There is nothing quite like Scoresheet. Like with other sim games, you’re the manager as well as the GM, making lineup, substitution and baserunning decisions over a full season’s schedule of games, but like traditional fantasy, you’re making those decisions based on how you expect players to perform in the current season. The unique nature of the game makes for unique drafting, where defense, handedness and platoon splits are important factors to consider.

I just completed my draft in the BP Kings industry league, where we filled out our 35-player rosters after submitting a keeper list of no more than 10 players. My team missed the postseason in 2019, but went 88-74 with a league-best 3.60 ERA. The team also had the third-lowest average of runs scored per game (4.5) out of 24 teams, so it’s fitting that half of my 10 keepers were pitchers. That was after throwing back useful relievers like Taylor Rogers, Giovanny Gallegos, Yusmeiro Petit and José Leclerc into the draft pool. I wound up keeping my rotation of Charlie Morton, Luis Castillo, Mike Minor, Aníbal Sánchez and Adrian Houser intact, while carrying over Eugenio Suárez, Franmil Reyes, Alex Verdugo, Kolten Wong and Elvis Andrus as the core of my offense and defense.
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For many Scoresheet owners, keepers have been submitted in their leagues and drafts are about to commence. If you find yourself with a vacancy at a position, and you’re not excited about the players who are available to fill that spot, you may be able to find a suitable arrangement by drafting a platoon.

There are not too many players who get a large enough platoon adjustment against right-handed pitchers to make them desirable as platoon options, and even fewer who are likely to be available for drafting in a keeper league. (All of Scoresheet’s 2020 platoon adjustments are available on their site.) However, the three players below are all good candidates to be used in the larger part of a platoon, and none is likely to have been protected other than in extremely deep leagues or leagues that have an unusually large number of protection slots. All three hitters, for example, are available to be drafted in the 24-team mixed Baseball Prospectus Kings league.

I’ll make the case for each player, pair them up with prospective platoon partners and compare them against a more popular option at their position.
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Hey guys, it’s been a minute since I’ve posted but I’m knee-deep into Scoresheet season and thought I’d bring you the yearly update.

I’m in the BP Kings Scoresheet league — loosely affiliated with Baseball Prospectus — and it’s both leagues with a soft-10 keeper setup. You can keep up to 10 major leaguers, with each player sacrificing a pick atop the draft, and as many minor leaguers as you want, counting rounds back from 35.

The short explanation is that you build a full MLB roster — utility players, middle relievers, the whole gamut — with up to 30 players active at any given time. I’ve had some good seasons and some bad seasons, but I think we’re lined up to be fairly solid this year.

Also, it’s a 24-team league — so keep that in mind.

Here’s a look at how previous seasons have gone:

2017: Panik at the Sisco – 78-84
2016: Jedd, Ed and Eddie – 88-74
2015: Wasted Aces – 95-67
2014: Ricky Nolasco is not very good – 95-67
2013: new Warne order – 76-86
2012: Warne – 76-86
2011: Warnhardt Dynasty – 68-94

So yeah, last year didn’t go great — though we finished nine games out and were in the mix late into the season — but we’re looking to get back over .500 and into contention.

First, let’s dive into the keeper portion of things. A lot of times I have trouble figuring out who I’m going to keep — usually due to quality, which I swear is not me bragging — but this time around I was looking at who everyone else was dangling in trades prior to the deadline, and ended up making a couple moves to use up my last two slots of 10.

These are the eight MLB keepers I started out with (no particular order):

Marcus Stroman, SP – Toronto Blue Jays
Masahiro Tanaka, SP – New York Yankees
Yasmani Grandal, C – Los Angeles Dodgers
Xander Bogaerts, SS – Boston Red Sox
Andrew Benintendi, OF – Boston Red Sox
Jose Abreu, 1B – Chicago White Sox
Danny Salazar, SP – Cleveland Indians
Joe Panik, 2B – San Francisco Giants

I realize not all of these are popular picks, but with Salazar I’m gambling on the talent and with Panik, I just felt like second base was going to be super shallow.

I also selected eight minor-league keepers, which is….kind of a lot?

