Dynasty League Review: Weeks 24-25 – Playoffs!

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 24

Our league has the rule that we can only make transactions leading up to the first round of the playoffs and then we are restricted to only replacing injured players through free agency if you do not have a replacement on your bench. I made the following roster decisions leading up to the playoffs:

1.) Added Wil Myers and dropped Trevor Williams. I needed to add an OF to replace Mike Trout after he went down with the foot injury. He was slated to come back mid-week but as we all know, he never made it back to the Angels in 2019. Terrible timing right? Luckily, I made the decision to bench Trout in lieu of Myers. I decided on adding Myers because he was swinging a hot bat and had 3 games in Colorado the week of my first playoff match-up. Losing Trout for the playoffs was a huge disappointment but he was one of the main reasons I was in the position to play in the postseason so I can’t complain too much.

Below is the lineup that I deployed in the first round of the playoffs:

C – Willson Contreras
1B – Whit Merrifield
2B – Ozzie Albies
3B – Anthony Rendon
SS – Gavin Lux
OF – Yordan Alvarez
OF – Tommy Pham
OF – Yasiel Puig
OF – Wil Myers
U – Michael Conforto
U – Aaron Judge
B – Mike Trout
IL – Carlos Correa

SP – Gerrit Cole
SP – Luis Castillo
SP – Yu Darvish
SP – Mike Foltynewicz
SP – Zac Gallen
SP – Eduardo Rodriguez
RP – Felipe Vazquez
B – Dallas Keuchel
B – Sean Manaea
B – Mike Soroka
B – Dakota Hudson

mL – Nick Senzel
mL – Andrew Vaughn
mL – Carter Kieboom
mL – Tarik Skubal

Top performers: Ozzie Albies (13-31, 3 2B, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 5 R, 2 BB), Gavin Lux (8-20, 2 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 3 R, SB), Yordan Alvarez (7-21, 2B, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 5 R, 7 BB), Wil Myers (8-26, 3 2B, HR, 7 RBI, 3 R, SB, 5 BB), Aaron Judge (6-18, 2B, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 7 R, 7 BB), Gerrit Cole (8 IP, 4 HA, 2 BBI, 11 K, W, QS), Yu Darvish (6 IP, 2 HA, 2 BBI, 14 K, W, QS), Mike Foltynewicz (13 IP, 7 HA, BBI, 12 K, 2 ER, 2 W, 2 QS), Eduardo Rodriguez (12.2 IP, 9 HA, 2 BBI, 21 K, 2 ER, L, 2 QS)

Worst performers: I didn’t really have any bad performances but Contreras and Conforto we’re the least scoring hitters on my squad that week with the following stats – Willson Contreras (3-16, 2 HR, 2 RBI, 3 R, BB, 5 KO), Michael Conforto (4-17, 2B, HR, RBI, 4 R, 3 BB, 6 KO)

This week was a rematch of last year’s championship match-up and I was able to walk away with the easy win, surprisingly. This win brought me my fourth straight victory and catapulted me into the championship. I scored the 2nd highest amount of points I have all season so this had me pretty optimistic headed into the championship week.

Outcome: Win (836 – 509.5)

Record: 15-9

 

Week 25

 

Headed into the championship I was still obviously without Trout which led me to starting Myers again since I couldn’t make a free agent transaction barring an injury.

Here is the roster I used in the championship:

C – Willson Contreras
1B – Whit Merrifield
2B – Ozzie Albies
3B – Anthony Rendon
SS – Gavin Lux
OF – Yordan Alvarez
OF – Tommy Pham
OF – Yasiel Puig
OF – Wil Myers
U – Michael Conforto
U – Aaron Judge
IL – Carlos Correa
B – Didi Gregorius

SP – Gerrit Cole
SP – Luis Castillo
SP – Yu Darvish
SP – Dallas Keuchel
SP – Sean Manaea
SP – Eduardo Rodriguez
RP – Felipe Vazquez
B – Zac Gallen
B – Mike Foltynewicz
B – Mike Soroka
B – Dakota Hudson

mL – Nick Senzel
mL – Andrew Vaughn
mL – Carter Kieboom
mL – Tarik Skubal

Top performers: Yordan Alvarez (9-19, 2 2B, 2 HR, 2 RBI, 5 R, BB), Yasiel Puig (12-24, 3 2B, 7 RBI, 3 R, SB, 2 BB), Aaron Judge (6-19, 2 2B, 3 HR, 4 RBI, 6 R, 3 BB), Gerrit Cole (8 IP, 6 HA, BBI, 10 K, 2 ER, W, QS), Yu Darvish (15.1 INN, 13 HA, BBI, 25 K, 7 ER, 2 L, QS), Eduardo Rodriguez (6 IP, 2 HA, 2 BBI, 10 K, W, QS)

Worst performers: Willson Contreras (4-23, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R, 5 KO), Wil Myers (0-18, BB, 11 KO) OUCH, Dallas Keuchel (11 IP, 14 HA, 3 BBI, 6 K, 7 ER, 2 L, QS)

This week did not go as planned and my team kind of dropped a dud when I needed them the most. I could have used the same output from my team that I had grown accustomed to over the past few weeks but it wasn’t in the cards for me. I’m not sure that it would have made a difference in the outcome but a couple of things held me back from the very beginning. The first one being that I was without arguably my best hitter in Trout and the second being that Felipe Vazquez was arrested and obviously unavailable. I’m not going to get into the details or specifics of the arrest and the issue is obviously greater than the fate of my fantasy team but losing my closer was definitely a negative for my team since I was unable to replace him before lineups locked. The crazy part is that I had Dakota Hudson in my lineup in my RP slot up until probably 3-4 hours prior to lineups locking. Nonetheless, I decided to roll with Vazquez who had gotten me to this point and Hudson’s match-ups against the Nationals and Cubs didn’t really leave me with much optimism. This alone wouldn’t have likely made a difference but the loss of Trout and Vazquez put me in a deficit from the start and who knows what would have happened if I would have had both of them playing. But, that’s just how baseball goes and you have to roll with the punches. I was unable to secure the back-to-back championships but making it again this year was an accomplishment in itself and I am proud of doing so. It is back to the drawing boards in 2020 and I’m looking forward to seeing if I can build another championship caliber team.

Outcome: Loss (606 – 533.5)

Record: 15-10

 

(Photo by Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire)