Fantasy Baseball 2020 Running Thread

[outofplace]

Time for a new thread for a new season.

I come with a reminder that really early drafts can be fun, but frustrating. My money league is a slow auction. We turn in our keepers in January, then begin the auction Feb. 1. Every few days, a new list of players is released and we bid on them individually on the website. Once a bid has been unchallenged for 24 hours, we get the player.

Sometimes, there is a bid at the last minute. Anything over 23 hours is a little annoying and relatively rare. Recently, the same owner waited until the 23rd hour to top my bid on Alex Verdugo two days in a row. Nobody else was bidding. That was rare and particularly annoying. I put in a winning bid yesterday morning. Yesterday afternoon came the news that he has had a stress fracture in his back since May. The Red Sox apparently knew about it when they traded for him and they claim it isn't serious, but he probably won't be ready for the start of the season.

This coupled with the news that Mike Clevinger is out six-to-eight weeks after surgery for a torn meniscus in his left knee and this is NOT a good weekend for my team.

Anybody else drafting insanely early?

 

[JakeandElwood]

What sites do you play on? I'm looking for one that allows me to put a limit on pitcher starts in a week and customize the draft for keepers (i.e. keep someone in the round they were drafted in. ESPN and Yahoo! can't do both.

 

[Songbird]

H2H unlimited (and same-day) FA is the best format by a mile.

 

[outofplace]

What sites do you play on? I'm looking for one that allows me to put a limit on pitcher starts in a week and customize the draft for keepers (i.e. keep someone in the round they were drafted in. ESPN and Yahoo! can't do both.

I'm pretty sure cbs can do that, but theirs is a paid service.

 

[outofplace]

New Fantasy Baseball League

By the way, looking to hear from who is returning from last year's owners in the Fantasy Baseball Addicts League.

 

[bigpern23]

New Fantasy Baseball League

By the way, looking to hear from who is returning from last year's owners in the Fantasy Baseball Addicts League.

I’m in.

 

[Regan MacNeil]

A to the Rizzo is back.

 

[outofplace]

That's four.

I thought I'd toss a draft date out there just to see if it sticks. Anybody have problems with Sundays? Maybe we could do March 15. I'll come up with more options once everybody is in or if anybody definitely can't make that one.

Whoops. I didn't realize this was the general thread I just started. I'm going to try to keep the discussion of our league on the other thread.

New Fantasy Baseball League

 

[bigpern23]

I completed my first trade today in my dynasty league. Trading is allowed before the draft. I sent Ohtani ($11) and Conforto ($5) to a guy for Strasburg ($30). At that price, I'll get two full seasons of control of Strasburg (salaries rise by 50 percent, so he'll cost $45 in 2021).

Ohtani is P and UTIL eligible, and Conforto had a strong second half, but I like my end of the trade. Got a pretty known quantity who, if healthy, will probably be a top 5 pitcher to go alongside deGrom.

 

[outofplace]

Ohtani is really tough to predict. I'm not sure why he is P eligible in any league after not pitching last season and there is no set date for him to start pitching this season. That said, in daily leagues, he can be a great asset if he can return as a quality pitcher. I really like Conforto at $5, but it's tough to say what works without more context for your league.

 

[bigpern23]

Ohtani is really tough to predict. I'm not sure why he is P eligible in any league after not pitching last season and there is no set date for him to start pitching this season. That said, in daily leagues, he can be a great asset if he can return as a quality pitcher. I really like Conforto at $5, but it's tough to say what works without more context for your league.

I should say, Ohtani will be P eligible after his first start, whenever that may be. The way our league is, if he starts as a pitcher on a particular day, he'll accrue pitching stats, but no hitting stats. Likewise, if he is played as a hitter, he accrues no pitching stats. It certainly increases his value over, say Yahoo, which has an Ohtani (UTIL) and an Ohtani (P) as separate players.

Until he makes a start, he's only a UTIL, but that doesn't really matter since there'd be no benefit to starting him as a pitcher unless he's actually pitching.

Conforto at $5 is a good value in our league, if he plays the way he did in the second half last year. He scored about 3.5 ppg, which is good, not great. Anything above 2.5 ppg is starting level. Anything above 4.0 ppg is stud level. He was pretty awful in the first half in 2019 and 2018, IIRC, so a part of me hopes he has another slow April and maybe I can pick him back up on waivers.

Regardless, I think I got a known stud for two players with upside. Also, pitching depth is much more important in this league than hitting depth. I'm going to have about $65 to fill three positions, so I should be in position to grab another stud starter (probably $50 or so) and then fill in with a couple cheap upside picks.

 

[outofplace]

Given the premium on starting pitching, that makes a little more sense. That's what I meant by context of the league.

 

[bigpern23]

I've been doing a few mock drafts and, interestingly, the first player taken in every single one of them (five, I think) has been Ronald Acuna, Jr., not Mike Trout. First time since 2013 I can think of anyone besides Trout going first.

 

[Guy_Incognito]

I've been doing a few mock drafts and, interestingly, the first player taken in every single one of them (five, I think) has been Ronald Acuna, Jr., not Mike Trout. First time since 2013 I can think of anyone besides Trout going first.

Who would you take? I haven't looked carefully yet.

 

[bigpern23]

Who would you take? I haven't looked carefully yet.

Depends on the league I suppose. If you can keep them, I guess I'd take Acuna simply because of age. I haven't yet looked carefully at the differences between them either. I own Acuna in my keeper league and my dynasty league, so I'll have him for years to come regardless.

I've got the 12th pick in my keeper draft, so I'm looking at hopefully getting maybe a Verlander/Arenado combo. Both fell to me in the mock drafts I've done. They may not be available in my keeper league because guys like Betts and Bellinger, who both went earlier, are going to be among the keepers unavailable in the first round.

 

[Cosmo]

Making keeper decisions here ...
Is there a lot of difference between Wilson Ramos ($18 keeper price) and Omar Narvaez ($6)? At first blush, it doesn't look like Ramos is so much better that he would be worth three times the keeping price, even with the catcher market being crap.

 

[Regan MacNeil]

Narvaez seems like a no-brainer. He hit 22 homers in Seattle. Imagine what he can do at whatever the **** they're calling Miller Park these days.

 

[outofplace]

Ramos has more of a track record. Navaez hadn't even been a full-time starter before last season and I think he's going to regress some. I think Ramos is a very safe bet to hit as long as he is healthy. The same is not true of Navaez.

Given the difference in salary, I'd take the risk with Navaez. I'm not usually a big fan of tying up a lot of value in catchers, especially in single-catcher leagues, so better to keep the price down and put your resources elsewhere.

 

[Cosmo]

My potential keeper price on Doolittle has risen to $20. Ugh. Though there isn't a whole lot out there on the wire and my other two guys Treinin at $18 and one of Tampa's million dudes are unkeepable. May have to hold onto Mr. Doolittle.

 

[outofplace]

My potential keeper price on Doolittle has risen to $20. Ugh. Though there isn't a whole lot out there on the wire and my other two guys Treinin at $18 and one of Tampa's million dudes are unkeepable. May have to hold onto Mr. Doolittle.

How many guys do you keep? Maybe you shouldn't keep any closers.

I've gone that route in keeper leagues quite a few times. Relief pitching is so volatile that you can often find closers during the season.