A new season of fantasy baseball is upon us! Way back in the day, I would consider Ryan my nemesis in fantasy baseball. Then he and I called a truce, and decided to make fun of James. But you know what? I am calling a truce with James now. My nemesis this year is Sean. He may have won the NFL Pick ‘Em and Oscars Pool, and may have decided to rub it in a little bit. But he thinks he can win fantasy baseball??? Not on my watch, sir! So do not fear fans, I will be making fun of Sean’s team all season long.
For my keepers this year, I decided to go with Alonso, Henderson, and Seager. If you are wondering, the blue means it is the first year keeping them, green is the second year, and red is the third & final year.
Nothing stands out…wait, Offord still has Acuna, Betts, and Soto? Jesus, who gave him Mookie Betts? That was stupid. Also, Edwin Diaz??? Probably not someone you needed to keep Mr. Lasher.
Since my keepers were all position players, I decided to go back to my original drafting strategy of focusing on pitching. Let’s take a look at the draft…
The first two picks, I went with starting pitching: Pablo Lopez and Zac Gallen. Then with my third pick, Realmuto was sitting there, and I thought “you know, I never have a solid catcher, I should change things up.” He will probably get hurt in week one. Jason drafting Oneil Cruz in the 4th round (remember, the first three rounds were for keepers) was a bit of a head-scratcher. I am excited to see him this year, but I think there are more safe picks that early. For example, Ryan got Mike Trout with the next pick.
Not sure how I feel about my 7th round pick. Kim should be fine, but I wonder if I will regret not taking someone else in that spot (I considered Gleyber Torres there, but felt like I could get him in the 8th round). I liked Reynolds and Sewald. We need to talk about Ryan’s pick of Paul Skenes. I feel like he reached high for Skenes, but it could pay off. If the Pirates bring him up early in the year, and he does well, then Ryan picked up a potential ace in the 7th round and will have him for three more years. If the Pirates hold him in the minors for most of the year, then Ryan wasted a pick. The draft is not what makes Ryan good at fantasy (I would probably rate him as a below average drafter in this league–no offense). He wins because of the moves he makes during the season. Ryan is better than just about everyone for picking up guys who are starting to get hot, and rides them out, then has no problem dropping or trading them once they have peaked.
I wish I had taken Stanton over Springer. There is more upside to Stanton if he stays healthy. I know, that is a big IF. Not going to lie, Round 12 pissed me off. This was my queue after I took Bassitt: Jordan Walker, Shane Bieber, Thairo Estrada, Cedric Mullins, Kenley Jansen. They were all gone, so I settled for Kimbrel. At least I did not take Marcell Ozuna.
I will save you from reading about every round. The rest of the rounds go about as you would expect. My team looks alright, there are opportunities to make some trades with folks who may need what I got. Good luck to everyone…except Sean. May he be destroyed by his opponents each week.
