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Archive for the 'mark reynolds' tag
Who *really* should be in the HR derby? 2017 edition
Stanton is your defending champ .. and one heck of a slugger. Photo unk via rantsports.com
I know some think the HR derby is a sham. However I like it, I love the new format (timed instead of by outs), and the results speak for themselves; by some accounts tickets for the HR derby are going for more money than the All Star Game itself. And this year seems rather compelling, with the defending champ and inarguable holder of the league's current title of 'Best slugger" in Giancarlo Stanton the #1 seed in his home town, set to hopefully face off against the #2 seed Aaron Judge, who is busy setting Statcast exit velocity speed records and running away with both the AL MVP and Rookie of the Year award (last time someone's done that? Ichiro Suzuki in his "rookie" year in Seattle).
So we know they got Stanton and Judge right; who else is in this year's tourney and who *should* have been there?
Here's a link to the 2017 HR Bracket. Your seeds are:
Mike Moustakas
Miguel Sano
Charlie Blackmon
Justin Bour (shout out to the Westfields HS and George Mason alumni Bour! Also worth noting; he was a 25th round pick; bully for Bour to even be in the majors, let alone slugging his way onto the national stage)
I'm with Logan Morrison here: half field makes no sense compared to who *should* be in. In my perfect world, here's who i'd have in the tourney. This is a combination of looking at the 2016 HR Derby field, 2017 home run leader board, the 2017 hit tracker longest home run list, the Statcast exit velocity/average HR length figures, and my own personal opinion.
By Seed:
Giancarlo Stanton; defending champ and clear #1 seed.
Aaron Judge: 2017 HR leader
Mark Trumbo: last year's #1 seed and was a monster in the derby.
Bryce Harper: perhaps a homer pick, but he's clearly a masher of the ball and deserves to be in this tourney. He turned it down yet again in 2017. I don't know why.
Kris Bryant: A Harper-Bryant first round would be just like their school-boy days in Las Vegas.
George Springer: 2nd in the league in homers right now.
Kris Thames: great reclamation story, has 20+ homers in his return to the majors.
Cody Bellinger: the LA rookie has had nearly as impressive a breakout season as Judge.
If I could go 9-16, I'd probably throw in guys from this list:
Yoenis Cespedes: his prior HR Derby wins were legendary
Justin Bour: he can put a hurt on the ball
Kyle Schwarber: I love the look on his face when he really mashes one.
Joey Gall0: another power-first guy who can really back into one.
Miguel Sano: a deserving participant this year.
Marcelle Ozuna: can't believe this guy is playing CF for the Marlins.
Paul Goldschmidt: he's definitely one of the elite home run hitters in the league.
Mike Trout: people don't think of him as a slugger … but he's got his fair share of 480-foot moon shots on his resume (yes I know he's injured right now; this is my "theoretical" derby!)
And in the "not a young whipper snapper anymore" division, I wouldn't be opposed to seeing any of these guys in an expanded field:
Mike Napoli; just for the beard.
Nelson Cruz: believe it or not, he's the league leader in homers for the past three 3+ seasons inclusive, by a sizeable margin over #2.
Edwin Encarnacion: #2 behind Cruz in total homers; I know he's having a down year after leaving Toronto but he's still a slugger and a half.
Chris Davis: you don't just fall into 50+ home run seasons.
Jose Bautista: for the bat flips and ensuing brawls
Mark Reynolds: this era's version of Adam Dunn
Albert Pujols: only makes sense to have the active HR leader in the field.
What do you think? Did I miss anyone obvious?
Oh a prediction: I like the two top seeds to advance, with Stanton beating Judge in an anti-climactic final.
Tagged with aaron judge, adam dunn, albert pujols, bryce harper, charlie blackmon, chris davis, cody bellinger, edwin encarnacion, gary sanchez, george springer, giancarlo stanton, ichiro suzuki, joey gallo, jose bautista, justin bour, kris bryant, kris thames, kyle schwarber, logan morrison, marcelle ozuna, mark reynolds, mark trumbo, miguel sano, mike moustakas, mike napoli, mike trout, nelson cruz, paul goldschmidt, yoenis cespedes
We miss you: Former Nats from the 2015 team and where they are now
Did we dodge a bullet by allowing Zimmermann to leave? Photo via The Boston Globe.
Next in a series moving backwards. Here was the "We Miss You" for the 2016 team.
Lets go back a year and look at those players gone from the 2015 team. I'm building these partly from the Nats to Oblivion Posts and partly from my own notes using a combination of players gone via FA, trades, DFAs, to include major league players and significant minor league players. If a player is still in the org but was just DFA'd off the 40-man, I'll mostly skip them. I may miss someone; pipe up in the comments if I have a glaring miss.
I'll organize this by roughly by the level of the player; major league players who left via FA or trade, then DFA'd/declined players, then minor leaguers of note who departed.
Jordan Zimmermann; signed 5/$110M with Detroit and left us with a comp pick, used to take Dane Dunning. I think its safe to say that Zimmermann's tenure in Detroit thus far has been disappointing: he had a 4.87 ERA in 2016 and missed half the season, and he's been even worse this year. Detroit has to behaving some buyer's remorse right now. And he's signed for 3 more years past this one, at big money.
Dan Uggla: The Nats were probably his last stand chance in the majors; hit just .183 and was given just 17 ABs the last two months of the 2015 season. Never signed for 2016 and seems to be retired.
Doug Fister: signed 1/$7M with Houston, to whom he gave 32 starts and 180 innings of mediocrity (4.64 ERA) in 2016. Apparently still believes he's worthy of a 25-man spot and refused all offers this past off-season that were not MLB deals. Remains unsigned as of this writing; he may have to swallow his pride if he wants to keep playing and take a MLFA deal.
Ian Desmond signed 1/$11M with Texas after declining Washington's qualifying offer. Desmond became kind of the poster child for all the things wrong with the Qualifying Offer season; after turning down a 5yr/$89.5M deal the previous season, he turned down a guaranteed $15.8M offer to eventually sign for $11M. To add insult to injury, Desmond had to move off of SS for Texas, which was what propped up his value in the first place. He had an up-and-down season with Texas, starting the year incredibly hot and making the All Star team, but slumping towards the end. He got saddled with a second QO, which he again signed, but his 2016 season was enough for Colorado to give him perhaps the most inexplicable contract of last off-season, a 5yr/$70M deal … to play first base. A position he'd never played before. And Colorado gave up literally the highest unprotected draft pick to do so (the 11th pick in the upcoming 2017 draft). Desmond suffered a hand injury this spring, and as a result Colorado has installed slugger Mark Reynolds at 1B; he's done so well that the team is wondering just what they'll do with Desmond when he returns in early May. On the bright side for Desmond; at least he finally got paid. And i'm sure that 100% of Nats fans would take what the team has done at SS since over having a $90M contract on their hands.
Denard Span signed 3/$31M with San Francisco, capping a frustrating year for Span and the team. He only played 61 games for the 2015 team, forcing the Nats to start Michael Taylor and his 30% K rate in CF for a good chunk of the season. Span's first season in SF was similar to his first in DC; he struggled offensively. He's been even worse in 2017, and is currently on the D/L (in an interesting twist of fate; his replacement on the SF active roster? None other than Michael Morse).
Nate McLouth; The team couldn't wait to decline his 2016 option and pay his 750k buyout for 2016 after his disastrous stint with Washington. His contract was ill-advised from the start; did we really need to pay good money to have a "veteran 4th outfielder?" McLouth missed the entirety of 2015, has yet to sign since, and may have played his way out of baseball.
Matt Thornton signed a MLFA deal with San Diego for 2016, got called up after a couple of months in AAA, but struggled. He posted a 5.82 ERA over the next couple of months and was released in August. He has not appeared since and now at age 40 is likely done.
Casey Janssen was so poor for the Nats that they bought his 2016 out for a cool $1.5M buyout for 2016); he also signed a MLFA deal with San Diego for 2016. Ah San Diego; the place where pitchers go to resurrect their careers. He was released in late Spring Training 2016, got picked up with Boston in June of 2016, pitched a bit for their Short-A and AAA teams then was released in early August 2016. Did not pick up with a team for 2017 and at age 35 with little velocity on his fastball, he may be retired.
Reed Johnson got picked back up on a MLFA deal by Washington for 2016 season, but did not make the team out of spring and was released on 4/2/16. He did not pick up with anyone for 2016 and at age 39 may be retired.
Taylor Jordan: After brief stints with the team in 2015, started 2016 in AAA but got hurt in June of 2016, he had a second TJ surgery … and then was released by the club on 6/28/16 to correspond to the Giolito contract addition. Man, that seems kind of cold to release a guy just after surgery, but his odds of making it back to the majors just took a significant hit. As of 2017 has not re-signed anywhere and seems a long-shot to do so, with little major league track record and two arm injuries. Likely out of baseball at this point.
David Carpenter: shoulder injury, DFA'd, elected free agency and quickly signed a ML deal with Atlanta for 2016. However he was cut after just a handful of spring training games; maybe his injury is worse than we thought. He then bounced from Tampa to the Angels system for 2016, and then signed back with Tampa as a MLFA/NRI for 2017, but was cut on 4/4/17.
Emmanuel Burriss: signed MLFA with Philly and lead-off against the Nats in their first visit to Philadelphia in the new season. He was DFA'd and purchased a couple times by Philly last year, but upon his outright after the season he elected FA and signed a MLFA to return to the Nats for 2017. He looked like nice utility infielder insurance until he got suspended for a "drug of abuse" in the spring (his second such offense). He currently sits on Syracuse's restricted list. I have to say; his status as the sole DC-bred baseball player in the pros (as far as I can tell) and his playing for the Washington franchise seems to put him in a great post-career outreach position … but now with two drug suspensions on his resume, I wonder if he's scuttled any such possibility of representing the team in the community.
