Win $100,000 and be "The Best Ever!"

Registration to fantasy baseball's newest phenomenon is now open! Go to RotoHog and register your free team before registration closes. RotoHog is an exciting new fantasy sports game that allows the whole world to compete in one arena. The winner of their game will have the ultimate bragging right as the greatest fantasy player in the world. Using their innovative stock market, RotoHog eliminates unfair trading and collusion, and creates a fair game where everyone starts on an even playing field. Skill is key to winning this game, not the luck of the draft order or unfair trades. The best player will win their game, and the winner take home $100,000. There are hundreds of other prizes to be given out weekly and monthly. Best of all, it is free to play!

Where else can you enter a fantasy game for free as a commoner and come out a fantasy god with an extra $100,000 to call your own? Without this sounding like a desperate advertisement, this type of game levels the playing field for any experience type of fantasy player. You do not need to memorize player values nor worry about where and when to draft players. This is not your typical fantasy game, the strategy here is much different. You simply need to determine who is a good buy, at what price, and when. You need to determine when is the right time to dump a player and take that profit to maximize your team's success. Its the ultimate salary cap game with a stock market feel. Want to know the true strategy to win this game and be known as the worlds greatest fantasy player? Bottom line, know when to buy and sell players!

Once you get there and sign up be sure to put MLB Front Office in the referal code section of the registration form. I will be teaming up with Roto Hog over the course of the season to provide fantasy strategy to all of their players!


I look forward to beating you!

- Brad Stewart

FBE Writers League

The Fantasy Baseball Express Writers league drafted last Monday and I appologize for the delays in getting my analysis up. It was a very interesting draft and I certainly don't agree with all of the picks but I'm going to focus more on my own team. Here are my results:

Round	Pick	Player	Position
1.	(12)	Carlos Lee	OF
2.	(15)	Travis Hafner	Util
3.	(38)	Roy Oswalt	SP
4.	(41)	Rafael Furcal	SS
5.	(64)	Gary Sheffield	1B,OF
6.	(67)	Scott Kazmir	SP
7.	(90)	Prince Fielder	1B
8.	(93)	Dontrelle Willis	SP
9.	(116)	Tom Gordon	RP
10.	(119)	Brad Lidge	RP
11.	(142)	Chipper Jones	3B
12.	(145)	Felipe López	SS
13.	(168)	Adam Wainwright	RP
14.	(171)	Nick Markakis	OF
15.	(194)	Anthony Reyes	SP
16.	(197)	Akinori Otsuka	RP
17.	(220)	Ryan Dempster	RP
18.	(223)	Conor Jackson	1B
19.	(246)	Adrián Béltre	3B
20.	(249)	Mike González	RP
21.	(272)	Coco Crisp	OF
22.	(275)	Matt Capps	RP
23.	(298)	Ronny Paulino	C
24.	(301)	Jake Westbrook	SP
25.	(324)	Mark DeRosa	2B,3B,OF

As you can see, I am probably a little bit too high on Carlos Lee this year. There may have been better talent available at that point but I am not really dissapointed with that pick.

The league settings were a little bit funky thus the large number of RP at the end. The roster positions were: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, 3 OF, UTIL, 5 SP, 5 RP, 6 BN. I usually prefer 5 OF, CI, MI, and 9 P. But I adjusted and came out with some guys who could be closers at the end of the year if the current closer struggles.

Here are my 3 favorite picks:

3. C. Jackson - Round 18. I really love this guy. I think he has a shot at 25 HR this year and to grab him for my bench this late in the draft was a steal.

2. F. Lopez - Round 12. It says he is only eligible at SS but a week into the season he will gain 2B eligibility because he is penciled in as the starting 2B for the Nationals. 40+ SB from a 2b is gold. I grabbed DeRosa in the last round to play 2B for a week before Lopez gains eligibility.

1. P. Fielder - Round 7. I have him ranked much higher than here and I truely expect him to hit atleast 35 HR. 40 HR is a certain possibility. I probably could have passed on him and tried to grab Adrian Gonzalez but I wasn't sure when he would go and didn't want to miss on both. I have often found myself selecting both of them, Prince at 1st and Adrian at UTIL or CI but because I had Hafner and there was no CI spot, I had to let Gonzalez fall much further than I would have liked.

Other Noteable picks:
C. Jones - 11th round
A. Beltre - 19th round
N. Markakis - 14th round

Questions? Comments? Email me! Stew0610@ameritech.net

Gut Feelings

Over at lennymelnickfantasybaseball.com, Lenny has been running a series on his gut feelings. After reading his, I decided I would give it a shot and after the season we will revisit what I said and see how my gut feelings did vs. how all the prediction systems like PECOTA did. Here is the NL and I will have the AL up a little bit later.

