Welcome to Week 6. We now have a month worth of stats for the season. If you have been a regular reader of this Article, I thought this would be a good time to provide
you with an update on how things are going in the Sport Buff Contest. Four of the CREATiVESPORTS staff are participating in the Experts League that they set up each season. Besides yours truly, Brian Walton, Pete Khazen and Pasko Varnika also have entries. As of this writing, Brian is in first place with 1527 points, Pete Khazen is in second with 1519 points, Pasko is in fourth with 1486 and yours truly is in ninth place with 1443 points. So, I was wondering, what strategies seemed to be working for each of us and decided to canvass each owner for their insights. I will also compare our lineups for this past week, to help you gain some insight into the Karma we all seem to be having this Baseball Season.
We are all going with cheap closers, guys like Rafael Betancourt($33) and Brandon Lyon($36). You are likely to get as many saves from the cheaper guys on winning teams, as you are from the big tickets entries like Jonathan Papelbon. Pasko even takes this one step more, by picking his closer based on whether their teams have more home games in a particular week than away games. We are not sure why this may be happening, but the data is proving this fact to be true at the moment. Hey, any edge you can get, I say go with it.
I tend to go with Cheap Starting pitching with what I think is favorable matchups for them that week. The other guys seem to go with more established higher priced pitching, then pick and choose a cheap starter like Micah Owings or Jonathan Sanchez. This may explain why I am behind them at the moment, because I rarely spend over $50 for any
starter. Brian likes to have has pitchers with two home starts for the week, steering clear of guys with Away games.
We all tend to look for cheap hitters who are on hot streaks, and just ride them till they cool off. We try to get as many guys into our starting lineups that play a seven game schedule for the week. We figure, the more AB's you can get in a week, the more likley you are to score points. Pete also pointed out to me that he drops any guy who cost more than $40 and who did not score more than 15 points in the previous week. Most of us also tend to sacrifice on Salary at the Catcher position also.
I hope this helps you to derive a strategy moving forward in the contest this season. Every month I will give you a status on how we are all doing. Also, here is a comparison of three lineups used last week.
Brian Walton
SP Cole Hamels - Phi $52
SP Johan Santana - NYM $55
SP Danny Haren - Ari $44
RP Rafael Betancourt - Cle $33
C Jose Molina - NYY $27
1B Justin Morneau - Min $44
2B Asdrubal Cabrera - Cle $41
3B Chone Figgins - LAA $43
SS Bobby Crosby - Oak $34
OF Xavier Nady - Pit $36
OF Johnny Damon - NYY $40
OF Nate McLouth - Pit $30
FLEX Ryan Doumit - Pit $31
FLEX Nick Markakis - Bal $45
Mike Kosmoski
SP Greg Maddux - SD $34
SP Greg Smith - Oak $29
SP Johnny Cueto - Cin $32
RP Rafael Betancourt - Cle $33
C Geovany Soto - ChC $43
1B Derrek Lee - ChC $46
2B Chase Utley - Phi $58
3B Mark Reynolds - Ari $40
SS Rafael Furcal - LAD $40
OF Nick Markakis - Bal $45
OF Justin Upton - Ari $40
OF Pat Burrell - Phi $41
FLEX David Wright - NYM $51
FLEX Nate McLouth - Pit $30
Pete Khazen
SP Cole Hamels - Phi $52
SP Tim Lincecum - SF $45
SP Cliff Lee - Cle $33
RP Brandon Lyon - Ari $36
C Gerald Laird - Tex $33
1B Derrek Lee - ChC $46
2B Chase Utley - Phi $58
3B Mark Reynolds - Ari $40
SS Rafael Furcal - LAD $40
OF Carlos Quentin - ChW $31
OF Nate McLouth - Pit $30
OF Fred Lewis - SF $29
FLEX Pat Burrell - Phi $41
FLEX Josh Hamilton - Tex $42
Back to the Contests for this week:
Sports Buff Contest
I would recommend these two start pitchers in the Sports Buff contest.
