Fantasy Baseball 2016

I'm not thrilled about my $13 keeper on Rusney Castillo right now. I already dropped him.

 

Yeah, you were on the fence with him to begin with. He's not owned in either of my leagues, and 80 percent of the managers are Red Sox fans.

 

My league allows for more keepers and most of the owners tend to put a high priority on prospects. In fact, I'm known for building older teams. While everybody else chases youth, I build around older veterans and post-hype sleepers.

This year, I chose to change that approach. I entered the draft with three prospects on my wish list and got two of them, Jose Berrios and Trea Turner.

I did grab Suarez last week. His minor-league track record doesn't support this kind of production, but I keep hearing and seeing good things. I would have dropped Peralta for him, but I can certainly understand going with the more proven player.

 

My road is littered with prospects I tried to stash. Kyle Drabek. Jeremy Hellickson. Jesus Montero. Wil Myers. One can't-miss after another.

 

Peralta is the guy I would have dropped, but I figure he's good for 350 points this season in a league where 400 points is elite talent. I'm not sure Suarez will reach that level this season, particularly as a backup to Frazier where I'll play him one, maybe two days a week. I would guess I have a top three team, so I'm trying to balance youth with immediate production.

My problem right now is new salary cap rules have hamstrung me a bit and I'm playing a man short (21 guys on a 22-man roster). Normally, I like to use my No. 22 guy to pick up pitchers for spot starts or to take a flier on the next prospect to hit the bigs. As it is, I need to drop a player who makes $3 or more to acquire someone off waivers, and Peralta is about the only guy making that much who I can see dropping right now. But again, he's solid - if unspectacular - mid-level talent.

 

My keeper league makes it fairly easy to stash prospects because we have 25-man rosters and three DL slots. However, we can only keep five players, so there's a limit to the value of stashing a guy who may not be ready for the bigs this season.

My dynasty league allows you to keep your entire roster and, with 14 teams and 22-man rosters, prospects are premium currency. However, with the new salary rules, it's harder to stash them, since they start at $5 as UFAs and salaries increase $5 each year. If you stash a prospect, he may be costing you $15 before he gets his first big league AB. It used to be $1 for UFAs and salaries rose $1 or 10 percent each season. I'm hoping we reduce the massive inflation. It's really killing the fun of a dynasty league. Everyone is up against the cap, so it's exceptionally difficult to create a trade that works, and if someone goes on the DL, a lot of teams can't even afford to fill the slot (myself included - I've got Zack Wheeler on the DL).

 

I grudgingly cut bait with Ketel Marte yesterday. I have no salary flexibility, so I needed to drop someone making $5 or more to acquire someone (ideally, I would have dropped Heaney and given Marte a chance to find his stroke, but Heaney only makes $1). I kind of just decided that since Starlin Castro is playing well at SS, and there are so many SS prospects available (Crawford, Swanson, Rogers, Arcia are all out there), if I dropped Marte and he starts to hit, I won't be kicking myself too much if someone else snags him.

Unfortunately, I picked up Kendall Graveman and he promptly shit the bed.

In my other league, I dumped Byron Buxton, who was demoted to Triple-A. Picked up Chris Carter in his place.

 

Graveman is a tease. He had a little streak last year, too, but his stuff just isn't very good. I thought about it due to the increased K-rate, but my memories of 2015 kicked in.

Of course, I've got Greinke and he wasn't much better yesterday. It is hard to stay mad at a guy who has helped me win four championships in that league, but he's getting there.

Anybody got Trea Turner in your league? Crawford may be the best of those prospects, but Turner is a good one, too, and I think he is more likely to make an impact this season. The Nats have to wait until June to hold on to him for an extra year due to his call-up in 2015, but he seems to be more than ready right now.

 

Well hello Chris Archer.

 

Yep, Turner is owned in both my leagues. Agree he'll probably make an impact sooner than the others.

I didn't really know much about Graveman prior to this week, but I saw he was getting picked up in a lot of leagues (ownership rate up 37 percent), so I looked into him more. His peripherals looked good and he's young enough I thought he could be ready for a breakout type season. I'll give him a chance to make up for it in his next start, but if he sucks again, I'll jettison him.

 

Speaking of prospects, according to LaVelle Neal's Twitter feed, the Twins are going to call up Jose Berrios to make his major league debut Wednesday. Berrios is one of the top prospects in the game. He is a very talented pitcher with great command. If he is available, he is worth adding even in redraft leagues. Unless he falters, I doubt this is a one-and-done promotion.

 

Gone in both my leagues.