Today's Fantasy Rx

In 2003 Baseball Prospectus gathered some of their readers to form a couple of Scoresheet keeper leagues. As we previously had not played Scoresheet baseball, we decided to join the NL keeper league that drafted near Indianapolis. BP-Indy offered us a welcome alternative to our normal roster of roto and points leagues, and we eagerly embraced the challenge of competing against league veterans. Thanks to an initial draft that featured Albert Pujols, Jake Peavy, and Carlos Zambrano, we made the finals in 2003 before winning the league in both 2004 and 2005. Prior to the 2005 season we even ceded our previous team name, Always Polko-Cola, to another of our Scoresheet entries while taking the designated moniker "Even More Evil Empire" after prompting by fellow owners.

Alas, our attempt to three-peat fell just short thanks to Jeff Weaver, only activated by the Scoresheet program due to a lack of September IP by our designated pitching staff. In the bottom of the tenth of the seventh game of the Series, Weaver, entering his second inning of work in relief, allowed a single to Andruw Jones and then a walk-off blast from Jimmy Rollins that ended the series and our season.

Of course, the other reason Weaver entered the game is that we couldn't manage our normal mid-season trade for an ace reliever, instead adding only Scott Eyre and a few extra arms in the supplemental draft, most ignominiously selecting Elmer Dessens and Shea Hillenbrand over Cla Meredith and Bob Wickman, either of whom would have insured a victory.

The good news is that our rebuilding plan remains on target. Prior to 2006, after realizing that our place in the success cycle left us ill-prepared for perennial contention, we began looking to add long-term solutions at several positions. The Rockies really hurt us here by giving Chris Iannetta and Troy Tulowitzki too much playing time in September to keep Scoresheet rookie status, but otherwise we entered the off-season confident in our goals to deal questionable veterans for increased short-term depth and the hope of finding quality from quantity.

In the fall, already looking for one extra crossover spot to accommodate Bobby Abreu, Milton Bradley, and Adrian Beltre, we dealt Randy Johnson for Colby Rasmus, quickly following that trade with a swap of Edgar Renteria for both an extra protection slot and the right to protect a third crossover. A third trade sent Tim Hudson and a thirty-fifth round pick for a fifteenth protection slot, Jay Bruce, and the first pick in the first 2007 supplemental draft.

With those three trades complete, we entered 2007 planning to keep Michael Barrett and Iannetta at catcher, Albert Pujols, Orlando Hudson, Tulowitzki, Beltre, and Garrett Atkins in the infield, and Carlos Beltran, Luke Scott, Abreu, and Bradley in the outfield. Carlos Zambrano, Jake Peavy, and Brad Penny would occupy three rotation slots with either Jeff Weaver or Tomo Ohka filling the fourth. Ronny Paulino and Josh Bard qualified as our best remaining trade bait, so we spent all spring looking to move them. We also expected to enter the season with a loaded minor league system, featuring Bruce, Rasmus, Phil Humber, Miguel Montero, Kory Casto, Carlos Gonzalez, and Justin Upton.

Unfortunately, Weaver turned his back on the Cardinals and headed to the AL, Ohka left for Toronto, and we found no takers for Paulino or Bard. We instead kept Paulino as a fourth starting catcher, hoping to deal either him or Barrett for a starting pitcher before April.

BP-Indy drafted on March 11th, we picked eleventh in most rounds by virtue of our second place finish, and our draft plan involved grabbing a fourth starter in round 14, Albert Callaspo and Dexter Fowler in Rounds 16 and 17, a backup shortstop in 18, and Nook Logan, the second best defensive outfielder in the game, around Round 20. We traded our 15th rd pick last year in a deal for Carlos Beltran, swapped our 23rd rounder for a 25th in the Eyre trade, and added 30th rounder in a separate transaction. Also, we lacked any other pick after Round 28 because we kept seven rookies.

Round 14 opened with the shocking selection of Freddy Garcia, followed by Barry Zito, Chuck James, and Ian Snell. We hoped to grab Tim Lincecum, but the team selecting tenth, which had just cut Lincecum rather than spend a thirty-second round pick to keep him, bizarrely redrafted Lincecum. After briefly considering Mike Cameron and Ted Lilly, we decided we couldn't pass on the upside of Pedro Martinez. While we realize Pedro could retire as soon as this fall, we instead like the medical reports that suggest he could rebound to his pre-2004 form with any luck and hope he'll provide us a boost down the stretch, as well as a possible long-term solution.

Cameron went with the next pick, followed by Rafael Soriano, John Maine, Ted Lilly, and Bard, obviously irking us considering no one offered even a late-round pick for the San Diego catcher yet the league clearly valued him quite highly. With the starting pitching also flying off the board, we began shopping Paulino and managed to deal him for the last pick in Round 15. Unfortunately, Claudio Vargas, our intended target, fell with pick 15.10, leaving us with Randy Wolf as the best remaining option.

While we expected to take Callaspo in Round 16, we couldn't pass on Shane Victorino, who soon might shift to centerfield and still remains sufficiently young to develop into an excellent long-term option for us. Luckily, Callaspo remained available a round later, and we also managed to grab Fowler, the best unowned prospect, with 18.10.

The only problem with this strategy is that all five of the solid starting shortstops available in the draft, Omar Vizquel, Adam Everett, Khalil Greeene, Alex Gonzalez, and Jack Wilson, has been selected by our pick at 19.11. We instead again went for long-term upside with the selection of Mark Mulder, mainly because no other decent starters remained. A round later we eagerly grabbed Jeff Baker, someone we considered in the 16th round, as a right-handed bat off the bench.

