Nfbc 2019

[Ken]

12 teamer?

[Pauly]

no draft champions. 15

[joncarlos]

Just wrapped up a world-record-setting 9-day (only) draft champions slow draft. I am pretty psyched about this squad...am I just inhaling the powdered Kool-Aid or should I really be? I had the double fortune of the second pick and the guy who wanted Betts in front of me.

C- Posey
C- Alfaro
1B- Abreu
2B- Marte
3B- Moustakas
SS- Semien
MI- Harrison
CI- Y.Alonso
OF- Trout
OF- M.Smith
OF- Mancini
OF- Myers
OF- K.Calhoun
U- K.Davis

Bench- My strategy was to try and take as many multi-eligibles as possible, and factoring all of those guys in, I ended up going 10 deep at OF and at least 5 deep at every other position except 1B (four deep).
C- Swihart, T.Murphy, Mesoraco
1B- Jose Martinez
2B- Urias, Erik Gonzalez, I.Diaz
3B- Aledmys Diaz, Renato Nunez, Bote
SS- Adrianza
OF- Zimmer, Engel

Pitching - Tried to get as many pitchers as possible.
T. Bauer
B. Snell
Treinen
L. Castillo
Heaney
Porcello
A. Bradley
K. Gibson
Rodon
~~~
G. Holland
Loaisiga
Soria
Yarbrough
F. Valdez
E. Santana
Nova
M. Fried
S. Armstrong
B. Wilson
T. Widener
J. Lopez
D. Norris
J. Lyles

I like double-tapping the D-Backs closers. Hopefully it's a predictable situation week to week. With Heaney and Johnny Lasagna already banged up I do worry about SP depth. That is not a catching duo I would want and I think you're definitely light on AVG. Maybe J-Mart or Urias can help there. But I think speed is good and power is good. Trout/Krush/Moose/Abreu/Myers is a solid top 5 hitters. I love the top 3 SPs and hopefully Castillo is good.

[Pauly]

I like double-tapping the D-Backs closers. Hopefully it's a predictable situation week to week. With Heaney and Johnny Lasagna already banged up I do worry about SP depth. That is not a catching duo I would want and I think you're definitely light on AVG. Maybe J-Mart or Urias can help there. But I think speed is good and power is good. Trout/Krush/Moose/Abreu/Myers is a solid top 5 hitters. I love the top 3 SPs and hopefully Castillo is good.

Thanks. It seems like the news on Heaney is positive. He pitched yesterday without pain (albeit not well). I hope his value deflates even more heading into the weekend

[Ken]

no draft champions. 15

Davis in the late 4th round seems like a steal

[Pauly]

Thanks. It seems like the news on Heaney is positive. He pitched yesterday without pain (albeit not well). I hope his value deflates even more heading into the weekend

Looks like I spoke way too soon on Heaney

[joncarlos]

Looks like I spoke way too soon on Heaney

I stupidly invested a lot in this guy. Angels pitchers are more toxic than Mets pitchers these days but somehow I always forget.

[joncarlos]

While I'm at it, I realize I never posted my team. Same 15-team 5x5 setup. I think we finished about 2 weeks ago. Rounds for starters are in parentheses. I had pick... let me check. Pick 6.

I sort of projected the top 6 (that I wanted) as Trout/Betts, J-Ram, Scherzer, Trea Turner and JD Martinez. Acuna went 4th so I had to pick between JDM and Turner. I decided to go with JDM since I liked a lot of shortstops. As it played out, I had plenty of speed, so that decision was right, even if others were not. Maybe I should have considered Arenado over JDM since I think they're both interchangeable.

C Omar Narvaez (20)
C Chris Iannetta (26)
1B Matt Carpenter (5)
3B Matt Chapman (7)
CI Josh Donaldson (8 )
2B Whit Merrifield (2)
SS Jorge Polanco (13)
MI Marcus Semien (14)
OF JD Martinez (1)
OF Starling Marte (3)
OF Andrew McCutchen (10)
OF Adam Eaton (14)
OF Joc Pederson (18 )
UT Tyler White (16)

A couple weeks out and I'm still very happy with my offense. I wish JDM wasn't having back issues, though. Double-tapping Semien and Polanco (or other similar guys) was exactly what I hoped would happen with shortstops. I'm probably too light on power. I should like my offense, given how much I invested in it. This is very much Lord Zola's "bully hitting, manage pitching" approach.

SP Jameson Taillon (4)
SP Yu Darvish (9)
SP JA Happ (11)
SP Kyle Freeland (12)
SP Jimmy Nelson (15)
SP Michael Fulmer (19)
RP Brad Hand (6)
RP Ryan Pressly (24)
RP Sergio Romo (30)

Taillon making it to round 4 was a gift. Not following up on an SP2 until round 9 was a mistake. Darvish looks great now, but one elbow/shoulder/back tweak and my ass is in the jackpot. If Darvish is healthy, having Freeland as my 4 means maybe I can sit him for some scary Coors starts.

Here are the reserves.

C - Max Stassi (27), Chris Herrmann (45) - Hermann already having his knee scoped
