Here at Pitcher List, we thought it would be fun to give the readers a look into the dynasty leagues of Pitcher List staff members. I will be providing reviews throughout the season of my dynasty team in my home league, which originated in 2009.
The league is a 10-team, weekly, head-to-head points league and I am playing the 2019 season under the team name of Angels in the TROUTfield.
Week 20
I made the following roster decision:
1.) Note: in my last review I failed to mention that I added J.D. Davis and dropped Cavan Biggio before my Week 20 roster locked. So here I am…telling you that I added Davis in lieu of keeping Biggio at first base. Davis had been swinging a hot bat and I was playing match ups. He provided me with a solid but unspectacular performance and is someone that I would continue to semi-confidently deploy at first base if I felt so inclined. You will soon see that I did not feel so inclined.
Below is the lineup that I deployed in Week 20:
C – Mitch Garver
1B – J.D. Davis
2B – Ozzie Albies
3B – Anthony Rendon
SS – Didi Gregorius
OF – Yordan Alvarez
OF – Andrew Benintendi
OF – Tommy Pham
OF – Mike Trout
U – Michael Conforto
U – Aaron Judge
B – Edwin Encarnacion
B – Khris Davis
SP – Gerrit Cole
SP – Luis Castillo
SP – Zac Gallen
SP – Mike Soroka
SP – Eduardo Rodriguez
SP – Mike Soroka
RP – Felipe Vazquez
B – Mike Foltynewicz
B – Steven Matz
B – Edwin Diaz
IL – Tyler Glasnow
mL – Nick Senzel
mL – Andrew Vaughn
mL – Carter Kieboom
mL – Gavin Lux
mL – Tarik Skubal
Top performers: Anthony Rendon (8-28, 2 2B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 4 R), Didi Gregorius (7-28, 2B, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 6 R, BB), Mike Trout (6-19, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 8 R, SB, 8 BB), German Marquez (5 IP, 5 HA, BBI, 8 K, 2 ER, W), Eduardo Rodriguez (13.1 IP, 14 HA, 5 BBI, 9 K, 5 ER, W, QS)
Worst performers: Ozzie Albies (5-24, 2 2B, 3 RBI, 2 BB, 3 KO), Luis Castillo (4.1 IP, 9 HA, 3 K, 8 ER, L), Zac Gallen (4 IP, 9 HA, BBI, 3 K, 2 ER)
With a couple of duds from my pitching staff, I lost a close game that I really needed to win with the final weeks of the season coming to a close. As icing on the cake, I was unable to remove Gerrit Cole from my lineup before lineups locked and I was left with an empty score from him. If I was able to replace him with another starter, this close game could have swung in my favor. But, that’s fantasy baseball, am I right? Luckily Cole wasn’t out of commission for too long and was back to dominating for my squad quickly.
Outcome: Loss (553 – 524.75)
Record: 11-9
Week 21
I made a slew of roster moves in preparation for the weeks ahead:
1.) Added Christian Walker and dropped J.D. Davis. Again, this was a matter of playing match ups again and it wasn’t looking good until he finally popped a home run in Milwaukee on Sunday. With the loss of Edwin Encarnacion, my thought was to play the hot bats until I can find some consistency. Keep reading to see the consistency I brought to my team.
2.) Added Brad Keller and dropped Edwin Encarnacion. I hated to do this. Encarnacion had been a staple in my lineup for weeks and weeks and weeks, but with playoff implications on the line, I just didn’t have the roster space to hold onto him. Especially with the lack of a timeline for return. Not to mention, it’s hard to trust the power to return immediately following a wrist injury, even if he’s able to return in time to help me.
3.) Added Griffin Canning and dropped Khris Davis. Who would have thought in the beginning of the year that we would be considering dropping Khrush Davis? Nonetheless, it was time to do so. I have a multitude of OF options and Davis isn’t doing much to convince me he will emerge from his disastrous season to help me to the playoffs. I decided to use his spot on a SP that although is inconsistent, can help me down the stretch. Unfortunately, Canning went to the IL shortly after I picked him up so he didn’t last long on my squad. Canning has been shut down for the season but he is definitely someone I will be eyeing in 2020 drafts and may come at a discount in some drafts since he was unable to finish out the season. Fingers crossed that the inflammation is as mild as the Angels are reporting.
4.) Added Dustin May and dropped Griffin Canning. As I mentioned, Canning is shut down for 2019 so I went with another impact arm for the stretch run. The Dodgers have decided to give May another chance to start and with a two-start week on tap for Week 22, I wanted to give him a shot. I absolutely cannot stand trying to figure out how the Dodgers will manage their staff so I have quit trying to do so. But May has shown enough to be a starter for me so I pulled the trigger. I doubt he sticks in the rotation following his two-start week but I couldn’t pass up his decent match-ups against San Diego and Arizona, both on the road. His line against San Diego wasn’t all too impressive but it could have gone worse. I will likely be dropping him for another upside arm after he goes to the bullpen.
