An Introduction

You may have noticed that I'm steadily adding more fantasy baseball links on the right side of the screen. If you have any suggestions for others, let me know!

One of those links is for Fake Teams ( www.faketeams.com ), a fantasy baseball blog that I just 'discovered'. It looks like Eric updates it VERY frequently, which is a big plus in my book. He and I agreed to swap answers to three questions as a way of introducing eachother's blogs. Here is what he had to say...

Q: Key pitching stat you watch?
A: I focus on the effects that pitcher's have on the ratio categories. I'm not convinced I can reliably predict Ws, but I feel comfortable selecting starters based on WHIP and allowing wins to fall where they may. because I've seen too many middle relievers allow inherited runners to score, I don't give as much weight to ERA. When looking an additional level down, I will examine the pitchers walk rates and strikeout rates. For major leaguers, WHIP first followed by BB:9 and K:9. For call-ups, I check their K:9 ratio because I prefer to see minor league pitchers who dominate minor league hitters via missing bats - Jeremy Sowers being the exception to the rule.

Q: Fantasy Pitching Sleeper?
A: This would be a deep sleeper in any format, but I really like the Mets' Philip Humber. He returned from TJ surgery last year and dominated at each level of his rehab while maintaining his K:9. Heck, his major league K:9 equaled 1.00 - in two innings! I expect him to remain under the radar given the higher profile of Mike Pelfrey. The back-end of the Mets rotation is a mess, but I expect the MEts to try several candidates ahead of Humber. The decision will be to let Humber accumulate more innings while letting the back-end candidates fight it out. After Humber dominates AAA and/or those back-end candidates prove unworthy, the Mets will recall Humber. I figure mid-May at the earliest.

Q: Draft or Auction?
A: My two keeper leagues are auctions. I find them to be more interesting in terms of interaction as every player that comes up can be yours while a draft has you selecting once and then waiting and hoping the player you want is stere there "x" number of picks later. The frenzy that builds around a player or two is more exciting. last year, Carl Crawford was in the draft pool for the first time and went for $50. It was the first time a player hit that mark in the nine-year history of the league. That just doesn't happen at snake drafts.