Justin Mason’s 2022 Apology Tour: TGFBI

by
October 26, 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 eleventh team I am covering in my apology tour was my ninth draft of the year. The draft was a slow draft that began on February 28, 2022. This was a 30 round draft with weekly FAAB. It is 5×5 roto with 15 teams and an overall. The league was packed with great fantasy analysts. I finished 15th.

TGFBI Standings
Rank Team Overall Rank Hitting Pitching Points
1 Rainey TGFBI 11 56 66.5 122.5
2 Biery TGFBI 31 51 57.5 108.5
3 Christensen 40 38 69.5 107.5
4 Carter 62 48 52.5 100.5
5 Vreeland 152 63 36.5 99.5
6 EISEN 138 48 44.5 92.5
7 KDo TGFBI 188 41 40.5 81.5
8 Stav 234 42.5 36 78.5
9 Mirza 217 23.5 52 75.5
10 Verougstraete 273 46 25.5 71.5
11 NickRichardsHQ 293 46 24 70
12 Danfu 350 43 15.5 58.5
13 ANDERSON 404 8 40 48
14 GEHMAN 396 34 13.5 47.5
15 TGFBMason 445 12 26 38

The Draft
Like many other drafts I had, the draft started strong with Gerrit Cole and Zack Wheeler before falling apart again.

Justin Mason’s TGFBI Draft
Round Pick Player Pos
1 8 Cole, Gerrit P
2 23 Wheeler, Zack P
3 38 Story, Trevor SS
4 53 Mondesi, Adalberto 3B
5 68 Chapman, Aroldis P
6 83 Smith, Will P
7 98 Martinez, J.D. OF
8 113 Haniger, Mitch OF
9 128 LeMahieu, DJ 1B
10 143 Cron, C.J. CI
11 158 Mahle, Tyler P
12 173 Segura, Jean MI
13 188 Cruz, Nelson UT
14 203 Ryu, Hyun Jin P
15 218 Schwindel, Frank CI
16 233 Diaz, Elias C
17 248 Sanchez, Gary C
18 263 Patino, Luis P
19 278 Kepler, Max OF
20 293 Canha, Mark OF
21 308 Villar, Jonathan 3B
22 323 Heaney, Andrew P
23 338 Lewis, Kyle OF
24 353 Zimmer, Bradley OF
25 368 Corbin, Patrick P
26 383 Pearson, Nate P
27 398 Stratton, Chris P
28 413 Neris, Hector P
29 428 Keller, Mitch P
30 443 Sosa, Edmundo 2B

So as you can see, my draft was an absolute disaster. I was crushed with injuries. Losing Trevor Story, Adalberto Mondesi, Mitch Haniger, Jean Segura, and Hyun Jin Ryu 류현진 were massive losses. Aside from the plethora of injuries, I took closers early and neither kept the job long term with Will Smith losing it prior to the season. Huge regressions from J.D. Martinez, Nelson Cruz, Frank Schwindel, and Elias Diaz were killers. This obviously put me in a pretty big hole to start the season, but unlike many of the leagues I have already discussed, this league had weekly faab so it was not impossible to overcome a bad draft.

 

April
I have become much more aggressive in April than I used to be because if you can hit in those pickups, then you get those players for longer which translates into a bigger boost. I made a number of pickups, most notable Jorge Lopez for Hector Neris on 4/10. Lopez would go on to lead my team in daves with 18 saves, 56 strikeouts, a 2.04 ERA and a WHIP in 53 innings. My other April pickups didn’t work out well.

Justin Mason’s TGFBI April FAAB Pick Ups
Date Team Add Drop Bid Runner-Up
4/3 TGFBMason CJ Abrams Edmundo Sosa $61 –
4/3 TGFBMason Spencer Howard Nate Pearson $13 –
4/3 TGFBMason Adam Engel Bradley Zimmer $3 –
4/10 TGFBMason Jorge Lopez Hector Neris $17 –
4/10 TGFBMason Carlos Hernandez Spencer Howard $7 $1
4/10 TGFBMason Aristides Aquino Adam Engel $4 –
4/17 TGFBMason Hansel Robles Luis Patino $13 –
4/17 TGFBMason Lane Thomas Kyle Lewis $7 $1
4/17 TGFBMason Chad Pinder Aristides Aquino $7 –
4/24 TGFBMason Brad Keller Patrick Corbin $27 $18
4/24 TGFBMason Willie Calhoun Chad Pinder $15 –
4/24 TGFBMason Jakob Junis Will Smith $7 –
Total Spent $181
FAAB Left $819

While Lopez was a great pickup, I clearly overspent on players I didn’t need to. I also didn’t pick up any impact players and by the end of the month, I was in last place in the league.

