Fantasy Baseball 2015

I thought of that after I posed, that you have a viable option behind him. Certainly worth dangling all three trade options to see what might develop.

 

Debating about picking up the Mets' Michael Conforto, but having trouble figuring out who (if anyone) I should drop to do it. At this point, I basically can't drop any of my main starting players, so I have to choose between my backup guys and a few prospects. Roster looks like this:

C: McCann
1B: Pujols
2B: Devon Travis
3B: Arenado
SS: Hanley
OF: McCutchen
OF: Ellsbury
OF: Cruz
DH: A. Gonzalez

BN: Teixeira
BN: Panik
BN: Kole Calhoun
BN: Addison Russell
BN: Maikel Franco
BN: Aaron Judge

SP: Burnett
SP: Felix
SP: Bumgarner
SP: Liriano
SP: McCullers
SP: Pineda
SP: Hammel
RP: Jansen
RP: G. Holland
SP: Luis Severino

Given that most of my starters are drafted too high to consider as keepers, I'm trying to bolster my prospects. I love Judge, Severino and Franco. I'm pretty sour on Addison Russell, given his struggles so far, but his projections make him tough to give up on at age 21.

Calhoun is a candidate to be dropped, but he's a very good backup outfielder. Travis has been as good a 2B as there is when healthy, so Panik might be expendable, but he's pretty damn good. Tex is unnecessary on my roster, but he's the 49th-ranked player and 7th-ranked 1B in Yahoo!. I can't really consider dropping him.

Feels like it's between Calhoun, Russell and Panik. Calhoun has the smallest upside, but can probably contribute the most right now. Russell has the biggest upside, but is the worst player on my roster right now. Panik is expendable, but could help someone else if I drop him.

 

Got offered Cano for Panik today. Cano's been coming around lately, but let's face it, he just hasn't been the same hitter at Safeco that he was in the Bronx. The upshot is that, if he regains his power stroke, he has the ability to be the best hitting 2B in the second half.

I likely would not keep both Travis and Panik next year, so one of them is expendable. I'm tempted by Cano's upside in the second half, but Panik's been really good. Not sure I can make that trade straight up.

 

Eh, I rejected it. Panik is a 24-year-old 2B, ranked just outside the top 5 at his position, and he's looking like a solid 25th round keeper for next year. His BABIP is extraordinarily high, so maybe he's due to regress, but I couldn't make that swap on principle alone.

 

I have a team with too many OF and could benefit turning one into a 1b, at least until Cabrera gets back. After some back and forth, I've been offered Adrian Gonzalez and sonny Gray for Carlos Gomez and cueto. What do you think?

 

Would be more certain if I saw the rest of your team, but that seems like a good move, assuming you will be able to keep both Cabrera and Gonzalez in your lineup when Cabrera returns.

 

12 team, 10 keepers.

c-Gomes
1b-Moreland
2b-Cano
3b-Carpenter
SS-Zobrist
OF-McCutchen
OF-Gomez
OF-J. Upton
UTIL-Grichuk
Bench: Tomas, Soler, Aybar, Iglesias, Maybin, R. Castillo, Rios, P. Tucker
P- Price, Cueto, Hamels, G. Gonzalez, Bauer, McCullers, Beuhrle,
Rosenthal, Familia, Ziegler, Motte, Mujica
DL-Cabrera, Bucholz, Lowrie, Morneau, J. Garcia

 

It's not like first base is killing you. Moreland is having a good season. But I still like the deal.

 

Is it time for me to drop Hanley Ramirez? He's been awful for more than a month and, with my two 2Bs on the DL (Panik and Travis), I'm locked with Zobrist at 2B and Hanley at SS. I could pick up a Eugenio Suarez (young guy, decent upside) or Alcides Escobar to slot in at SS.

My fear is that Hanley straightens things out and ends up killing me in the playoffs. Two weeks left of regular season followed by (hopefully) three of playoffs. He could figure it out in time to be useful. He might continue to suck donkey balls.

 

Oh, and I'm very happy I picked up Verlander today.

 

Crushing loss last night in the first round of the playoffs. Despite having scored the fourth-most points in my league, I was slotted eighth because of head-to-head tiebreakers (five of us finished at 10-9). Facing the highest-scoring team in the league, I trailed by 70 points on Wednesday. I rallied Friday and Saturday, and by the time the first pitch was thrown by Arrieta last night, I led by 50. A really good start by a pitcher usually tallies around 25 points. A complete game can get you about 45. I felt totally confident.

Until I flipped the game on in the eighth inning, that is. The no-hitter gave my opponent 60 points and I lost. Highest point total for any player all season and it came in the last game on a Sunday night in the playoffs to screw me over. Son of a bitch.

I immediately picked up Houston's Mark Appel before rosters were locked so I can keep him for next season. On to 2016 ...

 

Ouch. That's a brutal way to finish.

My league's regular season ended last night. One of the owners had offered me John Lackey for Adam Wainwright, figuring I'd use Lackey for the playoffs and he'd keep Wainwright because he was going to miss the playoffs. Then he realized he still had a shot and pulled the offer in the afternoon and actually pulled slightly ahead for the final playoff spot. He ended up missing the final spot by half a point. (I was going to turn the deal down, anyway, but still a terrible way to miss out.)

My league is an odd set-up, with the first-place team getting a bye into a two-week championship series. Second through fifth place play over the next two weeks to get the other championship game spot. Despite two awful weeks, my team hung on to the bye, but I'm going to get wiped out in the finals if my bats don't wake up.