The Change: My Team Names, My Guys

You can tell a lot about a person from their team names. Well, with mine at least, you can probably tell I’m a writer. Because they’re all stupid puns. Seems like a must in the writer community, but I almost feel forced to take something about myself or my players on my team and turn it into a silly phrase. That’s how this collection of team names happens.

Veterans Present (scoresheet team full of veterans ready to win the title)
Votto’s Blotto (longest-held dynasty team that has had Joey Votto at first base for eight years)
It’s a Perm (FanGraphs Staff 1 ottoneu)
Eno’s Slaughter (FanGraphs Experts ottoneu)
Betts Cuddyer For (Keeper with Mookie Betts and Michael Cuddyer)
Don’t Bogaerts my Betts (Redraft OPS league with Xander Bogaerts and Betts)
Spasmani Grundle (You can guess who my catcher is)
Taking Tigers Often Without Strategy (music reference for the Pitchfork league)
Ruben’s Rueben (20-team dynasty league, dedicated to a once/former/future Mets shortstop, and sandwiches)

Unfortunately I don’t get to name my “Chicago Cubs” franchise (one World Series victory!), or my AL-LABR squad (I’d call it “The Stroman Argument” because we lost Marcus Stroman so soon), or my Mixed Tout team (I’d call it “Chase Duda’s Joc Odor” because it features Chase Anderson, Lucas Duda, Joc Pederson, and Rougned Odor), but maybe we’re lucky that we aren’t subject to more stupid puns.

I’m sure you guys did better. Please tell me your best team names so I can be jealous.

And also, congratulations to me! I’ve cut down to 12 leagues! Phew.

As you’ll notice, many of my teams feature the same players, despite the fact that two are AL-only squads, most are keepers, the settings aren’t all the same, the team sizes vary from 12 to 20, and the roster sizes vary from 25 to 45. Still, the same players keep showing up. I guess these guys are my ‘target list’ maybe. The biggest caveat is always that every player has a price at which I’ll be interested in them. Still, these guys showed up (this year or in recent years) as a player who was available at a price I liked.

I actually did a pivot table for all of my leagues, and this is what it spit out. I didn’t list all the ‘twos,’ just the more interesting ones. Listed below: Player, and how many times I own him in a fantasy league.

I should note that a lot of my leagues have holds or otherwise reward non-saves contributions here. Because I’m no longer sure that Kevin Jepsen will get more than five saves this year, but I’m holding on to him in some of my leagues for other reasons. I do think Adam Ottavino will take over for LaTroy Hawkins this year, and I’m hoping Jenrry Mejia’s elbow is alright because I’ll take him as a pitcher over Jeurys Familia and a reduced-velocity Bobby Parnell.

If you’re listening to the podcast, you’re familiar with most of these names. If there’s anything that’s changed generally about my strategy in finding undervalued players, it’s that I try to combined scouting knowledge with statistical knowledge.

So that’s why Nick Castellanos and Avisail Garcia are on the same list as Mookie Betts and Jason Kipnis. Scouts have long raved about Castellanos’ hit tool, and Garcia’s easy (developing) power, while the numbers couldn’t love Betts more, and Kipnis played through injury, which has been shown to overly affect power projections.

The pitchers? You know these guys (although for McAllister and Pomeranz you may want to check my recent Fox post for more information).

Now you know I practice what I preach.