Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

No one is really using this set much anymore, so we are not giving anything away i guess. Just trying to get peoples .02 about the best and worst cards of past year.

BEST
Luis CASTILLO usual puts up 300/400 for me at .83 mil
Jason MARQUIS usually outperforms other SP*s at double the price
JUlio BORBON avg/speed/a little power at 1.24 mil


WORST
Mark TEXIERA
Garrett JONES

Worst Shane Victorino Has trouble getting off the 1nterstate batting average.

Like Felix Perez Can't get hurt for more than 3 games plays to his card and is really really cheap.

Love Ryan Hanigan -2 throwing arm with nice avrage for a bargin price.
Hoffman has pitched very well everytime I use him.

FAR AND AWAY BEST CARD

Robinson Tejeda. 25 No-Hitters and counting for the year. You can't hit that with a stick!

In no special order:

1. Scott Eyre
2. Shin-Soo Choo
3. Chris Coghlan (DH Only)
4. Francisco Cordero

Brandon Medders
Carlos Marmol
Martin Prado

Just off the top of my head...

visick

I would agree with Soo, Prado, Tejada. Probably add:

Brian Roberts
Mike Gonzalez
Randy Wolf
Rafael Furcal

Joe Mauer
Albert Pujols

I'm thinking you were looking for more of the "surprisingly good" type of players (ie, Mauer and Pujols are as good as their pricetag).

So, along those lines, I put together my list, by position, of the players who I think consistently peroformed at a level higher than their pricetags:

[b:f20926e89b]C [/b:f20926e89b] [b:f20926e89b]AJ Pierzynski[/b:f20926e89b] - I think it's a matter of lefties getting to face righties about 2/3 of the time
[b:f20926e89b]1B Joey Votto[/b:f20926e89b] - he's a $6M+ guy, but puts up huge numbers as long as he avoids the DL
[b:f20926e89b]2B Freddy Sanchez[/b:f20926e89b] (v LHP) - great platoon player
[b:f20926e89b]SS A. Ramirez[/b:f20926e89b] (v LHP)/[b:f20926e89b]C. Pennington[/b:f20926e89b] (v RHP) - great combo platoon, can combine for some astounding offensive figures (if you don't mind a 3 at ss)
[b:f20926e89b]3B Mark Reynolds[/b:f20926e89b] - always puts up 40+ HRs, and can give you a decent avg and obp in the right park too, as long as you don't mind the 4e24!
[b:f20926e89b]RF Shin-Soo Choo[/b:f20926e89b] - great offense, and arm on defense
[b:f20926e89b]CF Carlos Beltran[/b:f20926e89b] - big injury risk who, mysteriously, does not seem to get injured that much. I think I've gotten 500+ abs out of him every time...and his card is relatively cheaper because of the injury risk
[b:f20926e89b]LF Carlos Gonzalez[/b:f20926e89b] - ok, I cheated here, couldn't think of any LF's that surprised me. I THINK Gonzalez qualifies in left (although I use him in CF)...great fielder and offensive stats (in the right park)
[b:f20926e89b]DH Chris Coghlan[/b:f20926e89b] - sub $4M guy who can give you .300+/.400+/.400+ every time

[b:f20926e89b]SP Jorge De La Rosa[/b:f20926e89b] - LOVE Tejeda, but had to put De La Rosa based on his sub-$2M price tag, and can consistently put up very good numbers if you go the pitchers park route

[b:f20926e89b]CL Chad Qualls[/b:f20926e89b] - Can almost always get him, is cheap, and good for 30-40 saves per season


I didn't bother with an [b:f20926e89b]RP[/b:f20926e89b]....seems like there are just so many out there I couldn't zero in on just one...maybe [b:f20926e89b]Fulchino[/b:f20926e89b] for his price?

Anyway that's my 2 cents!

I actually appreciate the Pujols/Mauer input. In my 3 online seasons ive see many expensive cards who dont produce at all. Ive used Adrian Gonzalez this season and he always produces. At certain price points u want dependability or with a 10mil+ card i want CERTAINTY. A recent post on Pujols strongly justified his usage.

So Pujols is a great card!

Hey Keyzick have u ever put together a team with all of those guys on it?

I seem to have trouble getting links to work but check this out:

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/team/team_other.html?user_id=261472

This was early in the 2009 card year, a 24 team, $60 mil cap league with DH. It was my favorite team for 2009, and my most successful. 93 wins, lost the finals in 6 games. Played at Fenway, but their road record was slightly better than their home record.

Check out:
Cordero - great season - 44 saves and 7 blown saves and great ERA;
Badenhop - great value to go with with low endurance SPs
Bedard - I think I always got really good value from Bedard - not cheap, but always delivered quality seasons for me.

Pennington and A Ramirez platooning at SS - see above - very, very good!
Nice low cost good hitting from McGehee (1b) and Aramis Ramirez (3b);
Ryan Sweeney - one of my favorite 2009 players for the $ - esp. in a small ball park where his W power doesn't count against him too much.
Kennedy at 2b - not a star, but very good for the money.

Not on this team, but I concur- AJ Pierzinski - performed very well for the money. On this team, and very good value for money - Ronny Paulino. With both of these catchers though, you have to be prepared for hte opposition to steal a fairly high number of bases.

I continued to get good performances with these players on every team. Having said that, I seemed to have a much better feel for the 2008 cards than I did for the 2009 cards. But these players seemed to work well!