♫ Pitcher bunt attempts forever, for the union makes us bat ♫ – 2021 ILX Fantasy Baseball!

I made the thread on ILE, had it destroyed, and brought it back with the SAME dumb joke title because I can't do any better!

Hi everyone! The super bowl's only a week or so away, and you know what that means: pitchers and catchers report in two weeks!

Thermo's still commissioning (commissionering? commishing?) the league but I've been asked to take over "herd cats into picking keepers" duty, so here I am, making this thread that I regret the title of (as mentioned above). I love cats! This will be easy!

As a fantasy baseball GM, it is your duty to select up to five (5) eligible keepers:
• 2 of which must be 27, 28 or 29 yrs old
• another 2 players 26 or under
• one final keeper that can be either (basically anyone under the age of 30)
• age is calculated as of April 1
• for a player to be keep-eligible he must have been drafted on draft day by your team or traded to you by a team that drafted him. that means:
• free agent/waiver pick-ups cannot be kept
• if you have less than 5 keepers, you will get an extra draft pick at the end of the draft
• keep it clean (Will M's edit: alternatively, GET NASTY THIS TIME)

Looking at previous years, the draft's fallen on the Sunday before the Sunday before opening day, so let's put it at March 21, 2021 @ 4:00 PM Eastern (subject to change). I KNOW you don't have St. Patrick's plans this year, so don't even. That means keepers deadline is March 14, 2021.

If you're coming back, please let us know ASAP! If you aren't, please let us know ASAP! VORPed Minds is old enough to drink in Quebec now! How ridiculous is that! HELP US MAINTAIN THE TRADITION OF ROTISSERIE-STYLE FANTASY MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL COURTESY OF OUR FRIENDS AT SPORTS DOT YAHOO DOT COM SLASH FANTASY.

i'm down

I'll be back.

I am willing and prepared to defend my victory*

Also I'll kick off the keeper picking. Note that you can change these before March 14!!

Wander Franco (20)
Zac Gallen (25)

Luis Castillo (28)
Mookie Betts (28)
Nolan Arenado (29)

Also in my copy-pasting, I forgot to bold the dates --
DRAFT March 21 2021 (tentative)
KEEPERS March 14 2021 (mostly not tentative)

thanks again for getting the ball rolling dude. drinks in Quebec are on me!

Mad Boone Rising is back!

Acuna (23) lol
Luis Robert (23)
Yoan Moncada (25)
Rhys Hoskins (28)
Wilson Contreras (28)

I have 3 obvious keepers but the last 2 spots I have 4 different options which will be very tough, may need to hold out to the deadline before making a commitment.

here are the keepers for CORROSION OF CONFORTO:

Fernando Tatis Jr (22)
Yordan Alvarez (23)
Michael Conforto (28)
Xander Bogaerts (28)
Brandon Woodruff (28)

--------------------

I was tempted to consider Glasnow (27) or Ketel Marte (27), but I don't trust either after last season's abdications of fantasy baseball duty and I have trouble not keeping any of the other three players they'd replace. Might change my mind though.

question: is the thread title supposed to be sung? and if so, to what tune??

my most likely keepers this year (fingers crossed this time it will work out, happy thoughts version):
Kris Bryant 29
Francisco Lindor 27
Ozzie Albies 24
Nate Pearson 24
Mike Soroka 23

solidarity forever

He Ain't Javy (He's My Baez) tentative keepers

Javier Baez (28)
Aaron Nola (27)
Peter Alonso (26)
Lucas Giolito (26)
Chris Paddack (25)

do i have this right from last year?

CONFIRMED from 2020 to 2021:
NA
Will M
NoTimeBeforeTime
Thermo
Van Horn
Albert
omar

TBD from 2020 to 20201:
Jimmie Lovefoxxxxxx
X
bnw
j.q higgins
francisF
Andy K

Definitely in, thanks. Keepers TBD soon.

NP: Kaito - Peace of Landscape (Kompakt)

I don’t think there’s any rush on keepers. Season probably delayed again.

if anyone hears from the other 5 plz ask em to confirm their spot! delay or no, best to know if we need a replacement or something.

Communication is complicated because ILX webmail sucks, and some of these people like higgins & bnw (& Andy K) are OGs and have no doubt moved on from those email hosts. Is there any way to reach out via yahoo! league settings?

I'm in

ok, i'm back for more fantastical action. What are the odds we play 162?
will have my keepers in soon

Not sure who Jimmie Lovefoxxxxxx is (what's his alt?) but I may have ways of contacting bnw & j.q higgins via mutuals (those guys are OGs).

did a little poking around and jimmie is aka "this cannot be changed"

anyway they have plenty of time -- maybe they just haven't been active. i'll wait a bit before i try yahoo mail, but it should work i think?

Don’t sweat it. Lots of time, and we’ll probably get bonus time when things are delayed. Usually first week of March I will send out a reminder mail. But everyone knows the drill.

I am in. Had no idea you guys played last year tbh. I’m sure my keepers are garbage, oh well.

well you got about a week to let us know what garbage you want to keep!

Billy Childish Bambino tentative keepers:

Juan Soto (22)
Kyle Tucker (24)
Adalberto Mondesi (25)
Matt Olson (27)
Nick Castellanos (29)

impressed bnw managed to finish 7th, despite not touching his team all season!

so – i've officially moved the draft date on the league page to the afore mentioned 21st – for 4pm edt

for anyone who doesn't have their selects in by the 14th, i will let Will select their keepers – and he's *crazy*!
the sooner we get them in, the sooner i can post the draft order.

not as pure garbage as i worried. surely i will manage them worse then 7th now.

Julio Urias (24)
Shane Bieber (25)
Josh Hader (26)
Trevor Story (28)
Eugenio Suarez (29)

Snitker Conspiracy

Rafael Devers 24
Franmil Reyes 25
Austin Meadows 26
Noah Syndergaard 28
Mike Trout 29

keepers/who has responded tracker

i've sent a webmail to the two non-confirmed, hopefully they get those -- i'll also try yahoo to see if there's some way to reach out there...

