I know I posted about my draft strategy in a keeper league I'm in but there were a lot of moves and some unexpected keeper decisions that are causing me to rethink the draft strategy and I wanted some of you guys thoughts to make sure I'm not doing anything stupid here.

6x6 with OBP and Holds, QS instead of Wins. Here are my current keepers that will cost me $60 out of $260 draft dollars (which puts me around 5th most money for the draft - The teams with the most cash have around $230 to spend).


C - Empty
1B - Empty
2B - Altuve
3B - Arenado
SS - Empty
SS/2B - Empty
1B/3B - Donaldson
OF - Betts
OF - Just Dong Martinez
OF - Springer
OF - Pollock
UTIL - Empty
UTIL - Empty

P - Carrasco


Previously, I was planning on drafting 2 of Scherzer/Kershaw/Bum as I thought they were too pricey to keep but they are all being kept. The "best" pitchers that will be available include: Strass, Price, lester, greinke, cmart, hamels, procello. Personally I hate all of these guys and would rather not spend $30+ to get one of them.

Some of the hitters that will be on the block include Trout, Miggy, Freeman, Marte, E5, Abreu, Stanton, Cano, Cespedes, Kinsler, Bham, Upton, Posey, Bats, Kipnis, Carpenter, JBJ. Should I just completely punt pitching and spend around $150 to get trout/Freeman/Carp? I feel like I can always trade for pitching and hate all of the tier 2 aces and just draft a bunch of high upside $1-5 guys after spending on the bats. Good idea or no?

Just word of caution, he raked last spring too. Hit about .300 with 9 bombs in 71 PA.

I'd target Price, Lester and CMart out of that group myself. All three of those guys should grind out QS. With your bats I'd be leaning a little bit towards floor so Price/Lester would be my first guys if I can.

As for general strategy - just my outside view is you got 7/13 hitter spots filled with consensus top 3-4 round guys including three first round players. You don't look to really be deficient in any offensive category.

I'd pay for some pitching. I know the general strategy is get your hitters and wait for pitching - you've already got the hitting. Unless you've got a couple other juggernaut teams you're trying to catch up to, you seem to be in really solid shape. My worry would be punting pitching, not really hitting on any upside guys and being in a situation where the other 11 guys in the league all know you need pitching and you can't make a good deal. Meanwhile you continue to pile up a bunch of innings with bad ratios.

You've got the 2nd OA pick, the 3rd OA pick, the 5th OA pick, another first rounder, and 3 second rounders, all hitters, and you're thinking of punting pitching (when you could buy 4 of those guys to go along with carrasco for a competetive rotation) for what? So you can Own Trout/Miggy/Cano and win all hitting cats by a wider margin? Crazy. You spend every cent on pitching save for enough $1 and $2 players to fill out the rest of your roster and open the season as a big favorite.

My plan isn't to win every hitting category by drafting more bats. There will be teams that will need to trade for a hitter and I can't imagine every team holding out against me if I give them a good deal. If I can draft trout and flip him for kershaw and another 2 or 3 I'd much rather do that than draft guys like strass and price are meh for what their price is at best

Why? they know you'll need pitching more then they need hitting

When I offer the team that won't be in the running this season $10 arenado for $50 kershaw and Scherzer they won't be able to keep next year you really think they're gonna hold off?

You think someone who has Kershaw and Scherzer won't be in at least of the middle of the pack all year and won't sell/try to push?

The guy who is keeping those two guys is spending like 80% of his budget on 4 players (kershaw, Scherzer, goldy, and Braun). I would be shocked if he's in the top 4 halfway through the season especially if one of those guys starts slow. Valid points from everyone though. I guess I'll draft strass and pray he doesn't land on the DL

Iwreck, there's no question in my mind that you're suffering from fancy play syndrome. Literally the only way you can screw this up is by not investing heavily in pitching. You don't need Kershaw and you don't need to win pitching. If you finish middle of the pack in pitching, your offence will carry you to the win. Don't rely on other owners; they're variables you can't control. Just buy pitching.

Thanks for the advice everyone, as always I was trying to overthink it

Yo, running a fantasy baseball league, need 2 more managers. Buyin is approximately $200 (it scales based on your finishing position).

