Fantasy Baseball

[DarthPenguin]

Week in Review 10th April (posted on 11th!)

Thats the first full week in the books and the Fartknockers are surging into the lead on the strength of an excellent pitching staff, dominating the K's, ERA and WHIP and in second for Saves and Wins. (considering bushido_man has some questions on how to set up his pitching staff going forwards, that is frankly slightly scary!)

The placeholder team is brining up the rear still which does provide some hope that humans actively managing a team can do well - maybe we should let Chat GPT manage it and see the AI crush all!

[Patrick]

Hey Brian,

I have some questions about the league. Mainly, how does it work

When do we adjust our lineups? Do I need to pay attention to the pitching, or are all the pitchers just scored for the week? Do I need to pay attention to when guys start? What about the bullpen, how do I work those guys?

Adding to what DarthPenguin said, I think there are really just two things you need to know:

1. If someone is not starting, they do not count. Anyone who is "Bench" or "IL" is not starting. Their numbers do not count.

2. If any player has "IL" next to them, you can add them to the IL by clicking the "Manage IL" button on your roster page. You can have up to 3 players on IL, and each person on IL frees up a roster spot. So if you add a player to IL, you can add a player to your roster without dropping anyone. But once they come off of IL, you will have to update your IL to either drop that player or drop another player to make room for the one you want to add back.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us.

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Aside, just to give you a picture of how this might work in practice:

If I were you, I would move Eloy Jimenez to IL. I would then place a waiver claim on Max Fried, who you dropped. That claim will go through on Wednesday, and you are first in the waiver order this week (listed on your roster page), so you're guaranteed to get him back. I would normally put in a claim, but I know you didn't realize about IL, so I don't want to swoop in. It would have been better to move him to IL as opposed to dropping him, as he is the Braves ace and has value in our league.

If you decide not to pick him up, I probably will make a spot for him!

After the waiver period ends and you get Fried back, move him to IL, and you will have one open roster spot. You could use this to stash someone else who is on IL (Tyler Glasnow, Raisel Iglesias seem like good choices - I just dropped Iglesias to make room for Tim Anderson on my IL). If you do that, add that person to your IL, and you'll still have an open roster spot. Use that to pick up any active player you want.

Since Albies is off to a slow start, you could pick up Gleyber Torres. Since you only have one closer, you could go ahead and pick one up. David Bednar is off to a hot start for the Pirates. But there are plenty of closers available since our league is so small.

Hope that helps!

[Patrick]

The placeholder team is brining up the rear still which does provide some hope that humans actively managing a team can do well - maybe we should let Chat GPT manage it and see the AI crush all!

That is a funny idea. I wonder if it could be done on a weekly basis with a query. But then I am asking what the goal is... too bad no one else wants to join us.

[bushido_man96]

Thank you for the help, guys. I've made the moves you suggested, Patrick. Thanks for not taking advantage of my ignorance!

[DarthPenguin]

Update Monday 17 April

Another week in the books and the fartknockers are surging into the lead with another fantastic week (no more answering bushido-man's questions anyone!! )

At the other end of the season my penguin legions are cratering, falling down to the bottom of the league on the back of an epically bad pitching staff - allegations that the pitching coach asked someone to explain why the guy was standing on a hill and throwing a small white thing are proved to be unfounded. Though he did say he was surprised to hear that the goal of throwing it was for the opponent to miss it - he thought that was a bit mean!

There have been a lot of swings in the standings already so lets see what this week brings!

[sensei8]

Yeah, I've not done this in so long I feel like I've no idea what in the world am I doing or if my poor team is doing. Someone has to be in last place.

Edited April 23, 2023 by sensei8

[Patrick]

Hey Bob,

It's really all about roster management. You should be moving players around every day (you can do this every 3-4 days, as you can set days in advance). For example, if I were you, here is what I would do (obviously, just my opinion, but maybe it'll give you some ideas:

1. You have two injured players on your active roster. When you are on your roster page, click "Manage IL" and move them both to IL. Though it is debatable whether or not you should keep Oneil Cruz. He is out for 4 months, and when he comes back, there are likely going to be better shortstops available to you.

So, I'd put Rodon in IL, drop Cruz, and maybe pick up a couple of IL players to stash. You can find IL players by going to the free agents and selecting "IL-Eligible" under "Health." For example, you could stash Giancarlo Stanton and Yoan Moncada to sure up some spots where you are weak (more on that in a second).

Add each of them (or whoever you want) one by one, and add them to your IL the same way you did with Rodon. When you are done with the IL, you will have 2 roster spots open.

2. You have a few players who I don't believe are worth having in a league this small because every team is sort of stacked with great talent. I'd say Jordan Walker and Tyler O'Neill fit this description. I'd consider dropping both. At 3B, Max Muncy, Yandy Diaz, and Alec Bohm will all give you more bang for your buck.

In the OF, there are numerous guys you could pick up. Steven Kwan, Brandom Nimmo, and Alex Verdugo all make sense. Cody Bellinger has been hot, too.

3. Daulton Varsho is worth having, but he's probably not worth playing as an everyday OF unless other players are off that day. That's just my opinion.

4. You still have plenty of roster spots to play with here, so you could choose to pick up an SP (Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan, Drew Rasmussen) or go a little harder at holds and saves by picking up a reliver or a closer. There are plenty of closers available, like David Robertson, Clay Holmes, and Paul Sewald.

5. Once you have your roster optimized, you might want to check in a game day before games start, if you can, because players who are starting are marked with an S, and players who are not are given a red exclamation point. This allows you to make last minute switches to maximize stats.

Anyway, that's a lot, but hopefully helpful. I made a quick video here walking through some of it visually:

If you have any questions, just ask here in the thread, and I'm sure that we'll be able to help!

Patrick

[sensei8]

Thank you for the help, Patrick. Let me see if I can rewrap my head around it all.

[Patrick]

Hey Bob, my pleasure, and sorry if the audio on that video is terrible. I had the wrong mic selected. I can re-record it.

That said, I noticed you dropped nearly your entire roster and now have positions without starters. I think you probably did this by mistake - especially in dropping Semien, Bichette, Olson, Realmuto, Strider, Webb, Rodon, and Musgrove. Those are all players you should be holding onto.

I am going not going to put in a waiver claim on any of the players you dropped, just to give you the opportunity to get them back. That said, you are only 4th in the waive order, and there are two managers (Zaine, DarthPenguin), who may have already put in a claim. Still, I would pick them back up.

[DarthPenguin]

I don't think i have picked any of them up - i will take a look though and if i have i will drop them. No need to take advantage of genuine mistakes!