No middle ground with this guy. Got off to a ferocious start, hitting .413/.413/.913 in 46 July AB to take over all the right field playing time. Finally got his first walk Aug. 21 against the Padres. From then on in, his walk rate was actually okay — not a plus, but not something you’d complain about either. Unfortunately, he went into a slump at about the same time, indicating that he was was drawing some walks less because he’d improved his selectivity and more because pitchers weren’t throwing him any strikes. From that point on, he hit only three more homers, and hit .247 in September.
The near future is cloudy. If he can lay off the curveballs in the lefthanded batters’ box, pitchers will eventually have to start giving him some pitches to hit. Long-term, he should be excellent, unless he gets frustrated and develops bad habits. I would compare him less to Dale Murphy and more to Juan Gonzalez, another player with fantastic talents and obvious holes in his game. Eventually, the holes overwhelmed Gonzalez, but don’t forget that he was a good player for a decade, a great one at his best.
Played well in the outfield and had thirteen assists. Eventually, they stopped testing his arm. 3-5 in stolen bases; last year in Mississippi he was 13-17, the first time he was a plus basestealer. He should improve there as well.
Very good Mac, you give me hope that he may dominate this year.
Prediction.
Mac will be taking Frenchy in the 1st round of our baseball sim league.
Probability: 95% (he could go before Mac gets a chance)
What’s this? Is this an open league? Or are you guys elitist?
Would you guys take the over or the under of a hypothetical line for next year of:
.270/.335/.480
or, to say it another way:
.270 / 25 homers / 85 RBI
A.K.A. Adam LaRoche with a cannon in RF.
I’d go with under.
Cary and I (and Alex R.) are all in the same APBA league — it’s a keeper league so the draft is mostly rookies. My plan is to take the best available Brave.
My team is very bad because I make panicky trades.
Seriously, would folks on this forum be interested in doing some sort of fantasy league together? I think it would be fun.
Sorry for all these posts.
Only if it’s not for money – I already spend enough on my “serious” league.
If there’s a free league available I think that would be fine.
I’m a married law student. I can’t afford anything more than free, anyway.
I know Yahoo does free leagues. ESPN had a free football league for the first time this past year, but I don’t know if they have similar plans for baseball.
Anyone else have any suggestions or ideas?
I usually do one of the Yahoo free leagues, because I’m not very good at fantasy baseball. I usually do something stupid like sleep through the live draft, or pick Corey Koskie for another 20-20 season. I’d love to play in a league with you guys, though.
I’m in on the fantasy league.
i don’t post on here a whole lot, but i’ve enjoyed reading this site for a long time . . . i’d definitely be up for a fantasy baseball league if there’s room.
I did a 16-team league last year with something like 24-man rosters, and it was a lot of fun. The picks in latter rounds get tough; I suppose it separates the men from the boys.
Anyway, I think you could have as many as 20 teams in a league (or maybe more, if you cut down the rosters), so I think there should be room for most who are interested.
I’m all about the live online draft, by the way. I can’t take a computer picking my team for me.
I think Yahoo will probably be our best bet. It’s pretty bare bones, but I don’t think we need any real fancy scoring systems. 5×5 roto ought to be good enough, although we could saber-ify the rules if need be.
I just checked it out – we can’t open a league until early February, so if you’re interested check back in these open threads for more info.
I’d love to do a fantasy league. I’ve done Yahoo! before and I think it’s the best way to go. Would it be roto or H2H? My preference is Roto, but I would go either way. 🙂
Cloudy indeed. I predict some serious impatience from Braves fans, if not from Francoeur himself. He obviously has great talent, but I think you have to look at the low numbers as the baseline that he has to build upon. It seems a lot of pitchers and baserunners were eager to challenge the wonderkid from AA. That won’t happen with regularity in 2006 and beyond. He may adjust very quickly, he may not – it’s hard to say.
Any there going to be any commentary by Mac on here about the World Baseball Classic? I know it’s not as important as real baseball, but it’s still be informative and entertaining to see what people other than the mainstream media have to say about it.
I’ve done different fantasy leagues in the past – head-to-head & roto. I had always done H2H until the last couple years when I started a roto league (using Yahoo!). It’s not a traditional 5×5 – I used 8 offensive & 8 pitching categories. They were:
Offensive – AVG, SLG, OBP, walks, runs, HR, SB & RBI.
Pitching – Wins, saves, Ks, BBs, WHIP, ERA, total bases, and hmm, can’t remember #8 – I think it was losses (to provide balance if guys loaded up with a ton of pitchers).
