Any team caught using the shift will be fined by the league: your 2023 fantasy baseball thread!

all teams are auto renewed, draft date is set for Sunday March 26 4pm (edt); so let's try to get our keep picks (and hilarious team names) in by the Sunday before (March 19).

i think we all remember the rules (player age calculated as-of April 1st). Will should be along with his awesome spreadsheet soon.

as always, new managers are welcome! this year's baddy is Billy Childish Bambino (gygax) and his ridiculous outfield.

one annoying change this year courtesy of yahoo – no more league message board. i liked to post updates there as well as here, but this will be the only place for getting info for now.

in case anyone didn't get the renew email, here's a link to the team page

this might belong more on the forgetful ilxors thread; but i came up with a new team name months ago. had it in my head all winter - and as soon i'm ready to renew the league... poof. gone.
it's driving me nuts.

It's me with my spreadsheet! apologies to anyone who relies on it during the season because apparently i stopped updating it around july or august, but i have since fixed it up and all of your eligible keepers are listed. have a look here!

hmm i know i traded away sandy alcantara, and some of those other names don't look right either

weird, i made sure to check the transactions tab and only remember seeing one keeper-eligible guy on the list. i'll see if i can find last year's league again (i always forget how to navigate to old seasons)

ah ok i see the problem. there were two trades and my eyes glazed over and thought it was one big trade, so i missed a couple of players. fixed now!

Also I'll post my keepers now since I already agonized over them in January while fixing the sheet. Gotta drop two very-good-to-extremely good keepable guys (Eloy Jimenez, Edwin Diaz) and two more mid guys who I believe in to an irrational degree (Michael Kopech, Brendan Rogers, in ascending order of irrationality).

Here are my Five Guys™️ with ages per the sheet:

Wander Franco (22)
Ronald Acuna (25)
Shane Bieber (27)
Aaron Nola (29)
Trea Turner (29)

ALSO, sometimes the birthdates get fucked up especially if there's been another guy with that name in the past before, or if they share a name with a guy who got dropped it can fuck it up (looking at you, will smith and will smith) so if you see such a guy, let me know. I'll add a new tab this year that shows all keeper-ineligible guys that you can check and challenge, it'll be the second tab

Dude. If you don’t finish top three with those keepers, I’ll never let you live it down

they were just as good last year and i turfed OUT

same last year except swap nola/acuna for eloy/mookie, so it is a bit of an upgrade this year. but the draft was cruel

Corbin Burnesen (list of star keepers and cursed individuals)

Corbin Burnes
Yordan Alvarez
Fernando Tatis Jr
Dansby Swanson
Freddy Peralta

Guns of Buxton

Bobby Witt (22)
Jazz Chisholm (25)
Daulton Varsho (26)
Pablo Lopez (27)
Carlos Correa (28)

Ages for my guys:

Burnes (28)
Alvarez (25)
Tatis (24)
Swanson (28)
Peralta (26)

keepers for my yet-to-be renamed team:
Max Fried (29)
Francisco Lindor (29)
Ozzie Albies (26)
Shane McClanahan (25)
Alek Manoah (25)

(Man Oahboard)

Giolito Shuffle keepers

Emmanuel Clase (25)
Adley Rutschman (25)
Luis Robert (25)
Pete Alonso (28)
Lucas Giolito (28)

feels weird keeping a closer but Clase was lights out last year and is young

if there is any option to change the draft day and other people are amenable to it, it would be more convenient for me to do it another day. i am taking my kid to a fan convention on the 26th and don’t know if I’ll be able to follow the draft. but i understand if not.