Cubs –
1. Kerry Wood Closes by end of year
2. Hill turns into a solid #2
3. Soriano does not repeat 40/40

Cardinals –
1. Reyes and Wainwright both succeed as starters
2. Rolen is finally healthy
3. Edmonds regress’s again

Astros –
1. Offense thrives but pitching beyond Oswalt tanks

Reds –
1. Arroyo and Phillips regress
2. The whole word knows who Encarnacion is after he’s done

Brewers –
1. Fielder smashes 40 HR
2. Sheets spends atleast 30 days on DL

Pirates –
1. LaRoche disappoints
2. Duke stays average
3. Sanchez bats another empty .325+ average

Mets –
1. Pedro returns in late July and leads Mets to wild card birth

Braves –
1. Miss playoffs again
2. New ownership resigns Jones.

Nationals –
1. Johnson returns in early June and is impressive
2. Zimmerman highlights horrible season

Marlins –
1. All pitchers regress except Olsen
2. Uggla Regresses
3. Hanley shines

Phillies –
1. Win NL East

Diamondbacks –
1. Johnson pitches for 3.50 ERA
2. Young players shine and the team competes

Padres –
1. Gonzalez hits 35 HR with .300 average

Dodgers –
1. Broxton is closer by end of year

Rockies –
1. Helton dealt at trade deadline

Giants –
1. Matt Cain outperforms Zito
2. Bonds breaks record and, after all the fuss, Selig is there.

Speaking of lennymelnickfantasybaseball.com, I have joined up with Lenny to provide my analysis to an even larger audience of fantasy maniacs. But I didn't stop there. I will be writing a weekly column on Head to Head leagues over at sportsblurb.com. The Column will start a couple weeks before the season starts and I will link to those articles on here.

AL Gut feelings should be up soon. Have a question or comment? Email Me: stew0610@ameritech.net

Sleeper Round Up

This is just a quick list of some guys to keep an eye on over the next season. These guys are going at various points in the draft, but a sleeper is defined as a player that can give you significantly better value than where he is drafted. In the case of a snake round, 2-3 rounds or in an auction league about 7 or 8 dollars.

Here are some of my favorite Sleepers:

R. Baldelli – Now that he’s healthy he is a 20/20 candidate
A. Rios – Will provide speed from OF
P. Fielder – 40 HR candidate
N. Johnson – Will be out 2-3 months but upon return could still hit 15 HR
A. Gonzalez – Should bat .300 and could hit 35 HR
F. Lopez – 2B eligible and 40+ SB from 2B is gold
D. Young - Along with Baldelli, a 20/20 candidate
A. Gordon – Should make team out of camp, if he does he will be early ROY candidate
C. Billingsley – Great SP to round out your rotation.
A. Wainwright – Closed out the WS, he has the experience and the mentality
R. Hill – Had amazing September, with full season he is 200 strike out candidate
S. Olsen – The Best of the Marlins SP crop…only one I expect to maintain stats
A. Reyes – WS experience, should create power combo with Wainwright for years to come
R. Johnson – Don’t let the ERA of 5 fool you, he was much better.
M. Prior – If he is finally healthy, he will be gold late in the draft
K. Wood – Could be Cubs closer by mid june
N. Markakis – 15 HR last year, expect over 20 this year.
C. James - Was dynamite for ATL last year, can he repeat?
J. Sowers - Was solid in MLB debut season.
M. Garza - ROY canidate if he plays full season
F. Hernandez - Getting drafted high, could be top 5 round pick next year.
J. Broxton - could close for LAD by end of year
A. Otsuka - was good for TEX last year, Gagne is still big ?

Please note, this is in no way a full list but it should give you a good idea of some guys to highlight on your list. As always, open to comments: stew0610@ameritech.net

Baseball: Statistical Oddities

It is finally here! Part one of my HUGE article on statistics in baseball is now available here. It will also be available via lennymelnickfantasybaseball.com. You should definately check it out and I would love any feedback that you have. Part two should be available sometime soon.

Rankings!

UPDATE: RANKINGS IN EXCEL FORMAT FOR TOP 250 AND POSITIONAL RANKINGS ARE AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD BY REQUEST: HERE AND HERE, RESPECTIVLY.

The MLB Front Office top 250 and positional rankings have been released! I was going to release the positional rankings by position, but in favor of time and organization, I have decided to release them all at once. They can be found here on one simple web page that is easy to read and can be printed to best fit your draft day needs. In addition the top 250 can be found here along with the top players from some other blogs all averaged together to get an ultimate rankings list! Remeber to take the overall rankings with a grain of salt. Some people are ranked akwardly when averaged because one person is really high or really low on the person. But it is certainly a good draft tool. Also in that list you can find positional breakdown by clicking the links at the very bottom of your screen as compared to other writers. I hope you find these draft tools helpful and as always, direct all questions and comments to: stew0610@ameritech.net. I always like hearing from readers.

