2k12: Free Agent League Thread

[joncarlos]

I finally got my team kicked off over the weekend, and they're listed in the next post.

Here's a link to last year's thread: http://forum.rotojunkiefix.com/showt...e-Agent-League

The general idea is this... draft a team of horrible players in a free Yahoo league (ideally Geoff Blum will be your 1st round pick) and then drop them all. Then build a team that competes solely on players from the free agent list, and any trades you're able to make during the season.

Here are some notes from Swampdragon on strategy:

I worked really hard to get a stupendously bad team and now have waiver moves in

I added first names because I hadn't heard of most of them

I encourage others to try this game

Sign for a standard yahoo league and select to draft players in the bottom 500 at every position. Then you need to dump all of them and see if you can improve on waivers. Then trade away any player on a hot streak.

Some hints
Grab as many closers and near closers as possible and trade them quickly
the same thing can work with SBs
BA players are always findable
HR players are extremely tough to find - trade for them at any cost
try to package many players for one stud
grab only upside guys or veterans no one seems to care about

[joncarlos]

Here's my starting team after the first round of free agent pickups. I have a bit of a batting average problem.

C Russell Martin
1B Carlos Pena
2B Danny Espinosa
3B Chipper Jones
SS Marco Scutaro
OF Jason Bay
OF Alex Presley
OF Angel Pagan
UT Raul Ibanez
UT Justin Smoak

Bench Mike Aviles, Nolan Reimold, Daniel Murphy

SP Ricky Nolasco
SP Erik Bedard
SP Daniel Bard
SP Luke Hochevar
SP Alfredo Aceves
SP Jonathan Niese
SP Mike Minor
RP Vinnie Pestano
RP Jonny Venters
RP Addison Reed

[swampdragon]

JC

I think batting average is fixable. Minor and Bedard could prove helpful for your team pitching

I grabbed all of the closers in waiting with good peripherals and hope that they turn into gold - and then go to another team. Myers can count as a SP but get saves (that could help)
Trout only has upside and so does Mesaraco - both will be quickly traded if they start off hot

C Olivo
1B Helton
2B Hill
3B Davis, Chris
SS Escobar
OF Trout
OF Soriano
OF Young, Delmon
Util Lahair
Util Davis, Raj
BN Pagan
BN Revere
BN Mesaraco
BN Jones, Chipper

SP Davis, Wade
SP Billingsley
SP Myers
RP Cordero
P Fuentes
P Adams
P Salas
P Pestano
BN Collmenter

Our teams actually look a little different

[Davros]

Decided to give this thing one more try this year. Here is what I pulled off of the waiver wire this morning. Sadly, Vance Worley was snatched off of waivers before I could get him. Thankfully, players like Jesus Montero, Ian Desmond, Alejandro De Aza, Scott Baker, and a few others of that ilk were dropped today, so I will have a bit more to consider for my roster shortly.

C: Ryan Doumit
1B: John Mayberry
2B: Jose Altuve
3B: Chipper Jones
SS: Zack Cozart
OF: Lorenzo Cain
OF: Alex Presley
OF: J.D. Martinez
Util: Yonder Alonso
Util: Mat Gamel
BN: Mike Aviles
BN: Marco Scutaro
BN: Bryan LaHair

SP: Erik Bedard
SP: Gavin Floyd
RP: Jonathan Broxton
RP: Sean Marshall
P: Brett Myers
P: Chad Billingsley
P: Ryan Vogelsong
P: Mike Leake
BN: Greg Holland
BN: Jeff Niemann

[BuckyBuckner]

I got my team a while back but kept forgetting to post it. Here it is.

C - Iannetta
1B - C Pena
2B - A Hill
SS - A Escobar
3B - C Jones
OF/UT - Pagan, Trout, Cespedes, Boesch, Revere
BN - Dunn, Dan Murphy

SP - Beachy, Minor, Liriano, Nova, Peavy, Harrison
RP - Reed, Balfour, Myers, Guerra, G Holand

[Sam]

Here's my team, have made a bunch of waiver moves and a trade already (I gave away Francisco Cordero and got Cory Luebke)

C- Ramon Hernandez
1B - Helton
2B - Altuve
SS - Cozart
3B - Chipper
OF - Lorenzo Cain, Seth Smith, John Mayberry, Matt Joyce (missed out on Soriano - would've liked his homers)
Util/Bench - Adam Dunn, Adam Lind

SP - Luebke, Buerhle, Hochevar, Minor, Floyd, Alvarez
RP - Balfour, Pestano, Marshall, Holland, Brett Myers

Most of these guys were post draft waiver wire pickups but then guys like Joyce, Lind, Minor, etc were dumped by teams in the last few days.

[BuckyBuckner]

I'm in first place! Thank you Balfour and Cespedes.

[joncarlos]

Yeah one of the guys in my league has Balfour and Cespedes too. Unfortunately not many interesting guys have been dropped so far. Hoping things pick up when the season starts.