Fernando Romero, SP – Minnesota Twins
Chance Sisco, C – Baltimore Orioles
Isan Diaz, IF – Miami Marlins
Brendan Rodgers, IF – Colorado Rockies
Brent Rooker, 1B/DH – Minnesota Twins
Alex Kirilloff, 1B/OF – Minnesota Twins
Lewis Brinson, OF – Miami Marlins
Trevor Hildenberger, RP – Minnesota Twins

Couple things here….first of all, I never keep relievers, but Hildy was just under the innings threshold, so as a minor-league keeper he’s easily defensible as using a 28th-round pick on. I like to prioritize talent in the middle of the field, but Rooker will give me the chance to have a masher who is almost MLB ready, Brinson will start for the Marlins and I’ve heard good things about Kirilloff’s swing and polish despite his age and having missed all last season.

And I’ll be honest, these aren’t the weirdest MiLB keepers in the league. Here are some I’ve seen: Tyler Beede, Mitch Garver, Dan Vogelbach, Bobby Bradley and Lourdes Gurriel, to name a few.

Anyway, here’s how I filled out my final two spots:

• Round 16 pick traded for Sean Manaea – pick used to select Adam Wainwright
• Round 20 pick traded for Aaron Hicks – pick used to select Nate Jones

I would say those are both net wins for me in the trade department.

Now onto my actual picks in the draft (with rationale):

Rd 11: James McCann, C – Detroit Tigers

Catchers are in rare supply in this league, and I have two guys who’ll start, which is a luxury. McCann also crushes lefties (.928 OPS) which is the perfect platoon partner for Grandal (.790 v. RHP last year, .824 the year before). I don’t know what to make of Sisco as a prospect, but I always like to have a catcher in that group since up-the-middle talent reigns supreme. I think this was a fine pick. (Players selected before and after, in order: Adam Duvall, Sean Newcomb)

Rd 12: Jorge Polanco, SS – Minnesota Twins

I’m a huge Polanco fan. He never looks rattled at the plate, makes a ton of contact and is getting better defensively at short. He had a super rough start last year — coinciding with the death of his grandfather — but was insanely good in the second half (.293/.359/.511). Maybe I’m in the minority, but I think he’ll be a keeper for me. It’ll be dicey with Bogaerts on the team, but nobody offered me anything reasonable for him. I was hoping to get a stud third baseman, but the best offer was Travis Shaw. I like Shaw, but if I’m moving up-the-middle talent that’s still just 25 years old, I need more. (Mike Foltynewicz, Kevin Pillar)

Rd 13: Carlos Rodon, SP – Chicago White Sox

I know he isn’t fully healthy, but since I went into the draft with four keeper starters, I felt I could take a gamble like this. Getting a potential long-term keeper in the 13th was huge for me, and I have backfilled the rotation to allow me to wait out this injury. (Jhoulys Chacin, Matt Harvey)

Rd 14: Jerad Eickhoff, SP – Philadelphia Phillies

I don’t think Eickhoff is a stud, but if he simply repeats 2017 he’s a decent enough No. 5 starter and if he repeats 2016, he’s more like a No. 3-4. He doesn’t do anything spectacularly, but he’s good enough to round out my rotation — for now. And for crying out loud, wait until you see who I selected him after. (Jordan Zimmermann, Luis Perdomo)

Rd 15: Ben Zobrist, UTIL – Chicago Cubs

There’s certainly a chance Zobrist is washed, but if he’s not, I’m more than happy to give him a shot as my top utility guy with no pressure to start him. He’s good Panik and Brinson insurance, if nothing else. (Jed Lowrie, Keibert Ruiz)

Rd 17: Derek Dietrich, 3B/OF – Miami Marlins

I didn’t want to wait this long to add a third baseman, but none of the options were really that great earlier in the draft so I kept letting the spot drift. I had my eye on Eduardo Escobar, but he went a round earlier to Mike Gianella, and two rounds before that was Matt Davidson. To me, it really came down to Dietrich and Chase Headley. Neither hit lefties, but I decided to go with the guy I felt had a stronger grasp as a full-time player plus fewer age concerns. It’s a low ceiling, but whatever. (Hunter Pence, Jorge Bonifacio)

