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league 1: 10-team NL only 5x5 using AVG, thought it was my last chance to compete with a pretty good keeper list before they all expired, and combined keepers like Jung-Ho Kang and Adam Ottavino and Joc Pederson (and cutting Gio) with my auction roster with great players like Starling Marte and Jhonny Peralta and Matt Wieters, so it didn't go all that well. I did take Knebel and Jimmy Nelson in the reserve rounds which helped, but overall I got stomped.
Trades:
Late May
July
August
Interesting midseason pickups: Flaherty, Tatis Jr., Gohara, Addison Russell $8 when he was cut late in the season and nobody picked him up off waivers
Strategy notes: I wish I'd had more confidence in Kershaw coming back during the season. I had the option of trading Marte and Freeman (who is a very good keeper but not super-amazing) for Holland $8A, Thames $12A, and Kershaw and passed because I felt burned by Thames because of my other league and I already had Knebel/Rivero as keepers at the time. Kershaw later got traded for Hand $5A. I'm pretty sure I'd rather have had Holland/Thames/Hand than Freeman (and I probably could have gotten someone other than Hand if I wanted).
Foundation for next year: Barnes $5, Freeman $33, Cozart $4/option, Peralta $10, Schebler $5, Ian Happ $8, Russell $8, Conforto $10/option, Godley $14, Knebel $10, Nelson $10?, Syndergaard $15, Familia $15
league 2: RJEL. 18-team mixed 5x5 using OBP, 10 keepers plus a lot of minor leaguers. I had a very good major league keeper list plus Moncada/JP Crawford/Eloy Jimenez/Rosario and a good auction, thought I'd finish in the top 4 (HDID post). Due to literally every move I made working out, took over first in June and stretched the lead to 10 by the end of the month, to 20 by August, and apart from a couple small scares had it locked up for most of the season.
Good auction picks: Altherr $1, Khris Davis $35, Scherzer $38
Preface to the list of interesting moves: RJEL has a ton of trading and due to the contract structures, premium rookies are valued very highly. Not that some of these trades weren't also good for me even considering that, but some of these are going to look a bit crazy to an outsider.
Trades:
Preseason
April
May
June
July
Interesting pickups:
Chase Anderson $3 (but I cut him in May after he got bombed by the Cubs and missed all of his really good stretch, sigh), Faria, Alex Claudio, Tyler Lyons
Strategy notes:
Obviously every trade I made worked out unreasonably well and I only had one bad buy in the auction (Neftali Feliz for $11). The one thing I did wrong was that I was really proud of myself for no good reason for picking up Travis d'Arnaud for $2 early in FAAB and then when I had a huge wave of injuries (Semien, Cespedes, Haniger, Forsythe, etc) and filled up my DL slots I kept an injured d'Arnaud active for basically all of May instead of just replacing him with someone like Martin Maldonado, and because I'd done the Kepler trade (and because of my attitude about pitchers, see below) I was scrounging with idiots like Rickie Weeks in the outfield for a bit. The end result of this was that the other teams at the top of the standings have 5-10% more ABs than I do; even an extra 3% on my team batting totals (lowered because it was mostly the catcher spot that I was running nothing in) would have given me another 6 points in the final standings. Also I shouldn't have let Trout get hurt.
Also I think that if you have multiple batters on your bench in this league you are almost certainly doing it wrong. We have lineup changes twice a week and whether you have starters or relievers on your bench, being able to slot them in for the SPs that aren't going in that three or four day window is a big deal. Depending on how many closers you have, I think three or four of your five bench spots should be pitchers and one should be a hitter that qualifies in multiple positions if you don't have good positional flexibility in your starters.
Foundation for next year: Alonso $5B, LeMahieu $7X, Arenado $14X, Andrus $23B, KDavis $35B, Pham $5B, Trout $25/2019, Altherr $1B, Haniger $4/option, Broxton $4/option, Cespedes $34X, Greinke $24B, Scherzer $38B, Morton $2B... hm, I need to trade four of these guys. Hit me up.
league 3: 12-team mixed 5x5 using AVG, 6 keepers, salaries go up $5/yr. First place in May, ninth in July, dumped, fought my way back to third. I'm pretty pleased with this one.
