How do we get Taylor Swift into fantasy baseball? Your 2024 ILX Fantasy Thread! (also, there is an opening for a new manger!)

Also I'm still finalizing my last 2 keepers. Need to monitor some spring training data before I make that call tho...

i'm completely ok with the 16th, it would just feel weird to me to conduct the draft with a couple of games already in the can, even if we can retroactively count the stats. idk how much it matters to anyone else obv.

This happened before (maybe when I was commish?) and there was a mid-tier player who went off in an exhib game played internationally played before the draft and they ended up going a couple rounds earlier than anticipated. Seeing as this is rotisserie (ie, not points or H2H), I don't think those games are enough to move the needle.

I’m fine with the retroactive stats solution, but if it gets moved my preference is Saturday > Monday > Tuesday. I’m pretty open that week.

lets see if this works...

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JPSW77D

i only just now noticed the spelling mistake in the thread title

(and now do you finally get my youtube ref?)

also more importantly are you replacing 2B with another offensive stat?

as much as i would like to, nothing else looks all that great to use in it's place; and i'd like to keep the amount of stats the way they are for balance between pitching and hitting

What was the argument for 2Bs instead of XBHs? Overvalues HRs but undervalues 3Bs?

Or a negative OFF stat? Ks is a nice equalizer.

(I think I used GIDPs one year as well lol)

more or less. i think a few people thought home runs were just too overpowered with xbh

xpost

GIDP was kiboshed because it punished cleanup type hitters with lead foots hitting a head of them

Yeah my rationale was that guys who hit with runners on get more RBI chances so GIDPs a nice way to balance that out for guys who play on weaker teams who do not have the luxury of RBI opps.

I also remember a year where we drafted after Opening Day in Japan one of those years, and it didn't really make a difference? But I'm fine with moving up the draft by a week.

sorry i've been not as attentive as i should be! i am in full on winging it mode, but i need to get my list of keepers. also i submitted to surveymonkey (bow down to the one you serve) for the draft dates, i'll do my best to make whichever date so i don't get autodrafted!

we're at 9 answers so far and it's weirdly very interesting lol

baseball fans, tell me what to do. i am faced with an agonizing choice for my 27+ keepers.

one of them is cody bellinger, who is definitely going to be MVP in 2024, chance of regression = 0.0000000001%
the other? JACK FLAHERTY OR AMED ROSARIO
goddammit

on the other side, i will obviously keep Eury Perez. then, i must pick 2 of francisco alvarez, lars nootbaar, hunter greene, and everybody's favorite little big guy who runs fast, alejandro kirk. i'm going with lars nootbaar just because i like to root for the home team, and i've seen him do some very athletic things so i believer in his potential. so
FRANCISCO ALVAREZ OR HUNTER GREENE

speaking from experience, get off of Jack Flaherty's wild ride asap

I’m smelling a comeback player of the year award for amed rosario!

smell the rosarios!

formerly A Moon-Shaped Pujols, now obviously:

Honey Nut Chouri◎s
20 CHOURIO
26 LODOLO
26 HOERNER
29 AROZARENA
29 HELSLEY

ok - 11 respondents. think it's safe to call this one...

9 vs 2 in terms of picking a new date.
Most preferred date was a tie between the Sat 16th and Tues 18th; and a tie between Tues 18th and the OG date for what most people found workable.
Highest rage score, after the "none" option: Sat 16th.

So looks like our new date will be Tuesday the 18th starting at 7:30 est. apologies to the two managers that had that date as their least favourite option.

I will change the league setting shortly; and anyone with outstanding picks, please get them in my mid week next week.
i should prolly get a mod to edit the initial post as well.

Tues the 19th?

