My Inventory

My Inventory With Two Weeks To Go

I play in a lot of leagues - way too many if we're being honest. But I can't find a way to quit these leagues - they all seem unique in character, and I've forged so many friendships playing in these leagues. Moreover, how am I going to advise my readers and listeners if I don't play in different formats? Player evaluation is an important aspect in doing well in your fantasy leagues, but almost as important as player evaluation is knowing the league context, and what makes those leagues click. It took me a couple of years to get the hang of the NFBC, and I'm still learning there.

So far I've completed 10 drafts, with five to six remaining, depending on whether I play in a second "Beat Jeff Erickson" league in the RotoWire Online Championship. I think it's Important to take inventory of your players - figure out whether you have any gaps in players that you really want to own, any blind spots when it comes to positions or categories, or for that matter players that you lean on too often. I hear of DFS players suggesting that they're weighted too heavily with a certain or player or team, and when you play with the same amount of volume that I do in season-long, the same can be true.

In the grids below, I've listed the essentials for each league and tried to group them by class. I put all the NFBC-style teams together, plus the TGFBI (The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational) because it's playing on the NFBC's platforms with their rules this year. The next group are my expert/industry leagues that have been completed so far, and the final group are my RotoWire and friends leagues - there's some "expert" cross-over there, but there's enough different with them to set them apart. The leagues I still have remaining include the NFBC Main Event, a possible second RotoWire Online Championship league, an Ottoneu Experts League, AL Tout Wars, my NL-only home league and another mixed league home league. I'm not including my Scoresheet or Strat-o-Matic leagues, because they're significantly different enough that the player penetration is completely different.

NFBC-Style Leagues

The spacing on these leagues is pretty interesting - I started earlier than usual with a Draft Champions League that began on December 13th, when my buddy Vlad Sedler tweeted out that he was doing it. A slew of NFBC regulars jumped in, and I did as well to start getting a better feel for the draft pool. I actually like the team, but there were also some missteps along the way. The next draft didn't come until January 29th, with another Draft Champions league comprised of speakers from First Pitch Arizona. I was cruising in this league last year only to collapse in the final month, finishing third behind Derek VanRiper and Tim Heaney, who tied for first. Then came the TGFBI and the first "Beat Jeff Erickson" league, which began three days apart in February. I still have the Main Event on March 23.

Expert Leagues

Naturally I've drawn the first pick here in two of the three snake drafts here - at least I have some sidebets going in the Yahoo Friends & Family league. Though given my performance last year against my two opponents so far - Scott Pianowski and Scott Jenstad, maybe that's not a good thing. I need to find non-Scott opponents. The XFL is crazy deep, and you can own literally anyone in the reserves portion of the draft. Hence the presence of two college players on my team in Adley Rutschman (c, Oregon St.) and Andrew Vaughn (1b, Cal).

Home/Staff Leagues
 

There are just two of these leagues completed right now, the RotoWire Staff Keeper League, where I traded away Mike Trout in conceding that I won't compete this year, and Amici, and old-school AL-only 4x4 league that started the company. Fellow co-founders Peter Schoenke and Herb Ilk are in this league, as is RotoWire Biz-Dev guy Ken Crites, and a number of the other original members of this league, which has been in existence since 1990 or so.

Frequently Owned Players

Catcher - Yasmani Grandal (3), Austin Barnes (2), Jorge Alfaro (2), James McCann (2), Max Stassi (2).

You'll note that I don't often go after the first-tier catchers, with no shares of J.T. Realmuto, Yadier Molina, Willson Contreras or Buster Posey yet. That might change in one of my remaining leagues - though I'm not going to tell you which one! I did get Gary Sanchez in Mixed LABR, where he inexplicably (at least, in my opinion) fell to 98th overall.

First Base - Justin Smoak (3), Max Muncy (3), Freddie Freeman (2), Joey Votto (2), Tyler White (2), C.J. Cron (2), Dan Vogelbach.

This was more diverse of a group than I expected - but then again the baseball universe is so much wider than people realize. I frequently get asked "… don't you own everyone …" when I tell them how many leagues that I'm in. You can do this with any position, but here's a few top first basemen that I don't own anywhere despite having completed 10 drafts:

Anthony Rizzo
Cody Bellinger
Matt Carpenter
Jose Abreu
Matt Olson
Jesus Aguilar
Edwin Encarnacion
Miguel Cabrera

Not all of these guys are fades! I'll leave it to you, gentle reader and/or listener, to figure that part out. Just look at my projections as a starting point. But many times I'm just not in a position to take them, or have prioritized another position when it's in the same area that they are going.

