Exit Interview: The 2011 TGP Fantasy Baseba'al League's HR Director Will See You Now

We write these things as comments here? I can’t imagine 18 FanPosts talking about our fantasy teams. Please advise. I have an epic collapse of my own (ironically precipitated by injuries to Kevin Youkilis) to complain about.

I’ma have to draft this carefully — I’m terrible under pressure!

Section 1: Your Team
(for everyone except Walcott): What Went Wrong for your team?

Draft and injuries and my lineup decisions. Injuries happen, but I guessed wrong on some older players and it burned me. Also, I went for balance in the draft and finished with 43 and 43 points in hitting/pitching. Unfortunately, I wasn’t really “good” at anything but K’s and SB.

Heyward underperformed for me big-time, seeing that he was my 3rd round pick. My 1 & 2 (Cano and Posey, the latter flipped for Chooch and Ichiro prior to the injury) were fine. Jeter a 4 was a black hole for the first 4 months of the year. I overpicked on Morrow at 5 and Hellickson at 6.

Luke Scott’s injury (10th round) hurt, too, since I lost OBP and HR. JD Drew and Ibanez hurt, at least until Joecatz solved the Ibanez riddle for me. Still, for long periods, I had an OF of Heyward/Cold Ibanez/JD Drew/injured Luke Scott to try to generate power next to the decent duo of Ichiro and Bourn.

Dumping my 25th round pick, Justin Masterson, too soon cost me lots of QS which I really needed at the end. At the end of the year, I would have been better off sitting both Morrow and Lowe. I should have watched matchups more carefully, especially for starting pitchers.

And I just did poorly guessing on bullpen in the draft. The real hurt was in the OF, though. My offense got punished in HR/RBI/OBP when none of Heyward/Drew/Ibanez/Scott presented any good options for most of the year. I figured I could get decent production from some combination of them, but there were long, long dry spells.

What was your favorite anecdote/injury/trade of Fantasy 2011?

Trading Posey for Chooch and Ichiro. OMG, no doubt. I lucked out there.

Section 2: Your Players
Who carried the load who wasn’t a surprise?

Michael Bourn. Ricky Nolasco. Ervin Santana. Robinson Cano.

Who chipped in unexpectedly? Who was a bust?

Aramis Ramirez surprised me. I expected decent production, but for a while during the middle of the year, he just went off. Erick Aybar was a helpful fill-in when Jeter was out. Mitch Moreland was flexible and useful.

Busts? Heyward/Jeter/JD Drew/Luke Scott. Largely injury/age bad bets. I hoped for more from Hellickson and Morrow.

Which sleepers kept on snoozing?

Hellickson. He really didn’t give me K’s. He walked tons. And he got murdered pretty often against the Yankess/Sox. Perhaps better management on my end there would have helped.

Which younger players are you hoping nobody else finds out about before next year’s draft?

Really?

Which guy(s) were you desperate to get rid of, but somehow kept on your roster all year anyway? (And yo, what was up with that?)

Hellickson. Meh. Just kept waiting for more from him.

Section 3: The League

What (Or Who! Dish!) ticked you off about the site/league/ etc?

The DL stuff was pretty annoying. I also would have liked a “next seven days” schedule instead of the “until the end of the week” when setting lineups.

Did you like anything about the league, format, scoring, etc.?

I was pretty happy with the categories. I think 18 teams is too many, though. I’d prefer 15 or so. I think that would give more “catch up” flexibility. As things were, the pickings were slim if you had to try to do some post-draft repairs.

I really liked the free audio/Gameday thing. I used that an awful lot this year.

What suggestions do you have for next year?

Reduce the size of the league. I have no beef with the categories at all. Even CBS, much-loathed during the early part of the year, is a familiar product to me now, and I would resist moving away from them absent a compelling reason.

What Went Wrong for your team?
What didn’t? Like other (real) teams that went from second place (Surefire Contention) most of the year to fifth (Choke City, USA) I’m going to use the “injury bug” and “pixie dust wore off of my pitchers” excuses.

