RJEL - quick HDID

[mjl]

Came in with a very, very solid keeper list. I had about $130 left and planned to get 1.5 studs and then figure it out from there. I wasn't intending to eschew saves but they kept being expensive and I figured someone would be dumping by May and I'd find them then.

18-team mixed 5x5 using OBP. Very high inflation (Yelich went for almost 50). 10 keepers in bold. 1 C, 2 UT, 5 reserves, lots of minor leaguers I won't list here unless they're immediately relevant.

C: Gomes 1A
1B: Alonso 5B
2B: LeMahieu 7X
SS: Andrus 23B
3B: Arenado 14X
MI: BCrawford 3A
CI: Spangenberg 2A
OF: Altherr 1B, Cespedes 34X, Pham 5B, Trout 25/2019, Braun 25A
UT: Garrett Cooper 2A, Pillar 8A

Bench: Adalberto Mondesi 1A

SP: Greinke 24B, Morton 2B, Kershaw 51A, JMontgomery 8A, KGibson 3A
RP: Miller 12A, Watson 1A, Brault 1A, Tepera 1A

Bench: Kuhl 1A, Eickhoff 2A, JGarcia 1A, Hirano 1A

Notes:

This may be the first time I had a strategy for who I was going to throw out early. I had nomination #2 and there were a handful of top pitchers available (Sale, Kershaw, Carrasco, CMartinez, Darvish, Archer, Keuchel, Tanaka, Bumgarner) and Zola's projections have Kershaw ahead of the rest of those guys by quite a lot (Sale $12 or so, the others $20ish). Assuming that's correct, and you can argue whether it is, I figured throwing Sale first would anchor Kershaw's price to not much more than him. Sale went for 51 and so did Kershaw, so maybe it worked? Those other guys went in the mid-30s.

I like Ryan Braun, probably too much, even with the chaos in the MIL outfield. Maybe he'll get traded. I wanted to pick up a little speed too and I wussed out on Cain after having spent the Kershaw/Braun money, then Kiermaier went for more than I wanted, then I went another step down and got Pillar.

I really like my endgame hitters (Cooper and Mondesi). Mondesi is only 22! As a 21-year-old in AAA last year, in a half season he hit .305 with 13 HR and 21 SB! I'm not saying I had a master plan (I was also eyeing Jorge Polanco and could have spent all of my extra money on him but wussed out) but very happy with that.

Seriously though. It's insane. I know he got rushed to the majors and couldn't hit. Of all of the 21 year olds in AAA last year, guess which one easily had the best numbers? Note that that list is Albies (ok, he was 20), Amed Rosario, Verdugo, Barreto, Adames, Bauers, and Mondesi.

All of the random relief pitchers there have one important thing in common: they already have a win. Whee? I can also activate Flaherty and DL Eickhoff in time for his first start. They'll mostly get replaced, but middle relievers and catchers are almost free in this league so when you hit dollar days you might as well get some value. I might replace Gomes with Vazquez but enh, who cares.

[Hornsby]

You had an outstanding keeper list, so you started out with a big advantage in that respect. I do think that you essentially have 3 near dead spots for our league with Cooper, Spangy, and Gomes...catchers with pedigrees were going for 2 and 3 bucks, I think that you could have done better there. You might be chasing speed if Mondesi doesn't come through, although the 3 that Pillar gave you today helps.

Pitching is very good, although the saves are problematical...you have none right now, and that's a tough position to start from. You've got only one, MAYBE two closers in waiting, so you'll certainly have to make moves to get some saves.


Good team, but you've got work top do to repeat...no cakewalk this year with Rick having the minors guys coming up that he has...yikes! I think that we're all playing for 2nd.
Braun will get hurt, as will Cespedes, so that needs to be factored in, and Altherr is only going to be a part time player...400 ab's?

[mjl]

yeah, I definitely went a bit harder on stars and scrubs than I intended. I do think Cooper's going to play at least for a while, I like Spang too much because it comes from an NL-only league where he was good for me and sometimes I forget that doesn't mean he's worth having everywhere, and Gomes... enh. Catchers, you know? He was great a few years ago, maybe it'll come back, I'd rather have a shot at hitting it big than play Robinson Chirinos. Vazquez and Wieters and Jason Castro are all out there if I change my mind. And stars and scrubs makes it a lot easier to make dump trades. I'll run this through May and see what happens after that, not that I have anything close to what Rick has to offer in trade. Rick's team looked insane last year too! We'll see what happens.

[Andrewski]

What’s that I hear? Closers? Dumping team? I know where to find both!

[Big Tymer]

Mike - I have no doubt you'll be in the fight all year long. You made some amazing in season moves LY and hold a great trade chip in Tatis (not to mention all the pitchers). Not having a closer on Day 1 is tough as you never know if the dumping teams will be able to assist you in that category. Fortunately for you, Andy has several including Chapman so there's that...

K's are another soft spot but I generally find you can stream your way to a decent amount of counting stats in this league so you can easily make up ground there. Very balanced offense across all categories as I see it as well.

Should be fun.

[The Dane]

I really like this team. I think it'll stay within range of the title all season.

Offense: You have so many players I targeted (and own multiple shares of in other leagues): Crawford, Pham, Braun, Cooper. Arenado is my pick for NL-MVP and NL WAR leader, and Trout is my pick for the same in the AL, so you have an embarrassments of riches at the top end and the bottom. Cespedes is a risk, but if you add in who his DL replacement would be to his highly-productive ABs, he's worth more than $34. SBs may be a little thin, but frankly, a quick scan of the teams in this league shows that about five owners have almost all the speed, which means with a little luck, you could be at the top of the clump there with very little investment.

Pitching: Great SPs on good teams. You'll need more saves, of course. You know, all of the teams in this league have some weak spots in their pitching, so you're fine at this point.

[Mithrandir]

If this team can get some saves, it is definitely the team to beat.