Matthew Adams - That would be me. As I've mentioned, I won our league last year. Here's a picture of our Stanley Cup-like trophy.
So what, GM do I most correlate to? Kenny Williams of the Chicago White Sox. Much like Kenny, I had my struggles to start out, missing the playoffs the first 4 seasons of the league before winning it last year. Also like Kenny, I always have a few irons in the fire, and typically they come as a surprise. Looking back I've been in on 15 of 25 trades that have gone down in our league (which is shocking when I actually tally it up). Also like Kenny Williams, when I finally built a winner, it was around dominant pitching (last years starters for me were Johan & Ervin Santana, Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson, Huston Street, and Bobby Jenks). My offenses are decent but never overpowering (although Kenny has built a powerhouse offense recently, something I hope to duplicate).
Dan Opp - Dan Opp has been the most successful owner in our league. He's taken home the trophy 2 of the 5 years, and lost in the finals to me last year. Dan's closest AL comparable is Mark Shapiro of the Cleveland Indians. Both have teams are built about a powerful offense, Dan Opp somehow he has managed to assemble Travis Hafner, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz on the same team. Where both guys struggles in in the pitching dept. Dan has a few good pitchers, CC Sabathia, Roy Halladay and Bartolo Colon (when healthy), but has a hard time filling in the back half of the rotation and the bullpen.
Chuck Prezzano - Chuck hasn't had any success yet in the league, but its not for lack of effort. Chuck has consciously gone into rebuilding, and he's got the beginnings of a dominant young team (Delmon Young, Francisco Liriano, Mark Texeira, Rich Harden, Justin Verlander, Vernon Wells, Josh Beckett) with a bunch of high draft picks. The GM Chuck is most like is Dave Dombrowski of the Detroit Tigers. Chuck is about one year behind Dombrowski's progress. Both spent a long time down, but are building up around young power pitching. Dombrowski's team come out of nowhere last year, but it was a few years in the building. Likewise, Chuck's been quietly stockpiling young pitching (and that's setting aside his never ending quest to pry Felix Hernandez away from Harold). Both guys are gradually building good bullpens, and their offenses are well balanced.
Greg Palmer - Greg's been competitive the past few years, finishing fourth in last years league (losing the consolation game), and losing in the finals the year before. The past few years Greg has held onto a lot of guys, so he's pretty happy with the roster he has. The GM he is most similar to is JP Ricciardi of the Toronto Blue Jays. Both guys have struggled to get the pitching staff lined up. Greg's early pitching staffs were anchored by Pedro Martinez and Mariano Rivera. He could never seem to get the right parts around them to have a fully successful pitching staff. Pedro is obviously gone, but Mariano is still there. Like JP, Greg has sometimes appeared to overpay for pitching (making a big trade last season to get Joe Crede and Randy Johnson, trading up last year to grab Javier Vazquez) but it hasn't translated yet into a strong pitching staff (although his staff is pretty good). On offense both guys have a few blue chippers, but have a tendency to run out a few stiffs at a couple positions (Greg stuck with Bobby Crosby for an agonizingly long time before finally cutting him lose).
Nick Willnow - Nick was a force in the early seasons of the league. he never won the title, but had a good team. The last few years he's succumbed to rebuilding efforts, although his rebuilding efforts haven't always ended well (Who can forget his fabled 2005 draft, where he had 4 of the top 13 picks, [2, 4, 12, 13] and came away with Randy Johnson, Matt Clement, Aaron Rowand, and Carl Pavano). For all this, sorry Nick but you most resemble Mike Flanagan of the Orioles. Rebuilding efforts have focused on the wrong guys (Clement, Pavano, Sosa, Javy Lopez). Neither guys can build a decent offense around a few stud building blocks (ARod, in Nick's case). Also, both have struggled to put together a good pitching staff, as Nick heads into this season with Papelbon, Garland, Jake Westbrook, Gil Meche, and Carl Pavano as his kept starters, with nary a closer.
