Laika

A quick glance at the results and most of the picks have had no real impact. Obviously Tanaka and Abreu have killed it, Guerrero killed it in AAA before losing a piece of himself, and some of the other prospects taken have the same value that they had during the draft. Spanky is still holding onto Domonic Dunne. I got K-Rod 58th and he's been phenomenal. Carlos Ruiz 41st has been a viable OBP catcher. Salty stands out for Havok. Not much else aside from some decent relievers taken in the upper 3/5 of the draft.

And I thought my Wandy Rodriguez waiver pick was such solid value... Damn.

Hilariously ironic that everyone who thinks Sanchez will bust wants to trade him for Jeff Samardzija. Shark had a 1.63 K/BB in the minor leagues, over almost 500 innings. Just a 6.3 K/9, and a fairly bad 3.9 BB/9. In a nutshell, I'd take Sanchez' minor league peripherals (1.87 K/BB, 9.0 K/9, and 4.8 BB/9) over Samardzija's. At least Sanchez is demonstrating the ability to miss a decent amount of bats, along with limiting runs (take it as a poor proxy measurement of inducing weak contact) and getting ground balls (56.3% according to MLB. Shark's minor league GB% not readily available but his major league mark is a pedestrian 45.4%.). [No, I'm not saying that trading Sanchez for Samardzija would be dumb.] Some people get way too caught up in Sanchez' K and BB rates. He's probably simultaneously overrated by scouts and underrated by SABR minded stat-line "scouts". In my view, guys with great s*** who don't K/BB very well in the minors like Sanchez, Chris Archer, Zack Wheeler, and Archie Bradley aren't significantly different from guys like Syndergaard and Stroman that do. They'll all get to the big leagues, probably run into bumps in the road, and have to make adjustments. Over 60% of highly regarded pitching prospects disappoint. It's a crapshoot. Names out of a hat, practically. Development is not linear and peripherals don't translate to the big leagues in a linear fashion. Some guys with good minor league peripherals struggle to post great K and BB rates in the big leagues (ex., Danny Duffy, Hellickson, Matt Moore, Dan Straily). Others do the opposite, although it's certainly much more rare (Samardzija, Lance Lynn?, Josh Johnson, ROY HALLADAY).

Jason Vargas is pretty bad. I know his ERA has been palatable in recent years, but his DIPS always seem to be well over 4. That's replacement level in our league - Vogelsong represents that right now as a free agent, and I grabbed George De La Rosa in desperation a week ago. As far as Markakis goes, he's worth a little bit but a 10HR 0SB OF is extremely unsexy. Most contending teams probably have OF full of better options at this point.

As he should! In a fantasy sense the dude is kind of 50's across the board, which of course = core piece for Boxy. Slightly ticked my three CF carousel pieces have all been worse so far.

I'd just like to take this opportunity in time to point out that Boxy only owns his 2nd best bat / 3rd best player overall because I felt sorry him and advised him to pick the guy up.

Well you're sweeping offense with a ~.660 OPS, so lady fortuna can't hate you that much.

Could definitely jettison K-Rod and a surplus bat for rotational help.

Maybe not absolutely terrible relative to the league, but it's legitimately terrible vs. preseason expectations, what it looked like before the season, etc. Mostly due to unexpectedly poor performances and s***** luck, I think, but we'll see.

My team is legitimately terrible. Also, wow, Shelby Miller is a f***ing mess. Sad. Joe Kelly probably bumps him from the rotation when he comes back.

Mikey Olt totally is

Yes. I'm ready to get trade raped again. Send me a wise bouquet of offer flowers in celebration of Salazar's demotion and the crooked fact that I gave up on Trevor Bauer preseason.

Very bored with my team. Someone should try to take advantage of that.

Ah, well that makes more sense then. And no. Never.

McGowan deserved way, way more rope. The ups and downs of McGowan and Stroman would both even out to be greater than or equal to the steady shittiness of JA Happ. Rotation should be Dickey, Hutch, Buehrle, McGowan, Stroman.

Hard to shake that mostly unwarranted feeling with Garza that his entire arm is going to fall off at the shoulder in the not too distant future. How about league juggernauts Dinger and FTD getting SB king Dee Gordon and the new Trout Charlie Blackmon for free this year? You cellar dwellers pleased about that?

I have a spare bat or two at this point and I could really use a solid SP. Who's selling? Outfielders, Hart, and Olt are available. All picks including 1st rounders available. Willing to move my top prospects for big additions.

Or anthrax?

The fact that you own him in this garbage league is but a tiny, tiny solace. Jose Fernandez is everything that is good about baseball. FIRST HARVEY AND NOW FERNANDEZ. WHY GOD, WHY!?

Jose Fernandez undergoing MRI, expected to be placed on DL, exact nature of injury still not known. Sigh.

Personally, I like that deal for the elder pussy. Jason Castro is a replaceable catcher. ZiPS: .250/.330 with ~17ish full season HR Steamer: .240/.320 with ~17ish full season HR Guys taken in the waiver draft like Chooch and Salty have been more valuable to date. MiLB #6 vs. #13 should/could be the difference between a truly elite prospect, and a merely good one. Now, I'm biased because I'm someone who almost never invests in fantasy backstops, as a rule.

Mike Fiers update: 45.1 IP, 64 K's, 6 BB, 3HR. 1.59 ERA, 0.794 WHIP, 10.67 K/BB. In the damn PCL. Anyone want to sell me a stud for a Fiers/Stroman package?

I don't see how Almora will ever be fantasy relevant.

Had a huge amount of pitches in a rough 3rd inning, so they decided to pull him. Not hurt.

And more importantly, there's an expectation in this league that everyone fields a full MLB lineup (starters at nearly every position, 3/4+ SP, a few RP, at the very least). Rebuilds can be difficult in this format, for sure. Everyone rebuilding should have learned from Boxy's mistakes. Cycling down for younger core pieces currently in the majors is the way to go, like you did with the A Gon trade. Really, you can only afford a couple of trades for bulk MiLB assets, and then you're full up.