FantasyPros Draft Wrap
A little over a week ago I did a draft with some industry folks representing Fangraphs (Rotographs) on FantasyPros. Some of the more identifiable names in the league include Al Melchior and Jim Sannes, and ultimately we did a 10-team draft with FanDuel scoring.
What’s FanDuel scoring? Have a peek:
We have 25-man rosters with no bench spots. It makes for a unique drafting strategy — even in a redraft — in that it might make it tougher to take young players whose jobs aren’t totally sewn up yet. There were a lot of unique strategies in play here. One of my chief strategies in drafts is to take 30 divided by the number of teams in the league, then add one to see how many closers I want to draft.
It’s not exactly a high-brow strategy, but I like to have one more closer than people who shirk the position. In this format, with saves worth six points, I think that’ll pay off, as I grabbed four of the best closers in the game.
First, here’s a look at the first 10 rounds and how they played out:
I wouldn’t say I really have any regrets after the first 10 rounds. In a two-catcher format — even in a 10-team league — I like to get out in front of the position and I think I did a good job of that. Even if/when Gary Sanchez takes his inevitable step back, he’s still a luxurious second catcher. I wanted either him or Willson Contreras, and think I did well there.
Here’s how the final product looked:
League mate Bobby Sylvester wrote up every team after the draft. Here’s what he had to say about my club:
Finally, here were the best players available after the draft:
…somehow, two of my last picks were Puig and Pederson. So what do you think? I think I’m pretty well positioned in a league like this, but I’m willing to hear people who differ. Let’s continue the chat in the comments!
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
Bravo. You banked the positions with scarcity and floated those that are likely to have unforeseen hits available on the wire- I love it. With no K penalty for hitters there will be a mob OF available with a similar number of points.
Thanks. I literally love every single player I took.
Obviously I can’t be too confident in saying this without seeing everybody’s full roster, but based on the first 10 rounds, you’re getting smoked.
You took a high-risk (and you hope) high reward approach in both your overall strategy (taking catchers and closers early at the expense of outfielders and starting pitchers) and in your individual selections (Sanchez over Lucroy? Lucrow is a safer pick and was available a round later) (Bogaerts over Kluber?).
Your league format is quite the opposite of mine — your league is very shallow, so there’s a lot that can be picked on the waiver wire; your league also count points differently. Perhaps your approach will work well.
You clearly love how you value the players you picked; that can be a double-edged sword, helpful when you are right, but vulnerable when you don’t play close enough attention to the developing marketplace in any auction or draft. I prefer a more balanced approach myself, but I am in an extremely deep league that rosters 480 players for just the A.L., so there is much less room to correct course when you swing hard and miss.
The bullpen is fantastic but your rotation, in a ten teamer, is an abomination.
It’s a points league. You could have your worst 7 players be starting pitchers and it wouldn’t make any difference. There’s no cap or diminishing returns when it comes to having dominant hitters like there is in a roto/H2H league.
Makes sense to take relievers with saves worth half as much as a win. More 40 save guys than 20 win guys.
Can you make the chart with the first ten rounds a “click to embiggen” chart? As it stands it’s an eye test that I’m failing badly.
This is a fun strategy, but not too sure how well it is going to work for you.
With so many points given to IP, a top bullpen may not do as much.
For example, Steemer projects Jansen and Davis to be about 675 Points in your league, but players like Quintana, Hamels and CMart to be about 1050 points.
So I assume you are planning on streaming starters all year?
HRs count for a lot in your league. Maybe you should’ve taken an extreme power guy who has decent on base skills like Kendrys Morales