Roto Baseball Guru

So the weekly hot hitter stats are up on the main site, and while updating those stats I was pleasantly surprised to see the Blue Jays own Alex Rios at the top of the list.  Alex has been tearing it up since the all-star break, hitting more home runs (a total of four) in the past week than he did in the entire first half.  It’s a bit sad if you think about it, but it’s really part and parcel with the pathetic Jays offense this year.  Viewing from a glass half full perspective, it’s good to see Alex starting to pick things up … it’s long overdue.  However I’m not holding my breath that he’ll keep this going.  I’m still kicking J.P. Ricciardi for the fact that he didn’t trade Rios for the current leading NL Cy Young candidate, Tim Lincecum.  Hindsight is 20/20 but that would have been a sweet trade … you can never have enough quality pitching!

On another note, when I was reviewing the weekly top hitters from the past month to look for any trends, it became apparent to me how quickly a player rotates in and out of a hot streak on a weekly basis.  Over the past 4 weeks, only 2 players were able to make it to the Top Ten list more than once.  Can you guess who they were?

If you guessed the usual suspects such as: Alex Rodriguez, Hanley Ramirez, Jose Reyes, Albert Pujols or even Josh Hamilton, you would be incorrect.  No, instead of these fantasy household names the two players that have earned this prestigious distinction are:

Ryan Braun (Mil - 3B,OF) - Ranked #2, Week of July 20-26 and Ranked #8, Week of July 6-12
Matt Holliday (Col - OF) - Ranked #3, Week of July 20-26 and Ranked #1, Week of June 29-July 5

What does that tell you?  One thing is that picking up the hottest player of the week doesn’t necessarily equate to that same player staying hot for the next week.  More often than not, that player will fall out of the Top 10 the following week.  The other is that baseball is a long season, and any metric at a specific point in time is not enough to make a good fantasy player evaluation decision.  It’s really a good mix following the latest news, as well as the weekly stats that will help you find that next hot fantasy gem.

Remember that you can always get the weekly top hitter stats for the fantasy baseball source: www.rotobaseballguru.com

One of the more exciting aspects of managing a fantasy sports team is the thrill of pulling off the blockbuster trade.  Perhaps it’s the power of being the GM and having the authority to execute a trade, because we all know how often we’ve wanted to trade that poor performer on our favourite sports team when we get frustrated with watching that player.  That and the feeling you get when you fleece an opposing GM in a trade, does have a certain level of satisfaction.

In all trades, there are usually winners and losers.  Ever so often you maybe able to make a trade that is mutually beneficial, but more often than not, either through unforseen injuries or player flops, one side tends to come out on top.  I’ll like to call these our trade bloopers, and I’m sure we’ve all had our share of them.  In fact, at the start of my fantasy baseball season this year, I made what I would call one of my worse trades ever.  It was a month into the season, and I had (what I thought) a glut of quality starting pitching: Dan Haren, Scott Kazmir, Brad Penny, Jered Weaver, Javier Vazquez, and Joe Blanton.  Not a shabby group.  I needed another closer, so I started negotiations with a rival GM that had plenty.  After much back and forth, we came up with the following deal:

Javier Vazquez + Dan Uggla <==> Chad Cordero + Yunel Escobar

Uggla was having another slow start, batting under .200 with only a couple of home runs.  I believe it was after a 0/5 night with no walks when I had enough and decided to “upgrade” the position with the young star from Atlanta, Yunel Escobar.  I think that Escobar also hit a home run that night which was the final push I needed to make the decision.  The other GM already had Utley, so really Uggla for Escobar was a bit of a throw in.

Almost immediately after the trade, or so it always seems, Uggla caught fire.  And not a typical week long hot streak, this guy was an inferno, burning up all competition at the 2B position!  His numbers for the rest of April, all of May and even into early June were better than Utley, and rivaled all top fantasy production at any position … and that says a lot!  Obviously, my stomach turned as I began to realize how bad of a trade I just made.  To add insult to injury, soon after I got Cordero, he blew out his arm and went straight to the DL, and I haven’t seen him since.  The latest news is that he’s gone for the season.  I don’t think he even recorded me a single save!

So that’s that.  Some say it’s therapeutic to talk about your rage, so I’m trying to help myself get over it by blogging about it.   Needless to say, I now think twice before considering another trade from that GM.  It wasn’t his fault really, since I was the one that made the final offer of the players mentioned above.  But hey, someones got to take the blame!  So I’m sure I’m not the only one with a forgettable trade story.  Let’s hear yours and see how it stacks up.  Misery loves company after all!

Research your players before making trades.  Get more fantasy data here: www.rotobaseballguru.com

Hi there!

If you are on this site, then like me you’re probably a fantasy baseball enthusiast.  Or perhaps you are just a fantasy sports addict?  Regardless of your love (whether it’s baseball, football, basketball or hockey), I would like to say … Congrats!  As any other enthusiast, we are all looking for additional resources, tools or hints to give us that additional slight edge when it comes to our office pool, family and friends pool, or just in the pulbic roto leagues.  So this blog will just be that, and hopefully the updates or tips that I give here will help you gain that extra edge you need to win your pool.  I’ll be happy to accept 10% of the winnings for doing my part.

Have fun and good luck!

For more information: www.rotobaseballguru.com