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Fantasy Honkey is finally over, thank you very much. Two more days of basketball and it's time to bury my head in the wonderful world of baseball. There really isn't much to say about this league that hasn't been said before; Yahoo's Matt Romig (10th Pl) hosted the league, Scott Pianowski (7th Pl) was in there, but both of em gave up a long time ago. Neither put in much of an effort and frankly, I thought Romig had the worst draft of everyone in the league. Even the Brandon Funston impostor beat them. That has to be painful, maybe that is why neither of them came back to the league to congratulate the champion.... me.

When I asked to join the Roto Arcade Blog League, I didn't receive an invitation. Pianowski doesn't like me and I've been making fun of Romig for years. I wasn't surprised when they shunned me, but I got in anyway. MDS has connections and those connections gave me the league ID and PW. To no one's surprise I finished in first place, taking home the imaginary gold trophy. I sat atop the standings for the majority of the season, often sporting a double digit lead (they call me Bobby Double Digital around these parts). The team was built on a group of high scoring, injury prone Wingers, emerging Centres, free agent Defencemen (look at me bust out my Canadian spelling skills) and Evgeni Nabokov. I even made it harder on myself dropping Pekka Rinne early in the season, but not even that can hold down the Million Dollar Sleeper.

There really isn't much to say about the league. The set up made streaming A MUST and trading almost non-existent, I was the first person on Yahoo to roster Tyler Myers and Chris Stewart, I screwed over Pianow's goaltending by misinterpreting the rules and drafting a third goalie (Craig Anderson) and one team gave me a little bit of a challenge towards the end. I am now the reigning Roto Arcade football and hockey champion.

Original post about my draft no comments

If you having nothing to do around 10 PM C tonight or you just can't sleep after watching one of those really scary M. Night Shyamalan movies, MDS the entertainer will be on stage at Blog Talk Radio. This will be the very first ever (of all time) Million Dollar Podcast show. In all actuality, this show won't be of much interest to you unless you're in the Million Dollar Challenge or any other baseball league that uses OBP and SLG. How's that for a sales pitch? I could be talking about the possibility of Miguel Montero undergoing season ending knee surgery, Neftali Feliz being named Texas' temporary closer, or the glorious return of Livan Hernandez, but I'll discuss the MDC league and then start taking some calls from the challengers themselves. This will finally wrap up all the draft season review stuff. So if you want to take a journey into the land of make believe with the Quasimodo of Roto, you can click play on that "widget" at the top of the sidebar or hit up the Million Dollar Podcast page at BTR. no comments

Everyone knows I like me some middle relievers, especially in roto leagues that use an IP cap. It's a great way to reduce your ERA and WHIP and give your team a bump in the K department. Plus in deeper leagues, if you want the next closer-to-be, you have to play the guessing game. Who is going down first? Billy Wagner, Rafael Soriano or Frank Francisco? One of them is getting hurt, that is a million dollar guarantee. In the sexy cool Blog Wars league, you wont be able to pick up the understudy when one of them goes down, they're 3 of 30 middle relievers that are already rostered. 30! I love it. The other 27 MR are:

Pat Neshek, Rafael Betancourt, Trever Miller, Kevin Gregg, Neftali Feliz, J.J. Putz, Ryan Madson, Joba Chamberlain, Matt Thornton, Mike Adams, Alfredo Aceves, Sergio Romo, Matt Guerrier, Luke Gregerson, Michael Wuertz, Brad Ziegler, Takashi Saito, Brandon Lyon, Jason Motte, Brandon League, Scott Downs, J.P. Howell, Chris Perez, Franklin Morales, Daniel Bard, Jenry Mejia, Sean Marshall

Some are substitute closers, some are sitting on their managers bench, some will be dropped like Joel Zumaya was today, but a few will end up getting Saves and they will likely be loved and adorned by their manager. There are only 3 of the 15 teams that are not rostering a Middle Reliever (Eno Sarris, Fantasy Baseball Sherpa, FantasyPros911.com).