Any opposition to the same same on the Saturday instead?

i can prob do whichever day, as long as it's like in the afternoon/evening (i have another draft whose date isn't set yet and we usually do that the same weekend around ~1pm eastern)

same here

saturday would be much better for me, thanks

Ohtani Dancer in my Hand (formerly LuvWilTeheranUsApart) keepers:

Bo Bichette (25)
Logan Webb (26)
Dylan Cease (26)
Shohei Ohtani (batter) (28)
Alex Bregman (29)

i was going over some younger guys i might want to target – and I started to get the feeling like I was instead picking some poor unsuspecting prospect to jinx. i'm curious if i've actually had bad luck, or if I'm just being paranoid. over the last 8 years some guys i've reached for in the draft (or traded for) include:
Julio Urías (pitched just 27 innings over two season before i moved on),
Luis Severino (gave me one decent season before being injured for the next two),
Nomar Mazara (replacement level his entire career),
José Fernández (died after two seasons on my team),
Jesús Luzardo (was good for 12 promising innings before fate took hold of him),
Michael Soroka (he managed 13.2 inning before becoming irrelevant),
Nate Pearson (Luzardo 2.0),
Zach Plesac (career 0.4 WAR after drafting him),
Francisco Lindor (he's been better, but proceeded to have a career worst season right after i traded for him),
Jarred Kelenic (unequivocal dumpster fire),
Riley Greene (Kelenic 2.0?!),
Jack Flaherty (managed 36 innings and two serious injuries since i added him).

that's not to say i haven't had guys work out, but do most managers have this many guys flame out?!

https://imgur.com/krI0AyN.png
A Moon-Shaped Pujols
(formerly Longmont Potion Castellanos)

24 Keibert Ruiz
26 Tanner Houck
28 Randy Arozerana
29 Tyler Glasnow
29 Byron Buxton

i botched my trade opportunities last year. gonna need a major re-tool here

hey – a team name reference i actually get!

do you all still need an additional manager (or someone to take over for gygax, i guess)? no big deal if not, but i'd be glad to step in and be the guy who drafts all the cardinals prospects that will actually really suck for the next few years

thermo my keepers have previously included Mazara, Carlos Martinez, Benintendi, AJ Pollock, Miguel Sano, Khris Davis, Sonny Gray, David Dahl, Ian Anderson....lots of injuries, lots of unfulfilled promise.

hey, we're Mazara brothers! and that is a solid list of disappointment you got there.

true hacking mass championship material right there!

i don't know what i ever saw in Mazara. probably something like...hey, his first name is Nomar? Stop there, I'm sold.

did someone once have team called faith nomar?

i don't recall ever seeing it. and i don't think i ever saw Mazara Starr either

hello friends i didn't get any emails (nor do I deserve any) but someone please negotiate me to the spreadsheet so i can pick the worst possible keepers before i draft the worst possible team thank you matt s cibula at gmail dot com

Emailed!

>>Send Nootbaar<<

Julio Urias 26
Austin Riley 26
Logan Gilbert 25
Josh Hader 28
Will Smith 28

deGromlandic Edit a.k.a. a lot of other bad puns.

Jonathan India 2B
Framber Valdez SP
Shohei Ohtani SP
Devin Williams RP

Votto No Get Enemy

Grayson Rodriguez 23
Vlad Guerrero Jr 24
Oneil Cruz 24
Sandy Alcantara 27
Corey Seager 28

nice! just two managers left to confirm and then i can set/announce the draft order and we're gtg!

Dascenzo Corbusier fka Snitker Conspiracy

Julio Rodriguez (22)
Rafael Devers (26)
Gleyber Torres (26)
Zac Gallen (27)
Jorge Polanco (29)

Thanks, Thermo and Will!

So my flight lands 20 minutes before our draft starts lol... what could possibly go wrong dragging my family through the airport and customs while trying to put a decent team together. Relatives are picking us up so I don't have to worry about losing connection in a train tunnel or what not but I'll try to auto-populate my pre-draft rankings as much as possible.

Keepers (age):

Juan Soto (24)
Kyle Tucker (26)
Matt Olson (29)
Tyler Stephenson (26)
Ryan McMahon (28)

Thermy & Willy,
Thank you for all that you do~

awesome! that's everyone!!! will – can you double check the ages? and I'll post the draft order in the next couple days and get the draft ready to go!

do you all still need an additional manager (or someone to take over for gygax, i guess)? no big deal if not, but i'd be glad to step in and be the guy who drafts all the cardinals prospects that will actually really suck for the next few years

― z_tbd, Thursday, February 23, 2023 9:06 AM (two weeks ago)

Was there any follow-up on a way to integrate z_tbd into the league? I'd give him my team in exchange for some choice draft selections.

jesus, i totally missed that! i will email him.

any objections if I push the draft time back 15 minutes?
our glorious league champ could probably use every minute we can give him to de-plane and get into the draft.
feel free to email me directly – if it puts anyone out I'll drop the idea.

Push it back as needed!

works for me

oh cool! i wasn't sure if there would be a way to join this year, but looks like i'll be able to start up a new team. i hope i can come up with a good pun. it's the hardest part of fantasy baseball

Awesome. I sent you an email. I just need to know what email to send the yahoo invite to.

since they weren't posted here yet, these are the keeper rules for the league:

• total of 5 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

That is a A+ name

sorry dude. he should be back in a few weeks hopefully? still a potential difference-maker?

― na (NA),

Nah I'm just being dramatic. Dats fantasy baseball baby! (Plus I can't resist a 90s Charlotte hornets pun)

For the good of the league I have decided not to use these Terence Trent D'arby-themed team names:

Syndergaard or Damn
Welcome to My Andruw Monasterio
Castellanos Blue
Neither Fishman Nor Flexen

Jung Like A Horse
Eflin4Zaggin

Sorry that was meant to be "Jung Like A Jorse" I apologize

also took a flyer on a pitcher because he was against the A's

189.00 ERA, 24.00 WHIP in 0.1 innings oops

At least I can trust my old faithful, the aces who have got me thru the season, such as Kevin gausman who is currently on *checks notes* infinity ERA/whip uh oh

impressive pitching line for Billy Childish Bambino yesterday

Ya that’s quite an impressive jump in points there

At the start of May, my team was 90 points behind the leader, I'm now 22 points back.

Most of my top draft picks were injured or were just awful, my offense was a AAA-level bad joke outside of about two players, and most of my keepers got off to slow starts.

I tried to swing a couple of trades, but nothing worked out, in part because some of the players I wanted to offer got injured.

I'm not sure if my team is regressing to the norm after a bad start or playing way over their heads, but either way, it's been fun.

Y'all I just got back from 8 days truly off the grid (zero wifi/cell service) and somehow I'm in 2nd place. WTF is even happening...

homers hit during the HR derby should count

Anyone interested in a non-keeper trade? I need RP help and have a surplus of OF:

Castellanos or Santander for a top 100 RP
Eloy for a top 200 RP
JDM (DH) for a top 50 RP

Seems to be a glut of quality OF right now. Was trying to unload Lowe in my other league - but everyone seems to already be at one-outfielder-too-many already.

Our league YTD ranks:

JDM: 37
Castellanos: 42
Santander: 54
Eloy: 390 (but was hurt for a couple months, he's as good as or better than the others)

These guys are all first pagers in league leader cats.

Lowe is #92 in comparison.

There's been a great dogfight at the top of the standings for the last few weeks, but it's turning into a runaway now.

I can fool myself into thinking my team could have contended if their first month hadn't been so awful. But that's not realistic, Mourning Alonso and Billy Childish Bambino are just too good.

obviously i am hesitant to declare anyone running away with things again; i can say for sure we have our team name of the year in "Satanic Frelick in the Attic"

i wouldn't call it a runaway yet, i managed to put up that lead over the course of like a week or two and my team is playing out of their minds -- if they start doing the opposite, i could lose all of those just as easily (and september is always weird)

plus BCB cleverly left themselves a way to make up some points...

😬

Yes, this has gotten interesting again.

think Alonso is safe. Corbin has maxed out 4/7 lineup slots AND innings.

The above statement by Therm is 100% untrue.

Corbin has not maxed out any cats but is projected to max out.

The month of September (esp. these last 2 weeks) is always a uh... fun time trying to calculate who gets shut down for the playoffs, shutdown due to lack of playoffs, rotations start to get tweaked to dovetail into playoffs/byes, 40 man roster call-ups taking up regulars positions so that front office can give them a look while they're getting their cup of coffee, &c. &c.

Ah my bad! Pitching will probably be ok, but does mean sitting random dudes here and there or leaving slots empty. Basically 3 games at UTL (for example) that otherwise could have had a dude slotted in there. So counting stats will be a bit suppressed.

