[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDP_VILEj4s&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

the Roto Arcade Pro-Am Q&A post is up! the Fiat Punto will be driving straight to the championship. A-mak "a lowly yahoo! commenter" better be ready to hand the trophy over to MDS. no comments

The Blog Wars auction draft went down tonight. Fifteen experts entered; fifteen experts left. There was scrapping, biting and even name calling, but no one died; we all survived. I posted the rankings I was using [RP, SP, OF, IF] for this draft. The rankings are a few days old so some things have changed (Blanton, Rzepczynski, etc). Below is my team. Click Here to see the full draft results. Chris Carbonell (Jose Canseco=Honor) and I will be talking about the draft at Starbonell Station this weekend.

Team MDS (team name pending):

C- Ivan Rodriguez ($1)
C- J.R. Towles ($1)
1B- Ryan Howard ($36)
3B- Pablo Sandoval ($30)
CI- Miguel Cabrera ($36)
2B- Orlando Hudson ($2)
SS- Erick Aybar ($4)
MI- Everth Cabrera ($4)
OF- Grady Sizemore ($27)
OF- Carlos Gonzalez ($16)
OF- Raul Ibanez ($15)
OF- Jeff Francoeur ($2)
OF- Magglio Ordonez ($3)
UT- Brett Gardner ($2)

BN- David Freese ($1)
BN- Buster Posey ($1)

P- Jon Lester ($25)
P- Tommy Hanson ($19)
P- Gavin Floyd ($14)
P- Jorge de la Rosa ($7)
P- Brian Matusz ($4)
P- Brad Lidge ($3)
P- Jason Frasor ($4)
P- Pat Neshek ($1)
P- Chris Ray ($1)

BN- Brandon Morrow ($1) no comments

no comments

no comments

no comments

no comments

It happens every year. It is terrifying and has driven many managers to reach early for Mariano Rivera and the Jonathan Brothers: Papelbon n Broxton. Closer Turnover Rate is coming to a theatre near you and there is no way anyone can stop it from happening, not even those anti-Marilyn Manson protesters. Last year audiences watched as nine Closers lost their jobs; Troy Percival, B.J. Ryan, George Sherrill, Brandon Lyon, Brandon Morrow, Brad Ziegler, Mike Gonzalez, Matt Lindstrom and Kevin Gregg. Troy Percival was the teen couple making out on a back road in a horror flick, you just knew he was going to be the first one to die. The 2010 season hasn't even started, but yet we've already seen injuries to Joe Nathan, Kerry Wood, Huston Street, Andrew Bailey and Octavio Dotel. Brad Lidge is still recovering from surgery and Brandon Lyon will likely cede the role to Matt Lindstrom because he's not at full strength. Like horror movies, Closer Turnover Rate can sometimes be predictable and managers would be sage to snag a few understudies for the upcoming bloodbath.

They can run, but they can't hide: Top 15 Closers who will lose their job

1. Matt Capps (D.Storen, B.Bruney, S.Burnett, T.Clippard)
2. Octavio Dotel (B.Donnelly, E.Meek, J.Hanrahan)
3. Kerry Wood (C.Perez)
4. Mike Gonzalez (J.Johnson, C.Meredith, K.Mickolio)
5. David Aardsma (B.League, M.Lowe, S.Kelley)
6. Matt Lindstrom (B.Lyon, S.Gervacio, J.Fulchino)
7. Huston Street (F.Morales, R.Betancourt, M.Daley, M.Corpas)
8. Billy Wagner (T.Saito, P.Moylan, K.Medlen)
9. Rafael Soriano (J.P. Howell, D.Wheeler, G.Balfour, R.Choate)
10. Frank Francisco (C.Ray, N.Feliz, D.Oliver, C.J. Wilson)
11. Leo Nunez (D.Meyer, B.Sanches)
12. Brad Lidge (R.Madson, D.Baez)
13. Brian Fuentes (F.Rodney, S.Shields)
14. Bobby Jenks (M.Thornton, J.Putz)
15. Heath Bell (M.Adams, L.Gregerson)

16. Andrew Bailey (B.Ziegler, M.Wuertz, J.Devine)
17. Ryan Franklin (J.Motte, T.Miller, D.Reyes, K.McClellan)

no comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX3pmNJ22rQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

the Million Dollar Challenge auction draft was held tonight. We expanded the league to 16 teams this year and the action was fast and furious. I drafted a bunch of gangsta ass baseball players, including Scott Rolen. My boys are Rolen in my 64 and we're going to pull a drive-by on Keith for bidding Youkilis up to $40 after all the other 3B options were locked up. I had to pay some high prices on some players, but was able to cop some deals here n there. This league replaces AVG & HR with OBP & SLG and adds QS & Hlds for pitchers.

Rolen in my 64

$8 Jorge Posada
$34 Miguel Cabrera
$11 Rickie Weeks
$30 Derek Jeter
$1 Casey Blake
$29 Grady Sizemore
$30 Adam Dunn
$13 Cargo Gonzalez
$7 J.D. Drew

$4 Conor Jackson
$2 Adam Kennedy
$1 Orlando Hudson

$24 Yovani Gallardo
$18 Wandy Rodriguez
$11 Francisco Liriano
$4 Shaun Marcum
$4 Jeff Niemann
$4 Wade Davis
$11 Trevor Hoffman
$11 Chad Qualls
$1 Brandon League
$1 Sean Burnett

The plan was to nominate and avoid players with poor OBP. I started out nicely grabbing Miguel for only $34. Teixeira and Howard went for $39, Prince went for $44. I love Sizemore's power/speed combo; for $29 I'm getting a former first round pick who is still young. A player who can steal 30 SB and post an OPS near .900 is very valuable. I knew I wanted Adam Dunn for his semi-automatic .400 OBP, .500 SLG and 100 RBI, but someone made me pay for it. I had money to spend and the player pool was starting to thin. This may be the first time I've rostered Derek Jeter or Jorge Posada, but these were situations where I needed to spend the money and acquire talent. Both are fine plays with these settings. CarGo and Blake were steals. Splitting 3B duties between Blake & Rolen should get me great results for the $2 invested. Rickie Weeks is someone who can bust out or bust his wrist on Opening Day. He was semi-cheap and I needed SB from my 2B/SS positions. I'm happy with the pitching staff, I have high expectations for Gallardo and Liriano. I'm playing the cheap upside card with Marcum, Niemann and Davis. Adam Kennedy was dropped, I only bid on him to mess with someone who spent all his money early. Hudson is my fail safe for Rickie. My team is banging and you can bet on me retaining the Million Dollar Belt becoming the first MDC back-to-back champion. Cuz we Rolen down the street in my Six-Fo, jockin the... jockin the.... no comments

Posting will slow day a little bit for the next few days while I mess with the template, ponder the creation of a Million Dollar Podcast Show and prepare for a couple auction drafts coming up... stay tuned. no comments

Supply and demand can be a bitch. That is about the only way to explain a $30 bid on Jay Bruce. Picture MDS sitting there all smug, thinking his shit don't stink and he's going to snag Bruce for $15. Within a few seconds he was left sitting on the pot looking for makeshift toilet paper (pardon the French, I've had a few Leinenkugels). Yesterday Jay Bruce went for $30 in the RotoCommunity.com NL-Only auction league. I snagged him for $16 in the Roto Arcade Pro-Am a few hours beforehand, so what gives? Supply and Demand.

The NL-Only league was deep enough to leave managers wondering where they would find At Bats. We start 60 OF each day and we have to fill a UT spot. There simply weren't enuff OF to go around. The supply couldn't meet the demand. When people realized the depth of available Outfielders was getting shallow, they started spending. Bruce went for $30, Carlos Gonzalez went for $24, Carlos Lee went for $33 and even Garrett Jones went for an outrageous $18. Garrett freakin Jones. I had to spend $16 to get Conor Jackson. When Ricky Nolasco was the last difference making SP available, he ended going for more money than 5 Starting Pitchers I had ranked ahead of him and I was still disappointed I didn't land him. Jonathan Broxton went for $21 early in the draft, later on 5 closers were within $4 of that price. That is what a dwindling supply can do to managers. If you save your budget to acquire Middle Round depth, your plan can easily backfire on you; leaving you with a bunch of mediocre players.

Like all aspects of the game, you can take advantage. After I spent $41 on Chase Utley, I was the person to nominate Brandon Phillips, Dan Uggla and Ian Stewart. If I was going to spend big money on a 2B, I wanted others to do the same. I almost didn't care what I had to pay for Utley, the talent immediately beneath him in NL-Only leagues is Uggly. I think I was also the person to nominate Miguel Montero. In this league, there were only so many starting Catchers to go around. I wanted to nominate popular Catchers, hoping a bidding war would erupt. A lot of ppl love Montero. I like him, but not as much as others. You can't simply extrapolate his one good half season of play. He went for $17, I got Clement and Pudge for a combined $11 later on. Popular sleeper picks that you do not like are great early nominations.

Aside from the infamous $40 elbow bid, here were some other crazy prices in the NL-Only league (and yes, I have a Player Hating Degree, so I have the right to call out winning bids): $37 for Pablo Sandoval (I was involved in that one), $35 for Adam Wainwright, I spent $15 for Kyle Blanks, Rickie Weeks went for $20, Casey McGehee for $14, $28 for Andre Ethier, $29 for Aramis Ramirez (I helped drive up that price after Pablo escaped my grasp), $19 for Jorge Cantu, $17 for Francisco Cordero, $6 for Jason Motte. I can't really say that these were mistakes, but I can say they are crazy. Is someone wrong to spend $29 on ARam when the rest of the 3B options stink? If they have the money without other obvious needs, why not spend it? I tell ya tho, only in an Auction league will you see Carlos Lee and Tulowitzki go for the same price. F snake drafts. Bar keep, Another Leiney! please no comments