SB Nation User Blog: Officer Dibble

Help Wanted

Officer Dibble — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 03:46:06 -0000

Longtime fantasy baseball league (in business since 1986) looking for dedicated individual to own a team in our league.

We rarely have openings in our league, but we have one slot left to fill in a year where we are totally redrafting the league.

Some info about us...we are a 10 team 7x7 league. We have grown a few funky rules over the years that seem to work really well for us, mostly surrounding things like draft order and team composition (details available upon request). We do play for money, but not for a lot of money. Our league is primarily a social organization...money is just a motivator we use to help us pay attention. :)

What we are looking for: We are ideally looking for one candidate (though if three people expressed interest, we have talked about possibly expanding the league to 12 teams). The ideal candidate(s) should be local to the Columbus area or able to come to the Columbus area for the draft and 1-2 get-togethers a year. Our league features daily transactions, so if you are not comfortable with that kind of commitment, then you will probably not enjoy our league. You should also be an active owner, both in keeping up with your team and trash talking the other owners.

Our drafts take place offline. This year's draft will likely be longer than others, as we are drafting a full 25 man roster. In most years, we feature 10 keepers, so the drafts are a little more managable.

I have tried to give a general overview, but it's late and I have probably missed something. If you have any questions, please use the thread or my email address and I would be happy to give you more information about our league or just talk about fantasy baseball.

Are any of the dregs worth looking at?

Officer Dibble — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 19:45:49 -0000

Like the dregs at the bottom of the coffee urn, we are reaching lower and lower into the depths of free agency. After watching useful pieces like Baldelli and Kotsay go off the market in the past few days, I am getting itchy for some action.

And unlike those coffee dregs, I think a few of these players could really help us and I am wondering why we aren't making more of a play toward signing them, bitter or not.

I am going to leave a couple of people out of the discussion -- Manny and Dunn -- mostly because I don't think the Reds have the stones to make an offer to Manny and Dunn deserves better than the way he was treated when he was here. In either event, it looks like Dunn is a divorce that won't get undone.

I am also going to set aside whether the person in question is a Type A, B, or otherwise free agent, because while I think draft picks are important, I am not at all certain that you can pass up a known quantity for an unknown quantity, especially if you can get that known quantity at a good price.

In no particular order...

1. Derek Lowe - when looking at how our pitching staff is constructed, it is rather shocking how slanted we are toward fly balls over ground balls. I think picking up 2 to 3 seasons of a ground ball pitcher the caliber of Lowe, while he would not come cheap (coughcoughBorascough), might be a really solid move that could give the Reds the strength to challenge for the division.

2. Ben Sheets - I think it is safe to say that whe he is healthy, Sheets is one of the top starters in the league. The fact that he has not signed, I think, means that a lot of clubs are being cautious and rightly so. But if the Reds could sign him to a short term deal, it would serve a lot of purposes -- not the least of which might be to allow him to reestablish his worth and stick it in the eye of the Brewers, which is never bad.

3. Orlando Hudson - is it time to move Brandon to short? If you could get a quality player like Orlando, wouldn't you have to think about it? Moving Brandon to short and putting Orlando at 2nd base does a couple of good things -- primarily, it moves Cherry into a super utility role, which is where I think he would be best suited -- I have to believe that last season was an outlier for him -- and it puts a more consistent bat in the lineup.

4. Joe Crede and Bobby Abreu - I am lumping them together because they both have rather significant issues, but they bring some interesting things to the table. For Crede, he obviously has an injury history, but if he is healthy and/or cheap, he can push EdE and create a real healthy competition. Abreu is old and his defense isn't great (but aren't we used to that already?) but he has a good bat if a short term deal can be worked out with him. The prices for corner outfielders are falling like the hopes for a short term economic recovery in Washington, so this is not out of the realm of possibility.

Plus, if you sign one or more of these players, it would definitely make other players available for trades that could dramatically affect the talent available to the club throughout the roster. For example, if Lowe and Sheets are in the rotation, I would think that Bronson might make an attractive acquisition target for a contendah looking for a 4/5.

I don't think that acquiring these guys puts a block in front of the top prospects in the system and would give Walt more freedom to recast the roster in his likeness. I think it improves the pitching and defense and upgrades the offense and bench.

So what's not to like? I have my flame-retardant underwear firmly in place. :)

Saturday Red Sox tickets up for grabs

Officer Dibble — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 03:11:43 -0000

With a new baby, I think it might be pushing it to try to take him to two games this weekend, so I have a pair of seats available to Saturday's game, if anyone is interested.

The seats are located in Section 529, row T...which is under the underhang just on the first base side of home plate.

I really like these seats...you get a good view of the scoreboard and the river and there's usually a nice breeze. Face is $29 each. Any takers?

New Good Luck Charm

Officer Dibble — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:52:30 -0000

I just wanted to say that I have managed to watch 2 games in the hospital with my now 4 day old son, and both of them are wins.

I'll take that winning percentage.

So I have to nominate my boy as the official Good Luck Charm for the Reds as long as his newborn luck holds out. Can someone give me a definite answer as to how long a newborn's luck is supposed to hold out? :)

Here is a picture of the beautiful boy:

via farm4.static.flickr.com

Gotta go back to sleep now. :)

New details on Dernell Stenson's murder

Officer Dibble — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:22:39 -0000

I don't know if any of you have been following this, but this is a fascinating read.

http://www.oxfordamericanmag.com/content.cfm?ArticleID=302&Entry=CurrentIssue

As you might remember, Stenson was a Reds farmhand in the AFL that was brutally murdered in a carjacking a couple of years ago.