I am very proud to commish a league that does not use the Holds stat, but yet 30 Middle Relievers are rostered. I'm like one of those moms with the "My Kid is a A Honor Roll Student" bumper stickers. This lets me proclaim the following: if Ryan Franklin loses the closer job, Trever Miller is getting Saves baby!!! F Jason Motte!!! F Kyle McClellan!!! Miller is a vet (Tony LaRussa loves his vets) and he has been great since he joined the Cards (0.96 WHIP, 2.06 ERA, more than a K per Inning in 2009). It likely will not happen, being that Miller is a Leftie specialist, but I have dreams ya know. I don't care if he gets Saves or not, I'll ride that 1.00 WHIP all the way to funky town. Other Middle Relievers on my Watch List:

Tyler Clippard, Jeremy Affeldt, Darren Oliver, Nick Massett, Sean Burnett, Ronald Belisario, Dan Meyer, Juan Gutierrez, Brendan Donnelly, Jesse Crain, Sammy Gervacio, Joe Smith, Matt Daley, Dan Runzler, Joel Hanrahan, Joel Zumaya, Ryan Perry, Manuel Corpas, Chris Ray, Phil Coke, Peter Moylan, Jim Johnson, George Sherrill, Jose Mijares, Pedro Feliciano, Brian Bruney, Kris Medlen no comments

Paul Bourdett AKA “The Pick-up Artist”

AOL FanHouse Fantasy Sports Writer

Nice digs you got here, MDS! I see you’re doing big things lately. Got the blog, doing podcasts… what’s next for the Million Dollar Man? And what’s up with Virgil? Haven’t heard from him in a while. Remember back in the day when you used to be my biggest critic? Man, seems like ages ago. Now we’re contributing to each other’s blogs!

Anyway, I’m in five leagues this year. I could’ve been in like 20 but at some point I had to learn to say no. I still think five is too many but I think it’ll be manageable. Between my 9-to-5, my work for FanHouse, and family obligations (wife, two-year-old, and another on the way), it’s going to be tough to keep up with them all AND stay competitive at the same time. But that’s part of the challenge.

All mixed leagues this year, all different sizes – 11 teams to 15 teams. One with the fellas over at FanHouse, the infamous Blog Wars league you created, Eno Sarris’ Fantasy Lounge League that includes a few guys from Fangraphs, a league with a bunch of Tweeps (for the technologically impaired, that’s people who follow you/you follow on Twitter), and my favorite of them all – my longstanding home league.

I think I own Jason Bay in four of those leagues. I simply couldn’t pass on the chance to acquire one of the better bats in the game, especially when he was available in the fourth round or later of every draft (Blog Wars excluded). Think about it – Bay’s done nothing but hit 30 homers with 100 RBIs, 100 runs scored, and 10 or more steals in four of the last five years! The only reason why he didn’t reach those benchmarks in 2007 was because he was playing through injuries the entire year. That’s another thing – he’s one tough Canadian. People can talk about Citi Field or the Mets lineup all they want, but he had two of those 30-100-100-10 seasons in Pittsburgh, where he had absolutely no run support in a park that’s every bit as homer-friendly as Citi (for those not in the know, Citi was actually slightly above average for homers in its inaugural season according to Park Factors; don’t let the HR totals of the Mets minor league lineup last year fool you). He’s also a career .280 hitter, despite hitting .247 in ’07.

Other guys I’ve targeted in most leagues are Matt Kemp (who I think really breaks out this year hitting in the top half of the Dodgers order), Travis Snider (who I believe could be special in his first full season), and Ricky Nolasco (for reasons most everybody is aware of). I don’t have any teams with all three but they’re sprinkled pretty much throughout.

One guy that did find himself on almost every one of my rosters was Octavio Dotel. I’ve never been a guy to pay for saves but it was crazy how late he was still available in every league. Middle relievers were getting taken ahead of him in non-holds leagues and that’s just ridic. The guy could legitimately strike out 90-100 guys back in the NL to go along with 30 saves. Who cares about his WHIP?