FFS. yes. Tuesday the 19th. sorry about that.

trying to do too much this morning.

apologies to the two managers that had that date as their least favourite option.

if i finish in last again this season i'm going to blame it on this!! ;) ;)

no worries, and there's a chance i could join for at least part of it (aka do the draft in the background of a band practice lol)

could always do a little pre-ranking (esp if there are young guys you'd like to target) and then join in part way to fix whatever mess the auto draft left you with.

i was the other person who ranked that at as my least favorite option but it's OK, should still be able to join

appreciate all efforts made to accommodate the rescheduled draft

good news - looks like Votto No Get Enemy will live on under the stewardship of clemenza! i think this might be his first foray into fantasy nerdball?

That spreadsheet looks like hieroglyphics to me, but I'll tentatively give it go. No guarantee I'll last. Thanks for the invitation.

baseball fans, tell me what to do. i am faced with an agonizing choice for my 27+ keepers.

one of them is cody bellinger, who is definitely going to be MVP in 2024, chance of regression = 0.0000000001%
the other? JACK FLAHERTY OR AMED ROSARIO
goddammit

on the other side, i will obviously keep Eury Perez. then, i must pick 2 of francisco alvarez, lars nootbaar, hunter greene, and everybody's favorite little big guy who runs fast, alejandro kirk. i'm going with lars nootbaar just because i like to root for the home team, and i've seen him do some very athletic things so i believer in his potential. so
FRANCISCO ALVAREZ OR HUNTER GREENE

EURY PEREZ
HUNTER GREENE
FRANCISO ALVAREZ
AMED "MVP" ROSARIO
CODY BELLINGER

fuck, oops, sorry for including that text at the top! i meant to delete before posting my keepers:

EURY PEREZ
HUNTER GREENE
FRANCISO ALVAREZ
AMED "MVP" ROSARIO
CODY BELLINGER

lars nootbaar has fractured his ribs. i am sorry lars.

clemenza, i predict that you'll have a great time doing this, if you participate! and if nothing else you can race me for the cellar

Stumbling along blindly here, will help from Thermo, but these will be my keepers:

Grayson Rodriguez (24, P)
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (25, 1B)
Bryson Scott (26, 2B)
Corey Seager (29, SS)
Sean Murphy (29, C)

I'll change my team name as soon as I think of a good Ball Four connection.

Grant BallFour?!

Ok, since i don't think we are in danger of adding or losing any more managers, i am going to lock the league and will post the draft order later today.

i think there is just one last manager that needs to get their selects in and then i can start plugging those bad boys in.

Lets try to get final keep selects in by the 14th.

Is this still valid or out-of-date?

(I would like to see a larger sample of more than 2IP of ST pitching before I lock in a keeper lol)

14th is still good. I’ll probably enter the picks over the weekend - I just want managers to have some time to double check I got everything right.

Billy Childish Bambino:

Juan Soto (25)
Spencer Strider (25)
Triston McKenzie (26)
Kyle Tucker (27)
Willy Adames (28)

Mind blowing that Soto is only 25

ok. draft order is set:

1 Giolito Shuffle
2 Satanic Frelick in the Attic
3 The Worst Players in Baseball
4 The Guns of Buxton
5 Newcombes On de Blok
6 A Moon-Shaped Pujols
7 Votto No Get Enemy
8 Send Nootbaar
9 Ohtani Dancer in my Hand
10 Dascenzo Corbusier
11 Corbin Burnesen
12 Billy Childish Bambino
13 Morning Alonso!

oh man the pressure of the #1 pick (and back-to-back picks after that). not that i'm complaining.

Changed my team name to Steve Barber and a Cast of Thousands (rendered a bit differently on Yahoo to fit the 30-character maximum). Bob Locker, Ball Four: "Boys, today it looks like Steve Barber and a cast of thousands."

I love these team names, have fun everyone. Whoever gets the most dodgers, let me know so I can root for you

So do we have 2B again as an off cat or ... ?

Not really a lot of input on that front - so same as last year.

i guess i'll do one of these post-mortems. going into the draft i wanted to have a reset year to restock my keepers, however we all saw how my streaming pitchers went...