I drafted Hanley Ramirez in the first round, and Kevin Youkilis in the second as my starting SS and 3B, which seemed like a great idea at the time. Then Youk Youk’d and Hanley did whatever it was he did, and I had to find replacements (not to mention my secret-weapon starting 1B, Ike Davis, chewed off his own leg to escape a bear trap or something. Didn’t work. He’s still a Met, poor dear). It’s hard to find replacement SS and 3B in a shallow league (whoever poor soul had Stephen Drew will agree), let alone an 18-team league. So I had Jamey Carroll and Kyle Seager on my roster at the same time, with Ty Wigginton holding down first (until John Mayberry got 1B eligibilty). Eventually, I discovered Chipper was still out there and grabbed him. I think the BraveStink took over from there, ultimately dooming my team.

And Alexi Ogando returned to Earth.

Who chipped in unexpectedly?
Jacoby Ellsbury- sounds silly because he’s quite good, but really, who expected him to go more than 2 weeks without ending up on the DL? No one. See, unexpected contributions.
Doug Fister- king of “The Reason We Use Quality Starts Instead of Wins.” Not underrated anymore, because he’s on an actual baseball team now.

Who was a bust?
Hanley Ramirez. I don’t think I need to explain my stance there.
John Lackey. Stupid stupid Red Sox. (except you, Jacoby. Hugs!)

Which sleepers kept on snoozing?
Geovany Soto. Pretty sure that’s what every Soto owner has been saying since the beginning of fantasy baseball history.

Which younger players are you hoping nobody else finds out about before next year’s draft?
Ever since I started playing fantasy baseball, I’ve taken chances on rookies, started them over disappointing vets, and given them long leashes. Sometimes it works (Buster Posey last year, Eric Hosmer and Brett Lawrie this year), sometimes it doesn’t (Dom Brown last year, Anthony Rizzo this year). So if news of a top-prospect getting a starting job out of spring training/getting called up mid-season breaks, I hope I find out and pick them up before any of you do.

And when Galvis is our starting SS next year and all of you think it’s silly to draft him in the middle-late rounds and he becomes a RotY candidate, I’ll be glad I grabbed him before you did.

What suggestions do you have for next year?
Go with Yahoo. It’s free, doesn’t lock you out of your roster because one of your pitchers who’s not even starting today has a 1:00 game, and doesn’t kick guys off the DL without warning and then lock you out of your (now illegal) roster. It’s doesn’t have custom stats, though. And I’ve only played head-to-head on Yahoo, so I don’t know if that’s the only style of play or what.

Anyway, this was probably longer than 500 words. But I’m ending this with a haiku anyway.

Stat Geek Fantasy.
Challenging, but fun. Yay FIP!
Thanks so much, you guys.

What was your favorite anecdote/injury/trade of Fantasy 2011?

Acquiring Jemile Weeks helped to fill my void at second base. Mysterious appearances of dissenting votes on trade proposals was always kind of puzzling and funny too.

Who carried the load who wasn’t a surprise?

Ryan Howard, Starlin Castro coming into his own, Hunter Pence. King Felix.

Who chipped in unexpectedly? Who was a bust?

I feel like my team was almost completely comprised of players in these two categories. I got lucky with Alex Gordon’s breakout year, likewise with Emilio Bonifacio and Starlin Castro. Jemile Weeks was good for me down the stretch as well.

But oh, the busts. Adam Dunn in the fourth round was about as big a clunker as could be possible, as I had assumed he would be a sure thing as usual. Whoops. Ubaldo didn’t have a particularly noteworthy year either, and I used a third rounder on him. C’est la vie.

Which sleepers kept on snoozing?

Aaron Hill, that is, until I cut him. So much for 36 home runs ever again.

Which younger players are you hoping nobody else finds out about before next year’s draft?

That one guy that hit the baseball real sweet-like.

Which guy(s) were you desperate to get rid of, but somehow kept on your roster all year anyway? (And yo, what was up with that?)

I dunno, can you blame a guy for thinking Dunn could turn it around at some point? Aaron Hill, but Team WL’s manager managed to whip his ass into shape eventually.

What (Or Who! Dish!) ticked you off about the site/league/ etc?

The lineup locks were kind of irksome, but overall I really like the CBS league. The features are all solid and I guess I’m just accustomed to it now.

Did you like anything about the league, format, scoring, etc.?

FIP can be a cruel mistress, but I like the stats we used for the most part. HRs and RBIs kind of became that necessary evil. Combining saves and holds made for a cool reliever dynamic.

What suggestions do you have for next year?

