Helloooooo Dyamond Dynasty! I hope
you've all had a wonderful first half of the season. It's been great
to get together for the Red Sox game, Sunday
Night Baseball, a cookout, our golf
outing. A little note
on the following information you are about to enjoy. I wrote most of
this information over the last week, so I might have some of my
information crossed up or whatever. You probably won't even notice
anything unless it's your team, and if you do see anything, just shut
up and keep it to yourself. The power rankings that I list in each
team's individual breakdown is their rank within the Diamond Dynasty.
The Keeper Delta thing is basically the difference between the
player's projected value vs their actual value. And for those of you
who say “well, that guy wouldn't be so badly ranked if he wasn't
injured all year,” this may be true. But their rank is the value
that they've given to their owners, and you make selections based on
projected value. Ergo, all season on the DL is shitty return on
investment.
Offense
1. Kurt (46)
2. Jarrett (38)
3. Colin (36)
4. Richie (35)
5. James (26)
6. TJ (23)
7. Alex (21)
8. Drew (19)
T-9. Ben (16)
T-9. Adrian (16)
Pitching
1. Drew (42)
2. Ben (40)
3. TJ (35)
4. Kurt (32)
5. James (27)
6. Alex (25)
7. Colin (23)
8. Jarrett (22)
9. Richie (18)
10. Adrian (11)
Overall
1. Kurt (78)
2. Drew (61)
3. Jarrett (60)
4. Colin (59)
5. TJ (58)
6. Ben (56)
7. Richie (53)
T-7. James (53)
9. Alex (46)
DFL. Adrian (27)
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Adrian “Snake Skin” Macdonald, 10th
2012 draft pick: 6
Last 4 weeks: 0-3-1
Best streak: 2-0-1
Worst streak: 0-6-1 (current)
Power Rankings: 10-10-10
Keeper Delta: -454
- Matt Kemp: 2 (77) = -75
- Dustin Pedroia: 17 (205)
= -188
- Alex Rodriguez: 42 (89) =
-47
- Jeremy Hellickson: 169
(313) = -144
Adrian started off smokin'
hot last year but stumbled during the playoff push and finished the
year in the middle of the pack. His struggles have continued into
this year, as he is bringing up the rear in the 2012 Diamond Dynasty
standings. It's tough to put all the blame on Adrian though, as many
of his key contributors have spent significant time on the DL. Matt
Kemp, arguably the best fantasy option in the game, has missed
roughly half the season with a hamstring injury (and STILL ranks in
the top 100, scary). Other notable offensive injuries include Jason
Werth (half the season), Pablo Sandoval (26 games played) Lance
Berkman (13 games played), and Dustin Pedroia (lingering thumb
injury). A-Rod has played only slightly below market value, and Paul
Konerko continues to defy father time (or Mother
Nature) but their performances haven't been
nearly enough to keep Adrian from the bottom of the offensive power
rankings.
If the injury bug hampered
his offense, it wiped out his pitching. Brian Wilson was out before
the season started. Mariano Rivera is gone. Jair Jurrjens and
Daniel Bard have been sent to the minors, and they're both
struggling. Jeremy Hellickson, his lone pitching keeper, has pitched
well (4-3, 3.45 ERA, 1.34 WHIP) and Aroldis Chapman has been
fantastic. Jason Motte has held up his end of the bargain as well,
but pitching staffs need to go more than three deep. Matt Moore has
been garbage. Dan Haren has underperformed. And guys like Wandy
Rodriguez and Hiroki Kuroda have performed like Wandy Rodriguez and
Hideki Kuroda – good fill in pieces for the back of the rotation,
but right now they're two of his better starters.
When everyone was healthy,
Adrian got off to a good start losing only one week in April (2-1-1).
But he's riding a 7 week winless streak, and looking for his first
win since week 4. If the pitchers start living up to their potential
and he can get healthy, Adrian might be able to sneak into the
playoffs as a low seed.