R1. (5) Jackson Holliday, 20 yrs – dud. he's young and i'll probably keep him; but did terrible, got demoted, got recalled, briefly did ok, then did terrible again.
R2. (22) Aaron Nola - performed about as hoped
R3. (31) Bobbly Miller, 25 years - that boy ain't right. wanted to land a young arm i could hold onto and liked Miller a lot. got destroyed to the tune of a 8.52 ERA in 13 starts.
R4. (48) Paul Goldschmidt - dud. career worst season.
R5. (57) Will Smith - was surprised he fell to me. he did ok but not as good as I'd hoped. has been supplanted by Tyler Stephenson
R6. (74) Anthony Santander - finally some good news. meh OBP but a wild career high in HR (43) (so far)
R7. (83) Shota Imanaga – amazing. probably my best pick. dude dominated this year
R8. (100) Pete Fairbanks - dud. dude was a mess
R9. (109) Kodai Senga - dud. seemed like a soldi IL stash. took way longer than expected to recover. pitched one game. died, then died. out for ROS
R10. (126) Jake Burger - down season, but serviceable
R11. (135) Steven Kwan, 27 - career high in HR (13) and generally amazing first half, followed up by a terrible slump bookended by injuries
R12. (152) Kyle Harrison, 23 yrs – dud. hedged my bets w Miller here, and this was less of a disaster. 4.56 ERA and some injuries. might keep (shrug emoji)
R13. (161) Starling Marte - did ok when not hurt
R14. (178) Bryan Abreu - dud. started the season terribly and then did amazing after i dropped him
R15. (187) Colton Cowser, 24 yrs - UGH. didn't have high expectations, dude got off to an amazing start then hit a wall. then dropped. then he got hot(ish) again.
R16. (204) Ryan McMahon - did ok
R17. (213) Alex Cobb - dud. dropped his ass p quickly
keepers
Gunnar Henderson, 23 - fucking amazing year.
Jesús Luzardo, 26 - dud. pitched terrible, 5.00 ERA and then went down with an injury
Ozzie Albies, 27 - dud. was not good and also hurt a good chunk of the year
Shane McClanahan, 27 - decided he was worth keeping, even tho he had tommy john and missed the season
Bryan Reynolds, 29 - did fine. didn't have huge expectations

god did this ever go wrong. it's a miracle i'm not lower than 9th and i have no idea who i should keep aside from Henderson and McClanahan. have to decide on three from Holliday, Kwan, Harrison, Albies and Luzardo.

Post mortem -- I'll always remember this as the season in which I traded away the likely MVP's of each league. When things were looking up in mid-June, I even spent one day in first place! I know it's lame to blame injuries in fantasy baseball, but I'll do it anyway. I had an All-Star team worth of talent that spent way too much time on the IL, mainly on offense, and there were too many holes to fill.

1. (9) Aaron Judge. A+. The Judge for Sale trade worked out. Sale had 10 W, 1.96 ERA, 143 K's in 110 IP for my team. Take away those numbers and I'm in last place in multiple pitching categories.
2. (18) Jose Altuve. A+, couldn't have asked for more.
3. (35) Edwin Díaz. C, not nearly as dominant as expected.
4. (44) Christian Yelich. Was looking like an A+ pick with his best season in years until he went down for the season.
5. (61) J.T. Realmuto. C+. Good player but missed significant time with injuries.
6. (70) Raisel Iglesias. A. My best RP.
7. (87) Ha-Seong Kim. B. Good but limited to 120 games. Currently injured.
8. (96) Paul Sewald. NA. The first of the bad autodraft picks, I ended up with way too many relievers. Dumped him in preseason.
9. (113) Kenley Jansen. NA. Autodrafted. Dropped him in preseason and grabbed Ranger Suarez, who gets an A+ for his first half, D for his second half (he was injured).
10. (122) Tanner Scott. Dropped him after a slow start to the season. Not the best move on my part.
11. (139) Jordan Montgomery. F. Suffered with him for eleven starts and a 6.00 ERA before giving up. The real life Diamondbacks unfortunately don't have that option.
12. (148) Rhys Hoskins. Couldn't find a spot for him in the lineup with three first basemen on my roster (thx autodraft), tried to trade him unsuccessfully (and unsurprisingly), dropped him in June.
13. (165) Jonathan India. Dropped him in preseason, the first of my season long search for decent starting pitching.
14. (174) Ryan Mountcastle. C-. Not bad as a fill-in first baseman.
15. (191) Gavin Williams. C-. Injured in the first half, inconsistent in the second half.
16. (200) Lars Nootbaar. D. Kept waiting for him to break out but he never did.
17. (217) Matt Chapman. Dropped him in pre-season but didn't really have a spot for him in the lineup.

