As maddening as his walk rate is going to be if you need strikeouts Eduardo Rodriguez is clearly your huckleberry

we've definitely arrived at the point where roto or not in a standard 5x5 if you think drafting more than 1 pitcher is the first 10 rounds is a practical idea you're wrong. no matter what you say or what you think you're wrong. if you're going to come up with a counterpoint to my post, you're wrong

yes, a thames or a judge or a story last year or a trout his rookie year etc etc etc will fall through the cracks but that's a lot rarer than being able to take an great to potentially elite pitcher late or after the draft altogether. guys like nova and paxton, bundy, severino, triggs, deverinski etc etc etc etc etc will always be there to shore off a staff. ya the names don't sound as safe as a scherzer or a sale or madbum, who cares. if you're paying attention assembling a good to great pitching staff just based on misfit toys is so much easier than doing that for hitting

also looks like the schelber run is happening. i say go for it

Big win this week:

god bless you bud norris, every one of you

No. Despite the pre-draft advice I got on this forum, I punted SV's (and RP's in general) in all five YPL (5x5). Despite the fairly short sample size, my teams are 1st, 3rd, 3rd, 4th, 5th. My goal is always to win 4/5 offense and Wins /K's. I'm actually able to win ratio's a surprising amount of the time. So, far, it's been working out. Last week, I went up against a guy who ran out mostly all RP's . . . we split 5/5. I actually took 4/5 pitching categories off him (and, somehow, got my ass kicked on offense).

All you need is to go 6-4 each week . . .

He's talking roto FYI. H2H is a completely different deal and punting categories is a much less drastic option.

This is coming from someone who actually does punt a category in roto each year (batting average). I wouldn't punt saves in roto: there's just not enough upside to it. By setting aside two picks for closers in your draft you can easily add 6 roto points to your team and probably more like 10 when you consider ratios and K's.

Agreed, I was mainly talking late season. July is when you need to assess your saves position and figure out whether you're a buyer or a seller. Until July generally, you're just trying to get as many good stats in every category you can. Then you adjust to maximize roto points.

I screwed up in my draft and didn't realize how early closers were going so I got stuck with Watson and dyson, which I guess if dyson didn't suck I'd be in a fine position now... I just didn't expect closers to go in the 5th (I took mine in the 9th and 10th rds)

I'm still not sold on this. Draft rankings are based on replacement value versus waiver wire, and pitchers like Scherzer etc are sky high in that regard. In my view, mid round pitchers (ADP 100-200) have really questionable value and are far more likely to be dropped due to poor performance than peer hitters.

The core issue is that typical rosters go a lot deeper into MLB batters than they do pitchers. In a typical 12-man league, about ~170 of 240 total everyday batters will be drafted/owned at any point in time, while about 80 out of 150 pitchers on rotation will be owned. It's really, really likely that out of the ~50% of pitchers who are unowned you'll be able to find several gems about to perform in the top 20% of SPs. But a lot less likely in the ~30% of hitters who are unowned.

To me the issue affects the first 10 rounds a lot less than it does the next 10 rounds. When I look back at rounds 10-20 and the pitchers drafted, it always seems to be littered with busts.

Josh bell doesn't seem to suck

ofc, as I write a post advocating taking pitchers in the first 10 rounds, Thor out possibly RoS.

Noah Syndergaard has been diagnosed with a partial tear of his right lat muscle following an MRI.
Awful news. There's no clear timetable for Syndergaard's return, but obviously he's facing a lengthy absence.


sorry to those of you that invested in him

Yeah. Quality pitching is just hard to find because there are far fewer quality pitchers than hitters. Even with the top guys though pitching can be sketchy and very hit or miss.

I stand by drafting ace type pitchers and quality closers before they are gone. Can you scoop good pitching later and off of the wire? Sure but it is harder to find than an extra bat because bats are so plentiful. Pitching performances, especially for the back of the rotation guys can be very uneven. Just because a guy pitched a gem last time out doesn't mean he won't get blown off of the mound next time out. With the proven quality arms this is much less likely where you really pay for the consistency. If you got lucky in pitching with a lot of late round diamonds in the rough then good for you but it is far more easily said than done. In roto it is real easy to get buried in pitching (whip/era) and almost impossible to come back from once it is damaged.

Plus drawing any conclusions at the end of April is ridiculous. I'm willing to bet that Thames, Zimmerman and Judge etc. don't end up with 60+ HR's. Just like I am willing to bet Santana, Hellickson, Vargas, Triggs etc. don't end up with sub 2.00 eras.

Hope the teams where you drafted Thor, bum, arrieta, price are all working out well

Bum was a bummer (have 2 shares) but something that wasn't "pitcher" related (ie coulda happened to Trout if Trout is a moron who rides dirt bikes). Wouldn't touch Thor as I don't trust Mets pitching health. Felt Arieta and Price were overvalued but expect Arietta to likely be fine when the dust settles.

My pitching is doing fine and I do have a few low value performers but if you need to fill in 1400 innings you still need those top of the rotation guys as to not blow up your era/whip.

It feels to me like mrbaseball's posts are being made to deliberately lose people money.

I realize my strategy goes against commonly held beliefs here. But it is my strategy that has worked well for me in the past. I am not telling anyone it is gospel. Just the way I approach it. I don't feel comfortable without a couple of proven front line starters and solid closers. To get them you have to draft them.

I am just offering a differing opinion from all bats all day. An approach that has worked for me.

Rendon on waivers, worth using #1 waiver and dropping Gurriel for him? Currently have Longoria in 3B, will go to Util

Ahhh. Missed that. Minor detail

So how's your offense doing?

4 roto teams. 1st, 2nd, 4th and 8th so far but it is too early to tell anything yet except as to not being buried. The 8th place team is a ****show on offense so far. All the early pick hitters are busting (Machado, Villar, Abreu) although Machado and Abreu seem to be heating up. But its too early to tell as anything can still happen. The other 3 teams are doing well in both hitting and pitching. Except for the 8th place team all others have spent time in first place and have been in contention since day one.

I have a habit of holding onto people that were top level prospects that never materialized at the mlb level. I mention it because a couple weeks ago I made a post about Martin Perez maybe being a solid back end option if a couple things continued. A big part of that thinking was recalling when he was a top 15 prospect in all of baseball and thinking the value provided if he finally put it together would be huge. But dude can't K people and walks way too many. Put it on the shelf for good.

On the other hand, I still do suggest Gomez if available. His babip has gotten more normal, he's still getting plenty of chances (now at #3 in the order rather than #1), picked up a few SB as well.

They aren't cuz he drafted Sanchez, Desmond, JDMart, and Marte LDO

1. Conforto