Fantasy Baseball 2025 Running Thread

[outofplace]

As I mentioned in the Addicts League thread, I'm ready to move on to fantasy baseball season. I have to. I've got one league with keepers due Jan. 15 and a slow action starting in less than a month.

I'm still trying to figure out my keeper list. We can keep eight veterans who will be part of our 30-man starting lineups. This is a 13-team roto-style league with a $300 salary cap. These are my veteran options, with the locks in bold.

Yordan Alvarez $26
Austin Riley $25
Jackson Holliday $4
Cole Ragans $17
Tanner Bibee $11
Jared Jones $4
Cal Raleigh $20
Teoscar Hernandez $10
Pete Crow-Armstrong $4
Anthony Santander $18
Seth Lugo $11

It's a two-catcher league, so I'm tempted to keep Raleigh despite the price tag and the low on-base percentage. (We use OBP, not batting average.) That would be one of my three remaining undecided spots.

Thoughts?

 

[FileNotFound]

I'd keep PCA for $4.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

As I mentioned in the Addicts League thread, I'm ready to move on to fantasy baseball season. I have to. I've got one league with keepers due Jan. 15 and a slow action starting in less than a month.

I'm still trying to figure out my keeper list. We can keep eight veterans who will be part of our 30-man starting lineups. This is a 13-team roto-style league with a $300 salary cap. These are my veteran options, with the locks in bold.

Yordan Alvarez $26
Austin Riley $25
Jackson Holliday $4
Cole Ragans $17
Tanner Bibee $11
Jared Jones $4
Cal Raleigh $20
Teoscar Hernandez $10
Pete Crow-Armstrong $4
Anthony Santander $18
Seth Lugo $11

It's a two-catcher league, so I'm tempted to keep Raleigh despite the price tag and the low on-base percentage. (We use OBP, not batting average.) That would be one of my three remaining undecided spots.

Thoughts?

Do you have to keep eight? Can you keep less?

With the caveat that I've never been in a salary cap league and have little clue about it, you already have $83 locked into five guys. If you don't need to keep eight, I'd think keeping a combination of PCA and either Teoscar or Lugo could work. Then you're at $97/$98, and have $200+ for the other 23 spots on your roster.

 

[Guy_Incognito]

You would know better, but Jones for $4 looks good to me. How good is he?

 

[outofplace]

Do you have to keep eight? Can you keep less?

With the caveat that I've never been in a salary cap league and have little clue about it, you already have $83 locked into five guys. If you don't need to keep eight, I'd think keeping a combination of PCA and either Teoscar or Lugo could work. Then you're at $97/$98, and have $200+ for the other 23 spots on your roster.

I don't have to keep eight, but I like my options enough that I am going to keep that many. Lugo is interesting. The guy was fantastic last year, but he's 35 and coming off a mashive increase in innings pitched. The red flags are probably too much for me.

Thanks for the feedback. Crow-Armstrong is an interesting one, too. It was odd that he ran like crazy until he started hitting, then the stolen bases slowed way down. I'm not sure if he's going to hit enough, but the second half was encouraging.

 

[outofplace]

You would know better, but Jones for $4 looks good to me. How good is he?

Oddly enough, my knowledge of Jones has nothing to do with him playing in Pittsburgh. I do a lot of researching of minor leaguers for that league because we keep six of them. I kept reading about his dynamic stuff and that he might force his way on to the team in 2024. I didn't expect him to actually open the season in the majors, but I did grab him in a couple of leagues. I've read some Spencer Strider comparisons, mostly because he has two elite pitches and his other offerings aren't great. Guys like that are at great risk of blowing out an elbow, but at $4, he might be too cheap to resist.

 

[outofplace]

I posted about this in the Addicts League thread, too. I'm helping the commissioner in my money league recruit to fill a couple of openings in my money league. I will say up front that it is a significant time commitment, but I really enjoy the format. It's a slow auction keeper. (I'll explain how that works if anybody is interested.) The commissioner is looking for referrals for new owners, so it has to be someone I've been in a league with before. PM me if you're interested.

bigpern's post reminded me. $50 buy-in for this league.

 

[bigpern23]

Not to compete with OOP for players, but I am looking to add two teams my dynasty auction league. We will hold an expansion draft before the main auction draft to accommodate the increase from 10 teams to 12.

$100 buy-in, message me for details.

 

[outofplace]

Not to compete with OOP for players, but I am looking to add two teams my dynasty auction league. We will hold an expansion draft before the main auction draft to accommodate the increase from 10 teams to 12.

$100 buy-in, message me for details.

It's competing with me a little bit, but they are different enough leagues with different costs, so perfectly fair.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Jones at $4 is a no-doubter to me. Sure his arm could fly off at any point, but he's certainly going to be valuable at that price as long as he's healthy

 

[outofplace]

Jones at $4 is a no-doubter to me. Sure his arm could fly off at any point, but he's certainly going to be valuable at that price as long as he's healthy

I had a group of eight in mind when I posted that, but I didn't want to post which way I was leaning as I asked for feedback. Jones was one of them. I'm fairly certain I'm keeping him and Hernandez. it's the last spot I'm not sure about.

Turns out I'm going to have more time to think about it. That is the league I posted about having two openings. The keeper deadline has been pushed back until those are filled. Wanna lose badly to me...I mean, want to compete in the same league?

 

[outofplace]

I've got another keeper list due in a week. It is a standard Yahoo league. I can protect five players. At least one must be a pitcher. I've got the first pick. I also have extra picks in the second, third, and fourth rounds, so I have a promising start despite my team being a disaster last season. Drafting seven players among the first 36 selections should be fun.

Here are my top keeper options with the round of draft pick they would cost me

Julio Rodriguez 12
Ketel Marte 18
Junior Caminero 21
Riley Greene 20
Cole Ragans 4
Devin Williams 19

Rodriguez, Marte, and Williams are locks. I like Caminero and Greene that late, but neither is a sure thing to do anything great. I like Ragans, but that feels a little high given my other options.

Bobby Witt, Jr. will probably be the first pick. I guess Judge could be cut since he would cost his owner a first-round pick, but I think he'll be kept.

Thoughts?