Keepers:

18. (226) Shohei Ohtani (Batter). A+++. And traded him for Yordan Alvarez (.423 OBP, .669 SLG, 15 HR while on my team), who has another year of keeper eligibility.
19. (243) Logan Webb. A. A rock.
20. (252) Bo Bichette. F. Multiple IL trips and unmotivated when he did play.
21. (269) Triston Casas. C. But injured too much.
22. (278) Michael Harris II. B-. But injured too much.

Summary: Harris II, Casas, Bichette, Realmuto, Kim, and Yelich all lost significant time due to injuries. That's just the offense. Some of my replacement pickups worked out, but that's just too much talent, and too many injured guys. If half of them had stayed healthy and produced then it's a top three offense in the league even with the Judge trade. If Suarez had stayed in Cy Young form in the second half, and if Williams had come back from injury strong, then I might have had the starting pitching to hang in near the top of the standings (after trading for Sale, of course) and avoided having to cycle about a dozen waiver wire starters in and out of the rotation looking for a solution.

That's a lot of ifs though. It happens. I should be able to come back with a decent keeper core next year, choosing from Harris, Casas, Bichette, Webb, Alvarez, Williams, Kim.

no season recap for me yet, i'm still playing to win the championship. this morning i picked up mitch keller as a streamer sp, and he immediately got shelled by the brewers. but, i forgot to start him, so he was on the bench. now that's winning fantasy baseball

i've thought of a long-term strategy that would be very fun for me but potentially unsportsmanlike or un-fantasy-like.

what if i just become the St. Louis Cardinals? with this strategy, i would try to acquire the entire st. louis cardinals starting position players, pitchers, and bench, giving outstanding bargains to whichever managers agree to give me the most and best cardinals players. this would also affect my draft strategy, as i would target someone like tink hence or jj wetherholt in the first few rounds, to make sure that no evil anti-cardinals manager would swoop them up years before their major league debuts

because basically my season recap is that i bet everything on the cardinals and lost badly

i'm not going to do a full postmortem either but looking back at the draft, a personal highlight was drafting abner uribe and jose siri immediately before paul skenes was drafted by someone else. i even had skenes on my target list, but apparently getting a few extra saves and a few steals at the beginning of the season was more urgent.

the most consistent problem i had all season was 1b. i took a risk on drafting nolan jones, who was either awful or injured all season, pretty early, with anthony rizzo, who was also bad or injured, as my backup. there were never any other decent 1b options available, i ended up slotting brendan donovan in there for most of the season. the worst of it is i'll probably still hold onto jones next season because i only have two keeper options in the young age range.

the most consistent problem i had all season was 1b. i took a risk on drafting nolan jones, who was either awful or injured all season, pretty early

and yet... you still wouldn't let him go in a trade. in fact, i had to remind you he was on your roster because you claimed he wasn't 😂

correct, i would not let him go in a trade for spencer torkelson, a trade that would not have benefited me in any way.
tbf jones was pretty forgettable this season

a trade that would not have benefited me in any way.

torkelson was worth +1.36 points, jones was worth -1.24 points. that's +2.60 points you would have benefited!