A few quick features of the league

1 - It's a brand new keeper league
2 - You can keep someone for a few years and then you have to start giving up draft picks to continue keeping them
3 - The lower you finish the more you have to pay in entry (biggest fee is 350). This is to keep people from becoming disinterested
4 - The top prize winners get fewer keepers (4), the bottom finishers get (6), and everyone else gets (5). This is to help with parity, and make sure the bottom finishing teams are incentivized to come back after paying a bigger entry fee than everyone else.

That's the main gist. It'll be 5x5 roto league with 12 teams. 14 maybe, but most likely 12.

david price's arm is dead

Did my first 3 YPLs and I mean damn. Not only are the days of everyone in the first not wanting to be the guy who takes kershaw gone but the pitching run is really really real. In all 3 6 or 7 pitchers went in the first 2 rounds

2 things are abundantly clear to me:

1. If you don't take kershaw in the 1st you cannot take a pitcher til the 5th. Luckily by that point cueto/verlander are still available and as an ace goes you could do a lot worse. EVERYTHING preceding (besides kershaw) is a huge overpay relative to ADP and you're putting yourself way behind the 8 ball. Either kershaw in the first or starter in the 5th. Take 1 more starter between 6 and 8 if it's a value pitcher, unleash to rest of your rotation 9 onward

2. No value in closers at all. Way more pragmatic taking elite ratio relievers late and scouring WW for speculative closers than paying a premium for closers within the draft especially considering how many jobs aren't remotely stable

Also my favorite drafting moment so far was Turner going 8th overall and before I could even finish processing how absurd that was the 9th overall pick:

Cmon

1. (9) Jeurys Familia (NYM - RP)
2. (16) Robinson Canó (Sea - 2B)
3. (33) Yoenis Céspedes (NYM - OF)
4. (40) Russell Martin (Tor - C)
5. (57) Justin Verlander (Det - SP)
6. (64) Jacob deGrom (NYM - SP)
7. (81) Jonathan Lucroy (Tex - C,1B)
8. (88) Javier Báez (ChC - 2B,3B,SS)
9. (105) Julio Teherán (Atl - SP)
10. (112) Odubel Herrera (Phi - OF)
11. (129) Aledmys Diaz (StL - SS)
12. (136) Ben Zobrist (ChC - 2B,OF)
13. (153) Kevin Gausman (Bal - SP)
14. (160) Adam Duvall (Cin - OF)
15. (177) Jake Odorizzi (TB - SP)
16. (184) Lance McCullers (Hou - SP)
17. (201) Mike Moustakas (KC - 3B)
18. (208) Cam Bedrosian (LAA - RP)
19. (225) Wilson Ramos (TB - C)
20. (232) Michael Brantley (Cle - OF)
21. (249) Yasiel Puig (LAD - OF)
22. (256) Tyson Ross (Tex - SP)
23. (273) Josh Bell (Pit - 1B,OF)

I'm wanting to do a bunch of YPL's, but one of the 2 I'm in has really soured me. Someone is clearly tanking their team for no reason, and only 1 person is getting clearly lopsided trades and getting vetoed (4 so far), with possible collusion. Either way, really ****ty

edit: Also very clearly he's a Mets fan, taking 3 in the first 6 rounds, but weird he didn't take any others

Saw that a lot in the 100s. Is the beneficiary named Stillberg?

Either way I wouldn't let that deter you. You're competent enough to be +EV over a bunch

Yeah, I'll likely get into some more soon. That's not his name, and he played in 6 Baseball Leagues last year (4 so far this year), collusion is the only thing that makes sense sadly.

Also word is Price/Red Sox are being overly cautious, so if you can get him for a steal, maybe try?

I mean, where there's smoke there's fire. And even if there isn't you're taking on a pitcher who best case pitches a season with an injured elbow a year after he was incredibly inconsistent and giving up a career high in homers

I'm not trading for him using anything of consequence

Can you SS his 2016 teams from his profile? I think that might be him

All his teams are just Dan's Team from last year

Vetoed Trades are currently at 7 actually, it's just insane to have to deal with vetoing numerous trades a week

wow, thats a disaster lol

surely that was like an 8 year old

you guys are clearly underrating Russ Martin.