OFFICIAL 2018 FANTASY BASEBALL THREAD

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LET'S GOOOOO



Thinking of starting a money yahoo auction league. Need 10-12. Who's in?
 
I know it's not Fantasy Football but I'm surprised how dead this thread is.

I also need like 5 to fill up another league
 
I'm big on using sabermetrics to draft and decipher whether someone had a fluke season or sustainable one. Fangraphs.com is a clutch way to build a roster. I'm big on high wOBA guys with K% under 25% (I won't discriminate a guy like Stanton, Schwarber, Davis or Bryant however, but I would be careful adding multiple guys who strikeout close to 30% unless I'm in a 5x5 league that doesn't penalize K's) who hit at least 15-20 home runs. The key is making sure a power surge isn't an outlier though so I like to look at hard contact percentages and HR/FB rate. If the guy typically makes hard contact 30% of the time and his HR/FB rate is consistent throughout his career, the power seems real. If there's a sudden jump in HR/FB rate which wasn't meant by an adjustment in FB% (i.e. he typically hit FB's 20% of the time, but he altered his swing to hit them 40% of the time last year) I'd be a little weary. wRC+ is a valuable tool as well to gauge offensive output that I take note of. Pitching wise, I'm looking at FIP, xFIP, FIP- and SIERA to gauge whether a pitcher's ERA is real or based on luck/great defense. I want guys with high K%, BB% under 10% and LOB% in the high 70s. I also look at zone% and contact% to see if they're pitching less in the strikezone year over year or are allowing more contact. If they're allowing more contact, but it's met with a high GB% or GB/FB rate, I'm not too concerned.

I personally don't see the allure in drafting a catcher before the last few rounds. I rather pass over Buster Posey for a power hitter or power pitcher and go after someone with a high OBP with great value later on (Yasmani Grandal, Blake Swihart potentially, Travis d'Arnaud, Yan Gomes even for his power). I think Jung Ho Kang has great value this year in the back end of a draft. I'd grab him, stash him on the DL for a couple of weeks and just pick up Alicdes Escobar or someone who doesn't strikeout a lot on the waiver wire for the time being. If you have access to an NA spot or two, you gotta stash Tyler Glasnow, Lucas Giolito, Jose Berrios, Alex Reyes, Julio Urias, AJ Reed, Tim Anderson, Josh Bell, Sean Manea, Trea Turner, Jose Peraza, Nomar Mazara or JP Crawford. Those are the few I can see being called up this year, be aware of the rest of the guys on the top 100 list:

http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2016?list=prospects

I personally, unless it's a 5x5 league (which case I load up on power hitters (preferably high OBP ones), power pitchers, and moneyball guys who gets SBs (Wong, Yelich, Burns)), favor pitching early and getting crafty with offense. I look to draft a great hitter or two early, but overall, I want my team to have 5 No. 1 pitchers and ideally 2 premiere closers, plus one or two more very good closers. Ideal for me would be getting Wade Davis and Kimbrel, and backing them up with two or three of Dave Robertson and Jeurys Familia/Ken Giles/Cody Allen/Trevor Rosenthal/Zach Britton. I want my bench to be full of pitchers unless the settings of my league favors offense.


Sleepers/value players I'm eying:

Maikel Franco
Christian Yelich
Yung Joc Pederson (thinking bounce back year, K wise, plus he has tremendous SB upside that was repressed big time last year)
Michael Conforto
Jung Ho Kang
Byron Buxton (late)
Shin Soo Choo (high OBP guy)
Ben Zobrist
Lucas Duda
Randal Grichuk
Josh Reddick (low K%, decent OBP, good for 20 homers)
Carlos Santana (high OBP, good for 20 HRs)
Starlin Castro
Wil Myers
Alex Gordon
Marcus Semien (good for HR's if you miss out on the better SS's)
Curtis Granderson
David Peralta
Ender Inciarte
Brandon Crawford
A-Rod and Tex
Dustin Pedroia
Eugenio Suarez (like Semien)
Jonathan Schoop (for pop)
Steven Matz
Luis Severino
Aaron Nola
Eduardo Rodriguez
Brandon Finnegan
Roberto Osuna
Shelby Miller
Yordano Ventura
Joe Ross
Carlos Carrasco
Danny Salazar
Marcus Stroman
K-Rod (good for SV's as a third or fourth closer late)
Jake Odorizzi
Shawn Tolleson (same as K-Rod)
Pat Corbin
Carlos Martinez
Lance McCullers

Guys I'm avoiding

Stephen Strasburg
Charlie Blackmon
Jose Altuve (just dont see the appeal with him and Blackmon as second rounders)
Dee Gordon (same w Altuve)
Jose Fernandez
Ryan Braun
CarGo (like Braun, this is someone I rather trade for at the deadline if he's on a bad team)
Adam Jones (his peripherals label him overrated)
Carlos Gomez (rather buy low on him during a slump)
Jon Lester (rather have Cole Hamels at that ADP)
Johnny Cueto (his elbow concerns me)
Matt Kemp
Jacoby Ellsbury
Hunter Pence (rather just trade for him if he gets banged up than deal with him most likely getting hurt)
Ben Revere (stupidest thing you can do is draft him for SB's when he's a platoon player with no pop and doesn't draw walks, grab Billy Burns a few rounds later instead)
Jonathan Lucroy
Big Papi
Hanley Ramirez
Masahiro Tanaka (like Strasburg, Cueto, and Fernandez that elbow scares me too much)
Jonathan Papelbon (**** him)
Jose Reyes (aside from sadly being washed up, he's gonna miss at least 50 games. I'd only grab him on the waiver wire and stash him after the draft)
Jay Bruce (unless it's a 5x5 league and you're desperate for HRs)
Taijuan Walker (he figures it out, he does it without me)
Hisashi Iwakuma
Scott Kazmir (if I draft him, I seriously would consider trading him after the All Star break as he's been shaky second half of the year)
Brett Gardner (this wrist injury is peculiar, it wouldn't shock me if he played 100 games max this year)
Corey Dickerson (not my type of player, would rather get Khris Davis a few rounds later)
Gio Gonzalez (seriously just don't he sucks)
Evan Gattis (only in a 5x5 for HRs)
Matt Wieters (no interest in him)
Panda Bear (just no)
 
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I've got my draft later this afternoon for my categories league. This year they changed AVG to OBP and OPS to SLG for batting categories. They also changed K to K/9, K/BB to IP, and W to QS (quality starts) for pitching categories.

Anything/anyone I should be on the lookout for with these changes? Any tips I should keep in mind with these new categories?
 
started a keeper league last night and drafted

Yasmani Grandal
Freddie Freeman
Ben Zobrist
Xander Boaegartes
Kyle Seager
Mike Trout
AJ Pollock
David Peralta
Yung Joc
Addison Russell
Mark Teixera
Christian Yelich
Delino Deshields
Joey Gallo

Jacob deGrom
Gerritt Cole
Chris Archer
Jeurys Familia
Dave Robertson
Masahiro Tanaka
Luis Severino
Yordano Ventura
Lucas Giolito
 
started a keeper league last night and drafted

Yasmani Grandal
Freddie Freeman
Ben Zobrist
Xander Boaegartes
Kyle Seager
Mike Trout
AJ Pollock
David Peralta
Yung Joc
Addison Russell
Mark Teixera
Christian Yelich
Delino Deshields
Joey Gallo

Jacob deGrom
Gerritt Cole
Chris Archer
Jeurys Familia
Dave Robertson
Masahiro Tanaka
Luis Severino
Yordano Ventura
Lucas Giolito

Predictions for Giolito? I scooped him and put him in my NA spot.
 
Him and Julio Urias are the two best pitching prospects in the game. He'll be up in June after the super two bs. Urias who knows but he's been big league ready for over a year now.
 
Pick 2 keepers... Nelson Cruz-Kyle Schwarber-Dee Gordon

Want to keep Gordon since that's a tough position to get production out off though
 
would it be crazy to take donaldson 2nd pick over goldy/clay/harper? i just hate taking OF/SP/1B early because theres so many players that produce in these spots and 3B seems limited 
 
would it be crazy to take donaldson 2nd pick over goldy/clay/harper? i just hate taking OF/SP/1B early because theres so many players that produce in these spots and 3B seems limited 

You could. But I'd personally rather have Goldy at 2
 
I get the gripes for rostering two C's but I'm torn on dropping one of Russell Martin or Realmuto. If I dropped one, I would pick up Brandon Moss or Matt Adams to backup Belt at 1B.

Thoughts?
 
NT league we drafted last night
9th pick. Went Correa, Betts, Kluber, Keuchel
View media item 1976848Round Pick Player Position
1. (9) Carlos Correa SS
2. (16) Mookie Betts OF
3. (33) Corey Kluber SP
4. (40) Dallas Keuchel SP
5. (57) Miguel Sano 3B
6. (64) Cole Hamels SP
7. (81) Jason Kipnis 2B
8. (88) Grégory Polanco OF
9. (105) Mark Melancon RP
10. (112) Steven Matz SP
11. (129) Jonathan Papelbon RP
12. (136) Jonathan Lucroy C,1B
13. (153) Lance McCullers SP
14. (160) Hanley Ramírez OF
15. (177) Jorge Soler OF
16. (184) Byron Buxton OF
17. (201) Randal Grichuk OF
18. (208) Jeremy Jeffress RP
19. (225) Marcell Ozuna OF
20. (232) Clay Buchholz SP
21. (249) Wil Myers 1B,OF
22. (256) Alex Cobb SP
23. (273) Aarón Sánchez SP,RP
 
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Here's my team for my categories league:

Thoughts on my team?

Also, with McCullers on the DL, which pitcher should I add off free agents? Anibal Sanchez, RA Dickey, Andrew Heaney, Edinson Volquez, Kevin Gausman, and Clay Bucholz are the best SPs available. Or, should I go the RP route where there are good closers available?
 
I get the gripes for rostering two C's but I'm torn on dropping one of Russell Martin or Realmuto. If I dropped one, I would pick up Brandon Moss or Matt Adams to backup Belt at 1B.

Thoughts?
Stay put. I typically don't even have much of a bench unless offense outweighs pitching points wise. I usually just dedicate those spots to pitchers.
 
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