Craig Stammen: fan favorite had an ill-timed injury late in the 2015 season and was non-tendered instead of guaranteeing him a contract for 2016. He signed a MLFA with Cleveland for 2016 but never made it out of AAA. I had him as a leading "oblivion candidate" until he signed another MLFA deal for 2017 and made the San Diego opening day roster. His april has not been good though, sporting an ERA in the mid 8s as of May 1st. He may be in danger of a DFA, which might spell the end of his MLB career given how the last couple of seasons have gone. He gave the Nats 3 solid years as a bullpen workhorse that may have led to his eventual wearing out.
Tyler Moore never could match the magic of his debut season in 2012, but a series of injuries kept him hanging around in 2014 and 2015 when he may otherwise have been released. His luck ran out though for the 2016 team, when he got beat out for the RH bench bat by Chris Heisey and he got DFA'd at the end of spring training. We negotiated a trade of similar discarded assets with Atlanta, trading Moore for Nate Freiman. Freiman didn't last three weeks with the AAA team before being released (a measure of just how little we got in return for trade), while Moore got injured early and missed most of the year for AAA Gwinnett. He signed a MLFA for 2017 with the Marlins and team out of spring training. He even got a crucial hit against the Nats early in 2017 season, but was soon DFA'd again. He passed through waivers and was outrighted to New Orleans (where, as noted in the previous post, he joins a litany of former Nats).
Xavier Cedeno was the first 25-man DFA of the 2015 season. He was used 4 times in 5 nights in early April, gave up a couple of runs and then got designated with just 3 IP. It was an odd move at the time; why was he getting appearance after appearance if the team was going to DFA him? Why did the team have so little patience with him? After his DFA, he got purchased by the Dodgers, who then sold him to the Rays 5 days later … and he had 61 appearances with a 2.09 ERA for Tampa Bay the rest of 2015. He was a solid bullpen arm for them all of 2016 and remains on their team now. Do you think maybe the team gave up on him too soon?
Taylor Hill: Hill was DFA'd to make room for January 2016 signings and was outrighted to AAA, where he pitched the entire 2016 season. Hill finished out the year for AAA Syracuse with a 4.60 ERA in 27 starts. He is still with the AAA team for 2017 but has been passed on the depth chart by several guys (Cole, Voth, Fedde) and faces long odds of a return to the majors with this organization. Additionally, Hill has started the 2017 AAA season by getting shelled; an 8.14 ERA for April. He may be in serious jeopardy of getting released.
Aaron Barrett: Tommy John in 2015, then in June of 2016, he had a major set-back in his TJ recovery, fracturing his elbow. He has re-signed with the Nats for 2017 and starts the year on the AAA D/L. I was happy to see the Nats give Barrett this gesture of signing him so that he can rehab with the team, and I hope it pays off with an eventual return to the fold.
Matt Purke got his last shot at salvaging a career with the Nats, who signed him for big-time money ($2.75M as a 3rd rounder in 2011, the last free for all non-capped bonus draft). He failed to impress again, and the team let him go to free agency. He signed a MLFA deal with the Chicago White Sox, who assigned him to AAA … and then he earned a call-up by mid May 2016. The nats were looking rather foolish for cutting bait on a guy who made the Chicago MLB team after just a few weeks. But his time in South-Side was short lived; he was optioned back to the minors by the end of June, never made it back, was outrighted over the off-season and started 2017 off the 40-man pitching for AAA Charlotte. He is still wild (8 walks in 11 2017 innings) but he's only 26 so there may still be time. But from a Nats transaction perspective, i'm not sure what else they could have done.
Yunel Escobar: after a productive season with the Nats, where Escobar played multiple positions and covered for infield injuries galore, he was traded to Los Angeles Angels for Trevor Gott and Michael Brady in the off-season. At the time of the trade (mid December 2015) Escobar was considered surplus to requirements, in that the team had its infield already spoken for in Anthony Rendon, Danny Espinosa, and Trea Turner. Two weeks later the team signed Danny Murphy to play 2B, thus relegating Turner back to AAA to save his service clock. Escobar was traded to the team with perhaps the worst farm system in the majors; Gott has yet to throw a pitch for the MLB team and Brady is already gone via MLFA, so the return for Escobar is rather paltry. That being said, I think the league knew we were shopping him, he had just had a career year with a BA 30 points above his career average, and may have been ceiling limited with the expectation of regression. Since the trade, Escobar has played a solid 3B for the Angels and kept his BA above .300, and has been joined in their infield by fellow Nats reject Espinosa.
Drew Storen traded with cash to Toronto for Ben Revere, ptbnl. I think we've litigated the Storen case to death; he was flipped more or less since the acquisition of Jonathan Papelbon and Storen's undeserved demotion seemed to break him; it was as clear of a case of someone needing "a change of scenery" as I've seen with one of our players. We got a player in Revere that filled a point of need (CF) and one that looked on paper like a good deal at the time. I think its fair to say now that this trade didn't work out for either team: Storen put up an ERA north of 6.00 for Toronto, got flipped again to Seattle, and at current sits as the 8th inning guy for one of the worst teams in baseball (Cincinnati). Meanwhile Revere barely hit the Mendoza line for the Nats, forcing the team to put its SS of the future into CF as a make-shift replacement, and got non-tendered at season's end. A crummy end to Storen's career here, where he remains in 2nd place all time (behind Chad Cordero) in career franchise saves.
Kila Ka'aihue, Ian Stewart, Mike Carp: part of the great 2016 RH bat spring training cattle call; didn't make the team and were eventually released.
Tony Renda traded to Yankees for David Carpenter mid-season in an attempt to buttress the bullpen. Didn't work. Renda may have been my farcical "future hall of famer" before Max Schrock, in that they're both basically undersized middle infielders that posted good minor league numbers but seem ceiling limited. Renda got traded to Cincinnati ahead of the 2016 season, had a cup of coffee up there, but got outrighted after the 2016 season and remains on the AAA Louisville roster.
Mitch Lively and Evan Meek: both AAA hurlers released from their contracts so they could sign in Japan and Korea respectively. Lively struggled in Japan and has been pitching in the Mexican league ever since, while Meek also struggled in the KBO and has been playing indy ball ever since.
Jose Valverde opted out of his MLFA contract and was released in July; never picked back up for 2015, or 2016. Kept pitching in winter ball and is now in the Mexican league.
Eric Fornataro the off-season waiver claim never made it out of AAA, posting a mid 5 ERA and got released in July. He picked back up with a MLFA for 2016 with Baltimore, but struggled in AA and was released in May of 2016. He has not signed since and may be done.
Nick Pivetta: traded to Philadelphia for Papelbon. We know the Papelbon story, and now we know the Pivetta story; he debuted in Philly's rotation last weekend in LA after a solid year starting in AA and AAA in 2016 and a hot start in Lehigh Valley for 2017. He may be in a position to haunt the Nats for 6 seasons …. all for a year and a half of tumult out of Papelbon.
Dan Butler was a Catcher we received from Boston for Danny Rosenbaum in Jan of 2015; he was a 40-man spot holder for most of the season but served mostly as catcher depth before being DFA'd in July to make room for Papelbon. He was outrighted to AAA, elected FA after the season and went right back to Boston for 2016. He remains as their AAA backup catcher.
Did I miss anyone?
Player I most miss from this list: From a Nats "legacy" perspective it was tough to wave good bye to Ian Desmond, who gave this franchise 11 years of his life. Same with Zimmermann; he was part of the core that turned this team from a laughing stock to divisional winner.
Player Loss I most regret using unfair "hindsight is 20/20" vision: Pivetta. Even if he's "only" a 4th starter, he represents all that was wrong with the Papelbon decision.
Player Loss that is the most "We dodged a bullet" situation: Zimmermann's contract; we thought he'd get overpaid, but a year and a half in his contract looks awful for an aging team that's moving the wrong direction and has little chance of unseating Cleveland in their own division.
Posted in Nats in General
Tagged with aaron barrett, anthony rendon, ben revere, casey janssen, chad cordero, chris heisey, craig stammen, dan butler, dan uggla, dane dunning, danny espinosa, danny rosenbaum, david carpenter, denard span, doug fister, drew storen, emmanuel burriss, eric fornataro, evan meek, ian desmond, ian stewart, jonathan papelbon, jordan zimmermann, jose valverde, kila ka'aihue, mark reynolds, matt purke, matt thornton, max schrock, michael brady, michael morse, michael taylor, mike carp, mitch lively, nate freiman, nate mclouth, nick pivetta, reed johnson, taylor hill, taylor jordan, tony renda, trea turner, trevor gott, tyler moore, xavier cedeno, yunel escobar
Prep Baseball Update 2015: Maryland State Champs, Northern VA District Champs crowned
When we last checked in with Prep Baseball in Mid May, Maryland was through its regionals, the private schools were mostly done, DC was still finishing the regular season, and Virginia was just starting up its District (aka "Conference") tournaments. Lets see where we stand now after the Memorial Day weekend and a slew of tournament results.
Text in Red are pending results, mostly from the southern Virginia districts and regionals, which don't have to start as soon as Northern Virginia tourneys.
Here are the Virginia Conference champions, regular season and tournament. All these playoff brackets, if they exist, are at this link at VHSL. I won't re-link all the playoff brackets per district/region below.
6-A North Region
6-A Conference 5/Concorde: Chantilly regular season champ. Seeds held to form in the district tourney and Chantilly met Oakton in the district final. Chantilly beat Oakton 2-1 to take the district title.
6-A Conference 6/Liberty: McLean regular season champ. #5 seed Fairfax upset McLean to make the District final, where they met Madison. In the district final, Madison avenged an earlier loss to Fairfax to win 2-0 at home to take the title.
