this is reasonably noteworthy imo

before cron broke his hand last year he was on fire and he wasn't really close to the same when he came back. i thought the valbuena signing was basically pointless but cron has the opportunity now to take the job and run with it

there's a lot of problems with him, namely that he's a fly ball hitter with a hilariously pathetic propensity to pop up and he was completely ineffective against LHP, but this is another situation where he's worth keeping on the watch list cuz his upside is inarguable, especially hitting cleanup behind trout vs RHP and with him having a strong spring thus far

as far as interesting things to keep an eye on imo from spring:

1. aneury tavarez. he's been hitting leadoff for the orioles and been doing pretty well at it. leads the majors in steals this spring and has a history of decent power. if he somehow wins a corner OF job and ends up being the leadoff man for the orioles...
2. pablo sandoval. i'm buying. i'll regret it probably, but i'm a believer, and in a lineup as deep as the red sox have right now he doesn't need to do much (even in the middle to bottom of the order) to have fantasy relevance (also worth noting is the bizarre batting order the red sox look like they're going with. moreland hitting 5th, boogie 6th? dafuq

more thoughts to come

I believe in Sandoval too, but there's so many 3B to decide between

Relatively new to Fantasy Baseball - 10 team H2H categories: R, HR, RBI, SB, AVG, OBP / W, L, SV, K, ERA, WHIP

CA, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, IF, OF, OF, OF, OF, UT / SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, P, P, P, P then 4 bench slots

1. (6) Clayton Kershaw (LAD - SP)
2. (15) Carlos Correa (Hou - SS)
3. (26) Nelson Cruz (Sea - OF)
4. (35) Jonathan Villar (Mil - 2B,3B,SS)
5. (46) Yu Darvish (Tex - SP)
6. (55) José Abreu (CWS - 1B)
7. (66) Adrián Béltre (Tex - 3B)
8. (75) Jonathan Lucroy (Tex - C,1B)
9. (86) Carlos Carrasco (Cle - SP)
10. (95) Zach Britton (Bal - RP)
11. (106) Billy Hamilton (Cin - OF)
12. (115) Odubel Herrera (Phi - OF)
13. (126) Kelvin Herrera (KC - RP)
14. (135) Albert Pujols (LAA - 1B)
15. (146) Hunter Pence (SF - OF)
16. (155) Tony Watson (Pit - RP)
17. (166) Matt Shoemaker (LAA - SP)
18. (175) Ben Zobrist (ChC - 2B,OF)
19. (186) Sean Manaea (Oak - SP)
20. (195) Eric Thames (Mil - OF)
21. (206) Jeff Samardzija (SF - SP)
22. (215) Greg Bird (NYY - 1B)
23. (226) Carlos Beltrán (Hou - OF)
24. (235) Adam Wainwright (StL - SP)

Any glaring omissions/errors that I should use the waiver wire for?

I think that team is pretty solid, and like it much more than most teams that get Kershaw in rd1. Its only 10 teams so probably all teams are a little stronger than im used to, but very nice balance of strong SP and power/speed.
Not a big fan of the Hamilton pick, but its not awful or anything. Have a feeling AVG/OBP will be a weakness but thats not something you can correct on the waiver wire. You counting stats on offense and all your pitching cats should be very solid

Same team as the one with the pitching staff I posted above.
6x6, instead of AVG we use OBP and SLG. (5 of these player are keepers):
C Martin $2
1B Votto $24
2B Kinsler $21
3B J.Turner $13
SS Lindor $10
MI Walker $3
CI Morales $15
OF Harper $38
OF JDM $17
OF Bautista $25
OF Dahl $5
UT D.Santana $1
BN Haniger $1, Drury $1
NA Bellinger $3, Meadows $1, B.Zimmer $1, Adames $1

Hows it look?

You a believer in a Bautista bounceback cs3? I'm leery of drafting him this year. I'm guessing he was a keeper

Anybody have a feel for sleeper/cheap steals? I only play roto and steals cannot be ignored. Last year I lucked out grabbing Villar and Nunez a couple weeks in off of waivers or I woulda been screwed on steals.

Just wondering if anybody has some sleeper insight that can be taken in the bottom rounds.

