The Minor League Ball Fantasy League

    The thread about Fantasy Baseball a couple of days ago generated an excellent response. It is obvious that most of you have a strong fantasy baseball interest, and this has convinced me to move forward with a special project.
     I often get questions about what fantasy leagues I'm personally involved in. The answer is usually "none," mostly due to time constraints, but that is going to change this year.
     Want to kick my butt in a fantasy league? Here's your chance.
     CBSSports.com is introducing the CBSSports.com Fantasy Baseball Commissioner League. Partnering with our SB Nation network, CBSSports.com is offering Minor League Ball a free league (normally a $179.99 value). I'm running a team, and I need 11 other owners to join up with me. Additionally, CBSSports.com is offering a 50% discount on any leagues you might want to start yourself, using this link.
     Interested in playing me? Keep reading.

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We've done Community Projections every year, but I've never been especially diligent about keeping track of how things went. That will change this year; it will be a more organized endeavour.

We are going to do projections for 14 players, seven pitchers and seven hitters, and keep much closer track this year, then compare the final results at the end of the season with reality and other projection systems. So far we've done Alcides Escobar, Clayton Kershaw, and Derek Holland (results for Holland will be collated Monday). The ideal projection candidate is someone who is either a rookie with a guaranteed job like Escobar, or someone who is young, not a rookie, but not fully established yet (like Kershaw and Holland).

Use this thread to make suggestions on what other players to include in the Project.  Please don't suggest Heyward or Strasburg at this point given that we don't know how much they are going to play.

We have a very diverse group of readers and participants at MinorLeagueBall. I want to know more about you, so  I'm going to be asking you guys some questions. The first topic: fantasy baseball. Some queries below the fold.

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More photos » Charlie Riedel - AP

5 months ago: Kansas City Royals' Alex Gordon hits a two-run single during the first inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

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Not A Rookie: Alex Gordon

2009 was supposed to be the year that Alex Gordon broke through and became a star. Instead, he went down with a hip injury, missed most of the season, didn't hit well when he did play, and became just another sad bit of flotsam amidst the shipwreck of the Royals season. He enters '10 as a big questionmark. How did this former Grade A prospect get to this point, and can he rebound?

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More photos » Mary Schwalm - AP

Texas Rangers pitcher Derek Holland (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)

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Continuing with the Community Projection Project (more on that later), we turn to Derek Holland of the Texas Rangers.

Please project the following numbers, in this order for ease of spreadsheet data entry.


Games
Games Started
Complete Games
Wins
Losses
Innings
Runs allowed
Earned runs allowed
ERA (make sure math is right)
Walks allowed
Strikeouts
Hits allowed
Home runs allowed

A little off-topic obscure nautical history for your consideration: the Calliope Typhoon of March 15, 1889, which wrecked several United States and German ships at anchor during an international confrontation over Samoa.

We had 26 entries and a lot of interesting debate in the Clayton Kershaw Community Projection project. Most of the projections were very optimistic; some overly so in my view, especially in the H/IP department where there were some entries that looked weird to me. Nevertheless, I decided to tally the results as-is just to see what happens. The results:


32 games, 31 starts, 1 complete game, 194.2 innings pitched, 78 runs, 71 earned, 3.28 ERA, 203/86 K/BB, 150 hits, 12 homers allowed.   9.38 K/9, 3.98 BB/9, 6.93 H/9.


Comparing to other projection systems

Community               3.28 ERA     9.38 K/9   3.98 BB/9   6.93 H/9,  0.55 HR/9, 194.2 IP
Bill James                3.25 ERA     9.40 K/9    4.55 BB/9   7.00 H/9, 0.55 HR/9, 180 IP
CHONE                     3.58 ERA    9.48  K/9    4.65 BB/9   7.69 H/9, 0.72 HR/9, 151 IP
Marcel                        3.31 ERA    9.12 K/9    4.18 BB/9   7.26 H/9,  0.64 HR/9, 155 IP
Fangraphs Fans     3.26 ERA    9.61 K/9     4.08 BB/9   8.20 H/9,  0.66 HR/9, 192 IP

Here is an All-Questions Answered Thread for Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010.

GROUND RULES:

1) one question per poster.
2) please avoid asking overly broad questions like "tell me who the best 20 shortstop prospects are"
3) please avoid sneaking multiple questions into one
4) NO MORE QUESTIONS PLEASE. I'll answer the ones I haven't gotten to yet in the morning.

More photos » Lenny Ignelzi - AP

San Diego Padres shortstop Everth Cabrera (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

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Not a Rookie: Everth Cabrera

San Diego Padres infielder Everth Cabrera was one of the more successful Rule 5 picks in recent years, having a sound 2009 rookie season. What was he like as a prospect, and what does the future hold?

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