Fantasy baseball season is heating up. Dynasty drafts are escaping the early rounds, NFBC ADPs are starting to get a serious sample size behind them, and the interminable football season finally ended when Tom Brady didn’t see his shadow. If you’re waiting to get started on your 2020 baseball prep, well… stop waiting! Get crackin’.
Over the last week, a scandal has rocked the quiet rural community of Dynasty To Be Named Later (DTBNL). My attempts to chronicle the tale have undoubtedly made matters worse. For a full accounting of events, see Episode 1: Quantity Versus Quality and Episode 2: Dances With Rules.
If you’d rather read the short version of this heady action-thriller, here goes. Last time on Dynasty Drama…
Brad traded of Luis Urias, Cristian Pache, Ke’Bryan Hayes, and Taylor Trammell for Christian Yelich. He’s also the commissioner of DTBNL, a 25-team, keep-30 dynasty league. Outrage ensued, and the former Yelich-owner was peer-pressured into revoking the trade under the “24-hour revocability” rule in the league constitution. However, the revocation occurred during the 26th hour after the trade which led to extra-constitutional hijinx as the commissioner attempted to fairly resolve the dispute while simultaneously defending his interests…
We chatted. Past tense. Behold, a transcript.
| 3:59 |
: Let’s get things rolling.
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| 4:01 |
: What’s your prediction on Alex Cora’s punishment – has to be harsher than Hinch’s, right?
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| 4:02 |
: More than one year seems pretty extreme though. Perhaps 2 “sentences” and thus 2 years?
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| 4:02 |
: I’m of the opinion that the Astros penalty was light, but it’s not the suspensions to Hinch and Luhnow that were soft.
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| 4:03 |
: And they did basically issue the maximum allowed penalties.
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| 4:03 |
: How many times out of 10 do you take deGrom over Cole?
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It was a drama-filled week in my patron league Dynasty To Be Named Later (DTBNL). Last Friday, I penned a blow-by-blow account of the events leading up to and immediately following a Christian Yelich blockbuster trade in this 25-team, keep 30, roster 45 league. Now it’s time to tell episode two of the tale. It’s Dances With Rules, starring Kevin Costner.
Late last night, my co-owner Tom Trudeau and I pulled off a doozy of a blockbuster in Dynasty To Be Named Later (DTBNL), a semi-experimental 25-team league for my patrons. We roster 45 players and can keep 30 at no cost. The resulting chaos is promising to put a strain on some of the non-traditional features of this league. This post is, at its heart, a story. So let’s tell it chronologically.
On Monday, I laid out my thought process for selecting Mike Trout first overall in 2020. To summarize, we have several legitimate choices. Absent secret information, they’re all a shrug away from the same, albeit in slightly different shapes. Trout stands out because he’s been so consistently good for so long. The alternatives all have shorter track records or a chance to fall out of the top 30 players – even without an injury. By comparison, we know a healthy Trout is a monster fish.
Today we’ll take a peek at all the players you could reasonably select over Trout on draft day. Let’s toss them into a few buckets. ADPs are from NFBC.
The chat is completed. Below is a transcript for your pleasure.
| 3:58 |
: We’ll get started in a few moments. We’ll probably only run for a prompt hour because I’m fighting a silly cold (it’s not that bad).
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| 4:01 |
: I think I last saw J.D. Davis just inside the top 100 for hitters, how far do you think he would shoot up the rankings if the Mets declared him an every day starter?
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| 4:03 |
: It’s ’bout that time of year when I get to explain I don’t use rankings and therefore am not a good resource for related questions.
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| 4:03 |
: That said, I have a little trouble with his projections because he’s a high ground ball rate guy. That’s a blind spot for me.
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| 4:04 |
: Please let me know your strategy for the prospects 365 best ball draft, as we are in the same league
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| 4:05 |
: I have yet to consider a strategy! I’ll whip something together on the fly. Slow drafts are good for that.
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There’s a debate going around Twitter. If you want some cheap likes and retweets, try dropping this poll:
Who would you pick first overall?
Ronald Acuna
Other
If I had a Game of Thrones style house mantra, it would be “Retool, not Rebuild.” I had just such an opportunity in The Devil’s Rejects, a long-running 20-team, deep roster dynasty league filled with industry folk. We have 45-man rosters and keep 28 players at no cost. Scoring is 5×5 OBP roto.
In my opinion, the results of my retool were mixed. Shall we?
Make no mistake, the Houston Astros are not the only baseball team stealing signs. They’re simply the most cavalier with their flaunting of convention. They chose to be confident about their narrow reading of the rules. They allege their actions to steal signs were legal because they used an already existing outfield camera. Basically, they claim to have misinterpreted the rules. Clearly they broke the spirit if not the letter. We’ll see if they’re truly punished or merely slapped upon the wrists.
This, of course, isn’t about real teams stealing signs. I want to focus on the fantasy equivalent. Whether you think of it as sign stealing or “reading” an opponent like a poker player, there is indisputable value to predicting and anticipating the actions of your rivals. The comments are open for you to share the ways you steal signs.