2 | kdl212
ID: 200472320 Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 00:06
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I know that no one does these anymore (because #nobodycaresaboutyourimaginarybaseballteam), but I appreciate looking back at my end-of-season recap as I get ready to draft again the next year. And, for the 10th straight year next year, I'll be drafting in the RIBC big leagues.
It was a roller coaster of a season, though. On June 1st, I was feeling pretty confident - in first place with a team that was both hitting (.343/.454) and pitching (3.58/1.19) The next day, Andrew McCutchen went down with a torn ACL, and it all slowly fell apart. Two months later, on August 5th, I was sitting in 12th place with 77.5 points. In the year of the homerun, I somehow had a team slugging percentage of .438, which means for the previous two months my team slugging percentage was somewhere around .420. My pitching was bleak and trending in an awful direction (4.05/1.27).
But I somehow cobbled together a roster (full of post-injury lottery tickets and a never-ending stream of starters facing the Tigers and Marlins) that was able to right the ship. By season's end, I was in third place, at 107.5 points.
THE DRAFT Hitter This is the last year I draft Bryce Harper (1.04). He wasn't bad, but with the juiced ball, I expected more than an .882 OPS. I dreamed all year of what a difference Yelich would have made. Anthony Rizzo (2.13) was solid second round protection, though he came at the cost of Gerritt Cole. Lorenzo Cain (4.13) was a season long disappointment.
Justin Turner and McCutchen in rounds 6-7 were solid. Losing McCutchen really crippled my roster until I had a full working offense again in September.
Other hitter selections that worked: Jorge Polanco (10.13) provided better ratios, but not as many steals as I had expected; Grandal (11.04) was just what I wanted - a steady, daily presence in the catcher slot who almost matched Harper's OPS; Jorge Soler (17.04) was everything I dreamed. Sadly, he provided almost all of his production for someone else, because I chose to drop him at the end of April (it was him or Randal Grichuk, and I chose to keep Grichuk). Ugh.
I gave up on vanilla Eric Hosmer and Ryan McMahon too soon, though neither were difference makers.
Pitching Trevor Bauer (3.04) was garbage, except for the strikeouts. Kirby Yates (7.04 and the 11th closer drafted) was my second straight year of getting an elite closer after the first run of closers were drafted. Robbie Ray (9.04) was fine, but not a home run. Kenta Maeda (12.13) was solid from beginning to end, and Jon Gray (15.04) was better than I expected.
All in all, no complete misses on my top pitching selections, but no starter breakthroughs.
THE WAIVER WIRE On the hitting side, Hunter Dozier was my best early season pickup, Mallex Smith was valuable until he wasn't anymore, and Eric Thames did great work in his platoon role. Post-injury guys like Didi Gregorius and Justin Upton, among others, efficiently provided a bunch of counting stats.
For pitching, Luke Weaver was an early season gem until he got hurt, and Mark Melancon provided a dozen late season saves. But I mostly missed on replacement closers. It was largely churn and burn for starting pitching. It wasn't often pretty, but I chose wisely more often than not, and got enough wins and strikeouts without killing my ratios. Indeed, from early August to the end of the season, I actually lowered my ERA and WHiP, which I doubt many other teams did.
As always, it's great fun to be in this league. Active managers down to the end, and nothing to complain about.
Here's hoping that next year I can finally put it all together and win this thing.
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