baseball dynasty rebuild: how am I doing?

With 1B, IF, and Util slots, I can play 3 1B in my lineup at the same time if I wish. If my OF develops around speed, this would allow me to keep plenty of power in the lineup.

I have to wait and see what the Angels do with Trumbo. He may be a part time player or start at 3B.

Keeping Aramis and Hardy is a question of whether I can be competitive now or need to dedicate those resources to the rebuild. I couldn’t get 3B and SS close to the majors that I liked.

I disagree that I’m deep at SS. Cozart is more of an average bat that won’t have much fantasy impact. Bogaerts and Baez are both expected to move, probably to 3B. Lee is my SS of the future, and Hardy is keeping the spot warm.

There are other teams in this league hoarding elite prospects while winning now, and they got the most elite guys (Harper, Trout, Moore, etc.) before I came into the league. If a guy was a top 10 prospect last winter and I don’t have him already, he wasn’t available for anything I ever had.

The potential’s there. I worry that the waves are too far apart, and that getting them closer together will require sacrificing a lot of potential. There’s also a lot of potential for guys to miss.

Those 6 guys are all very close in my opinion. Personally I’m excited about Rosario’s move to 2B. He’s polished for his age and his power surprised Twins officials. He probably has the least questions about his swing and his plate discipline among this group. If he sticks at 2B (and I’m cautiously optimistic there), he could be another Kipnis, which is a good thing for me because given the way the position usually wears players down Kipnis might begin to fade about the time Rosario arrives.

Rosario
Cuthbert – his late season fade concerns me less than Bogaerts’s plate discipline.
Bogaerts – kinda reminds me of young Andy Marte.
Goodwin – need to see some pro ABs before I get more excited.
Jacobs – discipline regressed in his late season fade after improving all season. The improvement was a great sign though for a kid in his 1st full season dedicated to baseball.
Nimmo – need more pro data. Amateur reports said he was the best pure hitter in the draft, but limited GCL action was disappointing.

I could easily reverse this list by going on pure upside.

I suppose it depends on what you mean by excited. Of course I excited to see Starling, Baez, Goodwin, and Nimmo get on the field and see what they can do. As far as a guy who might outperform expectations, I like Taveras. BA has doubted him at every turn, but he adjusted well in the AFL and there’s not much more to question.

I wanted to provide that originally, but it’ll take a lot of time to dig up and assemble. I’ll see if I can.

Guess I’d rank them:

Schoop – BA says he has the bat to play anywhere, and there’s actually debate within the Orioles as to whether he might be a better SS than Machado, although he’s more likely than Machado to outgrow it. I think he’s underrated because of the position question, but he would rate well at 3B or 2B.
Martin – I’m hoping his AA numbers are the norm and he just needs adjusting.
Benson – I think he’ll either make it as Mike Cameron-esque starter or be relegated to the bench.
Sands – I don’t know what to make of his bat yet. He was a ML FA in my league, so I have a low investment in him.
Crow – I traded for Crow when most people thought he’d become a closer, and I need future closers badly. If he becomes a mid-rotation starter I’ll be disappointed because that has limited fantasy value. I don’t really know how to rank him right now.

I traded Bauer mostly because I needed someone who was likely to stick at SS as a fantasy performer. I don’t believe Cozart will have significant fantasy impact, and the SS’s in my minors all project to move to 3B or 2B. I decided I could afford to trade Bauer because I read the scouting reports as saying he is a very likely #2 SP with an outside shot at being a #1. (This comes down to the requirement that an SP have plus command to make the jump from #2 to #1 in a scouting sense. Command is the biggest knock on Bauer from what I read.) My rotation is good enough that it will take aces to crack it in the near future. Also, most prospect rankings have Bauer and Lee within 5-10 spots of each other, so the value difference isn’t that great. Lee should give me a lot of SB (a need for me) at the position I had the hardest time filling.