Anatomy of my 2012 Title winning season.

[Mithrandir]

Yes you did read that. Despite all of the moaning and whining and complaining I did this season, I won my 12 team 5x5 mixed auction league (Madducks and Mag Seven are in this league). It is my 4th title since 1998.

This win definitely proves that luck is a major factor in winning a fantasy baseball title.

I ended up with 99 points, 51 points in pitching and 48 points in hitting. I won the ERA, WHIP, Wins and Stolen Base categories. I was second in Runs and K’s.

KEEPERS

Each owner keeps up to 8 players. My keepers were:

Tulo ($42) – no need to expound on this bum
Ellsbury ($27) – wasted season
CarGo ($11) – great 4 months, then crap
Konerko ($8) – great 2.5 months, then a hand problem contributed to 3.5 mediocre months.
Dee Gordon ($1) – 30 steals which did help me win that category. Nothing else.
Weaver ($19) – outstanding season
Luebke ($1) – great start until Tommy John came calling
Axford ($6) - horrible season while on my team

As you can see, my keepers as a whole were pretty underwhelming this season. Only one of my keepers had an above-average season stat wise.

DRAFT

Matt Wieters – was about average while on my team.
Michael Cuddyer – solid until injured
Michael Young – got old this year. Pretty weak
Freddie Freeman – very good season
Corey Hart – very good season
Coco Crisp – up and down season. As usual had a nice number of steals
Lucas Duda - BUST
Vernon Wells – what the hell was I thinking?
Allen Craig – outstanding season
Scott Baker - BUST
Gavin Floyd – not that good while on my team
Félix Hernández - great up until September swoon
Jordan Zimmermann – outstanding season
Brandon McCarthy – ok while on my team
Rex Brothers – bad pick
Vinnie Pestano - bad pick as he didn’t really contribute stats
Grant Balfour – started off very good. Dropped him when he lost the closer role. Didn’t pick him back up when he regained the closer role.

So out of my draft I got 5 players that had a very good to outstanding season. So far with my keepers and draft this doesn’t look like a team that will win the title, does it?

TRADES

I made 5 trades this season.

1. Gavin Floyd for David Freese. Worked out well for me as Freese put up solid numbers while on my team and he was part of a future trade that really helped me.

2. Cody Ross for Francisco Cordero. I must have been delusional for a moment. I had Cordero for one game and he had a 135.00 ERA and a 15.00 WHIP

3. Freese, Brandon McCarthy and Jarrod Parker for Cole Hamels. A key part to winning the title.

4. Wieters for Yadier Molina. Wieters did have a solid season, but Molina helped me more than Wieters would have.

5. Reddick for Janssen. I traded Reddick while he was red hot. Janssen was very good for my team, but my lowest category finish was Saves.

The trades did provide some solid help for my title run. But it still doesn’t look like a championship team, does it?

IN SEASON MOVES

Each team gets 50 moves in the season. I used all 50 so I will not list every move I made. I made some really poor choices among those 50 pickups, but I also made some GREAT pickups, and this is where I got the greatest help for my championship.

The moves that were key factors in my win:

Mike Trout – Trout was kept by another owner, but then dropped when he was sent to the minors. I picked him up on April 20th. Would not have won without this move. Period.
James McDonald – He pitched really good while on my team.
Ernesto Frieri – he was outstanding this season.
Wilin Rosario – a beast of a hitter. Huge asset to my team.
Hiroki Kuroda – Another owner dropped him and I scooped him up. Very solid season for my team.
Ryan Ludwick – I only had him for about 160 AB, but he was really solid for my team in those AB’s.
Kris Medlen – A HUGE reason for my title. Dude was tremendous!
Ichiro – I picked him up for the last two and a half weeks and he was really good in that time frame.

So out of the 4 ways to get players on your roster throughout the season, my “In Season moves” was the biggest factor in my winning. “Keepers” provided some solid stats, but nowhere near what I was expecting from that group of keepers. My “Draft” was hit and miss with some great choices and some really bad choices and some in-between. My “Trades” other than getting Hamels weren’t all that beneficial to me.