 

May
In May I continued my aggressive moves knowing that if I didn’t dig myself out of the hole I was in from my draft and April, I would have a hard time competing. I felt like I had to as I lost Mondesi and Haniger so I spent a lot of money on Alek Thomas and Nolan Gorman. Gorman kind of worked out and Thomas was a pretty decent bust. However, I picked up Martin Perez who would go on to be second on my team in innings with 155.1 while giving me 138 strikeouts, 11 wins, a 3.25 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP.

Justin Mason’s TGFBI May FAAB Pick Ups
Date Team Add Drop Bid Runner-Up
5/1 TGFBMason Daulton Jefferies Carlos Hernandez $27 $8
5/1 TGFBMason Cesar Hernandez Adalberto Mondesi $27 $6
5/1 TGFBMason Ian Kennedy Jakob Junis $7 $1
5/1 TGFBMason Brad Miller Willie Calhoun $1 –
5/8 TGFBMason Humberto Castellanos Daulton Jefferies $17 $10
5/8 TGFBMason Martin Perez Mitch Keller $17 –
5/8 TGFBMason Luis Gonzalez Brad Miller $7 –
5/15 TGFBMason Alek Thomas Mitch Haniger $111 $111
5/15 TGFBMason Zach Eflin Humberto Castellanos $37 –
5/15 TGFBMason Tyler Wade CJ Abrams $37 $1
5/15 TGFBMason Zach Logue Chris Stratton $7 $2
5/22 TGFBMason Nolan Gorman Lane Thomas $297 $229
5/22 TGFBMason Trent Grisham Tyler Wade $17 $4
5/29 TGFBMason Zach Plesac Hansel Robles $7 $3
5/29 TGFBMason Ryan Yarbrough Zach Logue $7 $1
Total Spent $623
Total Left $196

Unfortunately, while the Gorman pick up was fine and the Perez pickup was great, I spent $623 in FAAB leaving me with under $200 for the rest of the season and I really did not fill the type of holes I needed to fill. I would have been better suited staying with cheaper bids to allow myself more flexibility in the future months. I panicked and made bad choices. However, by the end of the month I had fought my way up to 11th and had a pretty decent offense. The problem was that my pitching ratios were torched already (4.438 ERA and a 1.339 WHIP) and I didn’t even have a ton of strikeouts or WHIP to show for it.

June
With my FAAB fairly depleted, I made the decision that I would be very careful with my FAAB during the summer in order to have some spending money in the home stretch. Unfortunately this led me to a pretty ugly month in terms of pick ups. While I made moves each week, none of them were impactful enough for my team to gain a ton of ground.

Justin Mason’s TGFBI June FAAB Pick Ups
Date Team Add Drop Bid Runner-Up
6/5 TGFBMason Keegan Thompson Hyun Jin Ryu $7 $4
6/5 TGFBMason Franchy Cordero Jonathan Villar $2 –
6/12 TGFBMason Daniel Lynch Ryan Yarbrough $3 $3
6/12 TGFBMason Anthony DeSclafani Ian Kennedy $3 $1
6/12 TGFBMason Ryan Thompson Zach Plesac $3 –
6/12 TGFBMason Jonathan Villar Jean Segura $1 –
6/19 TGFBMason Zach Davies Ryan Thompson $3 –
6/19 TGFBMason David Peterson Keegan Thompson $3 $1
6/19 TGFBMason LaMonte Wade Jr. Frank Schwindel $1 –
6/26 TGFBMason Michael A. Taylor Luis Gonzalez $1 –
6/26 TGFBMason Josh Winder Daniel Lynch $1 –
6/26 TGFBMason Ji-Man Choi Jonathan Villar $1 –
$29
$167

While I got some useful innings from David Peterson and Josh Winder, the majority of my pickups actively hurt me. Keegan Thompson, Daniel Lynch, and Zach Davies got blown up. Ji-Man Choi, Anthony DeSclafani and Wade LaMont Jr. got hurt. While I rehabbed my ratios a bit during the month, my offense slipped and I stayed in 11th place.

 

July
I continued with my plan to play things cheaply in the month of July and was still able to grab useful pieces in Kyle Finnegan, Dane Dunning, Adrian Sampson 샘슨, Spencer Watkins, Luis Renigfo, Bryson Stott, and Darick Hall.