I will confirm torkelson was a disaster most of the season. I dropped him in my other league after he was finally, mercifully demoted. Then he comes back up (after seriously not earning a promotion) and starts socking dongers again. I wouldn’t be surprised if all his value come in the back 6 weeks and fully support anybody who was highly suspicious of that man.

congrats to

1. Corbin Burnesen
2. Send Nootbaar
3. Yamamotopsycho Nightmare

!

congratulations!

Congrats Corbin Burnesen on an amazing last month surge!

My pitching staff was a thing of beauty: point totals of 2-1-2-1-2-2-1 across the board.

omar, nice job on a commanding victory.

thanks y'all -- i really thought bnw had it in the bag there, i was resigned to the fact that having no good first baseman w/Walker on the IL and rotating through eight different catchers and never really solving my second base issue and my rotation having gone a bit cold other than Skubal might have all doomed me, but lots of guys suddenly started playing out of their minds.

congrats dude! is this your second triumph?

btw, i called this victory 6 months ago!

i won in 2009 and 2015 and since then i've been going back and forth between third and fourth place forever. i'm just happy i was able to give team namesake Corbin Burnes his ring during what's probably the final season he'll be on my team.

Well done, Omar!

Congrats to Omar! - tho I don't get the reference 😳

my team was something - tied for last in offence and top 3 pitching. 10th overall

I drafted for the future this year, landing Langford, Joe Ryan, Bibee, Steele and Mason Miller as options
Chourio immediately shined in his rookie year, thankfully. hoping for similar results from Langford
I also bolstered my future by trading Snell for Jung
the offence was completely frankensteined together all year
the biggest boon was grabbing Reynaldo Lopez and Crochet in the first week.
have keepers, will travel

MVPs: Salvy, Reynaldo, Joe Ryan, Mason & Honey Nut Jackson

i guess if i had to name a team MVP it would be Gunnar Henderson, with Imanaga then Kwan/Santander following.

also big announcement from the soon to be renamed Gott Money I'll do anything 4U: we will be retiring the numbers for team legends "King" Felix Hernandez and Jose Fernandez!

looking to next season - i think we have consensus that it's time for doubles to go. i guess we don't *have* to replace it with anything and i doubt we will see any new stats available next season. i was concerned it would throw off the balance with pitching stats, but if we consider there is a distinction between SP and the one cat we have for relievers; it's probably fine.

i also *really* like the idea of having CF + 2 OF instead of just three OF. try to make sure we have at least one OF that has some acumen with the glove.

I'd go for the CF idea, though it'd be more of a pain obv

re doubles: I think a negative stat might help here: K, GIDP, or maybe even OFA (outfield assists) if you want to boost CF/RF value.

is there any way to see what our players would be ranked w/o doubles being included? it doesn't change anything for me w/only having five keeper-eligible guys, just curious.

I wouldn’t want to do GIDP again - it punished hitters that had slow ass runners infront of them too much. Also going negative instead of just getting rid of it would actually cause some imbalance vs SP.

congrats on chasing me down, omar! I had a surreal run where all fantasy luck was working. I would forget to start a guy and he would get nuked. I’d pick someone up and they’d become babe ruth. Then in those last few weeks in flipped 100% - I think I had a whole week without an ERA under 6. Feel ok that I have decent keeper options for next season.

it felt like you were ahead of me for three months, i thought i might be cursed and the trades wouldn't help so much since the rest of my team wasn't so hot and yours was so well rounded, but it worked out. it was probably very fortunate that Carroll and Tatis came back really strong, but maybe even better was having a relief corps i didn't have to do anything with most of the season, they just gave me 400ish IP of great k/bb, low ERA, and excellent WHIP, and got me a bunch of wins too.