Keepers: Trea Turner $6, Bryant $13, Blackmon $32, Schwarber $7, Lucroy $11, Oh $6. That could have gone better. Also had to choose between Gleyber Torres and Bellinger with the first pick in the minors draft and took Torres. Also I spent a combined $60 on Starling Marte, CarGo, and Piscotty.
Trades:
This league has hardly any trades. Seven for the whole season, three of which I was involved in.
May 1
July 31
August 28
Interesting pickups: Morton and Gallo in April, Altherr and Cozart in May, Pham in June, DeJong in July, Hoskins and Eddie Rosario in August. But I had Gallo benched for most of the time when he was good mostly because I wasn't paying enough attention - while active he hit .194/.311/.496, benched .242/.383/.644. I managed to do this with a couple other guys too (Schwarber .190/.309/.399 active, .241/.322/.602 benched; Altherr .252/.320/.449 active, .315/.390/.697 benched; Kepler .221/.302/.326 active, .274/.346/.504 benched). I should stop paying attention to cold streaks, I guess. I also picked up a handful of closers down the stretch (Hand via trade, Nicasio, Treinen, Blake Parker)
Strategy notes:
I talked myself into keeping Oh because I didn't see anyone else I really liked, but I need to remember that unless it's a cheap Kimbrel-level guy it's not worth it in this league. I had Cody Allen and Oh after the auction and managed to scrounge together another 40 saves from random pickups to get to third place in the category. It really helped that nobody else in this league is big on streaming 2-start guys, so I was able to lead Ks and do pretty well in wins even after getting rid of all of my aces by midseason.
Foundation for next year: TTurner $11, Bryant $18X, Correa $16X, Rendon $20, Hoskins $12, one of Gallo or Pham or Owings $6 or CFrazier $2 - I can't believe they let Frazier get to 131 AB in the last week.
Trades:
Late May
- Arrieta and Jansen (expiring contracts) for injured Syndergaard and Familia at $15/2018 and Brendan Rodgers (minors)
- Posey, Roark (expiring), LeMahieu (expiring), Addison Reed for Cozart $4B, Luke Weaver (minors), Ryan McMahon (minors), and Conforto $10/yr 2 (sigh)
- Goldschmidt (expiring), Pederson (expiring), Josh Harrison for Austin Barnes $5A, Schebler $5A, and injured Freeman $33A
July
- Span and Wacha for Felipe Rivero $10A
August
- Rivero, Marte, Brandon Crawford (expiring), Perdomo for Godley $14A, David Peralta $10A, Pirela $7A, Nova $9B
Interesting midseason pickups: Flaherty, Tatis Jr., Gohara, Addison Russell $8 when he was cut late in the season and nobody picked him up off waivers
Strategy notes: I wish I'd had more confidence in Kershaw coming back during the season. I had the option of trading Marte and Freeman (who is a very good keeper but not super-amazing) for Holland $8A, Thames $12A, and Kershaw and passed because I felt burned by Thames because of my other league and I already had Knebel/Rivero as keepers at the time. Kershaw later got traded for Hand $5A. I'm pretty sure I'd rather have had Holland/Thames/Hand than Freeman (and I probably could have gotten someone other than Hand if I wanted).
Foundation for next year: Barnes $5, Freeman $33, Cozart $4/option, Peralta $10, Schebler $5, Ian Happ $8, Russell $8, Conforto $10/option, Godley $14, Knebel $10, Nelson $10?, Syndergaard $15, Familia $15
league 2: RJEL. 18-team mixed 5x5 using OBP, 10 keepers plus a lot of minor leaguers. I had a very good major league keeper list plus Moncada/JP Crawford/Eloy Jimenez/Rosario and a good auction, thought I'd finish in the top 4 (HDID post). Due to literally every move I made working out, took over first in June and stretched the lead to 10 by the end of the month, to 20 by August, and apart from a couple small scares had it locked up for most of the season.
Good auction picks: Altherr $1, Khris Davis $35, Scherzer $38
Preface to the list of interesting moves: RJEL has a ton of trading and due to the contract structures, premium rookies are valued very highly. Not that some of these trades weren't also good for me even considering that, but some of these are going to look a bit crazy to an outsider.
