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

In my defense re: Jung/Snell trade, my pitching is last in the league and I have a lot of time to find out what my 3B situation will be. On the other hand, I'm not that smart.

I am in last place in Wins in spite of assembling perhaps the best (7 man!) SP rotation I've ever had in this league.

― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Monday, April 1, 2024 7:02 PM (five days ago)

el oh el... *jinx*

If Jose Ramirez is rained out and I don't have a back up third basemen, should I a) just let it go, since the game will be replayed, or b) pick someone off waivers for today? And if I go to b), what do I do to make room?

I would let that go because you're not really losing a game in terms of overall stats. I think I mentioned once before that sometimes the risk is when it comes to a game being made up as part of a double header, that player might not play both games, but I think in his case he definitely would.

I’d only add a guy for one game if I had a slot that was either being vacated that day due to injury or something or if there was a player a really didn’t give a shit about that I was going to drop anyways.

The joys of early season fantasy baseball jumping from 8th to 2nd in one night.

With Jackson Holliday's call up, I have 4 of the O's starting lineup going for me today. Guess I'm watching the Orioles game!

Weirdly enough, the only two Jays who are worth a damn this year--Berrios and Kikuchi, both drafted because I didn't get someone else I was after--are keeping me out of last place.

I tried juggling people around, but I had to go without a second baseman today (Bryson Stott was out of the lineup)--feel like I'm doing something wrong.

Some managers will roster a (often shitty) utility player (eg, I have Jon Berti) in the event that you need to plug a hole but honestly, it's usually a net negative then just having a regular on rest day.

Another cornball theory of mine is that regulars who are initially benched for rest (or against RHP/LHP if they have weak splits) are sometimes brought in to pinch hit in high-leverage situations in late/close games so you can sometimes walk away with some RBIs from a spot where you expected nothing, which happens from time to time.

I already had my utility guy, Paredes, playing third--I think I forgot to put Ramirez back in the lineup after yesterday and his game had already started. So it was more of an oversight.

Aye, that's frustrating. On the other you can set your lineups ahead of time by scrolling forward on the daily calendar, good when you are traveling or otherwise occupied for large chunks of time away from the app/connectivity.

hey clem, i mentioned the projected games played at the bottom that is good to follow (especially for pitching), and you’re 2B slot is actually projected 1 gm over max, so no worries there

your********

how in the heck is my literal glue-factory of a team in (a 3-way tie for) third place?

Man, I was excited to be a seller for once...

https://i.imgur.com/SJ0E5Cp.jpeg

(xpost) Meaning...I still have to lose a 2B game somewhere anyway, so yesterday's vacancy helps moves me closer to the maximum?

Your 2B can only play a max of 162 games, right now you are trending at 163 games. I personally wouldn't start paying attention to those limits/maxes until the ASB and then again at the trading deadline.

xp yes, just to keep in mind there are days off in real life, so it’s there to show you what your projected games are

Fwiw, I won last year and I did not obsessively fill spots on my team to ensure each position got its 162 games. Nor did I hit my 1400 IP limit, not even close iirc. But the year before's winner used this start to get effect. Both methods are valid

BTW while we're on the topic, is there any way to see this stuff on mobile?

That sounds reasonable. I've gotten into a routine of checking in the morning and then again closer to game times, and that's about the extent of what I can do. Unlike a certain online game, I won't get obsessive.

Will: that info should be in the same spot on mobile. It’s right at the bottom for me.

abner uribe, a closer candidate i took a flyer on in the last round of the draft, has now provided me more wins (1) than either kutter crawford or cole ragans, my two best starters by most other statistical measures

yennier cano leads my team in wins

yahoo was already brutal to copy-paste drops (for the keeper spreadsheet) but they've made some tiny change that now just... adds random line breaks when copying from their site. good lord my kingdom for a csv export

Twenty points separating first place from eighth!

I forgot to set my lineups yesterday and missed 2 stellar starting pitching performances. :-\

haha, yeah, i moved last week (still unpacking) so i haven't been paying close attention to my roster, and i found today that both of my catchers and three of my starting pitchers are on the IL! we are playing hurt

so is there a new spreadsheet? apologies if it was already linked, i only seem to have last year's.

it's good i have solid pitching because my hitters have mostly been nightmarish, none of them have been up to par except Royce Lewis (small sample size of two at-bats.)

I have no shortstop today, and no way to get one in there. All you have to do is choke up a bit and guide something out to left field.

Another solid start by Kikuchi tonight. My starting pitching--Berrios, Hicks, Kikuchi, Bello, Grayson Rodriguez--has been amazingly good thus far. Only Luis Castillo has been a disappointment, but he finally had a great start last time out.

i got Bello as a flier in my other league and he has surprised me so far

my team is a Jackson-Holliday-esque 1-23 with -1 NSB today.

my hitting over the last week -- 39-209 with three HR

i think if i started a random assortment of "most dropped players" in the transaction trends i'd have done better.

I don’t play fantasy baseball but Wilyer Abreu looked great when he was called up in September and he’s looking exactly like that right now - might be a good cheap pickup for anyone in search of an outfielder. Potential plus defence and plus arm, when he’s going well he’s got good plate discipline and pop

aaaand he got picked up this morning! am surprised he wasn't drafted tho, given this is a keeper league.

and looks like Clems and i jinxed Bello

Damn...I guess I'll take a look at the scrapheap list as a stopgap.

ha i didn't even see gyac's post before i picked up abreu, i just really really need some offense

now that i'm not in first place any more, i feel like i'm allowed to complain: my draft choices have mostly worked out, but picking nolan jones in the third round has ... not. i was not familiar with the dude or his strong performance last season, but he was hyped up by a bunch of the sources i was using for draft planning, so i took him high, and he has been a black hole of offense so far. he's just 25 and keeper-eligible so i'm holding on in hopes that he warms up eventually.

Was able to add the 2018 NL leader in CG (2) and shutouts (1)--jackpot.

looks like zach_tbd made the right choice in keeping amed "MPV" rosario. though jack flaherty hasn't been terrible either.

if we're going to reflect on our draft choices, this is my first round choice's stat line since getting called up: .059/.111/.059/.170

Feel obliged to point out that Abreu’s nickname is Thicc Willy. Despite being a solid little guy he can run like nobody’s business. Abreu truther out. 🤟🏻

Btw Bello says he was playing with a sore back last week & they don’t anticipate him being off longer than the 15 day minimum.

Draft thoughts:

R3: Bregman .555 OPS, -3.1 offensive fWAR, 0 HRs
R4: Fried 4.97 ERA/1.38 WHIP, was supposed to be my 3rd SP1 after Strider (RIP) & Bieber
R6: Bieber: 2 ++ starts then shipped off to the Tommy John glue factory
R8: Arenado (drafted because I didn't trust Bregman's floor): .728 OPS, 1 HR

A fantasy rite of passage, I'm sure: my favourite team (allegedly, anyway) mounting a late comeback, up against one of my two fantasy closers. If you know who my favourite team is, you know how it turned out.

it's a really weird way to watch baseball, i agree. i am definitely a fantasy homer, to my detriment, because i do pick more cardinals players because i like to root for them, and i do sometimes bench very good baseball players because they're playing the cardinals and i don't want them to do well that day.

and then sometimes i do start the very good players anyway, and as they're kicking the cardinals' ass irl, i'm kind of grimly satisfied at how things turned out

I don't check my hitters each night--seems like it'd be a lot of work--but I do look in on starting pitchers, and they continue to keep me afloat: good games tonight from both Grayson Rodriguez and Jameson Taillon, who I picked up off the scrapheap to take Bello's place.

It's definitely weird to start my ace pitcher against my favourite team and to root for a 0-0 game won by the good guys in extra innings. We do what we have to do.

I so enjoyed my one day in first place!

yeah i have to remind myself that whatever's going to happen will happen regardless of my rooting interests!

I wonder about Varsho and whether I should've kept him. I traded Trout for him last year (I was rebuilding!), because I believed in his potential, he's a Blue Jay, and I thought it was possible he gained Catcher status (he didn't). Hope he keeps it up, I see he's on the 1st place team

We all turn into our favourite real-life teams that we hate: I'm going to be right in the middle all year, bouncing between 9th and 7th place.