2016 Scoresheet — A Work In Progress

Spring training has started and that means fantasy draft season is underway. One of my favorite drafts is the slow burn of my annual Scoresheet league, which — perhaps to your dismay — I brief you all on every single year.

Here’s a link to our league page, where you can scope it out for yourself.

For those unaware, Scoresheet is rooted in real-life strategy, where you build a full team complete with backups, bullpens and if you choose, a handful of minor leaguers. You can have 30 players “active” at any time, and can simply designate anyone as “minor leaguer” if you choose not to use them. Unfortunately, I had to do that with Dayan Viciedo last year. Hey, for a low price I took a chance on cheap pop against left-handed pitchers. It didn’t pan out.

In spite of a cavalcade of injuries to my rotation, I tied for first place with a 95-67 record. I was among the league leaders with a 3.35 ERA, which helped carry along a lineup that hit .260/.314/.405. I made a few trades along the way, picking up Danny Salazar, Carlos Gomez and Johnny Giavotella for Chris Sale among other moves, but ultimately ended up with a team that basically looked like this:

Starting Lineup:

C- Yasmani Grandal
1B- Jose Abreu
2B- Jonathan Schoop
3B- Danny Valencia
SS- Xander Bogaerts
LF- Gomez
CF- A.J. Pollock
RF- Jason Heyward
DH- some mix of Stephen Piscotty, and other outfielders when I used Jarrod Dyson in the OF

Bench:

C- Kurt Suzuki
IF- Eduardo Escobar
IF- Jed Lowrie
IF- Johnny Giavotella
IF/OF – Dustin Ackley
IF/OF – Nick Swisher
OF- Dyson
OF- Justin Maxwell
OF- Michael Saunders
OF- Domingo Santana

Rotation:

Sonny Gray
Danny Salazar
Masahiro Tanaka
Kyle Gibson
Andrew Heaney
Marcus Stroman
Ricky Nolasco
Chad Bettis
Tommy Milone

Bullpen:

Brad Ziegler
Casey Fien
Bryan Morris
Addison Reed
Shawn Kelley
Chaz Roe
Jason Frasor
Joba Chamberlain

Minor Leaguers:

Jose Berrios
Kohl Stewart
Phil Bickford
Jorge Alfaro
Reese McGuire
Isan Diaz
Lewis Brinson

Of course, there were injuries and mistakes. Saunders was drafted rather high and gave me nothing. Viciedo didn’t even surface in the big leagues in 2015. Javy Guerra was a wasted pick. But ultimately, I did just enough good things — Piscotty especially — to stem the tide and be in the thick of things in the postseason.

I’m hoping to do so again.

This league is a soft-10 keeper format. You can keep up to 10 MLB players — who have exhausted rookie eligibility — of which each costs you a pick up front of the draft. It’s like draft roulette. You could keep nobody and have the first few picks all to yourself, but you don’t know how many players other people who are keeping, and just how nice the pool of players will be. One year I kept just a few players and had the first three picks, which I used on Tanaka, Abreu and if memory serves correctly, Gray. And the top three players I lost in that were Salvador Perez, Yoenis Cespedes and Anthony Rendon. In retrospect, not too wild of a shift but it panned out nicely right off the bat, because Rendon hadn’t become a beast yet.

This year has been a particularly weak crop of players. Nando DiFino had the first four picks, and used them on Gio Gonzalez, Yasmany Tomas, Byung-ho Park and Marcus Semien.

So anyway, you can keep 10 big leaguers and then the minor leaguers you keep cost you picks from the back end of the draft, so guys like Berrios are a luxury. In a 35-round draft — before in-season supplementals — you don’t want to keep too many minor leaguers, because you’ll need most of that 30-man roster to get through the season. With that in mind, I only kept Berrios, Stewart, Diaz and Brinson. It hurt to throw back Alfaro, but I’ll still have the chance to grab him in the draft if it works out.

This left me with a pretty crowded keeper list. I ended up keeping:

Pitchers – Salazar, Tanaka, Stroman, Darvish
Catcher – Grandal
First Base – Abreu
Shortstop – Bogaerts
Outfield – Pollock, Heyward, Piscotty

Minors – Berrios, Stewart, Brinson

I traded Gray to Brent Gambill for Brendan Rodgers, and Gomez to Bret Sayre for Jeff Hoffman. I don’t love Hoffman especially in Colorado, but for whatever reason I don’t get any bites when I make guys available. I also moved Heaney for a round 17 pick, which is coming up soon. I would have possibly liked to get something for Gibson and/or Escobar, especially in light of who some other guys kept, but nevertheless it wasn’t to be. I believe in Gibson this year, but he was sniped from me before I could get him back in the draft.

My draft strategy is sort of two-fold: if there’s an obvious player who I love early as a position I can use, I’ll grab him. That’s pretty obvious. But I’m also cautious of finding guys in positions that are weak, such as second base. I still have to do that in this draft, but the best options are Danny Espinosa, Giavotella, Scooter Gennett and Jace Peterson. Who would you take?

So far, here’s the updated roster, with me making my round 16 selection tonight:

Starting Lineup:

C- Grandal
1B- Abreu
2B- open
3B- Trevor Plouffe (Round )
SS- Bogaerts
LF- Piscotty
CF- Pollock
RF- Heyward
DH- Justin Bour (Round 13)
I grabbed Eddie Rosario in Round 15. I couldn’t help myself, but he has some value after hitting lefties well last year — a good platoon partner for Bour who mashed righties last year– and can be used all over the outfield. And if he gets hit hard by the regression monster, that’s fine. I’m not relying too heavily on him. This should end up being a pretty good offense, and maybe better than last year. I sure hope so.

Rotation:

1. Tanaka
2. Salazar
3. Stroman
4. Matt Shoemaker (Round 12)
5. Ervin Santana (Round 14)
*Darvish

I figured I’d better fill it out with a decent five even with Darvish waiting in the wings. Santana had a strong finish to 2015 and should be a very fine No. 5. Martin Perez, Taylor Jungmann and Joe Kelly were the three starters picked right before Santana, so I don’t feel too bad about that pick. Shoemaker went after Mike Fiers, Phil Hughes, Tyler Duffey, Rich Hill, Edinson Volquez, Alex Wood and James Paxton in his round. He’s flawed, but I think there’s potential there.

I have not touched the bullpen yet, but plan to do so very, very soon. Having an extra 17th-round pick will help. So, what are your thoughts so far?





In addition to Rotographs, Warne writes about the Minnesota Twins for The Athletic and is a sportswriter for Sportradar U.S. in downtown Minneapolis. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Warne, or feel free to email him to do podcasts or for any old reason at brandon.r.warne@gmail-dot-com

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JRMaynemember
8 years ago

I like the team. Great season last year, for sure. I like the Plouffe pick, not as keen on the others.

I probably wouldn’t have made the Sale trade, but Danny Salazar might be really good.

A Bullpen of Doom is a key part of the Scoresheet Ascenscion Kit. In a soft-10, the BoD can be salvaged off the corpses of the dead more easily than in other formats, but it’s also nice to draft relievers well. I’d want a left-handed starter-eligible reliever to target my lefty-heavy nemeses with.

Good luck! (Also, Scoresheet is awesome. More people should try it.)