Of course, by Round 21, few decent pitchers capable of starting remained, and going with our hearts over our heads, we picked Yusmeiro Petit, who we traded last year with three other prospects in the deal that brought us Atkins and Tim Hudson, over Sergio Mitre. A round later we finally grabbed Logan, which basically completed our offense but left us bereft of healthy pitchers.

Unfortunately, the two rounds in which we then didn't pick cost us Mike Thompson, Edgar Gonzalez, and Woody Williams, leaving Chan Ho Park as the best value on the board at 24.11, a pick that now looks as bad as our Mitre investment. We at least managed to address our shortstop weakness via trade at point, but obtaining Khalil Greene and picks 30.4 & 41.X cost us 25.6, 25.11, and 27.11. While we're glad we landed Greene, we then missed the chance to draft Mitre and Shawn Hill.

With our three remaining picks, we tried to take the safest investments on the board, opting for Elmer Dessens, Jamey Carroll, and Heath Bell, which at least left our offense loaded.

Of course, if you've kept a tally of our pitchers to this point, you realize that our Opening Day roster this week included just six healthy pitchers in the majors, Peavy, Zambrano, Penny, Wolf, Dessens, and Bell. Park and Humber failed to make the majors, and Petit not only didn't earn a job with Florida, his trade to Arizona effectively buries him in a franchise with greater pitching depth and offering a far worse pitching environment. Our gamble to acquire the supp. pick in the Hudson deal also flopped since Travis Blackley ranks as the best player traded to the NL this spring.

At least next week's supp. draft should let us draft a potentially decent starter like Jerome Williams or Matt Chico, as well as presenting the opportunity to land a few relievers to fill our bullpen. We opened the season with only twenty-five players in the majors and will spend the next couple of months looking to bolster our depth for the stretch run.

However, we remain surprisingly happy with the long-term prognosis of our team. We expect our next three keeper lists to feature Iannetta and either Barrett or Montero at catcher, Pujols, Hudson, and Tulowitzki in the infield, Beltran in the outfield, and Peavy and Zambrano fronting our pitching staff. Atkins and Beltre currently comprise an excellent offense-defense platoon, and if Callaspo remains a superutilityman, his potential qualification at second, third, shortstop, and the outfield will make him incredibly valuable.

We'll draw our other keepers from two fairly deep pools of talent. In the outfield, depending on each player's overall development, we expect to retain three starters from Abreu, Bradley, Scott, Victorino, Gonzalez, Casto, Bruce, Rasmus, Fowler, and Upton, most likely favoring high OBP sources, followed by centerfielders with high range numbers, and then looking to switch-hitters or left-handers as we seek a balanced lineup. While we also hope to trade for a pitcher this summer using our prospect depth, picking a couple of starters from a pool that includes Penny, Wolf, Pedro, Mulder, and Humber gives us hope that we'll remain competitive into the next decade.

2007 BP-Indy Post-Draft Roster for Even More Evil Empire
1.	Bobby Abreu, RF
2.	Albert Pujols, 1B
3.	Carlos Beltran, CF
4.	Garrett Atkins/Adrian Beltre, 3B
5.	Milton Bradley/Luke Scott, LF
6.	Chris Iannetta/Michael Barrett, C
7.	Orlando Hudson, 2B
8.	Khalil Greene/Troy Tulowitzki, SS

C:	Iannetta, Barrett, Miguel Montero
IF:	Pujols, Hudson, Atkins, Beltre, Greene, Tulowitzki
	Alberto Callaspo, Jamey Carroll
OF:	Beltran, Abreu, Bradley, Scott,
Shane Victorino, Jeff Baker, Nook Logan
2007 Prospects: Kory Casto, Carlos Gonzalez
2008+ Prospects: Justin Upton, Dexter Fowler, Colby Rasmus, Jay Bruce

SP:	Jake Peavy, Carlos Zambrano, Brad Penny, Randy Wolf
	Pedro Martinez, Mark Mulder, Chan Ho Park, Yusmeiro Petit
RP:	Elmer Dessens, Heath Bell
Prospects: Phil Humber

Although we clearly lack the pitching depth necessary to contend at this time, considering our fairly loaded group of position players, we hope we can manage to fill our those holes over the course of the summer so we won't break our run of four consecutive appearances despite our obvious focus on entering 2008 with the strongest possible roster. Clearly we'll need to deal a couple of our outfield prospects, but if we choose wisely, we expect we can minimize the appearance of AAA pitcher in our box scores to the extent that we won't be out of contention before Pedro and Mulder return in the second half.

Today's Fantasy Rx: While we certainly support anyone who focuses on the latter goal when Playing Fantasy Baseball for Fun and Profit, we generally recommend participating in no less than one league each year just for the fun of it. Our increasing focus on sim leagues over straight roto addresses this issue for us, especially since the current Cubs' broadcasting team has vastly diminished our enjoyment of watching the Chicago National League Ballclub. We've found that playing Scoresheet and a couple of other computer sims helps balance our dozen or so roto leagues.

If you're looking for a similar experience, Scoresheet still needs owners for some teams in continuing leagues. Joining now gives you a complete team for a very reasonable $39, giving you a full year to rebuild your squad into a viable contender before needing to expend much more money than most basic online roto leagues. Most importantly, Scoresheet no longer charges for online lineup changes, so for the cost of one night at the movies, you can find a whole new world of fantasy baseball ripe with intriguing opportunities for savvy owners.