Today's Fantasy Rx

Click here for discussion of our initial rosters for Fantasy and Budget Baseball. As veteran readers will remember, we ran the same roster in both leagues all year as each game employs essentially identical rules. Go here for discussion of our initial roster for Mid-Season Fantasy Baseball.

We registered the following finishes in the various CDM Points-Based games this season:

Fantasy Baseball & Budget Baseball(same players on both teams)
The Umpire Chronicles(6th lg; 355th overall)
Umpire with a Soul(3rd lg; 658th overall)

Mid-Season Fantasy Baseball
Umpire in Brooklyn(5th lg; 102nd overall)

Super Challenge
World Vampires Association(20th overall)

To evaluate our effectiveness in roster selection, I will discuss each position to determine if we selected the best players. Our CDM history suggests that a team of the "best" 28 players easily would win the championship, so I won't worry about reserves in great detail. Along with discussing the top players available, I'll list who we owned, as well as their respective salaries, designating the different leagues as FBB(Fantasy and Budget Baseball) and MS(Mid-Season Fantasy Baseball). Players marked with a P are those we purchased during the season.

Catchers: Our picks: Jason Varitek(1400: FBB, MS), Javy Lopez(1480: FBB-P, MS), Eli Marrero(1240: FBB), Toby Hall(1070: FBB), and Mike Lieberthal(1350: MS).

Lopez was the logical pick here, easily outdistancing Varitek and Lieberthal in cost-effectiveness. Any combination of these three catchers or even a variation including Ramon Hernandez(1390) or A.J. Pierzynski(1260) would have provided excellent numbers for a reasonable price. Of course, any team without Lopez likely struggled given his overall value. Next year's picks here again appear totally dependent upon assigned salaries, although Victor Martinez looks like an early favorite to join a couple of the aforementioned catchers on our roster.

First Basemen: Our picks: Frank Thomas(2030: FBB, MS), Carlos Delgado(2850: FBB-P, MS), Josh Phelps(1480: FBB), Carlos Pena(1270: FBB), Aubrey Huff(1420: MS), Erubiel Durazo(1110: MS), and Todd Helton(3320: FBB-P).

Never adding Huff on our full-season team qualifies as an obvious failure here. He provided points nearly twice as cost-efficient as Helton. Thomas, Durazo, Dmitri Young(1520), and David Ortiz(1630) also were much more useful than the expensive first basemen. The sheer depth of marginally acceptable first basemen usually available makes predicting likely 2004 buys very difficult, but someone like Phelps should be very tempting if his salary remains low.

Second Basemen: Our picks: Marcus Giles(1080: FBB-P, MS), Alfonso Soriano(2570: FBB), Mark Ellis(1100: FBB), Orlando Hudson(1000: FBB), Bret Boone(2640: MS), and D'Angelo Jimenez(1400: MS).

Soriano and Boone were relatively good buys, but Giles ranks with the best players in the 2003 games. While Michael Young wasn't much less valuable, his relatively weak skills still worry us. Ellis wasn't great, although both he and Hudson were much more cost-effective than even Kent or Vidro. As long as Giles' salary stays under 2000, he likely will return to our squad next year, and if Jimenez looks secure leading off for the Reds, his production should warrant more consideration.

Third Basemen: Our picks: Mark Teixeira(1000: FBB-P, MS), Aramis Ramirez(1800: FBB), Eric Hinske(1750: FBB), Joe Crede(1150: FBB), Mike Lowell(2360: MS), Hank Blalock(1100: MS), Morgan Ensberg(1000: MS), and Scott Rolen(2660: FBB-P).

Forgoing Blalock in full-season ball was as poor a decision as skipping Huff. Blalock and Bill Mueller(1510) contributed better numbers than Ramirez or Lowell, however Crede's second-half surge left him with decent overall stats. Although Rolen led the position in total points, a combination of Blalock, Mueller, and Teixeira easily ranked as the most efficient here, and we'll look for similar players next season. Teixeira should be a good play at first base, and Blalock should remain relatively cheap, while both Ensberg and Sean Burroughs(1100) could emerge as a useful acquisitions.

Shortstops: Our picks: Nomar Garciaparra(2300: FBB, MS), Orlando Cabrera(1820: FBB, MS), Jose Hernandez(1780: FBB), and Rafael Furcal(1800: MS).

While ARod(3580) easily lapped the position in total, we wisely avoided his salary. Employing Nomar, Cabrera, and Furcal worked great here as their combination of points and cost-efficiency at least gave us one position with solid values. Jose Reyes(1500) looked like a future stud in the second half, and I expect he'll join Cabrera and either Jimmy Rollins(1740) or one of this year's shortstops on our 2004 teams.

