Fantasy Baseball 2016

Auction league, or draft? If auction, what values do each player have, if draft, what round?

I think you'd probably get better production for this season out of Zobrist over Polanco, so I'd probably try to weigh whether you can reacquire one of them after you let them go and figure out who gives you the most value. Zobrist is a top-30 hitter, but his average draft position on Yahoo! is the 16th round, so you could probably just let him go and redraft him. Polanco's ADP is the 10th round, so assuming you're keeping him at a lower round than that, you're getting some good value for him.

 

Keeper auction league ... I wasn't going to hold onto any of my catchers until realizing just how weak the pool is. I have Travis D'Arnaud at $10 keeper price. Not sure I'm going to be able to get what I'd get from him for less than $8 or $9 if I let him go, so I guess I'll hold on.

 

If healthy (famous last words), D'Arnaud will be very good for you at $10.

 

Draft, but we don't slot the keepers into rounds, just draft straight.

 

Gotcha.

 

Another keeper question: Have the rights to Freddie Freeman ($29) and Joey Votto ($26) for this season and next if I want. Too much money to keep both. I'm leaning Votto. Better lineup around him and he tends to skew healthier than Freeman. Right choice?

 

Votto is the better player and he is cheaper. Definitely the right call.

 

One thing I struggle with every damn year when it comes to ranking players is whether to consider injury risk or not. I am working off of BP's projections, but should I just go with the PECOTA conclusion, which incorporates playing time based on injury history, or should I just try to convert everyone to 500 or 600 PAs?

 

I typically shy away from relying on players who have a history of injuries, but I try to capitalize on guys who are injury prone with upside, if that makes sense.

In other words, I try not to use a first-round pick on the type of guy who has played 120 games the last three seasons, but I'm happy to spend a 15th-rounder on a guy like that, figuring if he stays healthy, he can be a big boost. A good example is Mark Teixeira, who I got in Round 22 last year.

Either way, I think you have to at least consider it.

 

I don't have a problem expecting someone like Teixeira to get hurt. An aging veteran. But what about a guy like Giancarlo Stanton?

 

Tougher call. Depends who else is available, I suppose. Seems like a good tiebreaker ... If you have the option of someone who can produce similar numbers and doesn't get hurt as often, go with the other guy. Tough to say without more context.

 

First draft of the season last night. Wound up with the following squad (keepers in bold):
C Lucroy
1B J. Abreu
2B Zobrist
SS A. Reed
3B Franco
OF Cespedes
OF C Gomez
OF Conforto
DH Buxton
BN A. Rodriguez
BN Granderson
BN Walker
BN Grandal
BN Markakis

SP Sale
SP Liriano
SP Severino
SP McCullers
SP Heaney
SP Urias
SP J. Garcia
RP D. Robertson
RP A. Chapman
RP Ziegler
RP W. Smith

Only pick I hated was Lucroy. He's good, but it was a panic pick when two guys I was targeting got taken in the two spots before I picked. I took him earlier than I would have liked to take a catcher. Missed out on Matz and Lucas Giolito, two guys I really wanted who went about 5 rounds earlier than I expected. Overall, I like the squad, though. I'm probably going to drop Markakis and pick up Yankees OF prospect Aaron Judge off waivers.