UPDATE: Scoresheet Year 4 Progress Report

To atone for time missed due to the Arizona trip, I figured I’d fire up a quick hitter about where we’re at with the BP Kings Scoresheet draft.

As many of you may well know, I’m in year four of this league which originally sprouted via the Baseball Prospectus family — hence the BP. It’s a very competitive league, and one I finally found myself at the forefront of with a 90-plus win season last year thanks to a very strong rotation.

This year, well, I’m already snakebitten.

It’s a 24-team, AL and NL league with a slow draft that is roughly half done rounds-wise — maybe more like one-third done picks wise — as we slog through the 16th round today.

I have a few questions to crowdsource, but here’s where I’m at right now. Please keep in mind that my keepers list was submitted in February. Big league keepers cost you front end picks (up to 10) while minor league keepers cost you picks counting back from round 30 — which is the length of the original draft. Every two months we have a two-round supplemental, including after the MLB draft in June.

You field essentially a 25-man roster — you can roster more guys but it’s a full MLB roster concept — so that means you need backups, bullpens and so on.

Keepers (in no real order):
1. Jose Abreu 1B
2. Xander Bogaerts 3B
3. A.J. Pollock CF
4. Jason Heyward RF
5. Chris Sale SP
6. Masahiro Tanaka SP
7. Yu Darvish SP (ouch)
8. Marcus Stroman SP (ouch 2.o)
9. Sonny Gray SP
10. Yasmani Grandal C

Rookie Keepers:
1. Andrew Heaney
2. Jorge Alfaro (acquired in trade for Garrett Richards from Brady Gardiner)
3. Reese McGuire (acquired in trade for Lucas Duda from D.J. Short)
4. Henry Owens (acquired in trade for Kevin Gausman from David Laurila)
5. Kohl Stewart
6. Jose Berrios

That’s really one more rookie keeper than I wanted. Laurila extorted Gausman from me because I was torn between moving Stroman and Gausman, and I chose poorly in retrospect. Owens sure beats throwing Gausman back in the player pool for nothing, though.

My pitching went from stacked to cracked in the span of about a week, so that was crushing. I love the foundation of Abreu, Heyward and Bogaerts and I think Pollock and Grandal are nice complimentary players who would have been easily snapped up before I selected in round 11.

So how have I tackled my roster needs in the interim with my handful of picks?

Round 11 – Jonathan Schoop 2B
Round 12 – Jed Lowrie SS
Round 13 – Kyle Gibson SP
Round 14 – Michael Saunders OF
Round 15 – Dustin Ackley OF
Round 16 — pick drops today

If you want a feel for who was going at those times, here’s a link to the draft history. This is the home page if you’d like to poke around.

I like Schoop and Lowrie up the middle because those positions were painfully shallow when the draft opened up. I’ll have to address backup middle infield soon, but there are some options still available that I rather like. I’ve written a bit about Gibson this offseason, and if nothing else he’ll give me innings. I do think the sinker-slider combo with an emerging changeup could be interesting, though. I’m thrilled to get Saunders where I did — latest reports say he *could* be ready by Opening Day — and I grabbed Ackley as a solid stand in until he’s ready. Ackley as a fourth outfielder seems pretty dang nice.

So here’s what we’re working with:
C- Grandal
1B- Abreu
2B- Schoop
3B- Bogaerts
SS- Lowrie
LF- Saunders
CF- Pollock
RF- Heyward
DH- open

C- open
IF- open
IF- open
OF- Ackley

1. Sale
2. Tanaka
3. Gray
4. Gibson
5. Heaney

Bullpen – Completely wide open.
Kids – See above. Maybe Owens is close. Maybe Berrios, too.

So the questions I pose to you are these:

1. What might you do next? I’m thinking either one more starter, or attack my DH problem. Or backup catcher. Trouble is, I have 10 ideas for each pick.
2. What might you have done differently?
3. Most teams are dipping into relievers now. That seems crazy to me. Is that crazy?

I’ve had success mixing and matching my bullpens based on Scoresheet’s ability to favor handedness matchups, so I don’t really place a premium on building an elite bullpen with guys like Craig Kimbrel. I’m opening to changing that if someone compels me as such.