OBSESSED BALLERS FANTASY BASEBALL LEAGUE

By Sean Chard

Last year at this time, Mike Conley set out to prove that the Draft and Post-Draft play in the Fantasy Baseball season are extremely important and arguably even more important than the keepers coming in.

In the 2010 Hindsight Warriors article, our Commissioner constructed a Shooter Cup winning team out of players selected in the draft (with only the last pick every round) or non-drafted waiver pick-ups.

That “fictional” Shooter Cup winning team, led by Jose Bautista, Paul Konerko, Jared Weaver and others scored 108.5 Roto points and captured the 2010 Shooter Cup, defeating the Gaping Gash (who won the Cup with 102 Rotos).

When considering whether this could be done again for the 2011 season, the task was a little tougher. There was no Jose Bautista type season in the majors last year, and the Dick Dogs had raised the bar, winning the Cup with 108.5 Rotos.

Nevertheless, after a lot of careful research and number crunching, a team was found to topple the Dick Dogs and capture the 2011 Shooter Cup!

2011 HINDSIGHT WARRIORS
C – Mike Napoli (round 4) and Alex Avila (round 25)   [using a % of each of their stats for 162 GP]
1B – Lance Berkman (round 16)
2B – Ben Zobrist (round 2)
3B – Aramis Ramirez (round 1)
SS – Asdrubal Cabrera (round 9)
UTL – Michael Morse (round 10)
UTIL – J.J. Hardy (round 24)
OF – Michael Bourn (round 3)
OF – Alex Gordon (round 11)
OF – Josh Willingham (round 14)
OF – Melky Cabrera (round 22)
OF – Jeff Francouer (round 27)

NOTES:
– Killer comeback seasons from Berkman, Aramis and Hardy
– Big breakouts from Morse, Asdrubal and Melky
– Did the KC Royals have the best OF in baseball last year? Looking at the numbers, you could argue yes

Offensive Totals (and Roto rank):
R = 1036 (8 Rotos)    HR = 287 (12 Rotos)    RBI = 1056 (11 Rotos)
SB = 170 (10 Rotos)    Batting Average = .288 (12 Rotos)    TOTAL = 53 ROTOS

P – Ricky Romero (round 6)
P – James Shields (round 7)
P – Ian Kennedy (round 13)
P – Derek Holland (round 15)
P – Brandon Beachy (round 26)
P – Drew Storen (round 5)
P – Sergio Santos (round 17)
P – Kyle Farnsworth (round 8)
P – Kenley Jansen (round 20)
P – Jesse Crain (round 21)
P – Fernando Salas (round 28)
P – Sean Marshall (round 29)

NOTES:
– Big breakouts from Romero, Kennedy and Beachy
– An out of nowhere comeback season by Shields
– Lots of RP gold, as there seems to be every year

Pitching Totals (and Roto rank):
IP = 1500 exactly    W = 111 (12 Rotos)     SV = 133 (9 Rotos)     K = 1469 (12 Rotos)
ERA = 3.00 (12 Rotos)    WHIP = 1.12 (12 Rotos)     TOTAL = 57 ROTOS

GRAND TOTAL 110 Rotos (ties OBFBL record) and the 2011 SHOOTER CUP!!!
Read through the full spreadsheet for the 2011 Hindsight Warriors HERE

In summary, any team can win the Shooter Cup this year! Even those that have rebuilt and are down to 4 or 5 keepers.  Keepers are great for building the foundation of your team for the year, but your draft and post-draft success (and some luck of course) are equally important.  This is something for us to keep in mind as we all prepare for the 2012 Draft, now just 10 days away!