Ben “Ziggy” O'Connor, 9th
2012 draft pick: 9
Last 4 weeks: 0-3-1
Best streak: 2-0
Worst streak: 0-4-1 (current)
Power Rankings: 9-2-6
Keeper Delta: -1297
- Jacoby Ellsbury: 13
(1094) = -1081
- Adrian Gonzalez: 9 (229)
= -220
- Robinson Cano: 8 (52) =
-44
- CJ Wilson: 81 (33) = +48
After suffering a
heartbreaking defeat in the 2011 DD Finals on the last at-bat of the
regular season, Ben has stumbled out of the gate in 2012. His
offensive has struggled in particular, tied for last in the league.
Jacoby Ellsbury has missed the majority of the season with a shoulder
injury, Adrian Gonzalez has no power stroke, and Alex Avila has been
an overall disappointment. Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz have been
decent, but the real MVP's have been Edwin Encarnacion and Josh
Willingham. I'd write more about Ben's offense but I don't know who
any of these people are. Wilin Rosario? Dayan Vicideo? Ben, do
yourself a favor and go get Hideki Matsui and Bobby Abreu – proven
players, no matter how old, always get the job done. Do my rings
lie?
Ben is manning yet another
team that has major deficiencies on one side of the ball but
dominates the other. He's in the top half of every pitching category
and has a very top-heavy staff. Mr. Perfect, Matt Cain is the
highest ranked starter this year and CJ Wilson has been almost as
good. Brett Meyers, Fernando Rodney, and Joe Nathan have all been
very good in their closer roles, and Heath Bell is starting to round
back into form. Losing Cory Luebke was a tough blow, but the closers
are really helping to keep the ERA and WHIP down. Clay
Buchholz is finally starting to turn it around in his last 5 starts, and if Mat Latos ever shows up that will really fill out a
great pitching staff. Ben had pretty much been treading water before his recent struggles (0-4-1). He's still very much in the race.
Colin “Fancy” Lancey, 8th
2012 draft pick: 5
Last 4 weeks: 2-2
Best streak: 2-0
Worst streak: 0-4-3
Power Rankings: 3-7-4
Keeper Delta: -288
- Miguel Cabrera: 1 (11) =
-10
- Brett Lawrie: 45 (118) =
-73
- Roy Halladay: 16 (218) =
-202
- Cole Hamels: 34 (37) =
-3
Colin finished 5th
last year and had some tough keeper decisions to make. He parted
ways with Paul Konerko, Elvis Andrus, Pablo Sandoval, Asdrubal
Cabrera, and James Shields (how did he finish 5th?). He
made the right choices for the most part, with Konerko the only one
who hasn't regressed this year. Colin's had very good offensive
production this year, as he has 6 of the top 57 players. Miguel
Cabrera has been great (surprise surprise), and Starlin Castro, Dan
Uggla, and Shane Victorino have been very good. Jose Altuve and
Alejandro De Aza have well exceeded expectations, and Mike Trout
looks like a stud in the making (number 5 ranked player over the last
30 days!!). Brett Lawrie is the only player that is noticeably under
performing, but he hasn't been an albatross.
As good as his offense has
been, his pitching has been just as bad. Cole Hamels and Ryan
Vogelsong are his only two pitchers that are ranked inside the top
128 players this year. Roy Halladay is on the shelf, although he
wasn't his normal self when healthy. Andrew Bailey and Sergio Santos
occupy two other DL spots. Pretty much everyone on his staff has
disappointed, from starters (Jarrod Parker, Ian Kennedy, Matt Garza,
Daniel Hudson, Tim Hudson) to closers (J.J. Putz). Anibal Sanchez
has been pretty good, and Andy Pettitte was as clutch a pick-up for
Colin as he was for the Yankees. Colin hit a really rough stretch in
the middle of the season, racking up an 0-4-3 record in weeks 2-8,
though he's come back a little bit as of late. It's hard to tell
where this team is going to end up in September.
