Justin Mason’s 2022 Apology Tour: Triple Players Ball

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October 25, 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 tenth team I am covering in my apology tour was my eighth draft of the year. The draft was a slow draft that began on February 7, 2022. This was a 50 round draft and hold league. It is 5×5 roto with 15 teams with a small (two league) overall. The league was packed with great fantasy analysts and listeners to the Triple Play fantasy network. I finished tenth.

Justin Mason’s Triple Players Ball Standings
Rank Team Overall Rank Hitting Pitching Points
1 Tambo 1 66 62 128
2 Rotonaut TPB 3 53.5 65.5 119
3 Shirron 12 38 60 98
4 Cross TPB 11 25.5 71 96.5
5 DapScout 18 48 42.5 90.5
6 FantasySven 24 58 28 86
7 Patterson 25 44 35 79
8 Reliever Recon-Marcum & Pags 26 37.5 39 76.5
9 Uncle Tupelo 30 37.5 35 72.5
10 Triple Mason 31 40.5 31 71.5
11 Sporer Triple Play 39 41.5 22.5 64
12 Wi77iams TPB 36 44 19 63
12 Seven Dwarfs Mine Train 38 31 32 63
14 RotoCoach-TPB 41 13 34 47
15 HawaiiKeno 41 22 23.5 45.5

 

The Draft
Unlike many of the drafts I have discussed thus far, this one did not have the same strong start that others did.

Justin Mason’s Triple Players Draft
Round Pick Player Pos
1 11 Tucker, Kyle OF
2 20 Wheeler, Zack P
3 41 Iglesias, Raisel P
4 50 Realmuto, J.T. C
5 71 Mondesi, Adalberto 3B
6 80 Musgrove, Joe P
7 101 India, Jonathan 2B
8 110 Snell, Blake P
9 131 LeMahieu, DJ 1B
10 140 Baddoo, Akil OF
11 161 Torres, Gleyber SS
12 170 Verdugo, Alex OF
13 191 Cruz, Nelson UT
14 200 Suarez, Eugenio CI
15 221 Trivino, Lou P
16 230 Schwindel, Frank CI
17 251 Santander, Anthony OF
18 260 Gray, Josiah P
19 281 Sanchez, Gary C
20 290 Quantrill, Cal P
21 311 Heaney, Andrew P
22 320 Finnegan, Kyle P
23 341 Madrigal, Nick 2B
24 350 Dozier, Hunter OF
25 371 DeJong, Paul SS
26 380 Frazier, Clint OF
27 401 Houser, Adrian P
28 410 Paddack, Chris P
29 431 Hiura, Keston 1B
30 440 Pearson, Nate P
31 461 Isbel, Kyle OF
32 470 Heuer, Codi P
33 491 Kwan, Steven OF
34 500 Jeffers, Ryan C
35 521 Rios, Edwin 1B
36 530 Tucker, Cole SS
37 551 Olivares, Edward OF
38 560 Kim, Kwang Hyun P
39 581 Freeland, Kyle P
40 590 Duffey, Tyler P
41 611 Suter, Brent P
42 620 Senzatela, Antonio P
43 641 Espino, Paolo P
44 650 Givens, Mychal P
45 671 Hedges, Austin C
46 680 Heyward, Jason OF
47 701 Casali, Curt C
48 710 Piscotty, Stephen OF
49 731 Park, Hoy 2B
50 740 Honeywell Jr., Brent P

Kyle Tucker was a great first round pick, but while Zack Wheeler was great when he was on the mound, but he only threw 132.2 innings for me. Raisel Iglesias being traded, Kyle Finnegan and Lou Trivino not holding their jobs crushed me in saves, Mondesi getting hurt crushed me in stolen bases, Jonathan India, Akil Baddoo, Nelson Cruz, and Frank Schwnidel all were huge disappointments. That is half of my first 16 picks that I was depending on who did not come close to returning value.

Offensively I struggled because I had very few late round picks that broke out and when you combine that with the disappointments listed above, it is really hard to compete. Steven Kwan was a great 33rd round draft pick, but that was about it. I would love to wax poetically about what could or should have been with the offense, but the bottom line was it was a bad draft.

My pitching was a familiar story. While I definitely wished I had gotten more innings from Wheeler, I can’t really complain about the production I got from my early starters. Musgrove was fantastic and Snell was good when he was on the mound. Cal Quantrill was a workhorse for my team and helped offset the bad ratios I got from Josiah Gray. Andrew Heaney did miss time, but he was good when he was on the mound. Once again the issue with my starters was I didn’t have enough depth in the middle and late rounds forcing me to throw in bad options because I didn’t have the depth I should have. Add in the closer issues I had, and this team really had no shot. The fact I finished 10th is a little surprising.

 

Conclusion
This is one of those teams where I just shake my head and laugh it off. It was a bad team from top to bottom. There were clear mistakes in strategy. Drafting injury risk guys like Mondesi, regression risks like Baddoo, Cruz, and Schwindel, and not nailing much in the later rounds just led to a dumpster fire of a team. Once again I struggled with my pitching depth. I had a number of good pitching picks, but not having the depth hurt when I lost guys to injury, trades and underperformance. Sometimes you have these teams where nothing goes right and that is frustrating, but instead of just washing your hands of it, it is important to analyze why it went so wrong.





 

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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zaphrodesiac
1 year ago

Have you thought about maybe not drafting closers in the third round?

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LightenUpFGmember
1 year ago
Reply to  zaphrodesiac

Well, in a 15 team league and a dearth of established closing talent in the preseason, I can understand. Iglesias was a can’t miss guy for years.

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