6-A Conference 7/Potomac: Lake Braddock regular season champ. #2 and #3 seeds Annandale and West Potomac were both upset and knocked out of Regional competition. Lake Braddock met #6 seed South County in the district final and beat them easily 12-4 to win the title.
6-A Conference 8/Cedar Run: Patriot regular season champ. Battlefield had to forfeit its semi-final win over pitcher innings/pitch count limits, so Osbourn Park made the district final, where it subsequently beat Patriot in extras to win an unlikely district title. Battlefield's forfeit was absurd; their starter Jake Agnos struck out 21 *straight batters* in the 6-1 victory … and then resulted in a forfeit loss. Agnos gave up a lead-off homer … and then retired the next 21 guys he faced. I've never heard of such a feat.
6-A North Regional Qualifiers (in seed order). Here's the 6-A North bracket. Play begins 5/29/15.
Conference 5/Concorde: Chantilly, Oakton, Herndon, Centreville
Conference 6/Liberty: Madison, Fairfax, McLean, South Lakes
Conference 7/Potomac: Lake Braddock, South County, West Springfield, TC Williams
Conference 8/Cedar Run: Patriot, Osborne Park, Battlefield, Stonewall Jackson
Quick predictions for 6-A North regional tourney: I like Madison, Oakton, Patriot and Battlefield, since they were basically the best 6-A teams all year. But do not count out Chantilly or McLean. Thanks to their district forfeit, Battlefield drops to a #3 regional seed and a headache for a higher seeded team. And McLean's upset loss dumps them to a #3 seed as well in the region, despite besting perhaps the best 6-A baseball district in the regular season. With the draws out, Battlefield faces Oakton in the first round, which is tough. If seeds hold it'll be Lake Braddock-Madison and Patriot-Chantilly in the regional semis.
6-A South Region: which is mostly big-time schools in Richmond, Roanoke and Virginia Beach area. But there are just enough schools in Woodbridge proper to form a 6-A conference closer to DC with teams that are typically considered for All-Met rankings. Because 6-A's regional is only 8 teams, their district tournaments are not yet complete as of the time of this posting.
6-A Conference 1/Coastal: First Colonial (aka Mark Reynolds' alma mater) regular season champs. They were upset in the districts but still qualify for the regionals. In the district final, Cox claimed the second regional birth with a win over Ocean Lakes.
6-A Conference 2/Monitor Merrimac: Western Branch regular season champ. However #2 Grassfield got them in the district tourney final.
6-A Conference 3: Franklin County (Rocky Mount, south of Roanoke) regular season champ. In the district tourney #5 seed Cosby scored three straight upsets to claim the district title, beating Thomas Dale in the final. Cosby made the State semis last year and is looking to get back after an up-and-down regular season.
6-A Conference 4: Forest Park (Woodbridge) regular season champ. Forest Park also won the district tournament, beating Colonial Forge 10-2 in the final. Colonial Forge had upset #2 seed and perennial powerhouse Hylton in the district tourney semis to claim the 2nd regional berth.
6-A South Regional Qualifiers (district finals 5/29/15)
6-A Conference 1/Coastal: First Colonial, Cox
6-A Conference 2/Monitor Merrimac: Western Branch, Grassfield
6-A Conference 3: Cosby, Thomas Dale
6-A Conference 4: Forest Park, Colonial Forge
Quick predictions for 6-A South regional tourney: Western Branch is the only team in the state getting national attention, and they're ranked #1 in the Hampton paper's local rankings. So I look for them to claw their way to the state tournament.
5-A Conference 13/Capitol: Marshall regular season champ. Seeds held to form (with Marshall beating Lee by the astounding score of 21-0 in the district semis), and Marshall met Edison in the final. In that final Marshall beat Edison 4-1 for its 10th straight win.
5-A Conference 14: Stone Bridge (Ashburn) regular season champ. In the playoffs, 1/2 met in the final and Stone Bridge beat Broad Run for the district title. In the 3rd place game, Briar Woods grabbed the 3rd regional bid.
5-A Conference 15: Mountain View (Stafford) regular season champ. In the playoffs Mountain View and Potomac (Dumfries) met in the finals, where Mountain View pulverized them 10-0. In the 3rd place game, North Stafford easily grabbed the 3rd regional bid.
5-A Conference 16: Halifax County regular season champ. They met #2 seed Patrick Henry in the final and Patrick Henry upset Halifax for the district title.
5-A North Regional Qualifiers (in seed order): 5-A North regional bracket here. Play begins on 5/29/15.
Conference 13/Capitol: Marshall, Edison, Stuart, Lee
Conference 14: Stone Bridge, Broad Run, Briar Woods
Conference 15: Mountain View, Potomac, North Stafford
Conference 16: Patrick Henry, Halifax County
Quick predictions for 5-A North regional tourney: I like Stone Bridge to repeat, Marshall could be a challenger. They are on opposite sides of the draw and could both make the regional final. But non-DC area teams like Patrick Henry and Mountain View could be challengers.
5-A South Region
5-A Conference 9/Atlantic: Kellam (in Virginia Beach, aka Ryan Zimmerman's alma mater) regular season champ. Kellam was upset in the district tournament, with Princess Anne claiming the 2nd regional berth by winning the tourney.
5-A Conference 10/PenSouth: Hickory (Chesapeake) regular season champ (also defending 5-A state champ). Hickory advanced to the district final along with Menchville, who upset 2nd seeded Great Bridge along the way, before Hickory claimed the district tourney as well.
5-A Conference 11: Deep Run (Glen Allen/Northern Richmond suburb) regular season champ (Freeman, last year's 5-A state finalist, was 2nd in the district). The two teams met in the final with Deep Run getting the double.
5-A Conference 12: Manchester (Midlothian/Southern Richmond suburb) regular season champ. Clover Hill took the district title and the #1 seed in the regionals.
5-A South Regional Qualifiers (in seed order): (district finals 5/29/15)
Conference 9/Atlantic: Kellam, Princess Anne
Conference 10/PenSouth: Hickory, Menchville
Conference 11: Deep Run, Freeman
Conference 12: Clover Hill, Manchester
Quick thoughts: hard not to believe in the pedigree of Hickory and Freeman; I fully expect them to meet in the regional final.
Smaller Virginia Classifications with Northern Virginia ties.
4-A North:
4-A conference 21: Woodgrove regular season champ. Woodgrove also won the tourney, beating Sherando in the district final (both teams move to the 4-A North Regional).
4-A Conference 22: Fauquier regular season champ and tourney champ, beating Eastern View in the final.
3-A East Region
3-A Conference 27: Kettle Run regular season champ, Culpepper #2. They met in the tourney final as well, with Kettle Run taking both regular and post-season district titles.
3-A Conference 28: Loudoun Valley (regularly in the AllMet top 10 rankings) regular season champ. They also took the post-season tourney, beating #2 seed John Champe in the final.
2-A Conference 35: Strasburg continues its local dominance, winning the district again. Falls Church's George Mason (easily the smallest public high school in the Northern Virginia suburbs) was the #3 district seed but advanced to the district finals to face Strasburg. Strasburg took the tourney final, but George Mason advances to the regional tournament.
Here's the state finals results in Maryland, played the week of 5/18/15 Brackets here at the MPSAA website.
4-A States: State Semis were Perry Hall v Severna Park, Gaithersburg-Wise. Severna Park and Gaithersburg each dominated their state semi to force a high-powered showdown of good teams in the 4-A final. In that final, Gaithersburg beat Severna Park 5-3 at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen for its first ever state baseball title.
3-A States: State semi finalists were North Harford (Plyville in North Maryland), Mt. Hebron in Ellicott City, Chopticon (way down in St. Mary's county) and Urbana (just south of Frederick). In the state-semis, Mt. Hebron and Chopticon won close games to make the final. In the final, Chopticon's ace Ljay Newsome threw a complete game 1-hitter with 17 strikeouts to win the title 1-0.
2-A States: State semi finalists: Eastern Tech, Patterson Mill, South Carroll and last year's champ Southern. Eastern Tech and Southern each won 1-run games to make the 2-A final. In the final, Southern beat Eastern Tech 6-1 to repeat as 2-A champs.
1-A States: State semi finalists: McDonough, Colonel Richardson, Douglass and Brunswick make up this year's 1-A state semis (mostly smaller schools outside the DC area). In the state semis, McDonough will face off against the tough-looking Brunswick team. Brunswick won the title 4-0.
A quick list of past Maryland State champions by division:
4-A: 2015: Gaithersburg beat Severna Park 5-3. 2014: Chesapeake beat Sherwood 2-0. 2013: South River defeated Catonsville 6-0. 2012: Northwest. 2011: Westminster. 2010: Sherwood
3-A: 2015: Chopticon beat Mt. Hebron 1-0. 2014: Reservoir beat North Harford 2-0. 2013: Bel Air defeated La Plata 3-2. 2012: Bennett. 2011: Bennett. 2010: C. Milton Wright.
2-A: 2015: Southern beat Eastern Tech 6-1. 2014: Southern beat Parkside 3-2. 2013 : Catoctin defeated North Caroline, 4-2. 2012: Williamsport. 2011: North Caroline. 2010: North Hagerstown.
1-A: 2015: Brunswick beat McDonough 4-0. 2014: Smithsburg beat Sparrows Point 9-0. 2013: Cambridge/South Dorchester defeated Allegany, 15-0. 2012: Mountain Ridge. 2011: St. Michaels. 2010: St. Michaels.
The Maryland public high school seasons are now complete.
DC Public Schools/DCIAA:
DCIAA: Wilson won its 23rd consecutive DCIAA regular season title, extending its city league winning streak in the process. DCIAA tournament runs through 6/3/15.
