{"id":14710,"date":"2018-04-16T10:11:59","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T14:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14710"},"modified":"2018-04-16T10:11:59","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T14:11:59","slug":"fantasy-baseball-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14710","title":{"rendered":"Fantasy Baseball 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Scherzer<\/a>

Scherzer somehow ended up being my #1 draft pick this year. photo via wp.com<\/p><\/div>\n

An annual post.\u00a0 Navel gazing at my fake baseball team.\u00a0 Feel free to skip if you’re not into this.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So, every year we get a year older, a year busier … and seemingly a year closer to abandoning fantasy sports altogether.\u00a0 I’m already out of every Fantasy Football team I ever did (at one point I was in 4 leagues concurrently), I’m long since out of any other random fantasy sport (Basketball, Golf for example), and Baseball seems to be soon on the heels of being forgotten.\u00a0 In our fantasy baseball league this year, we struggled to find a 10th player this year after having to replace at least two guys last\u00a0 year … and we didn’t even bother to get a draft date settled until AFTER the season had started.<\/p>\n

So, the first Monday of the baseball season we sat down and did an online draft, a sorry state of affairs for a crew that used to actually look forward to drinking beers, eating pizza and talking sh*t n someone’s basement while doing an interminable 21-round, 4-hour slog of snake drafting baseball players.<\/p>\n

All that being said … i am still obsessed with Fantasy Baseball.\u00a0 Its always one of the first things I check every morning and I just can’t help myself.\u00a0 So here’s a run-through of my 2018 team.\u00a0 For the record, I’m on a good streak of success in this league; the last three years running I’ve finished 5th, 1st and 2nd in the regular season … and then 2nd, 3rd and 2nd in the playoffs.\u00a0 So I’ve lost two finals, one of which was so agonizingly close (I essentially lost because\u00a0Clayton Kershaw<\/strong> got sat after 4 innings the last start of the year and thus cost him a “win”) that it drove me to drink.<\/p>\n

Anyway, here’s a quick run through my initially drafted team.\u00a0 I was 9th out of 10 in a snake draft.\u00a0 We also had at least two auto-drafting teams, which was good and bad in a way.\u00a0 Good in that some over-valued players got scooped up thanks to their being the highest remaining ranked player … but bad b\/c there were definitely guys who i would have taken who lingered in this state, but who got snagged up instead of that person having to really draft.<\/p>\n

Quick overview of my strategy: hitters early, SPs later, want at least 4 closers, don’t draft a 1B until later.\u00a0 We have a couple of Nats homers in the league, so Nats players will be over-drafted.\u00a0 We also have one Cub’s fan and one Brave’s fan, meaning those players will go too early too, so that’s always a factor.\u00a0 We lost our Dodgers homer … meaning Dodgers players may be undervalued in the league now.<\/p>\n

The first round leading up to my 9th pick was … well unexpected.\u00a0\u00a0Trea Turner<\/strong> went 2nd overall, astoundingly.\u00a0 \u00a0Bryce Harper<\/strong> had an ADP of about 9 and I was extremely hopeful that he’d get to me … nope; our Nats fan boy group ensured he went a tad early as well.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, Harper has exploded out of the gates, as he is apt to do, and is ranked #1 ahead of\u00a0Mike Trout<\/strong> as we speak.<\/p>\n

Round 1.\u00a0Max Scherzer<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0Kershaw went just before me as a yahoo ranking slightly better than Scherzer.\u00a0 I really, really didn’t want to draft a SP first round; my strategy is mostly about picking high end hitters then poaching undervalued starters later on.\u00a0 But I didn’t like the next two best hitters available (Mookie Betts<\/strong>\u00a0 and then 1B Paul Goldschmidt<\/strong> under my theory of not reaching for a 1B) and i’d rather have Scherzer than the next best pitcher (the AL-east suffering\u00a0Chris Sale<\/strong>)….\u00a0\u00a0so I grabbed Scherzer.<\/p>\n

Round 2. After auto-draft took care of the two aformentioned players I didn’t want … i snagged\u00a0Kris Bryant<\/strong>.\u00a0 I like Bryant, he’s 2-position eligible and he was slightly ahead of a run of 1B types that I hate taking too early.\u00a0 He’s my 3B.<\/p>\n

Round 3:\u00a0Cody Bellinger<\/strong>. Another 2-position guy (1B and OF), he puts up significant numbers.\u00a0 I wanted\u00a0George Springer<\/strong> here but missed him by one pick.<\/p>\n

Round 4: Corey<\/strong>\u00a0Seager<\/strong>.\u00a0 I’ve had him before,\u00a0 he’s a power hitting SS and puts up awesome numbers, and I was happy.\u00a0 I’m a little Dodger heavy … but these two guys have both served me well in the past.<\/p>\n