Outfielders with salaries of 2000+: Our picks: Albert Pujols(3150: FBB, MS), Manny Ramirez(2690: FBB, MS), Larry Walker(2500: FBB, MS), Preston Wilson(2410: FBB, MS), Lance Berkman(2850: FBB, MS-P), Vlad Guerrero(3440: FBB), Pat Burrell(2420: FBB), Gary Sheffield(2600: MS), and Richard Hidalgo(2090: MS-P).

Outfielders with salaries of 1990 or less: Our picks: Ken Griffey Jr.(1900: FBB, MS), Vernon Wells(1780: FBB, MS), Hideki Matsui(1500: FBB, MS), Austin Kearns(1600: FBB), Milton Bradley(1170: MS), and Juan Gonzalez(1980: FBB-P).

Pujols, Sheffield, Wells, and Manny were the top 4 outfielders, and Wilson finished 6th, just behind Bonds. Of course, Wells' salary made him an exceptional buy, Sheffield, Ramirez, and Wilson all were fairly efficient. Both Rocco Baldelli(1000) and Carl Crawford(1070) should have been on our teams, so we'll try not to ignore speedsters next year as long as they appear in the lineup every day. Matsui played well, and Hidalgo helped in September, however relying on Berkman, Walker, and Vlad didn't work at all. In 2004, I suspect we'll return to Griffey, Kearns, and Adam Dunn(2000) as their salaries should remain quite stable. Other likely targets include Wilson, Wells, Bradley, Corey Patterson(1410), Jason Bay(1500), and Miguel Cabrera(1500).

Starting Pitchers with salaries of 2000+: Our picks: Curt Schilling(3600: FBB, MS), Pedro Martinez(2900: FBB, MS), Roy Oswalt(2800: FBB, MS), Roy Halladay(2010: FBB, MS), Mike Mussina(2920: FBB-P, MS), Wade Miller(2170: FBB, MS-P), Randy Johnson(4000: FBB), Kerry Wood(2470: FBB), Kevin Millwood(2400: FBB), Tim Hudson(2830: MS), Roger Clemens(2720: MS), and Andy Pettitte(2210: MS-P).

Starting Pitchers with salaries of 1990 or less: Our picks: Jason Schmidt(1990: FBB, MS), Mark Prior(1800: FBB, MS), Kevin Brown(1910: FBB, MS-P), Kurt Ainsworth(1000: FBB), Esteban Loaiza(1900: MS), Rich Harden(1500: FBB-P), Brandon Webb(1500: MS-P), and Jose Contreras(1500: MS-P).

Given our investment in starting pitching, we chose wisely in rostering Halladay, Prior, Wood, and Schmidt from the beginning, although skipping Wood in mid-season obviously was a mistake. Never adding Loaiza in full-season hurt, as did ignoring Andy Pettitte most of the season.

The only pitchers that ranked in the top 30 in points who failed to pitch 200 innings were Pedro and Miller, so we may avoid more fragile pitchers in 2004. Unfortunately, worrying too much about Brown's injury cost us early stats, so if the salaries of Randy and Schilling fall, they easily could return to our team. Next year, we're going to pay much more attention to IP/GS and K/9 in selecting pitchers here, along with the obvious consideration of run support. Therefore, Brett Myers, Jake Peavy, Brandon Webb, and any new starters on Boston or the Yankees will look like good picks, in addition to Halladay, Prior, Wood, and Schmidt.

Relief Pitchers: Our picks: Keith Foulke(2330: FBB, MS), Matt Mantei(1200: FBB, MS-P), Eric Gagne(2560: FBB-P, MS), Mike MacDougal(1500: FBB-P, MS), Tim Worrell(1370: FBB-P, MS), Matt Anderson(1260: FBB), Jesus Colome(1000: FBB), and Mariano Rivera(2490: MS-P).

Gagne outdistanced even Foulke by nearly 100 points, although both players are nearly automatic selections next year, assuming Foulke lands with Oakland or Boston. However, Worrell, Rocky Biddle(1500), Joe Borowski(1500), Mantei, Lance Carter(1000), and MacDougal all contributed relatively solid stats. Unless Gagne, Foulke, Wagner(2430), and Smoltz(2910) all wind up with salaries below 2500, we see little reason not to run a couple of cheaper closers, particularly given the salary raises due elite starters we need like Halladay and Prior.

While we haven't performed as well in the points-based contests as in the CDM challenge games that use roto scoring, we still finished among the top teams in all three points-based leagues despite missing on a few key players. Next season, if we target a few more very cheap players likely to bat at the top of lineups while contributing stats in several categories, we should create enough salary room to keep a couple expensive closers rostered all year. Focusing on starting pitchers who display both dominance and durability similarly should give us more moves to use on emerging contributors.

Today's Fantasy Rx: Even though we haven't recouped our expenditures in two seasons of playing the three contests discussed above, our relative closeness to league titles suggests our basic strategy remains solid. Providing we remain open-minded in considering position players for these teams instead of ignoring most guys with weak plate discipline, we should retain enough roster flexibility to continue running the best pitchers available.