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 9
I made the following roster moves in Week 9, with my eye on Week 10:
1.) Added C.J. Cron and dropped Daniel Murphy. It is easy to see why I was intrigued with what Cron has done and disgruntled with Murphy’s output thus far. This was really an insurance move due to Matt Carpenter’s struggles and the injuries I have sustained, not to mention my interest in Cron’s bat. If you’re on the fence about Cron, look no further than Ben Palmer’s article that explains why he should be owned in every league.
2.) Added Jeff Samardzija and dropped Gregory Polanco. This was a simple case of being intrigued by the Shark’s two-start week with Miami and Baltimore. It was a decent move for my team. He dropped the ball in the Miami start and then redeemed himself in Baltimore to save me from being a laughing stock to the league. Samardzija is just so difficult to trust and I doubt I put myself under fire again by rostering him. Nevertheless, sometimes the matchups are just too juicy to pass up. Although there is reason to be keeping an eye on a now-healthy Polanco, I considered it a worthwhile gamble of dropping him for Samardzija and run the risk of him being picked up.
3.) Added Andrew Heaney and dropped Cron. Heaney looked amazing in his final rehab start (2 H, 10 K, 1 BB in only 4.1 IP). This was a no-doubt addition for my squad. He has only gone on to impress me more with his two initial starts for the Phillies, with 18 Ks and 1 BB in 11 innings pitched, although he has given up 4 HR. There is obviously some rust left to shake off, but you have to be excited to see the 18 strikeouts and just one walk. Carpenter has been better over the last couple of weeks so I felt a little more comfortable dropping Cron, plus I have Edwin Encarnacion for 1B if needed. Remember how good Carpenter was after a brutal start last year? This is an arbitrary date for the sake of the article, but from 6/5/2018 through the end of the season last year, Carpenter hit .278 with 29 HR, 88 R, and 60 RBI. Sign me up all day for that if he can recreate or approach that feat again.
4.) Dropped Jerad Eickhoff. I’m not going to lie, I was pretty excited to own Eickhoff, but I couldn’t hold on any longer. He has been brutal. Through 48.1 IP he is carrying a 4.10 ERA, striking out less than a batter per inning (8.01 K/9), walking a lot of guys (2.79 BB/9), and was not getting any love from the ERA estimators either ( 5.04 FIP and 4.73 xFIP).
5.) Added Polanco. Nothing to see here, folks. I just needed to add another OF to cover for some injuries.
6.) Added Spencer Turnbull and dropped Samardzija. This was a classic case of dropping a previous two-start-week guy for someone with upside and that gets me excited. Turnbull will likely see a lot of time on and off my roster this season.
Week 9 was a fun one for me, not only did I win, but I got the win against my best friend in the process. I carried the following roster into my matchup:
C – James McCann
1B – Matt Carpenter
2B – Ozzie Albies
3B – Anthony Rendon
SS – Dansby Swanson
OF – Andrew Benintendi
OF – Tommy Pham
OF – Mike Trout
OF – Gregory Polanco
U – Khris Davis
U – Edwin Encarnacion
B – Daniel Murphy
B – Michael Conforto
IL – Aaron Judge
SP – Gerrit Cole
SP – Luis Castillo
SP – German Marquez
SP – Jose Quintana
SP – Mike Soroka
RP – Edwin Diaz
RP – Felipe Vazquez
B – Kyle Gibson
B – Tyler Glasnow
B – Jerad Eickhoff
mL – Nick Senzel
mL – Yordan Alvarez
mL – Nick Pivetta
mL – Zac Gallen
mL – Carter Kieboom
Top performers: Anthony Rendon (8-25, 2 2B, 3B, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 8 R, 6 BB), Dansby Swanson (10-27, 3 HR, 6 RBI, 6 R, SB, BB), Tommy Pham (9-25, 2 2B, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 5 R, 2 BB), German Marquez (14.1 IP, 10 HA, 2 BBI, 11 K, 4 ER, W, QS), Mike Soroka (14 IP, 7 HA, BBI, 12 K, 2 ER, W, 2 QS), Edwin Diaz (4.1 IP, 4 HA, BBI, 8 K, W, 3 S, BS, ER, W)
Side Note: With Conforto hitting the IL for (to my excitement) a brief stint, I started Polanco in his stead. I unfortunately started Khris Davis, who was placed on the IL after lineups locked. This was a case of not really having the roster flexibility to add another bat to hold his spot until he is healthy, so I took the chance and started him. Luckily, it all worked out and I still won.
