Fantasy Baseball 2020 Running Thread

So you can still make a change, but you had put in that you were going to keep Paddack?

I agree that Giolito and Paddack are comparable. The innings should be fairly even this time around, though both had their seasons end early in 2019, Paddack by the Padres being cautious and Giolito by a back lat strain.

I would lean slightly to Giolito because the strikeout numbers are likely to continue to be better than Paddack's, but neither would be a mistake. In a keeper, I think both are much better options than Corbin.

 

Yeah, keeper selections lock at midnight. I should probably check average draft position to see which is the better value as a keeper.

 

Ha, ADPs are 52 and 53. Total coin flip.

 

Did you go with Paddack?

I got a trade offer today in my money league. This is a keeper league in which veteran player salaries go up $5 each year. We also keep five minor league players each year and have those spots during the season. I'm not taking the offer in its current form, but I'm trying to figure out if I can pull something from it.

I receive: Gleyber Torres ($14) and prospect Trevor Larnach ($3) for Gerrit Cole ($33) and Spencer Howard ($1). Torres is already a hell of a player and he still has upside, but Cole is easily the better player right now. The real value there is that Torres has a much lower salary. I'm not much of a fan of Larnach, a good young hitter who is weak enough defensively that he could end up a DH. He certainly isn't close to the value of Howard, who is an elite prospect who could end up in the Phiillies' rotation at some point this season.

My question to the board is would y'all take Torres for Cole straight up given the salary difference? Is it really worth trying to juggle the rest of the deal?

 

Depends on the value of pitching. I wouldn’t do it in my dynasty league, where a dominant pitcher is extremely valuable. Really, I’d probably need another major league player or at least a top 10 Triple-A prospect to go with Gleyber to even consider it. Cole is so damn good right now.

I did ask my commish to keep Paddack. It may have been too late. I haven’t checked.

 

Not terrible if you got Giolito instead.

All things being equal, I wouldn’t give up Cole straight up for Torres, either, but he is $19 cheaper. My money league is fairly balanced in terms of the value of players. Stud pitchers have more impact because there are fewer of them in the lineup, but stud hitters tend to be safer bets to stay healthy.

 

So much for that. I countered with just Cole for Torres, but got no response and he traded Torres for deGrom ($36) and Chris Taylor ($4).

The altered league rules for 2020 helped get that one done. One detail I left out earlier because it didn't affect the players involved is you can't keep any player more than six seasons in that league without them going back into the free agent pool. Even if the player is traded, the clock doesn't restart. This would have been deGrom's sixth season, but this year isn't going to count against any player's clock, so deGrom can be kept for 2021.

I still think I made the right call not giving up Howard along with Cole in that deal, but I'm regretting not finding a way to get Torres.

 

Kluber is done for maybe the entire season and, at the very least for the entirety of the fantasy regular season. He's been dropped in my dynasty league and is available for $1, a price tag which will carry over to 2021 because of COVID.

So, I ask the group, is it worth rostering Kluber for the rest of this season (at the expense of probably a player or two who will land on the IL) to keep him for $1 next season? He was a dominant fantasy pitcher for five straight seasons before last year's injury. But, at age 35 next year, will he even be worth a draft slot? In most years, I'd be happy to stash him on the IL in hopes of a return next season, but given how many injuries/COVID cases are popping up, that slot is super valuable THIS season. I'm torn.

 

Why not just grab him for now and dump him if something better comes along later?

 

We use small rosters and have only two IL slots this season (usually we only do one IL slot), so every slot is valuable. For instance, right now, I have Alvarez, Albies, Kela, Puk and (until today) Strasburg all injured. I really like the rest of my roster, with the exception of probably Wil Meyers (who has been a very good streaming pickup) and Bryan Reynolds (who has been someone I took a flier on to get better).

If I were going to drop anybody for Kluber, it would be someone from the group listed above. Puk seems like the least likely to contribute to the team this season. At $3 this and next, he's expendable, but worth some upside consideration. Myers and Reynolds can contribute this season, which Kluber can not. But Kluber for $1 next season could be a pretty good bargain in a league that values starting pitching.

 

I see. I thought you already had that part figured out. I guess you have to decide which you like better for next year, $1 Kluber or $3 Puk. I honestly don't have a strong opinion on that one.

 

As I mentioned on our league thread, I'm very annoyed because my commissioner banned trading for the entire regular season in my money league. He announced it in July, but the way he wrote it up was so convoluted that at least four owners didn't realize what he was doing. He also refuses to give his reasoning.

That said, one thing he did right was make the IL unlimited for just this season. The only stipulation was that teams could not pick up players who were currently on the MLB IL. That cut down on picking guys up just to stash them.

My IL was up to 10 players until Hunter Dozier returned. That now includes three guys who are out for the year. I don't think I will keep any of them, but at least I don't have to make that call yet. My team has been absolutely devastated, including two of the situations that are unique so far. One was Eduardo Rodriguez, who is out for the season due to the heart issue he developed as a complication from COVID. Now there is Marcus Stroman, who hadn't pitched yet due to a calf injury, but he was able to accrue enough service time to become a free agent without throwing a pitch in a major league game this season, so he chose to opt out today.

Of course, it isn't all COVID related. I kept Trey Mancini because I had him at a bargain price. Of course, my first thought is that I hope Rodriguez and Mancini come through their health issues okay. My second is that players should be paying me to keep them off my roster.