Also: I will be away in Germany for the next three weeks, so if there is any fantasy emergencies I might be slow to react.
Will my absence even be noticeable from me team? Not likely.

Congrats Will - you did it!
Between Acuna and the Franco deal, it was one for the books!

Congratulations Will on a great season! Like any of us had a chance against a team with Betts AND Acuna.

I'm happy with my fourth place finish considering my team's horrible start and the injuries to most of my top draft picks. OF and C were a mess all season long, I need to fix that in the draft next year.

After what happened to Manoah - I’m still not dissuaded from the idea that there is some kind of curse on my pitching.

I tried some late season heroics to take Will down but his GLORP was just insurmountable, well done!

Congrats will! I enjoyed my run at the top for awhile but in the end, some of my hot streak players who kept me afloat faded away and a couple of injuries did the rest, not that anyone would overcome the acuna/betts duo.

I guess however for the first time in a few seasons, I'm thoroughly happy with my potential keepers entering next season.

Whew thanks all! Burnesen and bambino really had me sweating at the end, almost as much as my average era of like 9 for most of September did. Now I can finally just... Stop sweating

I'll do a final update on the keeper sheet later today!

congratulations! a dominant performance

frustrating season for me, my offense was pretty great all year but just couldn't get any reliable pitching rotation going. and then the franco trade lol. SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME. whatcha gonna do though.

i have a mere eight players remaining from draft day. six of them are possible keepers.

i was happy with my Freeman trade but it was too late to make a difference. i got wrecked by the early ERA troubles and later OBP troubles, and tried to balance semi-punting saves + holds with going all in with other categories. didn't quite work.

the annual top 10 hitters of the fantasy season

Ronald Acuña Jr.
Freddie Freeman
Matt Olson
Mookie Betts
Shohei Ohtani
Juan Soto
Kyle Tucker
Corey Seager
Corbin Carroll
Marcus Semien

And the top 10 pitchers

Gerrit Cole
Zach Eflin
Spencer Strider
George Kirby
Logan Webb
Zac Gallen
Zack Wheeler
Justin Steele
Kyle Bradish
Luis Castillo

an all-Zachary staff might have taken the chip

How good was Will's team?

I had top #3,6,7 hitters and top #1 & 3 pitchers and he still beat me by something like 10 points. That's kind of unreal in a 13T roto.

i was very fortunate to grab Eflin when i did, what a season that dude had. i'm kinda surprised he was sitting there most of the season, but it was a weird one for pitchers. there weren't a lot of guys who were across-the-board great for the full season, except for Cole.

Hey y'all, Votto No Get Enemy's gonna cut out this year. If it wasn't obvious by my complete lack of engagement, my interest in FBB plummeted to zero last season. Thanks for letting me play along these past few years!

we'll miss you! i hope this means you've also been able to extricate yourself from that truly nightmarish other glorping fantasy league with the family. it was bad enough that i retold your stories to some of the guys in my other league!

also, apparently, this was a lie:

I'll do a final update on the keeper sheet later today!

― Ryan seaQuest (Will M.), Monday, October 2, 2023 1:46 PM (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink

but i was able to do it today.
see here

lemme know if there are any issues! (or wait until next season's thread, when most of you will bother looking at it lol)

godspeed ✖

thanks will

Sorry to hear. I might have to refresh my memory on the other glorping fantasy thread.

I guess will see if any posters are interested in taking over Votto…

the keepers on Votto are p.great! Grayson/Vlad/Oneil, Sandy/Seager/Murphy

ya, some good options there for sure

compared to my rebuilding-a$$ at least

Is there a policy on how are abandoned teams are handled if no takers on adopting it? All players straight back to the draft or is there another way of redistributing?

Also, how do we get gyac to discover and relish the great American pastime of yahoo! Fantasy Baseball?

All players just go back into the draft pool. Any keepers not drafted are shot.

When is the deadline for keeper commitments? I have a potential odd man out situation...

we're not even close. i'll figure it out when i start the new thread in a couple weeks.
deadline was March 19 last year, so expect something close to that.

Thank you Thermo.

for other bookmark-users who forget to check boards on account of all of the bookmarks: new thread