DCSAA: the 2015 tournament is underway, with the final scheduled for Nats park on 5/31/15. Gonzaga is the #1 seed and Wilson the #2. Curiously missing is St. Johns, who won the WCAC and is DC-based. St. Albans upset Wilson in the semis to face Gonzaga in the final.
Private Leagues: WCAC/MAC/IAC and VISAA/Maryland Private
MIAA: Class A: Spalding beat Calvert Hill. Class B: St. Mary's-Annapolis. Class C: St. John's Catholic Prep repeated.
VISAA: Liberty Christian repeated as the VISAA Division 1 champ. Greenbriar Christian took the Division 2 title and the Southampton Academy took the Division 3 title among smaller Virginia private schools.
WCAC: St. Johns (DC) topped DeMatha in a 3-game series to win the WCAC for the 2nd year in a row. (Not the same St. Johns as who won MIAA).
IAC: Georgetown Prep beat Landon to win the IAC, avenging their loss in the finals last year.
PVAC: Sandy Spring Friends defeated Jewish Day school for the inaugural title in this fledgling league.
MAC: the Potomac school beat St. James (who upset #1 seed and defending champ Flint Hill) in the final.
Maryland Private School Tournament: DeMatha beat Riverdale Baptist.
Most private schools' seasons are now complete.
Speaking of Liberty Christian … apparently the school had an open lawsuit against the Virginia High School League (VHSL) regarding membership, and the VHSL settled on 5/20/15. The implication? Quoting the link, "all non-boarding private schools in Virginia will be permitted to apply for membership in the VHSL." Liberty Christian Academy will now join the 4-A conference 23 (which covers the Lynchburg and Charlottesville area) and can compete for state titles in all sports.
I wonder if this ruling will lead to the various private schools in the Northern Virginia Area (including typical sports powerhouses such as Paul VI, O'Connell, Flint Hill, Bishop Ireton, etc) leaving the WCAC and joining the public schools. I doubt it frankly; even the largest of these schools would be dwarfed by the 5-A and 6-A enrollment public high schools, and the WCAC is a fantastic league. InsideNova had a piece on the topic quoting several area ADs of private schools (including Paul VI's Billy Emerson, a class-mate and longtime teammate of mine), who think perhaps this ruling makes it easier for teams to schedule public opponents … but doubts any league changes will occur with DC-area teams thanks to the strength of the private school leagues here.
Local and National High School Baseball Ranking Lists:
Washington Post All Met Sports latest Baseball top 10: ?? date: Spalding, Gaithersburg 1-2, then Oakton, Madison, and Battlefield. Stone Bridge 8th despite a win over Madison in Vienna.
Baltimore Sun Rankings page : dated 5/25/15: They also have Spalding #1, then Calvert Hall, St. Marys, 4-A finalist Severna Park and then 3-A finalist Mt. Hebron. Reservoir 6th.
Hampton Roads Baseball top 10 page: dated 5/19/15: Western Branch #1, then Grassfield & Hickory.
Baseball America's High School top 25 (most recent ranking 5/5/15): no DC/MD/VA teams listed.
USA Today High School top 25 (most recent ranking 5/20/15): Western Branch closest to top-25, ranked 26th. Spalding (both Washington Post's and Baltimore Sun's #1 team) ranked 42nd nationally.
USA Today's Virginia-only rankings: no longer seem to be in existence.
MaxPreps top 25/top 50 lists, which has a hand-picked and a computer/power ranking list. 5/24/15 rankings. No DC/MD/VA teams in MaxPrep's "Excellent 50." Highest ranked teams in the area are Liberty Christina (#55), Western Branch (#67), Turner Ashby (#72). Chopticon and Spalding are in the 75-100 range.
Washington Post's AllMetSports section with standings and schedule results.
InsideNova.com's coverage of high school sports, but has put limits on the number of stories you can read.
The Connection family of newspapers has a sports section that is rarely updated, but it does do some coverage.
MaxPreps.com also has some non-paywall HS information that comes in handy too.
Nvdaily.com (Strasburg) has some results for some of the teams in the smaller conferences/outskirts of DC, generally in the Strasburg area.
WinchesterStar (Winchester) has results for Winchester teams but its pay-only.
The Daily Progress (Culpeper local paper) also has some scores for schools in its areas.
Fredericksburg.com has some local coverage of Fredericksburg and Woodbridge teams.
Richmond Times-Dispatch has a HS scoreboard.
Hampton Roads Pilot (Hampton Roads) has scores for teams in the Chesapeake/Norfolk/Va Beach area.
The Baltimore Sun's high school page has information on some of the programs outside the DC area mentioned in the Maryland section
I use perfectgame.org to look up high-end HS prospects.
VHSL's and MPSSAA home pages for playoff brackets and updates for VA and MD respectively.
Posted in Local Baseball
Tagged with billy emerson, jake agnos, ljay newsome, mark reynolds, ryan zimmerman
Ladson Inbox 8/12/13
The drumbeat to move Zimmerman to first continues. Photo AP via tbd.com
Hey, its been a while since MLB Nats beat reporter Bill Ladson did an inbox. With the Nats season now relegated to "playing for pride," I'm guessing this inbox is going to be chock full of questions about the future. Lets dive in.
As always, I write my response to each question before reading his, and edit questions for clarity/conciseness. All stats mentioned are as of 8/13/13.
Q: Do you think the Nationals could trade Adam LaRoche, move Ryan Zimmerman to first base, Anthony Rendon to third base and sign a free-agent second baseman like Robinson Cano?
A: Wow, that's a lot of moving parts. Lets take this wish list of proposed personnel moves one by one:
Trade Adam LaRoche: we'd likely not get a whole heck of a lot for a 33 turning 34 year old first baseman who clearly took a step back in 2013. LaRoche currently ranks 22nd among league-wide first basemen in wRC+, barely above the league average. By way of comparison, Mark Reynolds is ranked 25th and was just flat-out released after passing through waivers. So, no I don't think there are a lot of teams out there willing to pony up the $14M he's owed next year ($12M in salary, $2m of a buyout of his 2015 option). This signing has really set the team back offensively. Though to be fair, Michael Morse (who would have slotted in at 1B had the team not been able to re-sign LaRoche) is also posting about the same wRC+ numbers and has missed half the season with yet another injury.
Move Ryan Zimmerman to first base: yes I think this is going to happen eventually, but not this off-season. I think you handle the transition of a gold-glove winning player off his chosen position carefully and with consideration to the clubhouse ramifications. I don't think it played well in Texas' clubhouse when a former gold-glove winning shortstop Michael Young was moved to third against his wishes, and he made way for a superb defender in Elvis Andrus. Zimmerman would be making way for a relative unknown (though presumed gifted) defensive replacement. I think the Nats brass is chalking up 2013's subpar defensive season to Zimmerman's lingering shoulder issue, which has exacerbated his already problematic throwing motion and associated mental issues. I see Zimmerman giving it a fresh start in 2014, and if it becomes clear it isn't working out we look at spring training 2015 as a position transfer.
Move Anthony Rendon to third: it likely happens eventually. But him moving to third has to wait for the first two bullet points to happen, so again I'm predicting perhaps 2015. I think more time at 2B will give him more confidence and his errors will subside. So far his range at 2B is passable (UZR/150 of 0.5 in 448 innings), but that's a far cry from what Danny Espinosa was offering there (UZR/150 of 12.0 this year, which would have been good for 2nd in the league. He posted a 9.9 in a full-season last year). But, by the time Rendon is set to move to 3rd he may very well just stay at 2nd. He seems like he's the right size and shape to play 2nd.
Sign Robinson Cano. There's no question Cano will be the marquee FA this coming off-season, but I don't think he signs with Washington for two main reasons. First, the Yankees just cannot let the one remaining good offensive player they have leave, and I believe they'll over-pay him to stay. Secondly, whoever signs Cano is making a potentially classic free agency mistake; overpaying a guy in his down years. Look at the 9 figure deals signed lately for position players, and look at how many of them are almost immediately regrettable. Albert Pujols, Ryan Howard, Josh Hamilton, Carl Crawford and our own Jayson Werth. All of those deals routinely listed as the worst contracts in the game. I believe Mike Rizzo is smart enough and forward thinking enough not to hamstring the team with another contract.
So, my answer to this scenario is "not going to happen." Ladson says "call me in the off-season."
Q: How do you defend your previous support of Danny Espinosa?
A: Um, you can't. Espinosa has now had nearly 1600 major league plate appearances and has a career slash line of .230/.303/.396. He just cannot hit batting left handed (career splits: he's 40 batting points and 75 slugging points lower batting left-handed). He's hitting .219 in AAA since being demoted. He faces serious concerns about where his career is going right now. Yes he's a great defensive player, but that only gets you halfway to a MLB job these days. Ladson says Espinosa has been hurt this whole time and when he's healthy he's good. But he also admits that Espinosa's time playing full-time for the Nats is probably at an end.
Q: Is Denard Span a bust? He has a low on-base percentage and he hasn't been stealing many bases.
A: Yes, I think its safe to say that Denard Span has been a bust. He never really stole that many bases (17 last year, career high of 26), but certainly he has posted much better OBP numbers (.342 last year, .350 career). What has happened to him in 2013? Who knows. He has stated that he likens this year to his rookie year, having to learn a whole new league of pitchers. That could be fair; and could lead to a rebound in 2014. I do know this; .313 OBP from the lead-off spot just doesn't cut it. To make matters worse, his defensive stats have dropped off too; his UZR is down, his DRS is down. That's really not a good sign; you can put up with a #8 hitter batting .260 with no power if he provides great value in the field. If not, then you're better off bringing up a minor leaguer to see what he can do. This is another concern for Rizzo heading into the off-season; is this a one-off, an adjustment season for Span, or is this the start of his decline phase? Ladson extolls Span's defense, admits he's not getting on base and postulates the Nats could go after Shin-Soo Choo in the off-season to replace him. I think Ladson needs to look at the defensive numbers on Choo before advocating that; he's dead last in UZR/150 for center-fielders right now, by a significant margin. Now, if you got Choo and moved Bryce Harper back to center? I'd be for that 100%. Make Span your 4th OF, wave good-bye to Roger Bernadina and move on.
