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Almost one year ago today, I reviewed my first year of my first dynasty team, and asked fantasy readers what I should do with my roster. Prior to me taking it over, the team was neglected for a full year, and was more or less a dumpster fire. It's a 14 team dynasty league, that uses 6x6 scoring with OPS and K/BB. Here was the initial team I had prior to cuts and the draft.
2015 |
||
C |
Wilin Rosario |
Christian Betancourt |
C |
Russell Martin |
Jesse Biddle |
1B |
Mitch Moreland |
Jose Campos |
2B |
Dan Uggla |
Ian Clarkin |
2B |
Mike Aviles |
Jonathon Crawford |
3B |
David Wright |
Matt Davidson |
SS |
Elvis Andrus |
Delino DeShields Jr. |
OF |
Justin Upton |
Slade Heathcott |
OF |
Austin Jackson |
Rob Kaminsky |
OF |
Angel Pagan |
Austin Meadows |
OF |
Carlos Quentin |
Adam Morgan |
OF |
Drew Stubbs |
Henry Owens |
SP |
Justin Verlander |
Jose Ramirez |
SP |
Anibal Sanchez |
Henry Urrutia |
SP |
Scott Kazmir |
Vince Velazquez |
SP |
Tim Lincecum |
Kyle Zimmer |
SP |
Rubby de la Rosa |
|
SP |
Kyle Gibson |
|
SP |
Jorge de la Rosa |
|
SP |
Brandon Morrow |
|
RP |
Trevor Rosenthal |
|
RP |
Joe Nathan |
DL |
RP |
Ross Detwiler |
Nick Swisher |
RP |
Joel Hanrahan |
Alexei Ogando |
From there, I had very little value on my team, and I asked Fake Teams readers for advice. Some was good, some wasn't, but it gave me an outside opinion on the players I was holding going forward. With that said, I will go through this process again this year. I made a ton of moves this year, and acquired a massively better and younger lineup for 2016, and my farm system is something I have greatly improved. Here is what I have today. I will have to cut down to 37 players prior to this years draft.
2016 |
||
C |
Russell Martin |
Spencer Adams |
1B |
Mitch Moreland |
Anthony Alford |
1B |
Justin Bour |
Franklin Barreto |
2B |
DJ LeMahieu |
Rafael Devers |
3B |
Trevor Plouffe |
Micah Johnson |
SS |
Elvis Andrus |
Rob Kaminky |
SS |
Marcus Semien |
Gilbert Lara |
OF |
Justin Upton |
Jorge Lopez |
OF |
Adam Eaton |
Francis Martes |
OF |
Billy Burns |
Jorge Mateo |
OF |
Marcell Ozuna |
Austin Meadows |
OF |
Melky Cabrera |
Yoan Moncada |
OF |
Aaron Altherr |
Peter O'Brien |
OF |
Ender Inciarte |
Luis Ortiz |
SP |
Jeff Samardzija |
Jomar Reyes |
SP |
Patrick Corbin |
Kennys Vargas |
SP |
Kyle Hendricks |
Vince Velasquez |
SP |
Henry Owens |
Mac Williamson |
SP |
Rubby De La Rosa |
Jesse Winker |
SP |
Drew Hutchinson |
Kyle Zimmer |
SP |
Joe Kelly |
|
RP |
Wade Davis |
DL60 |
RP |
Hunter Strickland |
Hyun-Jin Ryu |
Joe Nathan |
||
Zach Cozart |
I presently have 46 players, meaning I have to cut 9 players from this current list. Joe Nathan, Hunter Strickland, Joe Kelly, Mac Williamson, and Justin Bour are some of the players I'm not particularly attached to. After that, I'm going to have to take a longer look at the remain 4 cuts I have to make. I presently have a roster full of guys with question marks, many of whom I added from free agency.
On the offenseive side I have a team that does well in steals, with DJ LeMahieu, Elvis Andrus, Adam Eaton, and Billy Burns all being capable of putting up 20+ steals. On the power side I'm severly lacking. My top 5 power bats on my MLB team are Justin Upton, Mitch Moreland, Justin Bour, Trevor Plouffe, and Russell Martin. To me that's a sad list, Upton is as good as player can be without being a star, Moreland and Bour are platoon players who are both older than you'd think, Plouffe is good but not great, and Martin is great but old. Besides Upton, all of those are significant enough questions that I think they need be addressed. Luckily, at the minor league level, I've acquired power in spades, and hopefully, 2 or 3 of those guys can continue that in the majors.
My pitching staff is comprised of a lot of guys with at least average strikeout stuff, except they issue a lot of walks, a big problem when you play with WHIP and K/BB. Hopefully Samardzija can at least have better luck, but ideally, I'd like to hope he can gain some of his old strikeout rate back. The best arm on my staff going into 2016 has to be Wade Davis whom I stashed early, and enjoyed watching his value skyrocket after Holland went down, and end up as the #41 overall player in baseball with our scoring.
Going forward, I have many issues with my pitching staff, and no real answers in sight. Both Vince Velazquez and and Jorge Lopez are going to be upgrades for the middle of my rotation, assuming they are up for the majority of 2016. But after that I'm waiting on Kyle Zimmer if he can remain healthy, 2015 breakout Francis Martes, and recently dealt Rob Kaminsky. I essentially do not have an ace as of this writing.
Lastly, draft picks were flying on my team. Since this team came in last I traded away picks and acquired even more. Here is what I'm working with in the future.
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
1.1 |
1 |
1 |
2.12 |
1 WTH |
1 WTH |
3.13 |
2 |
2 |
4.2 |
2 THC |
3 |
5.1 |
3 |
4 |
6.1 |
3 THC |
5 |
6.6 |
4 |
6 |
7.1 |
5 |
7 |
|
5 WTH |
|
|
6 |
|
|
7 |
|
The names next to the picks are team abbreviations, since I don't know the actual pick number for those slots yet. If it helps WTH came in 10th, and THC came in second this year. With the 1.1 pick its looking like I'll be drafting Brendan Rodgers, SS on the Rockies. An infield bat with a plus hit and power tool is another player for me to build around, Colorado will only enhance whatever skills he already has. Beyond that, I'm not sure how I'll attack the draft, as I'm not quite decided on who I'm cutting and whose spot I'll need to fill. Going into the 2017 draft, I expect to have the 1.1 pick yet again. The payouts in my league encourage teams to either tank or win it all, so I feel obligated to try and acquire yet another young stud for the future next year at the top of the draft.
So what do you think? I'll be carrying fewer than 10 guys from year 1 into year 2, in a league where you keep 37 players year over year. Who do you think the 9 guys I should cut are? Is Moncada still the crown jewel of my team? Is Rodgers the pick to make in when in a full rebuild? Comment below if you have any insight on how I should tackle year two with this team?