Second Base - Brian Dozier (3), Joey Wendle (2), Robinson Cano (2), Gleyber Torres (2).

Again, lots of diversity here. I'd like to get Jose Altuve and/or Whit Merrifield somewhere before draft season ends, but I haven't pushed it yet. I probably won't get any Jonathan Villar, as I've found the costs to be prohibitive.

Shortstop - Jorge Polanco (4), Adalberto Mondesi (2), Jurickson Profar (2), Trevor Story (2), Tim Beckham (2).

"One of these is not like the others, which one could it be?!?" The talent level at shortstop this year is so ridiculously deep, it's impossible to get shares of every great one. I'm finding myself waiting to fill my MI slot frequently and then choosing Jorge Polanco, and in some cases using him as my starting shortstop. I also have Mondesi in the RotoWire Magazine Mock draft - but I didn't include that draft for these purposes because it's a mock that we won't play out.

Third Base - Eugenio Suarez (3), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (3), Todd Frazier (2), Evan Longoria (2).

I'm getting Suarez early and I'm getting him in later drafts - give me as many Reds hitters as I can afford. I think I have enough exposure to Vlad, and I'm a little worried about how long the oblique injury will keep him out. Of course, I'll take all I can get in keeper leagues - only one of my shares (XFL) is in that format. Both Frazier and Longo are fringe players for my respective teams, but when healthy they'll play and they are essentially free at the draft table.

Outfield - Victor Robles (3), Trey Mancini (3), Charlie Blackmon (2), Aaron Judge (2), Ronald Acuna (2), Austin Meadows (2), Mike Trout (2), Juan Soto (2), David Dahl (2), Brandon Nimmo (2), Ramon Laureano (2), Josh Reddick (2).

Again, I'm a little surprised that I don't have more repeats in the group - when I'm drafting it sure feels that I have more of them. Mancini just seems to be that fourth/fifth outfielder that I frequently get, he's not a target. I'm cheating a little bit with Acuna because I also have him in the Ottoneu keeper league that has yet to have its auction this year. Meadows and Laureano are guys I've made late pushes to make sure I get in a couple of places.

Designated Hitter - Yandy Diaz (3), Shohei Ohtani (2).

Starting Pitcher - Jhoulys Chacin (5), David Price (4), Rich Hill (3), Kyle Hendricks (3), Brad Peacock (3), Reynaldo Lopez (3), Carlos Carrasco (2), Blake Snell (2), Kenta Maeda (2), Tyler Glasnow (2), Nate Eovaldi (2), Forrest Whitley (2), Julio Teheran (2), Kyle Gibson (2), Hyun-Jin Ryu (2), Julio Urias (2), Trevor Williams (2), Jonathan Loaisiga (2), Mike Fiers (2), Trevor Cahill (2), CC Sabathia (2), Mike Soroka (2), Brad Keller (2), Yonny Chirinos (2), Chris Paddack (2).

Meet my most-owned player so far, it's a really ghoulish choice. No, I don't set out to get Jhoulys Chacin, I promise, but I do buy into the skills growth, the team context and the cost of acquisition. David Price was taken early in three of my drafts, and then out of a bit of necessity in the "Beat Jeff Erickson" league where I took six hitters to start. Rich Hill and Kyle Hendricks are favorite targets of mine, as is Kenta Maeda. I don't own any Clayton Kershaw or Luis Severino.

Relief Pitchers - Arodys Vizcaino (3), Blake Treinen (2), Kirby Yates (2), Corey Knebel (2), Ryan Brasier (2), Trevor May (2).

I'm surprised that I don't have Yates in more leagues - he's exactly the type of pitcher I want to target this year - first-tier skills with second-tier costs. Vizcaino was a target early for me but I've sort of backed off recently, out of fear that the Braves could sign Craig Kimbrel or use A.J. Minter instead. I don't have any Edwin Diaz, Aroldis Chapman, Kenley Jansen, Roberto Osuna or Felipe Vazquez yet - not because I'm doubting their ability, but more because I'm buying other positions in their tier. I am, however, actively avoiding Raisel Iglesias.

As alluded to earlier, I have more drafts to come, so some of these voids will be filled, and in many cases the absence of a player on my rosters is due more to circumstance than by choice. I'll definitely write about Tout Wars and the NFBC Main Event before the season begins, so you can see my rosters there.