Q: Do you think Drew Storen will be traded? His relationship with the Nationals doesn't seem the same since he blew the save last year against the Cardinals during the National League Division Series.
A: Traded? No. Re-called and put into a lesser bullpen role? Absolutely. I think once Drew Storen fixes whatever mechanics issue that has been plaguing him, he comes right back to a Ryan Mattheus type role in the pen. Storen's ERA in Syracuse is unsightly so far (unlucky small sample size; he's given up 4 runs on just 7 hits), but he's got 11 k's to 0 walks in 6 innings. AAA hitters aren't exactly challenging him, if he's struck out half the guys he's faced. If the team was considering him in trade … you'd have to think they would want to get him back up to the majors to regain value anyway. Ladson thinks he can regain value and can be a MLB closer again.
Q: Will the Nationals consider going after Michael Morse when he becomes a free agent at the end of the year? He would have helped the Nats' offense this year, splitting time between the outfield and first base. What do you think?
A: As much as I like Morse and have complained about losing him … you have to realize who he is. He's an oft-injured slugger who has no position on an NL team. If we signed Morse, where exactly does he play? I guess you could platoon him with LaRoche at first or with Span in the outfield … but as a righty he'd play bat twice a week. I think Morse signs on as a DH with an AL team for surprisingly low money. If Seattle offers him a Q.O. I'd be shocked. Ladson doesn't think he would have helped the team, nor does he see any way he gets signed.
Posted in Chat/Mailbag Responses,Nats in General
Tagged with adam laroche, albert pujols, anthony rendon, bill ladson, bryce harper, carl crawford, danny espinosa, denard span, drew storen, elvis andrus, jayson werth, josh hamilton, mark reynolds, michael morse, michael young, mike rizzo, robinson cano, roger bernadina, ryan howard, ryan mattheus, ryan zimmerman, shin-soo choo
WC Pitching Matchup Analysis
Kris Medlen looks to get the WC win for his team. Photo unk via totalprosports.com
Here we go. Baseball's first wild card play-in games are set for tonight (at 5pm and 8:30pm eastern time), and its safe to say there was a surprise or two with the announced pitching matchups. Lets look at the guys getting the starts and make some predictions on which team has the better chance based on the starter going. I tried to do similar posts for the 2011 post season and, while they're not always accurate, they're fun to do and to read.
MLB Probable Pitchers are here, for tonight and the first few games of the playoffs.
1. St. Louis at Atlanta. This is the game DC will be watching. Match up: Kris Medlen (10-1, 1.57 ERA) versus Kyle Lohse (16-3, 2.86 ERA)
What more can we say about Medlen that we havn't already said? 9 earned runs allowed in his 12 starts on the season, a 10-1 record with a 1.57 ERA. He's the modern day equivalent of Greg Maddux, a slight framed guy with beyond pinpoint control. He achieved a bWAR of 4.4 despite getting just 12 starts on the year and pitching in middle relief until August.
Meanwhile, Kyle Lohse quietly had a great year. Nobody's mentioning his name in consideration of Cy Young despite a sterling record and great ancillary numbers (a 134 ERA+ is pretty good). I think his selection is slightly surprising to go in this game; he's probably the #3 starter on the team (behind Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright) but he's clearly the best performer on the year. As with Atlanta choosing Medlen over Tim Hudson, Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny is going with his hottest hand.
However, while Medlen is likely to pitch 6-7 innings of one-run ball, I think the Braves get to Lohse. They've faced him once already this year and put 9 hits and 5 runs on him in May. The Braves hit right-handers far better than lefties, but St. Louis really doesn't have a great lefty starter choice. Jaime Garcia may not even make the post-season roster (would you take Garcia ahead of Lance Lynn?).
The Pick: Atlanta in what could be a romp.
1. Baltimore at Texas. Match up: Joe Saunders (3-3, 3.63 ERA after his trade to Baltimore) versus Yu Darvish (16-9, 3.90 ERA)
Saunders is another surprising pick for Baltimore, who has gotten by on smoke & mirrors all season when it comes to starting pitching. The Northern Virginia Native Saunders (West Springfield HS and then Virginia Tech) is essentially a MLB-average starter for his career (a 103 ERA+) but pitched above his career stats in Baltimore.
Not to denigrate Saunders, but he's essentially a less stable version of John Lannan. He's a softer tossing lefty who is about MLB average over his career, but with higher and lower extremes from season to season. Would you trust a do-or-die situation in the hands of Lannan? Problem is, who else would you go with if you were the Orioles? I thought they'd go with the hot-hand Steve Johnson or their ace Wei-Yin Chen. We'll see if this gamble pays off; the Rangers hit left-handed pitching pretty well (108 wRC+, .285 BA).
Meanwhile, this is a national stage for high priced Japanese import Darvish. He had a relatively effective season (16-9, a 116 ERA+) and got a ton of strike outs (221 in just 191 1/3 innings pitched). The Orioles definitely have some higher-strike out guys in the middle of their order (Chris Davis, Mary Reynolds). Darvish never faced Baltimore this season, but had a strong September and seems hitting his stride entering the playoffs.
The Pick: Texas in a struggle.
Posted in Baseball in General,Majors Pitching,Post Season
Tagged with adam wainwright, chris carpenter, chris davis, greg maddux, jaime garcia, joe saunders, john lannan, kris medlen, kyle lohse, lance lynn, mark reynolds, mike matheny, steve johnson, tim hudson, wei-yin chen, yu darvish
My 2012 Fantasy Baseball Team
Kemp reacts to being the first overall pick in my fantasy league. Photo unknown via ladodgertalk.com
As with last year's edition of this post, feel free to stop reading now if you don't want to read fantasy team analysis of a league that you're not necessarily in. I know that really grates some people, and I understand. For those of you who do play fantasy, I'll try to talk about who was available and who I had to choose from for each pick so you can get a context of the decisions I made.
League overview: 12 team 6×6 head to head. Your categories are:
Hitting: Runs, HRs, RBIs, SBs, Batting Average and OPS.
Pitching: Wins, Saves, K's, ERA, WHIP and Holds.
Last year we had Losses as a category instead of Holds but too many of the league hated the Losses category, but wanted to keep OPS as a 6th category. So we've introduced Holds as a category for the 2012 season. I proposed this but rather inadvertantly; my strategy going into this 2012 season was going to be to go after the exact type of pitcher who normally gets holds; the setup-guy, the excellent specialized reliever who pitchers 60-70 innings but gets 70-80 K's with excellent ERAs and WHIPs. With no Losses to worry about, the value of holding any type of pitcher increased over last year's edition of the league. The only downside was that we are also introducing a transaction limit for the season (65 over the 21 week season). So picking good arms early will be crucial.
We added an 11th and 12th team to the league at the last minute, two newer guys to fantasy baseball who made some "interesting" picks throughout the night. I was picking 1st out of the 12 in a typical snake draft order.
My draft strategy for 2012 is as follows:
Get the minimum number of hitters, and get them early to get the best players available.
Focus on Homers. Homers lead to Runs and RBIs, 3 of your 6 offensive categories.
Get a couple of top end starters early, then spend the entire 2nd half of the draft on pitching.
Focus on NL, high K/9 starters only.
Get a high end closer if they're available, but don't over spend.
Focus on the high-end Holds leaders and setup guys, getting guys who can close in a pinch.
What became apparent about 5 rounds into the draft is the disservice of drafting 1st (or last) in such a huge league; if a run starts on a position, you have almost no chance of getting any of the top guys. Catchers, top-end Holds guys and top-end Closers all had major runs without my even getting a consideration to get a pick in. Once all the top closers were gone, I decided not to scrounge for saves, at all. If a guy like Rodriguez or Holland becomes a closer and I get free saves, all the better. But what I really want are low ERA, low WHIP innings all week that help lower the overall team ERA/WHIP.
Below are my round-by-round picks. Yahoo O-Ranks are given; this is Yahoo's rank for the player for the 2012 season. Average Draft Rank (ADR) is listed as per MockDraftCentral's ratings, though honestly after the Holds guys start going off the board the ADR is mostly useless. Plus ADR reports are based on the classic 5×5 league, not the 6×6 league that we're doing. But it does illustrate some of the over-drafts and/or value picks I got.
Matt Kemp: (Yahoo #2, ADR #2) With the first overall pick I really was choosing between Kemp and Miguel Cabrera. I liked Cabrera because he'll be gaining positional flexibility at 3B, a relatively thin position. I also like Cabrera because he's gaining Prince Fielder to provide lineup protection. However; Kemp was the #1 producer last season, had 39 Hrs to Cabrera's 30 and threw in 40 steals for good measure. I think Kemp is the best player in baseball and I see no reason that he won't at least repeat his (near) 40/40 performance. With the understanding that I'll be missing most of the high end infielders by virtue of not picking again until the 23rd overall pick, I take Kemp. Cabrera's grounder to the face just a few hours before the draft didn't really factor into the decision. Ironically Ryan Braun was ADR #1 but he didn't go until 4th or 5th in our league.
Ian Kinsler: (Yahoo #20, ADR #23). With the 24th pick, I really wanted Curtis Granderson, who was a bit undervalued (Yahoo ranked #22 but 6th best player in 2011), but he got snagged just before I picked. Kinsler was highest guy on the board and was the natural pick. I've had Kinsler before and he's always a solid, mid 20s producer with some consistency. He was hurt in 2010 but in 2009 was a top 10 player. Lets hope for a similar season. 2B is thin (even more so with Chase Utley's injury), so I didn't mind getting a halfway decent one this high.