[BuckyBuckner]

Yeah one of the guys in my league has Balfour and Cespedes too. Unfortunately not many interesting guys have been dropped so far. Hoping things pick up when the season starts.

The highest ranked player that is available is Goldschmidt and it's tempting to pick him up but I have Carlos Pena and Adam Dunn. For some reason I feel that Pena could be good again, now that he's back in Tampa. Dunn has too much upside as a rebound potential to drop.

[joncarlos]

I would gladly pick up Goldschmidt and stash him, and I like him more than Pena. TB is a really rough place to hit and he has had a terrible spring. I've got Pena too and I'm thinking of dropping him for Reimold or Thames or JD Martinez. Or even Loney!

[BuckyBuckner]

I would gladly pick up Goldschmidt and stash him, and I like him more than Pena. TB is a really rough place to hit and he has had a terrible spring. I've got Pena too and I'm thinking of dropping him for Reimold or Thames or JD Martinez. Or even Loney!

That's saying alot! I guess I'l dump Pena for Goldschmidt then. Reimold is available and I'm thinking about dumping Revere for him since he won't be playing everyday.

[virgonomic]

Here's my team. It was difficult to find guys worth getting excited about in the FA pool this year.

C Doumit
1 Smoak
2 Aviles
3 CDavis
S Pennington
O De Aza
O Bay
O Span
B Revere Cain Valencia Kotchman (an original pick...going to wait for SPerez to clear waivers then stash him on DL)

S Buehrle
S Peavy
R Broxton
R Reed
P Pestano
P Chapman
P Aceves
P Bard
B Zambrano Ogando

[Sam]

Here's my team, have made a bunch of waiver moves and a trade already (I gave away Francisco Cordero and got Cory Luebke)

C- Ramon Hernandez
1B - Helton
2B - Altuve
SS - Cozart
3B - Chipper
OF - Lorenzo Cain, Seth Smith, John Mayberry, Matt Joyce (missed out on Soriano - would've liked his homers)
Util/Bench - Adam Dunn, Adam Lind

SP - Luebke, Buerhle, Hochevar, Minor, Floyd, Alvarez
RP - Balfour, Pestano, Marshall, Holland, Brett Myers

Most of these guys were post draft waiver wire pickups but then guys like Joyce, Lind, Minor, etc were dumped by teams in the last few days.

Made another trade and with the addition of some FA's have a different looking team. I trade my Mike Minor and Grant Balfour for Felix Hernandez. I still have plenty of RP depth and couldn't pass up a deal for King Felix. I think my next trade will be to try and flip pitching for hitting.

Current roster:
C - Ramon Hernandez
1B - Helton
2B - Altuve
SS - Cozart
3B - Chipper
OF - Matt Joyce, Alejandro De Aza, Nolan Reimold
Util/Bench - Adam Dunn, Adam Lind, Luke Scott

SP - King Felix, Luebke, Hellickson, Buerhle, Gavin Floyd, Henderson Alvarez
RP - Sean Marshall, Henry Rodriguez, Pestano, Brett Myers, Chapman and Storen on the DL ( was dropped after his injury but figured might as well hold on to him and hope for help in the 2nd half)

Any thoughts or suggestions for my team? Brandon McCarthy and Rickie Weeks were both just dropped today. Will likely find a way to pick up both. I'm about 20 points out of first but have been improving.

[overkill94]

Might be a good time to sell high on Cozart and De Aza, depending on what you could get back. Pitching's looking pretty damn strong.

[BuckyBuckner]

Might be a good time to sell high on Cozart and De Aza, depending on what you could get back. Pitching's looking pretty damn strong.

De Aza is hitting .320 in his last 25 at bats, 6 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI and 1 SB. Do you think he'll fade? I ask cause I just picked him up. I wasn't much of a believer but I had other guys not playing well.

My team is pretty different from the last time I posted.

C - Iannetta
1B - Dunn
2B - A Hill
SS - Furcal
3B - Dan Murphy
OF/UTL - Cespedes, Boesch, Pagan, Kubel, De Aza
BN - Goldschmidt, Infante
DL - L Cain

SP - Beachy, Minor, Peavy, Harrison, Nova
RP - Balfour, Guerra, Broxton, Marmol, Casilla, Myers

There are a fair amount of starters available that I'm tempted to pick up but just not sure. Colon, Humber, Cahil, McCarthy, Arroyo , Floyd, Capuano, Milone. Any of these guys worth picking up in favor of probably Nova and/or Harrison? Maybe it's time to cut bait on Goldschmidt?

On the hitting side Altuve is available, but I have Hill and Infante. Also available are probably the usual suspects in most leagues, the guys who are slumping: Borjous, Tabata, Gaby Sanchez, Alonzo, Belt. Any of these guys worth stashing away?

Finally, for catchers, Lucroy, Doumit, Ruiz, Salty and Hundley are available. You guys like any of them over Ianetta? They all seem to be in the same tier and it's always hard to decide between one or the other.