Taking Stock at the All-Star Break
Take a look at the standings in your roto league. Now, take a look at the roster of the owner who is in first place. Does he have on his team (a) Bret Boone, (b) Ichiro Suzuki, and/or (c) Albert Pujols? If the owner in your league has all three of these guys, then you can chalk up the season to dumb luck. He/she got lucky and picked players who have had unexpectedly great years. What can you do? On the other hand, if the owner in your league who is in first place doesn’t have these guys, then you’ve got no excuse. You are just being out managed.
Two weeks ago, Carlos Beltran hit .478 over 23 at bats, with 5 home runs, 11 RBI, and 9 runs scored. Where was he? On my bench, of course, I chose to go with Brian Jordan, who hit .269/1/5/4. So, being a good manager and wanting to get the hot hand into my lineup, I put Beltran in, and took Jordan out. So, last week, Beltran hit .222 with zero homers, 2 RBI, and 2 runs scored, while in my lineup. Jordan, on the other hand, riding my bench, hit .440 with 3 homers, 9 RBI, and 5 runs. Oy! Sometimes you just can’t win. My pitchers are all injured, so I have absolutely no choice about who should be in my active lineup because I have nobody on my bench who isn’t on the disabled list or in the minors. My hitters, on the other hand, I have plenty of, and each week I have to make decisions about who should be in and who should be out. I inevitably choose incorrectly. That’s why I’m in 6th place rather than 2nd. Want to blame someone for your poor performance in your roto league this year – look the mirror.
And so, at the All-Star break, it’s a good time to take stock of your draft (and any trades you may have made this year) and see whether your problems are that you are a poor judge of talent – or merely a poor manager.
The following players have excelled in the first half. This doesn’t mean that you should run out and trade for them – since second half performance doesn’t necessarily equate to great second half performance. I’ve given you my appraisal of whether I think it’s likely that they’ll continue to excel. On the other hand, I’ve also listed players who have had sub-par 1st halves, and my evaluation of whether you should go out and get them in anticipation of superior performance for the rest of the way. Of course, these are just my opinions. I thought Beltran would stay hot!
First Half Leaders
Using a simple formula for a 5-category roto league (runs + RBI + Home runs times 3 + Steals times 4 + batting average points above .275), here are the leading hitters over the first half:
Player
AB
R
H
BA
HR
RBI
SB
Gonzalez, Luis
330
75
117
0.3545
35
86
1
349.5
Walker, Larry
297
72
102
0.3434
27
83
9
340.4
Berkman, Lance
315
72
115
0.3651
25
79
4
332.1
Floyd, Cliff
313
73
107
0.3419
21
70
12
320.9
Suzuki, Ichiro
386
76
134
0.3472
5
41
28
316.2
Bonds, Barry
259
66
79
0.305
39
73
7
314
Helton, Todd
315
80
99
0.3143
26
84
4
297.3
Guerrero, Vladimir
327
63
107
0.3272
21
67
12
293.2
Gonzalez, Juan
308
61
107
0.3474
23
83
1
289.4
Sweeney, Mike
342
70
114
0.3333
21
65
8
288.3
Alomar, Roberto
310
58
111
0.3581
9
52
17
288.1
Ramirez, Manny
328
60
110
0.3354
26
84
0
282.4
Klesko, Ryan
313
65
93
0.2971
17
75
17
281.1
Abreu, Bobby
315
68
89
0.2825
17
62
23
280.5
Sosa, Sammy
298
72
93
0.3121
29
83
0
279.1
Rodriguez, Alex
339
74
105
0.3097
25
73
5
276.7
Boone, Bret
340
65
110
0.3235
22
84
2
271.5
Giles, Brian
325
64
109
0.3354
21
55
6
266.4
Lawton, Matt
317
67
103
0.3249
10
50
17
264.9
Alou, Moises
287
50
104
0.3624
18
65
2
264.4
Jones, Chipper
305
67
94
0.3082
25
65
5
260.2
Nevin, Phil
297
57
92
0.3098
21
72
4
242.8
Cameron, Mike
289
59
80
0.2768
15
58
18
235.8
Drew, J.D.
218
44
72
0.3303
21
49
6
235.3
Williams, Bernie
268
58