Here at Pitcher List, we thought it would be fun to give the readers a look into the dynasty leagues of Pitcher List staff members. I will be providing reviews throughout the season of my dynasty team in my home league, which originated in 2009.
The league is a 10-team, weekly, head-to-head points league and I am playing the 2019 season under the team name of Angels in the TROUTfield.
Week 11
I made the following roster moves in Week 11, with my eye on Week 12:
1.) Added Mitch Garver and dropped James McCann. McCann did exactly what I needed, gave me production from a weak position when I needed him the most. Nonetheless, I had to say goodbye when Garver was activated off of the IL. Have y’all been watching just how good Garver has been this season? He is carrying a .310 batting average and has 11 bombs, 26 runs, and 28 RBIs. His batting average is due for some negative regression, evidenced by a .352 batting average, but he has always been a good batting average guy. Garver has more than exceeded expectations and I look forward to putting him out there week after week.
Week 11 was a big week for me, as I was up against the top team in my division. I was able to pull out the big win with the following lineup:
C – James McCann
1B – Matt Carpenter
2B – Ozzie Albies
3B – Anthony Rendon
SS – Dansby Swanson
OF – Andrew Benintendi
OF – Michael Conforto
OF – Mike Trout
OF – Tommy Pham
U – Khris Davis
U – Edwin Encarnacion
B – Didi Gregorius
B – Michael Conforto
IL – Aaron Judge
SP – Gerrit Cole
SP – Luis Castillo
SP – Kyle Gibson
SP – German Marquez
SP – Jose Quintana
SP – Mike Soroka
RP – Edwin Diaz
B – Andrew Heaney
B – Nick Pivetta
B – Felipe Vazquez
mL – Nick Senzel
mL – Yordan Alvarez
mL – Zac Gallen
mL – Carter Kieboom
Top performers: Anthony Rendon (5-22, 2B, 2 HR, 8 RBI, 2 R, 3 BB), Michael Conforto (7-21, 2B, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 5 R, SB, 3 BB), Mike Trout (6-22, 2B, 3B, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 8 R, 7 BB), Edwin Encarnacion (7-29, 2B, 5 HR, 9 RBI, 8 R, 6 BB), Luis Castillo (6 IP, 2 HA, 4 BBI, 8 K, ER, W, QS), Gerrit Cole (7 IP, 4 HA, 14 K, ER, B, HB, QS), Mike Soroka (8 IP, 3 HA, 2 BBI, 6 K, ER, W, QS)
Worst performers: Tommy Pham (1-14, BB, 5 KO, 4 GST, HP), James McCann (3-15, 2B, 3 RBI, R, 2 BB, 2 KO, GDP), Matt Carpenter (4-16, HR, 2 RBI, R, SB, BB, 6 KO, GDP), Kyle Gibson (5 IP, 8 HA, 2 BBI, 8 K, 5 ER, L), German Marquez (5.1 IP, 7 HA, BBI, 5 K, 8 ER, L, 2 HB)
Outcome: Win (571.75 – 466.5)
Record: 6-5
Week 12
I made the following roster moves in Week 12, with my eye on Week 13:
1.) Dropped Kyle Gibson. I was in a bit of a roster pickle with Yordan Alvarez being promoted. I didn’t want to drop Gibson, as I raved about him a couple of weeks ago, but a decision had to be made. I won’t get into Alvarez just yet.
2.) Added Alex Reyes. This was a matter of having an open mL spot at my disposal and the opportunity of Reyes being promoted soon. No, Reyes hasn’t looked great in his recent mL starts, especially with his command, but at least the strikeouts are still there. This was a low-risk move for me that could pay dividends down the road if I choose to activate him upon his next promotion.
3.) Added Luis Urias. I had another mL spot open on my roster and wanted to utilize it on a guy who I thought might get the call sooner than later. Urias has been knocking the cover off the ball in AAA since his demotion. He is batting .337/.427/.673 with 16 homers, 48 runs, and 39 runs batted in. Even in a batter-friendly league, those numbers are tremendous. Urias will be getting the call soon and I am looking forward to his arrival, even though I do not have room for him at the moment.
Week 12 was another big week for me and one that I knew would be a close game. Here is the lineup I rolled out:
C – Mitch Garver
1B – Edwin Encarnacion
2B – Ozzie Albies
3B – Anthony Rendon
SS – Dansby Swanson
OF – Andrew Benintendi
OF – Michael Conforto
OF – Tommy Pham
OF – Mike Trout
U – Matt Carpenter
U – Khris Davis
B – Yordan Alvarez
IL – Didi Gregorius
SP – Gerrit Cole
SP – Luis Castillo
SP – Andrew Heaney
SP – German Marquez
SP – Nick Pivetta
SP – Mike Soroka
RP – Felipe Vazquez
B – Tyler Glasnow
B – Jose Quintana
B – Edwin Diaz
mL – Nick Senzel
mL – Carter Kieboom
mL – Luis Urias
mL – Zac Gallen
mL – Nick Pivetta
mL – Alex Reyes
Top performers: Ozzie Albies (12-29, 5 2B, 3 HR, 9 RBI, 7 R, SB, 2 BB), Anthony Rendon (8-24, 4 HR, 7 RBI, 7 R, BB), Tommy Pham (11-27, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 5 R, 4 BB), Gerrit Cole (6 IP, 3 HA, 2 BBI, 10 K, 2 ER, W, QS), Luis Castillo (6 IP, 4 HA, 2 BBI, 6 K, ER, QS)
Worst performers: Edwin Encarnacion (1-8, HR, 3 RBI, 2 R, 3 BB, 2 KO), Matt Carpenter (3-21, 2 2B, 3 RBI, R, SB, 4 BB, 5 KO), Andrew Heaney (5 IP, 2 HA, 3 BBI, 2 K, ER), Mike Soroka (5 IP, 10 HA, BBI, 3 K, 5 ER)
Encarnacion missed a few games with a minor back injury so he only received eight plate appearances before being traded to the Yankees. He seems to be over the minor injury, so there’s nothing to be worried about. Encarnacion moving to New York seems to be a positive move in terms of his home park and team context so hopefully his strong 2019 continues.
