2016 Fantasy Baseball Official Thread

[GGajewski18]

I just traded a draft pick for Shawn Tolleson. Here is my updated roster.

 

C - Posey/Vogt

1B - Encarnacion/Vogt

2B - Pedroia/Lawrie

SS - Russell/Swanson/Bregman

3B - Seager/Lawrie

OF - Kemp/Pence/Inciarte/Piscotty/Yelich/Winker

SP - Sale/Price/Bumgarner/Hamels/Tanaka/Quintana/Chen/Finnegan/Norris

RP - Papelbon/Ramos/Street/Perkins/Tolleson

 

I have 3 minor league draft picks left. Which positions would you try to upgrade at if you were me?

 

All on offense

 

[iWiN4PreP]

Traded Stephen Vogt (rights) Joey Gallo ($3) and Kyle Seager ($12) for Jonathan Lucroy ($14)

 

Why? Seager is nice and Gallo is solid.

 

I just traded a draft pick for Shawn Tolleson. Here is my updated roster.

 

Nice closers now, loaded.

 

I have 3 minor league draft picks left. Which positions would you try to upgrade at if you were me?

 

Best Hitters available

[ChiSoxFanMike]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

 

I think I'm going to draft a second baseman next, as Pedroia is getting older and more injury prone. The best ones left are Ian Happ and Forrest Wall. Which one do you think would be better in a dynasty H2H points league?

[GGajewski18]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

 

I think I'm going to draft a second baseman next, as Pedroia is getting older and more injury prone. The best ones left are Ian Happ and Forrest Wall. Which one do you think would be better in a dynasty H2H points league?

 

Happ

[GGajewski18]

Why? Seager is nice and Gallo is solid.

 

I have Maikel Franco at 3B, and I wasn't gonna keep Gallo. Remember it's a very complex league

 

[GGajewski18]

Traded Garrett Richards ($12) for Brian McCann ($8)

[iWiN4PreP]

I have Maikel Franco at 3B, and I wasn't gonna keep Gallo. Remember it's a very complex league

 

Hm. Not a big fan of it, Really high on Seager as he is a perennial lock for 20+homers (could see him getting close to 30).

 

Not too sure of Lucroy tho, I hear all good things about him, but haven't seem him produce and haven't looked into him, so meh.

 

Traded Garrett Richards ($12) for Brian McCann ($8)

 

I like Richards as well. Why are you going after all these catchers?

 

Edited February 18, 2016 by iWin4Ron

[ChiSoxFanMike]

So since my last post, I traded Eduardo Escobar and a draft pick for Kole Calhoun, drafted Ian Happ, Trent Clark, and Renato Nunez, and picked up Brad Miller from free agency.

 

Here is my team as it sits now.

 

C - Posey/Vogt

1B - Encarnacion/Vogt/Bell

2B - Pedroia/Lawrie/Happ

SS - Russell/Miller/Swanson/Bregman

3B - Seager/Lawrie/Nunez

OF - Kemp/Pence/Inciarte/Piscotty/Yelich/Calhoun/Miller/Winker/Happ/Clark

SP - Sale/Price/Bumgarner/Hamels/Tanaka/Quintana/Chen/Finnegan/Norris

RP - Papelbon/Ramos/Street/Perkins/Tolleson

 

Thoughts?

[GGajewski18]

So since my last post, I traded Eduardo Escobar and a draft pick for Kole Calhoun, drafted Ian Happ, Trent Clark, and Renato Nunez, and picked up Brad Miller from free agency.

 

Here is my team as it sits now.

 

C - Posey/Vogt

1B - Encarnacion/Vogt/Bell

2B - Pedroia/Lawrie/Happ

SS - Russell/Miller/Swanson/Bregman

3B - Seager/Lawrie/Nunez

OF - Kemp/Pence/Inciarte/Piscotty/Yelich/Calhoun/Miller/Winker/Happ/Clark

SP - Sale/Price/Bumgarner/Hamels/Tanaka/Quintana/Chen/Finnegan/Norris

RP - Papelbon/Ramos/Street/Perkins/Tolleson

 

Thoughts?

 

Fantasy wise, you're offense isn't very good outside of Posey. Encarnacion is alright if he can stay healthy, also getting older. Your middle infield is average. Seager is pretty good, but there are better 3B out there. You're OF isn't that good either with your best guy being Kemp. Your pitching is fantastic though. I'd trade from there and get another bat.

[GGajewski18]

If you guys wanna see how complex my league is, these are our rules. We are going into year 2 of this league. I finished 3rd last year after being 9th all year. A few trades, my team getting hot, others collapsing, I snuck into the playoffs with the 6 seed and won 3rd. Thoughts on our league?

 

10 teams – Auction draft

There will be 28 rounds in the draft. There is no roster limit; however, you must begin each year of the league with just 28 players. For example, if Cunningham wants to trade Billy 2 players, for 1 much better player, Billy’s team will then have 29 players, and Cunningham will have 27. This is perfectly OK – given that Billy’s team is cut down to 28 players at the beginning of the 2016 season.

The draft will begin as one team manager announces a player and a starting bid. Bidding then ensues, and the player will join the team of the highest bidding manager. That dollar amount will be removed from that manager’s team payroll.

Order of the auction draft is standard, 1-10. Previous year’s champion will be awarded the honorary first position in the draft. Positions 2-10 will be selected at random.

Team payroll each year will be $275. For those curious, the standard auction draft is a 25 man roster, and a $275 limit. There are no $0.50 cash values allowed. Every player price will be a full dollar (no cents or change).

 

League play

Lineups will be set as follows:

9 hitters (C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF, Utility)

7 pitchers (5 SP, 2 RP)

12 bench spots

No DL

No roster limits – just have 28 players at the end of every draft

League will be scored as a weekly head-to-head with 12 categories. The 12 categories will be as follows:

6 pitching categories: Wins, Quality Starts, WHIP, ERA, Saves, and total K’s)

6 hitting categories: AVG, OPS, Runs Scored, Stolen Bases, HR’s, RBI’s)

Lineups will be set weekly – week will run Monday morning through Sunday night

You will not be able to update your lineup every day. You will be limited to those 16 players (9 hitters, 7 pitchers) over the course of that week

Each week will be scored as a record of 12 (i.e. if you win 7 categories, and lose 5, your record for the week is 7-5. If you win 3, lose 7, and tie 2, your record for the week is 3-7-2)

The league regular season will run up to the first week of September. The first three weeks of September will be the playoffs.

Trade deadline: July 31st 11:59pm

All trades subject to the commissioner and co-commissioners approval

Playoff Format

6 teams will make the playoffs

League will be split into 2 divisions

Each division winner will represent the top 2 seeds in the playoffs and will receive a bye in the first round of the playoffs

Seeds 3-6 will be selected based on the next best four teams – not necessarily 2 more teams from each division

Seeds 3-6 will face off in a “wild card week,” in order to move on to the semi-finals of the playoffs

 

For the teams that finish 7-10th, they will be competing in a separate bracket herein known as the “Cunningham Cup Championship.” The winner of the Cunningham Cup (last place playoff finisher) will be crowned with eternal embarrassment. On top of that, the winner of the League Championship will get to choose the team name of the Cunningham Cup Champion in the following season.

Payouts will be as follows

$50 per team x 10 teams = $500 in total payouts

Each regular season division winner will receive $50

Each “wild card week” winner will receive $25

The semi-final losers will play in a 3rd place game, in which the winner will take home another $25

The semi-final winners will play in the world series, in which the league champion will win another $250, and the loser (2nd place) will win another $75

Examples – winning your division, and finishing in 2nd will bring home a total of $125 ($50 for division, $75 for 2nd)

Winning “wild card week” but getting 4th will win you $25 (half your money back), while winning your division and getting 4th will give you just the $50 for winning the division (all money back)

The most you can win is $300, if you win your division, and the league championship

 

Offseason

If you win a player in the auction draft, the dollar amount you win him for in the auction will represent the players salary on your team payroll – this is a one year contract for the player – called the player’s “auction year”

Again, team payroll for each season is $275

If there is money left over at the end of a draft, half of that cash will carry over to a team’s bonus pool. Example – a team only uses $265 of their cash in one year, they have $10 left over - $5 will be added to the bonus pool **bonus pool will be explained in depth a bit later

There is no limit to number of players a team can keep from year to year – however, player salary will increase with each year

The keeper deadline will be March 1st to submit keeper decisions on a yearly basis.

At the end of a player’s “auction year,” a team general manager will have three choices

First choice - Remove that player from your roster for the upcoming season – player will return to the auction draft for the following year

A GM that drops a player can still get the player back in the following seasons auction draft

Second choice – Offer the player a “one year extension”

Cost – player previous year salary plus $5

At the end of a “one year extension,” a GM must either drop the player, or sign them to a long term extension (2 or more years, see below)

Third choice – extend the player a long term contract

Any number of years (min. of 2+)

Year one cost +$4 to previous year salary

Year two cost +$3

Year three cost +$2

Year four and up cost +$1

Example – Mike Trout is paid $50 for his “auction year.” Then, his GM decides to offer 5 year contract. Trout’s salary would look like the below.

Auction year - $50

Year one of contract - $50 + 4 = $54

Year two - $54 + 3 = 57

Year three - $57 + 2 = 59

Year four - $59 + 1 = 60

Year five - $60 + 1 = 61

Once a player’s extension expires, you get to choose again what you would like to do with the player from the three choices above (drop, 1 year extend, multi-year extend)

Once players are extended, they can be dropped from your roster; however, if dropped, you will have to pay the players full salary, minus his salary on his new team.

