jake Mcgee at $25. I ended up cutting him this week for Justin Smoak at $27. Smoak was a conditional bid behind Ryan Roberts who I lost out on. I was the runner up on him with a $27 bid as well. Last week I cut Brett Wallace for McGee and I will admit, I kind of regretted it a bit when Chipper Jones came up lame mid week. I realized I had released all my backup CI and needed to bring someone on board in case Chipper gets hurt again (which he will - I know it). I actually like Smoak a lot, and feel he is a very similar player to LaPorta and Wallace - two guys I dropped previously. I would have like to have kept McGee around a bit longer - but I am carrying three DL'd OF's at the moment in Torres, Pagan and Domonic Brown. I also am holding onto Brian Matusz. That left Marlon Byrd, Mcgee and Javy Vazquez on the chopping block.

I let go of Marlon Byrd for Carlos Gomez this week - and spent $81 dollars to make sure I got him. The runner up was $45. I am desperate for some speed and he was coming off a hot week, which cost me FAAB dollars since I felt I had to get him. He is not a player I love - but a necessary evil for me. I have to gain some ground in this category if I want to have a real chance at the overall titles. I am WAY off the pace at this point. Still - I have to improve the 9 pts (out of 780) that I have in SB's right now.

I actually put Vazquez on the block and made a bid on Anibal Sanchez. He went for $121 and I was the runner-up at $84. I tried to steal him a bit and honestly I am okay with carrying Vazquez on my bench for another week. Two weeks I have tried to get rid of him and twice I wasn't successful. Maybe this means he is going to turn it around? I am not holding my breath.

Hoping I get some good news this week regarding some of my injury guys and I will have some decisions to make once they all start to return. Ryan Raburn may add 2B/MI eligibility by then - which will be a nice luxury for me. Onto Week 5

edit - I actually remembered that I also had the runner up bid in on Ryan Madson this week - but I lost that one as well. I had Roberts and Smoak as conditionals behind Madson and Gomez and Smoak was third on both lists.

[deansdaddy]

Week 5 was a middle of the road effort for my squad.

They hit .251/39/12/50/3 for the week. The HR and RBI totals were season highs for the team, but I still only managed 3 SB's for the week. Carlos Gomez chipped in 2 of those and I am heartened by the fact that Bourjos got one last night. He was thrown out 3 times last week - so hopefully he can start to be a little more successful. I actually went out and picked up Erik Aybar this week and slipped him into my lineup for Derek Jeter looking for some help in this category. I cut Josh Willingham and it was my only pickup of the week.

On the Pitching side I got a 3.80/2/1.32/44/4 week from my staff. The ERA and WHIP numbers were the worst I've posted thus far - but like Matt Harrison I was due for a correction this week. Actually Harrison was the main culprit here with 4.2 innings of work and 11 ER in two starts.

On the bright side my key bats Cabrera/Holliday/Cruz/Phillips all came to life last week. Also newly acquired Justin Smoak looks like he will provide some more production. I need to get Pagan and/or Andres Torres back soon and Domonic Brown has taken another step closer to rejoining the Phillies. Jon Herrera had a terrible week and if he doesn't show anything this week I will likely toss him back for some pitching.

My staff has been solid so far - but I am still on the lookout for another arm here. Brian Matusz return would help most of all, and I will give Vazquez another chance this week to convince me not to cut him. Harrison is also on a very short rope at this point.

I dropped to second place by the end of the week with 81.5 points. In the overalls as of today I am at #30 (of of 228) and #121 (out of 780) in the two 12 team overall contests.

[southpaw]

Hey Ryan - just wondering if you have an update for us in your DP league. Curious to see where you stand now and what changes you've made in the last couple weeks.

[deansdaddy]

Let's put it this way - I'm glad that May is over. I had a pretty lousy month - although the last week has been pretty promising.

I finally had my starting OF back for the first time since week 1 and it lasted all of one game - as now Holliday is hurt.

I have slumped down to 7th plsce - but honestly everything is so tight - I am a prolonged hot streak from getting right back up into 1st - so I'm not that worried. My power and speed have been coming on as of late. With Torres and Pagan and Matusz and Cruz finally all back and playing I fianlly have reserve spots to play with again and I did grab Uehara and Venters (not Crow unfortunately) hoping one emerges.

Mike Napoli is on a tear right now and Carlos Pena has been good as well.

I could really use a Miguel Cabrera hot streak right about now.

On the pitching side - I hit a little speed bump lately. I was leading most of the categories - but can't buy a W lately.

I took a little break from writing stuff lately - been coaching a lot of little league games for my son and daughter lately. I will try to start posting again a little more - thanks for asking.

[deansdaddy]

Hadn't updated this team for awhile - but the week heading into the break was my best of the season and has vaulted this team back into a share of 1st place with 81.5 points. My team was the best DP Live team of the week out of 228 and was the third best team out of 780. My pitching came to life as CC, Haren and J Garcia won all 6 of their starts to help me grab 8 last week and gain alot of ground in a category I was lagging in.

June started with this team down in 7th place but as I noted - things were tight enough for me to get back in it and we have been able to do that. We also have moved back up into contention in the overall contest - back up to #45 in the DP Live and #145 in the Online.

Ty Wigginton was acquired via FAAB for $37 (runner up $14) and he was worth every penny as I caught him right on his massive hot streak. Matt Holliday has also heated up and is finally producing for this squad. Again - my team is healthy at this point and I am hoping my big injuries are behind me (good luck with that one). My additions the last couple weeks have focused on speed with Roger Bernandina having been obtained a couple weeks back and Bonafacio this week. I also grabbed David Freese for added depth and used him last week as Wigginton slumped.

The core of this team hasn't changed as my moves have been around the edges. The difference is I have no one on my team with the dreaded DL next to their name for the first time all year which is giving me room to finally build some depth on the pitching staff.

The second half awaits and I am just glad that I have this team in position to manage it to victory.

[southpaw]

Nice job man. Thanks for the update.
My WCOFB team is still in first in my league and 4th in the overall. I'm still lagging in steals and BA which have pretty much plagued me all season. Desmond can't get on base to get any further SB's and Torres has been a big disappointment in that area as I expected 30+ from him over the course of the season. However, I have made up ground in HR and RBI as Reynolds, Pena and Espinosa all had great Junes and Hamilton came back from the DL. I picked up Furcal for not much $ a couple weeks ago when he came off the DL but he hasn't done anything yet. I'm kind of hoping he's a source of steals down the stretch.

[deansdaddy]

Well done. Torres and Pagan were badly missed by my team and Torres is still MIA. I almost cut him last week - but decided to hold him for now. Still hoping he gets back on track. Keep up the good work in WCOFB!