Joe Posnanski – Kansas City Star
I bought Zack Greinke in the American Dream League draft, part of a $50 pitching staff (Freezes Gavin Floyd $1 and Edwin Jackson $3, joined by Greinke, Duchscherer $4, the brilliant Kevin Millwood (today anyway) $2, breakout candidate Brandon McCarthy $1 and a relief crew of Balfour $5, Brandon Lyon $5, and George Sherrill $10.
Posnanski tells a good story or three, and teaches me an important thing or two about Greinke.
(The rest of the team: Victor Martinez $21, Zaun $2, Billy Butler $18, Figgins $23, Adrian Beltre $16, Iwamura $13, Jeter $20, Betemit $3, Josh Hamilton $26 freeze, Ryan Sweeney $3 freeze, Granderson $28, Delmon Young $19, Mark Teahen $10, and Travis Hafner $3. Yes, $3. He would have been a loser last year, but at least the risk isn’t great.)
Good grief! You must have practically no inflation in the ADL. The players who were available in my A.L. almost all went for a hell of a lot more $$$.
By my count it was about nine percent, and since much of that was from cheap pitchers like Floyd and Cliff Lee, there’s no telling how much real value we saved.
A lot of this is because of our rules, which kill the keeper value of all traded players. I think this league strikes an excellent balance between rewarding buying bargains, allowing trading for keepers and rewarding those who do a good job of it, and avoiding sell out trades, thus giving everyone a shot on draft day.