Giancarlo Stanton: (Yahoo #25, ADR #26): With the 25th pick, I reached a little bit for Stanton. I didn't want to go with slighly higher ranked guys like Mark Teixeira and certainly not Hanley Ramirez (who Itook #2 overall last year and absolutely killed my team). Cliff Lee (Yahoo #24) should have been there but was drafted incredibly early by one of the new guys in the league. So, faced with a slew of positional guys after Stanton on the Yahoo chart who all under performed last year (Beltre, McCutchen, Wright) and therefore were not worth the draft position, I took a gamble on Stanton. Personally I think this guy is going to be one of the biggest names in the game; a 45 homer guy who helps bring his team back to relevance. Unfortunately I wasn't aware that he's been dinged up in Spring Training and now may miss opening day. That's not good drafting. But i'd rather have him and miss a couple weeks than be frustrated with an injury prone guy.
Tim Lincecum: (Yahoo #28, ADR #24)
Cole Hamels: (Yahoo #32, ADR #29): After 22 more picks, drafting with the 48th and 49th overall pick I was stunned to see two NL heavyweight starters sitting there available for the taking. According to ADR both these guys should have been long gone. Lincecum struggled last year clearly, but Hamels overperformed based on his Yahoo ranking (#21 performer in 2011) and fit my profile of an NL starter with good stats. No argument here; I took the two leading starters available. Its like a repeat of 2011: I had both these starters last year and I'm looking forward to having them both again this year.
Brett Lawrie (Yahoo #45, ADR #53): With the 72nd overall pick I again got great value in Lawrie. At this point I had not drafted either a 3B or a 1B, having missed out on the first couple of tiers of both. I had a 1B targeted (see pick #8) so I went for an upside pick. Lawrie had 9 homers in just 150 ABs in 2011 and based on his minor league production he seems set to be a monster hitter in this league. Based on who was left on the board at that position at this time (Mark Reynolds, David Frese, Martin Prado) I went with the best available guy. That being said, Lawrie is a risk. I'm slightly worried that 2 of my top 4 hitters are relatively young guys who could go south; this strategy failed me last year (when Jason Heyward and Pedro Alvarez both underperformed so badly that I had to drop them).
Alex Gordon; (Yahoo #66, ADR #61): Right after Lawrie with the 73rd overall pick, I was scanning down the available hitters, with an eye on 2011 performance, I was amazed again to find a near top 20 guy from last year. Gordon was ranked #23 in 2011 performance but was still on the board. I grabbed him. 23 Homers, 87 rbi along with 17 steals and I think this is a halfway decent pick. He takes my last OF spot.
Lance Berkman: (Yahoo #86, ADR #95); With the 96th pick I nabbed Berkman. Waiting until the 8th round to find a first baseman is not usually a good strategy … but it has served me well in the past. Instead of overpaying for one of the top 1Bs, I like to wait and get nearly as good a player but many rounds below. Last year it was Paul Konerko (who I would have loved to get again but Jamos snapped him up a few rounds earlier) so this year I targeted Berkman. Another undervalued pick (his 2011 yahoo ranking: 32) who qualifies at both OF and 1B but who will be playing the far less taxing 1B position fulltime in 2012. Because of this shift to the infield, i'm hoping for a healther season and more ABs. Berkman proved last year he can still hit, and with a relatively decent lineup still around him he should still see pitches to hit despite the Cardinals losing Pujols. 31 homers last year in just 488 ABs; he could broach 40 if he gets 600 Abs like he should.
Jimmy Rollins: (Yahoo #73, ADR #88). 97th overall, still continuing to get value. Rollins isn't the best SS out there, but by the 9th round he's as good as you're going to get. He was a decent producer in 2011 but is a far cry from his 2007-2009 numbers (when in consecutive seasons he was the 5th, 9th and 12th ranked fantasy player). He has some power, 30 SB capability and a decent bat. With the Phillies injury concerns, perhaps more RBI opportunities will fall to Rollins.
Joe Mauer (Yahoo #95, ADR #82). At the 120th pick, I was missing two positional players: a catcher and a utility guy. I've been burned in the past drafting catchers too high, and frankly am happy to roll the dice with the recovering Mauer. Mauer has positional flexibility of qualifying for 1B if needed but what I really need is for him to be in the lineup and hitting. If Mauer returns anywhere close to his 2009 form (#12 fantasy producer) this will be the steal of the draft.
Josh Johnson (Yahoo #101, ADR #99). More value, but also more risk, with the #121 pick. Johnson fits my profile of high K NL starters … but of course is coming off of a major arm injury. Is he ready to go? If he's healthy, this is a 4th or 5th round talent way down in the 11th. If not … well there's always the waiver wire.
Drew Stubbs: (Yahoo #92, ADR #79). With the 144th pick I needed one last hitter to supplement my bench and noticed the huge number of SBs that Stubbs had last year (40). He was decently ranked for value and I think this is a pretty decent pick. The ADR of 79 probably is skewed higher because in a 5×5 league steals are more important. But Steals are important here as well, and looking at this team i've got a ton of them. Big fan of this pick here.
Mike Adams. Pick #145 and the beginning of my main 2012 strategy; focus on setup guys who get holds and have good peripherals. By the 13th round the top Holds guys from 2011 (Clippard, Venters, Robinson, and Marshall) were all gone; I was most disappointed to have missed on Robinson in particular, who went just a few picks before I went. I grabbed Adams as the best holds guy available. (note from here on out I won't bother with Yahoo ranks or ADRs for Holds guys since they doesn't make any sense).
Ricky Romero: (Yahoo #109, ADR #86): At this point in the draft I was targeting a few more starters and a few more setup guys and went for best players available. but getting a guy of Romero's caliber with the 168th pick is great. Romero isn't entirely my kind of starter; he's AL, and more importantly he's AL East. But his K/9 is improved and he's a good pitcher on a team that will get wins. He had 15 wins last year with a sub 3.00 ERA; imagine if he pitched in the NL. Regardless, he's a good pickup at this point in the draft.
Francisco Rodriguez: I like K-Rod because, well, if Milwaukee's closer (John Axford) falters or gets hurt, suddenly I've got a pretty good closer getting saves. As it stands, Rodriguez will get a ton of Hold opportunities and has all the incidentals I want in a back-end reliever (good K/9, good holds from 2011). The only downside on him is his ERA; its a bit high for an 8th inning guy.
Fernando Salas: Salas was St. Louis' closer for most of 2011 but got demoted after a couple of blown saves in August. He didn't get demoted because his numbers were bad; in fact his 2011 numbers were great. Unfortunately for Salas, Jason Motte lit it up in the post season and enters 2012 with the job clearly in hand. Which means, like Rodriguez, he'll get save opportunities as the former closer and would be the presumptive replacement in case of injury or ineffectiveness.
Jeremy Hellickson (Yahoo #183, ADR #127); Going against my better judgement, I picked up yet another AL East pitcher, but once again went for value. Hellickson was my 193rd pick and despite being Yahoo ranked 183, he was 86th in performance in 2011. Lots of people think Hellickson will regress in 2012 because of his amazingly low BABIP (.223 in 2011). However not all of Hellickson's BABIP variation is attributed to "luck;" He's a flyball pitcher. And flyball pitchers will have more of their balls in play caught, keeping BABIP low. Hellickson had only 35% of balls in play be grounders in 2011. Roy Halladay, by way of comparison, has been 50% or more groundballs every year of his career. Where this should be catching up to Hellickson is in homers given up (more fly balls should lead to more homers), but his home ballpark helps. Either way. I'll take him with the 193rd pick.
Mark Melancon: Another deposed closer in Melancon, who got 20 saves for Houston last year but joins Boston as the presumptive 8th inning guy behind Andrew Bailey. Remember; Bailey missed 2 months in 2011 with a forearm strain; Melancon ably fits into the closer spot. This pick may be affected by recent news that Daniel Bard will be returning to the bullpen, but holds guys don't have to be 8th inning guys.
Greg Holland: What a find here; Holland has fantastic numbers and could be another steal since KC closer Soria has blown out his elbow. I don't think Holland gets the call as the closer immediately, but if new acquisition Broxton doesn't step up Holland will.
Alexi Ogando (Yahoo #227, ADP #208); Looking for two more starters I went for best names on the board. Ogando may not be the best but he'll get Ks and he has a big arm. And at the 240th pick of the night I'm happy to get a 13 game winner on a playoff team.
Josh Collmenter (Yahoo #312, ADP #305): I don't understand why Collmenter is so low; he plays in the weaker NL West, is in the NL, and won 10 games with good numbers last year (#140 ranked yahoo fantasy in 2011). Oh; just found out why; he's got a 14.00 ERA in Spring Training thus far. Ouch. We'll keep an eye on his first couple starts (perhaps sitting him if he's going against a touch lineup) and see how he goes.
Hitters: I've got a ton of power, but also a ton of SB capability. Kemp is 40/40 guy, Kinsler and Lawrie project to be 30/30 and Gordon a 20/20 guy. Rollins and Stubbs both get a ton of steals. I've got 5 guys with 30+ homer capability. Homers lead to runs and RBIs. What may hurt me is AVG and OPS: Kinsler, Stanton and Stubbs all seem to be .250 hitters. Rollins and Stubbs both are < .800 OPS guys. So we'll take the good with the bad. But I do like my hitters.