He's always an elite option in an OBP/SLG format. Even last year

kevin kiermaier. and while we're on the topic, a lot of things about him really interest me. Last year he cut down big on chasing out of the zone pitches which led to an increased walk rate, in August he was moved to 2nd in the order and absolutely crushed. Prorate those 50 games over a full season and you end up with a guy with 100 runs, 20 homers and 40 steals. Now forsythe's gone and he's hitting leadoff. Assuming the decrease in the outside chase rate sticks there's a lot of upside here on a guy who went undrafted

Travis Jankowski and Raimel Tapia are the two guys I've taken some shares of.

Jankowski is probably going to get substantial playing time, but mostly looks like a 1-category player in standard leagues.

Tapia may not have a place a play, but if he does he could hit 290 with 10-12 homer pop. With Dahl and Desmond hurt he has a better chance of getting at-bats.

Since I don't think it's been posted here:

Jung Ho Kang has been denied a work visa, right now it seems unlikely he'll play at all this season. Seems likely Freese will take over for 3B for now, maybe they'll move stuff around, but hard to say.

Billy Hamilton has been out for a week with a sore achilles. Suppose to play this weekend, and said "he would be playing if it was regular season", but still a bit nervous. That's a big part of where your accel comes from for speed, if it flares up or becomes a problem in season, could be very bad

Thanks guys! I had Keirmaier on my list as a 20+ steals last year. What do you think of Peraza (cin)? He looks pretty promising as a late round type.

Been doing all my reading, studying and podcast listening this week and will start drafting this weekend. Plan to do 3 Yahoo rotos. I don't care for H2H and will avoid it this season. Gonna use 3 different strategies. Balanced, SP/RP heavy, and Hitter/RP heavy. I think SP/RP heavy is closest to the optimal roto strategy but can see merit in the others as well depending on how the drafts fall.

Peraza has a lot of hype and won't be anywhere near late rounds, ADP of 110 in NFBC right now

Figures His Yahoo adp is about 168 and has been easy to get there in mocks but I'm guessing he moves up for real ones.

Why is no one talking about Steven Wright? Definitely in rotation right now, had a 3 ERA last year before pitching hurt last 2 starts, dropping to 3.33, and earlier in season was sitting around 2 ERA. He's bounced back now from the non throwing shoulder injury (and I doubt they PR him again), and has given up 2 hits (2!) in 9.1 innings so far in ST.

Love Kiermaier this year. Drafted him in my mixed league. Kind of bummed someone kept him in my AL only league.

Another cheap steal guy could be Ben Revere. He has been hot this spring and the word is he looks good after being hurt all of last year. Between injuries and just being better than Maybin he could be starting by May.

I own Peraza across the board and he's a player I really like. As stated, he's no longer a cheap pick-up. I'll be using him as a mix-in option at 2B/SS/MI spots, but wouldn't want to rely on him as a starter because of his lack of power. As a guy you fill-in for 60-70 games you'll get a good average and speed.

rut roh rodon

Clayton Kershaw yesterday:

6 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 11 K

nice to see he's tuned up

feeling better about pulling the trigger on him in the first round

I dont expect more than ~550 plate appearances because hes old and always banged up, but I think he will be pretty productive when hes in the lineup. Still has power and great on base skills
He actually was not a keeper. At $25 he was cheaper than many bats I felt were not as as good.
Of course he is also a risk to miss a huge chunk of the season so hes def not a safe option

i have a harder time buying spring training stats for pitchers than i do for hitters simply cuz pitchers are likelier to have inflated stats due to facing inferior hitters further in the game than vice versa.

as to wright himself, there's a lot of things that give me a lot of pause. his strikeouts are average and he walks a bunch, his k/bb is pretty ****. his success last year was largely predicated on an implausible hr/fb rate considering his home park and division as well has a really sick home/road split (4% HR/FB on the road, .248 BABIP) and even if you ignore his final 2 starts he got worse (considerably) as the season went on. minnesota and the white sox (see: 2 of the worst offenses in the AL) were the only 2 teams where the last time he faced them he was better or even as good as the first time he faced them

JDM officially out 3-4 weeks with sprain of lisfranc (ugh). In cast 7-10 days, so sounds like May-ish he should be back (and hopefully no setbacks)

I would be interested in adding another $ league to my season if anyone needs another owner to sign up.