Worst performers: James McCann (3-17, 2B, RBI, R, SB, 6 KO), Edwin Encarnacion (3-23, 2 2B, RBI, 4 R, 3 BB, 5 KO, GDP), Luis Castillo (2.2 IP, 5 HA, 3 BBI, 2 K, 4 ER, HB) Gerrit Cole (5 IP, 7 HA, BBI, 7 K, 6 ER, L)
Outcome: Win (630 – 578)
Record: 5-4
Week 10
I made the following roster moves in Week 10, with my eye on Week 11:
1.) Added Dallas Keuchel and dropped Turnbull. With the Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel saga hopefully ending soon, I considered this the chance to add Keuchel for cheap and help to fortify my staff.
2.) Added Didi Gregorius and dropped Polanco. Gregorius should be coming back soon! Quietly, Gregorius was fourth in points per game for SS in my league’s format last season, ahead of the likes of Trevor Story, Xander Bogaerts, Trea Turner, Javier Baez, and Aldalberto Mondesi, to name a few. To add that off waivers is too big of an opportunity to pass up. Swanson has been a breath of fresh air for my team after I was unable to gain any traction at the SS position to start the year, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to add Didi’s bat and upside. If he comes back and has success, I can hopefully flip him or Swanson in a trade. Let me take a minute to dive into Swanson a little bit. Swanson has almost reached his home run total from 2018, as he has hit 12 thus far in 2019 after hitting 14 last season. Swanson has also been able to cut down on the strikeouts, as evidenced by his 18.7% K rate in 2019 compared to 22.9% in 2018. It is still high, but it is a good sight to see improvement. I think much of this improvement stems from him swinging at a lot less pitches outside of the zone (27.0% O-Swing in 2019 compared to 36.5% O-Swing in 2018. The eye-popping stat for me is his huge jump in Hard% that is driving his power surge. His Hard% in 2019 is 45.5% compared to 35.6% in 2018. This is a crazy jump and one that gets me excited to see where Swanson’s home run total ends up.
3.) Dropped Keuchel. I was not able to keep Keuchel in a bench spot because I needed to clear roster space with Nick Pivetta returning to the Phillies rotation. I had to make the decision to activate Pivetta from my mL system or drop him. I chose to hold onto him because I can’t seem to give up on him. Pivetta looked shaky in his first start and better in his second. I like the upside of Pivetta with the strikeout potential (evidenced by his 15 K in his 11 innings pitched since returning), so I can justify keeping him over Keuchel, who is still without a job.
Week 10 will be a week that I would soon like to forget, in regards to how my team performed. Here is the lineup I rolled with:
C – James McCann
1B – Matt Carpenter
2B – Ozzie Albies
3B – Anthony Rendon
SS – Dansby Swanson
OF – Andrew Benintendi
OF – Michael Conforto
OF – Tommy Pham
OF – Mike Trout
U – Gregory Polanco
U – Edwin Encarnacion
B – Khris Davis
IL – Aaron Judge
SP – Gerrit Cole
SP – Luis Castillo
SP – Kyle Gibson
SP – Mike Soroka
SP – Jeff Samardzija
RP – Edwin Diaz
RP – Felipe Vazquez
B – Tyler Glasnow
B – Andrew Heaney
B – German Marquez
B – Jose Quintana
mL – Nick Senzel
mL – Carter Kieboom
mL – Yordan Alvarez
mL – Zac Gallen
mL – Nick Pivetta
Top performers: Mike Trout (8-21, 2B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 5 R, SB, 8 BB), Anthony Rendon (7-20, 3B, 4 RBI, 4 R, 7 BB), Dansby Swanson (6-21, 2B, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 4 R, BB), Gerrit Cole (12 IP, 7 HA, 3 BBI, 16 K, 4 ER, W, 2 QS)
Side Note: Pham missed some time with a leg cramp, but was on a roll prior to going down with the minor injury. The injury has not required any time on the IL and he also was forced to sit last night’s game (6/4) but hopefully it does not keep him out much longer. With Davis on the IL, I started Polanco, and that turned out to be a terrible decision as he proceeded to strike out 13 times (yes, 13 times) in 24 AB.
Worst performers: Ozzie Albies (4-16, 2B, RBI, R, BB), Gregory Polanco (4-24, RBI, 2 R, 2 BB, 13 KO) Luis Castillo (5.1 IP, 6 HA, 4 BBI, 4 K, 2 ER, B, HB), Edwin Diaz (2.2 IP, 6 HA, BBI, 4 K, 4 ER, L, BS)
I left Heaney and Marquez on my bench only to score me a combined 75.5 points, but it turned out that it wouldn’t have mattered. Just take a look at the outcome below….
Outcome: Loss (747.25 – 543.5)
Record: 5-5
Of course, as is par for the course this year, I played the highest scoring team this week. Not that it mattered much, as my 543.5 points would have outscored only two other teams. I’m hoping I can get some schedule relief in the coming weeks.
Injuries
The injuries keep popping up on my team, but I have to roll with the punches. I know I’m not the only owner dealing with injuries and I’m sure others have it much worse, but we must play with the cards we are dealt. The annoying injuries that have been sustained by Conforto and Davis seem to be done, for now. But the Pham injury will be causing me a headache if he doesn’t get back into the lineup soon. It is difficult to deploy my strategy of loading my bench spots with pitching when these injuries keep taking place.
There is some good news though on the injury front! Aaron Judge looks to be progressing slowly but surely from his oblique injury. The most recent buzz has been his ability to hit in the cage. I will be looking forward to hopefully being able to slot Judge back into my lineup within the next month. I know all Judge owners are patiently waiting on his return.
Just as I suspected, the Glasnow timetable was pushed back from what the Rays had questionably stated initially, as he was transferred to the 60-day IL. Nevertheless, some good news has come recently in that Glasnow has played catch from 75 feet. I’m looking forward to Glasnow taking part in some bullpen sessions but, like the rest of you, I hope that they are patient with his recovery. I cannot wait to have him back, but I want a fully healthy Glasnow back—the Glasnow that was carrying fantasy staffs to wins each and every week.
mL Draft
Our league will be holding our mL draft starting on Friday, June 7th. The draft consists of 2 rounds and is non-snake format and the order is based on reverse standings from the previous year. I hold the last pick in the draft, and I also traded my second round pick in the pre-season deal that yielded me Castillo and Judge. Therefore, I am in a not-so-enviable position heading into the draft, but I am confident in my ability to grab a talented young stud to add to my farm system. To name a few high-profile names that will be available: Alex Kirilloff, Yordan Alvarez, Christian Pache, Dylan Cease, Joey Bart, and many, many more. I am disappointed that Alvarez has not gotten the call to the show yet, because I will be forced to forfeit the rights to him when he gets selected (unless he were to be called up prior to the draft, which is unlikely). I am unsure who I will be selecting at 12 overall, but I have my short list prepared; there will be a multitude of top prospects available, and I will be ready to add a high impact player to my dynasty team. It will be an exciting draft and I’m looking forward to sharing the results.
(Photo by Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire)