Real Draft: Razzball
Usually we try to give you information to put together a good fantasy baseball team. But last night I participated in a draft where the idea is to put together the worst fantasy baseball squad. Yes, you read that right. In Razzball, the idea is to put together a team of stiffs, preferably ones that stink up the joint for the entire season.
This was my first time playing Razzball. I felt like I owed it to Rudy after I used his Point Share Ratings so often. Plus, this year they have teamed up with DreamMaker Spas and SpaDepot.com to award the overall winner a spa valued at over $3,000. I can be bought and this meets my price.
Unfortunately, the draft for Razzball came at a most inopportune time. I just got back from a week in Arizona and not only did I have some nice jet lag going on, but I also came home to a sick 4-year old who decided to spend the night and day throwing up. Good times, although not one that lent itself to studying for a draft to pick terrible players.
My strategy was to focus on hitters and draft players from the Royals and Pirates. I ended up with this team:
Rick Ankiel
Scott Podsednik
Yuniesky Betancourt
Jason Kendall
Martin Prado
Brendan Harris
Kosuke Fukudome
Andy LaRoche
Garrett Jones
Corey Hart
Ryan Sweeney
Orlando Hudson
Armando Galarraga
Manny Parra
Kevin Millwood
Brett Myers
J.D. Martin
David Huff
Vin Mazzaro
Billy Buckner
Freddy Garcia
Geoff Blum
Jamey Carroll
Anderson Hernandez
Fernando Nieve
Mat Gamel
Eugenio Velez
Clearly, this is not a good team. But I have no idea if it is truly Razzball bad. I like the versatility offered by Prado, Harris, Jones, Blum, Carroll, Hernandez and Velez. Prado may seem like a weird pick, but he’s eligible at first base and the league is set up to award players who do not hit HR. The scoring is as follows:
At Bats (AB) 2 Runs (R) -4 Hits (H) -3 Home Runs (HR) -6 Runs Batted In (RBI) -4 Strikeouts (K) 2
Innings Pitched (IP) -1 Losses (L) 8 Hits (H) 1 Earned Runs (ER) 1.5 Home Runs (HR) 4 Walks (BB) 1 Strikeouts (K) -1
According to Razzball, “The point structure makes it so that about 2/3 of the league’s hitters as well as just about every pitcher has positive value. So leaving a roster spot open or filled by a guy who plays once a week will hurt your team.” Also the innings are capped at 1,250 so I’ll have to find some poor middle relievers on the waiver wire during the year.
It was fun thinking about fantasy in a completely different way. It will also be nice to have a reason now to check the boxscores for the Royals. May all of my KC guys come up with 500-plus ABs!
8
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Leave it to the guys at razzball to think of this.
What a waste of time.
Yeah, why try new things. Best to just do the same thing over and over and…
how is this any MORE a waste of time than traditional fantasy sports? Every league has their rules and scoring systems, and no one cares what someone else’s settings are. And I would argue that this is quite NOT a waste of time, since they are actually playing for a $3000 prize. what’s your league’s payout, Blaze?
I’ve been wanting to join one of these for a while. I’d be all of SF Giants hitters, especially Aubrey Huff.
good drafting, brian. it’s only fair that there’s one draft out there where the royals are treated royally and pirates aren’t feared…
I was, and still am, totally unprepared for this draft. Just until Grey noted on Razzball that steals weren’t worth anything that I actually took the time to look over the scoring.
Rudy, I don’t think I have thanked you over at Razzball enough for “point shares”, has helped tremendously and I plan on using it extensively this Friday at my NFBC draft….
So how high did Francoeur go? He’s gotta be a Top 10 pick in this thing right?
He went in the 7th round.
Looking at the scoring system, it looks like you want pitchers who should be a little worse than mediocre, but not so abjectly awful that they get booted from the rotation, sent down, or released outright. The Livan Hernandez’s of the world, if you will. Doug Davis. Zach Duke. Bronson Arroyo. Will deliver 30 below average starts year in and year out, like clockwork. Brett Myers should fit the bill quite nicely for you, and that horrid Astros team should pile up their fair share of losses.
Out of curiosity, have you (or has anyone) loaded last year’s stats into a spreadsheet with these scoring parameters to see who last year’s “leaders” were?
Hey Nate -
Glad they’ve come in handy. I just updated the MLB 10 team Point Shares today after someone caught a glitch for pitchers.
Jason B -
I must’ve done it but I don’t have it handy. For 2010, the #1 projected Razzball player is Drew Stubbs as he has moderate power and a huge K rate. I went with Carlos Gomez, though, b/c who knows if Dusty will give Stubbs a full season.
The best Razzball player in recent memory was Willy Taveras. Nick Punto put up an awful year at 3B too. Here’s a link to notable awful seasons of years past: http://razzball.com/category/fantasy-razzball/razzball-historical-spotlight/
Regards,
Rudy
Thanks for the response Rudy. Willy Tavares last year would have just been HUGE, particularly since he gets no credit for his one “saving grace”, his SB. I like the Gomez play, too. Hopefully for you he won’t stink enough to merit being replaced by Edmonds.
Is Corey Hart really THAT bad? Two years ago he was a top 60 pick. His average, of course, is bad, and he has declined over the last two years, but he’ll still hit 15+ HRs, steal 15+ bases, and he’ll still be hitting 5th right after Braun and Prince…
According to the Bill James projections, Hart would score 207 points in this league. For a comparison, Lastings Milledge, who was take three picks later, would score 212. Assuming the guy who drafted Milledge knew what he was doing, the Hart pick was a competitive choice for the round.
Hah that’s sad….LaRoche is the starting 3rd baseman on my actual fantasy team.
Dodgers signed Garret Anderson, I believe, so get your waiver pick in ASAP. Torre can’t help playing those guys and I bet he platoons him with Kemp.
Alex Gonzalez, Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Molina, Lyle Overbay
The Blue Jays infield is terrible.
As a Jays fan, sadly, I concur. Edwin E and Lyle O are serviceable, and you can deal with “serviceable” when you’ve got enough pop elsewhere in the lineup, but Lind + Hill (with some regression) + Snider (with some much hoped-for development) just doesn’t constitute “enough pop” to simply scrape by at the corners.
*Sticks in a 1993 World Series tape*
Carlos Silva could have been your ace! *shudder*
Me and a friend of mine tried this last year. This might inspire us to try it again.
I would be down this sounds so dope.
Tavares’ days of razzing might not be over…if he’s available, i’d grab him now that dukes got axed…
I have my Razzball draft on wednesday. Nice to see how one team came out. I can only hope my team is worse than that(if that is possible)