Scoresheet: Waving the White Flag

by
June 21, 2012

It’s time for me to wave the white flag on this year in Scoresheet. At 27-42, I’m only nine games out of first in my division, but I’m in last. As in dead last in King Kaufman’s AL-Skeeter 12-team AL-only Scoresheet league in the inaugral year. A couple of injuries lasted longer than I thought they would, and I’m not sure I understood how much depth is needed going into the season. In any case, I’m willing to jettison non-keepers to improve my position for next year. Inauspicious beginnings, but there are some things to like about this team still.

Perhaps you can help me identify the best non-keepers. It’s my firm belief that a fire sale should come with a white flag waive — I did that by trading Derek Lowe for a 21st-rounder next year — and then a quick strike with the best tradeable chips leaving first. We keep 13 veterans and as many prospects and/or rookies as we like (rookie is defined as anyone under the rookie eligibility 130/50 PA/IP cap).

So who should I be pushing next? Where are my biggest decisions? I’ve put asterisks next to the veteran keepers I’m looking at — I need three of the guys with (*) next to their name. I shopped Napoli some, but the offers were not exciting, so I’m more likely to work around the edges.

C Mike Napoli *
1B Albert Pujols *
2B Kelly Johnson *
SS Yunel Escobar *
3B Brent Morel
LF Carl Crawford *
CF Alejandro De Aza *
RF Brett Gardner *
DH Nolan Reimold (*)

BN Cliff Pennington
BN Johnny Damon
BN Shelley Duncan
BN Colin Cowgill
BN Alex Liddi
BN Tyler FLowers
BN Alexi Amarista
FM Jacob Marisnick
FM Nick Castellanos
FM Mike Olt
FM Nick Franklin
FM Brian Buxton
FM Lewis Brinson
FM Matt Antonelli

SP Matt Moore *
SP Ubaldo Jimenez *
SP Derek Holland *
SP Jerome Williams (*)
SP Brian Matusz (*)

You Aren't a FanGraphs Member
It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.
We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.
1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.
2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.
3. Dark mode and Classic mode!
4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.
5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.
6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)
7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.
8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.
9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.
10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!
We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.

BP Greg Holland (*)
BP Kyle Farnsworth
BP Addison Reed (*)
BP Matt Thornton
BP Franklin Morales
SM Drew Smyly *
SM Tom Wilhelmsen
SM Charlie Furbush
SM Jacob Turner (*)
FM Rafael Perez
FM Junichi Tazawa
FM Brian Johnson





 

With a phone full of pictures of pitchers' fingers, strange beers, and his two toddler sons, Eno Sarris can be found at the ballpark or a brewery most days. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity.

8 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
phoenix2042
13 years ago

keep addison reed and probably greg holland. you are going to need a bullpen next season and they both play for teams without outstanding rotations, so they may be converted into starters sometime. You may have the next cj wilson, lance lynn or chris sale on your hands.

-1
Eno SarrisMember since 2020
13 years ago
Reply to  phoenix2042

Yeah I had those guys as definite keepers but then was worried about the back end of my rotation. Guess that’s what next year’s draft is for. That, and a third baseman…

0
Jay29
13 years ago
Reply to  phoenix2042

Reed has started 13 total games since high school. He’s a great talent, but I wouldn’t count on him being converted into a starter. Sale and Lynn were drafted as starters and were only used in the bullpen until they were deemed ready to start.

0