Week 3 Roster Moves

What I expected to happen in week 2, started to show in week 3 as there were only a handful of roster moves this week.  Just to clarify, that would be a normal person handful, not an Antonio Alfonseca handful.

As we settle into the season and become more comfortable with the players that will be our indentured servants for the next 5 months (10 lucky ones will be ours for even longer), it will be interesting to see how the roster moves start to shake out.  The waiver format really makes the moves much more difficult as we cant pick up a player and use him right away; we cannot use him for another 6 days basically.  Mid week injuries to players who play positions where we dont have backups become multi week albotrosses as we wait to see if we get the player we want on waivers.  I like the "you cant use a guy right when you pick him up" aspect of the league and the couple of you I have talked to about like how it is different and makes it a bit more challenging, but I think that we might need to look at the number of roster spots available and grow that number by 2 or 3 for next season.  We will have to discuss it at next season's draft/winter meetings/basketball/beer fest.

This week's roster tinkerings:

RP Francisco Rodriguez - $2 - MWP Masters -
Oh how long ago K-Rod was thrust into our baseball watching lives.  For those of you who arent old enough to remember (looking at you Kyler) K-Rod was a very very very late season call up in 2002 (5 innings in 5 games) who went on to throw 18 innings in the 02 playoffs allowing 10 hits and striking out 28.  He feels like he has been around forever, but despite it being his 13th MLB season, he is only 32.  Other than some BABIP bad luck in 2011 and 2012, he has been roughly the same pitcher his entire career--someone who gives up about a baserunner an inning and strikes out more than 11 per 9 innings.  Now that he is back in the big seat in Brew town and Los Ceveceros are winning, he should be a startable player for the foreseeable future.  I know John wasnt the only one trying to get in on this party.




Benny Agbayani leg kick.  At
least he isnt fouling one of his nuts
in this picture.

OF Shane Victorino - $1 - Backyard Superstars -
I have never been a fan of Shane Victorino.  The shortness, the fatness, the ugliness and the general Hawaiian-ness have always rubbed me the wrong way...like he was the jock in grade school that constantly made fun of Benny Agbayani on the play ground.  And seriously...nobody messes with Benny Agbayani without making this guy an enemy for life.  Victorino's strongest fantasy case has always been that he is able to do a little bit of everything to help you.  He wont kill your average, hits a moderate number of HRs and steals a few bases but his diminishing skills and OBP/SLG combination the past few years (he has OPS'ed over .800 only 3 times in his career) make him a risky play in this format. 


SP Tim Hudson - $1 - The Zach Attack -
I will come clean.  I have been mulling a Tim Hudson add for the past couple of weeks only I havent been able to figure out who to drop in order to get him.  Matt Moore's general asshDLe-ishness made that an easy decision for Zach.  Hudson is closing in on his 39th birthday, but he has been able to maintain his ability to make very strong and very coordinated men to look like 3rd graders more often than not.  While this might not be a keeper type pickup, it will help keep the Attack in the playoff hunt as the injuries start to mount.

SS Addison Russell - $1 - The Zach Attack -
While the Hudson pickup was all about the right now, Addison Russell is all about the future.  Russell is a bat first SS currently playing at AA Midland (Tx) in Oakland's system.  He started the season off on a tear (5 for 7, 1 2b, 1 HR) before tearing his hamstring.  He is only 20 years old, so he may not see The Show until late the season or even next year, but if he meets expectations attached to being the #7 overall prospect according to Baseball Prospectus, $1 will be a steal for year to come. Also, google him and tell me he isn't Blasian (half black-half Asian).

SS Alexi Ramirez - $1 - MWP Masters -
Ramirez is on an absolute tear to start the season.  He is hitting 415/466/660 and has a hit in every one of the ChiSox 14 games this season.  The thing is though, that there is nothing in his statistical profile that says "I'm a different player than I was for the first 6 years of my career." And in those first 6 years he was a 275/310/400 player who was capable of stealing 20 or so bases.  The player with those stats is a nice player, dont get me wrong, but its likely that we are seeing Ramirez play his best ball of the season and there will be a long, dark, soul sucking cold streak coming (like it is with Emilio Bonifacio).