Rd 18: Matt Joyce, OF/DH – Oakland A’s

I ran to the podium to make this selection. I had Zobrist penciled in as my DH for the time being, but I’ll happily grab a guy who hit .243/.335/.473 last year. It’s an obvious platoon situation — he had a .855/.537 split last year — but there just were not many DH-type quality bats left at this juncture. (Keon Broxton, Enrique Hernandez)

Rd 21: Jarrod Dyson, OF – Arizona Diamondbacks

I did some moving a dealing to grab a couple extra picks late — this is how I build a bullpen on the fly — and as a result have two 21s in the span of three picks. Dyson doesn’t offer a ton with the bat, but has insane defensive range in this league, which makes him a terrific backup option. I had my eye on him for about 3-4 rounds prior to this. (Brandon Moss, Heliot Ramos)

Rd 21: Adam Conley, SP – Miami Marlins

Blech. But with that said, there just wasn’t anything interesting available as far as starters are concern. The previous starter picked was Seth Lugo, who I like but has no firm path to innings in the rotation, and the next starter taken was James Shields. So yeah, I’ll take a shot on a guy one year removed from back-to-back sub-4.00 ERAs with some strikeouts and no real competition for his job. Scraping our head on a low ceiling, but it’s what you gotta do. (Ramos, Garrett Cooper)

Rd 22: A.J. Cole, SP – Washington Nationals

He’s penciled in as their No. 5 starter, and I made sure to wait out the Jake Arrieta and Lance Lynn signings. They could still sign Alex Cobb and mess this up, but in the meantime, he’s fine as a No. 6-7 starter. Better than the vaunted ‘Triple-A starter’ that Scoresheet saddles you with if you don’t have a player for that spot. Last year, I had enough pitchers that I only had 2.1 (scoreless) innings thrown by “Triple-A pitcher.” One team had 84.2 innings thrown by him last year — with a 9.57 ERA. Another had 288 innings from him (!) at a 10.44 ERA. So yeah, we’ll go with Cole, here. (Cheslor Cuthbert, Nick Goody)

Rd 23: Victor Martinez, DH – Detroit Tigers

All I’m hoping for here is some dead-cat bounce so I can have a bench bat or maybe a starting DH v. LHP. Anything more is a huge bonus. After a rough year last year both health-wise (heart) and on the field (.255/.324/.372), is it too much to ask for any sort of bounce back from a 39-year-old hitter? Probably. But I don’t like any of the relievers enough to prioritize them over one final bat. (Junior Guerra, Tony Cingrani)

Rd 23: Darren O’Day, RP – Baltimore Orioles

Time to build a bullpen. Hildenberger and O’Day have some fun similarities in how they deliver the ball, but nevertheless, both have stable roles in their ‘pens. Do I love that O’Day is 35? Not necessarily, but he’s never been a velo guy, fixed his homer issue in a year where everyone else’s rates got screwed, and he’s fanned 11-plus batters per nine in each of the last three years.  I’ll also gladly take O’Day here as opposed to some of these guys, and where they went: Juan Nicasio (Rd 18), Justin Wilson (Rd 18), Blake Parker (Rd 19), Blake Treinen (Rd 19), Tony Watson (Rd 18), Brad Brach (Rd 20), Anthony Swarzak (Rd 20), Andrew Chafin (Rd 20), Emilio Pagan (Rd 20), Brian Duensing (Rd 21) and some others, too. (Miguel Gonzalez, Cory Gearrin)

Rd 23: Jacob Barnes, RP – Milwaukee Brewers

What I love about Barnes here is that he has no real splits (.299/.277 wOBA) and an insane swinging-strike rate (15.4 percent). He’s not super deep on the team’s bullpen depth chart, but should have a chance to repeat last year’s 72 innings, which is more than enough. I also like that he induces grounders at a 50-plus percent rate, and with some normalizing of his HR/FB rate could be a real bullpen beast. He averaged nearly 97 mph on his fastball last year and the whiff rate on his slider was an insane 24.4 percent. I think this is a sneaky good pick, personally. (Wade Miley, Matt Adams)