Name Team Pos O-rank 2011 Actual Owned H/AB R HR RBI SB AVG OPS
Lance Berkman StL 1B,OF 86 32 97% 147/488 90 31 94 2 0.301 0.959
Ian Kinsler Tex 2B 20 22 99% 158/620 121 32 77 30 0.255 0.832
Brett Lawrie Tor 3B 45 771 97% 44/150 26 9 25 7 0.293 0.953
Joe Mauer Min C,1B 95 820 97% 85/296 38 3 30 0 0.287 0.728
Matt Kemp LAD OF 2 1 99% 195/602 115 39 126 40 0.324 0.985
Giancarlo Stanton Mia OF 25 66 99% 135/516 79 34 87 5 0.262 0.893
Alex Gordon KC OF 66 23 98% 185/611 101 23 87 17 0.303 0.878
Jimmy Rollins Phi SS 73 67 97% 152/567 87 16 63 30 0.268 0.737
Drew Stubbs Cin OF 92 103 93% 147/604 92 15 44 40 0.243 0.685
Pitchers: I'm less liking my starters versus what I had last year. I have three good NL guns but then have three #2/#3 AL starters. And I have a big injury risk in Johnson to go with spring dismal performances out of Collmenter. I may be playing some waiver wire games.
Name Team Pos O-rank 2011 Actual Owned IP W SV K HLD ERA WHIP
Tim Lincecum SF SP 28 49 99% 217 13 0 220 0 2.74 1.21
Cole Hamels Phi SP 32 21 99% 216 14 0 194 0 2.79 0.99
Josh Johnson Mia SP 101 183 97% 60.1 3 0 56 0 1.64 0.98
Ricky Romero Tor SP 109 46 95% 225 15 0 178 0 2.92 1.14
Jeremy Hellickson TB SP 183 86 86% 189 13 0 117 0 2.95 1.15
Alexi Ogando Tex SP 227 131 68% 169 13 0 126 0 3.51 1.14
Josh Collmenter Ari SP,RP 312 140 21% 154.1 10 0 100 0 3.38 1.07
The middle relief/holds strategy should be interesting; with a transaction limit in place we're going to have to monitor the 5 RPs closely. I'm not after saves (clearly; having not drafted a single closer) but I wouldn't mind getting a few here and there. I have tried the no-closer route in the past; it didn't work exactly as I wanted. I had too many mediocre starters and got killed in ERA and WHIP. This time around is slightly different; by focusing on middle relievers who generally have great stats, I'm hoping to keep ERA and WHIP down and continually add Ks and holds.
Mike Adams Tex RP 305 83 32% 73.2 5 2 74 32 1.47 0.79
Francisco Rodriguez Mil RP 374 149 33% 71.2 6 23 79 17 2.64 1.3
Fernando Salas StL RP 371 73 31% 75 5 24 75 6 2.28 0.95
Mark Melancon Bos RP 379 138 14% 74.1 8 20 66 3 2.78 1.22
Greg Holland KC RP 383 135 11% 60 5 4 74 18 1.8 0.93
That's your fantasy team. What do you think?
March 23rd, 2012 at 3:23 pm
Posted in Fantasy
Tagged with adrian beltre, albert pujols, alex gordon, alexi ogando, andrew bailey, andrew mccutchen, brett lawrie, chase utley, cliff lee, cole hamels, curtis granderson, daniel bard, david freese, david robinson, david wright, drew stubbs, fernando salas, francisco rodriguez, giancarlo stanton, greg holland, hanley ramirez, ian kinsler, jason amos, jason heyward, jason kellenbenz, jason motte, jeremy hellickson, jimmy rollins, joakim soria, joe mauer, john axford, jonathan broxton, jonny venters, josh collmenter, josh johnson, lance berkman, mark melancon, mark reynolds, mark teixeira, martin prado, matt kemp, miguel cabrera, mike adams, paul konerko, pedro alvarez, prince fielder, ricky romero, ryan braun, tim lincecum, tyler clippard, vito dragone
My 2011 Fantasy Team
Note; stop reading now if you're one of those people who hate to hear about fantasy teams or analysis of leagues. I understand your point; its kinda like hearing someone go on and on about how their ugly baby just did the cutest thing last week.
I'm in a modified 5×5 yahoo league with 9 other fantasy baseball nuts (of all the fantasy sports, baseball tends to have the biggest nerds I think. Well, perhaps fantasy golf or fantasy nascar). We've modified the typical 5×5 categories to add in a 6th category on both sides. We put in OPS on the hitter side and Losses on the pitcher side. We made this change a few years back when one of the players won by churning and burning starting pitchers over and over to stock-pile wins and Ks.
Before going into my draft results and analysis, a few notes on my strategy for picking baseball teams:
I like pitching and I like to analyze pitching, so I focus on pitchers. I like to have the bare minimum of hitters and load up on pitchers. This strategy can be questioned; the clear winner last year had a bare minimum of pitchers but tons of hitter depth and was tough to beat.
I try to focus on NL starters with good K rates. I try to avoid AL pitchers if I can, and I especially try to avoid AL east pitchers because of the gauntlet of great hitting teams they face.
I try to get 5 closers. This can be tough, especially in a 10-person league with only (theoretically) 30 closers to go around. However, I try not to overpay for closers. Two years ago I experimented with a Zero closer system and it did not fare as well as I thought it would.
Do not overpay for a Catcher. I've been burned so many times on catchers going down with injuries (in the past three years I've dealt with Varitek, Russell Martin and Victor Martinez injuries or inadequacies, going to the waiver wire each time).
Here's my team's draft results. I was picking 2nd in a 10-man league with a typical snake-style draft order.
1. Hanley Ramirez. Pujols goes first; I could have gone with Tulowitzki here but I opted to go with a guy who has been a bit more consistent (and less injury prone) at the #2 spot.
2. Matt Holliday. By the time I pick again, all the top tier 1B and 3B were gone. I figured this would happen and had targeted a couple of lower-end 1B and 3B players that I figured I could get later on (see rounds 10 and 14). I wanted Hamilton here but he went earlier than I thought he would. I would have loved for Adrian Gonzalez to slip but he did not.
3. Tim Lincecum. I was either-or for Felix Hernandez or Lincecum here. In the end I went for Lincecum because of the NL angle and because of how bad Seattle is. Hernandez went immediately after Lincecum.
4. Richie Weeks. Coming back at the end of the 4th, I needed to focus one at least one of the "skill" positions that can be tough to fill. I wanted Uggla but missed him by a few picks. Weeks is a good all around player; 29 homers with 11 SBs in 2010. I'll take that out of the 2nd base position. Someone took a flier on Chase Utley not knowing just how bad his injury is … it pays to be prepared and up-to-date on injury news. Weeks himself is an injury risk and was listed as a possible fantasy bust for 2011. We'll keep our fingers crossed.
5. Jason Heyward: I can't remember if Posey was sitting there available at this point or not, but I like having an up-and-coming power hitter here.
6. Alex Rios: I filled my 3rd OF position with a bit of a sleeper in Rios. He was #27 fantasy producer in 2010, hitting 21 homers and getting 34 sbs. My first 5 out-field players all can be described as guys who can hit for power and get SBs.
7. Cole Hamels: I missed out on Cliff Lee but am a bit wary of him this year anyway. He wasn't THAT great in the regular season last year. Meanwhile Hamels had a sneaky solid season with 211 ks in 208 innings. He took a lot of losses though; lets hope that his move to the #4 starter puts him in line to get many more wins.
8. Mat Latos. #32 ranked 2010 fantasy performer in the end of the 8th round. I'll take that. Lots of Ks, great ERA and whip and pitching in the massive Petco. Love this pick.
9. Neftali Feliz: I announced prior to this pick that I didn't care if he was starting or closing, that I wanted him. He apparently will be the closer, which i'm kinda bummed about since I think he'd be a great starter … but at the same time he's probably the 3rd or 4th best closer out there. I wanted Marmol and his ridiculous K rates but he went very early. I also wanted Heath Bell right around here but missed him by one pick, with Acheson getting him just before I was to pick him.
10. Paul Konerko. In the 10th round I sitll didn't have a first baseman or a third baseman, two positions that are very power-hitter friendly. As mentioned above, once I missed out on the top guys in the 1st-2nd rounds, I made a calculated gamble targeting two guys I figured would be either overlooked or be later round guys. Konerko was the first: he was the #12 fantasy hitter last year, blasting 39 homers with 111 rbis. It was a contract year, which is a bit scary, but he also inherits Adam Dunn as protection for 2011. I'm hoping he continues to hit at this level despite him being 35 this year. With him and Dunn switching off between 1B and DH perhaps the rest will do him good.
11. Jonathan Sanchez. Oddly Yahoo has him ranked 173rd, despite being the 70th best producer last year. I don't get it; 13-9, 205 ks in 193 innings, good era and whip. This may have been a reach by ranking points but I like him.
12. Matt Weiters. At this point there was a slight run on Catchers and I felt I needed to make a move. I was looking at either Weiters or Geovany Soto. Honestly before the draft I would have loved to have taken a shot at Carlos Santana but he went very early. I debated between Soto and Weiters and went with the promising rookie. Vito, drafting right behond me, was thinking the same thing and immediately snapped up Soto.
13. JJ Putz. At this point in the draft, I nearly had all my positional players and generally go SP-RP all the way out. I wanted to get my hands on at least one of the upper-end closers available and went with Putz. Putz took a setup job in Chicago last year and pitched well enough to earn another closer job. Arizona isn't going to get him a ton of closer opportunities but after their debacle last year trying Qualls, Rauch and the kitchen sink in the role, Putz may do well. Remember, Matt Capps got a ton of saves for a last place team last year too.
