On Being A “Tryhard” and Hoarding Assets

Last week, Brad Johnson talked about being a “tryhard.” Brad described one way of being a “tryhard” as hoarding assets in the draft.

Sheryl decided to roster not one, not two, but FIVE catchers. As a reminder, ottoneu is a two catcher league with a 162 game cap for the position. So you need about 1.5 catchers. A total of $34 was spent on these backstops. She openly shopped her depth during the draft. While it sounds like fun to corner a market, have you ever seen it work? I haven’t.

I don’t doubt that Brad hasn’t seen it work. But just because he hasn’t seen it doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Here’s proof: after the draft, I had spent $34 on 5 catchers.

•  $20 Buster Posey
•  $3 Yan Gomes
•  $4 Welington Castillo
•  $4 Austin Barnes
•  $3 Francisco Cervelli

After a few trades, I added Justin Smoak, Freddy Peralta, Dellin Betances, Steven Matz, and Domingo Santana, and still had Castillo and Gomes for a total of $7 between them.

Believe it or not, this year’s Ottoneu Fantasy Staff League Two draft wasn’t the first time I’ve used the strategy. I’ve been playing fantasy baseball for a long time – since I was a sophomore in college, so 13 years now – and this strategy is one of my most successful. I played in multiple CBS and Yahoo leagues every year for better than a decade, and this strategy got me to the playoffs every single time, including four straight championships in one league.

There are four keys to implementing it well.

1. Hoard scarce assets.
2. Know your format.
3.  Make sure you have one keeper.
4. Don’t overspend.

Let me explain what I mean.

Hoard Scarce Assets

This might be the most important part of the entire approach. The ideal situation is a draft with a lot of inflation, like an auction draft where everyone is overbidding or a snake draft where sleepers are turning into reaches. When I first started using this strategy, I hoarded up the middle assets, particularly shortstops (it was shallower a decade ago) and starting pitchers. Hoarding those valuable assets meant that teams needed to meet my price for them, which in turn meant that I routinely ran out teams with three or four first-round picks.

That’s why catcher is perfectly suited for a hoarding strategy. This year, catcher is a vast wasteland. Most catchers are, in terms of fantasy value, putrid – and putridity breeds desperation, especially among contenders. For example, Brad’s team in our Ottoneu league lost last year because he got only 2.6 pts/g from his catcher position. In other words, a catcher can be the difference between winning and losing your league. Given how shallow catcher is, having a near-monopoly on the position means you can set your own price for teams to upgrade. That also means that injuries can be devastating – the team in my league that lost Salvador Perez sent me a cheap Freddy Peralta just to get my Francisco Cervelli.

Know Your Format

There are two places where this strategy isn’t as awesome. First, be careful about using it in auction drafts, because you have a limited budget. In Ottoneu, for example, I’ve tried a hoarding strategy before without success. Why? Because there, I hoarded the wrong position (outfield) and spent too much. Why is catcher different? Because there are twenty catcher lineup spots (even though you only need 162 games, most catchers won’t play 120), and far less than 20 rosterable catchers. That means owners are either leaving points on the table by not getting 162 games out of their catchers, or using backups as their starters. Also, know your league rules, because most leagues require that a team have at least a warm body at every position.

Make Sure You Have One Keeper

In other words, know which hoarded asset you won’t trade. You don’t even have to telegraph that to other owners – simply set that player’s price higher than your other players. For me, that was Welington Castillo, a good hitting catcher everyone forgot about because of his fluky injury-prone 2018; in a contract year, I expect he’ll bounce back in a big way, potentially to top-5 material in such a thin field.

The results will be twofold. First, more obviously, you need somebody to play catcher. And second, it serves to drive up the price further on those players you are willing to move. It also means teams are less likely to trade with someone else who has a surplus instead of you, because supply of available catchers has been cut even further. You’ve bred desperation by limiting available upgrade options, and essentially set your own price for another owner to be able to fill the position.

This also allows for you to use your other catchers in package deals, like this one:

Yes, I brought Gomes back! And why not – he’s a decent backup for Castillo, and gives me two top-twelve catchers for $7. What that means is for Posey, Austin Barnes, Francisco Cervelli, a broken arm in Carlos Martinez, and a guy who I don’t expect to repeat in Patrick Corbin, I brought in exciting young talent (Domingo Santana, Freddy Peralta, Steven Matz), a solid utility bat in Justin Smoak, an elite reliever in Dellin Betances, and a top-end outfielder (Pollock). That’s how well this strategy can work.

Don’t Overspend

It’s also way too easy to take this strategy to an extreme, and end up overbidding or reaching for all the catchers. Remember that you also need to field a team, and you have only so many trading partners. Also, you won’t trade all your excess. The goal is to end up with one or two high-value assets, be they long-term keepers or win-now pieces, which you couldn’t have gotten yourself. Best case, a contender suffers an injury and panics. Worst case, when you start cutting must-own catchers, that means other teams will drop interesting pieces to pick them up, creating opportunities for you to pick up players too good to be on the wire.

In Summary

The goal of hoarding assets is to trade at least some of them later for parts you need elsewhere. And even if some of your leaguemates huff and puff, remember that you only need one owner willing to overspend to make this strategy work.