Rd 24: Matt Barnes, RP – Boston Red Sox

With three picks between Jacob and Matt, I actually wrote up an entire Matt blurb to post here before taking it down and grabbing Jacob first. There are lots of guys who can get you a 3.80 ERA with more than a strikeout per inning and three-plus walks per nine, but Matt has back-to-back years of 65-plus innings — important, since Triple-A reliever looms — and is relatively safe with just Craig Kimbrel and Carson Smith ahead of him in the Sox bullpen. As much as I’d like to grab someone else maybe a bit more risky with a higher ceiling, right now I’m starting the year with a seven-man bullpen, so I need to nail each of these picks — as much as possible. (Greg Holland, Drew Robinson)

Rd 24: Jake McGee, RP – Colorado Rockies

I feel like McGee showed us last year that he can hang in Coors after a rough first season, as he had a 3.61 ERA (2.93 FIP), 9.1 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 while keeping the ball in the yard (0.6 HR/9), somehow. Either way, I’m sprinting to the podium to make this pick, as McGee is a truly elite reliever when he’s right — a rare find at this time of the draft. (Chris Rusin, A.J. Ramos)

Rd 24: Ryan Pressly, RP – Minnesota Twins

The home run problems were inexplicable — though I think they may magically vanish across the league this year — but the secondary numbers were markedly better for Pressly. Also, as a fifth or six reliever, who wouldn’t love to have a guy throwing 96 mph cheddar with a nasty curve and a good slider? Process > results, my friends. (Ramos, Wilmer Difo)

Rd 24 (acquired in trade for next year’s 22, this year’s 41): Joe Biagini, SP/RP – Toronto Blue Jays

I don’t love Biagini, but I need the backup in my rotation — for Stroman and the inexplicably sent-down Conley — and when he was a reliever, he was really good in 2016 (3.06 ERA, 8.3 K/9, 2.5 BB/9, 52.2% GB rate, 11.5% swinging-strike rate). I’ll take it.

Picks remaining (I’ll come back and update as they’re done):

• Rd 27

I’ve already put in a request to trade for at least one more pick — we’ll see if it’s answered — but I’ll have a cobbled together bullpen. I still think it’ll be fairly solid.

Anyway, I’m left with a roster of:

Starting Lineup

C – Grandal
1B – Abreu
2B – Panik
3B – Dietrich
SS – Bogaerts
LF – Benintendi
CF – Hicks
RF – Brinson
DH – Joyce

Bench

C – McCann (will start v. LHP)
IF – Polanco
IF/OF – Zobrist
OF – Dyson
Bat – V. Martinez

Rotation

SP Stroman
SP Tanaka
SP Manaea
SP Salazar
SP Eickhoff
—
SP Rodon
SP Conley
SP A. Cole

Bullpen

RP Hildenberger
RP O’Day
RP J. Barnes
RP M. Barnes
RP McGee
RP Pressly
SP/RP Biagini

Prospects

C Sisco
IF Diaz
IF Rodgers
SP Romero
1B/OF Rooker
OF Kirilloff

To me, that’s maybe an 86-88 win team. Thoughts?

It’s that time of year again: Scoresheet prep time! For those of you unaware, Scoresheet is a league where you build a full 25-man-type roster (you get up to 30 active players) complete with bench players, full bullpens and so on.

Here’s our league page, for instance.

I’ve had fairly good clubs over the last couple seasons. I was 88-74 last season as “Jedd, Ed and Eddie” and 95-67 in 2015 as “Wasted Aces” — because I had Yu Darvish, Marcus Stroman and Masahiro Tanaka. Welp! The 2014 season was also solid (95-67), as my team was named aptly as “Ricky Nolasco is not very good.” Basically, I haven’t finished under .500 since team “new Warne order” — don’t ask — went 76-86 in 2013, so maybe I’m starting to get the hang of it?

The way Scoresheet works is that you keep major league players and minor league players. Any player who is still eligible to win Rookie of the Year is considered minor-league eligible. Those players cost you picks starting from the back of the 35-round draft. So, if you keep five rookies, your last pick would be in the 30th round. Keeping MLB players costs you picks at the front of the draft, so there’s obviously some strategy at play here. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve already hit you all with my 10 hot takes for the season, but we’re still a couple Fridays away from firm fantasy stuff for me to write about. So this week, I’ll show you all my final Scoresheet roster with a breakdown, and you can all skewer me for mistakes you think I made. Next week I’ll go over my Ottoneu roster and you can do the same.