For example, I have Mike Trout on the extension above. In the last year of his contract, I owe him $61, but I decide to cut him. Jazz then drafts him for $40. I have to pay $21. If the player then goes undrafted, I would have to pay the full $61.

If your player has multiple years left on their contract, you may choose to pay off more of the money owed in one year

Example – A GM drops a player with 2 years left on a contract. That players is owed $50 for one of the years left, and $54 for the second year left. Therefore, in total, the GM must subtract $25 and $27 from their payroll in those two years. If the GM choose to pay that total $52 all in the first year, so be it. If they want to pay $30, then $22 – so be it. As long as they are paying that minimum of $25 in that first year

Tip – Clearly, long term extensions can save quite a bit of money if done correctly and on the right players – each extended year gets cheaper and cheaper. However, dropping players on an expensive extension can be crippling to your team. High risk, high reward.

Franchise Tag

Each team will get to choose 1 position player and 1 pitcher at the end of each season that will receive a “franchise tag.”

A player with the “franchise tag” will receive a one year contract in which their salary does not increase, whatsoever.

At the end of a players “franchise tag” year, you can give it back to the same player for as many years as desired. Decision is made during each offseason.

If you remove a “franchise tag” from a player, you can give them any normal extension

Unused franchise tags are lost, and do not carry over from year to year

 

Competitive Balance Free Agency Draft

Takes place at the beginning of June of each season

3 rounds

Draft order is the standings from the previous season, reversed

I.e. Last place drafts first in each round, 9th drafts 2nd, and so on

In the following season, all free agent added players will be a part of the total auction draft. The player is bid for as normal, excluding the GM who won the player in the previous season’s free agency auction

Once bidding is complete, the ex-GM of that player will be given the choice to “steal” that player for the winning bid amount plus $1, or pass – in which the winning bidder does get to keep that player

Farm System:

Teams can have an Active Roster size of 28.  

Farm Systems can be as big as they want as long as there are 25 players on the active roster.

We draft up to 28, that way teams have the option to place up to 3 players in the Farm System at the beginning of the year.

For $1, you can make unlimited call ups/downs in a given calendar day.

After the mid-season FA draft, each team will have one calendar day for unlimited call ups/downs, cost free.

Players kept in Farm System from beginning of season until FA Draft will drop in salary by $1.

Players put in Farm System after FA Draft, and kept in the farm until end of year will reduce in salary by $1.

That being said, players put in Farm System at Beginning of year until end of season reduce in price by $2.

Trading a player in the Farm System:

Trading Farm Player for Farm Player: Both players will be placed in new teams Farm

Trading Farm Player for Active Player: Farm Player will enter new team Farm and Active Player will join new team active roster.

Traded Farm Player will not lose potential $1/$2 savings if traded to new Farm.

Players in Farm System cannot reduce in price past $1.

[iWiN4PreP]

Seems pretty standard to me. The one stipulation is that it is H2H weekly. Seems like a great league tho. Love the idea of the champion being able to name the last place team. That's hilarious.

 

I like Kole Calhoun as well, but I feel like you are accumulating all of these fantasy-average OF'r.s What you need is studs on offense. Can you try to package something up for a stud OF?

 

[GGajewski18]

Seems pretty standard to me. The one stipulation is that it is H2H weekly. Seems like a great league tho. Love the idea of the champion being able to name the last place team. That's hilarious.

 

I like Kole Calhoun as well, but I feel like you are accumulating all of these fantasy-average OF'r.s What you need is studs on offense. Can you try to package something up for a stud OF?

 

I try and explain my league to others, and my friends are like star struck. They look so confused lol. I love this league.

 

My keepers so far are:

C Brian McCann

1B Freddie Freeman

2B Dee Gordon

SS Fransico Lindor

3B Maikel Franco

OF Bryce Harper

OF Giancarlo Stanton

OF Starling Marte

SP Stephen Strasburg

SP Carlos Rodon

SP Carlos Martinez

SP Eduardo Rodriguez

SP Lance McCullers

[ChiSoxFanMike]

Holy cow, those rules are complex lol.

 

My leagues look like child's play compared to that.

[iWiN4PreP]

I try and explain my league to others, and my friends are like star struck. They look so confused lol. I love this league.

 

Haha, I guess it's due to me posting on rotoworld fantasy baseball forums for so long. Taking a step back, a keeper/dynasty league is not what people normally expect.

 

 

[GGajewski18]

Haha, I guess it's due to me posting on rotoworld fantasy baseball forums for so long. Taking a step back, a keeper/dynasty league is not what people normally expect.

 

Exactly. Most people are in it just for fun to follow certain players.

