Road to Glory: Blowout Dynasty League ($25 yearly)

[Firerunner4]

Another disappointing year for me but with my young talent, hopefully in a year or two I will do much better. Have a nice base to build on

Albies
Acuna
Meadows
Verdugo
Senzel
Tatis Jr
Snell
Buehler
Newcomb

[Highroller]

Anyone looking to trade before tomorrow?

[Hollywood42]

Always looking to trade. Highroller, will get back to you soon. Definitely interested in working things out with anyone else that wants to as well

[Hollywood42]

I'm also receiving Touki Toussaint and Stephen Gonsalves from Highroller in that deal. I'll make a move with my minors accordingly when the trade processes

Finally gave in to the bad luck I've had this year and accepted that this just wasn't my year. I HATE losing JD, but Judge is a great replacement long term, and the two pitchers should be nice depth guys at least pretty soon. Haven't had as much depth as I would like, so I'm happy to get a bit more here

Open to do a little bit of light selling before the deadline if anyone is interested. Not doing anything major- Machado, Rizzo, Sanchez, Severino, etc are staying put since I'll have a good team next year. But some other guys are available if anyone is interested in some last minute trades

I am driving a bit today, so if you want to discuss something, shoot me a PM and I'll have a passenger type of messages for me

Deadline is at noon eastern today

[Hollywood42]

Something I enjoy doing every year, here's a recap of the trades I made this season-

Jose Altuve for Luis Severino- This one could likely go either way. Altuve hasn't quite been his normal self this year and has missed some time, but Sevy has been off for the past few weeks. I'm content with this one at this point since I have really strong infield depth even without Altuve, and I really needed a young, top tier pitcher like Severino on my squad. It was tough to send off Altuve, but being able to slot in Whit behind him made me able to do it. That and I really needed pitching more than infield help

Cody Bellinger, Stephen Gonsalves for Gary Sanchez, Tanner Roark- Not entirely sure what to think of this one yet. Bellinger hasn't been fantastic this year, but he has been solid. Sanchez remains one of the top 3 catchers worth owning in dynasty, IMO, but he's struggled a bit and has had some injuries this year. Roark has been hit or miss from week to week but overall is a capable depth arm. This is another one that I'd consider a good trade for me since I had the depth at 1B/OF to be able to move Belli. I love the guy and would really love to get him back someday, but it's super nice to be able to throw Sanchez in as catcher and not have to worry about getting a solid stream of points there. I think I used something ridiculous like 10 different catchers last season, so it's nice to have that position locked down long term instead of having to waste so many acquisitions on guys that don't do much for me. Even with the down year for Sanchez, I'm content with this looking forward

Christian Yelich, Brandon Crawford, Sean Manaea, Fernando Tatis for Manny Machado, Michael Fulmer- This is another one where position eligibility was a big factor. I had a lot of OF depth at the time, but really wanted to find some high end infield talent to put in my offense long term. I would have love to have kept Tatis, but he's probably still several years away, so it would have been hard to dedicate a roster slot to him for that long even with how talented he could be. I wish I still had Manaea over Fulmer, but think Fulmer will still be a quality option once he's finally healthy. I think this one was fairly even overall. I probably got the best player in the deal in Machado, but Yelich, Manaea, and Tatis sure is a nice return. I do miss Yelich and Manaea, but adding Machado gave me a completely stud-filled infield including him, Rizzo, Whit, and a few others

Chris Archer, Jose Martinez, Nick Senzel for Carlos Carrasco, Carlos Santana- Archer was such a frustrating guy to own this year. He has so much talent, but it feels like there's just less and less starts where he's utilizing it lately. I do think it's good fore a guy like Fire to acquire him since he's still a few years away and can sit on him while he works things out, but I was really happy to add Carrasco to the squad. He's been a top pitcher each of the past few years. I was hoping on him being a piece that would help stabilize my rotation going into the playoffs, but that just hasn't worked out this year. Nobody seems to think very highly of Santana, but he's absolutely money. He's put up enough points to be a top five 1B all year long, even with a very low average that should bounce back up at some point. I get he's not a sexy name or anything due to age, but hey, he gets points. Even with playoffs not being in the picture for me this year, I like this move as it puts me in a better place next season

JD Martinez, Jose Quintana for Aaron Judge, Stephen Gonsalves, Touki Toussiant- This was a really tough deal to make. This year has been so frustrating since I've been scoring points like crazy, but I just haven't been able to put together a good record. Luck, or whatever else it is, just hasn't been my friend this year. I've been top 5 in points scored all year long, including scoring more points than several of the teams ahead of me in the standings, but at some point I think I just had to accept that this wasn't my year, for whatever reason that may be. So, this was an opportunity to acquire some great players for the future without setting my window back too far. Judge is a monster, but I think I was able to get him at a bit of a discount since we don't know how long he'll be out for the rest of the season. JD is the better player and has at least a few more elite years left but Judge doesn't return value too far behind him and is several years younger. Long term, definite win for me, but I like this this doesn't prevent me from competing next year either. I really don't know what to make of Quintana anymore, as it feels like he's been under performing all year long. No clue what it is, but I'm kind of happy to move on from him and add 2 guys that should be quality pitchers in the MLB sooner than later. Touki's already debuted this year (pitching quite well, too), and Gonsalves will almost certainly be up this September. I'm hoping they get some time in the majors before the season is over, but don't accumulate enough innings for me to be forced to promote them before the season ends. All in all, really tough trade for me to make, but at the end of the day, this year just wasn't going to be the year, and this sets me up quite well for 2019 and beyond

