♫ Pitcher bunt attempts forever, for the union makes us bat ♫ – 2021 ILX Fantasy Baseball!

Wild trade guys! Looks like a good old fashioned challenge trade?

not at all, this was me getting all up in Burneson and Guns's emails demanding they take my team away in exchange for two of my favourite players (xander and trea). (and me staring at spreadsheets figuring out what they needed so i could offer them both the best packages for their needs). burnesen really took me to the cleaners for xander though lol

now that the real is made though, i have the (nice) problem of 6 stud keepers for next year. def entertaining any offers to upgrade in a two for one scenario or something. Wander, Trea and Xander at short, Betts Eloy and Grish at OF lol. Who has the elite young SPs?! hit me up that never goes poorly for me *sweeps luis castillo's 2021 stats under a rug*

the deal* is made

Will, I got your message on my phone, I honestly can't find out how to pull it up again to reply, but just want to say, yeah, I'm always up to entertain offers. any player is available. But I'm trying to win this thing atm and need SP for one of my 4 keeper OFs if anyone has ideas hit me up

FWIW I do not understand this Xander deal

Initial haul was to be Bogaerts for (unkeepable) Kimbrel, Cruz, and Arenado. Pollock and Smith were throw-ins because CB was going to drop them anyway (and I might drop them but we'll see). But then CB added Rizzo for Rendon because Rendon's been bad and he knows how to squeeze me lol. Everyone I am sending back is unkeepable and Xander is consensus top-20 dynasty player based on a lot of lists I've seen. and im dogshit this season so having unkeepable players is worthless to me

Yeah, I can see it. Got a lot of big names flying around this year, it's interesting

I figured with my team constructed as it is, I wasn’t likely to catch you! I was already thinking that I would be trading Xander to secure multiple non-keeper quality bats before I was approached by Will. My batting has been pretty disappointing, at least in a few categories. Xander has been awesome but I was going to lose him after next season if I even play again, which I may not. We’ll see. Rendon has been weak, Pollock injured, fresh prince has the saves but not the rest...if these guys play as well as they have thus far and Rizzo steps up a bit, maybe I’ll catch up enough to...finish half a dozen points back.

I think I liked the idea of going into next season (if I play) with a rotation already set, plus Tatis. Alvarez is tempting too but he’s a potential injury waiting to happen. If one of the SPs gets TJ I’ll likely just hang onto him instead.

If shit starts to go south get ready for me to dangle some heavy hitters.

I think the baffling part was the big names coming along with Xander - but they all seem to be struggling this year.

I was kind of figuring that Will Smith is a guy who is extremely useful in saves leagues, but in this league he’s perfectly average and there are a lot of guys his equal in terms of S+H in the free agent pool. Pollock could pick it up and do what he did last season on a full season scale but I can’t count on it. I feel like Rendon has maybe been unlucky but also maybe just sucks this year and will continue to do so, and Arenado is an upgrade regardless, and with Cruz I wouldn’t have anywhere else to put Tony. Santana has been great at first but a lot less great lately, and Rizzo may likely be better going forward. And if not I’ll just stick Carlos back in there.

I look forward to all of this blowing up in my face.

Interesting to hear how this came about -- a trade for Xander that snowballed into a trade involving infield stars past their primes (Rendon/Rizzo) and elite relievers.

I'm feeling the pressure to make another trade, but I already parted with my best bargaining chip (Vlad Jr). I might need to upgrade at SP (it depends on Bauer's spin rate going forward ... ugh) and sooner or later my six RP have to start picking up saves and holds.

I’m curious who’s gonna find themselves out an ace once mlb starts handing out fines/suspensions etc

I thought MLB was only "gathering information" this year? I think they'll save the fireworks for the off-season -- coincidentally this happens to be a bargaining year and this is just more ammunition for putting the screws to the players.

Oh so much for that -- new enforcement policy and likely suspensions starting on June 21.

Just noticed the posts on the PED thread.

In other news, I'm putting Trevor Bauer on the trading block you guys! You don't want to pass this up! Cy Young winner -- going cheap!

well, i can't imagine having anything to worry about w/ cole...

Glasnow is down now, I can't afford this.. 😑

Apparently because he had to stop using sunscreen for grip!!

Tyler Glasnow just went off about the midseason crackdown. He stopped using sunscreen a couple starts ago and felt sore afterwards due to difficulty with grip. Same last night. Says it contributed to his current injury. He’s hopeful to be back at the end of the season.

— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) June 15, 2021

well, looks like i picked the wrong day to sit ryan mountcastle.

I added Brett Anderson, so I feel like this will end the Diamondbacks losing streak.

You’re welcome, Arizona.

Fractured hand after 3 games back! Buxton is a total lemon, holy sh*t haha it's almost mystifying

Ok this bogaerts-turner thing is great but wander Franco is making things very complicated. I know I know champagne problems

Anyone with eyes on the future, the injured 27yo Glasnow is now up on the trading block. I need Starting Pitching - get at me!

Four of my hitters are on the DL or listed as DTD and I'm starting to get nervous.

I saw a message in the sky and it said I'm dropping to 2nd place tonight after an overlong tenure in first 😰

of course my team is doing well now that i have traded all of my good players and i am settling into the stupid middle of the pack.

also i have 7 good keepers now

I’m also doing weirdly better after trading my best hitter, starter and closer.

3-way tie for 1st at the moment!

My team had a day yesterday.

nothing Earth-shattering, but I finally cut ties with Dylan Carlson :,/

And I have finally been forced to end the Mike Soroka experiment.