TJ “Don't Grind My” Geers, 7th
2012 draft pick: 8
Last 4 weeks: 2-2
Best streak: 4-1
Worst streak: 0-2-1
Power Rankings: 6-3-5
Keeper Delta: -217
- Jose Bautista: 4 (32) =
-28
- Albert Pujols: 3 (111) =
-108
- Justin Upton: 10 (138) =
-128
- Ian Kinsler: 18 (27) =
-9
After a third place finish
last year, TJ has struggled through the first half of 2012. But
while his head to head record is poor, his power rankings suggest
that he's just been snake-bitten. He's in the middle of the pack
offensively, and in the top third in pitching. That being said,
Albert Pujols' struggles have been well documented (although he's
turned it on over the past month, 13th overall). Asdrubal
Cabrera has experienced some regression as well, playing well below
his projected value. Kinsler and Bautista have been justifiable
keepers, although they're not dominating like they should be. Ryan
Zimmerman has missed time on the DL, and Justin Upton and Brandon
Phillips have been sputtering. On the flip side, Adam Dunn has
returned to form, Drew Stubbs has come as advertised, Jordan Schafer
has been a pleasant surprise, and Jonathan Lucroy (DL) and J.P.
Arencibia have provided good production from the catcher spot. If
Pujols, Kinsler, and Bautista can fulfill their top-20 talent, that
might be enough to carry TJ through the playoff race.
TJ has benefited from some
key pitching acquisitions early on. Ryan Dempster and Chris Capuano
have been his two best pitchers and they both went undrafted, and
spot starts from Barry Zito and Andy Pettitte have been frequent.
Chris Perez has been one of the best closers all year, and Frank
Francisco and Brandon League have provided saves, albeit with an
inflated ERA. That being said, his high-end pitching talent has
mostly underperformed. He took James Shields, Yu Darvish, Michael
Pineda, and Ubaldo Jimenez within the first 8 rounds after keepers.
Shields and Darvish have started slow, Pineda's out for the year, and
Jimenez is a free agent (initially, that sentence was the most
offensive thing I've ever typed. I refuse to put it in print, but I
will tell it to you in person if you want to hear it). Despite
keeping 4 offensive players and not getting a good return on early
round investment, TJ's pitching has been above league average. TJ
started slow (0-2-1), then picked it up (4-1) before slumping again
(0-2). Expect his head to head record to improve and match his
rotisserie scoring in the second half.
Drew “Double D” Donovan, 6th
2012 draft pick: 7
Last 4 weeks: 1-3
Best streak: 1-0-1
Worst streak: 1-5-1
Power Rankings: 8-1-2
Keeper Delta: -354
- Yovani Gallardo: 58
(332) = -274
- CC Sabathia: 32 (100) =
-68
- Jered Weaver: 36 (53) =
-17
- Justin Verlander: 19
(14) = +5
After dominating the regular
season last year, Drew was edged out by Kurt, the eventual champion,
in the semi-finals. He was smoked in the third place game and failed
to finish in the money. Drew continued with his pitcher heavy
strategy this year, keeping four pitchers – no one else kept more
than 2, and the rest of the league kept 9 pitchers total. Starved
for offense, Drew obviously took David Price with the 7th
pick in the 2012 draft, and he officially ran out of excuses if he
didn't finish first in every pitching category. Unfortunately for
the rest of the league, Drew's gang of aces have pitched well and by
my calculations, he has the best pitching numbers in the league.
With his slew of pitching, he needed several of his offensive
selections to have career years, and he's getting just that. My once
beloved Joe Mauer is back to his days of old, hitting .300+ with an
astounding lack of power. Mark Trumbo, Angel Pegan, and Rafael
Furcal are having career years. Michael Bourn has already set a
career high in homers (6) and he's still burning up the base paths.
Derek Jeter has come back down to earth after his hot start, although
he's still even with his projected stats. And despite the
production, Drew is still in the bottom half of the league
offensively.
With all that pitching, Drew
can bring in some major bats without losing his fastball (ha!) on the
pitching side. He's been involved in the only trade we've seen this
season, sending under achieving starters Yovani Gallardo and Ricky
Nolasco for Matt Capps, Will Middlebrooks, and Chase Utley. In other
words, Drew has not done anything as of yet to improve his offense.
