Brock for Broglio

If you don’t know already, DePodesta has started a blog. Run over there and subscribe A.S.A.P.

It could be dangerous..

Greener On The Other Side also contributed to yesterdays roundtable with some great advice. I made a mistake by not including their response in yesterdays article. Without further ado…

Making trades is an intricate part of fantasy baseball.  While we all draft teams we love, injuries and down seasons always prompt us to look around the league towards acquiring players we think would improve our teams.  However, there are some common mistakes made by us all that, if avoided, could lead to landing the player(s) you covet.

Mistake #1: Don’t over sell the player you are trying to trade.  By continuously promoting a certain player to an owner he will inevitably ask you “If he’s so good, then why don’t you want him to stay on your team?”  To avoid this problem, try the “beat around the bush” tactic.  If you are trying to trade Pat Burrell, don’t let the owner know that.  Instead of saying “What will you give me for Pat Burrell” or “I’d give you Pat Burrell for,” beat around the bush.  Simply tell the owner that “I have a surplus of power in my outfield and am looking to trade someone.” 

This gives the owner an opportunity to choose Burrell himself, making it far more likely that a deal gets done and the player you want to move gets moved.  A key to making any trade is not to shove a player in someone’s face, but rather to make them think they got all the players they wanted and not who you wanted to give them.

Mistake #2: Never ask for the player you really want first.  In looking at my leagues standings, I noticed a team was first in strikeouts by a large margin.  I looked at their roster and found out why.  Their staff included Peavy, Harang, Lincecum, Cain, and Jonathan Sanchez.  They also had Edinson Volquez, who I wanted.  Oftentimes people go right after the guy they want and then the owner becomes defensive because he doesn’t want to give you what you want.  Remember, he wants you to lose.  Again, in an effort to make the owner feel good about his team and make him choose the player to give you, I said this” “I see you’ve got a ton of strikeout pitchers on your team.  Very Impressive.  I could use some on my team.  I don’t want to be like _____________ (insert your league’s idiot) and ask for your top notch guys like Peavy, Harang or Lincecum, but are there any other pitchers that might be available?”

Now, I’ve complimented his team, told him I’m not like the league’s idiot who always bothers him with ridiculous trade offers, and further mentioned that I don’t want to ask for his best players.  He should take that as a compliment and be willing to think something over. 

His response was “I have guys like Sanchez, Volquez and Garland available.” 

I’ve hit the jackpot when the owner let’s me know that the player I want is available before I’ve let him know that he’s offered me the player I want.

Mistake #3: Don’t tell an owner what categories he needs help in.  The last thing we want to be reminded of his how poorly we are doing in stolen base category.  All that does is make the owner want to jab back at you and tell you how poorly your team is doing in home runs. 

To prevent a bad introduction to our conversation and the owner from wanting to further discuss his team, I stud his team’s standing and see what is weaker: his hitting or pitching.

By determining which is weaker, I know that eventually I want to be offering help in those areas, as opposed to his team’s areas of strength. 

Let’s say the owner is ranked highly in all hitting categories but is in the bottom 3 in ERA, WHIP and S.  That makes me believe that his current weakness is pitching.

I say “Tell me about your pitching staff.”  His response in analyzing his own team should be something along the lines of “I’m pretty solid in K’s and wins but I’m not doing so well in the ratio categories.  My closers are Cordero and Jones so I’ve been lacking in the saves department.”

Again, I’ve made him be the one to tell me his weakness.  Now, without seeming like the one who brought it up, I can reply by saying “do you think adding a 3rd closer would help you out?” 

He’s already told me that he could use help in those areas, so by letting him be the bearer of bad news, I’m off the hook and I can proceed in making offers of players that I know he needs and wants.

I went out and saw 21 this evening; not a bad movie by any means. My opinion about this movie is irrelevant, though. I bring this up to share something interesting I learned about the main character the story was based on: Jeffrey Ma.

He’s the guy who founded ProTrade (the sports stock market)

Some of the articles published here - have been referenced by ProTrade. So I’m going to assume some of the subscribers/readers here are account holders there.

Did you know the creator of ProTrade was a card counting/mathematical genius? Given the quality/functionality of that site and service, It doesn’t surprise me one bit.

