Dynasty League Review: Weeks 5-6

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 5 

 

I made the following roster moves in Week 5, with my eye on Week 6:

1.) Claimed Dansby Swanson off waivers and dropped Jonathan Schoop. In my last article, I wrote on the importance of winning the waiver claim on Swanson, but also that I wasn’t very confident that I would win the rights to him. I was wrong and I got the opportunity to add him to my roster that was hurting for a starting SS that I could hopefully plug in weekly. I do not feel completely comfortable with him as my everyday SS for the rest of the season, but in comparison to my choices in free agency, I’d say I was pretty lucky to add him. He is striking out a little less than last season and walking slightly more. Swanson is also hitting the ball the hardest he has in his major league career (46.2 Hard%), which is good for third among qualified SS. I could do much worse at SS and feel good rolling with him until he proves otherwise.
2.) Added Gio Gonzalez and dropped Brad Peacock. I was not all too excited for this pickup, but I knew I wasn’t going to keep Peacock so I went for it. I have a feeling I will be utilizing Peacock as one of my top streaming targets this season, and he hasn’t seemed to get very much attention in my league, so I will continue to keep him on my radar in favorable match ups. Gio was not on my team long, as you will see.
3.) Added Carter Kieboom and dropped Gonzalez. I was ecstatic to have the opportunity to add Kieboom to my team after I almost took him in our mL draft last season. Obviously it hasn’t worked out for Kieboom in his debut, and he was recently sent back down the the minors to figure things out. He managed only five hits (two for home runs!) in 39 at bats and struck out at an unsightly 37.2% rate. I still have very high hopes for Kieboom moving forward, but expectations for 2019 obviously have to be tempered. Luckily I never started Kieboom, but I had to give him the shot on my roster and it was no harm, no foul.

Week 5 did not go my way. I carried the following roster into my matchup:

C – Mitch Garver
1B – Matt Carpenter
2B – Ozzie Albies
3B – Anthony Rendon
SS – Jonathan Schoop
OF – Andrew Benintendi
OF – Michael Conforto
OF – Tommy Pham
OF – Mike Trout
U – Khris Davis
U – Edwin Encarnacion
B – Aaron Judge
IL – Daniel Murphy

SP – Gerrit Cole
SP – Luis Castillo
SP – Tyler Glasnow
SP – Brad Peacock
SP – Jose Quintana
RP – Edwin Diaz
RP – Jerad Eickhoff
B – J.A. Happ
B – Mike Soroka
B – German Marquez
B – Felipe Vazquez

Top performers: Ozzie Albies (8-23, 2B, 3 HR, 3 RBI, 8 R, 3 BB), Mike Trout (6-25, 2B, 2 RBI, 5 R, 3 SB, 8 BB), Jose Quintana (12.1 IP, 9 H, 2 BBI, 9 K, 5 ER, W, QS), Tyler Glasnow (6.2 IP, 6 HA, BBI, 9 K, 2 ER, QS, W), Jerad Eickhoff (7 IP, 2 HA, BBI, 6 K, W, QS)

Side Note: Aaron Judge was forced to hit my bench after landing on the IL due to an oblique injury. This was a huge blow to my squad, but luckily I had the roster to withstand it. Not only did I have Judge go down, but I also had Rendon dealing with an elbow injury. Unlike how the New York Yankees handled Judge, the Washington Nationals decided to play with fantasy owners and wait, and wait, and wait to place Rendon on the IL and he only received three at-bats prior to being benched with the injury.

Worst performers: Anthony Rendon (0-3, K), Mitch Garver (2-10, 2 H, R, 2 BB, 5 K), Khris Davis (3-24, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 R, 4 BB, 10 K)

The lack of production from Davis has been especially difficult to watch. He is in the midst of an 18-game home run drought after hitting 10 through his first 17 games. It is just a matter of time before he starts cranking balls out of the park again, but this kind of slump is one we are not used to seeing from Davis after he hit a combined 134 home runs over his past three seasons. He is striking out less often than he did last year, is still hitting the ball hard, and is taking walks—so don’t be surprised if we see Khrush Davis go on a tear here soon.

Outcome: Loss (528.25 – 687.25)

Record: 2-3

 

Week 6

 

I made the following roster moves in Week 6, with my eye on Week 7:

1.) Added James McCann and dropped Mitch Garver. McCann is getting plenty of playing time with the Chicago White Sox and is producing. I’m going to ride that wave until it’s over.
2.) Added Yordan Alvarez. I had room on my mL roster, so this was an obvious add for my team. The 21-year-old slugger is tearing up AAA. He is batting .406 with 13 home runs, 30 R, and 38 RBI. Alvarez is getting on-base at an incredible 50% rate, while taking walks and limiting the strike outs. It is just a matter of time before the Houston Astros are forced to add his bat to their lineup; I just hope it happens in the near future.

