Daily Dr. Roto—January 24, 2020
Rounds 7-8 of FSGA Fantasy Baseball Experts Draft
Rounds 1-2 | Rounds 3-4 | Rounds 5-6 | Rounds 7-8 | Rounds 9-10 | Rounds 11-17 | Rounds 18-23
Last week, I began my quest to win the 2020 FSGA Fantasy Baseball League. I had the fifth pick (out of 14 teams) and am competing against some of the top Fantasy Baseball experts in the industry. Although we are drafting in January, this draft unofficially “kicks off” the Fantasy Baseball season.
The first eleven rounds were completed last week in Las Vegas. A slow draft will complete the remaining rounds over the coming weeks. You can follow the draft along here!
Round 7
- 7.1 Mike Moustakas CIN (2B)
- 7.2 Sonny Gray CIN (SP)
- 7.3 Madison Bumgarner AZ (SP)
- 7.4 Brandon Woodruff MIL (SP)
- 7.5 Josh Bell PIT (1B)
- 7.6 Ramon Laureano OAK (OF)
- 7.7 Kirby Yates SD (RP)
- 7.8 Jeff McNeil NYM (OF)
- 7.9 Nelson Cruz MIN (UTIL)
- 7.10 Carlos Correa HOU (SS)
- 7.11 Wilson Contreras CHC (C)
- 7.12 Michael Conforto NYM (OF)
- 7.13 Trevor Bauer CIN (SP)
- 7.14 Joey Gallo TEX (OF)
My pick: 7.5 Josh Bell PIT (1B)
I always tell my radio listeners and Twitter followers to make sure that during a draft, they have a few names available before they pick just in case they are sniped the pick before. In Round 7, I was dead set on taking Brewers SP Brandon Woodruff, and I was very disappointed when he was selected right before I could make my pick. Admittedly, this threw me into a slight bit of a tailspin. While there were other players I liked, I wasn’t dead-set on a second option I loved. I thought of a few players, including Josh Bell, Ramon Laureano, and Michael Conforto. Laureano was tempting because of his power/speed combination, but in the end, I decided to select Josh Bell.
Even though Bell is a first baseman and I already had Bellinger there, I was able to make this pick also because Bellinger qualifies at both first base and the outfield. As for Bell: He got off to one of the best starts ever in the first half of 2019, hitting .301/22/70. He slowed down immensely in the second half, hitting .242/15/46. Bell’s naysayers point to the fact that pitchers threw to him differently in the second half, but I think that he was dealing with a groin injury towards the end of the season more than anything. I feel strongly that 35/100 is repeatable, which makes him a top ten player at a very shallow position.
Round 8
- 8.1 Aroldis Chapman NYY (RP)
- 8.2 Marcell Ozuna ATL (OF)
- 8.3 Hyun-Jin Ryu TOR (SP)
- 8.4 Jorge Soler KC (OF)
- 8.5 Corey Kluber TEX (SP)
- 8.6 Andrew Benintendi BOS (OF)
- 8.7 Brad Hand CLE (RP)
- 8.8 Yasmani Grandal CWS (C)
- 8.9 Roberto Osuna HOU (RP)
- 8.10 James Paxton NYY (SP)
- 8.11 Kenley Jansen LAD (RP)
- 8.12 Eduardo Rodriguez BOS (SP)
- 8.13 Liam Hendriks OAK (RP)
- 8.14 Carlos Carrasco CLE (SP)
My pick: 8.10 James Paxton NYY (SP)
Starting Pitching has changed dramatically in the past few seasons. Long gone are the days when pitchers throw for 200+ innings. Nowadays, if you can get 170-180 innings from a starter, that is considered a good thing. I might argue that I will take 150-160 good innings from my starters and piece the rest together throughout the season. My eighth-round selection, Yankees SP James Paxton, has always struggled with injuries throughout his career. The knock on him has been that he could win a Cy Young Award if only he could stay off the injured list. Many Fantasy experts avoid selecting Paxton for that very reason. However, I have decided to embrace his shortcomings.
I fully expect Paxton to throw only 150 innings this season, and I am alright with that. The reason is that I feel he can win 13-14 games as a starter for the Yankees, and I feel confident that in those innings, he will have an ERA in the mid-3’s with close to 200 strikeouts. It’s my job to find a pitcher (perhaps Domingo German?) to put on my bench so that I can use him when Paxton misses time. This way, when I combine the two pitchers, I could have a potential All-Star in my rotation.
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