THE OFFICIAL 2015 FANTASY BASEBALL THREAD

If Yasmani Grandal or Justin Turner are somehow still on your league's waivers, add them immediately.
 
I added Joakim Soria early in the season to serve as my second closer, but he hasn't done much of anything lately: just four appearances in the last two weeks and his last save came on June 7th.

Should I drop him and add either Carson Smith, Dellin Betances, Jason Grilli, Tyler Clippard, or Cody Allen?

I have Soria also and he's been scuffling a bit. Betances and Clippard are good options. I'd even recommend Grilli too, he's been a huge help in my other league.
 
Won this weeks matchup by 1.84 pts. Charlie Morton today put me down, but later in the afternoon Fowler's grand slam put me back in the lead and kept me there.

From an 0-5 start to 5-6 on the season :pimp: .

run.lmc run.lmc picked up Grandal in favor of dropping Cervelli .
 
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Charlie Morton lost me the game in my money league. I fall 8-3 there.

JD Martinez gave me the loss in the NT Keeper :smh: I go 4-7 there.
 
Won this weeks matchup by 1.84 pts. Charlie Morton today put me down, but later in the afternoon Fowler's grand slam put me back in the lead and kept me there.

From an 0-5 start to 5-6 on the season :pimp: .

run.lmc run.lmc picked up Grandal in favor of dropping Cervelli .

Good move :lol:
 
Beat the guy with the best record in my league, by 5 points tonight :pimp: Grandal tried to ruin me man smh

4 game winning streak after starting the year 2-5. First in my division too.
 
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Beat the guy with the best record in my league, by 5 points tonight :pimp: Grandal tried to ruin me man smh

4 game winning streak after starting the year 2-5. First in my division too.

Same here, I beat the guy in 1st in my league today :pimp: feels good! i've always said it isn't how you start out, but finish.
 
Mookie betts finally came up huge for me last week. Would easily lost if not for his outburst. Need that consistently
 
I needed the season to develops this and see how it goes, but I wrote a brief piece below for my website on what I look for when drafting a fantasy baseball team. If you're doing a redraft league this may help, but if not, save it for next year:

http://g42sports.com/fantasy-baseball-primer/

Fantasy Sports are great. The simple act of selecting players and tracking their performance for an entire season has captivated sports fans across the world.

After some research and light backtesting, I’ve developed a guide for what I look for when building a championship worthy fantasy baseball team. We all know the basic scoring rules so let’s get right into the thick of things.

No one wants to lose a point each time a player picks up a strikeout. It’s annoying and in some cases, it can be costly enough to ruin one’s season. Baseball has a problem with too many hitters striking out. Whether it’s the influx of power pitchers, increased analytics, or simply put, batters with poor plate discipline and pitch recognition, lots of players strikeout entirely too frequently.

So the first thing I look for when drafting a team is a player’s K%. Preferably, unless the batter had a BABIP over .350 or is a big time power hitter, I don’t watch to draft someone that strikes out in more than 25% of their plate appearances. Exceptions can be made, like Giancarlo Stanton for instance, who K’s 29.5% of the time, but he truly is one of the rarest talents in baseball.

If someone is not an elite power hitter, or shows an elite tendency to hit well when putting the ball in play, I rather pass on them for more favorable players.

The second thing I want from my batters is a high BB%. If you draw walks in less than 10% of your plate appearances, you better strikeout in less than 10% of your PA’s or be a phenomenal contact hitter like Nori Aoki.

After I get my percentages situated, I look for players who are run creators, utilizing their wRC+. I prefer to draft guys who create more than 120 runs each year, and if I’m looking for value in the middle or late rounds and see a guy that quietly creates runs, like Matt Carpenter, I’m jumping all over them and maxing out their ADP value.

So when it comes to offense, I want run creators who put the ball in play, draw walks and hit homeruns. The perfect balance of power hitting and power pitching wins fantasy baseball leagues. It’s imperative, however, to draft power hitters that aren’t big time strikeout candidates—avoid the Adam Dunn types.

Pitching wise, you already know I prefer a power arm that racks up K’s with ease. But, there a few things I need to checkoff before selecting a pitcher. The one thing I care about the most these days, due to the influx of injuries and how popular Tommy John surgery has become, is pitching mechanics. I do not, I repeat, do not want to reach for pitchers with inverted arm actions or starters whose arms are late when their front foot is planted. Things can work out well for me with some of those pitchers, but I don’t want to be caught sitting there with a guy tearing his UCL and needing to miss the next 18 months. A critical blow as such, especially if an early round pick was spent on that pitcher, could definitely take your team out of playoff contention. I want guys like David Price and Max Scherzer whom have good mechanics and rely to get K’s with pitch variation, rather than raw velocity.

Give me pitchers who fit that mold and strikeout batters 23% of the time or better while limiting their BB% to under 8% and I’m ecstatic.

ERA is the traditional metric to measure a pitcher’s success, but in all honesty, it’s flawed and not the best way to gauge how skilled a pitcher is. Instead, I want to see how that ERA lines up with a pitcher’s fielder independent numbers and skill interactive ERA. I want pitchers whose FIP, xFIP and SIERA are under 3.50, and I want their FIP- to be under 100—the lower the better.

Earlier this season when Corey Kluber struggled and his ERA ballooned, his fielder independent numbers had a severe divergence from his ERA—almost two points lower. This would have been a great time to buy low on a pitcher whose defense hadn’t done its job. If a starter has a low ERA but high FIP, xFIP, SIERA and FIP-, that’s a pitcher I want to trade as soon as possible and cash in on his value before he comes back to earth—Dan Haren fits this mold.

My primer is simple, and if utilized correctly, it will put you in the best position to win your league.
 
Dropped Hector Rondon in favor of Roberto Osuna, dropped Cuddyer in favor of Brock Holt (who is eligible for every position but SP/RP :lol: ) .

Hoping I didn't buy into Osuna too early. Then again, Cubs seem to close games with whoever Maddon feels like putting out there, so Rondon doesn't have much value to me atm.
 
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Osuna is 20, that's the only issue there. Great stuff, but inexperienced and maybe even raw. I like the idea though.
 
Missed out on Osuna since I'm currently holding Parnell to see how to Familia situation plays out.  I was actually planning on scooping him if he closed out last night's game but I went to see Jurassic World and he had already been picked up when I got home
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.  I have a feeling they might have been giving Cecil the day off since he had thrown a ton of pitches the prior 2 days, but honestly they should probably give Osuna at least some save opps at this point.

On another note, one pitcher I think could be a good add in deeper leagues is Trevor May.  ERA might look a little high at the moment but he's had mostly good starts lately.  Definitely throwing him out there this week since Bauer already blew up my ERA last night.
 
Man I'm desparate for saves.  My closers (relievers) consist of Axford, Rondon, Rodney, and Parnell.  I'll take anything I can get at this point. 
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My saves are non-existent right now too. Soria and Familia are my only Closers. Anybody widely available that's worth a pickup in favor of those 2 guys?
 
If Clippard is still available in your league then it's time to join one that's more competitive.
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Welp, Cecil officially removed from the closer role.  Steve Delabar could be a darkhorse to be the new closer depending on how he fares tonight.  I'd assume they'd make Osuna the closer, but you just never know anymore.  I grabbed Delabar just in case he runs away with the job.
 
Yeah no Clippard available in my league :lol:. Pitching is extra dry. I think I'll pick up Osuna and drop Familia :\.
 
Don't drop Familia, just DL him if he's seriously hurt. He's the best reliever on the Mets.
 
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Nah hold Familia if you need saves.  He should be available tonight.

Edit: Aaaand TDA to the DL now....man I can't win with my catchers this year.
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Meant to say drop Soria, dude hasn't had a good outing in weeks. But I can't do it anyway because ESPN has Osuna as a starter and I'm already at the limit for SPs :smh:.
 
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