RIP Dernell.

Now I don't feel so bad

Officer Dibble — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 18:10:31 -0000

I have been sitting around since yesterday afternoon, sucking my teeth over the lack of deadline deals by the Reds.

But this morning, I came across the details (courtesy of Jason Stark) on what might be the worst trade since, well, The Trade, at least...maybe worse.

You might have heard that the Pirates got Matt Morris from the Giants. What absolutely stunned me was that Stark wrote that the Giants were offering to pick up major amounts of Morris' salary (9 mil) just to get rid of him for a bag of batting practice balls.

The Pirates apparently swooped in, offered them a decent prospect, a PTBNL, AND picked up all of Morris' salary.

Wow.

Suddenly, Wayne looks positively competent.

Saturday's Game

Officer Dibble — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 22:39:03 -0000

Hey! I am one of the Power Pack fools that have tickets for all three games this weekend. And although I love the Reds with all my heart and little mind, I cannot make the trip from Columbus three days in a row...so that means I have two tickets available for Saturday night's game.

These are good seats...upper deck...section 521, row K. Right behind home plate on the third base side. I would be happy to let them go for face value ($18).

As I said before, I am in Columbus, so if you are from here, we can meet up, or if you are in the Cincy area, I will be at the game Friday night, too.

Any interest?

Did I mention that we're playing the Indians? :)

Game Thread - Bats Club Clippers

Officer Dibble — Tue, 22 May 2007 19:31:41 -0000

For any of the lucky few that got to go to the game this morning, here are some random observatiosn...

Perhaps the others who went can chime in with some of their own.

* Paid five bucks and got a box seat toward the home plate end of the Bats dugout in the first row. I paid more for the dogs and lemonade than I did for the ticket and parking. Apparently, they run 2 for 1 promotions for these afternoon specials. WOOHOO!

* Homer was, in a word, unhittable. He allowed one hit in 5.2 innings, struck out 7. The one hit he allowed was a popped up bunt that went over his head and landed between the mound and the second base bag. Only two balls were hit out of the infield all day against him. Awesome performance.

The rumor that they started passing out ironing boards in the Columbus dugout was sadly false. It wouldn't have mattered.

Homer got lots of PFP during the game, and it did not all go so well. The first batter of the game, he committed two errors on the same play when he misfielded a bunt and threw it into the camera well behind first base. That runner scored.

Homer redeemed himself by getting that run back and tacking on another when he whipped a 2 run single.

Homer has a weird pigeon-toed batting stance. Front foot is angled in, and it looks like he has both heels almost off the ground.

Homer was dealing it. Fastball was clocked on the scoreboard at 96 in the 1st, 95 in the fifth, but he was working mostly in the 91-93 range. His breaking pitches were coming in at 76-78.

Speaking of the breaking pitches, he clearly needs some more work on them, but not as much as you might think. He started off a hitter with one for a strike, and threw more than a few others in there to keep them off stride. He did bounce a few, though.

* Joey Votto = professional hitter. They didn't want any part of him. Went 2 for 4 on the day with 2 R scored.

Earl Snyder = not a professional hitter. He looked baaaad on a couple of ABs there, but he did hit a 2 run jack before I left.

The 6-7-8 hitters for the Bats were not striking fear into anyone's hears. Their BAs were like .178, .144, .125.

Bellhorn can't hit for average in the monors, either. .244 was the gametime tale of the tape.

Maj came in and got the last hitter for Homer. I left during the 7th inning stretch, having seen all I came to see.

All in all, a great game. Glad I took the time to go see them!

Should I or Shouldn't I?

Officer Dibble — Mon, 21 May 2007 22:01:33 -0000

I am waffling with a major dilemma.

Homer is apparently being reinstated from the DL to pitch tomorrow here in Central City against our beloved Junior Mints/Nationals.

I have a chance to see Votto, EdE, and Homah.

The dilemma? The game is at 11:35 am, so I'd have to miss a half day or maybe more, depending on how nice the day is.

So should I go?

Did anyone else notice?

Officer Dibble — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 17:17:56 -0000

I know there was some mention of this in the game thread that I shamefully did not participate in, but what the heck was up with all of the "creative" (aka "unwatchable") camera angles they were taking in last night's game?

Bad enough that we have to listen to Mr. Sunshine rail for nine innings about how awful the Reds are playing right now, which is not very joyful except for the fact that my girlfriend and I make wicked fun of him at almost every turn.

But then we have to look at things like how the last play turned out. tHommy calling it, and a play at the plate that you couldn't see until like the third replay. (Way to almost screw it up, LLM...just saying)

And this was not the only instance...a BP strikeout was shown with a closeup of his face and nothing in the area code of the strike zone being shown. I also seem to remember a Lieber bunt that was being shown with a camera that was about halfway down the 3rd base line at EdE's back.

What the hell is FSO smoking now?

And do I have to look fondly on the days of George and the Creeper? I don't want to be so down on tHommy, but he really needs to back off on the criticize-o-meter a little bit, because he is beating us over the head with it every freaking at bat.

/rant