Welcome back to Fantasy Sports Weekly. I have now surpassed Quentin Tarantino with my Volume 3 Installment of the weekly column, of which point I am extremely proud.
Let’s start things off the way we always do, with this week’s installment of…
Salute to Sports Video Games that Changed our Lives
I had a special request this week from a dear old friend. A close friend of mine who mentioned that BASEBALL STARS didn’t really change his life as much as the following game did…
RBI BASEBALL – TENGEN
1987 – Is that Mike Greenwell digging one out?
Since this is baseball season…I’m sticking to baseball games for now. Trust me when I say football season is right around the corner!
Back to business.
One of the things I’ve seen time and again with Fantasy advice, playoff predictions, game predictions and the like, throughout all of sports, is that loudmouths like to make predictions and forecasts without ever following up on whether they were right or wrong.
So each week I promise to post the results on the players I have recommended and how they’ve performed since my recommendation.
It’s not a perfect science, as players such as Joe Mauer were injured and can really only go up but I think it’s solid. These are based off of the YAHOO! SPORTS league rankings with all leagues included.
| FANTASY ADVICE – Tracker | |||||||
| Each Week I will update the Fantasy Rank of the players I recommended and |
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| their change in ranking since my recommendation. |
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| Updated 6/15/04 | |||||||
| Date Rev | Player | Fantasy Rank: Prior | Fantasy Rank: Current | Difference | Rating | % | |
| 7-Jun | Rich Harden | 204.00 | 182.00 | 22.00 | Up | 11% | |
| 7-Jun | Barry Zito | 193.00 | 185.00 | 8.00 | Up | 4% | |
| 7-Jun | Javier Vazquez | 46.00 | 33.00 | 13.00 | Up | 28% | |
| 7-Jun | Billy Wagner | 77.00 | 105.00 | (28.00) | Down | -36% | |
| 7-Jun | Danny Kolb | 134.00 | 81.00 | 53.00 | Up | 40% | |
| 7-Jun | Lew Ford | 95.00 | 97.00 | (2.00) | Down | -2% | |
| 7-Jun | Mark Texeira | 366.00 | 280.00 | 86.00 | Up | 23% | |
| 7-Jun | Mark Loretta | 190.00 | 162.00 | 28.00 | Up | 15% | |
| 7-Jun | Joe Mauer | 928.00 | 778.00 | 150.00 | Up | 16% | |
| Overall | 2,233.00 | 1,903.00 | 330.00 | Up | 15% | ||
| 15-Jun | Alex Sanchez | 157.00 | |||||
| 15-Jun | Dave Roberts | 176.00 | |||||
| 15-Jun | Luis Matos | 272.00 | |||||
| * Fantasy Rank based on 5 x 5 league All Leagues (Courtesy of YAHOO!) |
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I stick by Billy Wagner as my lone down player to date. He will get rolling once the Phils get red hot which they are due for.
Deep Cover: Speed (Stolen Bases)
This week I thought I’d throw a change up and go looking for speed players. One of the toughest positions to fill in fantasy baseball leagues is that coveted Stolen Bases stat that can cause owners to basically throw up their hands and concede that column on the stat sheet week to week.
My initial thought is simple. You need to be very aware of speed during the draft. I went out and got Juan Pierre early the draft for just that reason and my first pick was Carlos Beltran. I wanted other players with sexier pedigrees but Beltran stuffs multiple fantasy columns. Steals included. Since your draft is over…let’s look at what we can do…
So here is my list of three DEEP COVER players who can be had through a trade, or in bigger leagues, are waiver wire ready.
Alex Sanchez, CF, Detroit
Sanchez has real real nice numbers. He almost certainly is on someone’s roster in your league but is one of those players that you can always get as a “throw in” for a blockbuster type deal. I love these type players. No one knows who they are and yet they stuff the stat sheet with RUNS, BA and Steals. He’s a diamond out there. Try to get him.
2004 Steals to Date: 14
2004 Projected: 45
Dave Roberts, LF, Los Angeles
Roberts can run. Period. I turned on the Sox/Dodgers game on Sunday night and watched one AB. Roberts tripling off of Pedro.
He is a stolen base machine and in LA’s stagnant offense they send him every chance they can get. He’s a WHOPPING 21 out of 22 in chances this year! Wow!
I bring him up for one reason. HE’S A FREE AGENT IN MY LEAGUE! Check your waiver wire, you may have a 50 SB and 100 run guy named Dave Roberts sitting out there for you to swoop in and grab.
2004 Steals to Date: 21
2004 Projected: 57
Luis Matos, CF, Baltimore
Matos is not a 100% fulltime player. He does suit up quite a bit for Baltimore, however, and when he does they like to let him run when he’s on. The problem is that he’s not on that much. He’s an average ballplayer, but truth be told, if you are hard up for SB’s in your lineup – I can guarantee he’s available.
2004 Steals to Date: 10
2004 Projected: 24
Fantasy Football Sleepers 2004
June 1st: WR
Charles Rogers, Detroit
Jerry Porter, Oakland
Peerless Price, Atlanta
June 8th: RB
Brian Westbrook, Philadelphia
Kevin Jones, Detroit
Michael Bennett, Minnesota
June 15th: QB
June 22nd: TE
June 29th: D/ST
July 6th: Kicker
This week we’re are going to toss out three QB’s to look for as sleepers in 2004.
Washington will still stink with no defense but with Clinton Portis taking pressure off of the passing game, Brunell should have success once again and the offense should thrive
Mark Brunell, Washington
Kerry Collins, Oakland (Gannon Injury)
Carson Palmer, Cincinnati
That does it for this edition…tune In next week…