Ballers On A Budget

So I am currently at work and am super bored, so I did the only logical thing possible...look at the fantasy league and start writing a blog post about it. I decided I would look back at the draft and find the best player on each team that was drafted for $5 or less (Tyler at no point did you draft anyone for less than $7, you have no place in this post, may God have mercy on your soul). In order to be on this list, the player has to still be on the team as of today, which is why there are a few teams who have a "one that got away" category.

Mark Baker's Hitless Bastards: Tyler Clippard  $5
     Honorable Mention: Oscar Tavares  $5
So far this year Tyler Clippard has done a very good job being the set-up man for Rafeal Soriano. Clippard has 18 holds/saves so far this season and has an ERA of 2.06. He also posts a strikeout to walk ratio of nearly 3/1. The most likely reason Clippard was available for just 5 bucks in the draft is probably because he wasn't a closer so nobody was quite sure what they would get from him fantasy wise. However, for the price, he has been a good bullpen arm for the Hitless Bastards, who only have two true relief pitchers. Tavares was noted as an honorable mention only because of his potential. Though he did hit a home run in his first major league game for the Cardinals, he struggled to find his swing. He is, however, one of the top prospects in all of baseball and has been said to have batting ability equal to that of former Cardinal Albert Pujols. If he ends up panning out to be anything like Pujols, $5 would be an absolute steal.

Zach Attack: Steve Cishek  $5

    Honorable Mention: Jonathon Papelbon  $4

Yikes!

This was a tough choice for who is the best and who is honorable mention. Both Cishek and Papelbon posts a sub 2.00 ERA's and nearly identical WHIP's. I decided Cishek has been the best for Zach because of his higher strikeout total and strikeout to walk ratio, as well as having one less blown save than Papelbon. To be honest I didn't even know anyone drafted Cishek until I went to the players list a couple weeks ago to try and pick him up myself. Cishek has the 2nd most fantasy points of any pitcher on Zach's roster (ranked 58), only behind Sandy Koufax JR. To my surprise Papelbon is also ranked in the top 100.

Bob's Dee Gordon Stealers: Jose Abreu  $2

    Honorable Mention:  C.J. Wilson  $2
    The One That Got Away: Kyle Lohse  $3
So Bob took a chance on the Cuban slugger to start the year and it payed off big time. For $2 Bob has received 22 home runs, 60 RBI's, and 40 runs scored. That's good enough for second in the league in homers and slugging percentage and 3rd in RBI's. That's perty damn good production for 2 bucks. I don't think anyone, including Bob, would've guessed Abreu would play anywhere near this good this year. The honorable mention went to C.J. Wilson because he's had a decent season, with 10 quality starts (2nd on the team) and 8 wins. He has also added 97 strikeouts and multiple Head & Shoulders commercials. Kyle Lohse would have easily beat out C.J. Wilson for the honorable mention for the season he's had, the only problem is Bob dropped Lohse before the season even began.

Huckleberries: Mark Melancon   $1
     Honorable Mention: R.A. Dickey   $1
Mark Melancon was one of the hold-overs from original owner Jarred to new Huckleberries owner Kevin. This season Melancon has posted an ERA of 2.48 and an excellent WHIP or.85 despite giving up a couple runs Tuesday night. Though the Pirates have had there fair share of struggles this year, Melancon has been a top tier fantasy relief pitcher. In fact, to the amazement of myself and probably most others, Melancon leads the league in saves/ holds with 27 (14 holds, 13 saves). He owns a nearly one strikeout per inning rate and an astronomical 5.5/1 strikeout to walk ratio. As Jason Grilli struggles for Pittsburgh, it looks more and more like Melancon will be the guy going forward which makes the $1 pick of him look damn good right about now. R.A. Dickey made honorable mention merely because he was another hold-over from the previous owner so therefore he qualified for this category. Dickey has provided the Huckleberries with 10 quality starts (2nd on the team) and 79 strikeouts (3rd on the team).

MWP Master's: Evan Gattis  $1
    Honorable Mentions: Albert Pujols  $5 and Joakim Soria $1
Evan Gattis was drafted for $1...wow! Everybody must have had there catchers at the time he was drafted because I think it's fairly obvious he is worth more than that. So far this season Gattis has a .288/.342/.553 slash line and is 2nd on the Master's with 39 RBI's. Gattis is the 2nd best hitter in terms of fantasy rank so far this year for outfielders on the Master's (behind Jacoby Ellsbury). The reason I gave Gattis the nod over Pujols was simply because he was drafted for $1 which makes him a bigger steal than $5 Pujols. Most of the stats pointed slightly in Pujols's favor other than his drastically lower batting average. Either way Pujols and Gattis have been outstanding this year considering the small price they were drafted for. Oh yeah, I forgot about Soria. All Joakim has done is post a 1.75 ERA and 0.62 WHIP while picking up 15 saves/holds. No big deal.



