Minor League Ball Fantasy League Weekly Update

by John Sickels on Apr 12, 2025 4:37 PM EDT Comment 11 comments

More photos » David Zalubowski - ASSOCIATED PRESS

Matt Holliday of the Free State Liberators (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Minor League Ball Fantasy League Update

We are one week into the season, and the Free State Liberators of the Minor League Ball Fantasy League are off to a slow start, ninth place in the 12-team Bob Feller Division. You can find the standings and follow the league here.

Also remember that Minor League Ball and SB Nation members can get a 50% discount on their own CBSSports.com leagues by using this link

As for the Liberators, it is way too soon to panic. Matt Holiday, Paul Konerko, and Kosuke Fukodome are off to good starts, but the rest of the hitting attack has been mediocre or worse. I'm not especially concerned about it yet.

Pitching has been better; my starting rotation of Josh Beckett, Zach Duke, Tim Hudson, Randy Wells, and Matt Cain was effective the first week, with Beckett's opening day start the only real negative. The bullpen has been weaker, with just a single save from Chad Qualls, only one hold, and shaky performances from Darren Oliver and Brandon Medders mucking with the ratio categories. Again, considering the sample sizes, I'm not going to sweat things yet. I have depth in starters, with Jamie Moyer on reserve and Dice-K back from the DL soon. I'm set with starters and could look to trade off some excess if the hitting attack remains weak.

League member Boomer, owner of the Velvet Fog, has sent along this update which I hope to make a weekly feature.

WEEKLY THOUGHTS by Boomer

Now, for my totally biased & subjective thoughts on the league..

TEAM OF THE WEEK: Crumpton Roches - Jesse Roche
First off, I gotta talk about the image that Jesse's team name evokes for me... I got Dre, 'Cube, Ren & Eazy all dressed in brown (?) all vigorously looking for any sort of illegal substance to ingest in a bizarro North Central L.A.... Straight Outta Crumpton! Any sort of review of the Roches can be summed up very quickly: Jesse's team is so good, he's got Asdrubal Cabrera on the bench...

HITTER OF THE WEEK: Nellie Cruz - The Boomers (?!?!?)
Nellie beats out the Mighty Pujols by having exactly 2 more doubles than Albear.. Secondary Average, y'all! It matters! Nelson Cruz is a pretty good representation of my favorite type of baseball player: The Late Bloomer. Here are the guys that Nelson Cruz has been traded for over his 13 years in pro baseball: Jorge Valandia, Keith Ginter, Lance Nix, Kevin Mench, Julian Cordero & Francisco Cordero (ok, he's pretty good)...

PITCHER OF THE WEEK: Roy Halladay - The Sloweys
I'm shocked. Actually what is kinda shocking is the fourth best pitcher in our league right now is... LaTroy Hawkins, whom I will always love since Cub fans hate him. An enemy of my enemy is certainly a friend to me..

THE BUMS WILL ALWAYS LOSE, LEBOWSKI! - Defenders of Zordon & Veni Vidi Vici (tie)
Both teams have yet to play with a legal roster.... What's the over/under on these guys ever having a legal roster? Zack Greinke & Marky Mark Reynolds are begging to be used! Hey.. wait a minute.. I noticed that Milton Bradley is on the Zordon roster... Could he have...something to do with...?

BUM HITTER: Brandon Wood - Red Sox Faithful
1 hit... a single.. in 19 AB's.... We're still waiting, Brandon...

BUM PITCHER: Daniel McCutchen - Free State Liberators
As Chris Snyder, McCutchen's own personal Lex Luthor, said after takin' one of the cup a few years ago, "Ouch." (Editor's note, I own McCutchen but he wasn't activated)

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Comments

I was sitting right in the middle of the pack until Tulo and P Feliz got me 2 CS yesterday

that sucked…. Pretty much everyone except David Price and Rickie Weeks have been mediocre or worse thus far.

by daveh33 on Apr 12, 2025 4:43 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

oh yeah, Rodrigo Lopez is awesome . [haha]

and I traded Joba for Friedrich this week…. love me some Friedrich and I’m real skeptical about Joba ever being a regular SP… I know he’s got good value as a set-up man and might possibly be inheriting the CL from Mariano, but I like Friedrich too much

by daveh33 on Apr 12, 2025 4:59 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Surprised im not in Last!!!

When I think I have less than a dozen legit major leaguers. LOL. I have nowhere to go but down from here on out though . Obviously looking to the future with my pathetic roster :)

by jeffncynmac on Apr 12, 2025 4:45 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Editor's Note?

