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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Draft Street is doing something a little different this time. As you may have seen yesterday, Draft Street is sponsoring a championship where they will award $35,000 to the lucky winner. In order to enter the big dance, you need to win one of the 40 qualifying tournaments. Today’s FreeRoll will not only award $100 cash to the top-3 finishers, but the top-15 teams get a free spot in one of the 40 qualifying tournaments this coming Friday.

While I am working on a means to incorporate more “bang for the buck” valuation principles into the selection of my Draft Street teams, for the time being, we’re going to have to rely on the same philosophy I have employed thus far:

  • Start with pitchers at home, facing weaker lineups in good pitching parks
  • Move onto hitters with off-hand matchups, preferably at home facing a below average pitcher and if possible, include several players from the same team and go for it all.
  • I mostly held true to form, but with one exception as I opted to go with two starting pitchers and two closers since I could not find a combination under the cap using three starting pitchers I liked. To be honest, I am not warm and fuzzy about this squad. I think the reason is more so than previous weeks, I am forcing these players into my lineup in an effort to satisfy the above criteria.

    You know what that means. I’ll finish in the top-15, get a free entry into the $35K qualifier on Friday where I will draft a team I love. Of course, my beloved Friday team will spit the bit. Such is the nature of the beast in this part-time hobby, full-time obsession we call fantasy baseball.

    Without further adieu, here is my team:

    C: Wilin Rosario, COL ($7424) – Rosario is on the road, facing a thus far impressive southpaw in Wade Miley. But Arizona is a good place to hit and I anticipate some regression for Miley and hope Rosario benefits tonight.

    1B: Joey Votto, CIN ($10,283) – Truth be told, it was obstinacy keeping Votto in the lineup that resulted in difficulty finding the right combination, especially only using two starting pitchers. What I have witnessed with previous FreeRolls is the leaders always have someone that goes off that evening. While it is impossible to predict when a player will have one of those highlight reel nights,  it was usually a name player. My likely backwards thinking is Votto is capable of such a night and his high price tag will scare almost everyone else away. He’s at home, facing Brad Lincoln which is about as favorable as it gets.

    2B: Robinson Cano, NYY( $8027) – OK, maybe there were two players I am being extra stubborn about since I just have a feeling this will be Cano’s night, facing another impressive youngster in Alex Cobb.

    3B: Jordan Pacheco, COL ($5905) – I’m not warm and fuzzy about this, and quite frankly I wish I had more D-Backs facing the less than intimidating Josh Outman, but it didn’t work out that way. Pacheco makes good contact which portends well in this format as runs and RBI are helpful.

    SS: Erick Aybar, LAA ($4321) – Aybar is basically my salary relief. I really don’t like his profile of player in the format as he hits towards the bottom of the order meaning he has 20% less of a chance to score points.

    OF: Nick Swisher, NYY ($6751) – The Yankees versus Cobb were one of the teams I wanted to overload, hoping they get to the sophomore

    OF: Jay Bruce, CIN ($8348) – As suggested, I like the matchup against Lincoln and am hoping Bruce continues his damage against righties.

    OF: Justin Upton, ARO ($5989) – I’m going to have to check the lineups as J-Up was benched last night, hopefully he is back in there and returns with vengeance against the aforementioned Outman.

    UT: Chris Young, ARI ($6738) – I didn’t say I wish I had SOME D-Backs in against Outman, I said I wish I had MORE.

    UT: Hunter Pence, PHI ($9668) - No real reason here other than I had the money and couldn’t figure out anything else to do with it. Pence squares off at home against the tough but not invincible Chris Capuano.

    SP: Jerome Williams ($9702) – With the caveat that this is the same Mariner team that destroyed Derek Holland the other night, Williams at home versus Seattle was one of the more attractive pitching matchups.

    SP: Zack Greinke, MIL ($13, 581) – This is precisely why I need to set up a bang-for –the-buck means of analysis. Greinke versus the Cubs is a no-brainer matchup, but it is also the most expensive. The question is whether deploying the Brewer ace is an efficient use of funds given the salary cap implications.

    RP: Addison Reed, CHW ($1534) and RP: Jose Valverde, DET ($1696) – Not gonna lie here, took the two cheapest closers that I felt had reasonable shots at saves. I didn’t even pair them with my starters.

    What you got?{jcomments on}