RotoGrinders MLB League Preview: West Division
Welcome everyone to my first ever article here on RotoGrinders. I’m really excited to be expanding from GrindersLive shows to also do written content.
This article is a recap of the 16-Team RotoGrinders season long baseball league. This league uses FanDuel scoring, which gives it a tie-in into DFS. I’m going to review all 16 teams, going over their strengths and weaknesses while identifying some players you should keep your eye (or even roster) in early season DFS MLB action.
This is the second part of the two-part series which will cover the West Division. The East Division Preview can be found here.
WEST DIVISION
Prom Night Dempster Babies
We saw a lot of extreme pitching vs hitting depth teams in the East Division but Team Prom Night has taken this to a whole new level. Team Prom Night’s best 7 players might be starting pitchers. Having Jake Odorizzi as your 6th best SP in a 16 team is insanely deep and talented. The rotation also includes other top-20 SP’s Chris Sale, Jose Fernandez, Noah Syndergaard and Carlos Martinez. What this team has in pitching it lacks in hitting. It’s hard to feature a hitter as Kole Calhoun is literally this team’s best hitter. Additionally, this team elected not to take any hitting prospects with big upside. For this team to realistically compete it’s going to need to find some waiver wire hitting that booms or make a couple of trades.
Jake Odorizzi ($7300) is one of the most underrated starters in the American League. While he does face a bunch of tough hitting teams in the AL East to keep his price down, he makes for a great daily play when he gets outside the AL East especially when pitching in cavernous Tropicana Field. Try to target him vs non-AL East teams at home in the early going this season.
Team Naap
Team Naap is the favorite team I have looked at so far, he has great top end pitching with Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, and Dallas Keuchel. Additionally, he has some nice upside in pitchers Steven Matz and Francisco Liriano. While his hitting isn’t super strong as you’d suspect with those 5 SP’s, Team Naap has done a great job acquiring hitters that project well in a FanDuel scoring league. Basically negating batting average and steals (outside Billy Hamilton), Team Naap acquired a ton of potential power with Stephen Piscotty, Tyler White and Travis Shaw to go along with proven power hitters Yoenis Cespedes and Mark Trumbo. While there is some volatility going with this approach in a H2H league he should win most of his matchups over the course of the year and be a tough team to knock out of the playoffs.
Travis Shaw ($2500) is going to be starting every day for the Red Sox at 3B which makes him a great GPP option because he has lots of power and when most people play a Red Sox stack they are going to put David Ortiz in it and not Travis Shaw giving you lower than normal ownership on Shaw. With a top-6 lineup spot he will be in position to drive in runs and provide massive upside at this price.
Fantasy Tyland
NASCAR driver Ty Dillon (one of everyone’s favorite NASCAR drivers to roster in DFS) owns this team and will be doing laps around the league given this very deep and well-constructed roster. I like how Ty went heavy on hitting giving himself a solid core with Jose Bautista, Carlos Gomez and Albert Pujols. I also particularly like the drafting of Adonis Garcia as a good backup 3B in a 16 team league for when David Wright inevitably gets hurt, that’s great roster construction. The pitching staff is also quite solid with Carlos Carrasco and always underrated Michael Wacha anchoring a staff with high upside option Jaime Garcia. My only complaint with this team is the rostering of Matt Wisler and Alex Colome in the back end of the rotation, those spots would be better served waiting on top end pitching prospects that will get called up in late-April or Early-May and can make a difference. Wisler and Colome will never help you win weeks or a league.
Albert Pujols ($3000) this is a proven 35+ HR hitter that everyone finds reasons to not roster whether it be he’s streaky play or lingering injuries, he tends to be under owned even in the best of matchups. Sure Pujols is older but I’m much more willing to trust older players in baseball than I am in other sports like basketball or football.
Young Gunz
Stevie was quick to pan his draft on Twitter after the draft saying he didn’t like a lot of players he drafted but I think he did quite well in his plan to take solid veteran players and reach for ceiling with young players. I just wonder why at the back end of the draft he abandoned the plan that was working so well. On his pitching staff, Stevie got Felix Hernandez and Jordan Zimmerman to anchor his rotation along with my personal favorite bounce back pitcher Jeff Samardzija which forms a solid 1/2/3 in a 16-team league. On the hitting side, he got reliable veterans Miguel Cabrera, Andrew McCutchen and Matt Carpenter to anchor the hitting. Once Stevie had this core he attacked younger players with upside drafting Colorado SS Trevor Story, David Peralta (my favorite DFS player to roster ( #TeamPeralta)) on the hitting side and drafting Eduardo Rodriguez and Kenta Maeda to provide some pitching upside. My question to Stevie would be why did you stop there? What value does Nick Markakis, Tom Koehler and Chris Heston add to your team? If your young guys don’t pan out you probably aren’t going to win the league anyways so why not go all the way and give yourself as many lottery tickets as possible?
David Peralta ($3300)- Once again David Peralta has left off where last year started as a solid cleanup hitter that is underpriced by the pricing algorithms. He bats cleanup on a pretty good offense (although slightly worse now with the loss of AJ Pollock) and he gets to bat behind Paul Goldschmidt which is always a good thing. If his price stays this low you are going to get sick of all the times I roster him as a favorite play in cash games and in GPP’s.
