Now allowing micro-betting; what could go wrong?! It's your 2026 Fantasy Baseball thread! (also we have a team up for grabs for you lurkers)

Over-under on anyone breaking 100 moves? How many NSB can someone manage drop in one day? How many small ways can we think of to degrade the sport we love so much?! Let'a keep this season of fantasy baseball "Clase-y"!

League has been renewed and everyone who's not Clemenza has been added. Vladdy, Gore, Pena and others will be heading into the draft if no one adopts the orphaned team.

STAT CHANGES: goodbye hated doubles and will be taking wins with it out the door.

Season starts Wed March 25, so I'll set us to draft Sunday March 22, 4pm EST and lets try to have our selects in before that weekend.

This year's baddie is Billy Childish Bambino (Steve Shasta), with pretty much a dynasty going on in the 2020's.

You may all now proceed to complain about your teams/keepers...

Corbin Burnesen keepers

Corbin Carroll (25)
Riley Greene (25)
Fernando Tatis Jr (27)
Tarik Skubal (29)
George Kirby (28)

My OF is sorted, looking forward to my annual tradition of having a mediocre season from my starting first baseman!

my keepers are such a mess only have two options for my above 27 picks and have gambled and lost two years in a row on my early prospect picks...

Shane McClanahan, 28 (hasn't pitched in two years)
Steven Kwan, 28 (.705 OPS in 2025)
Gunnar Henderson, 24
Hunter Goodman, 26 (last round flier that I didn't expect to pan out, but *probably* taking him over the other options)

and then can't decide between:
Spencer Schwellenbach, 25 (probably injured for a good amount of 2026)
Zach Neto, 25 (not crazy about his OBP and don't need a second SS)

also likely not keeping:
Jackson Holliday, 22
Roki Sasaki, 24

i'm probably going with

PCA (skeptical he won't have a slump this season but obv worth the gamble, especially given my options)
brayan bello (i guess? my only other option for <27 is jasson dominguez)
hunter brown (feel pretty OK about this)
cole ragans (feel pretty OK about this too despite his health issues)
nico hoerner (i need to figure out how the loss of 2b impacts his value - michael busch might make more sense if power has become even more important)

but obviously still thinking through my >27 options

wondering why you'd be down on a 30/30 CF... but then i saw his OBP. yikes.

i just also have javy baez-related trauma re: flashy sparkplug/energy cubs who could get really hot or suddenly look hopeless at the plate

is this still the best link for this year’s keepers?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16ppox9Hl6zWBKnwkQ0po2UAeaHn6KhbmTy7Mu58SFX0/edit?gid=664111364#gid=664111364

keeping these little guys, most likely:

jazz chisholm jr (28)
freddy peralta (29)
elly de la cruz (24)
hunter greene (26)
ryan pepiot (28)

most likely dropping these little guys

jordan walker
jordan lawlar
brendan donovan

yamamotopsycho nightmare likely keepers

roman anthony
bobby witt
spencer strider
oneil cruz
yoshinobu yamamoto

jordan walker
jordan lawlar

this threw my dyslexia for a loop. to bad there isn't a jordan kwaller.
RIP the jordan lawlar experiment.

it wouldn't surprise me at all if one of these jordans has a big year soon! but man it's been brutal carrying these jordans

spreadsheet for those who are interested

my tentative keepers are:

Cal Raleigh (29)
Ronald Acuna Jr. (28)
Vinnie Pasquantino (28)
CJ Abrams (25)
Jackson Merrill (22)

couple of potential cuts in there, i have a lot of guys hovering right around the same level

thanks will!

thinking i will go with Schwellenbach over Neto.
my fear is, in doing so, i might be jinxing Schwell to a career of horrible injuries.

so my pics, probably, will be:

Kwan, 28
McClannahan, 28
Goodman, 26
Schwellenbach, 25
Henderson, 24

don't know much about him and also dont wanna jinx it, but Schwellenbach is just about the most "1400 IP of fairly decent pitching" surname i have ever heard

keeperzz:

Junior Caminero (22yo), Tampa Bay Devil Rays 3B
James Wood (23yo), Washington National Expositions LF
Garrett Crochet (26yo), Boston Red Sox SP
Juan Soto (27yo), New York Metropolitans RF
Kyle Tucker (29yo), Los Doyers de los Angeles RF

my fear is, in doing so, i might be jinxing Schwell to a career of horrible injuries.

