ESPN Most Added/Dropped List; John Maine

Every season including this, you could hop in to a league at this point and put together a decent fantasy team with free agents. Even guys on ESPN’s top dropped list (http://games.espn.go.com/flb/addeddropped) I enjoy: John Maine(sp), Ramon Hernandez(c), Jeff Francoeur(of), Justin Upton(of), Chien-Ming Wang(sp), Jarrod Saltalamacchia(c), Cameron Maybin(of), and even Khalil Greene at ss. Hopefully you read my last post: Fantasy Baseball: Free Agent Strategy (http://www.majorleagueblogging.com/author/dschwartz/). You could see who you could have picked up last year and potential break outs for this year that were drafted late or not at all. Below is a team put together by only 22/25 of ESPN’s most added list, meaning some leagues didn’t have these guys rostered at all until recently:

c	Brandon Inge	7	Honestly for a whole year I’ll take Saltalamacchia and Ramon Hernandez over Inge’s avg.
c	Yadier Molina	21
1b	Nick Swisher	1	A must with injury to Nady; People forget 35hr-95rbi-372obp in ‘06; If you’re in an OBP league without AVG, he’s top notch.
2b	Hill;Bonifacio	6;15	In 2007, hill went 87r-17hr-78rbi-4sb-291avg. He only had 205 ab last year and has twice as many HR already this year. I like his lineup spot; As for Bonifacio, he’s already slowing, however lead-off spot looks to be his for a while with Maybin’s slow start.
3b	Scott Rolen	8
ss	Marco Scutaro	2	Gew! Use him while he’s hot I guess. Same with the other BlueJays(Rolen,Hill,Snider,Lind although Snider and Lind can be studs).
ci	Chris Duncan	14	Honestly if he hits lefties I’d keep him all year for 35hr-90rbi
mi	Orlando Hudson	11	Definitely should have been drafted unless maybe you don’t have a MI spot in your league.
of	Kosuke Fukudome	4	He already looks much better this year than last.
of	Nyjer Morgan	8
of	Nelson Cruz	20	I’d keep all year; Great lineup; Should have been drafted in every league
of	Jack Cust	22	His average will hurt, but again, if you’re in an OBP league, he’s underrated. I’ll probably still take Francoeur over him (#16 on ESPN’s top dropped list!)
of	Elijah Dukes	24	Milledge was sent down – He’ll lose at bats for sure, but even with 400ab’s he could go 70r-23hr-70rbi-23sb. He went 48-13-44-13 last year in only 276ab’s
u	Denard Span	25	I like Delmon Young more than Span, Gomez, Cuddyer, Kubel in the Twins lineup, but Span’s starting every game. I’ll take his 10hr-30sb at the top of that lineup
sp	Kyle Lohse	3
sp	Kevin Millwood	5	I’d rather both Chien-Ming Wang and John Maine – both on ESPN’s top drop list (#20 & #13 respectively).
sp	Zach Duke	10	2005 Zach Duke Back? He’s got 2 wins already, but I’d be surprised to see 8 more on that team. I’ll use him for spot starts against the Padres in Petco.
sp	Kyle Davies	12	People are hopping on the bandwagon. Another spot-starter until consistent.
sp	Armando Galarraga	13
sp	Andy Pettitte	17
rp	Fernando Rodney	16
rp	Ryan Franklin	18	I like Motte and Perez so much more, but they’re young and looks like La Russa is giving Franklin all the opps for now.
rp	PTBNL

I was planning to look at ESPN’s top drop/add list, and I saw that Roto Authority – Fantasy Baseball (www.rotoauthority.com) attended to it as well (Fantastic Fantasy Baseball site by the way). So I’ll only talk about one player that even after his April 16th start, I’m somewhat surprised to see on ESPN’s most dropped list so fast: John Maine. I’ll talk about him since I’ll be attending mainly to the Mets with Major League Blogging Creator, Jeff Gross, as well as the NL East and Fantasy Baseball in general.

I don’t really see how John Maine was previously, the 9^th most dropped player. Again considering he was drafted late as a 5^th/6^th starter on your team, in his first start he only gave up 2 hits and 1 walk with 5 k’s in 5 innings. Now I’m not saying he will stud it up, but he’ll have 140-160k’s in 160-180innings or so and his ERA should be in the 3.85-4.25 range. For a 6^th starter where you drafted him (or now can pick him up off waivers), I don’t see how he should be so high on ESPN’s top dropped list. I think with some run support, his K’s, and Wins should all be usable on your fantasy team (and his WHIP and ERA won’t really hurt you). I think the Mets will really depend on him with the inconsistency of Oliver Perez and health/youth issues of Mike Pelfrey – and oh yeah, the big question that is Livan Hernandez.

In 2008, John Maine had a line of 10w-4.18era-1.35whip-122k in only 140 innings. He had just as many strike outs as hits allowed by the way. Just to throw it out there I guess, Ricky Nolasco last year had 186k, but gave up 192hits in 212 innings. In 2007, John Maine had 15wins-3.91era-1.27whip-180k in 191 innings, and he only gave up 168 hits. So to reiterate, I really don’t see why John Maine should be dropped so much. Also the new stadium looks as though it could help if Daniel Murphy and Ryan Church don’t add to their bloopers, because he does give up quite a few HR’s (Game 1: 2 hits = 2 homerun). A matter of fact, now that I think of it, when I watch John Maine, he looks to me as the Jack Cust of Pitching. He gives up a homerun, a walk, or strikes a batter out.

John Maine (2009): With about 180 Innings, I see a line of 12wins-4.05era-1.32whip-155k.

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