Paul Sporer Baseball Chat – June 17th, 2020

Paul Sporer: Helloooo! What is going on, y’all? Let’s talk some baseball

Bauer Outage: With the 2020 season very much in question, how would you feel moving Verlander for Bauer in a keeper league? I kind of feel like the loss of a season eats away at alot of the value of guys in their upper 30’s.

Paul Sporer: I understand it. I’m not the biggest Bauer fan, but the point about missing a season from Verlander and knowing that it can really just go away at any moment for a late-30s pitcher, I totally get it

Chris: So a 50 game season huh? In a points head to head league would you just play a table with no playoffs?

Paul Sporer: That’d probably be smartest, but the playoffs are the main reason H2H players like the format so I’m not sure they’re gonna want to do that. It’s just such an f’n mess.

Bart G: are top tier starters and closers devalued in a more compressed schedule / season… or even more valued? Thanks

Paul Sporer: I’d say more so. I understand the volatility of a 50-game season could make things wild but I don’t think it TAKES any value from studs. They’re still going to have the best floors due to their talent

Chris: Stars and scrubs is the way to go right? Or is safe depth the way to go?

Paul Sporer: I really like S&S even in a regular setting, so I’m totally fine with it in a weird tiny season

FS: are you bummed about missing peak seasons from Trout, Soto, Robles, Yelich, etc?

Paul Sporer: Of course. I’m livid at missing a season in general, but it’s especially infuriating to think about missing out on stud seasons

Jake: Kopech or Luzard

Paul Sporer: I lean Luzardo in general, but Kopech has been much cheaper since he’s coming off the TJ.

John: Is it worth it to play fantasy baseball with a 50 game season? Total luck box to win, kinda like real baseball

Paul Sporer: I mean, everyone loves fantasy football which is a 13-game regular season. I’m still going to play fantasy baseball, but the level of buy-in I’m open to will definitely come down

brad: Jon Heyman reporting a deal with MLB and MLBPA with prorated salaries and expanded playoffs!!!!

Paul Sporer:

 

Evan Drellich

@EvanDrellich

 

Source says no deal is close yet between MLB and MLBPA beccause the proposal was just sent by MLB. No agreement even in principle at this point.

17 Jun 2020

Chris: How quick should you drop a player/add a player this year? What tier of player do you stick with all 50 games?

Paul Sporer: My top 6-7 rounds or so likely getting the whole 50 games barring some sort of major injury, but beyond that, it’s going to be some swift judgments for players as I’ll be looking to burn & churn. Obviously league size plays a role, too

Harry: So, what will be the ideal format for a shortened season? My league is disintegrating right now.

Paul Sporer: I’m not sure there’s a definitive “best”, tbh. I’m mostly playing roto still, but H2H could be fun to just get really wild and basically turn the season into a fantasy football season… I mean, let’s be honest, we’re not getting a season anyway

Martin: Is there any way to set custom rosters and then simulate a season in The Show? My league wants to set our team rosters as actual big league rosters and see what happens.

Paul Sporer: Yes you can edit rosters in the game. In the front page of the game, hit R1 to go over to Options and then Roster Control. OOTP is great for this, too.

Altuve: The fantasy industry seems really down on me this year. Any chance I can return to being a stud and stealing a solid amount of bases?

Paul Sporer: It’s really up to what kind of running Dusty Baker allows him & the rest of the team to do

JK: How are your Red Bulls doing?

Paul Sporer: Desperately need an update. My OOTP teams took a backseat when my father passed a couple weeks back and with it both my Red Bulls series & YouTube channel dried up. I’m back on YouTube as of yesterday & I’ll get an RB update out this week or early next.

Chris: Will kopech play in the MLB this year?

Paul Sporer: yes, I think so… in a fictional world where baseball actually happens

Quadrangular: 13 team OBP keeper league with a 7 person bench, my final dudes are Hilliard, Bohm, and Gore. You think that’s a decent pool of potential high ceiling players, or you think I’m reaching a bit too far/too early?

Paul Sporer: I dig it. Some really high ceilings there and you can easily move on if it looks like they aren’t going to get a chance this year

closers: I have luzardo in my minors, he had 12 IP and our cap for keeping players in the minors is 100 IP. Do you think he

closers: ‘ll reach 100 IP, or should i keep him down and out of this weird season and a rookie in 2021 instead?

Paul Sporer: I don’t think he’ll get 88 IP this year so does that mean you could use him this year and still rookie him next year?

Chris: When dropping players are you talking 1 week in? 2? 3 weeks?

Paul Sporer: For the late rounders, yes a week-10 days if someone else pops up. Churn will be quick.

Viceroy: How much leash should we give our players? I’ll normally wait a month/month and a half to move on from a struggle starter… but that looks like it’ll be playoffs if baseball happens at all

Paul Sporer: Ya as mentioned on the last Q, I’ll be moving quickly.  Rounds 18-23 will get somewhere in the one to three week range, and we’ll work up from there. The game has already turned into a quicker acting one where you can’t wait for samples to stabilize and this will just maximize that to the hilt

closers: sorry about your dad. wish i had something smart or deep to say, besides just saying sorry.

Paul Sporer: I appreciate it. It’s definitely been tough, but I’m hanging in there and the baseball community support has been overwhelmingly amazing

closers: cant use him this year then. have a fine team, but its just a random cluster of a season to prepare for id probably rather keep him and his rookie contract status for 2021? when my fairly solid team has less chance involved.

Paul Sporer: I think I’d actually be open to taking the gamble and leaving him down for the year since it’s such a wonky year anyway

ESPN: How do you think Kiley did with his TV draft analysis?  I thought he did great.

Paul Sporer: I didn’t get to see him bc we were watching the MLB feed on my stream, but I have no doubt he killed it as his knowledge base is deep & thoughtful

Paul Sporer: He & Eric were truly a dream team of prospect knowledge. Eric killed it on the pod with Justin & I yesterday: https://fantasy.fangraphs.com/the-sleeper-and-the-bust-episode-818-dra…

Sam: Who are some players I might be able to get in a 1-1 trade for Lorenzo Cain? I’ll probably need HR

Paul Sporer: Honestly that’s impossible to answer as your league context is unique plus I don’t know any league parameters

Paul Sporer: OK y’all, that’s gonna wrap it up. Thanks so much for coming out! Follow me on Twitter (@sporer), Twitch (sporer), and Instagram (p_sporer). I’ll be streaming on Twitch later today and you can definitely come by and ask questions about fantasy there. Have a good one, y’all!