I hate my RJEL team.

[The Dane]

I hated my keepers. I hated my draft. If I want to feel good about my hitters, which I hate, I just need to look at my pitching that I hate even more. I hated that my plans all went to shit early. I hate my minors. I hate the past and the future and the right now.

That said, the draft was fun.

Context: I had a poor keeper list, not nearly enough bodies so my last few keepers were poor in quality, but cheap, so at least there's that. I figured I didn't have the keepers to compete with some of the others, so I took a chance on ZERO contract hitters, keeping four of them. Hopefully, they can use that extra cheap year to get some footing and be really worth something next year. Or, they'll just lick winnets.

Hitters
C BPosey 3
1 DVogelbach 2
2 SLong 2
3 JDonaldson 28
S MRojas 1 (placeholder NHoerner from my minors)
MI TEdman 4
CI MSano 33
OF CBellinger 15
OF CBlackmon 43
OF GHampson 4
OF ARiley 4
OF AHaseley 4
UT GCooper 1
UT RMcMahon 7
Bench CStewart 1
Relevant minor leaguers: NHoerner, EWhite, SHilliard, BDalbec

At draft, I just grabbed Sano and Blackmon and a bunch of shit to fill holes. Rojas and Stewart will likely be cut as soon as a minor leaguer comes up, which could be on Opening Day. These hitters are pretty young and have some upside, but are lacking defined roles or have some skill consolidation to do. If a couple get it together, I could be okay next year.

Pitchers
SP ZGrienke 37
SP MStroman 16
SP MFoltynewicz 15
SP AWood 11
SP ADesclafani 9
SP KGausman 6
SP KGibson 4
SP DSmyly 1
RP KGinkel 2
RP WHarris 2
RP TButtrey 3
RP DAltavilla 1
RP GGallegos 1

I hate all of these pitchers. I set out to get one rock-solid 200ip SP for less than $40 and some starters with some upside or injury history, and spend $100 total. Pitching is plentiful on the wire, so I can replace injuries pretty easily, even if it's only with another pitcher I also despise, but is preferable in that he's ambulatory. I refuse to pay for saves, so I grabbed cheap good-skill relievers who will help pad the stats from the rankness of my starters. They're fungible, for the most part. I have zero minor league pitchers, and that may be the one thing about this team I don't hate.

[Big Tymer]

Dane - I'd love to add some silver lining but agree you need to squint a bit.

I do like Alex Wood at $11 fwiw as he was someone I was hoping to get but had little $ left (paid $14 in my NL the night before for him). Saves are tricky here as you typically either need to have them before the draft based on good buys from the prior year or pay above market value. As I have mentioned in other posts however I don't think they were expensive this year or at least not to my valuations so you might have been better off taking say that $15 for Folty (not a fan) and reallocating to a closer as several went at that price. Speed will be the other big gap here as Blackmon at $43 just doesn't run anymore which makes that an expensive 4-category buy and besides Bellinger / Edman / Hampson who will all chip in 15 or so SBs I don't see much else here in that category.

Fingers crossed we get to play this out.

[Andrewski]

I'll disagree with you guys (just a little bit) and say I like your pitching. It has the potential to be just fine. If Greinke keeps it up, Folty could be just fine, Wood may be pretty good this year in a shortened year, Gallegos could be a top notch closer, and Buttrey/Ginkel are two of the better closers-in-waiting, imo.

[Hornsby]

I hated my keepers. I hated my draft. If I want to feel good about my hitters, which I hate, I just need to look at my pitching that I hate even more. I hated that my plans all went to shit early. I hate my minors. I hate the past and the future and the right now.

That said, the draft was fun.

Context: I had a poor keeper list, not nearly enough bodies so my last few keepers were poor in quality, but cheap, so at least there's that. I figured I didn't have the keepers to compete with some of the others, so I took a chance on ZERO contract hitters, keeping four of them. Hopefully, they can use that extra cheap year to get some footing and be really worth something next year. Or, they'll just lick winnets.

Hitters
C BPosey 3
1 DVogelbach 2
2 SLong 2
3 JDonaldson 28
S MRojas 1 (placeholder NHoerner from my minors)
MI TEdman 4
CI MSano 33
OF CBellinger 15
OF CBlackmon 43
OF GHampson 4
OF ARiley 4
OF AHaseley 4
UT GCooper 1
UT RMcMahon 7
Bench CStewart 1
Relevant minor leaguers: NHoerner, EWhite, SHilliard, BDalbec

At draft, I just grabbed Sano and Blackmon and a bunch of shit to fill holes. Rojas and Stewart will likely be cut as soon as a minor leaguer comes up, which could be on Opening Day. These hitters are pretty young and have some upside, but are lacking defined roles or have some skill consolidation to do. If a couple get it together, I could be okay next year.

Pitchers
SP ZGrienke 37
SP MStroman 16
SP MFoltynewicz 15
SP AWood 11
SP ADesclafani 9
SP KGausman 6
SP KGibson 4
SP DSmyly 1
RP KGinkel 2
RP WHarris 2
RP TButtrey 3
RP DAltavilla 1
RP GGallegos 1

I hate all of these pitchers. I set out to get one rock-solid 200ip SP for less than $40 and some starters with some upside or injury history, and spend $100 total. Pitching is plentiful on the wire, so I can replace injuries pretty easily, even if it's only with another pitcher I also despise, but is preferable in that he's ambulatory. I refuse to pay for saves, so I grabbed cheap good-skill relievers who will help pad the stats from the rankness of my starters. They're fungible, for the most part. I have zero minor league pitchers, and that may be the one thing about this team I don't hate.

I kind of agree with Andy, your pitching should be better than you make it out to be, especially your power arm middle relievers. You've got a real chance to get couple of cheap closers out of that bunch, as you know there's about a 50% turnover in the closer ranks every season.

Your hitting, well that's another story...I probably wouldn't have kept 2-3 of the guys you did, just because they're cheap, doesn't mean they'll give you value. Liked the Posey buy, and Sano as well, but you'll have to perform some magic to get the hitting side into the upper half of the league.

[onejayhawk]

I would love your pitching in my 20 team league. Mine is somewhat similar, but without Grienke. Gibson at 4 and Smyly at 1 look very good, so you even have depth.

J

[GwynnInTheHall]

Always too late to add--why didn't you trade for Folty from me at $4? I liked Wood as well and Sano, you took em both from me

[Erik]

I'll disagree with you guys (just a little bit) and say I like your pitching. It has the potential to be just fine. If Greinke keeps it up, Folty could be just fine, Wood may be pretty good this year in a shortened year, Gallegos could be a top notch closer, and Buttrey/Ginkel are two of the better closers-in-waiting, imo.

I like the Desclafani buy as well.

[chancellor]

I hated my keepers. I hated my draft. If I want to feel good about my hitters, which I hate, I just need to look at my pitching that I hate even more. I hated that my plans all went to shit early. I hate my minors. I hate the past and the future and the right now.

I'm not sure I've seen a better opening to a post in RJ history.

That was pretty much my AL only auction last year, so I can sympathize. While hope springs eternal before the start of baseball season, as Big Tymer noted, you have to squint really hard to see any hope in that squad for this year. But in Hampson, Edman, Riley, McMahon, and Bellinger you have the core of some potentially really good hitting for next year. And you'll have some pieces that will be in high demand, I expect, should the season get going.

Per pitching, I think you summed it up just fine, though Greinke at 37 is fine and DeSclafani at 9 could be really good.