Greetings, fellow Mafia members!
This is a little bit off the topic, but I guess I’ll never understand ‘pitch or ditch’. Usually, each time I get bold … or desperate … enough to try it, I get last Friday’s performance by Claudio Vargas.
In case you missed it, Vargas threw up an ugly and devastating six base runners and six earned runs in a whopping two-thirds of an inning performance that was nothing more than a fantasy value-destroying disaster.
The Treatment Room
Braves place LHP Chuck James on the DL
Braves placed starting pitcher Chuck James on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to Aug. 17, with tightness in the back of his pitching shoulder. James had hoped to avoid the DL but the Braves decided it was best if he took two weeks off. Expect James to return to the rotation in September.
Cubs activate C Henry Blanco
Cubs activated catcher Henry Blanco from the 60-day disabled list.
Blanco, who missed nearly three months with a herniated disc, will get more playing time than Koyie Hill was, but Jason Kendall is expected to remain the Cubs’ starting catcher.
Greetings, fellow Mafia members!
With most trade deadlines gone and forgotten, An Offer They Couldn’t Refuse will change things up a bit. For the balance of the season, evaluations will be presented from a keeper-value perspective. After all, probably two-thirds of the teams in each league are thinking keepers at this point … aren’t they?
The Orioles announced today that Dave Trembley will remain as Manager through the end of next year. Trembley’s deal includes a team option for 2009 and it seems that his performance between now and then will determine if that option is picked up. He’s gone 29-25 since taking over for Sam Perlozzo so itf this is an indication of things to come, it’s safe to say that option would get picked up.
After managing in the Minor Leagues for two decades, Trembley knows how to get things exactly the way he wants them.“You can print the T-shirts,” he said at one point Wednesday, stressing the simplicity of his message. “It’s ‘be on time, be professional and respect the game.’
The Treatment Room
Dodgers place 1B/3B Nomar Garciaparra on the DL
Dodgers place corner infielder Nomar Garciaparra on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left calf. With just six homers and a batting average of .280 Nomar is no longer a viable option in mixed leagues. Shea Hillenbrand will serve as his replacement.
Rockies activate LHP Brian Fuentes
Rockies activated LHP Brian Fuentes from the 15-day disabled list. Sadly for Fuentes owners Manny Corpas will continue to close until injury or poor performance forces him out of the job.
Auctions are an integrated part of a lot of fantasy baseball leagues. Many drafts are arranged as auctions in which owners engage in bidding wars to acquire players. This is typically done in the form of a so-called English auction, where one owner announces a starting bid and others then beat that amount incrementally. However, auctions are also sometimes used when deciding the distribution of free agent players. Normally these auctions are sealed-bid auctions, in which every owner only gets to submit one bid without having any knowledge about the actions of the others.
This article seeks to describe a certain type of sealed-bid auction, namely Vickrey auctions (also known as second-price sealed-bid auctions). In regular sealed-bid auctions the winner of the prize (i.e. the fantasy player) is simply the owner with the highest bid, and the price he has to pay equals his bid. This, however, opens the door for speculation. The simple rules of Vickrey auctions erase the incentive to not bid according to your true evaluation of the player.
Greetings, fellow Mafia members!
In case anyone is wondering, the League 8 trades have NOT stopped rolling in. Somebody stop them! Please!! Thankfully, the trade deadline has arrived. Let me be the first to nominate League 8 commissioner, Laura in Columbus, for ‘Busiest Commissioner of the Year’.
The Treatment Room
Red Sox activate RHP Curt Schilling
Red Sox activated RHP Curt Schilling from the 15-day disabled list. After giving up four runs over six innings in his returning start Schilling bounced back Sunday against the O’s allowing just five base runners over six shutout innings.
Cubs place OF Alfonso Soriano on the DL
Cubs placed OF Alfonso Soriano on the 15-day disabled list with a torn right quadriceps. The Cubs where hoping that Soriano would be back in 3-4 weeks but an MRI revealed that the tear would take 6 weeks to heal.
Cardinals place LHP Mike Maroth on the DL
Cardinals placed LHP Mike Maroth on the 15-day disabled list with left elbow tendinitis.
Maroth tossed 7 1/3 innings of one-run ball in his Cardinals debut, but has been demolished for 46 runs (38 earned) over 24 1/3 innings since then.
Greetings, fellow Mafia members!
Well, the Major League trade deadline has passed, and our chances to pull the trigger on last minute Mafia keeper league swaps are quickly running out. In fact, as I write this, I’m pondering a few deadline deals myself.
To that end, we’ll make this week’s installment of An Offer They Couldn’t Refuse short and sweet … so we can get back to the keeper league trade market!
Time for the long-awaited second edition of my last-minute trading advice. If you missed the first part, or just need a refresher, take a moment and get up to speed here:
http://www.fantasybaseballmafia.com/archives/2007/July/trading1.html
Now that that’s complete, make sure you’re fully in the mindset that we’re operating under here: categories are king! Winning categories is the only way to win standard roto fantasy leagues. Having said that, and assuming that you’re not going to try to make a deal for A-Rod or Jose Reyes at the deadline, here are some interesting players you may want to take a shot at once you’ve identified the specific categories you need help with.