HCKL Chat/Trades

Not ....

gonna....

Happen......

Tonight anyway, oh well.

G'night all.

Be back on in the A.M.

I think Eaton has a lot better shot at being unleashed than Brantly. But Brantly has a lot better chance of being a one-year wonder.

I doubt Eaton would be unleashed. Generally from 100-150 PAs, the unleashed guys have to a) skew the batter pool - lead the league in BA, HR, etc., or b) have a card value of over $5M.

Eaton will have a nice OB but that's about it, I don't think he hits the $5M barrier. He is better than Constanza from last year, maybe about the same as Petersen but w/o the good D in the corners, not as good a bat overall as Reed Johnson. But I forget whether HBPs count in SOM's PAs - if he as counted as less than 100 PAs, could be trouble.

Brantly has a card almost exactly like Montero from this year's set but with worse D. I am hoping he gets in that way. No issues from me if he is a 1-yr wonder, he's my insurance @ DH vs RH for Eaton actually, but hopefully he can hit a little down the road too.

Bill, why not leave a proxy or two? Jeez...whine about not getting a turn & then hold the rest of us up!

I've just been scouting the cards this evening waiting for my pick. (There's not a lot else to do here in Evanston, WY in January.) I found some cards that were surprisingly bad. Maybe it's just that I haven't gotten fully acclimated to the fact that pitchers are becoming dominant again. Gee, I hope we don't have to live through another 1968.

For all the hype, Bryce Harper doesn't thrill me. I'm sure that's mostly a function of his age, and that he will be really good down the road. But comparisons to Trout are just not possible as yet.

B.J. Upton continues to make the least of his supposed talent, and it rubbed off on big brother Juston this year. Maybe they should have their family name legally changed to Downton.

The former player known as Shane Victorino is traveling down the slippery slope at Warp 3 or more. He ought to abandon hitting left-handed.

Josh Hamilton had kind of an ordinary year. I got to watch the Rangers' telecast the night he hit 4 HR - he looked like he would never miss another pitch for the whole rest of the week. Then he came back to earth with a thud.

It's hard to believe that Stephen Drew makes the kind of money that he does. He must have some very nasty photos of Bud Selig or something.

Pablo Sandoval had an awful year for a guy who was such a big playoff hero.

Dustin Ackley and Ian Kinsler were both dreadful; neither one can hit a lick against RHP.

Yonder Alonso and Eric Hosmer, for a couple of hyped prospects a couple of years ago, are taking the Pedro Alvarez road to their supposed stardom. It all started coming together for Pedro a little this year; maybe these two guys will get all the way to mediocre next year. It was a bad year for 1B all the way around; I thought it was weird when Bill drafted Adam LaRoche in the middle of the 2nd round, but Adam looks awfully good in the context of this season's 1B pool.

Matt Wieters is still nothing more than a big-time lefty crusher, with a great presence behind the plate. Catchers are tricky, though. Go back and look at Johnny Bench's career. He made Bret Saberhagen look consistent.

I've just been scouting the cards this evening waiting for my pick. (There's not a lot else to do here in Evanston, WY in January.) I found some cards that were surprisingly bad. Maybe it's just that I haven't gotten fully acclimated to the fact that pitchers are becoming dominant again. Gee, I hope we don't have to live through another 1968.

For all the hype, Bryce Harper doesn't thrill me. I'm sure that's mostly a function of his age, and that he will be really good down the road. But comparisons to Trout are just not possible as yet.

B.J. Upton continues to make the least of his supposed talent, and it rubbed off on big brother Juston this year. Maybe they should have their family name legally changed to Downton.

The former player known as Shane Victorino is traveling down the slippery slope at Warp 3 or more. He ought to abandon hitting left-handed.

Josh Hamilton had kind of an ordinary year. I got to watch the Rangers' telecast the night he hit 4 HR - he looked like he would never miss another pitch for the whole rest of the week. Then he came back to earth with a thud.

It's hard to believe that Stephen Drew makes the kind of money that he does. He must have some very nasty photos of Bud Selig or something.

Pablo Sandoval had an awful year for a guy who was such a big playoff hero.

Dustin Ackley and Ian Kinsler were both dreadful; neither one can hit a lick against RHP.

Yonder Alonso and Eric Hosmer, for a couple of hyped prospects a couple of years ago, are taking the Pedro Alvarez road to their supposed stardom. It all started coming together for Pedro a little this year; maybe these two guys will get all the way to mediocre next year. It was a bad year for 1B all the way around; I thought it was weird when Bill drafted Adam LaRoche in the middle of the 2nd round, but Adam looks awfully good in the context of this season's 1B pool.

Matt Wieters is still nothing more than a big-time lefty crusher, with a great presence behind the plate. Catchers are tricky, though. Go back and look at Johnny Bench's career. He made Bret Saberhagen look consistent.

Actually, I'm pleasently suprised how good Sandoval's card is, given his regular season stats, It's not a stud card I'll grant you, but given how bad the 3b base position is overall, I'll take it. As for LaRoche, clearly you didn't look real hard at my roster. I had a hole the size of the grand Cayon at 1b and couldn't take a chance of LaRoche falling any farther especially not having 4th or 5th round picks.

I'd agree with most of the rest of your assesments though. I still think Hosmer and Ackley will be players, I'm not completely down on them, but the rest, especially BJ Upton, your spot on.

On my way to work this morning; I did send a proxy list to Qk last night around midnight, but apparently my top guy was already picked, though on the available list and not on any of the rosters I could find at the time. I see now that Niner has picked, so I will go over there and try to get in my pick.

Cheers.

When I started reading Rburg's post I thougth he was talking about my team Still holding out hope for Upton but Victorino is on the way down. Platoon player now.

If we had started the stadium draft earlier and I knew I wasn't going to get my first two choices I would have take LaRoche in the 1st round. In the right park he'll do very well.

You read all the hype about Harper and it's more of a function of how well he did at 19 and what his potential is.

When I started reading Rburg's post I thougth he was talking about my team Still holding out hope for Upton but Victorino is on the way down. Platoon player now.

If we had started the stadium draft earlier and I knew I wasn't going to get my first two choices I would have take LaRoche in the 1st round. In the right park he'll do very well.

You read all the hype about Harper and it's more of a function of how well he did at 19 and what his potential is.

Not sure I have the right park for him, frankly, he probably needs to be in a better hitters park than Citi Field ( 1-11 bp HR's), but as i said he was high on my list, If Hill hadn't gone #1 overall, and the picks 2-4 were picks 1-3, LaRoche was the 4th guy on my proxy list for my 1st round draft pick.

And it's funny You should say that Stonay, as I though he was looking at my team, at least some of it.

Yeah I was not happy with Hamilton's July, which killed what was going to be a great card. This card is very similar to last year's with one major difference - last year he had about 4 pts of natural HRs on the card, this year it will be 8.8, but with a few less doubles than last year. But those natural HRs will be enough to let him be a good #5 or #6 hitter in any park, even though the BA will be low in my park. Last year I hit him 7th most of the time, but the HRs plus the improved card vs LHP will allow me to bump him up a bit.

I am, however, excited to finally have him out of Texas, so we can see what he does in a more pitcher-friendly environment. I don't think it's going to hit him as badly as he was penalized by SOM over the years for playing in the Bandbox in Arlington.

And Harper's card is fine for me this year. He'll have a nice caddy of Gentry, who crushed LHs and should be passable vs RHs, and his speed in the 7-hole will be useful. I'll likely be DHing Brantly now so vs RHs it looks like:

Kipnis
Fowler
Jaso
Beltre
Hamilton
Brantly
Harper
Tulo
Goldschmidt

As usual, maybe a few too many platoons on my team but we'll make do. Eaton could DH instead of Brantly also to help with that issue, but I like Brantly's SLG. Getting Everth Cabrera last round was a must-pick for me given Tulo's injury roll, and when Tulo's healthy Everth (Nicaraguense!) will be my primary PR. Those 44 stls vs 4 CSs got overlooked a bit this year on a mediocre Padres squad.

Anyway I will be offline mostly from 8:30am to 3pm my time, but will check in once more before I leave. Any issues I will send out my cell # so folks can text me, if my turn comes up by chance & I have not checked in, please do text me.

Thx & happy drafting!

If Hill hadn't gone #1 overall,

Lets see. Jemille Weeks, Orlando Hudson (my two holdovers at 2nd) or Aaron Hill. Easy choice.