:````(

i do believe you mean the "Red Stockings", my good man

Skenes, Herrera, Luzardo, Lee. Not seeing much use for any of my others at this point...but who knows what spring will bring?

i might know someone who would be willing to take over The Missing Team, should i mention it to him or ?

keepers for Naked Ragans

Jasson Dominguez (23)
Pete Crow-Armstrong (24)
Hunter Brown (27)
Cole Ragans (28)
Cristopher Sanchez (29)

decided not to keep brayan bello despite the temptation to do so just to allow me to change my team name to brayan bello's safari planet (did i steal this joke from somewhere?)

i might know someone who would be willing to take over The Missing Team, should i mention it to him or

Appreciate it, but unless you *really* want you friend to join, there’s no need. We still have a decent sized league and I would be hesitant to add someone who isn’t already on ilx, since all our announcements/deliberations/trash-talk happens here.

We could probably all step up our trash talk game tbh

little guys are so strong we can drop two jordans and we don’t even care

little guys are gonna pass you up in nsb this year

my trashtalk is really bad, i’m just establishing my baseline here so i can look back and see how far i’ve gone

https://c.tenor.com/e5BOpTCQRo8AAAAM/strawberry-simpsons.gif

little guys gonna take the ball and go home, you’ll have to find new ball

Not much to choose from on the Bichette's Brew keeper list, it's mostly a bunch of failed prospects. I need a killer draft this year.

Bichette's Brew keepers

Luis Garcia Jr. (25)
Michael Harris II (25)
Yordan Alvarez (28)
Logan Webb (29)
Bo Bichette (28)

Send Nootbaar's hot noots include:

Bryan Woo (26)
Wilyer Abreu (26)
injured Jordan Westburg (27)
Logan Gilbert (28)
Austin Riley (28)

Honey Nut Chourios

Joe RYAN (29)
Nick LODOLO (28)
Mason MILLER (27)
Wyatt LANGFORD (24)
Jackson CHOURIO (23)

Hapax Legumina

Julio Rodriguez (25)
Brice Turang (26)
Tanner Bibee (27)
William Contreras (28)
Rafael Devers (29)

Thanks. Think we just need one more teams picks and then I can set the draft order

Oh, I didn't know it was me! Sorry. I'll stick with:
Paul Skenes
Ivan Herrera
Jesus Luzardo
Jung Hoo Lee.

no, my bad – just missed your earlier post. am going to put the weighted team standings into my randomiser and will post results in just a minute.

draft order:

1 Bichette's Brew
2 Gut of Pasquantifier
3 Send Nootbaar
4 Naked Ragans
5 little guys
6 Cold Conforto Farm
7 Les Misiorowski
8 Corbin Burnesen
9 Honey Nut Chouri◎s
10 Yamamotopsycho Nightmare
11 Billy Childish Bambino
12 Hapax Legumina

My first time ever getting the first draft pick! I guess that means I should prepare better this year.

your choice is easy. no prepping required.

also, i have put in all our keepers. please, PLEASE make sure i got your selects right on the draft results page:

https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/73025/draftresults?drafttab=team&draft_results_period=current

fwiw i just checked it against the list i was keeping independently and it lines up!

Sweet

your choice is easy. no prepping required.

Either A-Rod or Pujols. BUT WHICH ONE?

draft day, bitches!

uugh, i’ll be on auto-draft this year

trying to figure out who are the top ranked completely injured players, to remove them from the default draft rankings they give you

Oh man. The auto draft is not kind at all. I’d try to rank as much as you can, and bump rare positions up a bit, yahoo is so bad at team construction

yeah, i just don’t have time :(

it’s ok though

once my broken all-stars come off the 60 day list, i plan on making a late september run for the ilb crown

looks like you're going to have space for an new keeper or two, so i would maybe rank a few young'ins at least cover you there.

https://i.imgflip.com/ana5cw.jpg

now that the draft is over, i realize almost my entire starting staff is in triage

keepers sheet for 2027 (what, like you weren't already thinking about it, konnor-griffin-at-11th-overall drafter?!?)

if anyone here is a computer codesperson who can figure out a convenient way to extract transaction data from yahoo (there IS an api, whatever that means!!), you could make my life so much easier!! please let me know

there is also a very special fifth tab on that sheet, but i won't spoil the surprise, go and have a look :)