I tried to get Liriano, Butler, and Carlos Gonzalez in all my drafts but they were going way too high for my liking in most. Obviously, it’s no secret these guys are all young and uber-talented but I was shocked at their price tags on draft day. I’m always looking to profit off my selections. Apparently, there are a lot of guys willing to just break even. Hence, why Carlos Gonzalez isn’t on a single team of mine, despite the fact that I adore his skills.

All in all, I try to diversify my teams so that I’m spreading the risk. Having the same guys on every team is a disaster waiting to happen in my opinion. It’s sort of like rostering Fausto Carmona. no comments

Chris Carbonell

Staff Writer for RotoExperts.com and host of the web's hottest fantasy sports humor blog, Starbonell Station.

When Million Dollar Sleeper asked me to contribute to his Draft Season Review, the first thing I said was, "I will not be threatened into doing free work that gives an amateur some implicit equal status." But then I agreed anyway. I only did three leagues this year, my limit. It simply takes the fun out of fun-tasy you play in like 10 leagues as there is simply no way to be really on top of all of them (at least for me). The three leagues I'm in? Well, there's my annual "New Day Co-Op" league (shout-out to "the Wire") that I commish every year with friends I've been playing with for years. I'm also in RotoExperts' in-house league and, of course, the grand 15-team Blog Wars extravaganza. All three are mixed-leagues that are mad competitive, but I wouldn't have it any other way. While I love all my teams, the real work starts when players start to go through "slumps" and I have to decide which ones to "dump" or keep. Good thing my weekly column "Slumps and Dumps" (which will be featured on RotoExperts.com and syndicated to Yahoo!) will be there to help guide me through these tough times (seamless plug Starbonell, seamless plug).

Robinson Cano is in all three leagues I'm in, which is not a surprise. In my opinion, he was the second best second baseman heading into the season and him hitting in the fifth spot should lead to some big numbers. Even if he repeats last year's performance (.320 BA, 25 HRs, 85 RBIs, 103 Rs, 5 SBs), how can I complain? The following players are guys I own in two of the three leagues: Jose Reyes, Curtis Granderson, Carlos Quentin, Alex Rios, Kevin Slowey, Ervin Santana, Jose Valverde, and Matt Capps. Here's how I feel about those players:

Reyes: Even as a second round pick (or $29 in Blog Wars), I can't see how a healthy Reyes cannot provide nice value if he's healthy (and he appears to be).

Granderson: Love the power potential and his at-bat against Okajima (a savvy left-handed reliever) on opening night was encouraging as he laid off some tough pitches that he normally would swing and miss on.

Quentin: Elite power had him being compared to Hulk Hogan in 2008.

Rios: Love the power-speed combo he brings to the table.

Slowey: Great spring, great control, great man.

E-Santana: Not too crazy about him, but the price was right in the leagues I got him in. He'll be kicked to the waiver wire if he puts up a month worth of garbage stats.

Valverde: Has been one of the games best closers for years and AL-hitters are unfamiliar with his wicked stuff. Career-year is a strong possibility.

Capps: He was a dirt-cheap option for saves and he actually showed improvement in his ground ball rate and velocity last year. He also was terribly unlucky (.370 BABIP) and I like his odds of having a bounce-back season.

I really wish I could have gotten my hands on Ben Zobrist (pause). Even though I was one of the last ones to accept his talent last year, I wanted to try to get him on at least one squad. I'm also disappointed to only have drafted Billy Wagner in one league. His K/9 ability is still elite and I think he'll easily finish among the top five or six closers in baseball this season (if he stays healthy). Javier Vazquez is another player I wanted but didn't end up with (pause). I was hoping the fact that he was pitching in the AL East would really deflate his value, but it didn't in the leagues I was in. An ERA below 4.00, solid WHIP, and 200 Ks are in hand for Vazquez this season with that stellar infield defense behind him. no comments