Trades:
Preseason
- Rodon $6B, Hernan Perez $1B, Wacha $12/2017 for Arrieta $8X
I didn't want to lock Wacha into a keeper slot and I had too many major league keepers - Archer $10X for Keon Broxton $4B, Tapia $4/minors, Tom Murphy $1B
I could hide Murphy in a minors slot and I liked Broxton - JP Crawford $6/minors and Jose Reyes $9B for Cespedes $29/option (extended to $34/2018) and Willie Calhoun $5/minors
I wanted to lock up a slightly underpriced stud because I know I'm bad at getting them at auction in these large auctions and because I really liked Calhoun and wasn't sure Crawford was going to be that great for fantasy - Hellickson $6A for Morton $2A after the auction
I really wanted Morton and had fucked up my bidding during the auction
April
- Kepler $4X for Triston McKenzie $6/minors
At the time I had way too many good outfielders (Broxton, Cespedes, KDavis, Kepler, Trout, Altherr, Haniger), ICL needed an outfielder, and I thought McKenzie was a guy I could flip if needed - Moncada $6/minors, YMendez $5/minors, Tapia $4/minors for Arenado $14/2018, Alonso $5A, Nova $4B, Rosenthal $2A
Doig had come into the season planning to dump, I was willing to let Moncada go but took a little less talent in return for getting guys I could keep longer than this season. Rosenthal was a throw-in because I had Oh and was worried about him and that worked out well. It was originally going to be Spangenberg which also would have been okay but not what I ended up needing - Gausman $5B and Wacha $15A for Greinke $24A
After trading Wacha away preseason I still liked him and ended up with him in the auction, but Greinke seemed safer and I had to clear a roster spot for Glover when he was taking over the closer role, and I found someone who thought Gausman was going to get it together again, which he did but not until July
May
- Rosario $1/minors, Tom Murphy $1B, Motter $5A, my #3 minors pick for Keuchel $10X, Wade Davis $10X, Andrus $23A, Flaherty $1/minors
Rosario was a top prospect and hitting great in AAA and Motter looked really good according to Fangraphs but yeah, this was a good deal for me. Flaherty was pretty much a throw-in that worked out way better than expected.
June
- Willie Calhoun $5/minors for Pham $5A
Pham couldn't stay on the pace he was on so far (.274/.359/.484, 9 HR, 28 R, 22 RBI, 6 SB) for a whole season, could he? Actually he was better for me (.324/.438/.540, 14 HR, 67 R, 51 RBI, 19 SB in twice as many AB)
July
- Manaea $4A, Eloy Jimenez $3/minors, Barraclough $3B for Blackmon $6X, Giles $7X, Andrelton Simmons $6X
I felt like I was overpaying a little for making this deal more than halfway through the season, but these were the last stars available that were cheap enough that the two other contenders could fit them into their salary cap and I felt like if I didn't make this trade they would and I would be sad. As it turned out Blackmon also had a better second half and I needed the saves from Giles. - Longoria $27A and Ketel Marte $5A for Avila $4A and Panik $10A
Clearing a bit of salary in preparation for a trade that didn't happen, but I also needed to clear some space on my roster in general and Avila looked really good before he got traded into a part-time role - Semien $17A for Jose Albertos $1/minors
Just clearing roster space
Interesting pickups:
Chase Anderson $3 (but I cut him in May after he got bombed by the Cubs and missed all of his really good stretch, sigh), Faria, Alex Claudio, Tyler Lyons
Strategy notes:
Obviously every trade I made worked out unreasonably well and I only had one bad buy in the auction (Neftali Feliz for $11). The one thing I did wrong was that I was really proud of myself for no good reason for picking up Travis d'Arnaud for $2 early in FAAB and then when I had a huge wave of injuries (Semien, Cespedes, Haniger, Forsythe, etc) and filled up my DL slots I kept an injured d'Arnaud active for basically all of May instead of just replacing him with someone like Martin Maldonado, and because I'd done the Kepler trade (and because of my attitude about pitchers, see below) I was scrounging with idiots like Rickie Weeks in the outfield for a bit. The end result of this was that the other teams at the top of the standings have 5-10% more ABs than I do; even an extra 3% on my team batting totals (lowered because it was mostly the catcher spot that I was running nothing in) would have given me another 6 points in the final standings. Also I shouldn't have let Trout get hurt.