Naked Ragans

C - Shea Langeliers
1B - Josh Naylor
2B - Nico Hoerner
3B - Jose Ramirez
SS - Dansby Swanson
OF - Pete Crow-Armstrong, Jac Caglianone, Addison Barger
UT - Sal Stewart, Christian Walker
BN - Colton Cowser, Coby Mayo
NA - Jasson Dominguez, JJ Wetherholt

SP - Cole Ragans, Cristopher Sanchez, Hunter Brown, Nick Pivetta, Shane Baz
RP - Daniel Palencia, Kirby Yates, Kenley Jansen, Robert Garcia

since i was coming in with three solid SPs, my main goal was to focus on slugging for the first few rounds. i was semi-successful there with a few reliable bats (jram, naylor) but ended up with more question-mark guys than i would have hoped. i'm happy with my SPs but punted on RPs until probably too late, gonna have to keep an eye out for options on the wire
i did achieve my two other draft goals: not worrying about grabbing hyped prospects early on (i did get wetherholt later in the draft) and not getting tempted into drafting any rockies who are definitely going to turn things around this season

I don't usually take recommendations for team names, but Jesus Made My Hotrod is too good. the squad (and, if keepable in 2027, their next year's age) (and also if i kept them this year as a K)

i took no less than 4 guys listed as sleepers from one specific writer i sort-of follow for fantasy stuff, which uhh... eggs, basket, etc. i think it's a fun team, anyway! i think i have what it takes to finish outside of the bottom 3 this season! (i'm thinking 5th, with top 3 stats in most batting and bottom 5 in most pitching as always)

C: Cal Raleigh (K)
1B: Vinnie Pasquantino (K|29)
2B: Luke Keaschall (24)
3B: Noelvi Marte (25)
SS: CJ Abrams (K|26)
OF: Ronald Acuna Jr. (K|29), Jackson Merrill (K|23), Christian Yelich
UT: SHOHEI, Byron Buxton

Bench: Kyle Stowers (IL|29), Caleb Durbin (27), Ceddanne Rafaela (26), Marcelo Mayer (24), Nolan Schanuel (25)

SP: Kyle Bradish, SHOHEI AGAIN, Emmet Sheehan (27), Edward Cabrera (28), Blake Snell, Michael King
RP: Grant Taylor (24), #2 RP Empty (i'll figure it out)

MiLB: Jesus Made (19)

four things:

congrats on the best team name in the league. you owe Shasta a beer for that one

LOVE that you have rebuilt a complete Ohtani from his component parts. like a MLB Devastator

good grab with Keaschall. was hoping he'd fall a little more - but after that i was triggered into picking up Yesavage with my next pick

Noelvi was a risky pick for your main 3b, but Caleb is a great backup and Mayer a good follow-up flier

i think the rest of that lineup might be able to carry a weak 3b! the rotation on the other hand will need divine intervention

New team name: Gausman-Turner Overdrive

C: Ivan Herrera (K 25), Carter Jensen (22)
1B: Willson Contreras*
2B: Maikel Garcia (26)
3B: Kazuma Okamoto (29 but not keeper-eligible), Jordan Lawlar (23)
SS: Trea Turner*
CF: Jung-Hoo Lee (K 27)
OF: Kyle Schwarber*, Lawrence Butler (25), Jo Adell (26), Daylen Lile (23), Sal Frelick (25)
SP: Paul Skenes (K 23), Jesus Luzardo (K 28), Kevin Gausman*, Tatsuya Imai (27), Bubba Chandler (23), Will Warren (26)
RP: Andres Munoz (27), Raisel Iglesias*, Pete Fairbanks*, JoJo Romero (29 but not keeper-eligible)
*old

[Rejected team names: A Daylen in the Lile, Meet Danny Willson, Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Okamoto Blvd, The Brothers Jhostynxon]