After all was said and done, I drafted five teams. All the leagues are deeper than the average standard league and one league is NL-Only; so you know I'd like to hold my nose high, but in each of my four mixed leagues, I drafted Orlando Hudson. Yes, it's true, I drafted Orlando Hudson four times. Before you start laughing, I'd like to say, this was not intentional. OK, now you can start laughing. I've already unloaded one share of Orlando for Brendan Ryan (emergency back up for Rickie Weeks) and I'll drop him in another league when Gordon Beckham gains 2B eligibility; and then there were two. Miguel Cabrera, Grady Sizemore, Carlos Gonzalez, Conor Jackson and Sean Burnett all made their way onto three MDS teams. Twice I drafted Ryan Howard, Kevin Youkilis, Nyjer Morgan, Chipper Jones, Rickie Weeks, Everth Cabrera, J.D. Drew, Jeff Francoeur, Jeff Clement and Iván Rodriguez. I also double drafted Ubaldo Jimenez, Wandy Rodriguez, Brett Anderson, Carl Pavano, Chad Qualls, Jason Frasor, Takashi Saito and Pat Neshek.

Miguel Cabrera tended to be the cheapest of the Big 5 1B, Grady Sizemore is coming at a nice discount, I expect big things from Carlos Gonzalez, Conor Jackson is a great OF option for deep leaguers and Sean Burnett is a good middle reliever who gives me Holds and an outside shot at Saves. I was definitely targeting Ubaldo Jimenez and Brett Anderson. Nyjer Morgan looks like a legit .300 Avg 50 SB player. I wanted a piece of Rickie Weeks this season, but two shares was more than plenty. His health worries me, but the reward was too much to ignore. I didn't go out of my way to get him, I just felt he was being underrated. Same story with Chipper Jones and J.D. Drew, their prices were right so I decided to gamble. Speaking of underrated, see Jeff Francoeur and Carl Pavano. I drafted two Jason Frasors; the pre-closer Frasor and the post-closer Frasor. I would have drafted him in more than two leagues if the news broke a few days later.

Players targeted, but failed to draft: I didn't get A.J. Pierzynski or Yadier Molina; they were supposed to be my cheap options in auction drafts. Instead I ended up with Clement and Pudge. I didn't get a piece of Adrian Gonzalez. I missed out on Robinson Cano. Jose Reyes escaped my grasp more than once. I tried for Evan Longoria a few times, only to see someone outbid me. If it wasn't for my dynasty team I wouldn't have any Upton action, Justin nor B.J. were drafted by me in 2010. I missed out on Nelson Cruz, Curtis Granderson, Jayson Werth and Carlos Quentin. I tried hard for Ricky Nolasco, to no avail. I did want Scott Baker and Matt Garza on at least one team. Somehow I missed out on Clay Buchholz and Stephen Strasburg. Rick Porcello was someone I kind of wanted, but I didn't make much of an effort to acquire him. Same thing with Trevor Cahill.

Players I'm glad I did draft: I wish I had Liriano and Slowey in more than one league. The hype for Gordon Beckham was irresistible. Of course I'm happy to purchase Chase Utley in my NL-Only league. I would always look toward Erick Aybar's way in the later parts of drafts, but only ended up with him once. I like the patience he is showing in the leadoff role. You're not in the Cool Club unless you can say you drafted Jason Heyward, Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval. I was targeting Jay Bruce as a mid round OF, but I only drafted him once. I think Raul Ibanez was being underrated in most drafts, but I didn't do much to drive the price up and only took him once. Andrew McCutchen is intriguing to me and it's fun to have Kyle Blanks on a team. I have mixed feelings about Cameron Maybin, but I am happy to have him on one team. I thought I would end up with Gavin Floyd and Jon Lester on more than one team. I wish I had a more than one Jorge de la Rosa. I could use another Yovani Gallardo. I traded Homer Bailey just to get another Jeff Niemann, one wasn't enough. I'm glad I landed Shaun Marcum and Justin Masterson at least once. I think Trevor Hoffman was underrated in all my drafts, but I didn't have the funds to compete and only drafted him once. That bothers me a little.