Syracuse Slappers
If his face wasn’t already orange after the tough Final Four loss Syracuse took on Saturday night, it certainly will be when they look at their team for the 2016 season. I honestly can’t identify a strategy used by the Slappers, at first you would think they went pitching heavy as their rotation starts with Jake Arrieta and Corey Kluwer which is a great foundation but after that it’s tough to identify any pitchers I feel good about. Even in a 16 team league, having Kyle Kendricks, Erasmo Ramirez and Rich Hill fighting for your SP #3 puts you well behind the 8-ball. The hitting doesn’t get that much better because outside of Nelson Cruz and Michael Brantley (who is starting the season off on the DL) the team is full of question marks. Sure Charlie Blackmon could repeat his breakout season in Colorado and Yasiel Puig could rebound to become a 30 HR hitter but if they don’t, it will be tough sledding for the Slappers.
Michael Brantley ($3600)- Starting the season off on the DL might have 2 effects that will make him attractive in DFS when he gets healthy: 1) his price might lower due to nobody rostering him and 2) he won’t be on the forefront of people’s minds when he comes back. People tend to roster players they have seen in the news or help them on previous teams. Since Brantley won’t be playing that will cause lower ownership in his first couple games back which provides value for us in daily fantasy!
The Hazy Shades
There is nothing hazy about the Hazy Shades lineup as it is probably the best in the entire league. With top 15 hitters, Paul Goldschmidt, Edwin Encarnacion and Mookie Betts anchoring the lineup and upside all around it with Lucroy, DeShields and Corey Seager this lineup will be hard to beat week in and week out. What is very hazy about this team is the rotation which has Tyson Ross and Michael Pineda as its “anchors” which you might be able to get away with in a deep league with an explosive offense but the lack of upside following those guys makes it hard to get excited about. If Nathan Eovaldi or Joe Kelly had fastballs that had any movement this rotation would be unstoppable but as it is, they might give up more home runs than this offense gets itself. Also there is no way in 2016 that Chris Young should be on a season long roster or a daily fantasy roster at any time. Friends don’t let Friends roster Chris Young.
Mookie Betts ($4000)- $4000 might sound like a lot of salary for a player you don’t know a ton about but trust me Mookie is worth ever y penny. Mookie has a power/speed combination that teams drool over. Mookie is my pick to win the American League MVP. Is it bold? Sure but this kid in his first full MLB season fell just short of a 20-20 season. As he develops and gains some muscle there is no reason that he can’t get to 25-25 this season or even 25-30. The upside (and consistency) Mookie brings to your teams daily makes him a favorite cash and GPP play of mine.
Sippin on Gin Andrus
Boy is this Western Division stacked, as Sippin on Gin had a great draft whether he was sippin on gin during the draft or not. His rotation has solid options at the top with Chris Archer and Danny Salazar, and some pitchers with upside in Andrew Cashner, Andrew Heaney. He also drafted my favorite stash and wait SP in the league with Tyler Glasnow who will be a 9-10 K/9 pitcher right away when he’s called up to the majors. His lineup also has a solid core with Bryce Harper, JD Martinez and Carlos Gonzalez. He also has low risk, high reward picks in Byung-Ho Park (if he can hit at MLB level) and Jose Reyes (if he only gets a 30-40 game suspension) that could be key contributors down the stretch and into the playoffs. I’m not sure if drafting Alex Rodriguez as a DH makes sense after you drafted David Ortiz who is DH only but I’m sure there could be a trade to be made later in the season.
Chris Archer ($9500)- Archer is one of my favorite pitchers to watch in the entire league and he has top end stuff. When he has his control on he can outscore every pitcher on the slate and when it’s not he can K 10 or 11 and give up five runs at the same time. I love him as a GPP pitcher given the upside but you could make the case for him as a cash game pitcher given his high K floor, either way he’s a guy you want to roster a ton in 2016.
Boog’s BBQ Banditos
Last and certainly not least (well, in my predictions anyways), Team BBQ could get barbecued in some early season matchups while it awaits for the development of young pitchers Vince Velasquez, Brandon Finnegan and Robbie Ray, but I fully believe that by midseason these guys will all be top 30 SP’s propelling Team BBQ into the playoff hunt. The hitting is the strength of this team on paper with top end hitters Anthony Rizzo, Manny Machado and Troy Tulowitzki. I also really like the Kyle Seager and Gregory Polanco picks, in a H2H league they are consistent guys that should give your team a chance to win every week. I question the current lineup decision to start Joc Pederson in the OF over Gerardo Parra who will get to play every day in Coors but I suspect that won’t last long because Parra will get off to a great start and become everyone’s favorite DFS player to roster. Team BBQ will make the playoffs if it’s pitching can develop fast enough as to prevent them from having to dig out of a huge early season hole.
Wade Miley ($5700) – A solid pitcher who has unfortunately for his entire career had hitter’s paradise’s as a home park in Chase Field and Fenway Park. This year, however, he has Safeco Field which is one of the best pitching parks in the league. I love Miley at this price as a GPP option early on until his price adjusts to the better surroundings.
Projected West Division Order of Finish
1. Team Naap
2. Fantasy Tyland
3. Young Gunz
4. Sippin on Gin Andrus
5. The Hazy Shades
6. Boog’s BBQ Banditos
7. Syracuse Slappers
8. Prom Night Dempster Babies