Think I might side with RTP that 18 was a ton of teams. I liked the massive feel of the league, but at times a lot of people were stuck with part-time players due to injury, without any kind of viable replacement. The depth of teams made prospect “scouting” pretty cutthroat.

What Went Wrong for your team?

Everything. It felt like Murphy’s Law bit me square in the ass. But that was a risk I took; last year, I drafted mainly on instinct, and it worked out. So I thought I’d do the same thing this year, and wound up with a kinda not-so-great draft (lots of high risk, not-as-high reward picks and other dudes who were just mediocre) which was then totally compromised by injuries and bad years. My two best pitchers were Josh Johnson and Brett Anderson, and they both went down for the year maybe midway through. Cookies was more or less out for the year. Andrew Bailey hurt himself a few days after the draft and missed like two months. It was a bit of a shitshow, and my offense was just not all that great.

What was your favorite anecdote/injury/trade of Fantasy 2011?

Eh. The only trade I made was Jonathan Lucroy for Joel Piniero, which wasn’t exactly a blockbuster. Don’t remember much else, apart from dannijd’s autodraft woes (drafting like 15 hitters before taking a single pitcher).

Who carried the load who wasn’t a surprise?

Yadier Molina did pretty much exactly what I thought he would do. Desmond Jennings was a quality sleeper.

Who chipped in unexpectedly? Who was a bust?

I wasn’t exactly surprised by Freddie Freeman’s performance, but he did better than I thought he would. Jon Jay was a nice waiver wire pickup, and Asdrubal Cabrera was a man among boys for a while there. Ian Kinsler started out really slow, but recovered nicely.

As far as busts go, how’s that contract working out for you, Jayson? David DeJesus sucked. Ryan Ludwick? More like Ryan LOLwick (man, writing like Rick Reilly is easy). Polly wasn’t at his all time best, as we know, and I had Ben Francisco as well for a while there. Oh, and I really can’t stand Bobby Jenks.

Which younger players are you hoping nobody else finds out about before next year’s draft?

Can’t a guy have secrets?

Which guy(s) were you desperate to get rid of, but somehow kept on your roster all year anyway?

All Star Omar Infante. No, I don’t know why I hung on to him.

What (Or Who! Dish!) ticked you off about the site/league/ etc?

Honestly I didn’t really have a problem with the site or league, except that I think 18 teams is just too many.

Did you like anything about the league, format, scoring, etc.?

The categories were great. BPNRY made a lot of sense. Also the free AtBat was awesome.

What suggestions do you have for next year?

As stated above, perhaps not quite so many teams. Gotta leave some guys free on the waiver wire, you know?

Here goes nothin’:

Section 1: Your Team

What Went Wrong for your team?

Really, in the end, two issues kind of doomed TeamTrev to sixth place (a pretty reasonable doom, all things considered!): mid-season HR tendencies from my pitchers, a real FIP killer, and a pretty awful draft. Obviously the first one was just frustrating — I know that you can’t ever forecast perfectly, but my steep decline in FIP was as surprising as it was crippling.

The drafting thing was pretty much all my fault. I knew I’d be missing the first few rounds, and I set up an autodraft that would guarantee me a high level 2B and C, since I figured they’d be the scarcest positions (turns out 3B was worse). While the first few picks got me Pedroia, A-Rod, Carlos Santana, and Rickie Weeks, the new two auto-drafts were Justin Morneau and Kurt Suzuki, neither of whom really justified their placement. After I saw my first few selections, I made some panic picks, highlighted by WAY too early picks of Miguel Tejada, Brandon Lyon, and Fernando Rodney. Yeah…I was scrambling pretty quick.

What was your favorite anecdote/injury/trade of Fantasy 2011?

I’m not sure I have a favorite, but my most ambivalent memory is my Madson for Josh Willingham trade. Pretty much promptly after the trade, Madson became the closer, and I had sellers’ remorse. But Willingham hit pretty well and bought me pitching later, and it’s not like it made sense to root against Madson. Just kind of a weird moment all around.

Second place: not putting a claim in on Nelson Cruz. Yes, I have no real explanation for that either.

Section 2: Your Players
 
Who carried the load who wasn’t a surprise?

Rickie Weeks, Dan Hudson, Carlos Santana, A-Rod when he was healthy. I traded Pedroia and Jonathan Sanchez for Justin Upton (and…Jonathan Broxton. Gulp.), and that turned out well. Upton was a pretty central reason I finished where I did (in a positive way).

Who chipped in unexpectedly? Who was a bust?

Brandon Beachy was a fantastic surprise, though I didn’t completely like rooting for a Brave; I had drafted Minor, so when it was clear that he’d be in the minors, I just picked up Beachy on a whim. He really held my K totals together through the year. Cameron Maybin was another total shot in the dark, and he was a pretty nice value, too.

Bust-wise, Miguel Tejada was out and out terrible, but I kind of got lucky and picked up J.J. Hardy off the waiver wire. Justin Morneau was a total sunk cost. Broxton is my other great regret, given the obvious; that I thought Lyon and Rodney would ever be of value was really my own misapprehension of their talent levels and the BPNRY stat, so it’s pretty unfair to call them busts.

Which sleepers kept on snoozing?

Aside from a torrid two weeks or so, Alcides Escobar was really kind of disappointing. But he was the kind of disappointing that kept you hopeful in a certain way. Jordan Lyles never was consistent, and woof, I’ve almost blocked out the Kyle Drabek experience. It’ll be a while before I look at walks without cringing.

Which younger players are you hoping nobody else finds out about before next year’s draft?

You guys heard about this Brett Lawrie kid????

No, but seriously, come on. The only one I’ll give away is just one I’m interested in, which is Trevor Bauer of the D-Backs. I love the weirdo wunderkind part of his story, and I wouldn’t be surprised if, at the end of the draft and the end of my wits, I put a flier on him, even though he’s likely going to stay in the minors next year. The fact we share a first name is icing on the cake.

Which guy(s) were you desperate to get rid of, but somehow kept on your roster all year anyway? (And yo, what was up with that?)

I always kind of expected that I could flip Jason Kubel or Angel Pagan for a more valuable player, but they were never consistent enough, what with the injuries. I had a lot of turnover, actually — the 2B position was pretty active, and I filled in a lot of injuries as a result. Viva, if not la differance, la trade.

Section 3: The League

What (Or Who! Dish!) ticked you off about the site/league/ etc?

/dusts off enemies list, licks tip of ballpoint pen

Let’s just see here….

No, no, no one really bothered me. I always imagined a kind of false rivalry with LeepinLizards, if only because our general strategy of using lots of starting pitchers was pretty similar, and, if I recall correctly, we got a lot of each others’ desired picks on draft day (missin’ u Drew Storen). Obviously, she did the whole thing a bit better in the end, haha.

Beyond false, jokey vendettas, I guess I didn’t much love the impression I got that some teams seemed to become inactive. There’s not much of a way to police this, and honestly, I couldn’t even point to anything that substantiated my impression, but if I’m being totally forthcoming, that was one small cavil.

Did you like anything about the league, format, scoring, etc.?

I can gush if that’s appropriate. For real, though, I very much enjoyed the league. The stat categories — esp. FIP and BPNRY — were fantastic, and I actually liked the little newsfeed. I’m totally ignorant of other fantasy leagues — this was my first try at anything like this — so I’m sure this isn’t like a super unique feature, but (forgiving the horrible content of most stories) the little updates on upcoming players was unbelievably useful. I also — and please no crucifixions — liked the size. I felt there was a really compelling challenge level with 18 teams that kept me deeply involved. That said, 15 would be fine too (as long as, if we’re being honest, I’m not one of the cuts).

What suggestions do you have for next year?

I guess I’d mirror the others here and suggest a slightly smaller league, but still quite deep. 15 would be marvelous.

Section 4: Dodgy Madeup Questions

Who do you wish you’d have drafted instead of Bill Hall?

Michael Pineda. Dammit.

Did you get so into your league that your in-laws became casually interested?

Yes, sadly. I’m sure my father-in-law will be thrilled that I finished above average though. Then he will ask about the merits of a pitcher that can throw 150 MPH.

Will I be writing a longer theoretical piece inspired by my experience in fantasy?

Forthcoming from Verso Press the fanpost section.

How many hours did you spend just staring at the instant update screen?

Eleventy billion.

Is this 500 words?

Oh yes. But for symmetry’s sake (and to, just one more time, play poorly at a game LL already did well), a haiku to send us off:

Auto-draft makes for
Early woes: remedy is
Mana from waivers.