Ugly players are rostered in deep leagues, so unfortunately I was forced to draft some players that I do not like. Frankly I'm embarrassed to be starting David Eckstein, but in 12 team NL-Only leagues (that add a MI position), things like this happen. My feelings for J.R. Towles are quickly changing. I sort of give him the evil eye when checking box scores, things could get worse here. I mentioned Homer Bailey earlier; I wanted to draft him once, just so I could say, "yeah, I knew he was going to break out". I was happy to deal him before the season started. Don't tell anyone, but I drafted John Lannan and Jamie Moyer. Oh the humanity.

Drafting season is over. Now is the time for mad crazy managing skills and sending questionable trade offers to Razzball. I asked a few others about their drafting seasons, to be continued... no comments

The following pitchers are rostered in the infamous Blog Wars league, but are owned in less than 60% of Yahoo! leagues. The top seven or so SP should be rostered in standard public leagues; the rest are for deeper leagues. I have them loosely ranked, w/ rough projections I made (about 6-8 weeks ago) for K/9, WHIP, ERA

43% Clay Buchholz 7.5--1.32--3.90
43% Brian Matusz 7.6--1.35--4.40
36% Shaun Marcum 7.3--1.25--4.25
58% Johnny Cueto 7.5--1.30--4.20
18% Wade Davis 8.0--1.35--4.15
14% Matt Latos 6.9--1.35--4.50
9% Justin Masterson 7.9--1.36--4.00
57% Justin Duchscherer 6.2--1.25--4.00
23% Barry Zito 7.0--1.35--4.40
10% Carl Pavano 6.2--1.30--4.00
20% John Maine 7.4--1.35--4.40
35% Aroldis Chapman
14% Homer Bailey 7.0--1.35--4.40
50% Kenshin Kawakami 6.5--1.35--4.45
51% Bronson Arroyo 6.0--1.35--4.50
7% Ian Kennedy 7.1--1.40--4.55
48% Andy Pettite 6.8--1.40--4.35
19% Ricky Romero 6.7--1.40--4.40
2% Jamie Garcia 6.9--1.40--4.50
3% Colby Lewis 6.9--1.37--4.60
5% Bud Norris 8.2--1.45--4.40
47% Ryan Rowland-Smith 5.2--1.35--4.20
5% Madison Bumgarner
24% Chris Young 6.3--1.40--4.35
12% Brad Penny 5.7--1.40--4.50
4% Jason Hammel 6.3--1.40--4.40
3% Ian Snell
20% Clayton Richard 6.9--1.40--4.15
25% Fausto Carmona 5.8--1.45--4.60
3% Gio Gonzalez

56% Erik Bedard (DL) 7.9--1.30--3.90
47% Daisuke Matsuzaka (DL) 8.4--1.36--4.50
35% Joe Blanton (DL) 6.5--1.35--4.50
2% Marc Rzepczynski (DL) 8.5--1.41--4.15
2% Gil Meche (DL) 7.0--1.35--4.50

These closers should be universally owned

59% Jason Frasor
56% Jon Rauch
45% Matt Lindstrom
43% Octavio Dotel
45% Chris Pérez
40% Matt Capps
34% Franklin Morales

54% Brad Lidge (DL)
24% Kerry Wood (DL) no comments

The majority of fantasy drafts have taken place and Opening Day is finally here. All these players are rostered in Blog Wars, but owned in less than 60% of Yahoo! leagues. Granted some of these players shouldn't be rostered in standard public leagues, but most of their percentages should be higher.

Catcher
49% A.J. Pierzynski
15% Chris Ianetta
10% John Baker
5% Jeff Clement: full-time job at 1B
6% Carlos Ruiz: improving eye at the plate
9% Ivan Rodriguez: 120 games coming
4% Ramon Hernandez: 20 HR possible
4% Kelly Shoppach: 20 HR possible
1% J.R. Towles
7% Buster Posey (MiLB)

First Base
45% Paul Konerko
24% Nick Johnson
10% Aubrey Huff: batting clean up
5% Gaby Sanchez: mild projection: .270 17 HR
9% Troy Glaus: 25 HR possible, health permitting
3% Lyle Overbay
14% Russell Branyan (DL)