Justin Mason’s TGFBI July FAAB Pick Ups
Date Team Add Drop Bid Runner-Up
7/3 TGFBMason Darick Hall Ji-Man Choi $17 $2
7/3 TGFBMason Mitch Garver Elias Diaz $17 $6
7/3 TGFBMason Chad Kuhl Zach Davies $3 –
7/3 TGFBMason Devin Smeltzer Anthony DeSclafani $1 –
7/3 TGFBMason Jose Suarez Andrew Heaney $1 –
7/10 TGFBMason Spenser Watkins Jose Suarez $1 –
7/10 TGFBMason Seby Zavala Mitch Garver $1 –
7/17 TGFBMason Kyle Finnegan Devin Smeltzer $13 $12
7/17 TGFBMason Joe Mantiply Brad Keller $1 –
7/17 TGFBMason Bryson Stott Franchy Cordero $1 –
7/17 TGFBMason Luis Rengifo Cesar Hernandez $1 –
7/24 TGFBMason Dane Dunning Josh Winder $1 –
7/24 TGFBMason Adrian Sampson Joe Mantiply $1 –
7/24 TGFBMason James Kaprielian Zach Eflin $1 –
Total Spent $60
Total Left $107

Unfortunately I had some bad streams in Jose Suarez (unfortunately dropped him before his hot streak), Devin Smeltzer, and Chad Kuhl. However, by the end of the month my pitching had gotten better, but my hitting continued to slip.

 

August
In August I decided that if I was going to make any moves up the standings, this was my last chance. I made the decision in early August to try and make a move in saves. I was tied in ninth place in the category but only eight saves behind third place.

Saves Category in the Beginning of August
Rk Team SV Pts Chg Rk Chg
1 Christensen 62 15.0 0.0 0
2 Carter 57 14.0 0.0 0
3 Biery TGFBI 53 13.0 0.0 0
4 Danfu 46 12.0 0.0 0
5 Rainey TGFBI 44 11.0 0.0 0
6 KDo TGFBI 40 10.0 0.0 0
7 Verougstraete 37 9.0 0.0 0
8 Vreeland 33 8.0 0.0 0
9 NickRichardsHQ 28 6.5 0.5 1
9 TGFBMason 28 6.5 0.5 0
11 EISEN 24 5.0 0.0 0
12 Mirza 23 4.0 0.0 0
13 ANDERSON 16 3.0 0.0 0
14 GEHMAN 12 2.0 0.0 0
15 Stav 11 1.0 0.0 0

The hope was if I loaded up on potential closers I could gain 5-7 points in saves and 5-6 points in ERA and WHIP. I also picked up two very good players in Wander Franco and Eduardo Rodriguez blowing a lot of my remaining FAAB.

Justin Mason’s TGFBI August FAAB Pick Ups
Date Team Add Drop Bid Runner-Up
8/7 TGFBMason Dany Jimenez Chad Kuhl 3 –
8/7 TGFBMason Hunter Strickland David Peterson 3 1
8/14 TGFBMason Wander Franco Hunter Strickland 40 26
8/14 TGFBMason Eduardo Rodriguez Dany Jimenez 40 19
8/21 TGFBMason Scott Effross Tyler Mahle 1 1
8/28 TGFBMason Elehuris Montero Darick Hall 2 –
8/28 TGFBMason Emmanuel Rivera Michael A. Taylor 2 –
8/28 TGFBMason Daniel Lynch Aroldis Chapman 1 –
8/28 TGFBMason Austin Voth Scott Effross 1 –
8/28 TGFBMason Brayan Bello Kyle Finnegan 1 1
Total Spent $94
Total Left $13

Unfortunately for me, the guys I speculated on for saves did not pan out. Even worse was the fact Franco had a setback and would not return for another few weeks. This left me with so little money I did not have a ton left I could do the rest of the way. In fact, I did not win a single FAAB bid the rest of the season as I tried to nickel and dime my way through. At the end of the month, I was still in 13th. My inability to make late moves dropped me to last place by the end of the season.

 

Conclusion
While it is possible to overcome a bad draft, it is hard to do when you don’t spend wisely and carefully. If I had not spent the huge amounts on Alek Thomas, CJ Abrams, and Nolan Gorman that I did, I would have had a lot more money to play with. In the future, I will continue to be aggressive with my FAAB, but I will spend it more carefully by not blowing huge amounts early on.





 

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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LightenUpFGMember since 2018
2 years ago

Good advice on the FAAB. All three of those guys were memorably hyped upon call up, so you can’t be faulted too much for buying in. However, less hyped guys like Emmanuel Rivera and Bryan Bello proved that going cheap on prospects might actually work out without the financial pain included.

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