Any team caught using the shift will be fined by the league: your 2023 fantasy baseball thread!

all teams are auto renewed, draft date is set for Sunday March 26 4pm (edt); so let's try to get our keep picks (and hilarious team names) in by the Sunday before (March 19).

i think we all remember the rules (player age calculated as-of April 1st). Will should be along with his awesome spreadsheet soon.

as always, new managers are welcome! this year's baddy is Billy Childish Bambino (gygax) and his ridiculous outfield.

one annoying change this year courtesy of yahoo – no more league message board. i liked to post updates there as well as here, but this will be the only place for getting info for now.

in case anyone didn't get the renew email, here's a link to the team page

this might belong more on the forgetful ilxors thread; but i came up with a new team name months ago. had it in my head all winter - and as soon i'm ready to renew the league... poof. gone.
it's driving me nuts.

It's me with my spreadsheet! apologies to anyone who relies on it during the season because apparently i stopped updating it around july or august, but i have since fixed it up and all of your eligible keepers are listed. have a look here!

hmm i know i traded away sandy alcantara, and some of those other names don't look right either

weird, i made sure to check the transactions tab and only remember seeing one keeper-eligible guy on the list. i'll see if i can find last year's league again (i always forget how to navigate to old seasons)

ah ok i see the problem. there were two trades and my eyes glazed over and thought it was one big trade, so i missed a couple of players. fixed now!

Also I'll post my keepers now since I already agonized over them in January while fixing the sheet. Gotta drop two very-good-to-extremely good keepable guys (Eloy Jimenez, Edwin Diaz) and two more mid guys who I believe in to an irrational degree (Michael Kopech, Brendan Rogers, in ascending order of irrationality).

Here are my Five Guys™️ with ages per the sheet:

Wander Franco (22)
Ronald Acuna (25)
Shane Bieber (27)
Aaron Nola (29)
Trea Turner (29)

ALSO, sometimes the birthdates get fucked up especially if there's been another guy with that name in the past before, or if they share a name with a guy who got dropped it can fuck it up (looking at you, will smith and will smith) so if you see such a guy, let me know. I'll add a new tab this year that shows all keeper-ineligible guys that you can check and challenge, it'll be the second tab

Dude. If you don’t finish top three with those keepers, I’ll never let you live it down

they were just as good last year and i turfed OUT

same last year except swap nola/acuna for eloy/mookie, so it is a bit of an upgrade this year. but the draft was cruel

Corbin Burnesen (list of star keepers and cursed individuals)

Corbin Burnes
Yordan Alvarez
Fernando Tatis Jr
Dansby Swanson
Freddy Peralta

Guns of Buxton

Bobby Witt (22)
Jazz Chisholm (25)
Daulton Varsho (26)
Pablo Lopez (27)
Carlos Correa (28)

Ages for my guys:

Burnes (28)
Alvarez (25)
Tatis (24)
Swanson (28)
Peralta (26)

keepers for my yet-to-be renamed team:
Max Fried (29)
Francisco Lindor (29)
Ozzie Albies (26)
Shane McClanahan (25)
Alek Manoah (25)

(Man Oahboard)

Giolito Shuffle keepers

Emmanuel Clase (25)
Adley Rutschman (25)
Luis Robert (25)
Pete Alonso (28)
Lucas Giolito (28)

feels weird keeping a closer but Clase was lights out last year and is young

if there is any option to change the draft day and other people are amenable to it, it would be more convenient for me to do it another day. i am taking my kid to a fan convention on the 26th and don’t know if I’ll be able to follow the draft. but i understand if not.

Any opposition to the same same on the Saturday instead?

i can prob do whichever day, as long as it's like in the afternoon/evening (i have another draft whose date isn't set yet and we usually do that the same weekend around ~1pm eastern)

same here

saturday would be much better for me, thanks

Ohtani Dancer in my Hand (formerly LuvWilTeheranUsApart) keepers:

Bo Bichette (25)
Logan Webb (26)
Dylan Cease (26)
Shohei Ohtani (batter) (28)
Alex Bregman (29)

i was going over some younger guys i might want to target – and I started to get the feeling like I was instead picking some poor unsuspecting prospect to jinx. i'm curious if i've actually had bad luck, or if I'm just being paranoid. over the last 8 years some guys i've reached for in the draft (or traded for) include:
Julio Urías (pitched just 27 innings over two season before i moved on),
Luis Severino (gave me one decent season before being injured for the next two),
Nomar Mazara (replacement level his entire career),
José Fernández (died after two seasons on my team),
Jesús Luzardo (was good for 12 promising innings before fate took hold of him),
Michael Soroka (he managed 13.2 inning before becoming irrelevant),
Nate Pearson (Luzardo 2.0),
Zach Plesac (career 0.4 WAR after drafting him),
Francisco Lindor (he's been better, but proceeded to have a career worst season right after i traded for him),
Jarred Kelenic (unequivocal dumpster fire),
Riley Greene (Kelenic 2.0?!),
Jack Flaherty (managed 36 innings and two serious injuries since i added him).

that's not to say i haven't had guys work out, but do most managers have this many guys flame out?!

https://imgur.com/krI0AyN.png
A Moon-Shaped Pujols
(formerly Longmont Potion Castellanos)

24 Keibert Ruiz
26 Tanner Houck
28 Randy Arozerana
29 Tyler Glasnow
29 Byron Buxton

i botched my trade opportunities last year. gonna need a major re-tool here

hey – a team name reference i actually get!

do you all still need an additional manager (or someone to take over for gygax, i guess)? no big deal if not, but i'd be glad to step in and be the guy who drafts all the cardinals prospects that will actually really suck for the next few years

thermo my keepers have previously included Mazara, Carlos Martinez, Benintendi, AJ Pollock, Miguel Sano, Khris Davis, Sonny Gray, David Dahl, Ian Anderson....lots of injuries, lots of unfulfilled promise.

hey, we're Mazara brothers! and that is a solid list of disappointment you got there.

true hacking mass championship material right there!

i don't know what i ever saw in Mazara. probably something like...hey, his first name is Nomar? Stop there, I'm sold.

did someone once have team called faith nomar?

i don't recall ever seeing it. and i don't think i ever saw Mazara Starr either

hello friends i didn't get any emails (nor do I deserve any) but someone please negotiate me to the spreadsheet so i can pick the worst possible keepers before i draft the worst possible team thank you matt s cibula at gmail dot com

Emailed!

>>Send Nootbaar<<

Julio Urias 26
Austin Riley 26
Logan Gilbert 25
Josh Hader 28
Will Smith 28

deGromlandic Edit a.k.a. a lot of other bad puns.

Jonathan India 2B
Framber Valdez SP
Shohei Ohtani SP
Devin Williams RP

Votto No Get Enemy

Grayson Rodriguez 23
Vlad Guerrero Jr 24
Oneil Cruz 24
Sandy Alcantara 27
Corey Seager 28

nice! just two managers left to confirm and then i can set/announce the draft order and we're gtg!

Dascenzo Corbusier fka Snitker Conspiracy

Julio Rodriguez (22)
Rafael Devers (26)
Gleyber Torres (26)
Zac Gallen (27)
Jorge Polanco (29)

Thanks, Thermo and Will!

So my flight lands 20 minutes before our draft starts lol... what could possibly go wrong dragging my family through the airport and customs while trying to put a decent team together. Relatives are picking us up so I don't have to worry about losing connection in a train tunnel or what not but I'll try to auto-populate my pre-draft rankings as much as possible.

Keepers (age):

Juan Soto (24)
Kyle Tucker (26)
Matt Olson (29)
Tyler Stephenson (26)
Ryan McMahon (28)

Thermy & Willy,
Thank you for all that you do~

awesome! that's everyone!!! will – can you double check the ages? and I'll post the draft order in the next couple days and get the draft ready to go!

do you all still need an additional manager (or someone to take over for gygax, i guess)? no big deal if not, but i'd be glad to step in and be the guy who drafts all the cardinals prospects that will actually really suck for the next few years

― z_tbd, Thursday, February 23, 2023 9:06 AM (two weeks ago)

Was there any follow-up on a way to integrate z_tbd into the league? I'd give him my team in exchange for some choice draft selections.

jesus, i totally missed that! i will email him.

any objections if I push the draft time back 15 minutes?
our glorious league champ could probably use every minute we can give him to de-plane and get into the draft.
feel free to email me directly – if it puts anyone out I'll drop the idea.

Push it back as needed!

works for me

oh cool! i wasn't sure if there would be a way to join this year, but looks like i'll be able to start up a new team. i hope i can come up with a good pun. it's the hardest part of fantasy baseball

Awesome. I sent you an email. I just need to know what email to send the yahoo invite to.

since they weren't posted here yet, these are the keeper rules for the league:

• total of 5 keepers
• 2 of which must be 27, 28 or 29 yrs old
• another 2 players 26 or under
• one final keeper that can be either (basically anyone under the age of 30)
• age is calculated as-of April 1
• for a player to be keep-eligible he must have been drafted on draft day by your team or traded to you by a team that drafted him. that means:
• free agent/waiver pick-ups cannot be kept
• if you have less than 5 keepers, you will get an extra draft pick at the end of the draft
• keep it clean

xp i sent you an email reply thermo! just in case you didn't get it, it's:

smithers underscore 312

hopefully it works - i haven't logged in since the last time i played in this fantasy league! just let me know if it doesn't and i'll create a new one.

you don't nec need to use a yahoo email for your yahoo acc't. mine goes to a gmail. i'll send the invite to both the emails i have. just make sure whatever email your yahoo sends stuff to is one you monitor so you don't miss league emails that could be important.

sounds good, thanks!

i'm in - thanks for the help! I'm out for the rest of the day but I'll be sure to pick a team name and do anything else I need to do before draft day

awesome! that's everyone!!! will – can you double check the ages? and I'll post the draft order in the next couple days and get the draft ready to go!

― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, March 14, 2023 8:35 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

i didn't check the individual ages everyone wrote here, but everyone's choices are correct per the rules (2 of each + 1) so every team's legal!

but are they hot and ready?!

i can guarantee at least some of them are In The Best Shape Of Their Lives and more than one of them Is Working On A New Swing... I think that counts as Hot and Ready

Some are even Looking To Make A Fresh Start In A New Environment, I've heard.

i can confirmation some are even tinkering with a new pitch

ok hommies, in what might be a first for our league since we started keepers, i have the draft order and keepers set-up ahead of schedule.

everything can be viewed on our league's draft page (scroll to the bottom for keepers). if anything looks amis, let me know.

Z S's Impressive Team was not my choice for a placeholder but it'll have to do. second pick! obviously going andrew knizner, he is due

Draft 2023/Keepers 2024 spreadsheet

here's the spreadsheet for the upcoming draft (and eventually, the keeper-eligible players for 2024). i'll update with draft results and then every month or so update the dropped players.

So the draft is now set for 4:15.
This involved, stupidly, having to re-enter all the keeper picks and order etc. so double check everything looks right and you have the correct Ohtani or will smith etc

I'm so sorry Thermo but I sincerely thank you.

It will be interesting to say the least... while it won't be my first draft via mobile while otherwise preoccupied, it will be the first one while incredibly jet-lagged while navigating customs & baggage claim with family in tow and then trying to be cordial and respectful to in-laws I haven't seen in 3+ years lol.

so double check everything looks right and you have the correct Ohtani or will smith etc

remember that one year there were like 5 different Wander Francos?

the best part is they're his brothers! Wander Samuel Franco, Wander Alexander Franco and Wander Javier Franco (also their dad is Wander Franco)

and the reason? he was a ballplayer who never made the bigs but he wanted his name to make the bigs lmao

I have the correct Bobby Jones and once again will scramble to set pre-draft rankings for a disastrous auto-draft.

wait, you've got the first pick and won't be there for the draft?! i guess having pick 1 makes pre-ranking a little easier, but still...

Five hours until the draft!

Four!

3

Too

My plan to come up with my own draft ranking last failed, so I will be basically using my gut. Lol! Looking forward to it!

JUAN!

Corbin Burnesen:

C - JT Realmuto
1B - Pasquantino, Abreu
2B - Drury, Grissom
3B - France, Jung
SS - Swanson, Tatis
OF - Alvarez, Carroll, Bryant, Yoshida
SP - Burnes, Heaney, Kirby, Peralta, Sale, Kluber, Taillon
RP - Minter, Brown (gonna need some RPs….)

C - Salvador Perez
1B - Freddy Freeman, Josh Bell
2B - Brandon Lowe, Jonathan India
3B - Eugenio Suarez
SS - Jeremy Pena, Ezequiel Tovar
OF - Eloy Jimenez, Steven Kwan, Chrisian Yelich, Nick Castellanos, Riley Greene, Garrett Mitchell, Sal Frelick
SP - Max Scherzer, Shohei Ohtani, Merrill Kelly, Framber Valdez
RP - Devin Williams, Alexis Diaz, Daniel Bard

outfield rich but mid, pitching top-heavy and sparse, let's f'in go

I went prospect heavy this year, trying to get prospects who might conceivably contribute this season though.gonna have to make major adjustments as I go mos def.

i was also intending to go more prospect heavy, seeing as how this season is going to be really difficult as a new team. i can't believe how early Jordan Walker went! i was thinking he might be a 5th or 6th round kind of thing.

on the prospects side i did end up with eury perez, franciso alvarez, and hunter greene, who i guess isn't really a prospect anymore but is still really young and will hopefully become really good soon. i was also happy to land alejandro kirk as a potential keeper

Newcombes On deBlok

C | Willson Contreras
1B | Anthony Rizzo
2B | Ozzie Albies
3B, and hopefully keeper legend | Gunnar Henderson
SS | Francisco Lindor (last year I can keep him RIP)
OF | Kyle "Daddy" Shwarbucks, Bryan Reynolds, Brandon "Captain" Nimmo

SP | McClanahan, Manoah, Fried, Cortes, Luzardo, Cabrera

RP | Munoz, Fairbanks, Lange, Montero

bench bats | Merrifield, Miranda, Conforto

total flier NA pick for the hell of it | Kyle Manzardo

said this before, but i like this team a lot. only thing I'm nervous about is that my entire pitching staff is barely out of diapers. Feel like I should have picked Grey instead of Cabrera so I'd have a more proven/boring arm.

xpost _ Kirk was a solid get!

The sheet is up to date!

My team is apparently good except for home runs and rbis. are those important? (caps = keeper)

C - Grandal
1B - Nathaniel Lowe / Vargas
2B - Mookie / Urias
3B - Bohm / Urias
SS - TREA / WANDER
OF1 - ACUNA
OF2 - Mullins
OF3 - O'Neill / Meneses

SP1 - NOLA
SP2 - BIEBER
SP3 - Gausman
SP4 - Morton
SP5 - Bassitt
SP6 - Singer
RP - Jansen / Bednar / Ottavino

Minor league stash - James Wood

giolito shuffle

C - rutschman
1b - alonso, torkelson
2b - semien
3b - arenado, ke'bryan hayes
ss - anderson
of - robert, renfroe, adolis garcia, kelenic, friedl
util - muncy
na - colas

sp - giolito, lynn, ray, stroman, trevor rogers
rp - clase, leclerc, fulmer

in hindsight i'm fairly happy with my results. starting pitching could be bad but i usually end up streaming to some degree. i might have gone a little galaxy brain on my later picks but most of them are keeper-eligible and it's fun to have a couple of gambles going (like kelenic or torkelson finally being good eg)

Will, I really liked the Vargas pick up. Right abouts where i was about to take him.
And again: if you don't finish top 3 with that team, I will mock you without mercy.

Will, I really liked the Vargas pick up. Right abouts where i was about to take him.
And again: if you don't finish top 3 with that team, I will mock you without mercy.

whoops

the question will be can i keep up with the teams that play the daily wire game! cos i am not sure i can!

The sheet is up to date!

oh, thank you for doing that! i hadn't actually gone through and checked for my own players yet, so that is a big timesaver

no worries, i did most of the work years ago and at this point its just adding the new players and their birthdates, which i can grab off of bbref very easily.

@NA: man i really like your team. i was watching your picks (you were on the elbow of the draft right?) and i was just like damn this is a good team. the only pick i didn't like was ke'bryan (latent anti-pirate bias?), but now that i am seeing that he's backing up arenado (and muncy!), im just like damn someone's in it to win it

your jinx game is strong

that team does look good. so does Childish Bambino, Corbin Burnesen and Dascenzo Corbusier – but i think Will's team looks strongest right now.

The number of players I have who are going to be under 27 going into next season means I’m going to have a lot of tough choices to make with regards to keepers. Unless several of them faceplant, which is totally possible.

your jinx game is strong

― na (NA), Sunday, March 26, 2023 5:25 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol i swear it was unintended, i just genuinely liked your picks! i thought after round 7 or 8 "i keep liking NA's picks"

ha i know. i’m pretty happy with my draft but all that matters is results, so we’ll see

Omar - I’m the same. Wasn’t trying to wind up with so many young guys, kinda just happened.
But if midway through the season Cabrera/Luzardo/Manoah and/or Miranda/Manzardo are all on fire, I’ll probably find one or two of them a forever home for a little competitive bump.

I have 8 dudes who’ll be under 27. I feel like I’ll also have to turn on the trade machine at some point, unless I’m totally out of the running in which case I’ll just hold and play out the string.

A Moon-Shaped Pujols

C / RUIZ, K
1B / WALKER, C
2B / MARTE, K
3B / DIAZ, Y
SS / HOERNER, N
OF / BUXTON, B
OF / AROZARENA, R
OF / TROUT, M
UT / SPRINGER, G
BN / VERDUGO / LeMAHIEU / NAYLOR, J

SP / GLASNOW, T
SP / DeGROM, J
SP / RODON, C
SP / COBB, A
RP / DURAN, J
RP / HELSLEY, R
RP / SEWALD, P
P / HOUCK, T

NA / CHOURIO, J
NA / PAINTER, A

If anyone failed to draft a prospect, I've got Painter available for spare parts.
Trout et al are available for your keepers this year, hmu!

Impressive injured list you got there!

Ohtani Dancer In My Hand

C Christian Bethancourt
1B Triston Casas
2B Nick Gordon
3B Alex Bregman
SS Bo Bichette
OF Michael Harris II, Giancarlo Stanton, Jake Fraley
UT Shohei Ohtani
BN Jose Altuve, Chris Taylor, Shea Langeliers

SP Dylan Cease, Logan Webb, Blake Snell, Dustin May, Jose Berrios, Brandon Woodroof, Cristian Javier
RP Evan Phillips, Hector Neris, Seranthony Dominguez

My bench is weak and I somehow failed to draft a decent catcher, but at least the pitching should be good!

not a fan of yahoo showing every single player as not playing today

at least every single batter

It makes looking at my roster incredibly stressful

Same thing happened opening day last year too iirc

So far today I’ve lost my catcher and starting pitcher