Outcome: Win (644.25 – 618.25)
Record: 7-5
Minor League (mL) Draft
Our two-round mL draft recently took place and here are the results:
1) Dylan Cease, RHP, CWS
2) Cristian Pache, OF, ATL
3) Adley Rutschman, C, BAL
4) JoJo Romero, LHP, PHI
5) Ian Anderson, RHP, ATL
6) Wander Franco, SS, TB
7) Joey Bart, C, SFG
8) Nolan Gorman, 3B, STL
9) Alex Kiriloff, OF, MIN
10) Andrew Vaughn, 1B, CWS
11) Nate Pearson, RHP, TOR
12) Justus Sheffield, LHP, SEA
13) Bobby Witt Jr., SS, KC
14) Luis Garcia, SS, PHI
15) A.J. Puk, LHP, OAK
16) JJ Bleday, OF, MIA
17) Hunter Bishop, OF, SF
18) Brady Singer, RHP, KC
19) Jarred Kelenic, OF, SEA
20) Riley Green, OF, DET
There were a few surprises in this draft, namely the Pache, Romero, and Garcia picks. The Pache pick seemed early for No. 2 overall—look at all the names he passed up. The Romero and Garcia picks can be chalked up as the owner being a Phillies fan. Everyone is allowed to run their team as they wish but c’mon man…look at all the guys he passed up on. I held the No. 10 overall pick and I was on the edge of my seat as Kiriloff and Gorman continued to fall and was looking forward to drafting either of the two. But the chips didn’t fall in my favor as Gorman and Kiriloff were taken No. 9 and No. 10 overall respectively. But I wasn’t hanging my head too long, as I was able to secure Vaughn with my only pick of the draft (traded my second round pick in pre-season trade). If you’d like a terrific re-cap of Andrew Vaughn and the other top dynasty league assets from the 2019 MLB draft check out Travis Sherer’s fantastic piece if you haven’t already done so. I was pleased with how my draft turned out. The only part that frustrated me was being unable to draft Alvarez here due to some of the owners taking the 24-hour pick limit slow draft very literally. I missed out on drafting and giving Alvarez a mL deal by a matter of hours due to his promotion, but the bright side is that I was able to retain him on my 2019 roster for the remainder of the year.
Finally, I’m getting to baseball’s most recent wonder-kid, Alvarez. Alvarez was setting AAA on fire, and didn’t miss a step upon his promotion. Since his call-up, Alvarez has hit .346 with eight runs and eight runs batted in. In his first 32 plate appearances, he has hit four home runs, including four in his first five games. Yeah, he’s pretty good. It goes without saying that this is a very small sample size against major league pitching, but Alvarez has continued his excellence since his promotion. He is one of the hottest hitters on the planet and should continue to pay dividends for owners that have been patiently waiting his arrival. Obviously he will not keep up this pace through the remainder of the season but Alvarez is someone you can plug into your roster and feel very comfortable week after week.
Roster Decisions
I have a handful of big roster decisions to make soon. Which is a good problem to have in my case! Bringing Alvarez onto my active roster forced me to drop Gibson, which wasn’t an easy decision to make. In the very near future I will have Aaron Judge returning and I couldn’t be more excited. I have to wait quite a bit longer for Tyler Glasnow to return, but he seems to be progressing very well so it could be soon after his time on the IL is up. Those two decisions, when they are required to be made, will force me to drop a couple players that I will not be completely comfortable doing, but obviously when guys of their caliber can be added to your roster, you do it with a smile on your face. I also have a couple of guys coming up (maybe soon?) that I have stashed in my mL spots—namely Gallen, Reyes, and Urias. These are all guys I would obviously love to roster, but I may be forced to return them to the waiver wire if I cannot find a sport for them. But as you all know, injuries happen, slumps happen, crazy things happen in the game of baseball and these choices might be made under completely different circumstances even a day from now. I have been looking to remedy this future “problem.” I love a world in which my biggest problem at the moment is potentially having too many good players on my roster. I may look to package a couple guys up in a two-for-one deal that would return me a starting pitcher to slot into my rotation. You can never have enough pitchers in today’s environment. Time will tell.
(Photo by Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire)