Fantasy Baseball 2016

[Rhinox]

In a shocking and totally unexpected turn of events, LL wins!

Congrats man. Share you secrets!

[D3f3nd3r]

And he's going to win Roto too almost undoubtedly

[Locke Lamora]

Thanks Rhinox - I don't know how many secrets there are, I think my strategy this year was pretty obvious! If nothing else I think I proved that actually focusing on relievers instead of punting is a pretty viable strategy. I'll comment on roto in a few days

[Locke Lamora]

So D3f, I have to ask, why didn't you push more on the pitching late in the season?

[D3f3nd3r]

I didn't think that the 2-3 points I could have gotten from more Ks and QSes would have offset the losses to ERA and WHIP. Good as the front half of my rotation was, the back half was terrible and the front half (Arrieta, Sale, Verlander, Kluber) didn't give me nearly as many Ks as they have in past years.

[Locke Lamora]

Sure, there's definitely the possibility it would have backfired, but I had a baseline of around 83 points that I wasn't going to dip below, so you basically had to make up more ground on pitching because you had almost no points to gain on hitting - even finishing second in ERA and WHIP wouldn't have been enough if you'd managed it. I actually thought you'd try to pick up another saves/holds guy or two to gain a couple of points there and improve your ratios/strikeout rate.

[Rhinox]

I couldn't really put as much effort into my teams this season and it showed in the results. Toddlers are needy lol. I am disappointed I dropped to 4th in auction though. Past month or so I was just trying to shore up the stats I was close to others in to maintain 3rd, but still got passed.

[D3f3nd3r]

Sure, there's definitely the possibility it would have backfired, but I had a baseline of around 83 points that I wasn't going to dip below, so you basically had to make up more ground on pitching because you had almost no points to gain on hitting - even finishing second in ERA and WHIP wouldn't have been enough if you'd managed it. I actually thought you'd try to pick up another saves/holds guy or two to gain a couple of points there and improve your ratios/strikeout rate.

I did some of that in July/August (Harris, Madson), but you're right that I probably should have done it a bit more. I did the math and there really wasn't much of a way for me to get those last few points.

At the very least, I could end up with 9-10 good keeper choices (Kluber, Verlander, Bryant, Lindor, and the list goes on) so maybe I'll finally get to the top of the podium if I draft well next year.

[Nero Cain]

I'll comment on roto in a few days

waiting...

[D3f3nd3r]

So D3f, I have to ask, why didn't you push more on the pitching late in the season?

That?

[Nero Cain]

oh I thought he was going to comment on all the teams and how he thought we did like he's done for FF a few times.

[Locke Lamora]

I think I only did that on demand before, so if you want me to, sure. I was just curious about D3f's thinking because he mentioned that he wasn't that far behind with a few weeks to go but then didn't do what I thought he would.

[Nero Cain]

I like reading your thoughts and its my birthday today so it would be a good present.

[Locke Lamora]

This is a little trickier over the course of a full baseball season as it's hard to remember the context for everything, but I'll give it a go: I thought you started your draft really well with Machado and Votto, but taking Adam Jones that high in an OBP league is not something I'd do. Dropping Chris Davis was pretty crazy; I know he was disappointing relative to his draft slot but he was nowhere near a drop candidate, and his terrible average doesn't kill you anywhere near as much in our league when he walks so often. I went to claim him as soon as I saw that but Bert had the priority. The Archer trade was also bad in my opinion: I know he'd had a poor start and Moore had a nice one, but giving him (and something extra, even though Peralta didn't really get a chance to do anything) up so early for not that significant a return was wasting a lot of value, and I'm sure the rest of the way Archer was easily the more valuable pitcher, as he finished with better numbers, including far more strikeouts. In general I'd say more patience is required for players with disappointing starts. I think you also spent too many early picks on non-elite relievers in the draft - I know I went relief-heavy early this year but I was targeting guys who I knew would have outstanding ratios in addition to the potential for plenty of saves/holds, and guys like Street, who are primarily valuable just because they get saves, shouldn't be going there in this league. You'd be better off taking another starter there, especially looking at how you lacked depth in the rotation.

Picking up Story and Sanchez after the draft was great; both of them probably should have been owned already, at least as late-round flyers. You also got the better of the Pineda trade, even though Pineda wasn't as good as he has the potential to be. I liked a lot of your pickups overall. I think you avoided a simple issue that a lot of people have, which is just not paying enough attention to their teams and letting points slide just by not adding an extra pitcher or changing their lineup. I actually think you also got unlucky with how many points you won on the hitting side, and maybe a little lucky on pitching: you probably had a top 2 or 3 lineup overall but the win-loss totals look fairly average. That's the nature of head-to-head, though.

And Happy Birthday!

[Zachrulez]

I just ended up feeling overwhelmed with all the injuries I got plunked with this year, more than I could really manage. I'm not sure how you manage them after a certain point.