Category: About Tout Wars

by Perry Van Hook, www.fantasybaseball.com

As we start Week 9, I just made my first trade in this league, sending Roy Oswalt to Paul Petera for Jermaine Dye. Part of my rationale was that I was doing very well in the pitching categories without Oswalt contributing much and I had Chris Carpenter back from the DL and looking and feeling great, with a very good spot starter in Nick Blackburn. While I could have traded either Derek Lowe or Carpenter for Dye, another part of my rationale was that Oswalt was supposed to be my ace SP on both my NFBC main event and online leagues as well as in the FB.com staff league. If in fact Oswalt turns his season around like he did in the second half of last year, he will help those teams immensely and I won’t mind the fact he is doing well here for one of my opponents. OTOH, if the WBC did in fact get him off to a start he can’t recover from or he is traded to the White Sox or some other poor pitching ballpark, or he just keeps scuffling, I will be glad I translated the extra starting pitcher for the power I need from Dye. Especially with Joey Votto now on the DL for at least a couple of weeks.

Currently the lineup is:
C – Pierzynski and Y. Molina
CI – Atkins, Mora, and Beltre
MI – A. Ramirez, Barmes, and J. Lopez
OF – Ellsbury, N. Cruz, Werth, Juan Rivera, and Dye
UT – L. Scott
Reserve – Spilborghs and R. Santiago

For the first eight weeks they have generated 43.0 points (roughly 9th), falling from last month
BA=.2710 for 9 points; HR=68 for 6 points; RUNS=303 for 4 points; RBI=301 for 7 points; and SB=70 for all 17 points

On the pitching side I now have 57.0 points (now fifth) with ERA=3.98 for 13 points; K=359 for 9 points; S=11 for 4.5 points; W=33 for 14.5 points; and WHIP=1.25 for 16 points

SP – Carpenter, Lowe, Lohse, Saunders, Zimmermann, Washburn, Gaudin, and Blackburn
RP – Broxton
Reserve – Medlen and Hanson

Blackburn is reserved when on the road (except this week for a start against the Mariners); the others only when they are pitching in Texas, Colorado, or Yankee Stadium. I have Chad Gaudin now available for starts in San Diego or other friendly matchups. I added Kris Medlen just before he came up (allowed in TOUT but not in most leagues). Perhaps swayed by his fantastic Triple-A numbers and the two start week he was schedule to have in his first week I made a heavy bid – $33 on him. Fortunately it only cost me $15 as the underbid using the Vickerey system was $14. That didn’t work very well in his first two starts, but yesterday he got his first win giving up only one run and striking out nine. I will likely reserve him to start Week 9 with the likelihood that Tom Glavine returns to make a start late in the Week.

Here are the TOUT standings after Week 8:
Rank     Team        Points
1)         Jason Pliml, MDC                   131.0
2)         Michael Salfino, SNY.tv        113.0
3)         J.P. Kastner, CreativeSports   113.0
4)         Chris Liss, Rotowire               110.0
5)         Perry Van Hook, FB.com       100.0
6)         David Gonos, OpenSports       98.5
7)         Alex Patton, pattonandco        97.5
8)         John Hoyos, rotojunkie            90.5
9)         Brendan Roberts, ESPN          90.0
10)       Paul Petera, HQ                       90.0
11)       Larry Schechter, Shrink           88.5
12)       Eric Mack, CBS                       80.0
13)       Eric Karabell, ESPN                77.5
14)       Andy Behrens, Yahoo.com     76.0
15)       Doug Dennis, HQ                    67.5
16)       Alex Cushing, mlb.com           62.0
17)       Will Carroll, BP                       45.0