Of course I have an ulterior motive in assessing Scott Podsednik (see two posts down; don't bother with this one unless you like reading about other people's fantasy teams).
Yes, I did draft Scott Podsednik in March (just one spot behind Steve Finley and half a round after the prospect Curtis Granderson (who, one would have thought, would be in the bigs by now...).
Funny draft for me: Had the first two picks overall, first two of round 15 (i.e. round 2, given 13 freezes/team), no R16, then R17 onward.
Randy Johnson and Adrian Beltre have utterly failed to live up to their draft spots even though they were the obvious choices from among the league crossovers. Kevin Millwood has produced good ROI but Brandon McCarthy hasn't. My next three picks were A.J. Pierzynski (worked out okay but not great; I needed a catcher after all), Kenny Rogers(!), and Pods.
Anyhow, I had no intent to start Pods, with my OF/DH spots taken by Carlos Lee, Magglio Ordonez, Trot Nixon, and the much hyped (at least by myself) Dallas McPherson. Sure, failing to start a true CF makes for ugly defense, but still. Trot and Magglio are fragile enough that Pods would soak up some plate appearances all the same, as indeed the PT defaulted to him with Ordonez out most of the first half.
So with Mags back, time to bench Pods again? Not necessarily...
Anyhow, it turns out I have a extremely natural-looking lineup available to me, and for all my stathead orthodoxy I should probably ride this and hope and pray that the table setters continue to hit for average to the extent that their value requires (since neither one is exactly a secondary-skills monster):
vs. RHP:
1. Scott Podsednik OF (no more batting behind A.J. - oh, wait... full circle... d'oh)
2. Michael Young SS (up from 6th)
3. Travis Hafner 1B
4. Carlos Lee OF (can you believe I'd batted him 2nd?! low OBP killing me)
5. Trot Nixon OF (down from leadoff(!), where I did highly enjoy his OBP)
6. Magglio Ordonez OF
7. Adrian Beltre 3B (down from cleanup)
8. A.J. Pierzynski C
9. Nen Puntay (aka Rubick Goto) 2B
Of those nine, Trot would actually DH, since Scoresheet attributes to him the worst defense of the four listed OF. To the bench goes Dallas McPherson, who I suppose won't hit 40 HR this year after all (he'll make a fine lefty pinch-hitter, at least since my supposed top lefty pinch-hitter stuck his way to the minors (oh wait, so did my supposed second-best lefty pinch-hitter - there's a reason I've taken both Matt Stairs and Jody Gerut in the July supplemental).
Time to readjust expectations with Beltre. No hard feelings, of course. He looks a lot like the 2003 Beltre, with 2004 results as a teaser of what he's capable of. If he busts out again and I feel silly batting him down - well, at least I'll reap his rejuvenation.
Anyhow, the lineup vs. LHP is a bit murkier. Exit Trot and A.J., enter Bobby Kielty and Doug Mirabelli, shift some of the righties up, possibly shift Hafner down, unclear what to do with Pods. Marco Scutaro becomes head #3 on my multi-headed 2B monster (yeah, I pinch-hit for my 2B a lot). Jay Payton and Carl Everett agitate for playing time just as in real life.
Posted by Matt Bruce at July 13, 2005 02:28 PM