Gad, what a wild conglomeration of weeks, peppered with four games at the Cactus League culminating with the American League LABR auction, after which I shot to Pt. St. Lucie for the XFL expansion draft, three Grapefruit games, and then off to New York City for Tout Wars.
This afternoon I will be off to San Francisco for the Bay Area Rotisserie/Fantasy (BARF) draft, and that should take care of my drafts for this season.
Within this cluster of leagues, I also managed a Scoresheet draft, a SiriusXM best ball leaguer, an NFBC First Pitch Arizona Experts Champions League team, the Rotoballer Friends and Family (which is also “best ball”), and of course The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational. And we cannot forget that in late January the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) draft took place, so, as you can see, the past six weeks have been loaded with picks and teams and thoughts and decisions.
And, of course, this does not count my pair of Strat-O-Matic teams, one Hall of Fame, which is suffering, and one replaying the 2017 season I expect to win.
Part of the reason I wrote all this down is that I seem to have a lot of teams, and that means a lot of weekly transactions, though mostly all hitting at 9 p.m. Pacific time every Sunday. And, for the most part, I managed to avoid any real injuries or demotions in the time between my first draft Jan. 24 and at least today.
Dustin Pedroia, Josh Phegley, and Ryan Mountcastle seem to be the sum result of my pre-season injuries, along with Adalberto Mejia, Walker Buehler, Willie Calhoun, and maybe Luiz Gohara, who seem to be the prospects I lose time on, but otherwise things are ready to go.
However, in Tout Wars, a couple of days after the draft, I swapped the up-and-coming Jonathan Schoop for Jean Segura, trying to boost a team derelict in steals but ideally rich with pop.
That was a tough move to make, for I really love Schoop, who posted career bests across the board, ideally establishing himself as a kid who could bang 175 hits, 25-homers, 90 RBI and runs, but not a bunch of swipes.
OTOH, Segura, who banged 152 hits last year, did manage to swipe 22 bags, posting a .349 OBP, 11 points higher than Schoop.
In a year where I swore I would have enough power, it was hard to trade a 30-plus homer hitter for one I hope steals a like number of bags, but the reality is power-wise I still have Khris Davis, J.D. Martinez, George Springer, and Mike Moustakas for that.
Similarly, I have a lot of potential sneaky swipes among Alcides Escobar, Aaron Hicks, Devon Travis, Robbie Grossman, and perhaps Springer, meaning Segura hopefully gives me the base I need for the rest of the guys to build upon.
The issue was, first, swapping before the first pitch of the season, and, second, as was discussed in the Twittersphere, was the deal fair?
As far as swapping before the season begins, all things point to simply making the move to get the maximum counting stats from that very first chuck of the pill. Plain and simple.
Whether the swap was “fair” or not, however, is superfluous. For, the auction was done, and though on the surface the trade looks fair enough — Schoop went for $20, while Segura $21 — since the bidding is completed and the rosters are final, the cost no longer matters.
Rather, the potential contribution to my team — and Rob Leibowitz’, who copped Schoop in exchange for Segura — the speedster can bring will add more points to my squad than will the loss of Schoop cost me points.
In the end, that is really all it boils down to, and, well, all that matters. So in the end I just have to hope I did indeed make the right move. For, fantasy is skill in drafting and making moves, but there is always a little luck and hope mixed in.
That is ok with me.