What was your favorite anecdote/injury/trade of Fantasy 2011?
Well, I drafted Jamie Moyer in the 17th round, and, needless to say, he was not especially productive this season. "I think having this written up in Baseball Prospectus": http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=13226 was perhaps the most memorable part of the fantasy season for me.
My least favorite trade was giving up Ichiro AND Chooch for Buster "40 Games" Posey. What the fuck.
Who carried the load who wasn’t a surprise?
Paul Konerko, definitely. Paulie hit over .300, with 31 homers and 105 RBIs, all three leading Team Phrozen. As an added benefit, I got to listen to everyone’s favorite Homer saying, "AND YOU CAN PUT IT ON THE BOOOOAAAAAAAARRDD…. YESSS! YEEEAAASSS!!!"
Mike Stanton also deserves a mention here—he smashed 34 homers. Literally, smashed them—he hit three of ESPN’s longest homers of the season.
Who chipped in unexpectedly? Who was a bust?
Eric Hosmer was a huge surprise. I know he was ranked as one of the top offensive prospects in baseball, but most prospects, even top ones, don’t hit .293 and 19 homeruns in 128 games. Maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise, but it was. To top it off, I was able to pick him up in place of Kila Ka’aihue.
Honorable mention here has to go to YAYGUYS Francoeur. He hit 20 homeruns, batted a respectable .285, and stole 22 bases. YAYGUYS indeed!
I hate to say this, but my No. 1 pick was more or less a bust. Utley did hit 11 homeruns, but considering who was available when I picked him, that was a real homerific mistake.
Which sleepers kept on snoozing?
Vernon Wells. I got him off the waiver wire (yeah, I know), and while he did hit 25 homeruns, he never really came around like I’d hoped. I’m sure the Angels are more disappointed than I, but I certainly won’t draft or pick him again.
Which younger players are you hoping nobody else finds out about before next year’s draft?
Nobody. Why do you ask? If you must know, Hosmer is definitely one, but I think he’ll be widely known already.
Which guy(s) were you desperate to get rid of, but somehow kept on your roster all year anyway? (And yo, what was up with that?)
Utley. Don’t shoot me. If I could have somehow picked up a better performer, I would have jumped on it. Brett Myers was another one. Last year, he was pretty good. This year, he was positively Baezian. Couldn’t drop either of them, though. Utley is one of my favorite players (honestly, is there a Phils’ fan who doesn’t like Utley), and Myers, well, he was supposed to be good decent marginally acceptable.
What (Or Who! Dish!) ticked you off about the site/league/ etc?
The site is a pain in the ass on an iPhone. Nothing to do about that, I suppose. The regular site is fine, and the league was a LOT OF FUN. I want to emphasize that (‘cause sometimes I complain too much).
Did you like anything about the league, format, scoring, etc.?
Almost all of it. The DL was a pain (in fact, I lost a Pat the Bat HR on Opening Day because Utley didn’t get DL’d until too late!), and the waiver wire was confusing, but otherwise, nothing stands out as being bad. So yes, I liked "anything."
What suggestions do you have for next year?
Can the DL be monkeyed with? The draft should be closer to Opening Day. Otherwise, nothing. Maybe add a couple more teams?

Like I said earlier, this was a lot of fun, and I’d like to do it again next year.

About the size of the league: I agree that deep but not too deep is best. (TWSS?)

Like, for example, I’m in a 6-team football league. Ridiculous. I’m bored already. Thanks to all the other teams that were invited and said they would join but didn’t show up for the draft. We drafted anyway. There are guys on Yahoo’s can’t-cut list who are sitting on waivers. Stupid.

I’m also in a 20-team hockey league. Should be crazy, especially considering how little I know about hockey (wait. Danny Briere is a center, right?)

So I think it’s important to find a happy medium. 14 or 15 teams is usually a perfect size, in my limited experience.

Section 1: Your Team
I’ll start from the standpoint of appreciative inquiry, recognize the boys for going from worst-to-third this year, and provide a h/t to my longtime (baseball) friend Brian, who joined me in the draft night concrete bunker via phone from his home in TN for three hours to play Special Senior Advisor/Dallas Green Eminence Grise to Team WL.
 
