For those of you who cancelled your seasons

[The Feral Slasher]

I have almost all those players on one team or another, so I've had the same issues in the general sense, but none are impossible to rebound from, and to be fair, almost every team has had the same issues, so it's not like it's giving us a huge disadvantage to run into those type issues.

I guess if you only have 1 or 2 teams and those teams have a significant number more injuries than others in your league I could see the concern. But then again, that happens to someone every year.

Well I have all those players on one team....trust me it is not in any way enjoyable.

[The Feral Slasher]

Well I have all those players on one team....trust me it is not in any way enjoyable.

And get off my lawn !!!

[Ken]

Well I have all those players on one team....trust me it is not in any way enjoyable.

I think drafting Giancarlo and Ohtani on the same team disqualifies you from complaining about injuries. I have them, but not on the same teams.

I guess I get it if you are going all in on the upside play, but the only way that play works is if you are willing to take the risk. Taking that risk and then complaining about injuries is odd

(Granted, I know you aren't actually "complaining" here in the true sense of the word)

[The Feral Slasher]

I think drafting Giancarlo and Ohtani on the same team disqualifies you from complaining about injuries. I have them, but not on the same teams.

I guess I get it if you are going all in on the upside play, but the only way that play works is if you are willing to take the risk. Taking that risk and then complaining about injuries is odd

(Granted, I know you aren't actually "complaining" here in the true sense of the word)

lol, if it was only those two I could deal with it. There is a lot more bad news I didn't include, lol. My point wasn't specific to my team (though I did get some whining in), it was that in a short season like this all the early performances, game cancellations, and injuries play a much larger part than normal. And whether you enjoy this season or not likely has a strong correlation to whether your team was good and healthy the first three weeks or they sucked and got injured. I've tried to enjoy it for what it is, and I've gone from buyer, to seller, to buyer...to fence sitter, to seller, to buyer, to fence sitter about 5 times already. I guess that is sorta fun. Glad you are enjoying the year, hope your teams get you some top finishes.

[The Feral Slasher]

I think drafting Giancarlo and Ohtani on the same team disqualifies you from complaining about injuries. I have them, but not on the same teams.

I guess I get it if you are going all in on the upside play, but the only way that play works is if you are willing to take the risk. Taking that risk and then complaining about injuries is odd

(Granted, I know you aren't actually "complaining" here in the true sense of the word)

and I would have been very happy if it was only those two who were hurt or underperformed. My whole team took 3-4 weeks to get going, you can deal with that in a normal season, but when it is more than a third of the year it is difficult.

[Ken]

lol, if it was only those two I could deal with it.

I just picked those out because those are auto-injuries. And I see the idea, I too went in on Stanton b/c in a short sample it makes sense. But taking that risk comes with... risk.

As a side note, Soto is crushing it

Yordan wasn't showing up to camp during draft season and was on my do not draft list

Soroka is out but so are numerous others that should be on your competition. That's actually the point - it's a relative game, you aren't playing against a pre-determined bar, you are against other owners who are facing the same issues.

Glasnow and Buehler are not doing great, but that's any short sample pitching period, I don't see this as unique to this season. That's called young pitching.

Anyway, I get it. This year is more variable. But, for me at least, it's still quite fun. Even in the leagues I'm not near the top. I guess I just look at it differently.

[mjl]

What makes a season satisfying for you personally? Because I'm enjoying this one quite a bit, but I understand everyone is different in what they are looking for.

For me, no season is perfect, yes there are more injuries this year, but that just means I'm more active in FAAB every week which has been fun.

I like getting to feel smart. I tend to play in deep leagues - I'm in one 12-mixed, and in that one when I lost Verlander and Soto and Clevinger I was able to mostly replace them with decent production. In RJEL and only leagues FAAB isn't nearly as interesting. It's not nothing, there are useful guys there, but unless you get pretty lucky in addition to smart you can't replace a star with 60% of their production like you can in shallower leagues.

I'm okay with guys underperforming, that's interesting and you can look at statcast etc and try to figure out if they're really as bad as they seem, and I'm okay with some players being injury risks. But I'm in one H2H weekly league and the number of times I've gotten hosed by guys (Phillies earlier in the season, Mets last week, Cardinals, Marlins, etc) just unexpectedly missing half a week is frustrating because it's not something I could reasonably anticipate and it feels different from just plain bad injury luck. Stanton's hurt, and that's sad but fine, but when Trevor Bauer randomly went twelve days between starts, that didn't feel as fun.

