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AL 4x4, $260, 25th season
Draft: Mandalay Bay Sports Book, LV
In a previous thread, I've discussed my ridiculous 2018 season in which I finished first in all roto cats to an insane 80 pt finish, a full 30pts ahead of 2nd place.
Is a repeat in the offing? I decided early in the 2018 season that I had a three year run with this collection. I had the top 3 studs in the game (Trout/Betts/JRam) and would be able to keep each at current contract through 2020. The critical element would be surrounding them with enough cheap talent to keep them from stagnating on a horrible roster. I had the makings to do just that, but would need to continue to strike oil in the '19/'20 drafts in order to pull it off. I entered the draft with a pretty heavy collection of studs, enough to put myself in position as a likely favorite. All I needed to do was avoid injury.
And, like clockwork, I was hit with 3 injury scares early on (Severino's shoulder, JRam's knee, Olson's hand). JRam proved to be minor, so, dodged that bullet, but the other two have injuries that could linger and haunt throughout the season.
Keepers in bold, standard contract system:
C Kiner Kalefa 3
C Greiner 1
1B Olson 12
3B JRam 11
CI Cron 1
2B Moncada 18
SS Mondesi 10
MI LeMahieu 8
DH Bour 3
OF Trout 53
OF Betts 44
OF Benintendi 29
OF Soler 10
OF Kepler 10
P Severino 10
P Morton 1
P Glasnow 5
P Boyd 1
P R Lopez 3
P A Sanchez 1
P Giles 8
P LeClerc 7
P Treinan 7
Draft was on Friday morning, started at 10:30 instead of our standard noon in order to try to complete in advance of the MSU/LSU hoops game (league of Spartan Alums that started in our East Lansing glory days). Our waitress of 15+ years started the bourbon and never ending buckets of beer flowing early and often (she has yet to charge us a dime for a drink) and did not stop until the Spartans dispatched the Tigers (handily, I might add). It was no easy feat to complete the draft as the game started with about 8 teams still filling rosters. Not a fun endgame for the Commish (me), trying to corral the drunken debauchery of these obnoxious MFers (and record rosters, manually).
I typically refine and hone my draft strategy whilst on the plane to the desert, but this year I entered with a paltry $62, a pretty solid idea of late buys that I'd be happy with, and armed with a short list of targets in the $20-25 dollar range to add to my kept studs. Primary targets included G Sanchez (up to $26ish, he went for $30 very early), and one (or two) of the following for under $20: Miggy, Devers & Moncada. I really didnt care which, although I really preferred to not lock up my DH with one of them early. As it turned out, I was able to get Moncada fairly early for $18, and lock down a solid MI. Devers went shortly after for $22, and I was OK with the savings (Miggy went later for $19, and I was the last bidder).
The rest of my draft was fairly boring, as I was primarily looking for "values" and pretty flexible as to how I got them. I was very patient with money, too, and eventually had more to spend than the remaining teams, and could leverage position on them. Kepler and Soler I thought were close to at-value, and the late pickings were slim in the OF. I drafted Soler for $1 last year, but had to cut him as he was tied to Mondesi. Would have liked to have that one back, but I'm pleased to own him again as he appears to have the cleanup spot locked up in that lineup.
The catchers are what they are, Bour was the best available late-late bat, and LeMahieu was as close to a "must own" as anyone I've ever had - I'm good friends with his lifelong hitting coach, have met him and his family, and he even got me on the field at Wrigley for BP with the Rockies a couple of times. I figure I owed him a slot on this championship team.
(You can do a lot worse than a former batting champ, who's glove will get him plenty of ABs, in the Yanks lineup, for $8)
I'm somewhat excited about the quality of late SP that I was able to get for $5. If one or two of them pan out as keepers, that's a huge bonus for 2020. I'm bullish on all 3 and they were on my list. I dont understand the industry-wide trepidation on A. Sanchez - by all accounts his injuries have been related to blisters. This is certainly medically controllable, in my eyes. In a 4x4, his ratio potential is enormous for $1. Boyd at $1 was a bit of a shock in a league with a Tigers bent.
So, overall, my goal was to add complementary players with pop on offense. I really did not need steals, at all, as my keeper list projected well ahead of last year's second place team on it's own.
Closers are like gold in this league (for example, Chapman was kept at $40), and my closer list virtually guarantees competitiveness in SVs. I had a goal of adding endgame SPs that I thought could sleep their way onto a '20 keeper list.
My projections have me in first by an 8pt margin. Should be a fun year with fair competition.
On a side note - I cant recommend spending the entire Sweet 16 weekend at a sports book too strongly. I've never watched/wagered on/drank my way through more college hoops games in a 4 day period. What an absolute blast. I took the red eye home Sunday night (after watching my SPARTANS punch out Duke for a ticket to the F4!) and am only now back to normalcy, and able to write up the squad.