(xp: will update with that one now!)

and sorry i've been so inactive. a combination of online exhaustion and valheim have made me extremely bad at everything. doing the work now tho!

Andy – Meadows is 25. you got him for another year!

I did a little websleuthing based on my longterm knowledge of higgins... he is on Facebook so I could try to ping him there if we get desperate.

Sorry for the wait! My keeper picks:

LuvWilTeheranUsApart

Alex Bregman (27)
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (22)
Bo Bichette (23)
Carson Kelly (26)
Jonathan Villar (29)

Villar is horrible but I literally don't have anyone else (all the other keeper eligible guys I drafted were dropped).

hi hi sorry hi hello i am 'any kestons?' this year

Keston Hiura, 24
Walker Buehler, 26
Cody Bellinger, 27
Tim Anderson, 27
Jorge Soler, 29

Jimmie Love – Bellinger is only 25!

Andy – Meadows is 25. you got him for another year!

Thanks for the correction. Firing my assistant.

https://cdn.mlbtraderumors.com/files/2018/10/dave-dombrowski-red-sox-1024x697.jpg

But other than my bad math, my list is still good, right Thermo?

yup!

https://i.ibb.co/z5x1LNd/Jeffress-Fire.jpg
BURN YOUR FIRE FOR NO JEFFRESS

FLAHERTY, Jack (<27)
MAY, Dustin (<27)
MACHADO, Manny (27-29)
GALLO, Joey (27-29)
JIMÉNEZ, Eloy (<30)

Hopefully my keepers are admissable! Pretty sure

finally - a reference i get!!!

ayyyy that's everyone confirmed! just need keepers from two teams (unless i missed em). the hardest part of fantasy baseball is almost done! wait what do you mean i have to do a draft

I did a little websleuthing based on my longterm knowledge of higgins... he is on Facebook so I could try to ping him there if we get desperate.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Saturday, March 6, 2021 10:35 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

they responded on the yahoo forums and will be returning!

Awesome! There are only so many ace surf guitarists in the DC area, I'll have to tease him when he shows back up.

ha!

also i was brainstorming new team names and decided to base it on the guy who might not even play this year, wander franco... i went wander... what sounds like wander... one direction? that's it! wanderection!

my brain vetoed this almost immediately, but then i came up with WanderVision so I'll go with that!

thought stacking my draft with youths would give me a better keeper than alex verdugo but here's alex verdugo:

Alex Verdugo (<27)
Corey Seager (<27)
Bryce Harper (27-29)
Aaron Judge (27-29)
Blake Snell (27-29)

emailed guns of buxton for keepers, that'll be the last list we need!

might need you to reach out after all albert, need those keepers from higgins

so sorry for spacing out

correa, berrios, turner, ramirez, laureano

All good m’dude. Still got it in on time.

ok gang. draft order is set and picks are in. please, for the love of all this is holy, double check i got your keepers right (it's easy to mess up this stage)!

you can view the order and selects HERE.

You got mine right!

Thank you so much Thermo for doing this.

oh dang i've got second choice? i need to do some research

does anyone know how to find a list on yahoo fantasy of ALL the available players (ie with the keepers taken out) by the rank they use for the draft? like i want to see the list of players as we'll see it during the draft. the Players list removes the keepers but doesn't let you look at one list of batters and pitchers, only one or the other.

unfortunately i don't think you can do that with yahoo for some bizarre reason. the only place i know of to see the list w/ pitchers and batters at the same time is "pre-draft rankings," which includes keepers. yahoo is kinda bad at some things! i recommend just pulling a list from some other site like fantasypros.

i'm just trying to figure out what players are around my draft turns without having to manually assemble something. annoying.

The in-game sortable draft module is pretty robust imho.

guys – all you have to do is view "players" from our league home page. the kept players aren't included.

but you have to select either batters or pitchers, you can't get a list of both at once afaik?

ooohhh - no, you're right.

Does any one else use the fangraphs auction calculator? I know we don’t do auction drafts, but it still spits it out as an ordered list and you can input all the league stats and setting.

So when I view available players on the mobile app, it does list pitchers and hitters together.

heads up - every time i try to join a mock draft i get a "You must be 13 to play in Yahoo! Fantasy Sports games" error. if i get this in the real draft, apparently i'll have to quickly make a new account and have team ownership transferred over, even though it worked fine last year

for the record, i am in fact older than 13. the account itself is older than 13 (which may be the problem)

I'm going to need to see some ID pal.

screw you old man!!!!!

that's weird as fuck.

i guess you probably have an "invalid" age in your profile. you can see it pretty easily by going to account info – but it's not letting me edit my own

hopefully no one else has this issue.

yeah, there's no way to edit it. i don't have an age listed anywhere, i'm guessing my account predates mandatory birthdates and they just randomly decided to start enforcing that

i googled it and the top hit comes up from three years ago – so looks like it's kinda of random.

but if a bunch of people get hit with this when trying to log into the draft, i might have to push is back 15-30 minutes so people can sort it out. but i'll have to know a bit before the draft starts. so this could possibly suck.

I just tested a mock draft and had no issues

ok. team transfer request sent.

thanks, switched over. i have a big boy account now

ha!

draft room is open!

according to the draft room "standings" – i am 12/13. so... not last!

Also am relieved af that everyone was able to join (I think)

even me, a 7 year old boy

This is the year I finish in single digits ranking.

Accepting offers for Buddy Biancalana and Scott Pose.

are we doing this?

