Where it all began

Through the ’80s and early ’90s, I loved baseball. I watched it, followed it closely, played it, and even did some fantasy baseball, though fantasy sports before the internet were very different than what we have today. Then as I got older it just became, I watched occasionally until it got to the point about 10 years ago where I would just check the standings every now and then to see how my Yankees were doing. During the time I drifted away from baseball I went deep dive into fantasy football to the point that it was pretty much a year-round hobby for me. Well, recently a guy that is in a couple of my football leagues asked if I would join his start-up dynasty baseball league. With a job change and the kids getting a little older, I had a little more free time so I figured why not.

Time to Prepare

Now I kid you not, I was really disconnected from baseball. I started to do some research to prepare for the daft and HOLY CRAP! When did the NL start using a DH? I seriously had no idea until about a month ago that was happening. Then of course all the new rules this year like a pitch clock, bigger bases, and no shifts, but everyone is dealing with these as they are new this year. This is not the same baseball as the last time I did fantasy baseball back in the 1900s, but it was not dynasty baseball.

My goal here is to document my journey back into fantasy baseball and my introduction to dynasty baseball. As I document this process, I will be offering things like waiver wire, buy/sell, and hot takes around the diamond all from the perspective of someone that knows fantasy sports very well but not so versed in fantasy baseball. It should be a great opportunity for the readers to mock me, or who knows maybe a fresh perspective can provide so brilliant advice. Time will tell.

League Breakdown

Before I get into my team specifics let’s talk about how the league is set up. The league is on CBSsports and that is where I will get information like percent owned. As far as I can tell, because I am new here, CBSsports does not offer dynasty rankings of players so I will be using Fantasy Pros when I talk about rankings. The league is a 12-person, 2-division head-to-head league. We will roster 32 active players with space for 7 minor league players and 4 players on IL.

The starting lineup will be one player for each infield position, three OF, two utility players, two SPs, two RP, and four additional pitchers. Scoring will be for hitters BA, BB, HR, KO, R, RBI, SB, and XBH. For pitchers, we have BAA, ERA, K, QS, S, W, and WHIP. As I said it was a 12-person league and I drew the 12th pick since it is a snake draft which means in odd-number rounds, I am last and in even number rounds, I am first.

Youth Gone Wild

Since this is a dynasty and a startup, I wanted to make sure I got a young core of players. Over my first 12 picks, only three were over 25 and none were over 27. It was not until my 14th pick, I took a player that was in their 30s and he was 30 exactly. By the end of the draft, I had only eight of 32 players 30 or older, and six of them were pitchers. Of the eight 30 or older only one was over 33, and that was Adam Wainwright who I got in the 28th round and was more out of respect for what he did in WBC than anything else.

My entire roster and when they were picked can be found below. I made a very specific effort to make sure my team was young and hopefully upcoming. Because let’s be real here I only knew about five of the guys when I drafted them. It was a clear strategy of mine to be young and build even if it cost me my first year, but I think these guys can hold their own well enough.

Assembling the Staff

Another strategy that I took was regarding my pitching staff. This one was a little riskier and could easily blow up in my face. When I looked at the scoring, I noticed that the only real category a setup man or closer can really change is saves. Now I know they can get K’s and lower my team era, but those guys don’t usually get more than an inning at a time and maybe three innings in the week. Now a reliable long reliever usually gets like 3 or 4 innings a week as well meaning they can get just as many K’s and the opportunity to lower my team era. Which could make them a wash in those two categories. What they can do additionally though is pick up a few wins here and there which could help me win the wins category more often.

So, I sacrifice the save category in hopes of adding a few extra wins. Doing so allowed me to wait on drafting pitchers. I may not have many aces on my staff, but I loaded up on guys that can be two or three in the rotation, and with my relief guys helping out I might be able to overcome not having any aces. Also, when managers were drafting aces, I was able to continue to build my roster of young fields with depth.

Conclusion

Who knows how this will all work out? I might be a trendsetter or a jackass of dynasty baseball. Let me know what you think about my thought process here. If you think I am a fool, tell me why you think it, maybe you think what I did merits a shot and is worth seeing what happens, or if you love it feel free to gush over my brilliance. Check-in with me in the future to see how my experience is going and until then good luck with the start of your fantasy baseball season.

My Team:

1. Vladimir Guerrero – 1B
2. Fernando Tatis – SS, OF
3. Luis Robert Jr.– OF
4. Gunnar Henderson – 3B
5. Corbin Carroll – OF
6. Wander Franco – SS
7. Jordan Walker – 3B, OF
8. Zac Gallen – SP
9. George Kirby – SP
10. Gleyber Torres – 2B
11. Nick Lodolo – SP
12. Freddy Peralta – SP
13. Ty France – 1B
14. Jeff McNeil – 2B, OF
15. Matthew Boyde – RP
16. Michael Wacha – SP
17. Shintaro Fujinami – SP
18. Mitch Keller – SP
19. Joc Pederson – OF
20. Brock Burke – RP
21. Yoan Moncada – 3B
22. Michael King – RP
23. Josh Naylor – 1B
24. Joey Bart – C
25. Gabriel Moreno – C
26. Sonny Gray – SP
27. Noah Syndergaard – SP
28. Adam Wainwright – SP
29. Oswaldo Cabrera – OF
30. Nick Martinez – RP
31. Trent Grisham – OF
32. Cal Quantrill – SP

Don’t Forget

Thank you for joining me on this journey as I adventure back into the world of fantasy dynasty baseball. Feel free to comment, criticize, suggest, or even mock my efforts at fantasy baseball. Please share this article with anyone who might be interested or with people you are trying to mislead. Either is fine with me. If you want to talk more or publicly mock me you can do it @DynastyProf after you follow me. Be sure to turn to Belly Up Sports and Belly Up Fantasy Sports for all the MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL happenings and the latest sports news!