What say you?
Draft: Mandalay Bay Sports Book, LV
In a previous thread, I've discussed my ridiculous 2018 season in which I finished first in all roto cats to an insane 80 pt finish, a full 30pts ahead of 2nd place.
Is a repeat in the offing? I decided early in the 2018 season that I had a three year run with this collection. I had the top 3 studs in the game (Trout/Betts/JRam) and would be able to keep each at current contract through 2020. The critical element would be surrounding them with enough cheap talent to keep them from stagnating on a horrible roster. I had the makings to do just that, but would need to continue to strike oil in the '19/'20 drafts in order to pull it off. I entered the draft with a pretty heavy collection of studs, enough to put myself in position as a likely favorite. All I needed to do was avoid injury.
And, like clockwork, I was hit with 3 injury scares early on (Severino's shoulder, JRam's knee, Olson's hand). JRam proved to be minor, so, dodged that bullet, but the other two have injuries that could linger and haunt throughout the season.
Keepers in bold, standard contract system:
C Kiner Kalefa 3
C Greiner 1
1B Olson 12
3B JRam 11
CI Cron 1
2B Moncada 18
SS Mondesi 10
MI LeMahieu 8
DH Bour 3
OF Trout 53
OF Betts 44
OF Benintendi 29
OF Soler 10
OF Kepler 10
P Severino 10
P Morton 1
P Glasnow 5
P Boyd 1
P R Lopez 3
P A Sanchez 1
P Giles 8
P LeClerc 7
P Treinan 7
Draft was on Friday morning, started at 10:30 instead of our standard noon in order to try to complete in advance of the MSU/LSU hoops game (league of Spartan Alums that started in our East Lansing glory days). Our waitress of 15+ years started the bourbon and never ending buckets of beer flowing early and often (she has yet to charge us a dime for a drink) and did not stop until the Spartans dispatched the Tigers (handily, I might add). It was no easy feat to complete the draft as the game started with about 8 teams still filling rosters. Not a fun endgame for the Commish (me), trying to corral the drunken debauchery of these obnoxious MFers (and record rosters, manually).
I typically refine and hone my draft strategy whilst on the plane to the desert, but this year I entered with a paltry $62, a pretty solid idea of late buys that I'd be happy with, and armed with a short list of targets in the $20-25 dollar range to add to my kept studs. Primary targets included G Sanchez (up to $26ish, he went for $30 very early), and one (or two) of the following for under $20: Miggy, Devers & Moncada. I really didnt care which, although I really preferred to not lock up my DH with one of them early. As it turned out, I was able to get Moncada fairly early for $18, and lock down a solid MI. Devers went shortly after for $22, and I was OK with the savings (Miggy went later for $19, and I was the last bidder).
The rest of my draft was fairly boring, as I was primarily looking for "values" and pretty flexible as to how I got them. I was very patient with money, too, and eventually had more to spend than the remaining teams, and could leverage position on them. Kepler and Soler I thought were close to at-value, and the late pickings were slim in the OF. I drafted Soler for $1 last year, but had to cut him as he was tied to Mondesi. Would have liked to have that one back, but I'm pleased to own him again as he appears to have the cleanup spot locked up in that lineup.
The catchers are what they are, Bour was the best available late-late bat, and LeMahieu was as close to a "must own" as anyone I've ever had - I'm good friends with his lifelong hitting coach, have met him and his family, and he even got me on the field at Wrigley for BP with the Rockies a couple of times. I figure I owed him a slot on this championship team.
(You can do a lot worse than a former batting champ, who's glove will get him plenty of ABs, in the Yanks lineup, for $8)I'm somewhat excited about the quality of late SP that I was able to get for $5. If one or two of them pan out as keepers, that's a huge bonus for 2020. I'm bullish on all 3 and they were on my list. I dont understand the industry-wide trepidation on A. Sanchez - by all accounts his injuries have been related to blisters. This is certainly medically controllable, in my eyes. In a 4x4, his ratio potential is enormous for $1. Boyd at $1 was a bit of a shock in a league with a Tigers bent.
So, overall, my goal was to add complementary players with pop on offense. I really did not need steals, at all, as my keeper list projected well ahead of last year's second place team on it's own.
Closers are like gold in this league (for example, Chapman was kept at $40), and my closer list virtually guarantees competitiveness in SVs. I had a goal of adding endgame SPs that I thought could sleep their way onto a '20 keeper list.
My projections have me in first by an 8pt margin. Should be a fun year with fair competition.
On a side note - I cant recommend spending the entire Sweet 16 weekend at a sports book too strongly. I've never watched/wagered on/drank my way through more college hoops games in a 4 day period. What an absolute blast. I took the red eye home Sunday night (after watching my SPARTANS punch out Duke for a ticket to the F4!) and am only now back to normalcy, and able to write up the squad.
What say you?
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