1.Max Scherzer($33) - PHI Home, CHC Away
2.Daisuke Matsuzaka($48) - DET Away, MIN Away
3.Oliver Perez($46) - LAD Away, CIN Home
4.Chad Billingsley($39) - NYM Home, HOU Home
5.Jeremy Bonderman($41) BOS Home, NYY Home
6.Ervin Santana($35) - KC Away, TB Away
7.Jonathan Sanchez($34) - PIT Away, PHI Home
8.Jar Jurrjens($30) - SD Home, PIT Away
9.Aaron Harang($49) - CHC Home, NYM Away
10.Carlos Zambrano($47) - CIN Away, ARZ Home
11.Scott Olsen($33) - MIL Home, WAS Away
12.AJ Burnett($47) - TB Home, CLE Away
13.Fausto Carmona($46) - NYY Away, TOR Home
14.Andy Pettitte($37) - CLE Home, DET Away
15.Hiroki Kuroda($30) - NYM Home, HOU Home
16.Chris Young($40) - ATL Away, COL Home
17.Johnny Cueto($32) - CHC Home, NYM Away
I personally like Scherzer, Sanchez and Jurrjens.
CDM Diamond Challenge
I would recommend these two start pitchers in the CDM Challenge.(Dollar amount in Millions)
1.Max Scherzer($750) - PHI Home, CHC Away
2.Daisuke Matsuzaka($870) - DET Away, MIN Away
3.Oliver Perez($770) - LAD Away, CIN Home
4.Ervin Santana($770) - KC Away, TB Away
5.Jonathan Sanchez($400) - PIT Away, PHI Home
6.Aaron Harang($1210) - CHC Home, NYM Away
7.Fausto Carmona($1000) - NYY Away, TOR Home
8.Johnny Cueto($750) - CHC Home, NYM Away
Team Schedules
Seven Games - Arizona, Baltimore, Boston, Colorado, Chicago White Sox, Detroit, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Seattle, St. Louis, Texas, Toronto.
Everybody else play Six Games.
Injuries
1. Yovani Gallardo(SP MIL) - Out for the season with a torn ACL. Disastrous loss for the Brew Crew.
2. Alex Rodriguez(3B NYY) - Landed on the 15 Day DL with that balky Quad.
3. Chone Figgins(3B LAA) - Sore hamstring will curtail his action this week.
4. John Smoltz(SP ATL) - Sore shoulder has him out till Mid-May.
5. Josh Willingham(OF FLA) - He is out with a bad back.
6. Chad Cordero(RP WAS) - He is out till July with that sore shoulder.
7. Troy Tulowitzki(SS COL) - Torn Quad has him out till the All Star break.
8. Phil Hughes(SP NYY) - He is out indefinitely with a rib injury
9. Jorge Posada(C NYY) - He will be out till late May with a bad shoulder.
Players on the Rise
1. John Rauch(RP WAS) - He will assume the closers role with the injury to Chad Cordero.
2. Brandon Webb(SP ARZ) - 7-0 record with a 2.49 ERA.
3. Rafael Furcal(SS LAD) - Went 13-28 in the last seven days, a .464 BA.
4. Carlos Quentin(OF CWS) - Has 8 HR's and 22 RBI's this season.
5. Chipper Jones(3B ATL) - He is batting .421 with 8 HR's.
Players on the Decline
1. Ian Kennedy(SP NYY) - He was banished to AAA after his horrific start.
2. Johnny Cueto(SP CIN) - Has been getting torched lately, and stands at 1-3 with a 5.40 ERA.
3. Travis Hafner(DH CLE) - Only hitting .215 with 3 Dingers.
4. Justin Verlander(SP DET) - 6.28 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP is not getting it done for his owners or the Tigers.
5. Mike Pelfrey(SP NYM) - He is not cutting it either with a 2-3 record and a 5.27 ERA.
Got a fantasy question you would like answered in my column? Send it to me via
e-mail at mikek@creativesports.com. Until next week, I wish you the best of
luck.