HE AIN'T JAVY (He's My Baez) lineup 2021

C - JT Realmuto
1B - Pete Alonso
2B - Tommy Edman
3B - DJ LaMahieu
SS - Javier Baez
OF - George Springer
OF - Teoscar Hernandez
OF - Eddie Rosario
Bench - Kyle Lewis, Andrew Benintindi, David Bote, Adam Eaton
NA - Andrew Vaughn

SPs - Lucas Giolito, Aaron Nola, Sandy Alcantara, Marcus Stroman, Chris Paddack, Yusei Kikuchi
RPs - Aroldis Chapman, Hector Neris, Rafael Montero

Scary good team.

we'll see!

i forgot to think about potential keepers when drafting

I was looking at my team and realizing how so much of it hinges on a bounceback year/regression-to-mean:

BillyChildishBambino 2021

C: Gary Sanchez (K)
1B: Matt Olson (K)
2B: Gleyber Torres (K)
3B: Matt Chapman (K)
SS: Adalberto Mondesi (K)
OF: Juan Soto (K)
OF: Kyle Tucker (K)
OF: Nick Castellanos
Bench: JD Martinez, Austin Nola, Chris Taylor, Miguel Sano (K)

SP: Max Scherzer, Zach Greinke, Joe Musgrove (K), German Marquez (K), Corey Kluber, Elieser Hernandez (K)
RP: Tony Gonsolin (K), Giovanny Gallegos, Chad Green, Emilio Pagan

(K) = Keeper Eligible

2021-eligible keepers marked up (under 27) (27-29)

C - ???
1B - Christian Walker/Carlos Santana
2B - Cavan Biggio
3B - Nolan Arenado
SS - Willy Adames/Ha-seong Kim
OF - Mookie Betts
OF - Marcell Ozuna
OF - Trent Grisham/Brandon Nimmo
UT - Nelson Cruz

SP - Luis Castillo, Zac Gallen, Dinselson Lamet, Patrick Corbin, Kevin Gausman, Pablo Lopez
RP - Craig Kimbrel, Pete Fairbanks, Justin Topa

Minors - Wander Franco
IL60 - Luis Severino

Two empty slots on team will go to a catcher and another position! But I'll never tell WHAT position :O

I was looking at my team and realizing how so much of it hinges on a bounceback year/regression-to-mean:

also kim covers 2b and cavan covers 3b and of so that technically gives me two eligible players at every position in a pinch, which i wasn't realllly thinking about but it's nice to have!

Raising Arozarena (possibly name change under consideration):
C - Grandal
1b - Bell
2b - Albies (K)
3b - Donaldson
SS - Lindor (K)
OF - Yelich, Robles (k), Bryant (outgoing K)
UTL/Bench/future of team - Mancini, Solak, Cronenworth, Kelenic (k)

SP: Plesac (k), Fried (k), E Rodriguez, Keuchel, Soroka (K), Pearson (K)
RP: Pressly, Trevor May, Melancon

i like the team, but wish i'd done better at 1b. and my team def has a busy infirmary between Mancini and Rodriguez coming back and Pearson & Soroka recovering.

i'd trade ya for bell!

(aka my 1b is worse)

yes, i see you hedged your bets there. i only like bell slighter more than either of your guys. slightly.

uh wow... earliest trade in vorped minds history?

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYY

i love it

My keepers needed an upgrade, so I took the best keeper-eligible ones for pick 1 & 2:
oh, and I picked Carrasco with pick 5 not knowing he's messed up for 6-8 wks. It said DTD?

BURN YOUR FIRE FOR NO JEFFRESS 2021
C: MURPHY, Sean
1B: ABREU, José
2B: ALTUVE, José
3B: MACHADO, Manny
SS: SEMIEN, Marcus
OF: JIMÉNEZ, Eloy
OF: GALLO, Joey
OF: AROZARENA, Randy
BN: CARLSON, Dylan / DeJONG, Paul / MADRIGAL, Nick

SP: FLAHERTY, Jack / GLASNOW, Tyler / CARRASCO, Carlos IL / MAY, Dustin / PAXTON, James / CANNING, Griffin
RP: DIAZ, Edwin / POMERANZ, Drew / BARNES, Matt

(EXPECTED KEEPERS)

I'm gonna try to crack 300 transactions this year

I def had my eye on Glasnow but being dealt the #12 pick meant going into survival mode.

Now someone offer me a better 1b!

Well timed trade!!

#Dbacks Zac Gallen scratched with right lateral forearm soreness. Still being evaluated. He's been getting treatment for 10 days.

— Steve Gilbert (@SteveGilbertMLB) March 22, 2021

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYY

CORROSION OF CONFORTO

C - Salvador Perez
1B - Wil Myers
2B - Ian Happ
3B - Anthony Rendon
SS - Fernando Tatis, Jr.
OF - Michael Conforto, Yordan Alvarez, AJ Pollock
Utility - Xander Bogaerts
BN - Joc Pederson, Eduardo Escobar

SP - Brandon Woodruff, Corbin Burnes, Lance Lynn, Charlie Morton, Ian Anderson, Marco Gonzales, Jameson Taillon
RP - Will Smith, Archie Bradley, Jake Diekman, Freddy Peralta

Too many crusty vets for my usual liking but they’re offset by some rising(?) young stars(??)

I SWEAR TO GOD I DIDN'T KNOW

IM SORRY ✖

NOT SORRY ENOUGH TO CANCEL THE TRADE BUT

How dare you try to fleece a 13 year old, have you shame Will?

*no

lol i don't expect the trade to be reversed or anything, still a young guy so i'll get some value out of him after what i can only assume will be 4 consecutive tommy john surgeries

as always, i'll do my best to keep this sheet up to date. shows all keeper-eligible players for 2022 with their age as of apr 1 2022, updated w/ who they were traded to, and if they were dropped. if you're making a trade for a keepable player here's a good place to check that they weren't dropped/picked up at some point or what not

link here

thanks!

Thanks for keeping track of all this dude!

since Arozarena is not on my team, i returned to an old classic:

https://imgur.com/a/pSWB4TH

oops...

https://i.imgur.com/dEnlKp1.jpg

lol excellent

That's awesome! Also, sorry but he's under contra-ct for 4 years

made my team image today too

https://i.imgur.com/U9WdKvd.png

L-R: Wander Franco, Wander Franco, Wander Franco, Wander Franco (seriously)

That’s hilarious

I had to research it first, but that's an epic team avatar there

make sure your lineups are set, boys!

