,250 and 34 would be great but at 1B only he loses a lot since most teams have an as good as or better at 1B already. He just doesn't have enough flexibility for my tastes or league structure. That said I would drop somebody like Votto for him in a heartbeat. In 2 leagues where I needed 1B in the last week or two I was able to get CJ Croen which is working out well so far. I just see Tellez as a fill in type and that depends a lot on what you really need. It's always easy to say "pick up this guy!" but it depends on what you will have to drop and what you really need. I see him as having value but he has to fit your specific needs and shortcomings as well. If your power is lagging and you have a stiff at 1B or a utility/corner spot that is lacking he is likely a good choice.

Just traded Xander and a 4th for Brantley and an 8th in a 7x7 (OPS, K) 5 keeper league (so those draft slots are 9th and 13th round value).

I took Xander with the #1 overall pick this year.

I just stashed Didi and I have that bum Corey Seager at SS also.

I don’t love it, but Brantley is such a monster in this format.

You have been quiet lately bud?
According to Yahoo player rater
Rd 1 - #4 hitter
Rd 2 - #1 SP
Rd 3 -#14 SP
Rd 4 - #8 hitter
Bonus points?
Rd 5 - #1 hitter

Yeah I wish I hadn't "blown" my early picks Absolutely crushing this year, not that anyone cares. At this point with 7 teams have 4 1sts, 2 seconds and a third. So all in the money. I just miss my trolls telling how bad my play and strategy are.

Anyway this board is too quiet! Would love to get some useful discussion going on. My MVPs this year (based on where I got them) are Mondesi with 4 shares and Giolito with 7 shares. I grabbed Giolito everywhere in early May and he is #4 SP so far. I saw that arm angle /delivery change in the first game of the season when he had a no-no through 6 and was pretty much sold. Then he got hurt but after he came back I was all over him everywhere. He really looks like the real deal and living up to the prospect hype after sucking balls last season.

This season is crazy though. SPs are mostly a disaster and everybody is hitting record pace bombs and BAs pretty much suck. Still though in draft time quality SPs and closers is where it is at. Everybody hits!

I'll admit I was wrong on your picks.

Your strategy would have backfired if you got stuck with kluber/nola/deGrom etc early

What league settings are you playing in where Giolito is the number four pitcher, verlander, sale, Scherzer, berrios, strass, boyd, Morton, cole have all been way better

I stayed way away from Kluber and Nola (no touches in my opinion) although I have a couple of DeGroms. DeGrom hasn't hurt me My Bauer shares are more disappointing.

Giolito is ranked #4 SP and #13 overall player on yahoo player rater. None of those guys have been better? 8W/78K/2.54 era/.95 whip. Only guy you listed in the top 10 is Morton (5th). It rates W's highly but they are maybe the most random and hardest to get stat. W's can be very flukey and really solid performers elsewhere (see Scherzer's 3 W's and Sales 2 W's) can come up short. I always like to have a solid middle reliever who gets wins. I have Gant everywhere and his 5 W's (and 3 S's) have been a game changer. Since he has SP eligibility he is the #8 ranked SP. It's nice because I keep him in an SP slot and keep all my other P and RP slots full of RPs unless I need it for a day with multiple starters going. Pretty much most SPs are a drain on era this season.

mrbaseball,

No denying the draft you posted turned out great, and it looks like I missed completely on Mondesi.
However I still don't think your process is/was great. Early round pitching in general has not worked out at all. Its been pretty horrific actually, and if the early round aces drafted using your strat were anyone other than 2 of Verly/Scherzer/Cole, then one's draft could get ugly pretty fast.

The table in this article illustrates that point fairly well:
https://fantasy.fangraphs.com/where-...has-come-from/

No pitching is working out well for a lot of reasons mostly the juiced ball. Doesn't mean the good pitchers aren't better than the bad ones. You still want the Scherzers, Verlanders and Sales of the world. And you still have to be able to spot and snap up the undrafted gems like Odorizzi, Giolito and Boyd. Most SPs are a drain on era this season but the aces will get you both the innings and Ks you need (200+ of each).

But as always it depends and it especially depends on the type of league you are in. I play YPL ROTO and in that format you still want to draft your aces and especially your closers. If you have excess closers due to drafting them you can name your price right now as those who ignored or at least didn't fully address are in panic mode and will pay up huge.

I think that is where these conversations break down on this forum. Each format is different but I am pretty good at knowing how mine work and aces and closers (and steals!) works real well. Especially this year where hitting is so cheap and abundant. You can't throw a dart without hitting someone on pace for 35 bombs. But I am crushing this season and have crushed year in and year out primarily due to my draft strategy. So it gets frustrating when internet trolls try to tell me I am stupid and don't understand the game. I understand the leagues I play in infinitely.

