The Ricci Roundup: Analyzing the Five "Bad Picks" in his Fantasy Draft

While being promoted as a Fantasy sleeper, the Nationals' (and now Pirate) Lastings Milledge proved to be a bust for Ricci, who drafted him in round 14.

All right, here's part two of the Roundup with Ricci. In the first part, which I posted last night here at Remember '51, Ricci went over five guys that turned out to be solid picks in his fantasy draft this year. So, with the good, there must be a bad, and thus, Luke gives us five picks that didn't quite turn out as well as Albert Pujols or Raul Ibanez.

If you haven't seen the first edition of the Roundup, you can see it here.


5. John Smoltz, P, Boston- Rd 18

I had such high hopes for Smoltz when he arrived from Atlanta. I knew it would be tough for him coming off shoulder surgery, but I didn't expect him to be released after less than 10 starts for the Red Sox.

4. Lastings Milledge, OF, Washington/Pittsburgh- Rd 14

Here is another guy I had huge hopes for and it didn't work out. Milledge didn't even make it through the first month of the season before getting sent down to AAA. This dude has a ton of talent, but I don't know if he is mentally tough enough to cut it. Maybe Pittsburgh will be a new beginning for him.

3. Nick Markakis, OF, Baltimore- Rd 3

Markakis is tough because there isn't much wrong with his season so far. He is hitting over .300, and is ranked as the 53rd fantasy player by Yahoo Sports. The reason that I have him on this list of bad picks is the players that I took him over that have had outstanding seasons. Justin Morneau, Prince Fielder, Carl Crawford and Joe Mauer to name a few. I have been a big Markakis fan for a few years now, and keep expecting him to make the jump to being a elite player. He just never quite makes the leap. Then again, I could have done worse than a .300 hitter with solid runs and RBI totals, I guess

2. David Price, P, Tampa Bay- Rd 15

I honestly thought Price would win rookie of the year this year, and thought that this season for Price would begin a long career of being the ace of the Rays. Unfortunately for myself and the Rays, he is still a little ways off. Don't get me wrong, I still think he will be an ace, just not starting this year.


1. Chris Davis, 1B, Texas- Rd 8

OHHHHHHHHH Chris Davis! If this guy didn't get sent down, I think he would have shattered the MLB record for Ks in a season. (He had 114 in 258 ABs). I just cant take guys like this. Sure, he has decent power but as a major league baseball player you need to make better contact that that. This guy was a huge bust. He was a fairly highly touted prospect and did really well in about half a season last year, hitting 285 and hitting 17 HRs. That hasn't been the case at all though, this season, as he has struggled in his first full year with the Rangers.


All right, thanks Ricci for your Roundup this week. Hopefully, we can get this guy again on the blog soon with some more posts. It was great to see some analysis of his fantasy draft with the baseball and Fantasy season starting to hit the final stretch.

Best of luck to him as he looks to repeat in his league.

The Ricci Roundup: Analyzing the Five "Good Picks" in his Fantasy Baseball Draft

According to Remember 51's resident Fantasy Baseball guru Luke Ricci, the Phillies' Raul Ibanez was the real winner of his fantasy draft.

All right. New part of the blog I'm introducing tonight. It's called the "Ricci Roundup" produced by my good friend and fantasy baseball enthusiast Luke Ricci. The guy is a big Seattle Mariners fan that resides in Seattle, but this guy's main repertoire is fantasy baseball. Every year he gets in a big money, fantasy baseball league with his family and friends and this guy is consistently competing at the top. He knows his baseball, he knows his players and in the words of the crappy movie Two for the Money my man Ricci "Picks Winners."

For this post, I asked Ricci to analyze five picks from his Fantasy draft earlier this year and which guys turned out to be his best ones. Here are the five Ricci wrote for me in this edition of the "Roundup"


5. Troy Tulowitzki, SS, Colorado- Rd 7

Tulow had a horrible start to the year, but has hit 309 with 18 Hrs since June 1st. He has definitely regained his rookie of the year form from 2007. He capped off this success on August 10th by hitting for the cycle.

4. Adam Wainwright, P, St. Louis- Rd 12

Wainwright is tied for the MLB lead with 14 wins, great output from a 12th round pick. He has outperformed Johan Santana in 4 out of 5 traditional 5x5 categories.


3. Jacoby Ellsbury, OF, Boston- Rd 5

Jacoby is probably the main reason that I am leading my league in steals and runs scored. His numbers actually are not too far off of Carl Crawford's, who is having an MVP caliber season. They actually might be even better, but Terry Francona idiotically put him in the 7th spot in the lineup for about a month. I still haven't forgiven Francona.

2. Albert Pujols, 1B, St. Louis- Rd 1 (pick 3)

Why why why did the first two managers in my draft pass on Albert? (For the record, the two managers ahead of him selected Jose Reyes and Hanley Ramirez in that order). I should send them a thank you. I was expecting to take David Wright here but when Pujols was still on the board I had to take him. His numbers are ridiculous and with another month and a half left in the season they could get even crazier.


1. Raul Ibanez, OF, Philadelphia- Rd 9

Raul was a guy that I targeted going into the draft as a major sleeper. I knew from watching him in Seattle that he was an extremely consistent hitter and I thought the move to hitter-friendly Citizens Bank and playing with a powerful Philly lineup would benefit him. However, I just didn't expect his numbers to be as strong as they were. When I traded Raul in June, he was the second rated player in all of baseball, behind only Pujols.