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Drafting a Dynasty League Roster: The End Result

After 12 posts detailing both the major league and minor league portions of this initial 20-team dynasty draft that I participated in over the course of the off-season, it’s finally time to put it all together and see what the team looks like as a whole. After all, all the draft prep in the world can only get you so far — you need to put a winning team on the field. And I think I did a pretty good job of maximizing my strategy and the value on my roster. But I’ll let you, the readers, be the judge of that.

As always, before we dive back into the roster, a few reminders about the context of the league, as it’s not a straight-forward format. It is a 20-team 7×7 H2H league that uses all of the standard 5×5 categories, plus OPS/Total Bases for hitters and Quality Starts/Holds for pitchers. The active rosters are one player per position (OF are broken out by LF/CF/RF) plus a Utility player on offense, and nine pitchers (2 SP, 2 RP, 5 P). On top of that, there are 7 reserve spots, 3 DL spots and 25 minor league spots (which were all already filled). We were given strict instructions that if you drafted a player already on someone’s minor league roster, we would not be going back to reverse picks, so it would just be considered a party foul and we’d move on. All in all, it’s a very deep league with an active lineup that skews a little towards pitching and deep minor league rosters (500 total prospects will be rostered). Oh, and by the way, I’m the Minnesota Twins.

So here is my fully drafted roster below as of yesterday. The players who are struck through have been dropped since the draft, the players who have an asterisk have been added through free agency and anyone promoted from my minor league roster gets a ^. I never remember what that’s called. Regardless, for your reading enjoyment, your 2013 Minnesota Twins (currently 13-13 through two weeks):

Major League Hitters–

C – Rob Brantly^1B – Joey Votto
2B – Dustin Pedroia
SS – Tyler Greene Cliff Pennington*
3B – Luis Cruz*
LF – Alex Gordon
CF – Shin-Soo Choo
RF – Allen Craig
UT – Nick Swisher
BN – Marlon Byrd*, Tyler Colvin, Alberto Callaspo*
DL – Aramis Ramirez

Major League Pitchers–

SP – Jake Peavy, Mike Minor, Homer Bailey, C.J. Wilson, Josh Beckett, Chris Tillman, Wily Peralta^, Zach Britton
RP – Glen Perkins, Brandon League, Kelvin Herrera, Jake McGee, Octavio Dotel
DL – Ryan Madson, Jeff Niemann

Minor League Hitters–

C – Blake Swihart, BOS
SS – Xander Bogaerts, BOS
SS – Dorssys Paulino, CLE
SS – Adalberto Mondesi, KC
SS – Dawel Lugo, TOR
3B – Nick Castellanos, DET
3B – Jeimer Candelario, CHC
3B – Tyler Goeddel, TB
3B – Rio Ruiz, HOU
3B – Cody Asche, PHI
OF – Drew Vettleson, TB
OF – Kevin Pillar, TOR
OF – Ravel Santana, NYY
OF – Manuel Margot, BOS

Minor League Pitchers–

SP – Casey Kelly, SD
SP – Max Fried, SD
SP – John Lamb, KC
SP – Joe Ross, SD
SP – Jose Campos, NYY
SP – Jimmy Nelson, MLW
SP – C.J. Edwards, TEX
SP – Jordan Swagerty, STL
SP – Luis Mateo, NYM

I’m really happy with the way this team is composed in light of the depth of the league, and my strategy was one which served me well. I’m offense heavy with stars, but strong in pitching depth. Considering I waited on pitching, having Peavy, Beckett, Minor, Bailey and Wilson as a top-5 is fantastic. Then on the minor league side, a few of my draft picks from December have gotten a little more national wind under their sails over the past few months. Guys like Max Fried (R4), Adalberto Mondesi (R10) and Joe Ross in particular have been risers all winter.
This is clearly a team built to win now, considering that I have many offensive players who are currently in their primes, and some who are even slightly past. I’ve been involved in trade talks for a more established catcher and shortstop, but none have really gone anywhere so far — though it’s a young season still. The more of my minor leaguers who “break out”, the better chance I’ll have of making a deal.
On the other hand, it hasn’t been all wine and roses so far for this squad. The Casey Kelly injury really hurt, as he was going to add to my stable of starting pitching depth. And when you combine that with the fact that most of my endgame picks have been duds so far, it made it even more imperative that I find anything on the wire. Jeff Niemann and Zach Britton haven’t contributed at all (and Niemann won’t, as he’s out for the season). Tyler Greene, my original starting shortstop was cut before Opening Day and Tyler Colvin, my original starting CF while Choo gained his eligibilty was farmed out at the end of Spring Training. Maybe the takeaway here is that I shouldn’t draft players named Tyler anymore.
Over the course of the season, I’ll sporadically check back in on this team and see how it’s doing (though not too much as to completely bore you guys). And of course, if anything big happens. [Editor’s note: After I finished writing this, something big happened. I added a paragraph about it below]. I like my odds of making the playoffs this year, and once you make the playoffs, anything can happen. That’s really all you can ask out of a H2H team.
So I hope this series was helpful and informative, and if it was, maybe I’ll try to do the same thing again next year.
THE SOMETHING BIG THAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY
After all that talk about how I was playing for this year, I ended up staring down a trade offer I couldn’t refuse. And here it is:
I give up Mike Minor and Adalberto Mondesi and I receive Jurickson Profar and Francisco Liriano.
Minor had been my best pitcher so far, but I just could not pass up the opportunity to grab the top prospect in the game. I actually think he’ll be up within the next month or two in some capacity or another, and he potentially gives me either another middle infield option down the stretch or a fantastic trade chip to grab something I need. With Minor out of the picture, I’ll need the four-headed monster of Peavy, Wilson, Beckett and Bailey to step it up. I’m also going to need to acquire a little depth behind them, though maybe Liriano can help with that in his transition to the NL. I always say that the first couple of months of the season are about acquiring as much value as possible, and I took that to heart here. Let me know what you guys think. Was I crazy to give up essentially a good starter for a prospect when I’m competiting? Or did the value make it worth it despite not exactly fitting into my plans?
Follow me on Twitter at @dynastyguru.

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The Dynasty Guru

The Dynasty Guru

3 Comments

  1. Josh
    April 17, 2013 at 11:07 am

    I REALLY like Mike Minor. Profar is hard to pass up, but I like to win now. I think Profar will be a stud, but I’m almost always in “win now” mode. I just moved Profar (attached to rd 23 forever) for Matt Moore (attached to round 6.. bleh) and a round 6 pick (think someone ranked around 100 in yahoo!’s ranking).. Profar could be special in a few years.. I don’t know if I would make that trade, with a lot of MI depth in the minors.

  2. Mike
    April 17, 2013 at 12:48 pm

    Any concerns with Peralta yet this season, or is it just a case of ‘needing to work it out’?

    • April 18, 2013 at 11:18 pm

      He started last season slow as well, so I’m not going to ring any alarm bells yet. Plus, he’s still very inexperienced at the major league level. What he has going for him is that he’d have to be pretty bad to get replaced, given their options at Triple-A.

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