Justin Mason’s 2022 Apology Tour: Draft Champions #2

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October 17, 2022

2022 was the worst year I have ever had as a fantasy player. I played in 16 leagues and did not cash in a single one. The hard part is that I don’t even know what went wrong. I had teams I really liked coming out of the draft and some that were doing very well throughout the season. Over the next few weeks I will deep dive into each team in a series of articles to examine what went wrong and what the common threads were. This is my 2022 Apology Tour.

The fifth team I am covering in my apology tour is my second draft of the year. The draft was a slow draft that began on January 2, 2022. This was a 50 round draft and hold league. It is 5×5 roto with 15 teams. The league had a number of great industry and non-industry players in it and I finished 14th.

Draft Champions #2 Standings
Rank Team Overall Rank Hitting Pitching Points
1 Billboard Heroes DC 4 336 44 67 111
2 Bookies 722 47.5 51.5 99
3 ZITO 938 67 31 98
4 Arneson DC 1090 50 43.5 93.5
5 Solsbury Hill 1207 41 51.5 92.5
6 Gabal 1700 48 42 90
7 DC12 1414 32 57.5 89.5
8 Hollow DC.1 2076 48.5 34 82.5
9 Entrekin 2309 33 47 80
10 Ray@HQ DC1 2729 51.5 26 77.5
11 Sons of Rickey Henderson 2737 27 45.5 72.5
12 Waxman 2967 32.5 38 70.5
13 Sporer DC v1 3684 14 42 56
14 MasChampions2 4275 35 10.5 45.5
15 Teixeira 4520 29 13 42

 

The Draft
With the league being a draft and hold, the draft is clearly the most important part of the league. I got the ninth pick and had a very nice start with Kyle Tucker and Freddie Freeman until the wheels fell off:

Justin Mason’s DC #2 Draft
Player Round Pick Pos
Tucker, Kyle 1 9 OF
Freeman, Freddie 2 22 1B
Giolito, Lucas 3 39 P
Lynn, Lance 4 52 P
Castellanos, Nick 5 69 OF
Flaherty, Jack 6 82 P
Straw, Myles 7 99 OF
Varsho, Daulton 8 112 C
Cronenworth, Jake 9 129 CI
Taylor, Chris 10 142 MI
Meadows, Austin 11 159 OF
Cruz, Nelson 12 172 UT
Floro, Dylan 13 189 P
Lopez, Nicky 14 202 SS
Cruz, Oneil 15 219 SS
McCullers Jr., Lance 16 232 P
Trivino, Lou 17 249 P
Biggio, Cavan 18 262 3B
Quantrill, Cal 19 279 P
Arraez, Luis 20 292 CI
Wisdom, Patrick 21 309 3B
Finnegan, Kyle 22 322 P
Gibson, Kyle 23 339 P
Dozier, Hunter 24 352 3B
Bender, Anthony 25 369 P
Bradley, Bobby 26 382 1B
Flexen, Chris 27 399 P
Jeffers, Ryan 28 412 C
Steckenrider, Drew 29 429 P
Ramirez, Harold 30 442 OF
Severino, Pedro 31 459 C
Larnach, Trevor 32 472 OF
Olivares, Edward 33 489 OF
Irvin, Cole 34 502 P
Maldonado, Martin 35 519 C
VanMeter, Josh 36 532 2B
Tucker, Cole 37 549 SS
Senzatela, Antonio 38 562 P
White, Evan 39 579 1B
Fraley, Jake 40 592 OF
Hudson, Daniel 41 609 P
Duffey, Tyler 42 622 P
Suter, Brent 43 639 P
Espino, Paolo 44 652 P
Smith, Caleb 45 669 P
Vilade, Ryan 46 682 OF
Chafin, Andrew 47 699 P
Baty, Brett 48 712 3B
Petit, Yusmeiro 49 729 P
Leon, Pedro 50 742 OF

The clear issues were in my pitching and a complete lack of power. First, I ended up not prioritizing saves and that was a mistake. In this format you have to draft good closers because there are no in-season pickups. I ended up getting just 28 saves with Kyle Finnegan (10), Lou Trivino (8), Anthony Bender (2), and Dylan Floro (2). More frustrating, I left 24 saves on my bench which was the difference between 13th place in the category and 5th.

More importantly was my poor drafting of starters. My only starter that threw more than 160 innings was Cal Quantrill and my only pitcher with more than 140 strikeouts was Lucas Giolito and they are the only two pitchers on my team that won double digit games. The other issue with my starting pitching I had was injuries. Lance Lynn and Lance McCullers were good, but they missed a lot of time and time equals volume. Obviously, drafting Giolito was a mistake, but the bigger mistake was not getting the volume from the other guys. Once again, I did not prioritize loading up on mod-round starters and that was a mistake.

Offensively I was ok. I definitely lacked power since I was relying on guys like Nelson Cruz, Austin Meadows, Nick Castellanos, and Bobby Bradley to help give me 20+ homers a piece. Those five picks were devastating for me especially because if I had replaced them with guys I liked a lot that went after them like Pete Alonso, Hunter Renfroe, Nathaniel Lowe, and Nolan Gorman my offense would have looked a lot better. Obviously it is easy to look in retrospect and say that, but all four of the guys I drafted had red flags that I ignored.

 

The Conclusion
I think the common thing for me with this draft and my first DC was that I did not prioritize mid-round pitching and it really cost me. I also did not lock up enough saves. The power woes were a matter of not getting the right guys, but I can see that it was not a strategic issue but a player analysis issue. I am in my first draft right now for 2023 and it will be important for my to hammer pitching early enough that I am not so reliant on late pitching.





 

Justin is the co-host on The Sleeper and The Bust Podcast and writes for Rotographs covering the Roto Riteup as well as other periodic articles. In addition to his work at Rotographs, Justin is the lead fantasy writer/analyst and co-owner for FriendswithFantasyBenefits.com, and the owner of The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational. He is also a certified addiction treatment counselor. Follow Justin on Twitter @JustinMasonFWFB.

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Sonnyj9
2 years ago

As painful as these may be for you to write, I am enjoying and learning from them. Thanks JM!

Last edited 2 years ago by Sonnyj9
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