1. Jeff Cirillo - Arizona Diamondbacks
2. Aaron Miles - St. Louis Cardinals
3. Augie Ojeda - Arizona Diamondbacks
4. Scott Spiezio - St. Louis Cardinals
5. Josh Wilson - Tampa Bay Devil Rays
6. Jason Wood - Florida Marlins

Here is a list of the last position players–to take the mound–for each respective MLB team.

It’s even too early to say “still early” when when making any conclusions about player performance thus far.

• Hanley Ramirez is still going to be a threat for 50 swipes.
• C.C. Sabathia is still going to be one of the best pitchers in the AL.
• Russell Martin is still going to finish the season amongst the top fantasy catchers.
• Roy Oswalt is still going to pitch 200+ innings with an ERA around 3.0.
• Huston Street is still going to finish the season as one of the best Closers in the league.
• Jose Reyes is still going to lead the NL in stolen bases.

And so on….

Johnny Cueto retired the first 15 batters he faced, and struck out 10 batters without allowing a single walk; both record breaking accomplishments in a major league debut.

• Fantasy Gameday talks about Cueto’s value long term. And brings up legitimate concerns about his frame, age, and susceptibility to inducing the fly ball.
• Roto Athority offers some quality advice on what type of players should, or shouldn’t be dropped for Cueto. Seamless Baseball says “Not so fast…”
• Crooked Pitch gives 4 reasons why Cueto should be added to your team (especially in deep leagues)
• and Razzball provides a nice observational breakdown of what happened during the game.

Matt Sisson sits down with Rob Neyer, to discuss baseball, and Neyer’s latest book: Big Book of Baseball Legends (The Truth, the Lies, and Everything Else)

Here are some of my favorite parts:

(Q) What record in baseball history would you say is the most unlikely to be broken?

(RN) Anything related to starting pitchers’ workloads: starts, innings, complete games, wins, losses, etc.

These statistics are so era-dependent, that you’d have to imagine some kind of adjustment made–in the official record books–to give the 21st century major leaguers a chance.

(Q) First word or words that come to mind when you think of these players:

Q Ted Williams

(RN) Hitter

Q Joe DiMaggio

(RN) Graceful

Q Bert Blyleven

(RN) Terribly, terribly unappreciated

Q Derek Jeter

(RN) Terribly, terribly overrated … but still great

Q Barry Zito

(RN) Toast

Q David Ortiz

(RN) Best free agent signing, ever

We definitely agree on Zito. And the David Ortiz signing back in 2003 (1 year 1.25 million), is the single biggest reason the Red Sox have won 2 world series championships recently.

People are paying full price for a great product (in theory), but are being used as beta testers at the expense of their own time and money. This is more excusable for mid to low level businesses attempting to get a remarkable product off the ground; but for an established brand like Major League Baseball, it reeks of greed, and lack of foresight.

MLB’s online strategy seems to be what many companies’ strategy was in the 90s: Launch a website that serves as nothing more than a billboard that pushes their own agenda.

I don’t think people care about how awesome MLB thinks it is, and I certainly don’t think people want to be ostracized, and alienated when trying to figure out why their $119 investment isn’t living up to its billing. Just try finding and contacting their customer support; it’s a joke.

MLB should be taking advantage of what the web is today: the Social Web. A web that makes it easier than ever to communicate with, and learn about customers. It’s far too costly (long-term) for any company to give “every day Joes” like me, a reason to write a post like this. And I’m not a lone.

Have you had any problems with MLB TV?

One of my favorite blogs: Statistically Speaking, honors the most average batters from ‘81-’07, with the cleverly named Oddibe Awards.

Some of the most recent:

–> The rest of the list is here.

Over at Recondite Baseball; Jay lists 20 batters who have taken the most, and the fewest pitches per plate appearance since 2000.

Most Pitches/Plate Appearance: Jayson Werth, 4.50 Kevin Youkilis, 4.40 Bobby Abreu, 4.32 Brad Wilkerson, 4.27 Adam Dunn 4.24

Fewest Pitches/Plate Appearance: Nomar Garciaparra, 3.16 Yuniesky Betancourt, 3.22 Johnny Estrada, 3.23 Robinson Cano, 3.24 Vladimir Guerrero, 3.26

See the rest of the list here.