1B - Justin Bour (25), Mark Reynolds (46), AJ Reed (50) - Reed is a bit of cover for White, if Bour is good I am not sure where I play him
2B - Howie Kendrick (48 ) - I royally messed this one up, hoping Kieboom plays 2B if he comes up
SS - JP Crawford (34), Carter Kieboom (41)
3B - Johan Camargo (23) - covers Donaldson
OF - Tyler O'Neill (22), Nick Williams (32), Granderson (40), Phillip Ervin (41) - Probably should have spent that O'Neill pick on an arm, but with 5 OF, and nobody else who can play there, I felt like it was the spot I needed to cover the most

SP - Wade Miley (29), Mitch Keller (31), Jonny Loaisiga (33), Drew Pomeranz (36), Pablo Lopez (39), Jordan Montgomery (42), Adam Wainwright (43), Jalen Beeks (47) - Adam Wainwright? Really? Innings, I guess. I like Miley a lot. Montgomery may be back by the end of July. Lopez doesn't have a spot but he has talent. Loaisiga might have had a spot but he's injured. Help me Drew Pomeranz, you're my only hope.

RP - Blake Parker (28 ), Joe Kelly (35), Adam Cimber (37), Tyler Thornburg (48 ), Wilmer Font (49) - the problem with Hand is I have no idea who his (wait for it) Hand-cuff is. So I grabbed Cimber and a couple of other speculative guys. I'm hoping Kelly is a serviceable guy who Dave Roberts likes to use a lot.

[Ken]

That pitching staff is definitely a concern, but I guess that's the price to pay for your elite bats.

Fulmer looks terrible this spring and his velo is way down, you may as well put Miley into your lineup, and at that point your bench SP look really shallow. Obviously that's the team's weakness, you need a lot to fall right for your pitching to hold up IMO.

Regarding Freeland, obviously everyone is expecting a lot of regression, but the odd thing is that he was actually quite a bit better at home than on the road (in both 2018 and 2017). So benching him for Coors starts may be the wrong approach.

Offense looks great obviously.

[frae]

Ok so I will check in every month that I am still in the race. As of May 1st I am 1st in my league and 271st overall. So I will post the roster here again and comment on how things have gone...

Final roster...

C Danny Jansen
C Austin Barnes
1B Matt Carpenter
2b Jose Altuve
3b Vlad G JR
SS Paul Dejong
OF Robles
OF Peralta
OF A Meadows
OF R Braun
OF J Bradley JR
CI Y Alonso
MI Josh Harrison
UT K Davis

C's Plaweck, M Viloria

CI R O'Hearn, A Slater, K Hayes

MI - T Beckham, K Wong, J Iglesias

OF - W Calhoun, N Williams, , T Jankowski, Austin Hays, Daz Cameron, G Parra

HITTING UPDATE - Well the Jansen has been bad and Barnes what I expected. Altuve has been excellent until the last week plus. DeJong , Meadows, Wong, and Beckham have all been way above what you would have thought. Robles is finding his groove and I hope he get a top of the order slot permanently. Vlad is up now and really helps my depth. Harrison has not been good and I really haven't used him as I have gone with Wong. No major hitting injuries yet but Meadows is down. OF depth is a concern I really need Hays or Cameron to wind up being up and decent. Braun will eventually be hurt and JBJ has been bad. Peralta Robles and Meadows will be fine if healthy. Krush has been Krush.

P Degrom
P D Price
P L Castillo
P Y Darvish
P J Musgrove
P M Boyd
P F Vazquez
P T May
P M Givens



SP - Soroka, Samardzija, T Anderson, R Borucki, AJ Puk, F Montas, G Canning,

RP - S Lugo, K Kela, J Fry, S Cishek, R Madson, Caleb Ferguson

PITCHING UPDATE - It is early but besides saves this group is doing awesome. If DeGrom is now ok and gets back to being himself this rotation has been nails and with Soroka up now and looking good it should only get better. Degrom, Castillo, Price, Musgrove, Boyd, Shark, Soroka, Montas have been good. Canning is up and Darvish has been ok. I benched May pretty early since he isn't getting any saves yet. Been 7 SP and Vaz with Givens. Givens has been pretty good but he probably won't get a ton of saves with Baltimore. So this crew if this start holds could win everything in the league but saves. I am way ahead in ERA and on top in K's too. 2nd in Whip and top 1/3 in wins. Fry and May are probably my best bets for saves if something happens there.

So overall April showed me I can be in it with this group, but OF health is a big concern and only one closer limits my upside right now.

[Pauly]

As of May 1st I am 1st in my league and 271st overall.

Man, I guess my league is tough as hell! I am 75th overall today and five points out of first in my league. The third place team is 242 overall and 9.5 out of first in the league. Im sure injuries will end up separating us eventually.