Brad DeMay - Brad has had his share of success in our league as well. He won the whole thing in 2004, and finished third this past season. Besides the one year he decided to tear it all down and rebuild (and only kept 3), Brad typically hangs onto a lot of guys, never keeping less than 12. He's got a nice team, with decent balance. Brad's Achille's heel is his bullpen (which for fantasy purposes means closer.). Brad's closers typically implode on him as soon as he gets them (Billy Koch, Jorge Julio, Danny Baez, even Todd Jones is no safe bet going forward). For this reason, Brad is most like Theo Epstein of the Boston Red Sox. Also much like the Red Sox, Brad goes into the season with the makings of a good offense (Swisher, Vlad, Dye, Matsui, Jeter, Eric Chavez) and a decent rotation, although one with some question marks (Schilling, AJ Burnett, Kelvim Escobar). Brad's infield is also normally in flux, as he has Jeter and Eric Chavez, and a rotating cast of characters at the other 3 spots each year.
Dan Messier - Dan's a fun guy. Not a fungi, a fun guy. He's also the co-commish of this league and the creator of our illustrious trophy. Here's a picture of this year's trophy hand over.
Dan Opp - Dan Opp has been the most successful owner in our league. He's taken home the trophy 2 of the 5 years, and lost in the finals to me last year. Dan's closest AL comparable is Mark Shapiro of the Cleveland Indians. Both have teams are built about a powerful offense, Dan Opp somehow he has managed to assemble Travis Hafner, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz on the same team. Where both guys struggles in in the pitching dept. Dan has a few good pitchers, CC Sabathia, Roy Halladay and Bartolo Colon (when healthy), but has a hard time filling in the back half of the rotation and the bullpen.
Chuck Prezzano - Chuck hasn't had any success yet in the league, but its not for lack of effort. Chuck has consciously gone into rebuilding, and he's got the beginnings of a dominant young team (Delmon Young, Francisco Liriano, Mark Texeira, Rich Harden, Justin Verlander, Vernon Wells, Josh Beckett) with a bunch of high draft picks. The GM Chuck is most like is Dave Dombrowski of the Detroit Tigers. Chuck is about one year behind Dombrowski's progress. Both spent a long time down, but are building up around young power pitching. Dombrowski's team come out of nowhere last year, but it was a few years in the building. Likewise, Chuck's been quietly stockpiling young pitching (and that's setting aside his never ending quest to pry Felix Hernandez away from Harold). Both guys are gradually building good bullpens, and their offenses are well balanced.
Greg Palmer - Greg's been competitive the past few years, finishing fourth in last years league (losing the consolation game), and losing in the finals the year before. The past few years Greg has held onto a lot of guys, so he's pretty happy with the roster he has. The GM he is most similar to is JP Ricciardi of the Toronto Blue Jays. Both guys have struggled to get the pitching staff lined up. Greg's early pitching staffs were anchored by Pedro Martinez and Mariano Rivera. He could never seem to get the right parts around them to have a fully successful pitching staff. Pedro is obviously gone, but Mariano is still there. Like JP, Greg has sometimes appeared to overpay for pitching (making a big trade last season to get Joe Crede and Randy Johnson, trading up last year to grab Javier Vazquez) but it hasn't translated yet into a strong pitching staff (although his staff is pretty good). On offense both guys have a few blue chippers, but have a tendency to run out a few stiffs at a couple positions (Greg stuck with Bobby Crosby for an agonizingly long time before finally cutting him lose).
Nick Willnow - Nick was a force in the early seasons of the league. he never won the title, but had a good team. The last few years he's succumbed to rebuilding efforts, although his rebuilding efforts haven't always ended well (Who can forget his fabled 2005 draft, where he had 4 of the top 13 picks, [2, 4, 12, 13] and came away with Randy Johnson, Matt Clement, Aaron Rowand, and Carl Pavano). For all this, sorry Nick but you most resemble Mike Flanagan of the Orioles. Rebuilding efforts have focused on the wrong guys (Clement, Pavano, Sosa, Javy Lopez). Neither guys can build a decent offense around a few stud building blocks (ARod, in Nick's case). Also, both have struggled to put together a good pitching staff, as Nick heads into this season with Papelbon, Garland, Jake Westbrook, Gil Meche, and Carl Pavano as his kept starters, with nary a closer.