Here is the week 6 lineup I rolled with:

C – Mitch Garver
1B – Daniel Murphy
2B – Ozzie Albies
3B – Matt Carpenter
SS – Dansby Swanson
OF – Andrew Benintendi
OF – Michael Conforto
OF – Tommy Pham
OF – Mike Trout
U – Khris Davis
U – Edwin Encarnacion
B – Anthony Rendon
B – Carter Kieboom
IL – Aaron Judge

SP – Gerrit Cole
SP – Luis Castillo
SP – Tyler Glasnow
SP – German Marquez
SP – Mike Soroka
RP – Edwin Diaz
RP – Felipe Vazquez
B – J.A. Happ
B – Jose Quintana
B – Jared Eickhoff

Top performers: Ozzie Albies (8-33, 2B, 3B, 2 HR, 8 RBI, 4 R), Andrew Benintendi (10-29, 2B, HR, 5 RBI, 6 R, SB, 5 BB), Edwin Encarnacion (5-18, 3 HR, 4 RBI, 5 R, 4 BB), Luis Castillo (13.1 IP, 9 HA, 5 BBI, 16 K, 6 ER, QS), Mike Soroka (13 IP, 7 HA, 3 BBI, 14 K, ER, 2 W), Felipe Vazquez (4 IP, 5 HA, BBI, 6 K, ER, 3 S)

Side Note: I was fortunate enough to be able to activate Murphy to make room for Judge on my IL. I also had the foresight to bench Rendon with his injury and was able to shuffle some players around my roster due to their positional flexibility (namely Murphy and Carpenter). Adding Encarnacion has been a life saver for me, especially with some of the injuries my team has sustained.

Worst performers: Daniel Murphy (2-16, 2B, RBI, 3 R, 5 BB, 4 K), Matt Carpenter (6-30, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 R, SB, 3 BB, 13 K….no that wasn’t a typo….13 K), Edwin Diaz (3 IP, 2 HA, 2 K, 2 ER, 2L)

Outcome: Win (721 – 603.75)

Record: 3-3

 

Nick Senzel

 

Nick Senzel has long been on the radar of fantasy owners, but his injury history has kept him off the Cincinnati Reds major league squad. The time finally came last Friday and all of baseball took notice. I have resisted the urge to call him up, so I can retain the extra year of control over him, but his production thus far has made it difficult to do so: highlighted by three home runs in his first 17 at-bats. Nevertheless, barring any more injuries, I will be keeping him in my farm system until 2020.

 

Questionable Trade

 

A trade went down in our league that I thought would be important to share. The trade looks as follows: MacKenzie Gore ($0, 3mL) and Justin Turner ($19, 2 yrs) for Eduardo Rodriquez and Domingo Santana. We have a policy in our league that we will not veto a trade unless it is so outrageous that it undermines the validity of the league. I was not a big fan of this trade, as the team that received Gore had a stacked staff and really did not need Rodriguez. Also, with injuries to his team, he needed to clear some roster space. To do so, he received three years of control over one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball. I believe that every owner should run their team as they seem fit, but I thought this trade was a bit lopsided and that this was a case of a first-year owner not recognizing the value of mL players in our league. Nevertheless, I see E-Rod as a legit buy-low candidate and Santana has had a fantastic year thus far, so I was not too concerned.

 

Starting Pitching

 

My pitching staff has been a juggernaut for me so far this year. I have three of the top five overall scoring starting pitchers in my league in Glasnow, Castillo, and Cole—at 2, 3, and 5 respectively. My staff has also been boosted by Marquez at 14 overall, with Quintana, Soroka, and Eickhoff filling in the rest of my daunting rotation. I wanted to take a moment to reflect on just how good Soroka has been since he joined the Atlanta Braves rotation in 2019. His 1.14 ERA will not be sustainable, but the low ERA is backed up by a 2.25 FIP and 3.04 xFIP. So far in his 4 starts (23.2 IP), he has not allowed more than one earned run in any start and has yet to allow a HR. He is also missing bats, as shown by his 10.27 K/9. There is a lot of reason to be excited about Soroka and I can’t wait to see where his 2019 goes.

 

With the way my fantasy season has gone thus far, and with some of the injuries I have dealt with, I am happy to have a 3-3 record heading into Week 7. I should also note that I am ranked second in the power rankings despite my weak record. This is supported by my team scoring more points overall than any team in the league and my team having the second most points scored against me overall. With some better luck in my schedule, my record could have looked totally different; this gives me much hope that if my team continues to produce at the current rate, I will have a successful fantasy season.

(Photo by Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire)