Fantasy baseball 2017

I guess that idea flopped. As the NIAFL membership is still afraid of me, I guess that means I'll stick with two leagues for this year.

Draft day tomorrow!

 

Finished my third draft last night. Joined an existing 10-team keeper league in which I had the second overall pick. There were four new teams, so during the first three rounds, we were selecting from the player pool, while the six existing teams were assigned their keepers. Then in Round 4, the player pool opened up to all 10 teams. Here's how I ended up:

1. (8) Manny Machado (Bal - 3B,SS)
2. (13) Robinson Canó (Sea - 2B)
3. (28) Yu Darvish (Tex - SP)
4. (33) Jon Lester (ChC - SP)
5. (48) Kyle Schwarber (ChC - C,OF)
6. (53) Gary Sánchez (NYY - C)
7. (68) Todd Frazier (CWS - 1B,3B)
8. (73) José Bautista (Tor - OF)
9. (88) Alex Bregman (Hou - 3B)
10. (93) Seung Hwan Oh (StL - RP)
11. (108) Carlos Santana (Cle - 1B)
12. (113) Danny Salazar (Cle - SP)
13. (128) David Dahl (Col - OF)
14. (133) Matt Harvey (NYM - SP)
15. (148) Lance McCullers Jr. (Hou - SP)
16. (153) Odúbel Herrera (Phi - OF)
17. (168) Dellin Betances (NYY - RP)
18. (173) Julio Urías (LAD - SP)
19. (188) Shawn Kelley (Was - RP)
20. (193) Dansby Swanson (Atl - SS)
21. (208) Greg Bird (NYY - 1B)
22. (213) Addison Reed (NYM - RP)

I'm a little light on closers, which could hurt me since this league doesn't count holds, but other than that, I'm pretty satisfied. I took Schwarber and Sanchez in consecutive rounds as a bit of a calculated risk. I figured Schwarber is eligible in the OF, so I can play both and get some great production. There's also a significant dropoff at C from Posey/Schwarber/Sanchez/Lucroy to everyone else. I figure someone is going to be desperate for some catching at some point, so I may be able to flip one of them for an upgrade somewhere else if I need it.

 

My keeper league draft was this afternoon. I know it is tough to tell without seeing other teams, but here is my roster. I was happy adding Paxton, Manaea and Estrada to my starting pitching and my bullpen should be decent. I went mostly with older veterans on offense, though I did get Haniger and Bell.

C Russell Martin
1B Matt Carpenter
3B Nolan Arenado
CI Jake Lamb
2B Jason Kipnis
SS Jonathan Villar
MI Trea Turner
OF Starling Marte
OF A.J. Pollock
OF Odubel Herrera
OF Jay Bruce
UT Dexter Fowler
UT Mike Napoli
SP Jon Lester
SP Danny Duffy
SP Zack Greinke
SP Felix Hernandez
SP Aaron Nola
SP James Paxton
SP Sean Manaea
RP Seung Hwan Oh
RP Edwin Diaz
RP Alex Calome
RP Addison Reed
RP Hector Neris
B Marco Estrada
B Mitch Haniger
B Ivan Nova
B Drew Pomeranz
B Josh Bell

 

Possibly won't last, but for now Treinen is the Nats closer.

 

Closers can be such a crap shoot, anyway. That was one area I regret from my draft. I took three closers fairly early. Of course, Oh was one of them and he blew up last night. He and Melancon were in just about everybody's top 10 closers and both failed opening day.

 

Yeah, most of the closers were pretty much gone at that point, including Treinan. Needed another reliever, so I picked up Kelley figuring he can help me in other categories (he struck out 80 batters in 58 IP last year) and may end up closing at some point.

 

What are your thoughts on this trade someone offered me ...

He offered ...

Jeanmar Gomez RP | PHI
Eduardo Nunez 3B | SF

For ...

Brandon Drury LF | ARI
Kyle Hendricks SP | CHC

 

How badly do you need steals? Would you be willing to give up Drury and Hendricks for Nunez? I ask because Gomez is already on shaky ground as the Phillies' closer, so you might not get any value out of him at all.

Nunez would give you a huge boost in steals. Maybe that alone is worth it to you. Aside from the steals, I think Drury is a slightly better offensive player as long as he holds on to the second base job. I doubt Hendricks will match his 2016, but he is still a hell of a lot more valuable than Gomez.

In a vacuum, I'd pass, but it is hard to say for sure without knowing your team's needs.

 

I made the trade but kept Drury, who I like, and gave up Forsythe. I love Hendricks, but Nunez gives me lots of SBs and enough power and RBIs and runs.

 

NL-only with 2 AL hitters and 1 AL pitcher allowed

C -- Wieters
C -- Yadier
1B -- Bell
2B -- Gordon
3B -- Donaldson
SS -- Story
MI -- Galvis
CI -- Suarez
OF -- Margot
OF -- Saunders
OF -- Tomas
OF -- Drury
OF -- Renfroe
OF -- Duvall
U -- Betts

Reserve -- Forsythe

P -- Arrieta, Hendricks, Anderson, Archer, Velasquez, Maurer, Kuhl, Finnegan, McCarthy, Rondon, Blach

So Nunez slots in nicely and I get a closer (for the time being).

 

I like it better giving up Forsythe. I do see the value of Nunez, but I wouldn't touch Gomez right now. To each his own.

 

I wanted Nunez on draft day. I give up a good pitcher to get him now but I'll always go for the guy who's getting stats 6/7 days a week compared to one pitcher who goes once.