Anybody else notice how John’s covering his behind with that Editor’s Note comment?
HA!
GO FOG!
Boomer.

by glamboomer on Apr 12, 2025 5:38 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Made A Few Big Trades

Traded Tony Sanchez, Adam Jones, and Ben Zobrist for Ubaldo Jimenez, Nelson Cruz (oh yeah), and David Eckstein.

Then traded Chapman for Martin Prado and Matt Moore.
I think it turned out very well so far.

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by cwhitman412 on Apr 12, 2025 5:39 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Interesting first week for me

-The majority of my hitters aren’t hitting, with the exception of Colby Rasmus. My team has a BA of .222, yet I lead the league in SEC.

-My pitching has been up and down. Hopefully Verlander gets rolling soon.

-I hate relief pitchers. Neftali and Medlen are the only relievers on my team that I like. The rest are just there in hope that they can add some holds. Thankfully, Neftali will start to bring in saves for me.

by jar75 on Apr 12, 2025 8:35 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Well...........

I’m tied in the league for the most homers and lead in rbi’s but my pitching is below average so I’m in the middle of the pack. Need pitching but every offer has wanted Billy Butler in return, and I’m way too high on him.Time to get creative.

by UMass12 on Apr 12, 2025 9:04 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Good start . . .

Since John’s last post I made one big trade and a small, yet significant FA move:

1) Traded Carlos Gonzalez, Ian Stewart and Logan Morrison for Miguel Cabrera and Cody Ross

2) PIcked up Alex Gonzalez and rode his hot streak while G.Beckham gained 2B eligibility

Roster as it stands is strong. With a lineup of Napoli, M.Cabrera, Utley, Beckham, As.Cabrera, D.Lee, Bay, Pence, A.Jackson, Ross, and C.Gomez, I feel pretty confident though I’d like an upgrade at catcher and in the outfield. With A.Gonzalez and J.Guillen on the bench to fill in during off days and in case of injuries my offense is strong.

My pitching started the year off well. Rotation of Danks, Matusz, Porcello, Cueto, Feldman, and Millwood is strong right now and I’ll continue to play matchups with Niese, D.Hernandez and Eveland. My bullpen has also performed well despite some minor hiccups and Street’s extended DL stint, I’m holding strong with B.Wilson, Saito, Coffey, M.Lowe, Masset, and Heilman. I graciously scooped up Heilman after John dropped him.

Overall I really like my chances this year and my minor league roster remains pretty strong with players who may make an impact as soon as this year: Tillman, T.Wood, Heisey, Z.McAllister, C.Carrasco and I.DeJesus. Plenty of prospects out there who may breakout this year. I remain a staunch believer that prospects are a dime a dozen, unless of course we’re talking about a top prospect. So much risk is involved with so many young players that banking on them in fantasy baseball is poor management. Of course, this is purely my opinion, though most prospects fail, I’d rather have MLB-ready players.

by jaroche6 on Apr 12, 2025 11:53 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

My team and the league

Well, for my team, I’m very happy. I LOVE my pitching! My offense is adequate and I love my minor leaguers. I expect to contend pretty much all year.

For the league, well, it already looks like there will be some inactive owners for the year. I think this’ll be a fun and challenging league if it can make it past the first couple years. I’m in it for the long haul and hope that most others are, too. It’s interesting having John be the commissioner since he has not been playing fantasy for so long - it’s among the bumps we’ll have to get past, and we’ll all have to work together to keep the league equitable.

But, win or lose, as always, it’s going to be fun!

The wind is in the buffalo.

by journeymen on Apr 13, 2025 10:03 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

BatCats

It’s been a good start for the BatCats, who currently stand in 3rd place in the Satchel Paige division.

The only major roster move was paying a dear price for a closer. I had to cough up J.A. Happ along with Jose Bautista and Jake Fox to land him, but going a full season without a closer just was not an option.

Ryan Howard and Jorge Cantu are carrying the squad offensively, and Jason Bartlett is chipping in as well. But after that it’s pretty bad, with only Eugenio Velez checking in with a batting average above .238, and that’s an empty .250

I picked up some stellar starts from Carl Pavano, Gio Gonzalez and Andy Pettitte. But Brett Myers, Chris Carpenter and Jason Marquis aren’t doing me any favors. The pen has been good, however, with Nunez, Matt Guerrier and Jensen Lewis all pitching well. All told, I don’t know how long that’s going to hold up, but time will tell.

by ajake57 on Apr 13, 2025 11:48 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs