My 2014 title run....

[Mithrandir]

I won my league for the third straight time in 2014. This is a 14 team mixed…5x5…$300 draft day budget. Madducks and Mag7 are in this league with me.

I ended up with 133 (out of 140) points, 68 points in pitching and 65 points in hitting. I won the AVG, Wins Saves and K’s categories. I was second in Runs and RBI’s, Steals, ERA and WHIP. I was third in HR.

OFF SEASON:
I made two off season deals:

1. I got Miggy ($67) for Anibal Sanchez($16), Werth ($15) and Segura ($1). I know Miggy was expensive but since I had an$11 Trout I decided to go for it.
2. I got Chris Davis ($6) for Craig ($6), Rios ($9) and Ubaldo ($1).

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

Trout ($11) – great season despite not stealing bases with regularity
Miggy ($67) – injuries slowed him down, but still a great season
Freeman ($20) – regressed due to a shitty lineup surrounding him
Chris Davis ($6) – a huge disappointment
Bumgarner ($17) – a great season from him
Yordano ($1) – a very good showing for him this season
Cishek ($6) – this dude is good..really good!
Frieri ($6) – trainwreck, but he did get me a bunch of saves
My keepers 2014 seasons ranged from excellent to bad. Overall I think my keepers very much helped my title run.

DRAFT :
I spent a total of $134 on keepers so I had $166 to spend at the draft.
Since I was loaded up on power with my keepers, on offense I decided to go for speed and try and grab some solid veterans to fill in the roster. For my pitching I wanted two tier 2 starters and maybe 1 more closer.

Wilson Ramos ($9) – injured early but was solid when healthy
José Altuve ($24) – MVP!!!
Jhonny Peralta ($7) – mediocre while on my team
Ben Revere ($13) – great season for what I wanted ---average and speed
Torii Hunter ($13) – was solid while on my team
Marlon Byrd ($13) – another good season
Todd Frazier ($3) – I dropped him after two weeks..bad decision
Kelly Johnson ($1) - sucked
Kris Bryant($1) – end game lottery ticket who I dropped right after the draft
Garrett Richards($1) – HUGE season..unfortunate injury
Jameson Taillon ($1) – Tommy John ugh
Zack Greinke ($30) – great season
Jordan Zimmermann ($31) – great season
Bartolo Colón ($1) – I dropped him rather quickly
Kyle Lohse($1) – very good while on my team
Bobby Parnell ($16) – injured on opening day

My draft was really good this year. I got the two tier 2 pitchers I was aiming for and they both had outstanding seasons. I got the speed I wanted although no one could have predicted Altuve’s monster season. Hunter and Byrd were solid OF 3 and 4 for me. Richards looks like the real deal. The only real clunker (other than injuries) was Kelly Johnson.

TRADES
I made 5 trades this season:

1. I traded Lohse and Hunter for Wainwright and Nathan. This was offered to me by the other owner. Wainwright had a dead contract and Nathan was pitching pretty poorly, but I think the other owner could have gotten a better deal elsewhere. Still not sure why he made me this trade offer. Worked out fabulous for me.
2. I traded a $1 Yordano for Cespedes and Papelbon. Worked out well for me although Yordano looks like a great keeper.
3. I traded Chris Davis ($11) and James Jones ($1) for Bautista and Asdrubal. Worked out extremely well for me. The other owner wanted Davis as an $11 keeper for 2015.
4. I traded Garret Richards and Mesoraco for Felix and Rosario. I think I overpaid for the King, but it worked out very well for me. I gave up two great $1 keepers but Richards injury made the trade look even better for this season.
5. I traded Wainwright and Freeman for Kershaw. Wainwright has a dead contract and Freeman is a $20 keeper. The trade actually benefitted both teams.
Trades really improved my team and were a huge factor in winning the league.

IN SEASON MOVES
Each team gets 50 moves in the season. I used 42 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.

The moves that were key factors in my win:
Alcides Escobar (March 28) – a big asset in speed and average
Devin Mesoraco (April 12) – huge boost at catcher
Jenrry Mejia (May 15) – I grabbed him right before he was named the closer
Jake Arrieta (June 13) – MONSTER season… this pickup was so freaking large.
Joe Smith (June 17) – got me a bunch of saves
Carlos Carrasco (Aug 17) – he has been fantastic . HUGE pickup!

Two bad moves that stick out were dropping Todd Frazier and Corey Dickerson. I would love to have both as cheap keepers for 2015.

[Erik]

Sure, all of that had SOMETHING to do with your title, but we know the real reason you won was that your underachieving studs turned it around every time you started a thread in the Pen complaining about them.

[BuckyBuckner]

Sure, all of that had SOMETHING to do with your title, but we know the real reason you won was that your underachieving studs turned it around every time you started a thread in the Pen complaining about them.

No, it was just luck.

[cardboardbox]

No, it was just luck.

this. Mith could have replaced all those words with just one word: luck.

[Mithrandir]

It's luck when someone else wins..it's all mad skilz when I win!!

[madducks]

I got the speed I wanted although no one could have predicted Altuve’s monster season.

My biggest mistake was not keeping Altuve for $6. Instead i put him back in the draft where i didn't think he would go for more than $15.

[chancellor]

I traded Lohse and Hunter for Wainwright and Nathan. This was offered to me by the other owner. Wainwright had a dead contract and Nathan was pitching pretty poorly, but I think the other owner could have gotten a better deal elsewhere. Still not sure why he made me this trade offer. Worked out fabulous for me.

You're a prison rapist at heart, Mith.