Backyard Superstars: Sonny Gray  $2
   Honorable Mentions: Aramis Ramirez $3 and Fernando Rodney  $2
When I drafted Sonny Gray, I had no idea how I got him for $2. I still don't! Anyways, Gray has been far and away my best cheap draft pick. He leads the team with 13 quality starts (in 15 games started) as well as leading the rest of my starters with a 1.18 WHIP. The best part about Sonny Gray is that he's shown that he can be a number 1 starter for the Athletics and yet he is still only 24 years old. He posts a 2.5/1 strikeout ratio and is written in permanent marker at number 1 on my list of keepers for next year. Since he only cost $2, it will give me more budget money to possibly bid higher on other star players. For the second team in a row we have a tie at honorable mention. Ramirez just finished up a week where he perty much said "fuck everyone, I'm awesome!" and preceded to go 14/28 with 3 home runs and 10 RBI's. This helped boost his batting average to .290 and his RBI's to 38. Not bad for a 35 year old third baseman who was drafted for $3. Fernando Rodney made honorable mention as well because of his high saves total. He has teamed up with the other 3 more expensive closers on my team to make a very solid bullpen.

Worst. Hitting. Pitcher.

The Dust Bunnies: Bartolo Colon  $2
   Honorable Mention: Nolan Arenado  $5
So the Dusty Bunnies starting rotation would be lucky to go 2-3 if they played 5 games against little league teams. Just for some perspective, the highest percentage starting for any pitcher on his team throughout fantasy leagues on yahoo is 36%...yikes. That being said one of those wins would most likely come from Bartolo Colon (the other from Phil Hughes). Colon has given the Bunnies who rule the Dust 11 quality starts with 8 victories, including 6 wins in his last 7 starts . His ERA and WHIP are middle of the pack but are dropping with every quality start. Unfortunately, he does have a low strikeout total, so he wasn't as big of a steal as a guy like C.J. Wilson for example. Though for 2 bucks he's not bad. Unfortunately for the Bunnies, Nolan Arenado is on the disabled list otherwise he would be the top baller on a budget for the team. Arenado had a .305/.333/.489 slash line this year before his injury. Mostly because of that 28 game hit streak he achieved earlier in the year. However, it has been a month since Arenado has been put on the DL and it looks like he'll be there for a little while longer, therefore he only gets honorable mention. On a total side note, I know Dusty says he doesn't read this blog but if you for whatever reason see this, TAKE WIL MYERS OUT OF YOUR STARTING LINEUP. Just because you can turn people into trees does not mean you can leave injured players in your starting lineup for weeks on end and expect anything back.

Lester The Molesters: Dallas Keuchel  $1
    Honorable Mention: Coco Crisp  $1
    The One That Got Away: Brian Dozier  $1

Also owns best afro in the majors

So coming into this year I can honestly say I had no clue who Dallas Keuchel was, or how his name was pronounced for that matter. Keuchel, however, has been worth way more this season than the $1 he was drafted with. He has recorded 8 wins and 11 quality starts while averaging a little more than 3 strikeouts per walk. As crazy as it sounds, Keuchel is the highest rated pitcher on the Molesters, who has a rotation including Zack Grienke and John Lester. If there was an award for drafting the best player I've never heard of it would go to the Molester whose name may or may not be Lester. I'll be honest, when I saw Coco Crisp was in the Molesters starting lineup I laughed a little bit until I saw that Crisp has actually been a formidable starter in the outfield this season. Crisp is the 105th best player in fantasy baseball this year and has average or better stats across the board, and still owns the best name in baseball. Not bad for a couple of $1 draftees huh? Too bad Tom (or Lester) couldn't have made it 3 great $1 draft picks. He had the chance with Brian Dozier, who he also drafted with $1 but released for Matt Garza in week 2. Dozier has gone on to have an unbelievable beginning to the season in which he is rankend the 18th best fantasy player in all of baseball.


You Can Call Me Al: Huston Street  $3
   Honorable Mention: Tyson Ross $1 and Lance Lynn $3
As of right now, Huston Street is on pace to have a career year. The most impressive stats for Street are his minuscule ERA of 0.96 and his 0.79 WHIP.  Pitching in Petco Park where the fences are 700 feet (approximately) may help his stats a little but the guy can still flat out pitch. The last time Street allowed a run was a month ago. He has had 9 outings since then where he has only allowed 5 hits and 1 walk while striking out 8. Just for good measure, Street also happens to be the best pitcher on UCCMA. Ross and Lynn are another case where I couldn't make up my mind over who should get the honorable mention so I gave it to both of them because why not? Lance Lynn has the better stats so far this year but for $1 I think Tyson Ross could be a better investment for the future.