It’s a lot of categories, but I was trying to get a league that valued categories that are traditionally ignored. Anyway, I’ve never done the ‘serious’ leagues (keeper league, $$ leagues, etc) but would be interested in advice from folks who know a lot about leagues. And I’d be interested in joining a league with folks from these message/comments sections…
My “real” league has keepers and $100 buy-in every year; we use a custom scoring system on CBS that, on offense at least, is basically equivalent to RC or Linear Weights – that is, guys who are “overrated” or “underrated” by traditional fantasy systems are properly weighted again (Brian Giles is very good, for example). Pitching is a combination of positive points for outs recorded with a bonus for strikeouts and negative points for everything else (hits, walks, runs, hbp, etc) – high inning, high strikeout guys are best, but even ordinary pitchers are pretty good as long as they eat innings. It’s really competitive, but lots of fun too.
Since I made the playoffs, I only get 5 keepers instead of the usual 6. Two spots are reserved for Mark Teixiera and Felix “Steal of the Draft” Hernandez for $13 and $5. I think I’m going with Matt Cain, Francisco Liriano and Jeremy Hermida for the last three spots (all at $2).
—
My preference for a Braves Journal league would be head to head with roto points and weekly lineup changes for simplicity’s sake. I don’t like having to cycle players in and out of the lineup every day. Any other opinions on this?
Under.
.265/.325/.400 ………in Richmond.
I’ll take the over. He’s special.
Here’s why: He’s got talent. He has loads of enthusiam. He’s got a taste of the good and the bad.
So what’s cloudy? He’s young, which should not be equated with immature. Cabrerra’s young; Pujols is too, really. It’ll come down to how he makes adjustments and his character.
I’m bettin’ on him, bigtime. There’s gotta be a reason why he such a local hero. I hope the Braves give the charter members of the Franks season tickets!
Make that “why he’s such a local hero.” I started laughing when I remembered the Franks and misspelled!
Let the record show that I won the League Stu’s talking about above. My first time playing fantasy baseball even. *toot toot* Ahh the sound of my own horn.
Let the record show that I won the regular season title in that league–you know, the part that shows who actually assembled the better team? LatNam had two lucky weeks at the end of the year. I DOMINATED that league all year long, though.
I am definitely interested in a FREE league with you folks. I am married and busy with school and work, so the word FREE always sounds excellent. Let’s do this.
As for Francouer, whatever he does will be done in the majors. Who else would we put in right field?
With all of this fantasy talk, let me plug Sam Walker’s Fantasyland. It’s about his experience in Tout Wars. I enjoyed it quite a bit, even though I refrain from fantasy sports.
I never claimed regular season dominance. I did win the whole thing though. One big mistake I made in retrospect, though I had no way of knowing it at the time, was picking Todd Helton 3rd, and then not trading him for Derrek Lee during the draft. If I remember right, D. Lee was drafted and I said “He’s a good player. I like him a lot” and the guy said “You have Helton, wanna trade?” and I said something that conveyed the idea “Hell No!” Though I don’t remember exactly. That’s life.
Anyway Stu had Brian Roberts on his team, so his team obviously crashed at the end ’cause at least one member sold his soul for extra baseball power. (He had Andruw on his team too, and Andruw’s hot streaks would coincide with my matchups with Stu. Interesting…)
I am in for a fantasy league
I’d love to get in another fantasy baseball league. Yahoo would be the best bet I would say.
I do believe that Frenchy’s athleticism will sustain him even during slumps and what not. That’s what distinguishes these badass young kids from the shaky prospects, along with demeanor. I look for he and LaRoche to make a fantastic one-two punch in the middle of the lineup behind Andruw. I know you guys are ready to trade LaRoche to the Newark Bears for Kevin Mitchell, but he’s going to be just fine, given the chance to play every day.
I try to keep to a policy of not making “meta” posts, but I have to suspend said policy for a moment: Good luck with the fantasy league, y’all — and please try to remember, there is nothing less interesting than someone talking about their fantasy team. Really, nothing. If you think people are upset about off-topic posts now, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
I’ll vote over for Frenchy. Also, I’m interested in a Fantasy league. My wife has an uncanny ability to pick fantasy teams(she loves to pick them but hates to play)
Thanks, sansho.
I’d be up for a fantasy league. Count me in.
Ok, so I’m a little late here, but I’d be down with something like that.
On a related topic, I played that crappy free game on SportsNews.com or whatever. So this year, I’m trying to start up a real 5×5 roto league with a bunch of friends. Seeing as how I am incredibly ignorant, can yall recommend a good site to host a league? I know Yahoo and CBS have things, and I assume they charge, but none of their info is up right now.
Anyone up for Dugeons & Dragons?
i’d like to be in the league, if possible. the baseball one, not “dugeons” and dragons.
I vote on the upside of Francoeur as well. I think he’ll adjust and pitchers will have to throw to him. When that happens, look out. Unless the league treats him like Barry Bonds, I think he’s got a good shot at an MVP award or two before it’s all said and done.
I try to keep to a policy of not making “meta” posts, but I have to suspend said policy for a moment: Good luck with the fantasy league, y’all — and please try to remember, there is nothing less interesting than someone talking about their fantasy team. Really, nothing. If you think people are upset about off-topic posts now, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.I could not agree with you more, Sansho.
I’ll say under on average, over on HRs and RBIs.