Round 5:\u00a0Marcell Ozuna<\/strong>; this pick fell right in the midst of a bunch of blech SPs (Jose Quinana, Yu Darvish<\/strong>) and I felt like I’d rather have a guy moving to a hitter’s park and a better franchise.\u00a0 I think he’s a breakout guy.<\/p>\n

Round 6: Not liking any of the other players sitting here … i pulled the trigger on the #1 closer\u00a0Kenley Jansen<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Taking stock at this point: I have basically the #1 (or close to it) SP and RP, I have a 3B, SS, and two OFs.\u00a0 Not too bad.\u00a0 I’ve missed out on quality 2B at this point so I’ll be bottom of the barrel there.\u00a0 Same with Catcher.<\/p>\n

Round 7:\u00a0Tommy Pham<\/strong>, OF.\u00a0 Another guy in STL outfield who produces, though if I’d read his quotes of discontent maybe i’d have gone a different way.<\/p>\n

Round 8:\u00a0Jonathan Schoop<\/strong>, 2b.\u00a0 I know nothing of him, never had him before, but the pickings at 2B were pretty slim after this.<\/p>\n

Round 9:\u00a0Corey Knebel<\/strong>: my 2nd top-line reliever.\u00a0 Unfortunately he’s already on the D\/L: I picked up\u00a0Sean Manaea<\/strong>\u00a0off waivers in his place.<\/p>\n

Round 10:\u00a0Joey Gallo<\/strong>.\u00a0 So, I was looking hard at Braves uber-rookie\u00a0Ronald Acuna<\/strong> here … but was sold on Gallo’s multi-position capabilities and big bat versus the “what if” nature of Acuna.\u00a0 He ended up going 2 picks later to super-fan Braves guy, who crowed about how awesome he was for drafting Acuna (similarly to the way he crowed when he drafted\u00a0Dansby Swanson<\/strong> last year).<\/p>\n

Round 11:\u00a0Justin Smoak<\/strong>: finally get my 1B only guy.\u00a0 I’ll take round 11 for a guy who finished #61 last year in fantasy.<\/p>\n

Round 12:\u00a0Shohei Otani (pitcher)<\/strong>: yup.\u00a0 You read that right; i got this guy in the 12th frigging round. So far i’m the genius of the league.\u00a0 Through 2 weeks he’s the 4th best starter.\u00a0 too bad I didn’t get his bat too; his bat went un-drafted then I couldn’t bring myself to get both sides and lost him on the waiver wire.<\/p>\n

Round 13:\u00a0Brandon Morrow<\/strong>: 3rd reliever.\u00a0 I’m getting close to my set of decent relievers.<\/p>\n

Round 14:\u00a0Ryan Zimmerman<\/strong>: ok …. so this may have been a mistake.\u00a0 Was a mistake.\u00a0 I already have dropped him and … well i’m not sure what the heck is going on with him this year, but this was a bad pick.\u00a0 He was so frigging good last year … I just couldn’t believe he was still available in round 14.\u00a0 Nonetheless … by this round hitters are nearly indistinguishable from waiver wire fodder, so I’ll keep an eye on him.\u00a0 Something seems\u00a0 up though with Zimmerman, a topic we’ve talked about here before.\u00a0 There has to be a reason he didn’t play all spring.<\/p>\n

So, from here out I need arms and a catcher.\u00a0 So that’s the focus.\u00a0 its pretty clear that I’m getting a catcher in the last round.<\/p>\n

Round 15:\u00a0Dellin Betances<\/strong>: so, I got this guy b\/c I thought my commissioner was changing one of the categories to K\/9 … and Betances is basically the best K\/9 guy in the league.\u00a0 Except that we didn’t change the settings .. so i’ve already dumped him as useless.\u00a0 I picked up Arizona’s\u00a0Patrick Corbin<\/strong> instead.<\/p>\n

Round 16:\u00a0Garrett Richards<\/strong>: not a bad starter for round 16.\u00a0 Pitcher’s park, good numbers.<\/p>\n

Round 17:\u00a0Mike Clevenger<\/strong>: a nice little steal here for Cleveland who has good numbers and looks like he may contribute.<\/p>\n

Round 18:\u00a0Shane Greene<\/strong>: can’t complain about getting a starting closer in round 18, even if its a low-end one.<\/p>\n

Round 19:\u00a0Chase Anderson<\/strong>.\u00a0 Milwaukee’s opening day starter!<\/p>\n

Round 20:\u00a0Aaron Sanchez<\/strong>.\u00a0 So, I had him a couple years ago and he was awesome.\u00a0 If he’s healthy, then this is a massive steal this low.<\/p>\n

Round 21: Best remaining catcher on the board ….\u00a0Wilson Ramos<\/strong>.\u00a0 I’m not sure if’ i’ll be keeping him, but he’s better than anyone else at this point (and i’ve already dumped him for\u00a0Chris Ianetta<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

—-<\/p>\n

So, here’s the summary\/here’s how my team looks right now (I’ve updated the below for my first few waiver wire moves):<\/p>\n