5.) Added Cal Quantrill and dropped Edwin Diaz. Diaz is another example of someone I never would have imagined falling from glory this badly. I was just unable to roster him anymore. He has been wildly inconsistent and I do not feel comfortable starting him anymore and was doing me no good on my bench. I can see Diaz again being a top RP option in 2020 in beyond and you’ll be able to get him at a much cheaper price than it cost to grab him this year. Again, I used this spot to add another intriguing arm. Quantrill isn’t someone that you fall in love with right away because his stats don’t really stick out to you. But it’s hard not to get excited about a guy carrying a 3.32 ERA through just over 80 inning pitched and who can limit the home runs and walks. His strike out numbers aren’t sexy by any means (7.75 K/9) but he has shown that he can strike some guys out, evidenced by his recent start against the Reds with 9 punch-outs. He is a guy I’m interested in holding onto if my roster allows it and it helped that he had a two-start week on deck for Week 22. I was interested in rostering him even if it was only to keep him off of my opponent’s roster. That’s exactly what I did and luckily I didn’t start him because the Dodgers crushed him for 8 ER over 4.1 IP. This was a prime example of not starting all fringe SP options just because they have two starts in a week, match ups against teams as lethal as the Dodgers can ruin a week.
Here is the roster I used for Week 21:
C – Mitch Garver
1B – Christian Walker
2B – Ozzie Albies
3B – Anthony Rendon
SS – Didi Gregorius
OF – Yordan Alvarez
OF – Andrew Benintendi
OF – Tommy Pham
OF – Mike Trout
U – Michael Conforto
U – Aaron Judge
B – Edwin Encarnacion
B – Khris Davis
SP – Gerrit Cole
SP – Luis Castillo
SP – Eduardo Rodriguez
SP – Mike Soroka
SP – German Marquez
SP – Zac Gallen
RP – Felipe Vazquez
B – Mike Foltynewicz
B – Steven Matz
B – Edwin Diaz
IL – Tyler Glasnow
mL – Nick Senzel
mL – Andrew Vaughn
mL – Carter Kieboom
mL – Gavin Lux
mL – Tarik Skubal
Top performers: Anthony Rendon (14-29, 3 2B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 6 R, SB, 5 BB), Didi Gregorius (6-21, 2 2B, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 3 R, BB), Tommy Pham (7-26, 2 2B, HR, 2 RBI, 5 R, 3 SB, 5 BB), Aaron Judge (8-25, 2B, 4 HR, 5 RBI, 5 R, BB), Gerrit Cole (7 IP, 2 HA, BBI, 12 K, W, QS), Zac Gallen (11 IP, 11 HA, 8 BBI, 16 K, 3 ER, L, QS), Eduardo Rodriguez (7 IP, 5 HA, BBI, 6 K, W, QS), Felipe Vazquez (3.2 IP, 2 HA, 2 K, ER, 2 W, S)
Worst performers: Mitch Garver (3-12, 2 2B, RBI, 3 R, BB, 3 KO), Ozzie Albies (2-27, HR, RBI, 3 R, 2 SB, BB, 6 KO), Andrew Benintendi (3-15, 2B, R, BB, 5 KO, CS), German Marquez (6 IP, 6 HA, 2 BBI, 4 K, 4 ER)
Outcome: Win (675.25 – 573)
I won this match up with quite a bit of room to spare. I was also the highest scoring team for the week and that put me in a great position to feel confident on adding to my team before the trade deadline. This win brought me in a tie for first place in my division and I will look to keep on rolling.
Record: 12-9
Trade Deadline
The trade deadline for our league fell on 8/25 at midnight and as you can expect, it turned out to be a pretty busy evening, especially for me. After not pulling off a single trade all season, I was able to complete 2 before the clock struck midnight.
Strategy: Add starting pitching and a 1B.
Trade chips: These are the players I was dangling out in potential trades. I will denote every player’s contract situation with the following annotation, Player Name (contract length, contract price).
Michael Conforto (3 years, 8 dollars)
Tommy Pham (2 years, 15 dollars)
Tyler Glasnow (3 years, 4 dollars)
Nick Senzel (0 mL)
German Marquez (1 year)
As you can tell, I was willing to move OF depth on controllable contracts if it meant that I was filling holes elsewhere. I felt good about my OF depth to be able to trade one or two of them. Conforto was gaining a lot of interest but I was unable to get the value I was hoping for out of him and nothing materialized. I am totally fine with that as I am excited to have Conforto for the next couple of season beyond 2019 on a cheap contract. Pham never really got any interest and I’m not surprised as he’s having a good year but the $15 price tag on his 2020 season isn’t as great as it once was. I will likely keep him but I wasn’t too surprised that owners weren’t knocking down the door to acquire his services. Glasnow was someone I really, and let me emphasize really, didn’t want to trade as I didn’t think I would get proper value for him. Trading an injured guy isn’t easy to do, especially with the season that he was having before he went down, but I was willing to see if I could get a controllable starter plus an additional piece or two. If I could get the controllable starter and supplemental pieces for my playoff run, I was going to pull the trigger. Even though I love Glasnow, sometimes you have to make decisions you don’t want to make. I was only willing to move Senzel if I could once again add a stud controllable starting pitcher. I was also willing to move Marquez because I am not a fan of his projected match ups the rest of the season and his inability to pitch at Coors Field makes it hard to manage my roster, especially if I were to make it to the playoffs, where flexibility is great to have. As you’ll see below, I was able to accomplish my goal of adding starting pitching and 1B to my roster.
