Elite Fantasy Players

Skip to navigation

2009 ELITE FANTASY BASEBALL TOP 20

Breakfast of Champions

Discuss this on the Elite Forum

By Tarrell Graham

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

16 ounce Pounders

NJ Dingleberries

Montezuma's Revenge

Nutz On Clark

Montreal Expos

Chicos Bail Bond's

Team giordano

Fun go

THE P3RCUL8OR

Stop the Bleeding

Team Casey

Motor City Kitties

Mansfield Ballpark

Chicago Homer

The Pretenders

Team Newsome

Alicia Lynn Pieri

Red Monster

Team Bartolo's Colon

The Perkalators

Florida State

Frontier

Eastern

Centennial

Pacific Coast

Appalachian

Ohio Valley

Florida State

International

Frontier

NY-Penn

Gulf Coast

Pacific Coast

International

Florida State

Eastern

Elite

International

Elite

Northwest

2734

2652

2565

2499

2440

2392

2376

2363

2357

2350

2347

2342

2339

2338

2323

2311

2298

2284

2283

Monday August 17, 2009

49 STATES AND ONE ISLAND

I have often wondered why, that despite the geography of my birth, I am just not flag flying southern. I suppose it’s silly to think the landscape of your childhood would have a tangible affect on your personality, but I always imagined the pine trees and kudzu would permeate me with earthy southern flavor – roots by osmosis. Truth is that outside of my accent, gun license and love of biscuits I am really no more southern than Lox and Bagels. I grew up and still live in Pinehurst, a geriatric fantasy land filled with great hospitals and over 100 golf courses. The place is teeming with northern transplants and even though most of them have the shelf life of a shrimp calzone, they have a huge influence on the culture. Personally I feel like I grew up in a little oasis – I am not exactly living the shadow of Harvard but the mixing of cultures from all of the country did provide a good bit of insulation from the really redneck parts. I mean, last weekend in a nearby town people were having a cookout and killing cows with homemade canons. Yeah…I wish I was kidding about that. Don’t get me wrong, I am proud of my roots, and consider myself country, but never redneck confederate flag southern. Maybe being shielded from good ol’ boy culture has given me a skewed sense of my state but I have always thought that North Carolina was southern in a Savannah sense of the word, not in the Birmingham sense.

Well, Friday I got quite a reality check when two things happened that were just shocking. First, an equipment salesman stopped by my office. During his sales pitch he actually said to me, “For the first time in my 60 years I don’t have a president because I don’t count no N***** as my commander and chief.” Ok, that is pretty sad to think, even sadder to say out loud but just plain crazy to say while trying to sell to a guy with an Obama/Biden bumper sticker on his truck. I mean, really?? Really? I went into the office still reeling from the blatant hateful ignorance of those comments and while doing some reading I found this article. Apparently 8% of the people in my home state don’t think Hawaii is a state. Let me repeat that one more time, 8 out of 100 people in North Carolina do not think that Hawaii is part of the United States. That is scary. I mean, ever day there is decent chance the person I am talking to has no idea that there are 50 states. Wow. Often times John Thornton gets on my case about sending out ridiculous trade offers – his standard line is, “Do you really think anyone is going to be stupid enough to accept that”….well in light of recent events I would have to say the odds are actually pretty good if the person is from NC. Anyway, onto the baseball…

TWITTERS FROM TWITS

It’s amazing how a casual tweet can change your opinion of someone - tonight’s big loser is going to be my boy Nick Swisher. If you read the BOC last season you know I have always had a tremendous amount of love for Swisher but his latest Tweets are just getting embarrassing. To start he has been using his Twitter account to promote for Chris Isaak. Swish is actually referring to Isaak as a “Cool guy with a new CD and great entertainer” Ok, that is a dangerous game to be playing but I can almost forgive him for that since Isaak was opening for Uber-hot Michelle Branch, but I have to draw a line in the sand when it comes to the following post:

Texual Healing baby. Do it Tex. Huge bomb.2 more to go

Did he just refer to Mark Teixiera as Texsual Healing??? Hmmmm…..it might be less embarrassing to think Hawaii is a country.

THE ELITE LEAGUE: MY DIARY

You think you know but you have no idea….

Absolutely nothing new to report in the Elite league today, but we can play catch up a little.

The trade deadline went gently into the night without so much as a whimper. I worked on several deals but in the end just couldn’t come to terms with anyone. Trevor Stowell of Organized Chaos made a really heavy push for Jason Bay and actually sent some pretty good offers. Currently I am project almost 100 IP below the max and so picking up an extra SP would have been nice. Stowell and I went back and forth for awhile and the last offer he sent was Choo/Gallardo for Street/Bay. I just couldn’t pull the trigger on it. Choo has a ridiculous .370+ BABIP and has hit 1 HR in the last 45 days. With the league bunched in power the step down from Bay just wasn’t worth it. Gallardo is great but is really young and odds are he will tire down the stretch. I would like to have rostered him but with Lidge struggling and Soriano not looking right I couldn’t afford to lose a closer. Only time will tell but for now I am pretty glad I didn’t take it.

I picked up Myers when I active Kinsler from the DL. I stashed Brett on the DL in the hopes he will have value of some sort in September.

Chaos is taking a nose dive over the last few weeks and would have been wise to trade for a closer at the break. The same goes for Czar and both guys could use some saves to pick up/solidify some points.

There are five teams - Czar, Honey Nut, Choas, Romans, and Bilderbergers - jocking for the last two safe spots. It is going to be interesting to see who pulls out but as of now I think Czar and Honey Nut will pull it out. I am rooting for Romans and Joel but I am not sure they have the bullets.

QUICK HITS OR REALLY SHORT THOUGHTS AND SPECULATIONS BASED ON ZERO FACTS

-Nate McLouth continues to struggle with a hamstring problem. It’s a bad time for Jason Heyward to go into a mini-slump. The young slugger is only 2 for his last 18 in AA Mississippi and a call up is looking less likely. If McLouth misses some time I really like Ryan Church. I think he could be a fine short term play.

-I know he had some flashes of brilliance, but Big Papi is finished...burnt...fried...cooked ...done-zo.

-Alex Avila will probably not play enough to be a fantasy starter but the guys bat is impressive and he went deep again last night.

-Julio Borbon bores the crap out of me but his solid play is really hurting Chris Davis’s chances. I am going give Davis and Snider until Tuesday but then I will have to make some changes.

-HR and K. As we have said a million times, that’s all that matters. For that reason and many more Luke Hochevar sucks and always will.

-I hate Aaron Hill and just on principle there is no single player I will avoid more in next year’s draft. He has to be the single best value of any player drafted this season. Just amazing.

-I really hate Brad Lidge. I mean, really hate him on a personal level. If I knew what he drove I would key his car.

-Eric Young Jr. continues to hit and is sleeping with his cell phone.