I’m still not quite sure how TeamWL wound up with four of the top 10 guys (Bautista, Cabrera, Ortiz, and Kimbrel) who led the major leagues in fWAR and didn’t win this damn thing. RBIs killed the team, as for much of the season I was leading or near the top in HRs, SLG, and OBP, yet could barely sniff the top 7 in RBI. I’ll chalk it up to an inherent, selfish stat-padding Abreuishness on the team. I went against my own philosophical grain drafting Big Papi, but he was a 12th round, old dude lottery ticket who paid major U dividends. In terms of overall value, though, Seth Smith (25th round!) was a real find.
 
Loved my bullpen. Hard not to with Kimbrel and Axford’s durable success wire-to-wire. Holds were a bit of a different story, and I struggled to find reliable sources. My starting pitchers, designed to be middle-of-the-pack, generally succeeded, but I could have used full seasons of big-ballpark, second-tier types like Dallas Braden and Clayton Richard, and struggled to find a good tempo of QS after their season-enders. The guys I plugged in were good for gobs of strikeouts, like Mike Leake and Ted Lilly, but walked waaay too many dudes. In retrospect I probably should have joined in some of the panicky early-round draft day buying on high-end SPs, but I truly did enjoy the hittin’, a cathartic and gratifying experience after 2010’s last-place Invasion of the Sucky Mariners Debacle. Ise not sorry.
 
One team’s shocking confession: Injuries were a real problem. No coincidence that I lost my HR lead when Stephen Drew (3rd round) went down for the season, right about when Big Papi’s cranky foot kept him out for a while and Bautista came down from the stratosphere. Andre Ethier (4th round) played hurt for way too long. Kelly Johnson (5th round) never got his act together and now finds himself north of the border in Toronto’s Castoff Infield with Escobar. Now that I think about it, perhaps I should give myself more credit for overcoming these huge torpedo holes below the waterline. Well, if anything, last year was good for me in learning how to comb the floor of the smoke-filled betting room of the fantasy Aqueduct looking for FA winners on the floors of the transaction section. I think I led the league in adds and drops. Trev223 might be close behind.
 
RTP may never believe it, but I truly didn’t think Brennan Boesch was going to be done for the season within about a week after a deadline deal in which I flipped him for Ichiro. It just looked like a nagger of a thumb injury and I needed more team speed. Granted, it was post-peak Ichiro, but even at that he had decent September fueled by pride. I’m at least relieved to see that Ichiro came to him in much the same way. What an interesting monkey paw cursed thread of trades. Anyway, sorry buddy. Call me next year!

Section 2: Your Players

Bautista in the first half was spectacular, and Miggy Cabrera, of course. We all know of the success (and late-season sorrows) of young Kimbrel, whose high level of success was a bit of a surprise, though perhaps less so to people who follow the NL East.
I had Gerardo Parra for a long time, as I waited pointlessly for Jason Bourgeois and Jose Tabata to be uninjured and/or put in the lineup. He’s a good player who I felt at trade time would have been a less sexy/expensive Hunter Pence for the Phillies. Brennan Boesch was pretty good. I had nice late-season market timing on SP and RPs.
 
Jose Tabata and Ryan Raburn were lottery tickets who never quite panned out. Tabata is a ticking pulled hamstring bomb machine waiting to happen who I suspect has some personality issues. Raburn is probably just not ready yet.
 
There are some intriguing youngsters out there I’ll keep tabs on for mid-tier rounds next spring. Dee Gordon makes a shallow SS pool a little deeper – I’m intrigued by what he might do over an entire season. OF Ben Revere similarly, though he never stuck on any roster due to PT issues and piss-poor walk rate. The Royals may finally be wising up on Lorenzo Cain. And RP Chris Sale is real good. Dom Brown? lulz.
 
Section 3: The League

It took a while to get used to the new lineup-setting interface, as I lost two or three days’ worth of scoring because of illegal lineups. Plus guys would get activated without warning in the late afternoon and I couldn’t set it in time. I wish there were some mechnism that were less punitive than erasing an entire day’s worth of stats. I wouldn’t mind if I had to throw out the stats of the guy who came off the DL and/or even the day’s top performer, just to keep the gamesmanship at bay a bit, but a whole day? Do not like. Ultimately I got used to it, but only by fishing or cutting bait on guys who were on the DL before I wanted to/should have (like glove surgeon Chris Narveson) just to avoid the penalty.
 