My Trades:
1.) I traded Tyler Glasnow (3 years, 4 dollars) for Yu Darvish (3 years, 8 dollars), Dallas Keuchel (1 year), and Yasiel Puig (1 year)
2.) I traded German Marquez (1 year) and Andrew Benintendi (1 year) for Whit Merrifield (1 year)
I went back and forth on the Glasnow trade with the other owner for a couple of hours. There were many different looks to this trade as the time went on but eventually we came to an agreement on the players. Darvish has been simply awesome since emerging from his early season struggles. He still occasionally gives up a couple more runs than you would like out of him but the strike outs are absolutely there (10.97 K/9) and he has been stunning in the walks department (2 BB in 54 IP since July began and 0 BB in his last 29.1 IP). I don’t love the fact that I traded a cheaply contracted 26 year old SP in a breakout year cut short by injury for an aging 33 year old who has been extremely inconsistent over the past couple of years, but it was a decision that I thought put my team in a great position to win it all. Pairing a near-ace arm with Gerrit Cole and Luis Castillo in the playoffs will give my team the edge it needed. I was also able to add Keuchel to my staff. Keuchel has been just okay and that’s about all there is to it, he has had a handful of stellar starts scattered with some duds. I will be able to trust him in some starts and be forced to sit him in others. And i’m okay with that because I knew that when I targeted him as an additional arm in this trade. I also nabbed Puig in this deal with full knowledge that as soon as this deal was made, I was going to hit accept on the offer that would subtract Benintendi from my team. I needed an OF replacement if I was going to move Beni, and Puig fit the bill nicely.
The second trade came together after the other owner had originally been trying to trade for Marquez early this year and I shot him down. I knew that he was cooling on him as the year went on but I brought the idea of moving Marquez for a 1B up to him again and I could tell that he was hesitant. His rotation has been ravaged by injury all year so I knew he was hurting for SP. He originally asked for Marquez and Gallen but I balked at moving two SP pre-playoffs. He then asked for Alvarez or Benintendi and I agreed that Benintendi could be an additional piece. This trade was accomplished the day before news came out that Marquez could be shut down for the rest of 2019 after hitting the IL with inflammation in his arm. This was a bad break for the owner I traded him to but things like that happen. I can’t tell you how excited I was to add Merrifield to my roster. I finally had a stud to plug into the hole that Encarnacion left.
I spent hours analyzing what pitchers I wanted to target from teams that I thought might be sellers. One of the strategies I used was to map out rest of year match ups for starters I knew might be available as well as the starters on my own team. Now I know what you’re thinking…the projected match ups now will likely be different two weeks from now. And you’re right, but it’s a possible strategy to use and I thought it was worth the time I put into it. So many things can happen between now and the playoffs (starting pitchers being shut down or limited, 6 man rotations, rain outs and delays, September call ups, rotation shuffling due to injuries, etc.,) but I targeted Darvish and Keuchel partly or their projected two starts during our playoffs (both probable 2-starts during our Championship week). I also moved Marquez after projecting who he will be facing and where he will be pitching. It might work out, it might not, but I think it’s a worthwhile exercise and one that is leaving me optimistic of who I will be able to slot into my rotation in the playoffs if I make it.
Other Trade:
1.) Eddie Rosario (2 years, 7 dollars) and Brady Singer (0 ml) for Walker Buehler (1 year) and Noah Syndergaard (1 year)
I have to admit, I wanted Buehler pretty badly but at the end of the day, the Buehler and Syndergaard owner preferred the offer he accepted over a comparable one from me. He liked Singer over Senzel so there was not much negotiating I had left to do. The Rosario owner obviously beefed up his pitching staff and he will be rolling into the rest of the season with a rotation lead by Buehler, Mike Clevinger, Charlie Morton, Syndergaard, and Matthew Boyd. That will be an extremely formidable rotation to have to stack up against in the playoffs if the opportunity arises. I have to tip my hat to him to be able to pull off such a trade. I didn’t have much interest in Thor for the last few weeks of the season, but Buehler was definitely on my radar.
Strategy
As you can probably tell, I have a pitching-heavy strategy during this time of year. I like to clear my bench of all hitters if possible and stack it with pitching. Pitching wins in the playoffs and if you can set yourself up with a strong staff, I believe you are giving yourself the best chance to win. I have lost multiple playoff games in this league by not having enough pitch starts so if you can load up with arms, you give yourself the opportunity to have worthwhile two-start pitchers to either start or keep off your opponent’s team. I’m not saying by any means that you bench your aces or near-aces if they only have one start or to start questionable starters just because of their 2-start status. But, if you can roster a couple high-upside starters that turn out to have a two-start week in the playoffs, it could be a league winning strategy.
(Photo by Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire)