success

i had to wake up early to do something i should have done last weekend, but i got taylor buckholz after a league mate dropped him for the second time in a week. personally, i care that an extremely good middle reliever with sp eligibility has a decent shot at the closer's job come trade time. i care even more since fuentes is one of my 5 closers, and one of my 3 'legit' guys. franklin and torres' status remains iffy in my book - they're nice to have, but this is h2h.

i have buckholz in both leagues now.

why bother

i'm not sure there's much logic in trading both prince fielder and vladimir guerrero for utley. despite the fact that utley's in the midst of a terrible slump, he came charging out of a similar funk in 2006 and was more than useful the remainder of the year. it's just that two elite players, both of whom have 'low' value right now due to mixed performance results these past few months, are a lot to give up. i'm not getting anyone decent in return; hawpe and delmon young are the remaining pieces to this puzzle, and they don't fit on my team.

to utley or not

this chase utley thing has run its way into a 4 for 4 deal. there's no reason that is a good idea.

Catch me one

I've survived the indignity this week of having two catchers who were sharing time and never seemed to be in the lineup. Dropped Olivo for Laird, and maybe it's time to drop Napoli. I just don't have an idea who to pick up instead. Once I do, he should be on his way out the door.

First place is fun

3 days into it, I'm in first. I'm glad I can say I was in first at least at one point. Now, I don't really care. Apparently the Utley owner is trying to trade him, or thinking about it. I'd take that action if I can just figure out who to offer. Prince Fielder plus somebody else really good?

Trade time begins?

Having just drafted Saturday, I'm not sure it's really time to trade anyone. I could probably use some power at the outfield positions, but I'm not sure I have a surplus of anything else to trade for that. Someone wanted to give me David Dejesus, AJ Burnett, and Brett Myers for Carlos Gomez, James Shields, and Taylor Buckholtz. I don't want any of the players he offered, and I want to keep all of the players he wanted. I wanted to try making a counter-offer, but I don't even know which of my guys is his real target. Assuming it's Gomez, I can't see trading the guy when he and Crisp are my only real speed threats not named Willy Taveras. Berkman and Carlos Guillen will get a couple steals, but not enough to get me anywhere if I trade Gomez.

Incidentally, I actually drafted Taveras in my original league, barely ever played him, and did fine in steals. That's H2H, though; Taveras was like a secret weapon in case I was getting desperate for a category win in steals any particular week. I wasn't, and with 5 other OFs (Carlos Quentin, Hart, Carlos Lee, Granderson, and Pence), I finally made a lousy trade and got Daniel Cabrera for him. No one in that leagure seemed to want Taveras, but his SB prowess this year is definitely worth something...especially if he starts hitting for real.

first official day

stats for today actually count. unfortunate the cliff lee's decent start against san diego so far, no one has a hit for my squad, and jair jurrjens has gone 6 innings without giving up a run. willy taveras (0 for 2) has the only actual at bats for my team, so it's not like i'm running up a huge string of o-fers. taveras is a guy i had to take based on the hope he'll hit .270 the rest of the way and the reality that he's a monstrous source of steals. coming in as my 15th round pick, he was a lot cheaper than ellsbury, who went at pick 74. incidentally, i really didn't mind getting coco crisp with the 311th pick either.

waivers clear tomorrow, so it'll be interesting to see who was willing to give up their waiver priority to make a move on an undrafted player. i made the possibly dubious move of picking miguel olivo after investing in mike napoli (i waited a while to draft a catcher, ok?) when i probably coulda gotten him as a free agent later.

post-draft

didn't get hart or pence, but i wasn't going to make any stupid moves just to take my favorite players. instead, i took cliff lee when i got into this panic mode and didn't know who to pick. that was round 6. usually, i do something i totally regret, and in any case you're not going to get awesome performance out of all your top picks. i got santiago casilla late, and he's due back from the dl soon. i'm hoping he continues to be a strikeout-per-inning type guy.

pre-draft day

i'm getting ready for the draft in funston's blog league, and i really have everything nailed. i've got the jamba juice, yesterday's unfinished coke, a package of english muffins, and some tasty veggies in the fridge. i brought the itouch, the headphones, the sweatshirt to deal with the crazy ac (even on saturday), and the fading nationals cap. now i have half an hour to actually do my homework on players i want to avoid drafting, figure out if there are clever picks i can make, etc.