What Can They Possibly Mean?

I generally try to take what I can out of the free Roto analysis sites like Rototimes and Rotoworld. Another way of putting this is that while I recognize the flaws with sites like these, I also appreciate the plethora of information that is out there out one location so that I don't have to troll 30 team media sites. For this reason, I rarely complain about these types of sites. I know what I'm in for when I go there for information.

Sometimes, though, I see something like this and it bugs me:

J.D. Drew's back is also acting up on him. If you own him and complain, smack yourself.

As a matter of fact, I do own J.D. Drew.

I got him in a dump deal, along with Bobby Abreu, for Joakim Soria.

And I'm not stupid. I knew what I was getting into. I figured that Drew was going to cool off, and that I'd be happy to get a .250 BA out of him with OK power.

I also knew that J.D. Drew was a risk. I knew that he could be a total wipe-out due to injury.

But I also knew that I didn't have much to dump, that Soria at $20 wasn't the most attractive target to most teams in the league, and that Drew/Abreu for Soria was a good - if not great - return. I would have loved to have upgraded on Drew, but knew that with the lack of dump targets on my team, that I might be stuck with him.

(Incidentally, I did just that with Drew last year. I acquired Drew and Jay Payton for Cameron Maybin in order to shore up an outfield that had been decimated by injuries, and then flipped Drew along with a draft pick for Jose Guillen and Dustin McGowan.)

(People reading the blog this week must think I'm getting a commission every time I type "Guillen".)

So that's that. Of course I'm not happy that Drew got hurt - what rational owner would be? But I knew the risk when I traded for him, deemed the risk acceptable given the lack of dump targets I have, and am probably going to lose.

Though Drew isn't the only reason. More importantly, I lost Carl Crawford to injury, and the entire offense is sputtering. I've got too many platoon players and not enough oomph from the guys I have playing every day.

That's the way it goes in deep leagues. Sometimes your game plan works beautifully. Other times it doesn't. I'd agree that if J.D. Drew was the centerpiece of your offense, then shame on you.

But if you owned him in a 12-team American League, so what?

Forget my specific scenario. What if you paid $12 for Drew?

Are you unhappy with a 19/64/4/.280 line?

I wouldn't be. I'd be pretty satisfied. Expecting more than that for $12 would be very greedy.