Brad DeMay - Brad has had his share of success in our league as well. He won the whole thing in 2004, and finished third this past season. Besides the one year he decided to tear it all down and rebuild (and only kept 3), Brad typically hangs onto a lot of guys, never keeping less than 12. He's got a nice team, with decent balance. Brad's Achille's heel is his bullpen (which for fantasy purposes means closer.). Brad's closers typically implode on him as soon as he gets them (Billy Koch, Jorge Julio, Danny Baez, even Todd Jones is no safe bet going forward). For this reason, Brad is most like Theo Epstein of the Boston Red Sox. Also much like the Red Sox, Brad goes into the season with the makings of a good offense (Swisher, Vlad, Dye, Matsui, Jeter, Eric Chavez) and a decent rotation, although one with some question marks (Schilling, AJ Burnett, Kelvim Escobar). Brad's infield is also normally in flux, as he has Jeter and Eric Chavez, and a rotating cast of characters at the other 3 spots each year.
Dan Messier - Dan's a fun guy. Not a fungi, a fun guy. He's also the co-commish of this league and the creator of our illustrious trophy. Here's a picture of this year's trophy hand over.
I'm the grinning fat guy in the red shirt, Dan's the fella give me a hearty handshake. Anyway, Dan won the league in its first season. He was also defeated in the finals in 2004, in the consolation game in 2005, and in the first round of the playoffs in 2006, obviously a disturbing trend if you're Dan. Dan's closest comparable is Terry Ryan of the Minnesota Twins. Both are consistently competitive, but haven't gotten over the hump in a while. Both build their teams about young home grown talent (Dan's been waiting for BJ Upton and Zack Greinke to blossom for about 3 years now). Both guys have good bullpens, and good front ends of the starting rotation. The back end of each guy's starting staff can be a problem (Dan's staff drops off quickly: Scott Kazmir, Mike Mussina, Erik Bedard, Mark Buehrle). Both guys have more stability on their team than most. For Dan, he built his nucleus during the 2005 draft, and still has 7 of the 8 guys he kept after that season (with the 8th, Casey Kotchman, being a guy Dan will no doubt draft towards the end of this draft).
Harold Greist - Last, but not least, there's Harold Greist. Well, maybe I could say last and least, but that wouldn't be nice. Harold was the best man at my wedding, but so far hasn't been the best man in this league. Rold has struggled pretty much every year, only making the playoffs once. Harold is most like Bill Stoneman of the Anaheim Angels (or whatever they're called). Both of these two guys have dynamite bullpens. (Rold 's got Joe Nathan and K-Rod, and for a while also had Francisco Cordero). Both guys have the beginnings of good pitching staffs (King Felix, Dan Haren, John Lackey, Barry Zito before he went NL). Much like Stoneman, Harold has a tendency to have one of two stiffs in his lineup every year (he finally gave Garret Anderson the boot), and like Stoneman, has a hard time letting older guys go (Anderson again, Jorge Posada, although to be fair, Posada's still a decent player).
That's it, a round up of all the guys in my keeper league, and how they stack up to the real thing.
The league is starting to crank up, so the drama will be in full swing soon...
Harold Greist - Last, but not least, there's Harold Greist. Well, maybe I could say last and least, but that wouldn't be nice. Harold was the best man at my wedding, but so far hasn't been the best man in this league. Rold has struggled pretty much every year, only making the playoffs once. Harold is most like Bill Stoneman of the Anaheim Angels (or whatever they're called). Both of these two guys have dynamite bullpens. (Rold 's got Joe Nathan and K-Rod, and for a while also had Francisco Cordero). Both guys have the beginnings of good pitching staffs (King Felix, Dan Haren, John Lackey, Barry Zito before he went NL). Much like Stoneman, Harold has a tendency to have one of two stiffs in his lineup every year (he finally gave Garret Anderson the boot), and like Stoneman, has a hard time letting older guys go (Anderson again, Jorge Posada, although to be fair, Posada's still a decent player).
That's it, a round up of all the guys in my keeper league, and how they stack up to the real thing.
The league is starting to crank up, so the drama will be in full swing soon...
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