Gee looking at my lineup it's fun as hell but I'm pretty sure I'm destined for last place again

my alternative team name that's too long to use: jac of all trades, master of caglianone

congrats on the best team name in the league. you owe Shasta a beer for that one
LOVE that you have rebuilt a complete Ohtani from his component parts. like a MLB Devastator

indeed!! shasta if you're ever in mtl, first round's on me!! tbf that offer prob goes for any of yall haha

good grab with Keaschall. was hoping he'd fall a little more - but after that i was triggered into picking up Yesavage with my next pick
Noelvi was a risky pick for your main 3b, but Caleb is a great backup and Mayer a good follow-up flier

both of these starters were in the aforementioned sleeper list. 3B is ROUGH this year, it was really hard for me to get excited about anyone (not counting keepers) outside of jose and machado, both of whom went before my second pick (and my first pick was always gonna be either judge, sho, kurtz or vlad). speaking of sho, i might have also reached on him as a pitcher, but the temptation was too great. i was so relieved to keep dumper for the same reason as 3B, with C being so rough this year (or any year)... but then i watched one of the catchers i WOULD have taken fall quite far (shout out little guys for getting agustin ramirez in the 9th, great value imo)

my alternative team name that's too long to use: jac of all trades, master of caglianone

itd still be too long, but if you wanna shorten it, i'd go jac of all trades, cagli o' none to get the cadence lol

here are some of my quick thoughts about some teams i am looking at (going thru em just to give myself anxiety):
little guys - this was autodraft?! this team looks SCARY. if mookie somehow gets of eligibility again, that's agustin-vlad-jazz-(colson/royce)-elly infield (w/ perdomo in the wings!), mookie/aroza/soderstrom/teoscar/kerry c outfield. even without OF, mookie perdomo UT with that IF...geez. the pitching has some quality anchors, and some hurt guys that can easily be replaced early on with streamers.
billy childish bambino - it's so fucked up that this team drafted for youth and is still so scary dominant in 2026. every other team in this league is set for its century of humiliation at this point. 5 top-40ish SPs! soto! tucker! wood! all while drafting konnor in round 1 i want to die lol
corbin burnesen - speaking of scary dominant. skubal sale kirby SP trio. corbin tatis greene OF. only reason i'm not listing the amazing infield is because i don't wanna just name every player on this team. BCB & CB gonna be a clash of the titans.

wait... you're in montreal?!

Corbin Burnesen is officially rebranded to The Bohm on Mizar 5

i had to google that one

haha ya im in montreal!

i thought you were west coast for some reason. was in Montreal a little over a year ago and would have invited you out for a drink if i knew (we checked out a few breweries while there) (Messorem was awesome)!

(RIP pops) They can’t serve beer at Wrigley the rest of the year. (They lost the opener).

my main goal was to focus on slugging for the first few rounds. i was semi-successful there with a few reliable bats (jram, naylor)

lol ok Ramirez and Naylor are a combined 2/25 so far. fortunately I’m being bailed out by my youth movement (Wetherholt, Sal Stewart, PCA, Langeliers, Caglianone)

I figured it made sense to sit Messick and Williams against the dodgers. Collectively they threw: 13IP, 15 Ks, O ER, 2 QS

billy childish bambino - it's so fucked up that this team drafted for youth and is still so scary dominant in 2026. every other team in this league is set for its century of humiliation at this point. 5 top-40ish SPs! soto! tucker! wood! all while drafting konnor in round 1 i want to die lol

...

lol thanks will, hope your enthusiasm spreads to my team

little guys are so strong we can drop two jordans and we don’t even care

― z_tbd, Saturday, March 7, 2026 11:43 AM (one month ago)

*deep sigh*

cmd-f Dom Smith

tsk

i updated my trading list, but i'm looking to trade offense for a good SP or two. i've especially got a surplus of 1Bs and SSs, though i'm probably not looking to trade any of my young keepers at this point

cmd-f Dom Smith

tsk

― I will edit thread titles like no one has ever seen before (WmC), Tuesday, April 14, 2026 6:59 PM (one week ago)

i took a stab. platoon players who ride the bench 3x a week are usually fantasy busts (unless catchers).

lol thanks will, hope your enthusiasm spreads to my team

― imperial frfr (Steve Shasta), Sunday, April 5, 2026 12:11 PM (two weeks ago)

hey will, the team has responded by staying in either last place or 2nd to last.

it appears i'll dip into sellers mode... #rebuild #2027champions

If anyone is interested in the LA Dodgers clean-up hitter, please make an offer!

i do have an extra shortstop if anyone finds that useful. could also use pitching

the extra shortstop's name?

j. wilson

just dropped onto last place. feels early to slide into seller mode but sadly here i am

hey will, the team has responded by staying in either last place or 2nd to last.

yeah i don't know why anyone woulda listened to me anyway, as the person swapping last place with you lol. what a brutal start to the season for me

sorry i missed your trade requests, i'll be more diligent during the week.

one of my outfielders robbed another one of my outfielders of a homerun today... how do we quantify that for future seasons?