I’m sure that’s very thrilling for you.

Here are a few league resources if you’re interested:

Team list and rosters
Draft page
League page

Anyway, earlier in the draft season — Scoresheet is about a month-long draft — I shared the progress I’d made to that point in the season. Well the draft wrapped up within the last few days, and for the most part, I’m happy about the team that I’ve got.

Have a look:

Starting Lineup

C- Yasmani Grandal
1B- Jose Abreu
2B- Scooter Gennett
3B- Trevor Plouffe
SS- Xander Bogaerts
LF- Stephen Piscotty
CF- A.J. Pollock
RF- Jason Heyward
DH- Justin Bour Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week we took a look at my Ottoneu build, and this week I’d like to take a look at the recap from another successful season in Scoresheet.

I play in the BP Kings league — which has Baseball Prospectus roots — and have put together some pretty solid seasons. Here’s a look back at the season-ending standings for as long as I’ve been in the league.

2015 – Wasted Aces – 95-67 (tied for 1st)
2014 – Four Aces and a Nolasco – 95-67 (2nd)
2013 – new Warne order – 76-86 (tied for 2nd)
2012 – Warne – 76-86 (3rd)
2011 – Warnhardt Dynasty – 68-94 (last) Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve written at length about my Scoresheet team, and with us now nearly on the eve of the season, drafting has ceased and rosters are set. Today, I’d like to share my completed roster to be ripped apart by readers. How’s that sound?

If you haven’t tuned in before — and believe me, I get that — Scoresheet is basically a real-life based simulation where you put together an entire roster — up to 30 active players at a time — including utility players, relievers, and a few minor leaguers if you so desire. There’s no limit of how many guys you can roster, but the keeper rules exist to keep that number pretty low.

Any player you keep — up to 10 — that qualifies as a major leaguer based on service time costs you a pick up front. Any minor leaguer you keep costs you a pick counting back from round 35. There are supplementals during the year to fill rosters more fully as well as to disperse recently drafted players, and there are also dispersal drafts in the offseason when teams drop out and new ones join so that newcomers get a relatively fair shake.

I had a very strong keeper list, and for some reason nobody was all that interested in trading me much for guys I couldn’t otherwise keep. Also keep in mind, a number of these guys were healthy when I submitted my keeper list a couple months ago. Read the rest of this entry »

To atone for time missed due to the Arizona trip, I figured I’d fire up a quick hitter about where we’re at with the BP Kings Scoresheet draft.

As many of you may well know, I’m in year four of this league which originally sprouted via the Baseball Prospectus family — hence the BP. It’s a very competitive league, and one I finally found myself at the forefront of with a 90-plus win season last year thanks to a very strong rotation.

This year, well, I’m already snakebitten.

It’s a 24-team, AL and NL league with a slow draft that is roughly half done rounds-wise — maybe more like one-third done picks wise — as we slog through the 16th round today.

I have a few questions to crowdsource, but here’s where I’m at right now. Please keep in mind that my keepers list was submitted in February. Big league keepers cost you front end picks (up to 10) while minor league keepers cost you picks counting back from round 30 — which is the length of the original draft. Every two months we have a two-round supplemental, including after the MLB draft in June.

You field essentially a 25-man roster — you can roster more guys but it’s a full MLB roster concept — so that means you need backups, bullpens and so on.

Keepers (in no real order):
1. Jose Abreu 1B
2. Xander Bogaerts 3B
3. A.J. Pollock CF
4. Jason Heyward RF
5. Chris Sale SP
6. Masahiro Tanaka SP
7. Yu Darvish SP (ouch)
8. Marcus Stroman SP (ouch 2.o)
9. Sonny Gray SP
10. Yasmani Grandal C Read the rest of this entry »

One thing I like to do with our readers is crowdsource strategy. Not that I’m like people who ask 10 different experts on Twitter about a possible trade, but just that I like to get the creative juices flowing, and our readership is pretty good for that.

A couple weeks ago I asked you all about Ottoneu strategy, and today I’m going to ask you about Scoresheet strategy. Read the rest of this entry »