My closer had TJ surgery this week. Smashing start to the season!

yermin's gonna be pickup of the year isn't he

If he can get eligibility at a position or two...

Is it too late to punt on all categories? #strategy

Teams will now just be 10 UTL slots.

who wants to change their team name to "Are we the Baddoos?"

who wants to change their team name to "Are we the Baddoos?"

me!

I just returned yesterday from a weeklong spring break in the mountains and was very surprised to see my team is hanging in there despite my top 3 players playing a total of zero games and a rash of injuries.

I was able to hike up to a nearby peak to our campsite that I was able to get a bar of phone coverage and set my lineup and try to pick some triage scraps off the waiver wire.

A View to Akil is also available to anyone, just sayin.

McMahon hit 3 (3!) homeruns on my bench today

pretty good day for the bench boys, actually: 5/8, 4 HR

It’s not fantasy baseball if your bench isn’t out hitting the entire league.

Thwacking sound by auto-drafted bums headed to the cellar.

It’s not fantasy baseball if your bench isn’t out hitting the entire league.

lol i know this goes in the other glorping fantasy leagues thread but your bench is either A) outhitting the rest of the league or B) entirely made up of IR/injured players. my bench for week 3 in other league is currently Bell, Olson, Taylor, Donaldson, Jimenez, K Lewis, Mondesi, Grisham

✖! what are you doing with your team? Buck Farmer?!

If you have a problem with Buck Farmer you have a problem with me

(I'm trying to pick up potential vulture saves)

saves aren't even a stat on their own in our league! Buck Farmer!!

oh, i have a new team name if anyone wants to give it a good home: Fedde Gott Fingers

yeah but saves are easier to hunt for than holds

late on this but Will, my team name is currently:

BillyChildishBambino

#dokeepup

Aw I could've sworn I checked to see if Hampson was available last night

He’s doing well? Drafted him last year with high hopes but he was a serious let down.

You're welcome to Byron Buxton, who for the first year since he came up is on neither of my fantasy baseball teams. By letting him go I have freed him to be really really good at baseball

Received with open arms 💪 thank you!

Well I give up. Max Fried died on me yesterday. Plesac and McCullers imploded today. This fantasy season has gone about as good as the last year of my life. I give up.

Warning to any fans of Casey Mize: i have added him to my team, be ready for his arm to fall off or a piano to fall from space and land on him. apologies in advance.

april isn't even halfway over!

i keep telling myself with my >6 team ERA!

you can't win your league in the first month, but you sure as hell can lose it!

trying to think of a better mize-centric team name than You Can't Hide Your Lyin Mize

Real Meyez RealMize Real Miez

Then this one I just came up with will be of no help to you: Skubal Drew

every time i read "skubal" my brain goes "from the bottom of the skubal, cackalacky to new yawk" which is probably too long

A criminal Mize
is ball I
ball I've every thrown

ever*

Mize da B'y

so yahoo is beta-testing longer team names. I've signed us up. I'll let you all know when we can all finally rename our teams the text from entire novels.

hey maybe i can at least use my full team name, including the parenthetical

ok guys. our team name limit is 30 characters! go to town, and since it's in testing lmk if you experience any weirdness and i can let the yahoo dev team know.

worked for me

yes, i see you really thought that one through.

ha, i happened to be in there before you posted and thought i would go ahead and try

perfect length for my team name, but i was getting used to the fire emoji i had to save space 😕
it doesn't display the full length when i'm on the My Team page, btw

mobile or desk/laptop?

and is it just truncating, with the "..." at the end? it's showing up fine on both my phone and desktop.

sorry for the questions, part of signing up for the testing was providing feedback.

ok, so my last post seemed to have disappered, anyway,

I was wrong actually it puts the last word "Jeffress" on a second line on my team page on desktop

utterly broken!

https://i.postimg.cc/SxQBGgMp/image.png

How are your keepers doing?

Juan Soto - IL for 2 weeks (?)
Adalberto Mondesi - IL for ??? Hasn't swung a bat since spring training
Kyle Tucker - Mendoza OBP(!), enjoying a 0-14 slump including 3 games in Denver
Nick Castellanos - started red hot but currently SUSP for flexing after scoring post-HBP (didn't touch anyone, had his hands behind his back)
Matt Olson - verrrrry slow start but I have nothing to complain about at all (except for a CS today)

Lindor: SLG .195
Albies: SLG .333
Bryant (my lone ray of sunlight, in his final keepable year): SLG .623
Pearson: DL, working his way back
Soroka: DL and, i quote, "not good"

keeper hopefulls... Robles: SLG .255; Kelenic: NA; Plesac: imploding with a 6.75 ERA and finally max Fried: DL with an 11.45 ERA.

my team is a disaster wrapped in a catastrophe.

nola - excellent
giolito - very good except for his one terrible start against boston
baez - pretty much as expected - very low avg/OBP but good HR producer and surprising source of steals
alonso - slow start but the mets have only played like half their games so far
paddack - pretty good, trending better in his last couple of starts, still has a very dumb haircut

the keepers have not been the problem for me, my high draft picks have not been producing to expectations

Just noticed that yahoo! may have paywalled the little clickable info box next to each player's name?

They’re working fine for me right now. Just the new tools have been paywalled from what I can tell.

i have my 5 keepers from last year and a few new options:
MACHADO - awesome as always
GALLO - .455 OBP, not much else
JIMENEZ - :(
FLAHERTY - doing a lot better this year, I'm relieved
MAY - gamble paid off so far (he's starting and excelling)

GLASNOW - I picked him #1 overall and it was not a mistake
BUXTON - HOLY $HIT this guy is 26 :D
AROZARENA - not too awesome so far

Fuck you people and your successful picks!

not #1 overall, but #5 in the draft (Glasnow)

My keepers:
Luis Castillo: Awful start. 7.15 ERA, under 7.5 K/9.
Mookie Betts: Missed some games, fine but not the tier I want from Betts.
Nolan Arenado: Also not playing to his full potential but not a disaster.
Wander Franco: I didn't draft him to play in 2020. Or 2021. Or maybe 2022. So... no surprises?
Zac Gallen: Seems like he's doing a great job for X's team! Traded for Strasburg (lol injured. Two starts, I missed the lights-out one and got tagged for the terrible one) and Rizzo (a couple of poor weeks and so far one good one)

Also drafted for potential keeping:
Trent Grisham: Mashing when he's not on the IR.
Pablo Lopez: four starts, only one (real) bad one. Excited!
Ha-Seong Kim: at this point droppable.
Cavan Biggio: .281 OBP for a guy I drafted hoping for a killer OBP. hahahah
Dinelson Lamet: Lol drafted on the IR, got back, pitched two innings, IR.

COOL SEASON WILL

the good news keeps rolling for my team...

Counsell said Yelich "has hit a plateau." Is going back to Milwaukee for MRI.

— Tom (@Haudricourt) April 24, 2021

well, i chose a good day to pick up cedric mullins.

Damn, nice one.

OTOH I have one (1) single today in 20 ABs. I've been incredibly lucky this season... I was wondering when the wheels were gonna fall off.

last night I had a K:BB of 26:0 until May walked one guy to cap it off

holy cow!

Two players on my team had 7 RBI games in the past week!

Unfortunately, both were benched at the time :(

you benched Vlad?!

I mean if you don't want him...

How's Tucker Barnhart and John Staumont sound? That's a two for one deal! TWICE the value!

I wouldn't say I benched him ... let's call it overtinkering my lineup. I have been doing way too much of it this season. I looked at the pitching matchups and thought I'd give others some ABs.

ah, a scheduled day off.

i added cedric mullins and he hit two home runs and the next day i benched trea turner...who hit two home runs.

i dropped cedric mullins before you picked him up and none of my players have since hit two home runs in a game, which seems about right for my season so far

How to go to from 1st to 4th in week 5 in less than 20 minutes AMA:

https://i.imgur.com/BecIQiw.png

FFS YELICH WAS OFF THE IL FOR ONE GODDAMNED DAY!!!

geez al, i thought the Arrieta spot start that ended my brief sojourn in 1st was bad (a relatively trim 18.90 ERA!)

FFS YELICH WAS OFF THE IL FOR ONE GODDAMNED DAY!!!

― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, May 4, 2021 5:46 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

similar vibes here but with george springer (though he's technically "day-to-day" not back on the IL (yet))

Well, you jinxed it. Also Rendon pulling a similar thing for my other team.

https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/my2pca6n67j.png
official name change:
Nobody F#¢ks with The Jeffress

so I'm pretty pumped for Kelenic

can't wait to see what inventive disaster befalls the newest keeper on my team. will his femur get shattered by a first pitch fastball? will Chinese space junk land on top of him as he steps into the box? or will his head simply pop off his shoulders and roll off before he can even step out of the dugout?! stay tuned to find out on the next instalment of Thermo Thinwall's Fantasy Disaster Comedy Hour!

Mets fans watch on with baited breath

is it too early to blow it up

Z -- I accepted your crazy trade offer (more likely I am the crazy one for going along with it).

Crazy trade lads!
If I knew Vlad was gettable I would have been offering all manner of insane package for the last month!

!!!!

crazy LIKE A FOX

apologies to [owner who will remain anonymous unless they wish to reveal themselves] who had a similar looking deal on the table

also apologies to the league, i'm new to this league and not sure if these types of rebuild-y trades occur normally and i'm half expecting it to get vetoed :x

wow love it!

if [owner who remains anonymous] wants to make such a trade have a look at my team and see if i have anything!

i would have expected Vlad to fetch more, tbh – but nothing is suspect about this.
as the commish, i bless this deal *does blessy-arm motions*

as a team that is brutally tanking despite my best efforts, I as well would like to offer up my premiere talent for Vladdy-like players.

After five middling seasons I stumbled ass backwards into a potentially great team thanks to my best ever draft day. All the keeper eligible guys I drafted are raking -- I can't keep them all because too many of them are age-27 plus, but never mind that for now -- so my offense is looking solid for a couple more seasons at least. I have a logjam at 1B/3B, another early 20's Jays stud to keep me company for years to come (Bichette), but my pitching staff screams 100-win regular season team that you know is getting bounced in a five game series because they have one sort-of ace and no depth.

And that's how Vlad became available!

Hey I'm [the anonymous manager]. No worries ✖! Appreciate you keeping my anonymity

I'll open it up at this point - I have a whole host of keeper-eligibles to exchange for any impact players from teams looking to next year. When I have time I'll be looking at Will M.'s and Thermo's team and sending ideas. Any ideas are welcome from anyone, message me!

my Keeper-eligibles:
OF Arozarena
OF Buxton
OF Carlson
OF Gallo (2 more yrs of control)
OF Machado (1 more yr)
SP May (TJ'd until earliest mid-22)
SP Glasnow
SP Flaherty
RP Edwin Diaz

i'm also open for business re: trades, i've got solid pitching in particular if anyone needs better starting or relief pitching for their 2021 campaign

Was about to add Turnbull the other day because someone hit the IL, but I couldn’t because Price had just been activated. Figured Price would fare better in the long term. Also picked up Jah Happ just in time for the two worst starts of his career.

I was torn between Bubic and Turnbull to pick off the scrap heap yesterday. Bubic pitched a beauty 6-inning no-run QS and I was like "phew, yep I made the right choice!" lol

I don’t think anyone could have predicted Turnbull. He’s still available in my 9-team (8 team now I guess) AL only league. I had him for a brief stint, but he wasn’t even up to that leagues diminished standards.

benched rodon today cause i wanted to go easy on all of you, you're welcome

;_;

Jesus. Who is this guy all of the sudden?! 13 Ks?!

Good trade A+ for both sides.