 

 

[iWiN4PreP]

SoxPride, any thoughts on the following:

 

I like Kole Calhoun as well, but I feel like you are accumulating all of these fantasy-average OF'r.s What you need is studs on offense. Can you try to package something up for a stud OF?

[ZoomSlowik]

So since my last post, I traded Eduardo Escobar and a draft pick for Kole Calhoun, drafted Ian Happ, Trent Clark, and Renato Nunez, and picked up Brad Miller from free agency.

 

Here is my team as it sits now.

 

C - Posey/Vogt

1B - Encarnacion/Vogt/Bell

2B - Pedroia/Lawrie/Happ

SS - Russell/Miller/Swanson/Bregman

3B - Seager/Lawrie/Nunez

OF - Kemp/Pence/Inciarte/Piscotty/Yelich/Calhoun/Miller/Winker/Happ/Clark

SP - Sale/Price/Bumgarner/Hamels/Tanaka/Quintana/Chen/Finnegan/Norris

RP - Papelbon/Ramos/Street/Perkins/Tolleson

 

Thoughts?

 

For this season, your team is in pretty good shape. I assume you have the best pitching by a wide margin and your offense is good enough. One thing I'd look into is trying to turn some of your outfield depth into a stud at the position. You've got 6 useable OF, I can't imagine you can use all of them. I would try to package two of them or maybe one OF and one of Hamels/Tanaka/Quintana to get a stud. I would personally try to hang on to Pence and Yelich and try to snag a high-upside guy that isn't quite at potential yet (Springer would be my top target, also consider guys like Buxton, Conforto, Pederson or some of the top prospects). Obviously you have to shoot for a higher caliber option if you give up one of the starters.

 

Long term, I would continue to work on your offense. Encarnacion is still a stud now, but that may not last much longer. Posey could be an issue too as catchers tend to have a shorter shelf life and he may eventually shift to 1B (not a major issue yet). You've got a few high-upside options at SS, so that could give you some serious ammo in a year or two (I wouldn't do anything yet, wait to see which ones hit).

Edited February 20, 2016 by ZoomSlowik

[GGajewski18]

SoxPride, any thoughts on the following:

 

Yeah, his offense his pretty average. However, his pitching is elite. He could definitely package something up to get a stud offensive player. I'm always big on offense because it's harder to find good offense than good pitching.

[Brian]

Our draft is still a month away but we know our order. I'm 10 of 10 so did a mock. Gonna have to do a few more cuz meh

Edited February 20, 2016 by Brian

[iWiN4PreP]

Our draft is still a month away but we know our order. I'm 10 of 10 so did a mock. Gonna have to do a few more cuz meh

 

Without knowing your league settings, I prefer the end of the draft.

 

Take two weak position monsters of the likes: Machado, Correa, Altuve, Arrenado and your hitting is off to a very strong start with not having to worry about 2 of 2b/3b/ss

[ChiSoxFanMike]

Thank you guys for all the criticisms, I really appreciate it!

 

I won the championship in this particular league last year, as the points system significantly favored pitching over hitting (hence, why I traded most of my offensive studs for pitching studs). However, this year, the scoring was modified a bit to try to make the league more balanced. I'm pretty sure I have the top pitching staff of anyone in my league (I'm definitely in the top two; there's one guy whose pitching might be better than mine, but that's it), and my offense is probably towards the middle of the pack.

 

At this point, I might stand pat until the season starts so I can see where my weaknesses are and address them then.

[GGajewski18]

Our draft is still a month away but we know our order. I'm 10 of 10 so did a mock. Gonna have to do a few more cuz meh

 

 

Without knowing your league settings, I prefer the end of the draft.

 

Take two weak position monsters of the likes: Machado, Correa, Altuve, Arrenado and your hitting is off to a very strong start with not having to worry about 2 of 2b/3b/ss

 

Definitely agree with iWin4Ron. Getting 2 strong hitters at weak positions would be huge. Plenty of depth with 1B and OF this year.

[Brian]

Without knowing your league settings, I prefer the end of the draft.

 

Take two weak position monsters of the likes: Machado, Correa, Altuve, Arrenado and your hitting is off to a very strong start with not having to worry about 2 of 2b/3b/ss

 

In my mock, I drafted Correa and Bryant first two. Got Cano in like round 5 for 2B. Definitely thinking of doing that. Got some good pitching later as well.

[iWiN4PreP]

Not a big fan of Bryant where he is going. If Machado drops to you, definitely pick him (if he is 3b/ss eligible, even if not). He is ranked 9 on Yahoo and in some drafts he drops to 10, but never past.

 

Machado, I have as a top 5 player.

 

Correa is nice as well.

 

For me, a dream scenario is Machado + Altuve (or Correa or Arenado) but preferrably altuve since now you have a 2b/3b/SS and steals.

 

 

[Brian]

I had Machado last year and he helped me win my league but I'm wondering if he can be that great again. Also can he stay healthy.