2018 Retrospective: Team Performances and Results

Every year, I sit down to hold myself accountable to you, the reader. I believe it’s important for the people dispensing fantasy advice to prove their aptitude for the game. So without further ado, my team-by-team performances.

My number of teams increased this year despite knowing I would miss two weeks in June for a rafting trip. Ultimately, I settled on two 20 team dynasties, three ottoneu (semi-dynasty), two keepers, TGFBI, and a sim league. As you’ll notice, my league participation skews sharply towards long term modes. My attention was a little too divided to effectively manage all of these clubs.

Dynasties

The Devil’s Rejects: 3rd

This is deep format league with 20 teams, 45 player rosters, and 28 keepers per season. I co-manage with former RotoGraphist Chad Young. For the second straight season, we finished in third place. This time, we didn’t require any last minute heroics. In fact, we were in a close battle for second place until the final week. This was a bitterly disappointing result. Since joining the management team, Chad and I have placed sixth, fifth, third, and third. Entering the season, we had legitimate hopes for a first place finish.

College Dynasty League: 17th

This is a long running dynasty league populated with former Macalester College baseball players. Many of them played before my time, thus I only know a few of them personally. The league is unusual. It’s a 20 team dynasty, but only players who have already debuted are eligible to be rostered. Ronald Acuna, Juan Soto, and Shohei Ohtani – along with many other studs – are free agents. We keep 14 to 18 with a supplementary draft.

I took over a dumpster fire of a roster which basically consisted of Carlos Correa. My goal was to finish dead last. In that I failed in the most frustrating way possible. I can only assume none of the big three will reach me. I managed to draft Rhys Hoskins and swing trades for Alex Bregman, Max Muncy, Jose Peraza, Jurickson Profar, and Jesse Winker. I did my one rebuild season, now it’s time to contend.

I was also officially censured in this league – an article for another time (probably on my Patreon).

Ottoneu

FanGraphs Staff – 1st (reg) and 2nd (playoff)

This was both my best performance and the source of my greatest distress. We switched to the head-to-head format last winter, and I gotta say, I took full advantage of the change in format. I have two articles planned about this one team so I won’t elaborate now. It suffices to say I won the regular season with a 20-1 record. Then I lost the two-week finals with a series of epic unforced errors.

Pollack!

FanGraphs Staff Two – 2nd

The dynasty is over. After winning three consecutive seasons, The Tunnel of Herrera Indubitably was forced to settle for a second place finish. Victory was still within reach as of the start of the last week. Instead, my team limped to the finish.

Cody Wiewandt deserves credit for pulling out the win in his farewell tour. Over the course of the season, he dealt keepers for Jacob deGrom, Madison Bumgarner, Anthony Rizzo, Aroldis Chapman, Freddie Freeman, Khris Davis, Corey Kluber, Kris Bryant, Joey Votto, Max Scherzer, and George Springer. In retrospect, I have no idea how I kept it so close.

I traded for… Francisco Cervelli. I didn’t entertain offers on Juan Soto or Gleyber Torres which ultimately opened the door for Cody to acquire all of that talent.

Screw Cancer – 5th

Dave Cameron invited me to his Screw Cancer charity league then promptly ghosted on us. What a scrub! At one point, my roster had over $200 of it’s $400 budget sitting on the disabled list. I was in deep last place for most of the season but managed to claw back to fifth place. Encouraging.

I’ll be running a charity competition to recruit a co-owner for this league later in the offseason. The winner will fill the first chair. I’ll advise.

The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational

TGFBI – 3rd

Thanks to Justin Mason for administering this massive enterprise of 13 leagues of 15 teams. I do not envy you. The first year was a big success for Justin and the league. For me… not so much. Among my disastrous decisions included picking Byron Buxton, Robinson Cano, and Ken Giles. The Giles choice in particular hurt because I literally flipped a coin between him and Edwin Diaz. I had them as identical values.

Justin assures me we’ll be shifting away from a pure weekly format. That’s good news for me. I can’t stand weekly leagues. They make me angry. I walked away from this one for weeks at a time due to frustration.

Keepers

Home League – 3rd

This was another case of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in this 12 team 5×5 roto league. I went into the final week with a real chance at victory. I just needed to pull some waiver wire shenanigans. I went hunting for wins and strikeouts. What I got was the Worst Possible Result (post is mostly a picture).

College League – 7th (reg), 1st (playoff)

This is a 12 team head-to-head league with my former college teammates. Unlike the aforementioned college league, this one consists almost entirely of guys I played with during my four years. Honestly, I let this one slip through the cracks. With the help of Michael Conforto, Adalberto Mondesi, and others, I turned up the heat just in time for playoffs, making key waiver claims and getting back enough of my ace-heavy pitching staff to nab a few categories.