Article:2009 AGM Fantasy Baseball Update

Yes, I realize that nobody wants to hear about my fantasy baseball team. And yes, I also realize that no one wants to hear me say that nobody wants to hear about my fantasy baseball team. But there are other people's fantasy teams in here, too, so I have an excuse. Anyway, I tried to keep up with the AGM Fantasy Baseball League last year, and I was unsuccessful. Special thanks to a friend for pinch-hitting for me on that. Anyway, I'm going to give it another try this year. There are 5 fewer teams, which makes it a little easier to deal with and a hell of a lot easier to construct tables for.

This version will be a pretty basic, meat and potatoes kind of recap, with not much analysis. Hypothetical future versions will contain much more variety and spice, hopefully. Let's get going with the standings, as well as the top 10 position players and pitchers by fantasy points.

(Note:  All standings and statistics are current through April 22, 2009.  I don't care if the 2009 is redundant, it stays.)

{| border="1" bordercolor="#dcdcdc" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" class="player-profile-stats" |- class="player-profile-stats-header"!Rank!Team!Points |- |1 |Tmil42 |165.58 |- |2 |Demonboy |158.75 |- |3 |Goose Bay Killers |140.83 |- |4 |The Brew Haus |136.13 |- |5 |A-Rod's PR Team |126.17 |- |6 |Davis21Wylie |124.13 |- |7 |Romiezzo's |122.07 |- |8 |BBB15 |120.40 |- |9 |Get Yours |119.35 |- |10 |Yakob878 |119.29 |- |11 |Trizz |116.06 |- |12 |Falcon02520 |113.80 |- |13 |Rented Mules |110.85 |- |14 |Prophet's magic |80.90 |}

Obviously, it's still very early, so these standings are likely to change any number of times before the end of the season. However...I am winning. I like that. I like that very much.

{| border="1" bordercolor="#dcdcdc" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" class="player-profile-stats" |- class="player-profile-stats-header"!Rank!Position Player!POS!Team!Fantasy Team!Points |- |1 |Ian Kinsler |2B |TEX |Trizz |20.55 |- |2 |Kevin Youkilis |1B,3B |BOS |Get Yours |16.68 |- |3 |Victor Martinez |C,1B |CLE |Tmil42 |16.11 |- |4 |Aaron Hill |2B |TOR |Demonboy |15.92 |- |5 |Matt Kemp |OF |LAD |Trizz |15.89 |- |6 |Orlando Hudson |2B |LAD |Davis21Wylie |15.43 |- |7 |Raul Ibanez |OF |PHI |Demonboy |15.36 |- |8 |Freddy Sanchez |2B |PIT |Yakob878 |15.35 |- |9 |Evan Longoria |3B |TB |Falcon02520 |15.33 |- |10 |Miguel Cabrera |1B,3B |DET |Get Yours |14.78 |)

{| border="1" bordercolor="#dcdcdc" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" class="player-profile-stats" |- class="player-profile-stats-header" !Rank !Pitcher !POS !Team !Fantasy Team !Points |- |1 |Glen Perkins |SP |MIN |Demonboy |20.91 |- |2 |Kevin Millwood |SP |TEX |Romiezzo's |20.47 |- |3 |Roy Halladay |SP |TOR |Tmil42 |19.81 |- |4 |Kyle Lohse |SP |STL |Get Yours |18.79 |- |5 |Edwin Jackson |SP |DET |Get Yours |17.94 |- |6 |Johan Santana |SP |NYM |Yakob878 |17.78 |- |7 |Jarrod Washburn |SP |SEA |Tmil42 |17.76 |- |8 |Paul Maholm |SP |PIT |The Brew Haus |16.85 |- |9 |Joe Saunders |SP |LAA |A-Rod's PR Team |16.80 |- |10 |Dan Haren |SP |ARI |Davis21Wylie |16.70 |)

Ok, a couple things to point out here. Obviously it's early, so these top-10 lists don't carry a ton of weight. You know, small sample size and all that. However, they do carry a little weight. Here's a couple of things that interested me:


 * The wealth of really good second basemen in the league right now.  I mean, in the top-10 alone, there are 4 second basemen.  And that's not even including the best second baseman in baseball, as well as guys like Brian Roberts and Brandon Phillips.  That and the recent studies that show second base to not necessarily be more difficult defensively than third base (sorry, can't find the link for it) may mean that the days of the no-hit, all-glove second baseman is a thing of the past.  Luis Castillo, I'm looking at you.  Get your stuff and get out. *It is quite obviously still April.  Glen Perkins and Kevin Millwood are not the two best pitchers in baseball.  However, Jarrod Washburn may be in for a big season.  I know he's 34 and has never really been all that good, but as an extreme fly ball pitcher in a pitcher's park with the best outfield defense in the majors, he has a real chance to excel this year.  Again, I'm not saying he will be Roy Halladay good, but a sub-4.00 ERA is realistic and is nothing to sneeze at. (That is unless, of course, you are any Mets pitcher not named Johan Santana, in which case you are allergic to both quality starts and just winning in general.  Santana has 2 quality starts in 3 games pitched, and the rest of the Mets starting pitchers also have 2 QS...in 11 games.) *The biggest surprise for me?  Marco Scutaro as the 16th-highest scoring player in fantasy points right now.  I've always been a big Scutaro fan.  I remember when he got his first hit in the majors with the Mets in 2002, ripping a triple in his second career game.  Those were dark days for Mets fans, the Mo Vaughn-Roger Cedeno period.  I'm not sure if the past two years have been an improvement or not.

That's about all I've got for my first fantasy recap of 2009. The end.