HITTING FOR THE NEWS CYCLE
Alan Trejo and Michael Toglia have made the Rockies, it seems. Trejo will be a utilityman, but Toglia has won an outfield job and should play regularly until the team wearies of his strikeouts. He has hit five homers this spring and has good power potential, and while patient he strikes out a lot. Still, he’s a reasonable endgame choice in NL only.
Sean Bouchard was sent down.
And for the big news, Paul Sewald has a Grade 2 oblique strain. Grade 2 is better than Grade 3, a complete rupture, but it usually involves 2-3 months of rest and rehab. Say, about, 80 days. The team hasn’t announced a timeline, as far as I know, but look to Kevin Ginkel to pick up most of the closing duty for the D-backs. Ginkel has been pretty effective the last year and a half. I have the two splitting the season now.
According to a report at mlb.com, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli says Griffin Jax will be the team’s high-leverage reliever, meaning he’ll sometimes be called on in the eighth to face a team’s toughest hitters. This should open Brock Stewart up for save opportunities against the back end of the losing team’s lineup. Twins reliever Jhoan Duran has an oblique strain, too, though it seems a touch less severe than Sewald’s.
The impossible White Sox closer situation is devolving to future (and present) hope Michael Kopech. Closing seems like a better fit for him.
James Wood shares his name (almost) with an actor, James Woods, which has been noted in each fantasy draft when he’s been acquired.
But even after a hot spring, the top prospect was sent down. He’s not out of the woods yet, but he’ll be back.
Other big news is Victor Scott making the Cardinal roster after Dylan Carlson hurt himself yesterday running into Jordan Walker on a play. Carlson will start the season on the IL. Scott will be the starting centerfielder on Opening Day 2, and will steal a lot of bases as long as he’s on the field. He’s had a good spring and benefits from Tommy Edman and Lars Nootbaar both being on the IL as well.
Because of injuries, Carlos Carrasco has made the Guardians rotation. He was terrible last year. Be very wary.
Garrett Mitchell broke his hand, opening up an outfield slot that Sal Frelick could move into. That would mean Joey Ortiz could see more time playing third.
The Rangers sent Justin Foscue down. Foscue didn’t overwhelm during the spring and the Ranger lineup will be packed once Corey Seager and Josh Jung are activated. Both are now playing and Seager, at least, hopes to be in the lineup on Thursday. Foscue is a solid hitter who should be on reserve lists despite the jam ahead of him.
The White Sox will start the season with Braden Shewmake as their utility guy. He’s got good speed and puts the ball in play weakly.
The Mariners acquired Dominic Canzone last year for Paul Sewald at the trade deadline. Canzone has hit four homers this spring and is headed for the strong side of the platoon. In Triple-A last year he had tremendous power against righties and not so much against righties.
The Nationals sent Trey Lipscomb down, meaning Luis Garcia has the second base job—for now. Lipscomb had a great camp, but hasn’t played above Double-A. Garcia was a top prospect, so now after four major league seasons he’s one month older than Lipscomb, but hasn’t shown signs of breakout. He did improve his contact rate a lot last year, maybe a sign not to give up on him, but neither he nor Lipscomb project as big power or speed. But whichever one is playing will have some quantitative value.
DON’S FUNNY VALENTINE
I planned on publishing this piece by Don Drooker over the weekend, but wasn’t able to get to it. Alas, so today it is.
Don’s Rotisserie Duck website for many years was a delightful mix of Rotisserie and fantasy baseball enthusiasms and appreciations and baseball card collecting stories, trivia, and insider info. It’s still well worth visiting, a lot of material is timeless.
I met Don when we both played in the XFL, that crazy dynasty-sort-of league that has its auction at First Pitch Arizona each November, followed by a 17-round snake draft in March. Alex Patton and I won the league title the first year, but in the many years that followed, until he retired a few years ago, Don won what felt like every other year. Don did this by the most astute drafting, mostly, developing a current stream and future stream simultaneously. It was bravura fantasy baseball work.
Which takes us to this piece. I ran it in 2018 in The Fantasy Baseball Guide, with the illustration by Mike Ricigliano.
Don can be found selling vintage baseball cards on Ebay under the name rotisserieduck.
The Usual Rotisserie Suspects
By Don Drooker
With the original "Rotisserie League Baseball" book having been published in 1984, some of us are coming up on our 35th year of auction drafts in the Spring of 2018. Almost everything has changed for the Fantasy player since those days of the analytic pioneers, but one trait has remained constant. My attendance at over 70 of these soirees indicates that while the people around the table have changed, the personalities haven't.
As with "Dragnet", the names have been changed to protect the innocent, but you should recognize some of these types from your own league.
> "The Hypester" - Not to be confused with a "hipster", this guy automatically buys into all the hype he reads about minor league prospects, rookies, refugees and players from the Pacific Rim. If you told him confidentially to look for a Korean phenom named Sum Yung Guy, he'd probably bid on him. This guy drafted Candy Maldonado in the 80's, Kevin Maas in the 90's and Domonic Brown a few years ago. He also owns a Joe Charboneau baseball card.
> "The Limited" - Not to be confused with a train, this player is literally stuck at the station. He's created some guidelines for the bidding process and doesn't have the courage to go beyond his set values. Invariably, he's the next-to-last bidder on numerous players and ends up leaving money on the table. In poker, this guy is defined as "tight passive" and can be bluffed out of the hand.
