The Treatment Room
Astros place OF Hunter Pence on the DL
Astros placed outfielder Hunter Pence on the 15-day disabled list with a chip fracture in his right wrist. Before the injury, Pence was batting .330 with 12 HR and was leading the chase for NL rookie of the year. Pence will miss 4-6 weeks, leaving Chris Burke as the Astros’ primary center fielder.
Angels place RHP Bartolo Colon on the DL
Angels placed RHP Bartolo Colon the 15-day disabled list with a sore right elbow. The Angels will probably leave Colon on the DL for more than the minimum to ensure that when he comes back he comes back for good. Dustin Moseley will be his replacement.
Greetings, fellow Mafia members! A mixed bag this week.
First, a comment from, our friend, Bas in Holland. Looking back to Part 5 of An Offer They Couldn’t Refuse, he writes … “Michael Young is now on his fourth team in League 8. He was drafted by Laura [League 8’s commissioner], but she traded him to me for Saito and [Orlando] Cabrera. Four days later, I traded him and Wheeler to Ronan [in Ireland] for Jeter. Just like you wrote, if you are a baseball player in League 8, always keep your suitcase packed!” Don’t worry League 8, we’ll jump back into your ‘blizzard’ of trades in a couple of weeks.
The Treatment Room
Brewers place RHP Ben Sheets on the DL
Brewers placed RHP Ben Sheets on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to July 15, with an injury to his right middle finger. Sheets will miss 4-6 weeks after an ultrasound revealed a partial tear of the tissue surrounding the tendon in his right middle finger. I wouldn’t be surprised if this injury costs him the rest of the season or at least limits him when he does return. Gallardo owners should be delighted by this news as now with Sheets out, Gallardo has plenty of time to win out Vargas’s rotation spot.
Mets activate Jorge Sosa from the DL
Mets activated RHP Jorge Sosa from the 15-day disabled list. Since returning Sosa has struggled, giving up eight runs in ten innings of work. Sosa’s season record is now 7-5 with a 4.36 ERA. Sosa owners should be looking to trade him as he looks like the favorite to lose his spot when Pedro returns.
Braves activate RHP John Smoltz from the DL
Braves activated RHP John Smoltz from the 15-day disabled list. John Smoltz fanned 11 in seven scoreless innings against the Reds on Wednesday. Smoltz is 9-5 with a 2.88 ERA for the season.
The trading deadline is just a couple weeks away in most fantasy leagues and if you want any shot of overcoming the deficit you’re in and getting to the top, it’s time to start seriously considering some trades. But in standard roto formats, it’s long past time to just look at trades as value vs. value—you have to be trading for categories. Your total points are irrelevant information right now; you need to know the detail of where you stand in roto category. Here are some rules to follow as you approach those trades moving forward.
Greetings, fellow Mafia members!
Let’s tackle something a little bit different this week, as we hear from our fellow Mafia member, and my League 4 “arch-nemesis”, Tony in Hitchin. He recently sent me quite a nice recap of the thought and effort that should, and does, go into the trading of superstar talent. Enjoy …
It’s an avalanche, fellow Mafia members! I’m buried ALIVE!!!!!
I have a question for you. When is it not safe for a baseball player to buy a “home”? Here’s the answer … when he plays on a team in Keeper League 8! There, NO player is safe!
We’re going to have to kick it into ‘overdrive’ in order to catch up with all the deals that need reviewed, so from here on, we’ll aim for just a little bit less analysis and a whole lot more reporting.
List of 12 History:
The List of 12 is a list of pitchers that MLB.com’s Corey Schwartz nominates for breakout seasons before each season using a secret calculated formula. The theory of the List of 12 is that once pitchers reach a certain level of experience, usually around 500 innings pitched, they tend to improve significantly. The 2006 list included Brandon Webb, Jeremy Bonderman, Aaron Harang, and Bronson Arroyo.
However, when judging the List of 12, a fantasy player must use some subjectivity as the system that Schwartz uses does not always provide useful pitchers. A fantasy player can easily distinguish which pitchers in the List of 12 will be successful with a little research and mostly common sense.
The Treatment Room
Angels activate OF Garet Anderson from DL
Angels activated outfielder Garret Anderson from the 15-day disabled list. He and Reggie Willits will likely alternate playing left field and filling the DH role. Anderson needs to produce for a couple of weeks before he’ll again be an option in mixed leagues
So now that you’ve had a chance to digest the 2007 AL All-Stars, I present you with the National League fan selections, along with their ADP and the NL players statistically ranked above them at their position.
ADP is determined by NFBC and is league-filtered and position-filtered for better accuracy.
You all did a great job of picking, or did you?
Just a mere two weeks into the season, I entertained you all with my outlook on voting for All-Stars so early. Now we have the pleasure of knowing who will be representing the fans in the Mid-Summer Classic and more importantly we can analyze their deserv-ed All-Star title with their Fantasy Value.