Another thing about this year is that there were so many early round hitter busts and/or injuries. Ramirez, Altuve, Machado, Judge, Stanton, Goldschmidt, Benentendi etc. were all early rounders that have either been hurt or greatly disappointed. An underperforming DeGrom, Snell or Bauer has been more valuable than any of those guys.

Random musings about this season so far. Offense is off the hook but batting averages mostly suck. The lively ball has increased HRs greatly making most SPs a detriment to ERAs. But its all relative I guess. Lots of surprises on both the good and bad. I decided to look through the Yahoo player rater to see the standouts from both a boom and bust perspective. Most of the busts have been due to injury.

For this experiment I looked at guys drafted outside the top 200 that are currently in the top 50 and then guys drafted in the top 50 who are outside the top 200.

Booms (current position/Draft position)
Giolito SP 8/323
Escobar SS 16/236
Odorizzi SP 12/312
Soroka SP 25/310
K. Marte 3b/SS/OF 37/263
Chironis RP/SP 39/314
Gant RP/SP 40/316
Pence OF 44/344
Polanco SS 46/275
Mancini 1B/OF 50/292

Busts (draft position/current position)
*Turner SS 6/413
Ramirez 2B/3B 10/520
*Altuve 2B 11/673
*Judge OF 15/835
*Stanton OF 19/1078
Goldschmidt 1B 20/223
*Kluber SP 25/750
Nola SP 34/351
*Correa SS 35/208
*Carasco SP 37/327
*K. Davis OF 40/276
Syndergaard SP 42/233
Cain OF 46/252
Votto 1B 47/639
Flaherty SP 48/218
*Guerrero 3B 50/785

*missed time

Only 6 of the busts have been healthy all season and injuries can happen to anyone anytime. But it just goes to show that drafting is a very inexact science. It also shows that if you miss on the draft there are generally plenty of diamonds in the rough sitting out there that will be readily available. Going deeper than top 50 there are plenty more over and under achievers out there. This means you have to pay very close attention and be ready to snap up bargains. Try not to get all wrapped up in name value and be ready to make aggressive moves. This stuff changes every season and even in a month these lists may look different.

I think one of the biggest keys to successful fantasy baseballing is paying very close attention and never giving up. The back half of your lineup should be very fluid. I got an email this week from yahoo telling me fantasy football leagues are now open. This is great news! As peoples attention begins to shift and guys doing poorly stop setting lineups it is a big plus for the enthusiasts that stay active and engaged. There are plenty of great players emerging every week. Pay attention and profit!!!!!!!!!!!

Goddamnit Frankie montas!!!!

brutal

I was trying to trade for Montas but the guy didn't want to let go. I lucked out I streamed him a couple of times very early but by the time I realized he was good he was unavailable. More unpredictability from the world of sports.

Yup. Ass hole. I was loving the production from an early season waiver add.

Giancarlo is killing me.

Greetings friends. An update:

So work has been kicking my ass but still, itching for fantasy baseball and can’t pass that up. Joined 1 8 team league $500 buyin, 4 make playoffs, 2 get paid. 5x5 standard with obp instead of saves. And I miss the draft

Picking from the 4th spot I ended up with this cesspool of uselessness:

1. JDM
2. Altuve
3. Sale
4. Cole
5. Rizzo
6. Springer
7. Cain
8. Taillon
9. Pham
10. Segura
11. Wheeler
12. Conforto
13. Vazquez
14. Shaw
15. Kimbrel
16. Yadi
17. Eloy
18. Mazara
19. Moncada
20. Eovaldi
21. Hosmer
22. Schoop
23. Andrew Miller
24. Keuchel

**** no I’m not going to just live with that

Within 2 weeks I traded Rizzo JDM and Cain for Yelich to get pickup space and get rid of Cain before he loses all value. Just yesterday I traded Altuve straight up for Hader. I’ve dropped every other player I drafted except Sale, Cole, Springer and Vazquez. I nuked every dime of my FAAB (players on permawaivers so that’s no small thing) and this is my end result:

C: Garver
1b: Alonso
2b: lemahieu
3b: Moose
Ss: Escobar
OF: Yelich, Yordan Alvarez, Springer
Util: Josh Bell, Voit
Bench: Riley
DL: Pence

SP: giolato, odorizzi, Cole, Sale, minor, woodruff, keuchel
RP: hader, neris, Vazquez, Kennedy, Robles, Rogers (can’t start him anymore, trying to trade)
DL: Wood

It should surprise nobody to learn my team is crushing it

Recent speculative pickups & plugging holes for Ozuna/Story:

Biggio
Sogard
L Garcia

Oberg

I refuse to believe Sogard is real but he's mashing, Garcia is mainly for speed/runs while not being a total disaster in other cats, Biggio could be real.