14. Pedro Alvarez. My last positional player. Most of the good 3rd basement went in the first two rounds. I didn't want to mess with guys like Bautista (flash in the pan?), Michael Young (he's a utility player in a bad professional situation) or Aramis Ramirez (two bad years in a row). I was targeting Alvarez or Mark Reynolds. Reynolds hit less than .200 last year after a monster 2009 and is moving to a fantastic hitters park for him, so that was tempting. But he's also moving to the toughest division with a lot of upper-end pitching and he may push 250 Ks this year. Meanwhile, Alvarez is a cool rookie with a lot of upside and he could be fun to follow.
15. Francisco Cordero: my 3rd closer; from here out my goal is to get the best closers available til I get to 5, then get whatever starting pitchers look enticing. Cordero got 40 saves last year; works for me.
16. Leo Nunez; 20 picks later I get Nunez, who I have ranked right next to Cordero. More Ks, better whip but fewer saves for Florida.
17. Brandon Lyon: Not a ton of saves last year but he wasn't the closer til August. then in 6 weeks he got 15 saves. I'm hoping this is a steal of a pick and he racks up 35-40 saves this year.
18. Madison Bumgarner; Amazing, i've got Bumgarner ranked the exact same as Sanchez, who I got 7 rounds earlier. I like Bumgarner and think he can be as effective as he was in the playoffs. Honestly I wanted Hellickson around here but Droopy got him. Bumgarner fits my profile better; NL starter with good numbers. Not the best K/9 guy but he's also a youngster and can get better.
19. Carlos Zambrano; This pick was partly a joke; there is a massive Cubs fan in our league (Erwin) who absolutely would have picked this guy. But this was also strategic; Zambrano got an incredibly quick hook out of the rotation last year, missed a month but still finished the season 11-6 with 8.1K/9. He was very effective down the stretch. I'm hoping he picks right back up where he was before.
20. David Aardsma: Strategy pick; I know he's going to start the season on the DL, so I will move him to my DL slot and pick up another guy. As it turned out I did not pick up a utility player, so I'll get the best hitter available before the season starts.
21. Anibel Sanchez: in the last round, i looked at my starting pitcher depth charts for the NL and selected what I thought was the best targeted starter available. I was considering the likes of Fausto Carmona, Travis Wood, Dallas Braden or Jorge De La Rosa. In the end Sanchez had a solid season last year for Florida and could do well.
Here's the team by position:
C: Matt Weiters
1B: Paul Konerko
2B: Rickie Weeks
3B: Pedro Alvarez
SS: Hanley Ramirez
OF: Matt Holliday, Jason Heyward, Alex Rios
SP: Lincecum, Hamels, Latos, Sanchez, Bumgarner, Zambrano, Sanchez
Closers: Felix, Putz, Cordero, Nunez, Lyon and Aardsma
Based on last year's averages/week, my hitters are probably going to be
a bit below average for Runs scored (30.8 versus 27.6)
a bit above averages for Homers (7.92 versus 7.0)
right around average for RBIs (29.1 versus 28.1)
right around average for SBs (4.8 versus 4.2)
above average for BA (.202 versus .273)
above average for OPS (.838 vs .790)
Based on last year's averages/week, my pitchers are probably going to be
Above average for Wins (5.00 vs 3.65)
Below average for Losses (4 vs 2.9)
Above average for Saves (4.56 vs 3.88)
Well Above average for Ks (69.4 vs 48.2)
Above average for ERA (3.20 vs 3.553)
Right around average for WHIP (1.24 vs 1.25)
I see 6 categories where i'm above average, 3 where i'm about average, two a bit below average and one where i'm well below average. That could average out to a lot of 7-5 or 8-4 weeks. Far enough.
Draft Analysis Conclusions: it is fair to say i'm weaker on the hitting side. That tends to happen when drafting very early and missing out on the 1B and 3B rush. I much more like drafting 4-5-6th spots so you can get top-tier guys in both positions. I will have to be diligent on the waiver wire looking for hitters. There are a couple of non-drafted guys that I like who may fit in at 1B if Konerko falters badly.
I'm also depending a lot on 2-3 non-sexy names (Weeks, Rios, Konerko) and several high profile rookies (Weiters, Heyward, Alvarez, Bumgarner). This could really backfire if these guys don't produce. I'm most worried about Alvarez, who put up decent numbers in half a season last year but it may be a stretch to assume he's already a 30-homer guy. I'm also worried about Weeks' health and ability to stay on the field. He may end up sitting in my DL spot for a while. I may focus on finding a speedster/leadoff/high SB/high Runs guy for my utility player.
I really like my slew of starters. All of them have good K/9, era and whip values. Lots of losses though; i'm hoping for a bounceback season for Lincecum and better w/l records from the likes of Hamels and Sanchez.
I've got a lot of closer depth, including the Aardsma pickup. There's a few other possible closers to be had as well; Lidge is down with an injury, Washington's situation is certainly fluid, Tampa's closer really hasn't been identified, Atlanta may flip flop Venters and Kimbrell, and nobody at all knows who is going to close in Toronto. So there's more waiver wire work to be done.
1. Hanley Ramirez
2. Matt Holliday
3. Tim Lincecum
4. Richie Weeks
5. Jason Heyward
6. Alex Rios
7. Cole Hamels
8. Matt Latos
11. Jonathan Sanchez
12. Matt Weiters
13. JJ Putz
14. Pedro Alvarez
18. Madison Bumgarner
19. Carlos Zambrano
21. Anibal Sanchez
Tagged with adrian gonzalez, albert pujols, alex rios, anibal sanchez, aramis ramirez, brandon lyon, buster posey, carlos marmol, carlos santana, carlos zambrano, chad qualls, chase utley, cliff lee, cole hamels, dan uggla, david aardsma, felix hernandez, francisco cordero, geovany soto, hanley ramirez, heath bell, jason amos, jason heyward, jason kellenbenz, jeremy hellickson, jj putz, jon rauch, jonathan sanchez, jose bautista, josh hamilton, leo nunez, madison bungarner, mark reynolds, mat latos, matt capps, matt holliday, matt weiters, michael young, neftali feliz, paul konerko, pedro alvarez, richie weeks, tim lincecum, todd boss, troy tulowitzki, vito dragone
Strasburg getting back into the groove in 2nd start back
The "10th day of Strasmas" was today, as wonderkid took the mound against the Arizona Diamondbacks to finish off a quick homestand. Coincidentally, the Nats have now "overtaken" the Astros for the 8th draft pick, but it'll be hard to maintain this pace. He didn't look bad but he didn't look that good either.
Strasburg went 5 innings, gave up 5 hits, 7ks, 0 walks, 3 runs but only one earned and was lifted in-between innings sitting on 85 pitches. The two unearned runs were due to the 3-base error Strasburg himself committed by letting a throw to first sail down the RF line, scoring a guy from 1st and putting that runner on 3rd with one out (scored on the next pitch by a routine flyball).
Most of the hits were weaker. Reynolds had a seeing eye single through the middle, Montero had a jammed soft flyball into center, and Drew hit another relatively innocuous ball up the middle. Chris Young turned on a fastball pretty well, hitting a sharp line drive into left but got stranded.
The best hit ball of the night was LaRoche, who has been incredibly hot lately, absolutely unloading on a 2-0 fastball that Strasburg left up and over the plate. LaRoche's ball was the kind of ball you swing through and don't even feel the contact on the bat. Definitely a mistake to a guy who made him pay.
Strasburg's first pitch registered 101 on the TV gun (impressive considering that normally he eases into it). He had good velocity most of the night, he had control of his curve, and he threw his change up well. All in all, an unlucky error cost him 2 runs to blemish an otherwise pretty good line. I think the Nats are babying him a little bit and should have let him pitch the 6th. If he gets to 105 pitches, it isn't the end of the world. I'd rather see the guy stretched out to 105 than yank him at 85. There was no pressing pinch hitter need in the bottom of the 5th either.
Editor's Update: Apparently Strasburg was lifted mostly in part due to the 10 minute delay caused by Arizona law protesters who took to the field. Strasburg cooled off too much as a result and Riggleman didn't want to risk it.
As far as the game goes, Willingham hit a 2 run bomb to tie it up and get Strasburg off the hook for the loss. Zimmerman absolutely killed a ball in the 6th to give the Nats the lead, and Clippard/Burnett/Storen closed it out for the win.
Bottom Line; not the greatest line for Strasburg and no W on the board, but he looked good and he only really had two hard hit balls off of him all night. Looking good.
Posted in Majors Pitching
Tagged with adam laroche, chris young, drew storen, jesus montero, jim riggleman, josh willingham, mark reynolds, ryan zimmerman, sean burnett, stephen drew, stephen strasburg, tyler clippard


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Q: Overloading in same class Java I am trying to understand overloading at the moment and am a bit confused. I understand that when calling the same method, it cannot have the exact same arguments. For instance a method called with 2 int variables and then another with two different int variables. But if I use an int and a float, it would be okay. I know the return type does not matter, but what about it being a public or private method. Would this matter?
For instance, say I call public int name(int x) would I be able to call private int name(int x)?
Am I correct in assuming public double name(String x) would also cause overloading in the class? Also is public int name(int x, String y) valid? Passing a string argument into an int function? Would this cause overloading or an error?
EDIT: Do not believe this question is duplicate, my main question is the difference between the public and private, are they method or different and would it cause overloading. Did not see that addressed in other question.

A: From the Oracle tutorial:

Overloaded methods are differentiated by the number and the type of the arguments passed into the method.
...
You cannot declare more than one method with the same name and the same number and type of arguments, because the compiler cannot tell them apart.

So no the access modifier doesn't count. You cannot have both public int name(int x) and private int name(int x).

Am I correct in assuming public double name(String x) would also cause overloading in the class?

Yes since it has the same name but with a different parameter type.

Also is public int name(int x, String y) valid? Passing a string argument into an int function? Would this cause overloading or an error?

Again, since it has the same method name but with different parameter types, it is an overloaded method.

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