And it's not a complaint about my team being more or less affected, I have enough teams that I know it evens out, it's just less satisfying. I'm sure some of this is from not being in daily-move leagues, and I voted against that in the one league we were discussing, because I've tried them and I just don't have the time. So for what I want, this season hasn't been great.

[Judge Jude]

my Dirty Dozen top picks from April:

7. Max Scherzer, Nationals SP - 4.31 ERA in 31 IP
16. Ozzie Albies, Braves 2B - .159 AVG in 41 AB, still on IL
29. Anthony Rizzo - .213 in 89 AB
38. Eugenio Suarez, Reds 3B - .149 in 87 AB
51. Hector Neris, Phillies RP -11.12 in 6 IP, lost closer gig
66. Bees - Kyle Hendricks, Cubs SP - 3.55 in 38 IP (wait, this one is actually ok)
79. Paul DeJong, Cardinals SS - COVID, 21 AB
90. Gregory Polanco, Pirates OF - .151 in 53 AB (with a 5 for 10 this week!)
103. Adam Eaton, Nationals OF - .230 in 96 AB
114. Jarrod Dyson, Pirates OF - .167 in 48 AB
127. Yadier Molina, Cardinals C - COVID, 35 AB
138. Caleb Smith, Marlins SP - COVID, 3 IP

Albies and the 3 COVIDs normally could have been reserved for 4 bums who weren't even considered to be in the top 300 NL players. blech

my 10th P Leake opted out, and also hitting the IL for me at some point: SP Samardzija, RP Knebel, RP Stanek, 3B Longoria, 2B Kendrick, OF Fowler (well, COVID collateral damage)

trust me, I'm glad to not have the burden of dumpster diving this year. I'll take my last-place finish like a man!*


*other than whining like a schoolgirl on a message board, of course

[The Feral Slasher]

I just picked those out because those are auto-injuries. And I see the idea, I too went in on Stanton b/c in a short sample it makes sense. But taking that risk comes with... risk.

As a side note, Soto is crushing it

Yordan wasn't showing up to camp during draft season and was on my do not draft list

Soroka is out but so are numerous others that should be on your competition. That's actually the point - it's a relative game, you aren't playing against a pre-determined bar, you are against other owners who are facing the same issues.

Glasnow and Buehler are not doing great, but that's any short sample pitching period, I don't see this as unique to this season. That's called young pitching.

Anyway, I get it. This year is more variable. But, for me at least, it's still quite fun. Even in the leagues I'm not near the top. I guess I just look at it differently.

We drafted back in March and Alvarez was a keeper, so I had no choice. Your point in bold isn't really accurate....injuries and performance are not affecting all teams equally and in a short season it changes things quite dramatically. Regardless, I am glad we played the year, just wish I would have a had a few more things bounce my way.

[Ken]

Your point in bold isn't really accurate....injuries and performance are not affecting all teams equally and in a short season it changes things quite dramatically.

Weird, I guess there's just some really lucky teams in your league. Every league I'm in, every team has been affected significantly. I'm not seeing the luck factor being a big issue.

I just looked through the top 1-3 teams in several leagues and I didn't find one without at least 4 players on IL and several with the players you mentioned as performance issues:

8 players on IL including Alvarez and Paxton
4 players on IL
4 players on IL including Albies
5 players on IL including Alvarez
5 players on IL including Judge (also has Soto)
5 players on IL
4 players on IL including Judge (also has Buehler)

And these were the TOP teams in all my leagues.

[The Feral Slasher]

Weird, I guess there's just some really lucky teams in your leagueu
4 players on IL including Judge (also has Buehler)

And these were the TOP teams in all my leagues.

I really don't want to turn this into a Feral Slasher whining thread (too late !!!!). My point is that in a short season early injuries, performance, and Covid cancellations (as well as rookie promotion rules) play a much larger part than in a normal 162 game season. And this undoubtedly affects peoples perspective on if the season is enjoyable or not. I am glad we played, but damn it if hasn't been incredibly frustrating. If you think all teams have been affected equally....I disagree : )

[The Feral Slasher]

I just picked those out because those are auto-injuries. And I see the idea, I too went in on Stanton b/c in a short sample it makes sense. But taking that risk comes with... risk.

