The Fantasy Baseball Awards: The B-Dubbies
Written by B-Dub, Wednesday September 30 2009
Now that the fantasy baseball season is over, or should be over for those of you holding your Championship Series this week, I thought it would be a great time to look back at the year in fantasy baseball. I am basing this on the scoring system that I use, which is much better than the standard 4x4 or 5x5. How the hell can you accurately judge a player without considering his strikeouts? Hitting categories: BA, HR, RBI, R, SB, KO, OPS. Pitching categories: W, L, S, K, ERA, WHIP. The stats are through 9/30. So without further ado, I present to you The B-Dubbies.
MVP
Albert Pujols 1B STL
.328 BA, 47 HR, 133 RBI, 121 R, 63 KO, 16 SB, 1.1125 OPS
What, were you expecting Nyjer Morgan? No, just like in real baseball Albert Pujols is the best of the best. He was among the top 5 picks in every draft, but was normally not the top pick. Why? Well if you overthink your draft like most people do, including me, you don't consider a 1B to be as valuable as some other positions because there are more good 1B. While that may be true, Pujols is just a beast. Guys like Hanley Ramirez (my pick at #2 overall), Joe Mauer and Carl Crawford deserve consideration, but they aren't as good as Pujols.
Cy Young
Zack Greinke SP KC
16 W, 8 L, 237 K, 2.06 ERA, 1.07 WHIP
Greinke won't get the MLB Cy Young Award, since the Royals stink, but he was the best fantasy baseball pitcher in 2009. Guys like Lincecum, Wainwright and Sabathia get more pub since their teams win and they are in the playoff race, but that doesn't matter to fantasy players.
Reliever of the Year
Joe Nathan RP MIN
2 W, 2 L, 45 S, 83 K, 2.25 ERA, 0.95 WHIP
This one was very close, but Nathan gets the nod over Rivera because he was better down the stretch, when the fantasy playoffs were going on. Nathan had 10 saves during the last month, while Rivera only had 6. Other than that, the final numbers were almost identical. So Nathan gets it because it doesn't matter how good a player is in the regular season if he blows it during the playoffs.
Best Draft Pick
Justin Verlander SP DET
18 W, 9 L, 264 K, 3.45 ERA, 1.18 WHIP
Verlander wasn't the best pitcher in fantasy baseball, but I bet he went somewhere around the 16th round in most drafts just like he did in mine. Finding gems like this in the mid to late rounds are how fantasy baseball championships are won. Other mid round picks like Javier Vazquez (7th round), Chris Carpenter (10th), Adam Wainwright (11th), Matt Cain (11th), Felix Hernandez (11th) or Ubaldo Jimenez (16th) were all nice value picks in any draft, but Verlander returned the most bang for his draft position buck. I might have gone with Nyjer Morgan, since he was taken in the 26th and last round of my draft, but the idiot who drafted him dropped him right after the draft and then he got hurt. Nyjer, not the idiot.
Worst Draft Pick
David Wright 3B NYM
.306 BA, 10 HR, 70 RBI, 87 R, 26 SB, 139 KO, .8387 OPS
I know what you're thinking. I just hate the Mets and those are decent numbers. Yes I hate the Mets, but that's because I'm not fond of choking dogs, like Jose Reyes who was drafted #1 overall in far too many drafts this year. No, the reason Wright earns the distinction as the worst draft pick is that those numbers absolutely suck for a guy who was drafted in the top 5 of every draft. One of my draft day tips to all of you was that Wright will have a power outage due to those high walls in the new Citi Field. Nailed that one.
Best Free Agent Pickup
Ryan Franklin RP STL
4 W, 3 L, 38 S, 43 K, 1.95 ERA, 1.15 WHIP
Franklin wasn't the Cardinals closer to start the year, but when Chris Perez wet the bed to start the season, Franklin stepped back into the closer role he had the previous year and never looked back. I could have chosen guys like Marco Scuttaro, Pablo Sandoval, Joel Pinero or Troy Tulowitzki, but each of those guys were picked up and dropped several times. That's not a sign of being the best like Franklin. I got him the second week of the season and he never left my lineup. You don't see that very often in fantasy sports.
Well there you have it. The definitive list of Fantasy Baseball Awards. All that's left to do now is debate my choices. Bring it on.
Justin Verlander SP DET
18 W, 9 L, 264 K, 3.45 ERA, 1.18 WHIP
Verlander wasn't the best pitcher in fantasy baseball, but I bet he went somewhere around the 16th round in most drafts just like he did in mine. Finding gems like this in the mid to late rounds are how fantasy baseball championships are won. Other mid round picks like Javier Vazquez (7th round), Chris Carpenter (10th), Adam Wainwright (11th), Matt Cain (11th), Felix Hernandez (11th) or Ubaldo Jimenez (16th) were all nice value picks in any draft, but Verlander returned the most bang for his draft position buck. I might have gone with Nyjer Morgan, since he was taken in the 26th and last round of my draft, but the idiot who drafted him dropped him right after the draft and then he got hurt. Nyjer, not the idiot.
Worst Draft Pick
David Wright 3B NYM
.306 BA, 10 HR, 70 RBI, 87 R, 26 SB, 139 KO, .8387 OPS
I know what you're thinking. I just hate the Mets and those are decent numbers. Yes I hate the Mets, but that's because I'm not fond of choking dogs, like Jose Reyes who was drafted #1 overall in far too many drafts this year. No, the reason Wright earns the distinction as the worst draft pick is that those numbers absolutely suck for a guy who was drafted in the top 5 of every draft. One of my draft day tips to all of you was that Wright will have a power outage due to those high walls in the new Citi Field. Nailed that one.
Best Free Agent Pickup
Ryan Franklin RP STL
4 W, 3 L, 38 S, 43 K, 1.95 ERA, 1.15 WHIP
Franklin wasn't the Cardinals closer to start the year, but when Chris Perez wet the bed to start the season, Franklin stepped back into the closer role he had the previous year and never looked back. I could have chosen guys like Marco Scuttaro, Pablo Sandoval, Joel Pinero or Troy Tulowitzki, but each of those guys were picked up and dropped several times. That's not a sign of being the best like Franklin. I got him the second week of the season and he never left my lineup. You don't see that very often in fantasy sports.
Well there you have it. The definitive list of Fantasy Baseball Awards. All that's left to do now is debate my choices. Bring it on.
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4 comments
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If you followed MY advice you wouldn't have drafted David Wright BP TC. I'm here to help.
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I too believe Greinke was too good to not win the CY Young. And David Wright was in fact a kick in the pants for me as I picked him as my top pick. It may not have been his fault as the Mets were terrible, but i regretted drafting him.
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Kerri, if Sabathia gets to 20 wins (he has 19) he'll win because of that and the whole NY media thing. If you don't think that NY bias will come into play then explain Phil Rizzuto in the Hall of Fame. Felix Hernandez will also get a bunch of votes for a bad team along with Roy Halladay. There probably won't be a runaway winner.
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I think Greinke will win the AL Cy young. Who do you think will if he does not?