I still think one team was definitely better than mine on paper throughout the season, and another team seemed to have a better roster for most of the season, but yet I won.

Thanks guys..for all of the info and banter this season!!!

[virgonomic]

Congrats. I would not have won my AFA league without Trout, either. Also had Medlen. I had Frieri but dropped him and rode Soriano and Street to a 20-save cushion.

[madducks]

You had a competitive team from the start. The addition of Trout put your hitting over the top. Then Medlin really solidified your place atop the pitching categories in August & September. Perfect timing on the Ludwick and Ichiro adds too. If you only had another closer or two it wouldn't have even been close and you would have run away with the title. Nice job!

[chancellor]

Well done. I hope you at least buy a six pack for the guy who cut Trout so he can drown his sorrows in the offseason. And the next season. And the season after that...

[swampdragon]

I wonder how many mixed team winners did NOT have TROUT on their roster. He was so huge especially compared to where he was picked up/ kept/ paid etc.

[overkill94]

Trout was a big reason I ran away with my 10-team AL-only league, especially since he was a $5 keeper. Not long after he got called up I got a pretty intriguing trade offer of a $16 Adam Jones and some other useful part (can't remember who) for Trout. Jones was tearing the cover off the ball and at a keepable price himself, but when I countered that I wanted JJ Hardy thrown in (really needed a SS) I was rebuffed. Phew!

[dannahann]

I play in 3 leagues, all are 12T mixed roto keeper leagues. Trout was kept in all three leagues but wasn't on the winner in any of them. Best showing was 3rd place, his owner kept him for $7, he finished middle of the road in every hitting cat except SB which he won. Trout was kept in lieu of a 20th round pick by an owner finishing 5th, he too won SB and also finished top 1/3 in R and BA, the rest MOR. The worst finish was 7th by an owner who kept Trout as one of his 2 alloted free rookies. His hitting was MOR too, he didn't win a category, best cats were 9 in OPS and 8 in SB. None of these teams traded Trout in season.

[Erik]

I wonder how many mixed team winners did NOT have TROUT on their roster. He was so huge especially compared to where he was picked up/ kept/ paid etc.

I had one that did and one that did not.

[Don Quixote]

Congratulations on the win, Mith. You made some great in-season moves (although we'd like to hear about some of the bad moves, so we know we have company in that department), and neither your draft nor trades really hurt you.

[Mithrandir]

Congratulations on the win, Mith. You made some great in-season moves (although we'd like to hear about some of the bad moves, so we know we have company in that department), and neither your draft nor trades really hurt you.

Bad moves:

Many of my bad moves involved chasing saves. I picked up Thornton, Santiago, Thayer, Henderson and Fuentes and all had huge ERA's and Whip's on my team, and no saves. I dropped and picked up Axford twice. The last time i dropped him another team picked him up and then he decided to pitch pretty good. In August i picked up Henderson instead of Balfour and that cost me 10 or so saves. I had Gregerson for about two weeks with zero saves so i dropped him. The next day he goes on a run where he gets about 10 saves in three weeks.

On the hitting side I held on to Michael Young way too long when it was obvious he was over the hill. I don't really remember any other moves that stick in my craw on offense.

Worst decision by far was being offered Kimbrel ($15 keeper in 2013) for James McDonald and not taking the deal right away. McDonald got hit hard in Colorado and went i went to accept the offer the other owner had pulled it.

[DMT]

I wonder how many mixed team winners did NOT have TROUT on their roster. He was so huge especially compared to where he was picked up/ kept/ paid etc.

The Trout owners finished 4th in both my mixed leagues (12-team and 18-team).

[DJBeasties]

I wonder how many mixed team winners did NOT have TROUT on their roster. He was so huge especially compared to where he was picked up/ kept/ paid etc.

I won without Trout. the guy in 2nd had him though.

[rhd]

I won my mixed league in a landslide w/o Trout. Guy that had him finished 6th (last money place).

In 1 AL league, guy w Trout finished 3rd (in the money) and in the other he finished 2nd. So no winner had him, but still they did pretty well.