Inside the Halo

Let's take a look at my team in the Correspondents League. It's a 10-team roto with the correspondents from NYY, BOS, TOR, CHW, BAL, CHC, SF, SD, and PIT. As of tonight, I'm in 2nd place with 69.5 points, 2 points back.

Here's the roster:

Starters:
Ben Sheets
Roger Clemens
Livan Hernandez
Roy Halladay
Estaban Loaiza
Jose Acevedo

Middle Relief:
Akinori Otsuka
Scott Williamson

Closers:
Keith Foulke
Danny Kolb
Rocky Biddle

C: Jorge Posada
1B: David Ortiz
2B: Jose Vidro
3B: Joe Randa
SS: Orlando Cabrera
OF: Barry Bonds
OF: Magglio Ordonez
OF: Reggie Sanders
OF: Steve Finley
OF: Luis Gonzalez
2B/SS: Adam Kennedy
1B/3B: Paul Konerko
UTIL: Johnny Damon

Bench: Randy Winn
IR: Dmitri Young

Here's where you come in. I could upgrade need at 3B and could use some closer help. What moves do you see that could put me over the top? Any? I really like this team, but I'd feel better about filling those two holes I mentioned. Any "sell highs" in here? If you have any thoughts, feel free to e-mail me at angelsflb@insightbb.com. Maybe you'll save my season, who knows?

Darin Erstad is Posting the Numbers, But . . .

Should you have him on your team? Raw stats don't lie--17 R, 20 RBI, 4 SB with a .266 AVG in the first week of May--and a 14 game hitting streak! Among 1B in MLB, that's 9th in runs, 5th in RBIs, and 1st in SB. Quite a bit better than the "least productive 1B in the MLB" tag I put on him in the preseason, huh? Well, I'll agree that 1B seems to be agreeing with him, now that he doesn't have to do all that runnin' around in the grass. And you hear that when a hitter has his legs under him and completely healthy, it makes a huge difference. I'll agree.

However, let's look closer. Other numbers, which don't count in fantasy directly but affect the ones that do, show some serious warning signs. Another fantasy gamer once told me that the only numbers that matter are the one that count. That sounds like a real good way to lose your fantasy league.

Here are the less obvious numbers to fantasy gamers. I've posted Erstad's totals and where he ranks among the 26 first basemen who qualify as regulars (average 3.1 plate appearances per game):

OBP: .292 (25th) Only Jason Phillips is worse.
SLG: .339 (24th) Only ahead of the powerful JT Snow and Phillips.
OPS: .631 (24th) Again, only Snow and Phillips are worse.
BB/K: 0.17 (26th) Dead last. 4 BB, 23 K.

Obviously, none of this bodes well for DE. He may be 16th among 1B eligible players in the MLB on ESPN's Player Rater, but if he was ever trade bait, it's now. His success has strictly been provided by the hot bats (Guerrero, Guillen, Glaus) behind him. If they were to cool off, watch out. It may look like he's being really productive--and he is, really--but it's a house of cards. He could continue to be adequate, but one tough wind will bring it all down.

One more thing to note: JT Snow and Jason Phillips are currently 61st and 75th respectively among those 1B eligible on the Player Rater with similar peripheral stats. Erstad, again--16th. Do you see how far he could fall? Snow's ESPN ownership 0.4% Phillips 12.4%--and that's mainly because he's C eligible. Erstad? 82.3% People are buying into his hot streak here. Maybe someone in your league will too.