It's Watery Out There

In response to yesterday's post about Justin Ruggiano, Brett laments how thin the free agent pool is in his American League.

Sure, but what are the alternatives? These are the free agent hitters in my AL-only league:

Miguel Cairo, Kevin Cash, Mike DiFelice, Brandon Fahey, Alberto Gonzalez, Elliot Johnson, John McDonald, Chad Moeller, Ramon Santiago, Joe Thurston

Faults aside, if you need an OF, can you possibly do anything _but_ pick up Ruggiano? $1 seems like a complete bargain.

Brett's league either has an extra hitting slot or allows teams to reserve active major league hitters. I count 19 active hitters who are free agents in my American League.

Still, it does make for a pretty thin broth either way. If you lose a player to injury in April, you're going to be trolling the bottom of the barrel now. Your best bet is to hope that Cairo or McDonald pick up a couple of garbage steals if you grab them.

My post about Ruggiano wasn't designed to say that he was a bad FAAB pick-up at $1. On the contrary, he's fine at $1. But Tom had asked me about my thoughts on Ruggiano, so instead of slapping him on the back and saying "nice pick at $1", I gave him a more detailed description.

There are always going to be free agents who surprise us. Both Carlos Pena and Jerry Owens were FAABed last year in my league, and I don't think anyone expected either player to have much impact. Of course it's entirely possible that Ruggiano could be that player this year. However, it's very unlikely, just like it was very unlikely for Pena and Owens in 2007.

And when I said:

Justin Ruggiano is one of those players who probably has a 10% chance of becoming a solid or even above average major league regular.

I meant it as high praise. All of those free agents Brett rattled off aren't going to amount to anything in the American League this year. Ruggiano could, which makes him interesting.

I doubt he will, though. But just because I have my doubts doesn't mean that he isn't a good gamble given how thin the FA pool is.