Two Expert Drafts, Minimal Starting Pitching

Mike Podhorzer wrote about the $9 pitching staff yesterday, which was coincidental because I had just finished two expert drafts in which I punted starting pitching. The leagues in question are the FOX Sports Expert League and Blog Wars. The drafts and formats differ, so it’s a little surprising that my strategy barely changed. Both leagues do allow streaming, which makes it easier to under-draft starters.

I’ve used my drafts and mocks to offer lessons learned throughout the draft season. We’re at the point where it’s probably too late to do any major learning. In presenting these rosters and draft strategies, I’m only aiming to give you a look under the hood. I hope you find something actionable.

The FOX league includes writers like Howard Bender, a different Brad Johnson, and a handful of FOX personnel (among others). It is a 12-team, shallow roster, 5×5 OBP league with a snake draft. The pitching maximum is 1,500 innings. I have to thank Brett Talley (@TheRealTal) and TheFantasyFix.com for providing draft values – Eno asked me to do the draft with about 90 minutes of lead time. I do believe it’s publicly viewable.

I went into the draft focused on acquiring a 50 point lineup. Every time I’ve selected an elite starter this season, I’ve later regretted it, so I decided to push back any decisions about starters. An important part of that strategy is hiring a lot of elite relief, so I decided to target Jansen, Rosenthal, and Grilli. Here’s the roster I took home. 

As you can see, I didn’t completely punt on starters. I made an exception and took Gray with my 10th round selection. At the time, Headley, Utley, and Ruggiano were at the top of my draft board and I didn’t think I needed to select any of them (I was right). I also love Gray, as some of you noted earlier in the offseason. I got a couple other decent depth guys in Wood and Liriano before the end game. I’m sure at least one of Bradley, Gausman, Hutchison, and Pineda will prove useful, although I probably won’t have the patience to wait for the demoted players to be called upon.

I didn’t spike my reliever strategy, but I did well enough. One thing I don’t understand, only one owner has contested me on Santos all draft season (frequent reader/commenter Will). This is a guy who’s the most obvious pick to fill the Koji Uehara role this season.

I learned that even experts can struggle when category changes are present. I built a killer OBP lineup in part because about half the league appeared to be using batting average values. I snapped Shin-Soo Choo in the third round despite that he was the eighth player on my draft board. John Jaso was somehow present in the last round despite that he’s a .380 OBP catcher looking at regular designated hitter duty.

I’m currently projecting about 84 of 120 possible points due to poor totals in stolen bases and wins. I’ll take care of those along the way.

The Blog Wars draft was harder. The league includes representatives from 13 fantasy blogs. It’s a standard 5×5, deep roster, auction league with only three bench spots. The pitching maximum is only 1,400 innings, so I immediately knew my Plan A. Ultimately, I rostered five starting pitchers for $10, though I did pay $31 for six relievers. So I spent 16 percent of my budget on pitching. This one is also publicly viewable.

Eno, who represented RotoGraphs last season, warned me that everyone would come out firing, so I decided to grab a couple top tier guys and then take value mid and late. Sure enough, the bidding kicked off with a $61 Mike Trout. I made the $60 bid and bowed out. In retrospect, I wish I pushed to $62. A pick or two later I took Miguel Cabrera for $61 and leaned back.

The upside on of the position players is pretty intense, but there’s an obvious problem. Early in the draft it became apparent that I was winning too many old players. Injury risk and performance decline could really hurt my offense. I’ll just have to cross my fingers. I did score a small coup with Rosario and McCann going to me for a combined $24. Maybe my auction values were wrong, but I had the pair projected out at over $50 combined. My numbers could be two times too optimistic, and I’ll still make a profit.

The pitching side was fun. When I put together my values with a normal 70/30 split, I came up with prices like $27 for Clayton Kershaw and $19 for Justin Verlander. That happened because of the tiny 1,400 innings maximum combined with the deep roster offense. Usually, I take the pitcher values off my sheet and subtract about $5, so it was pretty obvious I wouldn’t win any well-regarded starting pitchers. Hutchison’s landed on all my teams as an end game pick. I may be streaming that spot in two weeks, which is fine by me. This league allows up to eight active relievers, and it wouldn’t surprise me if I spend a few days at that level. We’ll see if the other owners react to that strategy and force me to counter.

I haven’t evaluated the other rosters in this league. Compared to past numbers in similar 12 team leagues, I project about 90 of  130 points. Again, a good starting point if I can take care of shortcomings in stolen bases, batting average, and wins. And stay healthy, let’s not forget that.