Does anyone need Steals? I've decided to punt the category and have Garrett Hampson for trade and he excels in Runs Scored, XBH & Steals (and plays half his games in Denver). Looking for a decent RP arm in return.

https://i.imgur.com/quWHeu3.png

i just assumed everyone punted NSB every year?!

I mean I will probably end up negative at this rate.

Therefore I am petitioning for ASB* next year: Absolute Stolen Bases

lol steals are my second-best category

Well let me rephrase that then, I have a 2B/SS/OF for trade who scores runs and hits for XBs (and also steals bases) if you need flexibile-positional help, just looking for a similar ranked RP arm.

Didn't really realize that trade was still on the table, tbh! Oh well. Romano just needs the opportunities and he's great

Thermo, I'm interested in your offer, lemme mull it over a bit

👍

Was all set to say goodbye to Bryant! He’s on fire this year - has been with my team since he broke in but will be 30 soon. Shame I wasn’t able to give the man a ring in his time with me since this year is a write off.

check yr mails if you value Bryant's chances

oh! ya. thought about him, but thought you'd like the other guy more...

I just threw my hat into the Bryant ring if it's not too late.

lol, nevermind I guess.

was happy to accept the trade i was offered but wondering for future trades -- is there like a messaging platform everyone is on? for most of you, the only way i can communicate is, uh, literally making offers lol

there's an ilx slack if that works for anyone... but i know slack isnt everyone's cup of tea (i can barely handle checking it lol i have two separate work slacks which have focus most of the time)

or does the yahoo chat function not suck? i haven't tried it in years (it sucked back then)

Still sucks. I can only see messages if I’m using the app. And it’s still showing a message from five years ago as being unread, no matter how many times I open it.

I honestly don’t see slack as an option (I have 4 accounts for work, since I freelance for a bunch of places and would rather gouge my eyes out than add another). Sending emails back and forth worked fine for myself and Francis.

Each pair of owners should have their own board on ilxor.com that only they have access to

I'm requesting that Thermo & I's trade be forced through, if it's in the league's conscience. it was canceled because I would've been over max roster size. That's my bad, I didn't think it would be canceled, just that I wouldn't be able to use the new players until brought down to size or something.

that's weird it didn't force you to select players to drop... maybe it's because Flaherty went onto the DL after the trade was accepted?
at any rate - I've resent the offer. accept it for now and if no one objects, I'll force it through. worst case scenario we have a couple more days to wait before the trade goes through properly. i'm worried about just barging ahead with using the mod tools on my own trade and then as soon as i do, i have a bunch of managers pissed at me for abusing mod powers.

Yeah of course, no problem either way

Wow. Some serious action today. Wandervision stockpiling young shortstops! Wondering who gets transitioned to 2b!

wooow

Haven't thought that far ahead. Just getting my guys

Wild trade guys! Looks like a good old fashioned challenge trade?

not at all, this was me getting all up in Burneson and Guns's emails demanding they take my team away in exchange for two of my favourite players (xander and trea). (and me staring at spreadsheets figuring out what they needed so i could offer them both the best packages for their needs). burnesen really took me to the cleaners for xander though lol

now that the real is made though, i have the (nice) problem of 6 stud keepers for next year. def entertaining any offers to upgrade in a two for one scenario or something. Wander, Trea and Xander at short, Betts Eloy and Grish at OF lol. Who has the elite young SPs?! hit me up that never goes poorly for me *sweeps luis castillo's 2021 stats under a rug*

the deal* is made

Will, I got your message on my phone, I honestly can't find out how to pull it up again to reply, but just want to say, yeah, I'm always up to entertain offers. any player is available. But I'm trying to win this thing atm and need SP for one of my 4 keeper OFs if anyone has ideas hit me up

FWIW I do not understand this Xander deal

Initial haul was to be Bogaerts for (unkeepable) Kimbrel, Cruz, and Arenado. Pollock and Smith were throw-ins because CB was going to drop them anyway (and I might drop them but we'll see). But then CB added Rizzo for Rendon because Rendon's been bad and he knows how to squeeze me lol. Everyone I am sending back is unkeepable and Xander is consensus top-20 dynasty player based on a lot of lists I've seen. and im dogshit this season so having unkeepable players is worthless to me

Yeah, I can see it. Got a lot of big names flying around this year, it's interesting

I figured with my team constructed as it is, I wasn’t likely to catch you! I was already thinking that I would be trading Xander to secure multiple non-keeper quality bats before I was approached by Will. My batting has been pretty disappointing, at least in a few categories. Xander has been awesome but I was going to lose him after next season if I even play again, which I may not. We’ll see. Rendon has been weak, Pollock injured, fresh prince has the saves but not the rest...if these guys play as well as they have thus far and Rizzo steps up a bit, maybe I’ll catch up enough to...finish half a dozen points back.

I think I liked the idea of going into next season (if I play) with a rotation already set, plus Tatis. Alvarez is tempting too but he’s a potential injury waiting to happen. If one of the SPs gets TJ I’ll likely just hang onto him instead.

If shit starts to go south get ready for me to dangle some heavy hitters.

I think the baffling part was the big names coming along with Xander - but they all seem to be struggling this year.

I was kind of figuring that Will Smith is a guy who is extremely useful in saves leagues, but in this league he’s perfectly average and there are a lot of guys his equal in terms of S+H in the free agent pool. Pollock could pick it up and do what he did last season on a full season scale but I can’t count on it. I feel like Rendon has maybe been unlucky but also maybe just sucks this year and will continue to do so, and Arenado is an upgrade regardless, and with Cruz I wouldn’t have anywhere else to put Tony. Santana has been great at first but a lot less great lately, and Rizzo may likely be better going forward. And if not I’ll just stick Carlos back in there.

I look forward to all of this blowing up in my face.

Interesting to hear how this came about -- a trade for Xander that snowballed into a trade involving infield stars past their primes (Rendon/Rizzo) and elite relievers.