That said: Audio Gameday rocked rocked rocked! I love it when technology feels magical, especially for the last two nights. I’d have been happy with the hour I spent mesmerizing my 79-year-old father with this on the porch of the family’s summer cottage upstate where we’ve struggled all our lives to catch the nightime 165-mile-long AM radio waves from 1210/950/1060…Thanks to whoever made that happen. Wonderful upgrade.
 
I really liked the BLPNRY statistic, an interesting blend of mostly skill and a luck; likewise the SB-CS stat. Both appeal to my synthetic way of thinking. I’d appreciate if the site could track holds stats somewhere, but ymmv on this if you feel that you should go click elsewhere for research just to make it tougher. Oh, and I liked the daily email updates.
 
In an 18-team league I’d love to see if we could have 1-2 extra roster spots devoted to guys who are in the minor leagues to test our prospectability. Ideally the players could only be in there if they were coded as ML guys and their stats wouldn’t count. This is probably a tech issue, but it would stretch out the pool of available FAs. I do wonder if the replacement talent level is so low in a big league that mobility in the standings is affected, but then again, the real teams struggle with this too. It could have just been the year.
 
Thanks again RTP and FM. Walcott. h/t to you. You are a formidable opponent.

What Went Wrong for your team?

Offense. Everything seemed to be going smoothly at the start, especially with Tulowitzky’s hot April, but I had several positions which were just deadweights on my team. I was well into the negative area of the SB-CS category until late May or so, as my plan of getting steals from Juan Pierre, Chone Figgins, and Andres Torres was a complete failure. Jorge Posada managed to hit about 8 home runs in the early portion of the season, and probably got on base 5 other times. Until I dropped him, of course, where he immediately went on to hit about .400 for a month. After I traded Billy Butler my 1B position was a disaster. I varied between using whoever was starting for the D-backs, be it Juan Miranda or Russell Branyan, and eventually settled on Daric Barton for some reason. Yes, Daric Barton. I think I actually traded for him. So, after relying on such offensive studs as Jorge Posada, Juan Pierre, Daric Barton, and Andres Torres, I was hitting about as well as the Giants did this year. Next year, I’ll make sure to not trade Mike Stanton.

Oh, and a word of advice: never draft relievers even remotely high. I drafted Joakim Soria with my 5th pick! That’s so terrible, I don’t even know what to say. I also blew a pick on Chris Sale for some reason. And another one on Joel Peralta. Basically, after the first couple weeks I just used the 2010 SIERA leaderboards and starting picking up relievers left and right. Kameron Loe, Sean Marshall, Matt Belisle, Edward Mujica, Mitchell Boggs, Scott Downs, and others were among those who staffed my pen within the first three weeks of the season. Actually, this wasn’t really something that went wrong, more just a bad strategy in the draft.

Pitching went well, except for the FIP-fueled tragedy that was Ryan Dempster’s 1st half. I drafted Verlander, traded for Hamels and Marcum, and pretty much rode solid starting pitching to a decent finish.

What was your favorite anecdote/injury/trade of Fantasy 2011?

Having Jim Thome hit his 600th for my team was pretty awesome. Actually, just about everything about having Jim Thome was awesome, aside from the massive amount of time missed. Oh, also I traded Soria away with Stanton for Hamels and Thome (and Russell Branyan) before the season began, so at least I lucked out in that regard.

Section 2: Your Players
 
Who carried the load who wasn’t a surprise?

Matt Holiday, who absolutely carried my team until he got hurt. Adrian Beltre was a monster, at least for the RBI and HR categories. Also Verlander, obviously.

Who chipped in unexpectedly? Who was a bust?
The Mets’ rookie Justin Turner was a pretty nice surprise for a waiver pick up. He made up for my biggest bust, Chone Figgins, who hit a home run on opening day and did not get another hit the rest of the year (okay, maybe one or two). The same goes for Scott Sizemore, who helped stabilize my lineup after he got traded to Oakland. One more surprise was the great relief pitching from David Hernandez, who actually qualified as a starter and thus gave me the ability to use an extra reliever throughout the season.

Which sleepers kept on snoozing?
Chris Sale. Travis Wood. Esmil Rogers. Mike Trout. Oh, and of course, Brandon fucking Belt. That sure was fun, watching Bruce Bochy play Aubrey Huff every day, keeping Belt on my roster the entire year for about 200 ABs or so.