As a side note, Soto is crushing it

Yordan wasn't showing up to camp during draft season and was on my do not draft list

Soroka is out but so are numerous others that should be on your competition. That's actually the point - it's a relative game, you aren't playing against a pre-determined bar, you are against other owners who are facing the same issues.

Glasnow and Buehler are not doing great, but that's any short sample pitching period, I don't see this as unique to this season. That's called young pitching.

Anyway, I get it. This year is more variable. But, for me at least, it's still quite fun. Even in the leagues I'm not near the top. I guess I just look at it differently.

So first point, yes Soto is crushing it, but missing two weeks of Soto crushing it is much more significant this year because it is a larger percentage of overall games.

second point, you noted that Glasnow and Buehler were not great and indicated it was a short sample period...that is exactly the point as noted above, a small sample is much larger and significant this year. 3 weeks of crap performance doesn't really hurt in a 26 week season. If the season is only 9 weeks it is hard to make up for the slow start

[Ken]

I was ready to move on with your agree to disagree point above but you're still going so I'll re-engage!

So first point, yes Soto is crushing it, but missing two weeks of Soto crushing it is much more significant this year because it is a larger percentage of overall games.

If you say so! Soto's hitting .367 and counting stats are sitting at 15 R, 7 HR, 16 RBI and 1 SB. That's through 25 team games for the Nationals. Pro-rated from the 25 games to 162 games thats 45 HR, 102 RBI, 96 R, 6 SB., I respectfully disagree that his absence has been a problem for you. Especially when you add in replacement level players. I suspect that combo has been better than what you could have expected reasonably from Soto.

second point, you noted that Glasnow and Buehler were not great and indicated it was a short sample period...that is exactly the point as noted above, a small sample is much larger and significant this year. 3 weeks of crap performance doesn't really hurt in a 26 week season. If the season is only 9 weeks it is hard to make up for the slow start

You're missing it - you have young pitchers, they are going to be volatile. That's not new for 2020. It happens, and it shouldn't be a surprise.

I referenced the top teams in every league I'm in and they are all missing players. They all have some players that are not in ideal circumstances, but they all figured out a way to get to the top of the standings despite that. I suspect that's the case in a large percentage of leagues.

Yeah 2020 is different. But different doesn't have to be bad, it's just different.

[The Feral Slasher]

I was ready to move on with your agree to disagree point above but you're still going so I'll re-engage!



If you say so! Soto's hitting .367 and counting stats are sitting at 15 R, 7 HR, 16 RBI and 1 SB. That's through 25 team games for the Nationals. Pro-rated from the 25 games to 162 games thats 45 HR, 102 RBI, 96 R, 6 SB., I respectfully disagree that his absence has been a problem for you. Especially when you add in replacement level players. I suspect that combo has been better than what you could have expected reasonably from Soto.



You're missing it - you have young pitchers, they are going to be volatile. That's not new for 2020. It happens, and it shouldn't be a surprise.

I referenced the top teams in every league I'm in and they are all missing players. They all have some players that are not in ideal circumstances, but they all figured out a way to get to the top of the standings despite that. I suspect that's the case in a large percentage of leagues.

Yeah 2020 is different. But different doesn't have to be bad, it's just different.

So in a 162 game season would it be more difficult or easier for me to make up ground for soto missing 2 weeks and the rest of my team sucking ?

[The Feral Slasher]

I was ready to move on with your agree to disagree point above but you're still going so I'll re-engage!



If you say so! Soto's hitting .367 and counting stats are sitting at 15 R, 7 HR, 16 RBI and 1 SB. That's through 25 team games for the Nationals. Pro-rated from the 25 games to 162 games thats 45 HR, 102 RBI, 96 R, 6 SB., I respectfully disagree that his absence has been a problem for you. Especially when you add in replacement level players. I suspect that combo has been better than what you could have expected reasonably from Soto.



You're missing it - you have young pitchers, they are going to be volatile. That's not new for 2020. It happens, and it shouldn't be a surprise.

I referenced the top teams in every league I'm in and they are all missing players. They all have some players that are not in ideal circumstances, but they all figured out a way to get to the top of the standings despite that. I suspect that's the case in a large percentage of leagues.

Yeah 2020 is different. But different doesn't have to be bad, it's just different.

Yes, Soto is amazing. Does him missing the first two weeks hurt my team more this year than it would in a full season ?