I'm feeling the pressure to make another trade, but I already parted with my best bargaining chip (Vlad Jr). I might need to upgrade at SP (it depends on Bauer's spin rate going forward ... ugh) and sooner or later my six RP have to start picking up saves and holds.

I’m curious who’s gonna find themselves out an ace once mlb starts handing out fines/suspensions etc

I thought MLB was only "gathering information" this year? I think they'll save the fireworks for the off-season -- coincidentally this happens to be a bargaining year and this is just more ammunition for putting the screws to the players.

Oh so much for that -- new enforcement policy and likely suspensions starting on June 21.

Just noticed the posts on the PED thread.

In other news, I'm putting Trevor Bauer on the trading block you guys! You don't want to pass this up! Cy Young winner -- going cheap!

well, i can't imagine having anything to worry about w/ cole...

Glasnow is down now, I can't afford this.. 😑

Apparently because he had to stop using sunscreen for grip!!

Tyler Glasnow just went off about the midseason crackdown. He stopped using sunscreen a couple starts ago and felt sore afterwards due to difficulty with grip. Same last night. Says it contributed to his current injury. He’s hopeful to be back at the end of the season.

— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) June 15, 2021

well, looks like i picked the wrong day to sit ryan mountcastle.

I added Brett Anderson, so I feel like this will end the Diamondbacks losing streak.

You’re welcome, Arizona.

Fractured hand after 3 games back! Buxton is a total lemon, holy sh*t haha it's almost mystifying

Ok this bogaerts-turner thing is great but wander Franco is making things very complicated. I know I know champagne problems

Anyone with eyes on the future, the injured 27yo Glasnow is now up on the trading block. I need Starting Pitching - get at me!

Four of my hitters are on the DL or listed as DTD and I'm starting to get nervous.

I saw a message in the sky and it said I'm dropping to 2nd place tonight after an overlong tenure in first 😰

of course my team is doing well now that i have traded all of my good players and i am settling into the stupid middle of the pack.

also i have 7 good keepers now

I’m also doing weirdly better after trading my best hitter, starter and closer.

3-way tie for 1st at the moment!

My team had a day yesterday.

nothing Earth-shattering, but I finally cut ties with Dylan Carlson :,/

And I have finally been forced to end the Mike Soroka experiment.

Couldn't pry Corbin Burnes from CorbinBurneson, couldn't pry Soto from BillyChildishBambino

Like trying to get Lajoie from the Naps!

(The Naps did eventually trade Lajoie but only after he requested it)

just got this roster alert on my phone: "Your starting lineup has several potential issues you should review." no shit

Yes. Yahoo has been negging me for two months now.

couldn't pry Soto from BillyChildishBambino

― ✖, Monday, July 19, 2021 12:38 PM (four days ago)

Lol... you were offering me table scraps tbh.

I'd consider Vlad Jr. + Brujan if you're serious.

Adam Frazier (2021 All-Star 2B/OF from the Pittsburgh Pirates) is now on the fantasy trading block... he is on the IRL trading block as well. He will probably be batting leadoff for either SEA or CWS by end of month. Looking for a comparable 3B in return.

I was offering a better deal than what I paid for Vlad! Though I regret waiting until Soto got out of his slump to make an offer

If anyone else is interested in a package around Bryce Harper/Aaron Judge (+1 year of control for both), Carlos Rodon, Justin Turner and any of my relievers I am all ears. There's also a young keepable Zac Gallen if you're interested in him after last night's start.

Brujan isn't keeper eligible btw

Also pretty much anyone except vlad and Seager lol

Taking Frazier off the trading block as he is going to San Diego which is enough of a game-changer for me.

Well like I told you ✖ in the DMs, I admire you for trying to rebuild your team but I'm in the midst of defending my championship title (currently in 3rd, but should be 2nd by end of month). Perhaps it's a bit of a different mentality for those who play to contend... eg, I'm not going to stockpile borderline redraft OFs like Judge/Harper who wouldn't even be starters on my team.

Judge and Harper wouldn’t be starters?!

All OFs ranked season to date:

https://i.imgur.com/v3Ky5qG.png

The irony is that I kept Haniger for the 2018-2019 seasons (during his testicular trials & tribulations) only to finally release him and now he's a top 4 outfielder in MLB according to our metrics.

whoops, i was looking at the wrong team!

you don't need to have all of those at OF though? with the trade i offered, even after getting castellanos back your bench would be gleyber and adames

and harper is only that low because he missed time this year, if you sort by "season (avg)" he's the third most valuable OF in the league behind buxton and acuna. and judge is the 12th most valuable by average, ahead of everyone on your team except castellanos and JDM

francisf: i am considering your offer! i've been away all weekend so i haven't had time to really dig into it

k cool, no problem ✌️ lemme know!

i am also all ears if Vlad is back on the trading block!

uh vlad is definitely not on the trading block... my offer to broccoli was strictly a my-present-value-for-your-future-value kind of deal, same as the freeman/ryu for vlad trade, but i think i spent too much time talking about years of control on the guys i was offering and that sent a message that i thought he was trying to rebuild or something. (i was really just trying to soften the blow of losing all those future years of soto.)

i take back that seager is off the table though, i didn't realize he was about to come back and could reasonably help someone competing this year. it would take a lot though as he has 3 years of control left and i've definitely been planning on keeping him.

i honestly feel bad about the vlad trade, like it opened up a floodgate that wasn't opened before, and now these big kingmaker trades are gonna happen every year. it feels un-kosher, like the year end standings are going to be determined by whichever bottom-rung teams were willing to juice up whichever contending teams with uncontrollable stars. right now i have one of the best pitchers in the league, who will probably finish at least 2nd in AL CY voting, and he's completely worthless to me because i'm out of contention and he's unkeeperable. same with justin turner and bryan reynolds who are super valuable in this league. i'd feel pretty shitty if i was competing and all the teams around me were having all their holes plugged in exchange for a single young player, but there are so many game-changing players who just don't have any value to half the teams that own them. not that i was expecting broccoli to trade him, but even after soto finally got hot, a trade of harper/rodon/turner/a reliever would've been so completely lopsided in the short term it would immediately make broc the 2021 favorite, i would think. 7 years of soto is a lot to give up, but in the short term that seems unbalanced.

maybe something could be adjusted in the offseason to disincentivize blowup trades. either by expanding things to make more players keeperable, adjusting which players are keeperable, or adding an incentive for failing teams to keep trying to improve short term (might be hard to do without adding real life money rewards to the equation)

I think the trade market in our league was slow and boring over the past few years. The big trades this year added some much needed fun and excitement.