Which younger players are you hoping nobody else finds out about before next year’s draft?

I don’t know if you’ve heard of this Domonic Brown kid…
Oh, and I’ll probably have to draft Matt Moore 1st overall. Strasburg too.

Which guy(s) were you desperate to get rid of, but somehow kept on your roster all year anyway? (And yo, what was up with that?)
Brandon Belt, see above. Juan Pierre, which actually worked out pretty well in the end, but the ridiculous amount of caught stealings were the bane of my fantasy existence early on. I guess Frank Francisco counts too, so him as well. And Jake Peavy was pretty worthless.

Section 3: The League

What (Or Who! Dish!) ticked you off about the site/league/ etc?
Not much, beyond the fact that I had to see CBS articles every time I headed over to check my team. There’s sports analysis, and then there’s CBS. I actually enjoyed the 18 team size, but it certainly was close to impossible to really make up ground by midseason or so.

Did you like anything about the league, format, scoring, etc.?
I hadn’t really done a serious Fantasy baseball league, so it was certainly a different experience. Everything seemed to work really well though, and I loved the ability to listen in to any game. I stopped using it later on in the season but for most of April and May it was really great and made the league all that much better.

What suggestions do you have for next year?
Not much, really. I didn’t like the way the DL immediately invalidated a team’s production if a player was left on there by accident for an extra day. The categories were fairly diverse, though K/BB and FIP certainly are a bit redundant. So perhaps a new pitching category for next year? Really though, there wasn’t much that needs changing for the future.

Thanks for letting me into the league this year, FM and RTP, and good luck to everyone for next year. Also, Walcott, your team was pretty insane from start to finish. Do let some of us peons down here have a chance at a championship next year.

Sorry for the delay- big girl job got the best of me (107.75 hours worked in 11 days!)

Section 1: Your Team

What Went Wrong for your team? Not enough pitching, Victorino missing a month and then taking September off (although all is forgiven if he finds his swing this month!), Carl Crawford alternating between injured and abysmal, Dustin Pedroia slumping.

What was your favorite anecdote/injury/trade of Fantasy 2011? Trading Jonathon Broxton and Justin Upton for Pedroia and Jonathon Samchez- while I hated giving up Upton, Sanchez improved my rotation until his unfortunate injury, and Pedroia was a huge upgrade over Brian Roberts and a godsend when Roberts got concurred and missed a huge part of the season.

Section 2: Your Players

Who carried the load who wasn’t a surprise? Victorio, Braun, Pedroia

Who chipped in unexpectedly? Mark Trumbo, Kevin Correa for a while, Jair Jurrjens (did not expect him to be nearly as good as he was in the first half). Josh Reddick was a good late season addition (at least for a little while).

Who was a bust? CARL CRAWFORD- must I go further?

Which sleepers kept on snoozing? David Aardsma and Johan Santana (both of which I held onto, hoping that they would come off of the DL and contribute)

Which younger players are you hoping nobody else finds out about before next year’s draft?
On my team- Josh Reddick and Mike Trumbo. In general, Eric Hosmer and Lawrie up in Toronto intrigue me, particularly if Lawrie can make the necessary sacrifices to Baseba’al to stay healthy.

Which guy(s) were you desperate to get rid of, but somehow kept on your roster all year anyway? (And yo, what was up with that?) Really nobody- I wanted rid of Broxton, but managed to arrange that (sorry Trev!)

Section 3: The League

What (Or Who! Dish!) ticked you off about the site/league/ etc? Not being able to change my lineup once one of the games had started- all too often I would want to change something once line ups were posted, and would not be able to because there was a day game, sometimes even one that I did not have a single player in. I would much prefer a system where players locked 5 minutes before their game started. Having to wait a day for a pick up to go through was also annoying.

Did you like anything about the league, format, scoring, etc.? Yes- I liked that pitcher wins did not count, the use of advanced metrics.

What suggestions do you have for next year? RBI’s instead of runs on offense, and an adjustment to the DL system to prevent getting screwed by an illegal lineup (particularly true when the decision to activate the player comes AFTER the lineup locks).

And finally, to end the season as it started, a touch of haiku:

Fantasy baseball
Played with friends made online
Can’t wait for next year!