Posts Tagged Jon Lester
Cwik’s Auction Draft Results For My Team
It cost me $31, but I got Lester
My final draft, in fellow blogger Chris Cwiks’ league, took place last Thursday, and it was a marathon to put it lightly. The draft nearly lasted five hours with no breaks.
In a draft that long you can’t have some crazyness or some questionable bids.
Here were the top moments.
1.By accident, and later fixed by Cwik, an owner bidded $111 on Joey Votto. He probably meant to bid 11, but put in an extra 1, and for about 30 picks, he was stuck with Votto at 111, before being allowed to select him at 40 bucks.
2. Justin Upton going for $50, the same value as Pujols and 3 dollars more than Hanley Ramirez
3. Troy Tulowitzki was the 5th most expensive player at $42. Ahead of him were: Upton and Pujols for $50, Hanley for $47 and Braun for $44.
4. Rafael Soriano went for $7 and Alfonso Soriano went for $5
5. Jason Heyward was the 2nd player nominated in the auction and went for $11. He was the second most expensive player to never play a MLB game to Stephen Strasburg at $14
My strategy was built on one of two premises
Scenario 1: Get Hanley Ramirez
Scenario 2: Get Troy Tulowitzki
My First Fantasy Draft Recap…
I was disappointed I couldn't draft with these guys
After months of having the bitter taste of losing my CBS by a strikeout and several mock drafts, I did two league drafts yesterday. One league is with my friend Jim and we are in year 7 of that league. The other is just for fun with my roommates
I have spent most of my time prepping for fellow blogger Chris Cwik’s 12 team auction keeper league, which drafts this week. Let me say that preparing for an auction draft with smart owners is 100 times harder than preparing for a standard draft. Doing those mocks gave me a good sense of value, so I felt I didn’t need to practice any standard drafts.
That aside, here is a breakdown of Jim’s draft from my perspective…
Jim’s league is a 12 team H2H, standard categories adding hits on offense and walks allowed for pitching with 24 roster spots on Yahoo.
I had the 11th overall pick. When I saw this I thought about going the best 1b available then Tulo/Wright on the way back with my first two picks.
Well so much for that plan. I wrote the other day that Tulo could be 1st round fantasy pick. Well, not only did Tulo go in the 1st round, he went 7th overall!
1st Round (11)- Prince Fielder. I had Tex, Howard and Cabrera available to me, and I wanted one of those 1b. I like Prince’s HR, RBI and he will hit around .300.
2nd Round(14)- Justin Upton. I used nearly all 1:30 of the clock to make this pick. Wright, Kinsler, Howard and Cabrera were available. I realize the talent I passed on, but Upton is such an amazing talent with 5 tools that broke onto the scene last year. I think he will put up 1st round fantasy numbers this year. Also, I figured a good 3B and 2B will be available to me later on, so I took a risk by not drafting position scarcity.
MLB Postseason Trivia For YOU!
Jimmy Rollins is piece of trivia for the amount of outs he made this year.
Well how well do you know baseball trivia? Dan has given the blog some great nuggets and trivia regarding players in this year’s playoffs. There are 6 questions and a fact. How many correct answers can you get?
1. This year Jimmy Rollins became just the 3rd player ever to make 500 or more outs in a season 4 times. The other two are Dave Cash and Bobby Richardson. Who is the only other active player to make that many outs 3 times?
2. Only 3 Red Sox pitchers have ever qualified for the ERA title with a K/9 of 10.0 or greater. Lester’s K/9 was actually 9.96, but it rounds to 10.0. Lester is the first since Pedro Martinez in 2002 (Pedro did it 3 times) to do so. Who is the other?
3. Jacoby Ellsbury stole 70 bases this season, setting a Red Sox franchise record. Who was the last American League player to steal 70+ bases in a season?
4. Ellsbury was the also the first player since 1986 to steal 70 or more bases while being caught 12 or fewer times. Two players did it that year. Who are they?
5. Ellsbury, despite his great speed, also managed to ground into 13 double plays this year. Since GIDP started being kept officially in 1933, who is the only player to steal 70+ bases and ground into more double plays?
6. Albert Pujols was walked 44 times intentionally this season, 5th most all-time. Barry Lamar Bonds holds the top 3 seasons in this category. Who had the season that ranks 4th all-time?
Fact: This year’s Dodgers are the only team this decade (2000-2009) to win 95+ games without a pitcher winning at least 14 games. Chad Billingsley led the Dodgers with 12 wins this season.
MLB Playoff Analysis: Boston Red Sox
Can Boston win their third World Series in the last six years?
The Boston Red Sox have become the model for running a successful baseball organization. There is a reason they have been called the “Moneyball” team with money. They draft and develop young players as well as anyone in baseball as seen with Pedroia, Youkilis, Ellsbury, Lester and Papelbon. As well as bring in some players via trade, Martinez, Bay, Beckett. Plus they have some great young arms on their 40-man roster such as Buchholtz, Bard, Bowden and Tazawa. They have made some recent mistakes, Dice-K and Mike Lowell signings come to mind, but on the whole they do a great job in a division that has the Yankees and Rays competing for the playoffs. Boston’s transition from Manny Ramirez and Ortiz carrying the offense from 2003-2007, to winning 95 games in 2008 and 2009 while losing Manny half way through 2008 and an inconsistent Ortiz in 2008 and 2009, is very impressive.
Season Recap: The Red Sox entered the 2009 season with a surplus of potential starting pitchers. Beckett, Lester, Wakefield, Matsuzaka, Penny, Masterson, Buchholz, and Smoltz were all capable of starting. Boston moved Masterson to the bullpen, before trading him, and went with Beckett, Lester, Wakefield, Dice-K and Penny as their starting 5. The rotation faced a fair amount of problems but was carried by Jon Lester and Josh Beckett. Jonathon Papelbon was great as the team’s closer and the offense scored the 3rd most runs in MLB behind the Angels and Yankees. Boston started out the season 8-0 vs. the Yankees, only to see New York take the next 9 of 10 from Boston. Boston was in a fight with Tampa Bay and Texas for the Wild Card. The Rays fell out of the race in late August, while Texas hung around with Boston in September. On September 4th, Texas pulled within 2 games of Boston after a 4-game winning streak. After that day, Texas went 4-8 in their next 12 games and fell out of the Wild Card race. Boston finished the season at 95-67 with a +137 run differential.
Jon Lester Has Strong Return
Boston Red Sox starter Jon Lester
In his first start since getting hit with a line drive by Melky Cabrera last Friday, Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings with 7 strikeouts in Boston’s 3-0 victory over Cleveland. The win improves Lester to 15-8 on the season and lowers his ERA to 3.41, while his FIP, as of yesterday, was 3.20. The game itself was meaningless, but Lester’s health is essential.
The Red Sox are certainly going to need Lester to pitch if they plan on advancing deep in the playoffs. This year, Lester has 225 K’s in 203 1/3 innings, just under a 10K/9 innings. That is a huge step for Lester after his 6.2 K/9 last year. His walk rate is around 2.88, compared to the MLB league average of 3.46. His line drives are down and ground balls are up, showing his dominant command.
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