Since becoming a keeper league (10 years ago), team managers (much like real life GMs) probably overvalue their young talent and are reluctant to make big trades. Obviously I'm not excluding myself from these habits.

ya, you blew the doors off and i thank you for that! i like the big trades and they have been far and few between for most of the leagues history.

i honestly feel bad about the vlad trade, like it opened up a floodgate that wasn't opened before

my ears are burning lol

but nah even if you hadn't made that trade i would've been hustling like i did during that month anyway. i feel like it's really rare for a team to have as many good unkeepable players as mine did and somehow still shake out to be as bad as it was in the standings, but some enormously bad pitching in april and may kinda nailed my coffin shut. tbh the kingmaker trades have actually been around? i just feel like the first salvo just happened a little early this year.

maybe something could be adjusted in the offseason to disincentivize blowup trades

i feel like the most elegant fix (if it were a problem that needs to be fixed, which i don't think it is?) would be to limit the number of players you can keep via trade to 2 of the 5 or 3 of the 5 or something. but yeah in a roto i kinda like the buy-sell dynamic. i hate it in a h2h league because sometimes you get playoff-bound teams entering an arms race, to the point where... lower playoff-bound teams start to sell, which is just sad (see: my football league every year)

that said i uh i still have 6 top-60ish dynasty league players on my team so if anyone is interested in a 2 for 1 hit me up - turner (8), mookie (9), wander (22), bieber (24), eloy (28), castillo (60) per fantrax today (i picked their dynasty rankings arbitrarily)

that said the trade would probably involve castillo+1 out for a player better than the +1 and i doubt anyone wants to do that

team managers (much like real life GMs) probably overvalue their young talent

my ears are burning lol

tbh the kingmaker trades have actually been around? i just feel like the first salvo just happened a little early this year.

buuuuuuut if everyone's cool with it then that's cool. it does keep things a little more interesting

i believe the season i won (two years ago?) i made one trade? devers and franmil reyes for verlander. this season has definitely had more trades, especially of big names, than any since i joined ILX fantasy. i generally think it's fun, though i might find it more annoying if i was anywhere near contending.

Im already psyched for next season when i can unveil my amazing new team name

Great pennant race we've got going on here.

oh wow – you're right. I'd been so focused on my other team i hadn't paid much attention to our standings! i wish yahoo did like a visual timeline for standings.

oh they do!
https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/8949/viewstandingschart

pretty basic tho. animated would be more fun (like at the end of a game of CIV).

been a while, but i updated the 2022 keeper sheet with all of the adds/drops up until a few mins ago, probably the last update til the offseason! all of the trades included now as well.

Thanks dude

Thanks!

Two of my starters got shelled yesterday to the tune of 14 combined ER in 5 IP, and my team ERA went up by about .1. Still managed to move back into first place, somehow.

1.5 points separating 1st and 2nd with 6 days left!

I'm not posting anything (well, besides this post) for fear of jinxing my season.

Saw you making some lazy afternoon moves. Was expecting the both of you to be making some panicky early morning transactions!

for the record i don't think i've ever maxxed out any position and my outfielders and ss are done as of today. crazy.

I have been near the bottom of the league in #moves all season long. My middle name is "don't panic" ... but my first name is "I traded away seven more years of Vlad Jr. and if I don't win the season I will die".

Looks like yours to lose really, seeing how jq is maxed out in so many slots (just 7 innings left to use aswell)

Congrats NoTime!! Your insane gamble of trading away your home-team-superstar-best-hitter-in-baseball-and-also-only-22-years-old player paid off!!!

Thanks I know! (*laughs and then cries for the next seven years of keeper eligibility*)

congratulations to NoTimeBeforeTime!

I can't believe I finally won in our league after seventeen seasons of trying (and three second place finishes). I didn't have high expectations going into the season but had a great/lucky draft which really helped when injuries started piling up (not to mention the suspension of my perverted/psychopathic ace SP). It was one of those years where most of my roster moves worked out and a few key players overachieved (Ohtani!!).

Congrats again, dude.

A lot of my top players stank this year - Lindor, Yelich etc.
Was a seller this year for the first time in a while (I think I’d been second place two or three years in a row) and dealt Bryant before he became a FA, along with a few other deals and somehow my team started doing better after dumping talent?!

Congrats to NTBT! My big ol trade mostly paid off but it wasn’t enough. A relatively low OBP led to relatively low runs despite great hitting elsewhere, and like any good baseball fan I’ll also blame my starting pitchers for not WINNING despite great numbers elsewhere. I also mostly think NTBT was just too good.

most of the issues this season were in offense. i was particularly hurt by using early draft picks on DJ LaMahieu (who was bad all season) and George Springer (who was injured for big chunks of the season). at least i traded a non-keeper-eligible Aaron Nola for potential hotshot prospect Adley Rutschman, who is keeper-eligible.

forgot to wish NTBT a hearty congrats! hearty congrats to you NTBT!

also came back to say that i remembered to do the final update on that sheet with all of the september drops, here.

Thanks Will! And thanks again for your work on the keeper spreadsheet.

My keeper situation isn't as bad as I'd feared ... Dylan Cease showed legit #1 or #2 starter potential this year, so he and Bichette have me covered for solid <27 keepers. I doubt Ohtani will be as good next year, but obviously I have to keep him. That leaves five players (all of whom were really good last year) for two keeper spots. It's going to be a tough decision!