Couldn't pry Corbin Burnes from CorbinBurneson, couldn't pry Soto from BillyChildishBambino

Like trying to get Lajoie from the Naps!

(The Naps did eventually trade Lajoie but only after he requested it)

just got this roster alert on my phone: "Your starting lineup has several potential issues you should review." no shit

Yes. Yahoo has been negging me for two months now.

couldn't pry Soto from BillyChildishBambino

― ✖, Monday, July 19, 2021 12:38 PM (four days ago)

Lol... you were offering me table scraps tbh.

I'd consider Vlad Jr. + Brujan if you're serious.

Adam Frazier (2021 All-Star 2B/OF from the Pittsburgh Pirates) is now on the fantasy trading block... he is on the IRL trading block as well. He will probably be batting leadoff for either SEA or CWS by end of month. Looking for a comparable 3B in return.

I was offering a better deal than what I paid for Vlad! Though I regret waiting until Soto got out of his slump to make an offer

If anyone else is interested in a package around Bryce Harper/Aaron Judge (+1 year of control for both), Carlos Rodon, Justin Turner and any of my relievers I am all ears. There's also a young keepable Zac Gallen if you're interested in him after last night's start.

Brujan isn't keeper eligible btw

Also pretty much anyone except vlad and Seager lol

Taking Frazier off the trading block as he is going to San Diego which is enough of a game-changer for me.

Well like I told you ✖ in the DMs, I admire you for trying to rebuild your team but I'm in the midst of defending my championship title (currently in 3rd, but should be 2nd by end of month). Perhaps it's a bit of a different mentality for those who play to contend... eg, I'm not going to stockpile borderline redraft OFs like Judge/Harper who wouldn't even be starters on my team.

Judge and Harper wouldn’t be starters?!

All OFs ranked season to date:

https://i.imgur.com/v3Ky5qG.png

The irony is that I kept Haniger for the 2018-2019 seasons (during his testicular trials & tribulations) only to finally release him and now he's a top 4 outfielder in MLB according to our metrics.

whoops, i was looking at the wrong team!

you don't need to have all of those at OF though? with the trade i offered, even after getting castellanos back your bench would be gleyber and adames

and harper is only that low because he missed time this year, if you sort by "season (avg)" he's the third most valuable OF in the league behind buxton and acuna. and judge is the 12th most valuable by average, ahead of everyone on your team except castellanos and JDM

francisf: i am considering your offer! i've been away all weekend so i haven't had time to really dig into it

k cool, no problem ✌️ lemme know!

i am also all ears if Vlad is back on the trading block!

uh vlad is definitely not on the trading block... my offer to broccoli was strictly a my-present-value-for-your-future-value kind of deal, same as the freeman/ryu for vlad trade, but i think i spent too much time talking about years of control on the guys i was offering and that sent a message that i thought he was trying to rebuild or something. (i was really just trying to soften the blow of losing all those future years of soto.)

i take back that seager is off the table though, i didn't realize he was about to come back and could reasonably help someone competing this year. it would take a lot though as he has 3 years of control left and i've definitely been planning on keeping him.

i honestly feel bad about the vlad trade, like it opened up a floodgate that wasn't opened before, and now these big kingmaker trades are gonna happen every year. it feels un-kosher, like the year end standings are going to be determined by whichever bottom-rung teams were willing to juice up whichever contending teams with uncontrollable stars. right now i have one of the best pitchers in the league, who will probably finish at least 2nd in AL CY voting, and he's completely worthless to me because i'm out of contention and he's unkeeperable. same with justin turner and bryan reynolds who are super valuable in this league. i'd feel pretty shitty if i was competing and all the teams around me were having all their holes plugged in exchange for a single young player, but there are so many game-changing players who just don't have any value to half the teams that own them. not that i was expecting broccoli to trade him, but even after soto finally got hot, a trade of harper/rodon/turner/a reliever would've been so completely lopsided in the short term it would immediately make broc the 2021 favorite, i would think. 7 years of soto is a lot to give up, but in the short term that seems unbalanced.

maybe something could be adjusted in the offseason to disincentivize blowup trades. either by expanding things to make more players keeperable, adjusting which players are keeperable, or adding an incentive for failing teams to keep trying to improve short term (might be hard to do without adding real life money rewards to the equation)

I think the trade market in our league was slow and boring over the past few years. The big trades this year added some much needed fun and excitement.

Since becoming a keeper league (10 years ago), team managers (much like real life GMs) probably overvalue their young talent and are reluctant to make big trades. Obviously I'm not excluding myself from these habits.

ya, you blew the doors off and i thank you for that! i like the big trades and they have been far and few between for most of the leagues history.

i honestly feel bad about the vlad trade, like it opened up a floodgate that wasn't opened before

my ears are burning lol

but nah even if you hadn't made that trade i would've been hustling like i did during that month anyway. i feel like it's really rare for a team to have as many good unkeepable players as mine did and somehow still shake out to be as bad as it was in the standings, but some enormously bad pitching in april and may kinda nailed my coffin shut. tbh the kingmaker trades have actually been around? i just feel like the first salvo just happened a little early this year.

maybe something could be adjusted in the offseason to disincentivize blowup trades

i feel like the most elegant fix (if it were a problem that needs to be fixed, which i don't think it is?) would be to limit the number of players you can keep via trade to 2 of the 5 or 3 of the 5 or something. but yeah in a roto i kinda like the buy-sell dynamic. i hate it in a h2h league because sometimes you get playoff-bound teams entering an arms race, to the point where... lower playoff-bound teams start to sell, which is just sad (see: my football league every year)