You guys that play...any players you're targetting in your draft that seem to be undervalued relative to their fair market value? Overvalued?

So, this year ESPN revamped their entire fantasy baseball interface, going to a format that's very much more "AJAX-y" and "Web 2.0". Apparently they didn't do enough testing. This was posted as an "open letter to fantasy baseball users" on the login page (oops!):

To all our fantasy players,

I am writing to apologize on behalf of ESPN for the frustration you have had with your ESPN Fantasy Baseball League. The problems you've had in this first week are unacceptable.

We have been and continue to devote all of our resources to fixing the problems we have had with live scoring, rosters and waiver wire moves. I am sorry that we have not communicated well enough with you this week. You'll hear from ESPN again this Saturday afternoon at 5:00 PM EDT. We also have a toll-free number (also on each team and league page) that you can call to talk to a person who can help answer questions (1-888-549-ESPN) or e-mail us at baseball@fantasygames.go.com.

We take great pride in our fantasy products and are doing everything possible to have your League play be smooth and enjoyable. We do appreciate your patience and plan to have everything in order with your League shortly.

Sincerely,

John Kosner and the ESPN.com Fantasy Team

And our league was grousing that Yahoo defaulted to drag-n-drop instead of pull-down menus.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

In general I like ESPN's new format, it just has some weird features that are kind of annoying. It's better than in years past, where they just didn't devote enough resources to the site and occasionally you'd get a "try back later" message, or pages would hang indefinitely.

In general, I think ESPN's web team overuses the javascript. When I load one of their player pages and click on "stats" there's an approx. 5 second delay before the page is completely rendered (on a 2.4ghz P4). During that time my CPU load spikes to 100%. I don't know what the hell they're doing, but I know I could probably do without it.

This is classic. I was doing a live draft for yahoo.com fantasy, but i wasnt on my computer and it couldnt load, so i basically had to auto draft. I was SUPER happy to see that not only had i drafted Mark Prior, but also Roger Clemens. Two guys on my team might not even get an inning this year. BRILLIANT
-Veggie Ribs

Veggie Ribs

I'm none too happy about Figgins breaking his fingers and Cantu being demoted. I need Wickman and Todd Jones to lose their jobs. That'd be nice.

That would be nice for you, but Zumaya might not get the job for detroit even if Jones goes down, or just blows. Unfortunately i forget the name of the other guy that might........ so.......yea ill get back to you.

Veggie Ribs

I'm not ecstatic about the team I drafted, but I guess it might work out alright. Light on home runs, heavy on steals. I had the 1st pick, so I drafted 1st, 24th and 25th, 48th and 49th, etc. Critique my picks!

C: Russell Martin (LAD)
1B: Albert Pujols (STL)
2B: Tadahito Iguchi (CHW)
3B: Scott Rolen (STL)
SS: Orlando Cabrera (LAA)
OF: Ichiro Suzuki (SEA)
OF: Carlos Lee (HOU)
OF: Eric Byrnes (ARI)
OF: Chris Duffy (PIT)
OF: Chone Figgins (LAA)
2/S: Jorge Cantu (TB)
1/3: Ryan Shealy (KC)
Util: Chad Tracy (ARI)
Bench: Ty Wigginton (TB)

SP: Brandon Webb (ARI)
SP: John Smoltz (ATL)
SP: Cole Hamels (PHI)
SP: Jered Weaver (LAA)
SP: Andy Pettitte (NYY)
SP: Clay Hensley (SD)
RP: Joel Zumaya (DET)
RP: Takashi Saito (LAD)
RP: J.J. Putz (SEA)
Bench: Jonathon Broxton (LAD)
Bench: Mike Gonzalez (ATL)

I'm hoping Zumaya or Gonzalez inherit a closer spot, since I didn't get a third closer. Matt Capps (PIT) and Brian Wilson (SF) are also available in my league, and they may also inherit closer spots. Broxton is just there as backup in case Saito goes down or gets benched, since he's a decent MR anyway.

I'm going to defend my imm-league crown with a vengeance that has seldom been seen. You got a league for me to join, I'll crush that competition too!!! I'll even post sexy pictures of me in my D-I pitching days to distract people!! I'm shameless!

I'm going to defend my imm-league crown with a vengeance that has seldom been seen.

I'm still not convinced that Cyradia wasn't paid off with a 55-gallon drum of fruity girly alcohol last year. Through August, she's pounding the rest of us like rental kobolds. People were saying she had it in the bag in July. Then September rolls around and we see a collapse unlike anything in the post-Grumorum-starts-Doug-Flutie era.

How that missed the Conspiracy thread is beyond me.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Rich Hill is someone alot of people still don't know about. He'll be a top 15-20 pitcher this year, I think.

Ben Sheets is a guy I'll try to get if no one else jumps on him. He's a little bit of a health risk, but an easy top 5 SP if he's healthy.

Daniel Cabrera might actually live up to his potential this year.. but I've been burned on him in the past, so I'm not as optomistic as I probably should be.

Brad Lidge is gonna be an under-rated closer this year. But I usually don't bother drafting closers high regardless.

As far as hitters, Hanley Ramirez is gonna be awesome at SS this year. Think Rafael Furcal with more steals. Top 3-5 at his position is likely.

Brian McCann is a catcher I love a ton. Ton of power, and decent stats elsewhere. Of course that was his first year so there's a chance of a sophomore slump. But I don't expect it. I'd take him as the #2 C in the game, ahead of V-Mart.

Michael Barrett is another who seems underrated, and I've never really understood that. Not gaudy numbers, but nothing to sneeze at. Plus he sucker punched Pierzinski, and you can't complain about that.

Piazza might surprise people this year. I wouldn't be surprised to see 25-30 HRs, since he'll be DHing this year.

There's way too many OF, 1B's and 3B's to even mention.

So my league is at ESPN, and so I use ESPN's rankings as a rough gaugue of how the other guys are going to draft. To that end, I try to identify players who are over/under valued re: their positions in ESPN's rankings. My candidates so far:

Undervalued hitters:

David Ortiz
Travis Hafner
Lance Berkman
Hanley Ramirez
Gary Sheffield
Rocco Baldelli
Mike Cameron
Torii Hunter
Raul Ibanez
Freddy Sanchez
Moises Alou

Undervalued pitchers:

Brandon Webb
C.C. Sabathia
Cole Hamels
Jered Weaver
Andy Pettitte
Mike Mussina
Freddy Garcia
Anibal Sanchez

Overvalued hitters:

David Wright
Miguel Tejada
Jason Bay
Troy Glaus
Richie Sexson
Adam Dunn
Howie Kendrick
Jeff Francoeur
Corey Patterson
Joe Crede
Alex Rios
Adrian Gonzalez
Wily Taveras
Brad Hawpe
Pat Burrell

Overvalued pitchers:

Roy Halladay
Jake Peavy
Jeremy Bonderman
John Lackey
Felix Hernandez
Dontrelle Willis
Jason Schmidt
Matt Cain
Barry Zito
Rich Hill
Dave Bush


ESPN has Rich Hill rated as the #32 SP. Sporting News has him as the #52 SP, and using my own made-up projected stats (and formula for scoring them) he comes in as the #42 SP. If you think he's top20 caliber, though, then yeah, he's undervalued by ESPN.

I think ESPN tends to over-correct for guys that overachieve for a single season. For example, Uggla and Ibanez. Neither is likely to match last year's stats, but they're not going to be terrible either.

We drew straws and I got the first pick in my draft. Meh. I might have preferred 4th or 5th. Wanted to pick Reyes and get a big chunk of my steals out of the way early.