How do we get Taylor Swift into fantasy baseball? Your 2024 ILX Fantasy Thread! (also, there is an opening for a new manger!)

I need lots of help on this, so I made one up myself using a Sporting News list--anyone who wants to, feel free to use it.

Juan Soto and Luis Robert Jr shouldn't be on this list, they're both keepers. Or am I interpreting this wrong?

I predict a first place finish this year. I’ve got a really good feeling about this

the Rosario factor

Juan Soto and Luis Robert Jr shouldn't be on this list, they're both keepers. Or am I interpreting this wrong?

My mistake, now fixed.

draft day! i feel almost comically unprepared!

i am 100% unprepared and won't have time :(

i am going to try to go in and take obviously injured players (or people like wander franco, if they're on there?) out of my auto-draft. i feel like i'm going to look tomorrow morning and find i have a lineup of former superstars who are having tommy john in 2 weeks

i am going to try to have my phone on, with the app, so i might be able to make a few decisions depending on timing!

I will likely be at "The Society of Magical Negros" during the beginning of the draft so maybe AutoDraft will be better than I usually am at roster construction

BTW Baseball Prospectus came up with "Arraez Were Watching God" so...damn.

draft window is open!

CORBIN BURNESEN

C - Garver
1B - Christians Walker and Encarnacion-Strand
2B - Morel/Julien
3B - Royce Lewis
SS - Bogaerts/Trevor "Just Another" Story
OF - Tatis/Yordan/Corbin Carroll/Jarren Duran
SP - Burnes/Peralta/Kirby/Skubal/Verlander/Keller/Kershaw
RP - Jax/Payamps/Tyler Rogers

Gott Money (I'll do anything 4U)

C | Will Smith
1b | Paul Goldschmidt
2b | Ozzie Albeis (27)
SS | Gunnar Henderson (22)
3b | Jake Burger (27)
OF | Bryan Reynolds, Anthony Santander, Steven Kwan (26)
bench | Starling Marte - OF, Colton Cowser - OF (23), Jackson Holliday, 2b/SS (20), Ryan McMahon - 2b/3b

SP | Aaron Nola, Jesus Luzardo (26), Shota Imanaga, Bobby Miller (24), Kodai Senga, Alex Cobb, Kyle Harrison (22)
RP | Pete Fairbanks, Bryan Abreu, tbd

IL for the year | Shane McClanahan (26)

did not intend to buy into the Orioles so hard. oh well. wanted to invest heavily in young guys after the Manoah disaster and with Luzardo and McClanahan moving up to 27+ next season. apologies to Miller and Harrison fans, i may have cursed them now.

BILLY CHILDISH BAMBINO

C - Willson Contreras
1B PLATOON - Spencer Torkelson (24) or Josh Naylor (26)
2B - Marcus Semien
3B - Alex Bregman
SS - Willy Adames (28)
OF - Juan Soto (25), Kyle Tucker (27), Teoscar Hernandez, Jack Suwinski (25)
DH - Nolan Arenado
UTILITY/IL - Tommy Edman (2B/SS/OF)

7 man SP rotation - Spencer Strider (25), Max Fried, Zach Eflin, Shane Bieber (28), Nathan Eovaldi, Triston McKenzie (26), Nestor Cortes (29)
RP - Chris Martin, Andrew Kittredge

NA/PED SUSPENSION - Noelvi Marte (22)

the soon-to-be-renamed GIOLITO SHUFFLE

C - Adley Rutschman
1B - Nolan Jones, Anthony Rizzo
2B - Mookie Betts
3B- Mannie Machado, Ke'Bryan Hayes
SS - Dansby Swanson
OF - Seiya Suzuki, Luis Robert, TJ Friedl, Jose Siri, Brent Rooker

SP - Cole Ragans, Joe Musgrove, Merrill Kelly, Chris Sale, Ryan Pepiot, Kutter Crawford
RP - Emmanuel Clase, Jose Alvarado, Robert Suarez, Abner Uribe

i feel pretty good about the draft, i made a plan and largely stuck with it until the last few rounds when i maybe floundered a little and overlooked some good remaining options. if i'd realized that Friedl is injured i might have pushed for another good OF earlier in the draft but i didn't see that until after.

Learned around 6:45 EST that I wouldn't be able to make the draft, frantically shuffled rankings and deleted injured players, then learned the hard way about not being able to make changes within half an hour of a draft. (Should be good with five healthy arms, right?)

currently Morning Alonso, new name tbd
some of them will be under 30 next year and some of them will even be under 27

C - MJ Melendez
1B - Pete Alonso / Nathaniel Lowe
2B - Andres Gimenez / Colt Keith
3B - Yandy Diaz
SS - CJ Abrams / Carlos Correa
OF - Ronald Acuna Jr. / Brandon Nimmo / George Springer / Tyler O'Neill

SP - Kevin Gausman / Zack Wheeler / Shane Baz / Carlos Rodon / Taj Bradley / Max Scherzer / Aaron Civale
RP - Jhoan Duran / David Bednar

NA - Samuel Basallo

was noticing the auto draft make some interesting decisions on your behalf there.
you'll have a great rotation come August tho!

xpost

thats a pretty solid team there.

this year's sheet because why not post it early! will as always update drops in big chunks every 2 to 8 weeks (aka whenever i remember to)

Steve Barber and a Cast of Thousands:

C - Sean Murphy, Gabriel Moreno
1B - Vladimir Guerrero
2B - Bryson Stott
3B - Jose Ramirez, Isaac Paredes
SS - Corey Seager, Jeremy Pena, J.P. Crawford
OF - Marcell Ozuna, Nick Castellanos, Cedric Mullins, Lourdes Gurriel

SP - Luis Castillo, Grayson Rodriguez, Jose Berrios, Bryan Bello, Yusei Kikuchi
RP - Camilo Doval, Evan Phillips, Jordan Hicks, Tim Mayza

Completely in the dark on how to balance production, position, age, etc.

I had to auto-draft this year, the results weren't horrible but my SP corps consists of Logan Webb (keeper) and unsigned Jordan Montgomery. The first thing I did today was to put in claims for the SP scraps on the waiver wire.

holy shit dude. 5 relievers!! your lineup at least turned out somewhat ok.

i dunno...

c: bo naylor
1b: arraez
2b: ketel marte
3b: max muncy, coby mayo
ss: bobby witt, oneil cruz
of: adolis garcia, jazz chisholm, esteury ruiz, james wood, henry davis
sp: yamamoto, pablo lopez, dylan cease, eduardo rodriguez, reese olson, casey mize, bryan woo
rp: clay holmes, yennier cano, adbert alzolay

Satanic Frelick in the Attic checking in

C: Cal Raleigh, Logan O'Hoppe (ideal name for a fictional leprechaun imo)
1B: Freddie Freeman
2B: Zack Gelof
3B: Maikel Garcia, Josh Jung
SS: Anthony Volpe, Garcia
OF: Jung Hoo Lee, Riley Greene, Sal Frelick, Evan Carter, Josh Lowe
SP: Framber Valdez, Bailey Ober, John Means, Hunter Brown
RP: Hunter Harvey, Hector Neris, Yuki Matsui, Alexis Diaz, Devin Williams
NA: Paul Skenes

Had to look up who Skenes is. That’s a pretty wild flier!

Honey Nut Chouri◎s
https://i.postimg.cc/Nj8sWYn5/chourio-sparkle-250.jpg

02 Sal
1B PASQUANTINO
2B Gleyber
3B POLANCO
OF Eloy
OF AROZARENA
OF CHOURI◎
OF SOLER
NA LANGFORD, Wyatt

SP RYAN
SP BIBEE
SP STEELE
SP SNELL
SP LODOLO
RP MUNOZ
RP LECLERC
RP HELSLEY
RP MILLER, Mason

*continued rebuild: focus on keeper-eligibles.
juust missed Holliday, drafted Langford for my #1 (6th overall)

had my eye on Skenes - he was the best prospect in The Show game last year

yep. was also eyeing holliday, langford and skenes. didn't think i'd also miss colin cowser and jordan westburg!

my top three were Holliday, Yamamoto and Langford. wanted to try later for one of Bobby Miller, Kyle Harrison or Bibee and then Jordan Walker or Evan Carter. Cowser was a total stab in the dark with one of my last picks, since i missed those last two.

Morning Alonso's new team name is "No Xmas For Colt Keith"

https://i.imgur.com/SyfazUr.png

almost went with "I am Seiya Suzuki" but then i remembered I have him in a different league

oh yeah Giolito Shuffle is now Naked Ragans, extra Chicago punk points. my alternate was Adley Drawn Boy.

ha! i love that last one.

Probably stick with my current name but also thought about Freddie Freeman in Paris (Joni not Kanye/Jay-Z) and Hunter Greene Typewriters

that logo + name is legit! 🎅👍

Anything I ask will be Fantasy Baseball for Dummies level...What is the easiest, best way for me to keep track of injuries? I mean really easy--all in one spot, well organized. Is that information right on the Yahoo site, maybe even right on my team list? I won't even get into what I'm supposed to do if I have an injured player until I do.

In the web app or mobile app you'll need to check the manually status of your player, eg Tommy Edman here, notice the red IL:

https://i.imgur.com/vioZIF0.png

But pay special attention to the "notes" box in blue right above the red IL. If you click on that blue box it expands out to a player "card" and then on the far right you'll see some recent updates and news blurbs culled from various sites, but typically injured players will have their injury listed and either definite news or guesses at how much this will affect their playing time/rehab:

https://i.imgur.com/FayEyIW.png

I'm sure there are aggregators that have every injury listed in real time but I do not use those, perhaps someone else does?

Thanks. Hopefully something I can access on a desktop or laptop (no cell).

I find it waaaay easier to navigate all the info on desktop. Mobile is handy for basic daily roster moves tho.

Also Clem once you move a player to the IL you can add a player from the free agent list or waiver wire. Players who get dropped go to the waiver wire for 2 days from the end of the day (12am PT) they were dropped, and you can put in a claim. You will see lots of teams adding and dropping players due to injuries, poor performance, minor league call-ups, trades, hot streaks, etc. and it's a way you can speculate whether those players are better than your current roster.

Here's the URL of our league if you want to dive-in to the mechanics of the UX:

https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/41654

i'm sorry, i'm very bad at puns. my team is still called The Worst Players in Baseball.

fear this team:

c: francisco alvarez + keibert ruiz
1b: bellinger
2b: nolan gorman
ss: ezequiel tovar
3b: elly de la cruz
of: trout, jordan walker, lane thomas
dh/bench: james outman, jd martinez, justin turner, byron buxton, amed rosario
prospect/NA stash: Junior Caminero

SPs: Glasnow, Eury Perez, Sonny Gray, Hunter Greene, Christan Javier, Nick Pavetta

RPs: Jordan Romano, Aroldis "fuck this guy" Chapman (oof), Alex Lange

shit, i probably need some holds and saves, don't i

oh hey clemenza, maybe already addressed upthread, but another thing to keep an eye on are the weather postpones/delays! for example, the MIL @ NYM game today is postponed, so i benched the mets' alvarez so i don't end up with a zero line for catcher today.

same with everyday players who unexpectedly get a day of rest - if you can find that out before their game officially starts, you can switch them out with someone from your bench that's going to play, so at least you can accumulate some numbers.

(sometimes this is annoying, actually, because although there are days where i have free time and can check the weather and last minute substitutions and move players around, there are also days where i'm either too busy or just don't feel like checking all the games across the day and spending time on an app.)

i believe most of the stuff i just mentioned ^^ is on the web browser page for the league. i usually just go to the "My Team" view and scan the games really quickly to look for who is playing, who isn't, and the weather - it's pretty intuitive but feel free to ask if you want help using it!

Thanks for all the help, everyone. I plan to continue playing dumb till I take over first place, then I will reveal who I really am.

https://i.postimg.cc/dQWtQ8Zp/book.jpg

That rainout advice was really helpful--I just moved four guys from bench to playing (but still came up one OF short).

glad to hear it!

if you miss benching a guy due to a rainout, it's not necessarily bad. keeping in mind you have a games limit, you might want to simply hold out for your preferred starter coming back tomorrow to play two games in a doubleheader instead of burning one position game today on a lesser player (ALSO keeping in mind that sometimes players don't play both ends of a doubleheader so it could be a moot point! but if it's a star player you figure they would! idk!)

Three home runs for me so far today - off to a good start!

#stopthecount

Clem, just took a peek at your lineup and you want to make sure all your RPs are in your lineup daily. They won't earn you any points if they're on the bench. Your starters will *95% of the time* (sometimes there's some surprises) be indicated as starting with a green check mark next to their name. If I were you, I'd have Mayza in Hicks' spot in the P slot.

Damn--of course, thanks. I'll try to get in a routine of checking that every morning. (I hit my limit on supply teaching today, finished until September now, so notwithstanding all the LOST INCOME, my fantasy team will reap the rewards of undivided attention.)

Corbin Burnesen running away with the league!!