I will continue my top 25 countdown to #1. Hopefully the rest will be up by tomorrow but it may run onto Monday.

#10: D. Ortiz – BOS DH

#10: Big Papi

He’s Big Papi, what else is there to say. What other names could we have for him: Mr. Clutch? BoTown Bomber? God? No matter what you want to call him, he is a machine. He won’t get you any SB and he doesn’t play any position but DH, but the guy can jack ‘em, and that’s all that matters. He's the kind of guy where the opposing catchers are asking for an autograph while hes batting.

Catcher: "Can I have your autograph"

Big Papi: "One second..."

Anouncer: "Going, Going, Gone!"

Big Papi after crossing home plate: "Here you go"

Ok, enough, heres a little bit more about God himself: He's 31 and his HR have been going up since 2000. That makes me wonder: Is 60 HR possible? If he can hit 60 people won't even care that he's only a DH. He will be the #1 pick over pujols. He won't get you any SB but his AVG won't kill you either.

One reason not to take him: No speed and no eligibilty. Sound familiar? I said the same thing for Hafner, and thats because those are the only flaws in the HR slugging DHs.

One reason to take him: He's Big Papi to most of the world and he's God to the city of Boston, because he's Mr. Clutch and he jacks a HR every third game.

#11: L. Berkman – HOU OF

#11: L. Berkman

When Berkman struggles...it usually is the bats fault! (see above) When it comes to NL value, Berkman aka “Mini- Pujols” is always, well, second to only Pujols in almost every category it seems. He is getting older but his numbers haven’t really taken much of a hit. He can provide you top 10 value and is certainly someone to consider if you have a late pick in the first round of any size draft. Berkman will also benefit from the recent acquisition of Carlos Lee.

Here's a little about Lance: 45 Hr, .315 AVG whats not to like? Unfortunatly, it hasn't always been that way. Lance has been fairly inconsistant over the course of his career. I always find it interesting to see how much they are owned on ESPN, in mixed leagues, he is owned in 99.9 percent of leagues. Begging the question: .1% where are you?

One reason not to take him: Inconsistancy. Last year was his first year above 40 HR since 2002. Lack of speed is also a concern: he has never had more than 10 SB. But If he's going to give me 40+ HR I can live with non speed from him.

One reason to take him: His numbers last year were superb and with the aquisition of Carlos Lee he will be hitting in an even better lineup!

#12: C. Lee – HOU OF

#12: C. Lee

C. Lee has always seemed like a misfit, mainly because he can’t really play the OF. After being traded from Milwaukee to Texas last year, he really excelled. Now he has returned to the NL Central so he can beat up on the mediocre Brewers pitching staff. He will offer you speed and power and while he probably won’t be able to repeat last year, he has a shot at it. He isn’t your typical top 15 pick because there isn’t anything to “sexy” about him, but he is worth it.

Here's a little more about Carlos: Last year was easily his career year, only the second time in his career that he has batted over .300. It was also a career high in SB and HR. However, his HR totals have been going up his whole career which begs the question: At age 30 can he break the 40 HR mark for the first time in his career?

One reason not to take him: So many questions! Can he maintain his HR and SB from last year? Can he break the 40 HR rate? Can he stay above .300? If yes, he will be a top 15 pick in EVERY SINGLE EXPERT'S mind next year, if not he will fall out of the top 25.

One reason to take him: Like mentioned before, his HR have been going up his whole career so this may finally be the year he breaks 40 HR. In addition, he is now playing for Houston which has a better lineup than any lineup he ever played with in Milwaukee.

#13: V. Guerrero – LAA OF

#13: V. Guerrero

Guerrero is now on the decline in his career but he is still a force to be reckoned with. It was only last year, after all, that he was a top 5 pick in most leagues. He has now fallen to #13 but he will certainly provide you good value here. But be warned, he doesn’t offer you much upside, so if you want upside you may want to nab Sizemore instead.

Here's a little bit more about Vlad: What he will give you is an AVG over .300, 30+ HR and 10+ SB. Those are very solid numbers. What he won't offer you are numbers much better than that. He is on the downfall of his career at age 31 and it looks like is 40 HR days are over, but you never know.

One reason not to take him: He doesn't have a lot of upside. He hasn't hit over 40 HR since 2000 and he hasn't had more than 20 SB since 2002 when he had 40! He was at one point in his career a 40/40 threat but he never quite reached that mark and those days are long ago.

One reason to take him: Consistancy. You know what you are getting from him and he has a superb average to go along with his decent HR and SB numbers. There is always the chance he could nab you 20 bases as well.