Second Base
59% Martin Prado (1B, 3B)
50% Clint Barmes (SS): beware of EY2
24% Orlando Hudson: hitting in front of Mauer/Morneau
21% Scott Sizemore: .270/10/10 possible
4% Kelly Johnson: comeback candidate, dreaming of .270/15/10
7% Luis Castillo: .285 Avg, 20 SB likely
2% Chris Getz: great contact rate, 30 SB possible
26% Casey McGehee (3B): job safe for now, .270/15 possible
37% Skip Schumaker: .325 Avg vs RHP, .205 vs LHP
27% Alberto Callaspo (3B)

Shortstop
51% Orlando Cabrera
33% Alcides Escobar: .285 Avg, 30 SB possible
25% Everth Cabrera: more extreme than Alicides, .265/40
15% Ian Desmond: .275/10/10 likely, .285/15/15 possible
7% Brendan Ryan (2B): speed option
48% Jhonny Peralta (3B)
20% J.J. Hardy

Third Base
46% Chris Davis (1B)
33% Chase Headley (OF)
25% Scott Rolen: flyball hitter w/.280 Avg at Cincy
5% David Freese: .270 Avg, 20 HR possible
48% Mark Teahan (1B, OF): .270/15/10 possible
40% Alex Gordon: DL, post hype sleeper
8% Brandon Wood: .250/25 HR projection
12% Kevin Kouzmanoff: Opening Day cleanup hitter
23% Brandon Inge

Outfield
54% Colby Rasmus: hot Spring, breakout coming
15% Conor Jackson: hitting leadoff for now
50% Juan Pierre: on pace for 0 SB (take that Soto)
50% Franklin Gutierrez
27% Drew Stubbs: SB option w/ a touch of power
8% Delmon Young
56% Magglio Ordonez: .375 Avg post All-Star break
36% Kyle Blanks: .265/25 likely, .275/30 possible
53% J.D. Drew
16% Brett Gardner: speed option, 40-50 SB possible
12% Cameron Maybin: .275/10/20 forecast w/room for upside
8% Lastings Milledge: similar to Maybin
30% Jeff Francoeur: if .280/15/5 is useful
19% Dexter Fowler: a Fowler/Smith fantasy platoon would be cool
24% Josh Willingham
45% Cody Ross
13% Matt LaPorta (1B): .265/20 projection w/room for upside
5% Carlos Gomez: exciting speed option
16% Milton Bradley
34% Mike Cameron
2% Desmond Jennings: Carl Crawford Jr
2% Carlos Guillen
23% Scott Podsednik
10% Travis Snider: batting 9th for now
35% David DeJesus
3% Ryan Sweeney
40% Chris Young: high ceiling, low floor
2% Will Venable: hes too sexy for Spring Training
21% Austin Jackson: leadoff hitter, 20 SB possible
28% Marlon Byrd
15% Luke Scott
3% Seth Smith
3% Jonny Gomes
22% Michael Brantley
3% Jose Bautista: TOR leadoff hitter?
11% Sean Rodriguez: Spring Training monster needs At Bats

Utility
14% Travis Hafner: 25 HR cleanup hitter no comments

Jason Heyward hit a Home Run in his first at bat against Carlos Zambrano and this was after catching the ceremonial first pitch from Hammerin' Hank Aaron. If Heyward ends the game with only one Home Run, he will be on pace for 162 HR this season. If you extrapolate that over the course of his career he will break Barry Bonds all-time record* during his 5th season. Let the craziness begin! no comments

Saturday 11:00 AM Central
Starbonell Station
MDS Live? Uh oh. Join us as we discuss the Blog Wars auction draft

Team MDS
Team Starbonell
Full Draft Results

Additional Write Ups from:
Eno Sarris at RotoGraphs: Anatomy of an Auction Draft
Charlie Saponara at FB365: Draft Review

Then at 1:00 PM Central, I'll be on the RotoCommunity.com Podcast show. We're talking drafts, trends, players, anything and everything. no comments