Also I think that if you have multiple batters on your bench in this league you are almost certainly doing it wrong. We have lineup changes twice a week and whether you have starters or relievers on your bench, being able to slot them in for the SPs that aren't going in that three or four day window is a big deal. Depending on how many closers you have, I think three or four of your five bench spots should be pitchers and one should be a hitter that qualifies in multiple positions if you don't have good positional flexibility in your starters.
Foundation for next year: Alonso $5B, LeMahieu $7X, Arenado $14X, Andrus $23B, KDavis $35B, Pham $5B, Trout $25/2019, Altherr $1B, Haniger $4/option, Broxton $4/option, Cespedes $34X, Greinke $24B, Scherzer $38B, Morton $2B... hm, I need to trade four of these guys. Hit me up.
league 3: 12-team mixed 5x5 using AVG, 6 keepers, salaries go up $5/yr. First place in May, ninth in July, dumped, fought my way back to third. I'm pretty pleased with this one.
Keepers: Trea Turner $6, Bryant $13, Blackmon $32, Schwarber $7, Lucroy $11, Oh $6. That could have gone better. Also had to choose between Gleyber Torres and Bellinger with the first pick in the minors draft and took Torres. Also I spent a combined $60 on Starling Marte, CarGo, and Piscotty.
Trades:
This league has hardly any trades. Seven for the whole season, three of which I was involved in.
May 1
- Carrasco $19 and Teheran $12 for Thames $16 and Samardzija $5
Whoops. My hitting was really underperforming early - in mid-April I only had three guys hitting over .200 and my pitching was more than solid, and I liked Samardzija more than Teheran anyway. But this didn't really work out.
July 31
- Votto $32, Blackmon $32X, SMarte $31, Carlos Martinez $16, Paxton $8 for Correa $11, Victor Robles (minors), Verlander $24, Kershaw $46
I had been trying to talk this guy into accepting a dump trade for a while but he had a solid lead even with Kershaw and Trout hurt. But the other contenders made pretty big trades and he talked himself into it. Kershaw and Verlander were just salary dumps but ended up being useful.
August 28
- Kershaw $46 for Rendon $15 and Hand $1
Kershaw was healthy again and I got a very nice payoff for his last month. Hand was a throwin because I thought I might need to go heavy on saves to try to fight my way back into the money.
Interesting pickups: Morton and Gallo in April, Altherr and Cozart in May, Pham in June, DeJong in July, Hoskins and Eddie Rosario in August. But I had Gallo benched for most of the time when he was good mostly because I wasn't paying enough attention - while active he hit .194/.311/.496, benched .242/.383/.644. I managed to do this with a couple other guys too (Schwarber .190/.309/.399 active, .241/.322/.602 benched; Altherr .252/.320/.449 active, .315/.390/.697 benched; Kepler .221/.302/.326 active, .274/.346/.504 benched). I should stop paying attention to cold streaks, I guess. I also picked up a handful of closers down the stretch (Hand via trade, Nicasio, Treinen, Blake Parker)
Strategy notes:
I talked myself into keeping Oh because I didn't see anyone else I really liked, but I need to remember that unless it's a cheap Kimbrel-level guy it's not worth it in this league. I had Cody Allen and Oh after the auction and managed to scrounge together another 40 saves from random pickups to get to third place in the category. It really helped that nobody else in this league is big on streaming 2-start guys, so I was able to lead Ks and do pretty well in wins even after getting rid of all of my aces by midseason.
Foundation for next year: TTurner $11, Bryant $18X, Correa $16X, Rendon $20, Hoskins $12, one of Gallo or Pham or Owings $6 or CFrazier $2 - I can't believe they let Frazier get to 131 AB in the last week.
For those who don't know, a Free Agent league is one where you enter a public yahoo league, go into the draft with preferences set so you only draft scrubs, then dump everyone & pick up free agents. To be competitive it takes a ton of roster management - I made 106 moves through the year - but it's a pretty satisfying way to build a roster ... no Kershaws or Trouts available; even with trading (I made a couple) nobody is willing to part with big names so every trade is incremental.
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