Fantasy Baseball

[Treeshepherd]

We have our annual draft out on the redwood deck this Saturday, with kraut dogs, potato salad, chili and refreshments. I took last place in 2014. Need to actually study this year.

We don't do pitchers. It's just a formula involving runs, hits, xbh, HR, rbi and steals. We draft 15 players with 8 starters filling each position (including 3 OFs) and the next best player counting full value as a DH.

Trout is the #1 pick without even having to think about it. After Trout, who knows?

Tulowitzki always gets hurt. Is this the year he stays healthy? In 9 years, he's played over 150 games twice.

Is this the year Bryce Harper breaks out? Can Puig stay healthy and out of trouble? Right now McClutchen and Stanton are ahead of those kids. Jose Bautista had a great year in 2014 and is 34 years old.

Buster Posey is a first round pick. There's a bunch of other catchers that are interesting like LuCroy and Mesoraco.

How do hitter friendly parks effect Josh Donaldson and the Big Panda?

The Cubs have a kid named Kris Bryant with 8 HRs in Spring Training. Red Sox have a rookie named Mookie Betts and a Cuban named Rusney Castillo. Dodgers have rookie Joc Pederson.

Marcell Ozuna looks like an up and comer in Miami. With Christian Yelich and Stanton, that's a good OF. With Dee Gordon at the top of the order, maybe Miami is the best offense that nobody knows about.

Ryan Braun?

Can Pujols and Votto rebound?

 

[Treeshepherd]

no advice, eh?

My draft is tomorrow.

 

[Interpol]

In fantasy baseball speak, the prototypical league is called a 5X5 league, meaning 5 offensive categories (R, HR, RBI, R, AVG) and 5 pitching ones (W, SV, K, ERA, WHIP).

What you've got is a 6 category purely offensive league. An XBH is an extra-base hit, meaning either a double, triple or home run.

A HR instantly gives you 5 of your 6 categories in one swing (R, H, XBH, HR, and an RBI).

Trout is a darling because he can hit 25-30 HRs but also steal at least that manybases. He's not the be-all-end-all though. You only get him if you have 1st pick. Carlos Gomez is as valuable as Trout with your league's categories. So is Stanton. Jose Abreu, Joey Bats and Edwin Encarnacion are good 1st rounders on the back-end.

When it comes to drafting, I think the team that drafts the best infield first always has the best chance of winning the season. The most HRs come from the OF/1B positions where there are many 20+ HR options. You can always find deals at the back end of the draft. But with 2B, SS, and 3B, you need to get those power guys in their fast and hard after you get that one star OF/1B right off.

In the first 5 rounds, if I was in your draft, I would do OF first, then 2B/SS/3B next and then 1B next.

Buster Posey is not a great 1st round option. Lucroy, Gomes, Mesoraco, Santana and others are fine bets. D'Arnaud is the sleeper this year at catcher, but not one catcher on the list this year is 1st or even 2nd round worthy.

Swipe Arenado or Donaldson as quickly as you can. 3B drops off after those two. Bryant is intriguing, but you know what you're getting with those other two.

Tulowitzki is a fine pick. Don't be concerned with the fact he misses 3 weeks out of the year. Even without those 3 weeks, he still finishes ahead in HR among SS and almost everything else, too. Ian Desmond is the safer choice. HanleyRam has potential in Fenway. There are always backups in the later rounds like Danny Santana or Jean Segura for speed, or Javier Baez or Jhonny Peralta for consistent power.

Go for one of Rendon/Kinsler/Cano early. Kolten Wong is the sleeper at 2B this season while Neil Walker never gets enough respect.

Chris Davis will probably go a little later than usual. He's in a contract year and looking to rebound from last year. He should do well. Chris Carter is still somewhat overlooked. He won't be after hitting another 35-40 HRs this season on an Astros team that just keeps getting better.

Kennys Vargas is a sleeper at 1B/DH in the last round or two. Freeman should be avoided, unfortunately, because his lineup sucks. Somebody's going to waste one of their top 5 picks on that guy while C.J. Cron will end up having exactly the same kind of year and probably won't even be drafted because he's off so many people's radars.

OF

I like Dickerson and J.D. Martinez this year. Martinez is killing it this spring. Joc Pederson won't go immediately because he's a rookie but all he knows is how to rake. He's batting like .475 this spring. Matt Kemp is feelin' healthy. He finished real well in the last half of last season and the Padres have an exciting OF. He's not going in the 1st rounds this year and is worth that middle-of-the-draft pick.

Souza's a sleeper in Tampa. He might not be a 20/20 guy in his first season, but he may get close. He's nursing a forearm issue right now, but he won't miss significant time. If not Pederson, I'd grab this guy in the later rounds. Beyond them as far as sleepers I like Pompey from the Jays, who might just find his way to the top of the batting order if he keeps getting on base the way he's been doing.

Calhoun is another sneaky-good pick because he stands to play a lot again this year and build on what he did last year. Him and all those other guys are also the kind of proof that you should stack your IF first because at the point that you'd be grabbing these guys, other teams will be pouring over which lackluster options are left on their infields.

 

[Treeshepherd]

Good advice ^^. Thanks. I can definitely use that info. I also kind of like A.J. Pollock as a sleeper.

Our league's rules are dated, but you don't give the Mona Lisa a facelift. It was started by tech geeks in the Silicon Valley in 1977. My Dad was invited to join in 1978. The Silicon Valley contingent broke off and my Dad and his friends imported the league to Santa Cruz County in 1979. I joined as a teen in 1984. I used to keep and mail out the stats using a calculator, paper and a pen and the copy machine at my Dad's work. There was no internet, so I had to make sure and buy the Tuesday and Wednesday USA Today before it sold out. They were the first paper to list everyone's stats.

Long story short, this is the 36th consecutive year and we claim that this is the oldest fantasy league in the history of the universe.