Despite trading a keeper (Gallardo), Drew's pitching is still the
best in the league. C.C. Sabathia, Jered Weaver, David Price, Colby
Lewis and Justin Verlander, are all ranked in the top 100, and the
latter two are in the top 50. The rest of the rotation is solid.
Matt Capps, Alfredo Aceves, and Craig Kimbrel solidify the back end
of the rotation, and Kyle Farnsworth and Drew Storen should be back
around the all-star break. Drew only won two of the first nine
weeks, but his losses have been small and his wins have been big so
he's still in it. It'll be interesting to see if his pitching can
carry him back to the postseason.
Alex “The Gentle Giant”
Gentilli, 5th
2012 draft pick: 4
Last 4 weeks: 0-3-1
Best streak: 3-0-1
Worst streak: 0-3-1 (current)
Power Rankings: 7-6-9
Keeper Delta: +1
- Curtis Granderson: 22
(19) = +3
- Giancarlo Stanton: 26
(59) = -33
- Andrew McCutchen: 25
(13) = +12
- David Wright: 31 (12) =
+19
The new poster child (and
what a good looking poster child he is) of the crazy Yahoo! scoring
system, Alex missed the 2011 DD postseason by mere percentage points.
Despite keeping 4 hitters and stocking up on offense in the draft (5
of his first 7 picks were position players), Alex has one of the
least productive offenses in the league. All 4 keepers have had a
great first half, ranking in the top 60 and three in the top 20, but
he's had mediocre production from his other starters. He cut ties
with Adam Dunn in mid April, who is back to being one of the best
home run hitters in the game. Brian McCann, Elvis Andrus and Desmond
Jennings haven't played to their abilities, and he can't seem to find
a reliable 2B/MI. All in all, his line up doesn't look all that bad.
The wild card might be Ryan Howard, though there is still no
timetable for his return.
Alex is in a slightly better
situation on the bump. Zack Greinke, Brandon Morrow, Chris Sale, and
a resurgent Josh Johnson lead the way, while solid years from Mark
Buehrle and Erik Bedard round out his rotation. He's rolling with a
lot of closing options too, with Joel Hanrahan, Santiago Castilla,
and Ernesto Frieri all ranking in the top 100, and Huston Street and
Jonathan Broxton sitting at about the 150 mark. If Max Scherzer
could ever put it together, he'd have arguably the best top 7
starters in the league. Tight losses and comfortable wins have
propelled him in the top half of the league to this point. Alex's
team has rounded out nicely, and I fully expect him to be in
contention in the fall.
James “Greek” Maimonis, 4th
2012 draft pick: 1
Last 4 weeks: 3-1
Best streak: 2-0-1
Worst streak: 0-2-1
Power Rankings: 5-5-8
Keeper Delta: -1223
- Troy Tulowitzki: 5 (134)
= -129
- Cliff Lee: 24 (208) =
-184
- Mark Teixeira: 23 (115)
= -92
- Rickie Weeks: 80 (898) =
-818
Mams had a rough season last
year, finishing in last place. With the first pick he took Jose
Reyes over Stephen Strasburg, and I never formally thanked him for
that. Thank you Mams! Reyes is struggling in his first season in
Miami, playing way below his projected value. His keepers haven't
helped any either; Tulo is on the DL, Cliff Lee hasn't won a game
yet (repeat: HASN'T WON A GAME), Mark Teixeira has been very
pedestrian, and Rickie Weeks has been the worst injury-free keeper
this year. And yet, James is in the middle of the
pack offensively. Adam Jones is a top-5 player, David Ortiz is
dominating, and Matt Holliday has been damn good. Once Tulo and
Bonifacio come off the DL Mams should be able to put up bigger
offensive numbers, but he'll never be leading the league.
Mams is also 5th
in pitching power rankings, despite Lee's win-less start (3.48 ERA,
1.12 WHIP – it's not his fault. Just for funsies, Clay Buchholz is
7-2, 5.38 ERA, 1.53 WHIP. Sorry you had to see that James). I don't
think anyone could have predicted that Jim Johnson and James McDonald
were going to be so good, but they along with Gio Gonzalez form a top
50 three-headed monster for John Corey's former neighbor. The rest of
his staff is full of mid-tier guys playing slightly above their heads
like Kyle Loshe, Jeff Samardzija, Tom Wilhelmsen (who?), Wade Miley,
Franklin Morales, and Jose Quintana. Even if these guys regress a
bit, Drew Smyly will be able to contribute again once off the DL, and
Ervin Santana, after a VERY rough start to the season, is coming off
a one-hit shutout of the D-Backs (baseball makes no sense sometimes).
Unfortunately, it looks like Jaime Garcia might miss the rest of the
year with a shoulder injury. Mams has been pretty much win 2, lose 2 year. He'll have to keep his foot on the gas if he wants to make
it to the post-season.
Jarrett “Wizard” Staaf,
3rd
2012 draft pick: 3
Last 4 weeks: 4-0
Best streak: 6-1 (current)
Worst streak: 1-2-1
Power Rankings: 2-8-3
Keeper Delta: -992
- Ryan Braun: 6 (3) = +3
- Josh Hamilton: 33 (1) =
+32
- Tim Lincecum: 28 (1021)
= -993
- Clayton Kershaw: 15 (49)
= -34
Jarrett's having a great
bounce back season this year after failing to make the playoffs last
year. His offense is off the charts, and he's one of only two teams
to be ranked in the top three in the overall power rankings and head to head record.
He has a fantastic offensive Keeper Delta, with Josh Hamilton and
Ryan Braun ranking first and third overall, respectively. He rounds
out his stellar outfield with Melky Cabrera, who is the seventh best
offensive player through the first half of the year. I can't imagine
that we've seen a better outfield in the Diamond Dynasty's decade of
existence. He also has Josh Reddick in his Utility spot, which makes
for 4 outfielders in the top 40. He's also getting good production
from David Freese and Michael Cuddyer. All these guys have been so
good that it's easy to overlook those who haven't been carrying their
weight. Carlos has been a huge disappointment, Paul Goldschmidt has
been below average, and Michael Young, Dee Gordon, and Ben Zobrist
have all performed as men of lower stock. His historic outfield is
just that good.
His pitching, on the other
hand, hasn't been as good. Let's just get this one out of the way –
Tim Lincecum. WTF Tim? Jarrett shells out a
first-round-after-keepers draft pick for his rights, and he lays a
huge dump on him. I mentioned that Rickie Weeks was the worst
non-injured keeper this year...not true. Timmy stinks bigtime.
On the flip side Clayton Kershaw, his other pitching keeper, has played only slightly
worse than his projection which was damn high to begin with. He's
getting good seasons out of Jonathan Papelbon, Kenley Jansen, Johan
Santana, and Lance Lynn. Arguably his best pitcher, Brandon Beachy,
is sitting on the DL along with Neftali Feliz and Brett Anderson.
Overall, it's not a bad staff but he still sits 8th in the
pitching power rankings. I'm guessing this is coming from his lack
of mid-level talent. He's got all this top-100-or-thereabouts
talent, but then it really drops off. If he can find a couple of
mid-tier guys, he'll be a very tough beat. Jarrett started off the
season mediocre but is on an absolutely beastly tear right now, winning 6 of
his last 7. Jarrett will be a major player for the rest of the year.
Richie “The Chosen One” Travers,
2nd
2012 draft pick: 2
Last 4 weeks: 3-1
Best streak: 4-1 (current)
Worst streak: 0-2
Power Rankings: 4-9-7
Keeper Delta: -632
- Prince Fielder: 14 (45)
= -31
- Hanley Ramirez: 21 (66)
= -45
- Jon Lester: 60 (465) =
-405
- Felix Hernandez: 29
(180) = -151
And now, the moment you've
all been waiting for, yours truly. Y'all probably just skipped to
this section anyway, and I don't blame you. Richie's offensive has
been solid all year, thanks to late round steals. Carlos Beltran and
Andre Ethier were taken in the 14th and 16th
rounds after keepers. Beltran is a top-10 talent and Ethier is
leading the NL in RBI's. Prince Fielder and Hanley Ramirez, while
not quite living up to their lofty expectations, are contributing to
the offensive output. Richie's done a good job of surrounding his
top level talent with mid-level guys like Corey Hart and Billy
Butler. He's been patient, probably to a fault, on his
second-basemen Dustin Ackley and Neil Walker, and he hasn't quite
gotten return on investment from Mike Napoli (although he basically
single-handedly won him week 2).
Richie's pitching has cooled
off as of late. At one point, Stephen Strasburg, Jake Peavy, and
Felix Hernandez were all top 5 pitchers. Strasburg (first round
pick) and Peavy (last round pick!) are still dealing and ranked in
the top 35, but Felix has fallen off the wagon. Lester has sucked,
Beckett has been ok, and John Axford and Jose Valverde have been
pretty dang disappointing. Overall, he ranks near the bottom in
pitching power rankings. Aside from his top 2 or 3 guys, there just
isn't much there. His overall power ranking suggests a big downturn
in the second half. Ever the optimist, he has no fear of a potential
regression and looks to his recent performance for reassurance.
Richie will make the playoffs. Interesting to note, Richie sits in
second place and has made the least moves this year (10). Who has
the most moves, you should ask?
Kurt “The Champion”
Gottschalk, 1st
2012 draft pick: 10
Last 4 weeks: 3-0-1
Best streak: 8-0-1 (current)
Worst streak: 0-2
Power Rankings: 1-4-1
Keeper Delta: -456
- Evan Longoria: 12 (446)
= -434
- Jay Bruce: 50 (62) = -12
- Carlos Gonzalez: 11 (2)
= -9
- Joey Votto: 7 (8) = -1
Why, Senior Kurt would have
the most moves! Pretty interesting that both strategies seem to work
out well. So yeah, Kurt's been doing okay this year. First place in
head to head. First place in power rankings. First place in
offensive power rankings. And his DL? Evan Longoria, Brett Gardner,
and Carl Crawford. He's leading 4 of the 5 offense categories, and
he's 6th in stolen bases (again, Gardner and Crawford on
the DL). Joey Votto is hitting .500 – no shit – over his last 23
games. Jason Kipnis is a top-10 player (what?). Cargo is retarded.
Adrian Beltre, Jay Bruce, Ian Desmond, and Austin Jackson have been
damn good also. All told, Kurt has 3 players in the top 10 (4 if you
count R.A. Dickey), and he's getting arguably the best 3B back
sometime in the next month. Downright scary offense.
Pitching hasn't been much
worse for The Commish, who's riding Dickey's phenomenal year (as I type this, he's finishing up his second consecutive CG 1-hit shutout). Madison Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto have
been awesome too, both ranked in the top 40. The rest of his staff –
all starters – are middle to low tier guys, though many of those
options I'm assuming are spot starters. If he can successfully sell
off some of his potent offensive pieces for stud pitchers, he's going
to run away with the regular season. Hell, he's probably already
there. Kurt lost the first two weeks of the season, and he's still
waiting for his third loss. A tie in week 8 (tip of the cap to Ben)
is the only thing standing in his way of a 9 week winning streak,
highlighted by 3 non-closer shutouts. Can anyone bring his reign of
terror to an end? Side note: his worst rank in any of the 10
scoring categories, except for saves in which he is last due to his
non-closer strategy, is 6th place. Adrian's best rank in
any category is 6th.
But all this gets wiped out
after 22 weeks. And therein lies the importance of head to head vs
rotisserie; much like the NFL playoffs, it just takes one week for
the mighty to fall in the playoffs. 22 weeks of hard work, all
dashed away in a mere 7 days. It can be a cruel fate, but I'll be
damned if it doesn't make it interesting!