Marquez and Eflin kicking off my week right

just stopping by to show off my new team re-branding

previous: The Carlos Sanstanzas



new: I Shin Soo Choose You



good luck down the stretch folks

Just had the sickest result in the league I am commish of.

Payouts:
3rd,2nd,1st,Reg Season Winner
100,300,700,100

Playoffs ended in 6-6 tie
Championship match was thus decided by seed.
Seed is based on regular season standings.
Regular season win percentage for the two teams was a tie
Next time breaker H2H matchup between the 2 teams.
They played each other twice,
One week was a 5-5-2 tie,
one week a team won 8-3-1.

As a result of that single 8-3-1 matchup, the team that won that matchup won the championship and was regular season winner

bonus, the 3/4 matchup also ended in 6-6 tie, but 3rd place reg season had slightly higher win %

This is one of the reasons I don't like H2H and a playoff structure. Plus by seasons end many of the guys that got you there are shut down or out. I like the roto idea of a seasons worth of accumulated stats over the season rather than playoff luck. If you had guys like Trout, Yelich or Marte missing from your playoff roster it puts too much emphasis on one or two weeks of play.

I love fantasy baseball though and wish we had more talk about it here. Fantasy football gets all the attention and it is an absolutely horrible, random and luck based game unless you can get in a deeper league. The shallow vanilla style leagues are just pure crap shoots where season long fantasy baseball takes knowledge and skill (especially in roto).

But on the other side of the coin football DFS is the absolute nuts while baseball DFS is a miserable game. So my fantasy focus is season long roto baseball and DFS football.

Currently sweating a 4 point lead in season long roto. I'm tied for SBs with someone else, and the 2nd place guy is within 0.02 points on ERA with two other teams, 0.001 on BA, tied with someone else for wins. Wish me luck.

Good luck! This last week is tough in roto because lineups are tough to set because so many guys sit or get pulled early. I have already maxed out a few positions in a few of my leagues. That said I only have one sweat going in my seven leagues as the rest are basically locked up which is nice.

My teams absolutely crushed it this year except for one

Team 1 - First place, 116 roto points, 31 point lead. This is the team I posted the draft of pre season. This team was just stupid good and a wire to wire winner without any even being close. I was hoping for the perfect 120 score with 12's across the board but missed in wins and batting average with 10's despite crushing every other category. Those are always the 2 most luck based though.

Team 2 - Sixth place, 60.5 roto points, 33.5 points out of first. This team sucked Good pitching but horrific hitting and never really got anything going. Will be my only non-cash.

Team 3 - First place, 109 roto points, 12 point lead. Just a good across the board team, especially on the pitching half.

Team 4 - First place, 90 roto points, 4 point lead. This is my sweat team. Very good pitching and okay hitting. Pretty sure I hang on but who knows? Will not fall below second place if it heads south.

Team 5 - Third place , 89.5 roto points, 13.5 points of of first, 2 points out of second, 5.5 points ahead of fourth. Another good pitching bad hitting team but it will cash. A chance that I catch second place but should stay ahead of fourth. Cashing is always good they can't all be first place

Team 6 - First place, 98 roto points, 8 points ahead of second. Should hang on. Very strong pitching. This team started out real bad and was dead last in May. My second round pick was the useless Giancarlo Stanton and I still managed to rebound. Probably my favorite team because it started so bad.

Team 7 - First place, 113 roto points, 20 points ahead. This was team one light. Just crushed across the board from day one.

So it was a very satisfying YPL roto season for me with 6 cashes out of 7 and 5 championships. If I only knew what I was doing at this game

Good luck to us all still sweating it out and next season. I wish we had more traffic in this thread. Maybe next year?

Hope those all turned out well for ya! Seems like a ton of good teams.

I actually came down to the wire with a 1 point win. If someone else had gotten 2 steals it would have made it a tie, or if my whip had edged up 0.01 point. Or if both those things happened I would have lost! Crazy close year.

I'm trying to compile some thoughts about players for next year to keep an eye on in the draft, but my brain is too scrambled right now. Also, value picks in the draft on the hitting side seem less important now since there are definitely going to be 20 or so guys who break out for 25+ HR.

Congrats!!! My teams all held and the 3rd place team even made it to second so I couldn't have asked for more this season. Roto math can get goofy when some team totally out of it advances in some category that screws leaders.

I haven't thought at all about next year yet except that Happy Fun Ball played directly into my strategy this year of prioritizing Aces and Closers since everyone hit which was part of my thesis.

Will be interesting to see if the league actually does something to the baseballs and what that might change

In my 2 keeper/dynasty leagues I finished 3rd and punted the other league to stick up on picks, so really excited for spring training already