My pitching is brutal, Webb is hurting, Valdez is suspended, my bullpenners dole out runs like candy and walk everybody in sight. They've fallen so far behind the rest of the league (sub 2.00 K/BB, how is this even possible?) that I don't think it can be fixed.

oh yeah, my team is a full on disaster too lol

also hometown hero jordan walker being an mvp after holding onto him for years and then dropping him this year was discouraging, lol!

welp, I've already got 3 of my Keepers on the IL (Soto, Konnor, Crochet) but looks like it will be now be 4 (James Wood).

feel like maybe we should have more than 3 IL slots?

i know it's edge case level of bad luck but something to consider for the future?

iirc we moved up to 4 from 2 for covid and then went to 3 after. my teams's been keeping those three spots pretty busy; my other team, lord almighty, could use 5 right now.
am open to the idea, but would want to hear from the rest of the league. every time i think a small change might be hunky dory, i hear from a least one manager about how their team was actually built around the principle of three IL slots etc etc

i was also eyeballing Crochet from across the room; seeing he was going to be injured a while while you were doing well in the standings... but then Gavin Williams kicked things up a gear and thinking he's looking like a solid option to keep next year.

yeah i'll have to play a man down for the time being, but with Keepers like these lol:

Crochet is questionable to pitch again this season, he hasn't begun a throwing program and it's August
Wood may be out for the season depending on the severity of the oblique strain (4-6 weeks)
Soto's calf has been nagging him all season (and last) and is hoping to come back in September
Konnor is due to return in September but the Pirates are in no rush to get him back in the lineup

to add insult to uh... injury: my catcher just went on paternity leave

Happy almost* all my Keepers are off the IL

*Crochet is trying to return this season lol

For future leagues was thinking of instead of Saves/Holds if there was some sort of net ~outcome~ stat for pitchers (Win/Hold/Save = +1, Loss, Blown Save = -1)

in the same way that i haven't been able to look at my bank account in several months, i have been unable to open the ilx fantasy baseball tab. how are the little guys doing? i'm really sorry

after the 153rd key injury i just lost all willpower

unpopular thought: way too much of fantasy baseball is about how injured everyone is

my unpopular thought about basketball is that fouls suck and way too much of the end game is taken up by fouls and free throws, and it sucks, it's like built into the game that it'll suck at the end

same with football - awesome shit happens, and then there's a flag on the play. exciting. at least with hockey there's a cool power play scenario or people fighting. anyway, same thing with fantasy baseball - everyone is injured, always, forever, i can't keep up

unpopular thought: way too much of fantasy baseball is about how injured everyone is

Much like real baseball!

so true! especially with pitchers. it's crazy to watch any pitcher and just know their arm is going to explode in a few years

Injuries in fantasy are sort of fun tho at the same time; if it’s not a crucial player and you’re not in a dead heat for first. Gives you a chance to add that guy you’ve been watching or go shopping for some hot commodity.

5+ injuries tho, much less fun. I’ll admit to having checked out at this point. I can only manage so much disaster.

Think we’ll def be adding another IL slot for next season.

congrats to The Skub on Mizar 5! glad a Steely Dan reference came out on top. think this is like your 5th championship?!

congratulations!

very mediocre season for me but i get to hold on to PCA for another five seasons

thanks! i was convinced Yamamotopsycho Nightmare would eventually catch me, but i held on.

i wound up getting really fortunate in paring it down to a vv solid core group of starting pitchers, and it was even more fortunate Tatis rediscovered his ability to hit home runs in the second half.

and i think this is my fourth chip, i'd be more bullish on a repeat next year if it wasn't for other teams having even more enviable keepers.

meaning my team of course.

Grass is always greener, but I’m completely assuming there will be a Gunnar comeback and a Hunter G repeat and a Gavin Williams Cy Young.

Congratulations omar! You dominated all season long.

My team finished 5th despite my pitching staff crapping the bed for first half. Too bad, because I led in four offensive categories. A halfway decent pitching staff and/or a few decent base stealers on offense (a problem for me every year, it seems) could have landed me on the podium.

you had some huge hitting on that squad, no one was going to catch you in those categories after awhile. Murakami was a great pick, hopefully he'll refine some things and be even more Schwarbery going forward.