Running All-Purpose Fantasy Baseball 2022 Thread

They will all be veterans for 2023, so it is more about maximizing my chances at keepers. All three arms I'm giving up have the chance to be a cheap, impact keeper. Manaea might be better now, but I don't have much faith in him as a keeper. The key is O'Neill. If the guy from late 2021 shows up, he's an impact keeper. If not, that trade is a killer for me.

 

Haven’t posted here in a while, but pulled off a blockbuster trade today that I’m pretty happy with.

Sent Acuna ($54), Willson Contreras ($3) and Clevinger ($3) to another team for Scherzer ($68) and LeMahieu ($4). LeMahieu (3.12 ppg) takes over for Muncy (2.2 ppg) at 3B and Max is obviously a big acquisition for my SP staff.

Meanwhile, I’m rolling with Rutschman at C and I still have Soto, Stanton, Alvarez and Eloy Jimenez manning my three OF slots. Hated to deal Acuna, but he’s been an extra piece in my lineup, not a stud, and I won’t be keeping him next year.

 

It's tough to trade Acuna, but it looks like you did well for yourself. Sometimes you have to do what fits for your team even if the values may not seem to match up.

I'm thoroughly frustrated with my attempts to make trades. I raised the white flag a while ago in both of my Yahoo leagues only to see both teams rally into contention. There were a bunch of offers in one league, but none of them worked. Now I'm in the last playoff spot, so I'm going to try to hang in there.

I did make a couple of trades in my money league. Unfortunately, one of them was for Kris Bryant. Ugh.

 

I’ve run into the same problem this year, for some reason. I’ve only gotten two trades through, even though I have four leagues going.

 

I've got three leagues. One is our league, where trades are very rare. There was just one this season and I think there was only one last season, too.

My other two leagues are much more active. It's not like there haven't been offers made both ways. We just haven't been able to make something fit. Maybe I'm just too stubborn.

 

I hate when things are decided the final few days of the season. Too many of the top players will be resting, especially starting pitchers on playoff teams.

I'm in second place in one league with a 4.5-point lead on third. I could still finish as low as fourth, and it doesn't help that most of my starting pitchers are done.

 

Thus ends the fantasy baseball season. On to keeper decisions!

How did everybody do? I finished fifth in two Yahoo leagues, including the one I run here. I was surprised I even made the playoffs in that one with such a disastrous draft.

I held on to second place in the money league I mentioned above. It's certainly not the goal, but I'll take it.

 

Finished 11th out of 12 in our CBS keeper league but ended up with a 22-37 record after starting 0-18, so there's some hope. Made some in-season trades to unload some guys whose keeper clock were going to expire anyway (like Shane Bieber) and picked up some decent young talent with guys like Framber Valdez, Nick Lodolo and Matt Manning. Also, we have a loser's bracket for non-playoff teams and I won that to get the first pick in each round of next year's minor-league draft.

Huge what-if: Could have traded Shane Baz earlier this season but I didn't want to do it until I saw him pitch. Oof. Of course, he's out until 2024 due to Tommy John, so that stinks. I can only keep him for two more years, so I have to decide whether or not to waste an IL spot on his for the entirety of the 2023 season in hopes he has one good season for me in '24. Probably leaning toward dropping him. The only other two guys whose keeper clocks are up after next year are Marcus Semien (who I got three years ago at $1!), Lucas Giolito and Pablo Lopez. Giolito was a real disappointment this year but I can keep him for $20 and that's not too bad to see if he has a bounceback year.

 

I don't think I've ever had a season without at least one of those decisions I wish I could have back. That's part of the game.

The tough thing with Tommy John guys is you know they will take a while to come all the way back. Dustin May returned this season and he had his velocity, but his command failed him as often as not. Based on the numbers, he probably isn't worth me keeping him, but those command issues are normal for a guy coming back from TJ surgery, so maybe he'll be all the way back in 2023.

 

Tis the season for offseason trades. Seriously, I've fielded three offers in my money league already, but our keeper deadline is very early.

Of course, all of the offers were terrible. I'm thinking of making a ridiculous counter just to make a point.

For example, today I was offered Gerrit Cole ($43) and Anthony Santander ($6) for Yordan Alvarez ($16). Never mind that my trading block is full of pitchers and I asked for hitters in return, Cole's high salary alone makes that an easy no. Also, this is an OBP league, which hurts Santander's already limited value. I would be cutting at least two hitters I like better than him to make room. Oh, and he's trading two guys I'm certain he plans to cut for one of the top 10 hitters in the game with a reasonable salary. WTF?

 

My money league's keeper deadline is Jan. 2. (In the context of the league, it makes sense.) We can protect eight veterans and seven minor-leaguers. A minor-leaguer is any hitter with fewer than 130 at-bats and any pitcher with fewer than 50 innings pitched.

I think I can trade Brett Baty, who is minor-league eligible, for Riley Greene and minor-leaguer Nick Gonzalez. Greene would then take my final veteran spot. My current options are Willy Adames ($19) or Anthony Rizzo ($15). Adames is too expensive given the lousy OBP that comes with the power and I worry about Rizzo staying healthy. Also, we have five outfield spots, so I'd rather keep another guy there than a first baseman or shortstop. This move saves me some money and gives me some nice upside with Greeene.

In short, my options are as follows:

Riley Greene ($6) and minor-leaguer Nick Gonzalez ($1)

or

Anthony Rizzo ($15) and minor-leaguer Brett Baty ($3)

Thoughts?

 

So, my keeper list on one league is due tonight. I tried to make a last-minute trade for Cristian Javier. The guy turned it down, which is fine. The odd part is that he turned in a list with only six veteran keepers (we are allowed to keep eight), and left Javier off it. Javier's salary is only $6. So he refused to trade the guy but didn't keep him even though he is extremely cheap.

I think maybe he made a mistake, which leads to my question. Do I tell him? Technically, we are competing. And he turned the offer down right before sending in his list, so it seems really odd he would forget the guy.

This is a really strong league, but a couple of the owners really have their heads up their asses sometimes.

By the way, that trade idea went nowhere. I ended up keeping Ty France ($12) instead of Rizzo ($15) for that last spot. I just don't like the trend with the 33-year-old, even though the end of the shift will probably help him.