2k12: Free Agent League Thread

[joncarlos]

Got this offer today: I trade Trout for Pedro Alvarez, Ellsbury and Josh Rutledge. I am currently playing Todd Frazier at 3B so Alvarez would be a nice upgrade. I don't think it's enough, but I do like Ellsbury and think he could give me 75% of what Trout would do the rest of the way. Rutledge would be a bench guy or someone I only play at home, since I have Rollins at SS.

I think I'll counter with Ellsbury/Beltre for Trout.

[virgonomic]

I picked up Hill and Dejesus this week. Both have homered today. You might want to give them a look. Dejesus replaced a DL'd EYoung and Hill bumps Infante.

[Davros]

I was able to close in on the top team some more since my last update here (finished 11 points out of 1st place), but still ended up with a 4th place finish overall. Finished the year on top in Runs (873, 4 run lead) and Stolen Bases (160, 2 SB lead). I got at least 7 points out of every offensive category, but struggled mightily in Wins, ERA, and WHIP. I kept making headway in those areas, then would have a few SPs get torched for a few games (Ryan Vogelsong, James McDonald, Mark Buehrle, Jon Lester, Francisco Liriano, Roy Halladay, and a few others) to drop me back into my hole. I need to gain some confidence to drop some of those type of guys more quickly. Still, it was a fun year even if I didn't meet the ultimate goal. Hopefully I can find a league next time where I actually have trade partners for closers.

Final Roster:
C: Josh Donaldson
1B: Paul Goldschmidt
2B: Jose Altuve *
SS: Marco Scutaro *
3B: Pedro Alvarez
OF: Mike Trout
OF: Brandon Ross (only for the last 2-3 weeks, Coco Crisp previous to that)
OF: Josh Reddick
Util: Anthony Rizzo
Util: Adam LaRoche
Bench: Donovan Solano (who was active at OF and 2B a lot in the final weeks)
Bench: Ryan Ludwick (huge cog in the second half)
Bench: Jesus Montero

SP: Roy Halladay
SP: Cliff Lee
P: Mark Buehrle
P: Mike Minor
P: Derek Holland
P: Alex Cobb, then Ervin Santana/Hisashi Iwakuma/David Huff after he was shut down
RP: Casey Janssen
RP: Greg Holland
P: Drew Storen
P: Tom Wilhelmsen

* = Only two guys to last from the first free agent grabs to the final game of the year

[virgonomic]

Yahoo! has a neat chart view for standings where it shows each team's place on a line graph (you will want to turn off some of the 12).

I was in last for the first month until I began a 3-month climb to first. I was caught a couple times, including the second-last day of the season, but regained the lead by 1.5 points on the last day. I finished fourth last year so I know sometimes you just can't get over the hump.

C Martin
1B Moss
2B Hill
3B Donaldson
SS Drew
OF Trout
OF Saunders
OF Rios
U Smoak
U McLouth
B Keppinger
B Viciedo
B Aoki
DL EYoung
SP Dickey
SP Gallardo
RP Medlen
RP Lynn
P Harvey
P Estrada
B Arroyo
P Fister
B Kendrink

No original draftees, Dickey and Trout were scooped up about a month in.

A few years ago someone on RJ said the key to the AFA league is to go with the hot hand. That truly is key in winning these leagues.

Castoffs Ellis, Scutaro, Morse, Davis, Clippard and Soriano finished the season on the second place team. Fortunately they didn't come back to haunt me, and flags fly forever.

I built up a lead of 30 saves which ultimate cost me a few starts as I fell 7 just short of the IP limit. Next year I will horde closers again but monitor my lead more closely.

My points were
R-HR-RBI-SB-R-AVG 11-9-6-11-6
W-SV-K-ERA-WHIP 8-12-11-8-9