> "The Smart Ass" - This smirking fellow has figured out that the game is supposed to be entertainment and his goal is to bring out a player obscure enough to be unknown to half the league...and the other half doesn't even want to bid. It doesn't matter because he relishes the moment when people are scrambling through their paperwork to locate the bum. We once had an opposing player turn to his partner and say, "Keep bidding until I find the guy". The Smart Ass is willing to have a nobody on his roster in order to bask in the glory of that remark.
> "We Are Family" - This team owner "becomes as one" with the players he drafts. As soon as a player is rostered on his squad, he no longer refers to them by their last name. During the season, he talks about "Von", "Glenn" & "Rick" as if they're all foster children who have been taken into his home. Their injuries impact him on an emotional level and approaching him about a trade is a waste of time.
> "The Pencil Breaker" - This is the well-organized, methodical man who has worked diligently on his plan. The issue at the table is that everyone's strategy is usually blown-up in the first half-hour and the words "flexible" and "spontaneous" aren't in his vocabulary. So, he allocated $18 for any one of three Shortstops and after they all go to other teams for over $20, he can be seen breaking pencils in frustration.
> "The Paper Pusher" - In the early days of this pastime before magazines & websites gave us player projections, this player was too lazy to do any real homework and would come to the table with a small piece of paper that had three or four names. His goal was to draft those players, no matter the cost. He could always be seen during the last three hours of the proceedings looking through the Baseball Register trying to find warm bodies to fill those eight $1 spots left on his roster. He never contended, but he would always ruin everyone else's strategy. This is the twin brother of the gambler who hits 17 at the Blackjack table and makes sure the dealer doesn't bust.
> "The Homer" - In a league based in Southern California, you can assume there will be a certain inflation factor for Dodger & Angel players due to the constant barrage of information. This fellow, however, is a fan of a particular team and has never been able to separate himself from that connection. His opponents know that they can always get an extra dollar of his budget spent on that player from the Red Sox or (insert the team of your choice). In addition, his level of interest in that team assures the fact that he's reading about them in March and he becomes a mini-version of the "Hypester".
> "The Enforcer" - Not to be confused with "Dirty Harry" Callahan, this is the person who feels a moral obligation to make sure no other team gets a bargain. If they sense a lull in the bidding for a decent player, they will jump in with a bid at the last moment even if that player isn't a good fit on their team. This type of strategy will almost never succeed, but is guaranteed to always aggravate. The first cousin of the guy who plays every hand at the poker game.
> "The Math Minor" - Managing your money at the table is a necessity. Budgeting certain amounts for positions and/or categories gives you the best chance to win. This guy, however, essentially has no plan and just bids by the seat-of-his pants. An example would be having only one pitching spot left open and getting into a bidding war over a rotation ace when his team has no offense. This is the team that might spend 50% of their budget on pitching and then wonder why they ended up with so many back-up outfielders.
> "The Know-It-All" - This fellow may be a good player, but he is only tolerated by the other members of the league. They're not concerned with his success, only with his attitude. He has no patience for anyone who doesn't know that Josh Bell had only 16 appearances at OF and, therefore, only qualifies as a 1B. When opponents are slow to nominate player's names late in the day, he shows his frustration, as if he has somewhere important to go. The truth is, he has nowhere to go because he doesn't have any friends.
> "The Vacillator" - If you've played in the same league for a succession of years, you certainly understand that thinking you can contend every year is a fool's game. If your keeper list is weak a season following a championship, then rebuilding might be part of your thought process. This player knows all that, but gets caught up in the exhilaration of the Draft and starts rostering players that don't fit his strategy. For example, if you're in a NL or AL only league, maybe he shouldn't be taking players who will be free agents next year. This also applies to rebuilding teams who find themselves in the first division in May and change course (and make trades) because they're fooled by stats that represent only 30% of the season. Usually, by the All-Star break, reality has bitten them in the posterior and they no longer have those young building blocks they acquired at the table.
We'll call our league the "Keyser Soze" Invitational and there you have 11 examples of the kind of opponents you might encounter. If you're the 12th team, there's a name for you too..."The Winner".
ROTOMAN’S FANTASY GUIDE 2024 UPDATE
Here’s a special sheet for folks who bought Rotoman’s Fantasy Guide 2024 softcover/PDF/Kindle. A Dropbox Excel download updated through March 21.
It’s password-protected. The password is the last word in the Ronald Acuña Jr. profile in The Guide. Lower case.
If you want to make edits save it with a different name.
The Editor’s Letter and Why We Did Pages for Rotoman’s Guide, which are missing in the printed Guide, are here.
Members here at the Substack have an updated spreadsheet linked to after the paywall below (after Rotoman’s big signature). Paid subscribers, even for one month, get access to that one. It is updated each Thursday.
FOR SALE
Rotoman’s Fantasy Baseball Guide 2024, softcover, $20, Kindle, $10.
Rotoman’s Fantasy Baseball Guide 2024, PDF, $12.
Ron Shandler’s Fantasy Expert, hardcover, $25, Kindle, $12. I wrote the foreword.
Les Leopold’s Wall Street’s War on Workers, hardcover, $25, Kindle, $23. I did a lot of the data work and some editing.
HOUSEKEEPING
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When Will I See You Again Dept.: Tomorrow is only a day away. Questions and suggestions appreciated.
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