Pedro Strop for Austin Hays- Another last second deal, this was really a "why not?" type of trade for me. Strop has been great for me since having to fill in for Morrow, but after tossing in the towel with my previous trade, it didn't make any sense to not accept this. I don't think Strop will have any value past this season, and I'm not sure if he'll even continue closing when Morrow gets back. Now, Hays has had a pretty terrible year, but there's still plenty of time for him long term. Might as well get rip of Strop, who I wasn't going to keep anyways, and see if Hays can do something for me

Overall, it's been a tough year. Very frustrating, as I'm averaging about 5th in points per week each week, but that's been mostly finishing 9th one week and then 2nd the next. I've lost several pretty close matches and feel like my record could easily be closer to 11-7 or 12-6, but again, at the end of the day, it is what it is, and I had to accept that. I think I still could have been able to make the playoffs by the next two weeks of the season (should be doable, looking at my schedule), but I think it would have been tough to expect to be able to finish in the money. So why bother? I'd rather put myself in a better position for next year and see what happens

All in all this year, I've traded:

Sent away- Jose Altuve, JD Martinez, Cody Bellinger, Christian Yelich, Brandon Crawford, Jose Martinez, Chris Archer, Sean Manaea, Jose Quintana, Pedro Strop, Fernando Tatis Jr, and Nick Senzel

Acquired: Manny Machado, Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Carlos Santana, Luis Severino, Carlos Carrasco, Tanner Roark, Michael Fulmer, Austin Hays, Touki Toussiant

Overall I haven't robbed anyone, but I'm content with my moves and think I've made some good ones to improve my team, seeing who I've had at the time of each trade and what my biggest needs were and are.

This year has been disappointing, but I am keeping a really good core of players for 2019 and don't think it's at all unreasonable to expect to make the playoffs. There's a few more moves I'd like to make this offseason, but I think with a few good ones I'll have a really high powered team. Quick look at my potential 2019 roster-

C- Gary Sanchez
1B- Anthony Rizzo
2B- Whit Merrifield
3B- Manny Machado
SS- Elvis Andrus
OF- Aaron Judge, David Peralta, Jason Heyward
Utility- Carlos Santana, Miguel Sano

SPs- Luis Severino, Clayton Kershaw, Carlos Carrasco, Danny Duffy, Junior Guerra, Tanner Roark, Ross Stripling, Michael Fulmer, Touki Toussiant, Stephen Gonsalves
RPs- Kenley Jansen, Brandon Morrow, Brad Boxberger

Looking forward to next year and being able to continue to improve my team. 2018 has been frustrating, but the future is quite bright

[Hollywood42]

When TREVOR CAHILL throws 7 one-hit shutout innings with 7 strikeouts against the Astros for your opponent in essentially a must win week, well that's just been a good summary of my season

[Cornerstore]

Lets see my deals - Alex Reyes Brent Honeywell and Victor Robles for Verlander. This deal will all come to value if I place this year. It helped me secure a first round bye but it is a lot to give up. It did free up some much needed roster spaces for depth pitching and hitting come playoff time which should be valueable.

Moncada for Mazara - this was part due to the cano suspension, both can be top tier players but Mazara looked like the better player this year although my OF is stacked so was worth the risk.

Nola for Grienke. I just wanted to get younger pitching, and now with a core of Nola, Verlander, Bauer, and cmart I feel great about my sps next 2-3 years. Although it does hurt having bauer and cmart not racking up starts during playoff season

[Dbacksbaseball]

You guys are recapping trades and Im just bummed that I may lose for the third time in the last 4 weeks with the second highest score. I need some pitching to blow up today.

Also noticed today since I am at max starts its saying my RP's can't accrue stats. I hope that is inaccurate as this matchup may well come down to me getting a save or two today.

[Hollywood42]

Well this throws a wrench in things, Gonsalves called up to start on Monday.... Could be close to the 50 IP limit at the end of the year. Going to have to gamble if it's worth to drop someone from my minors and risk having to promote Gonsalves later on anyways. Obviously hope he gets a lot of great experience and pitches well, but it'd be great to be able to keep him stashed on my minors through the offseason

Speaking of, it's been awhile since I've checked prospect rosters for guys over or approaching the limit. I'll give that a look today

[Hollywood42]

That's how ESPN handles it. I'm guessing it is to prevent someone from using a start from someone that is a starter but has RP eligibility, if they've already used all of their allotted starts for the week. Nothing I can do about it. It's not a perfect science, but it's the best way for them to handle it without going deep into specifics every year

Originally Posted by Dbacksbaseball

Also noticed today since I am at max starts its saying my RP's can't accrue stats. I hope that is inaccurate as this matchup may well come down to me getting a save or two today.

[Dbacksbaseball]

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

That's how ESPN handles it. I'm guessing it is to prevent someone from using a start from someone that is a starter but has RP eligibility, if they've already used all of their allotted starts for the week. Nothing I can do about it. It's not a perfect science, but it's the best way for them to handle it without going deep into specifics every year

I think you have the ability to override it by manually entering points. Just Incase I have to revisit, I am starting Minter Ottavino and Dominguez. Let hope it doesn’t matter.

[Hollywood42]

I do, but that is how ESPN handles it, it's been that way for everyone for the entire year and a half this league has existed

Originally Posted by Dbacksbaseball

I think you have the ability to override it by manually entering points. Just Incase I have to revisit, I am starting Minter Ottavino and Dominguez. Let hope it doesn’t matter.

[Dbacksbaseball]

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

I do, but that is how ESPN handles it, it's been that way for everyone for the entire year and a half this league has existed

Was never discussed in the rules, and literally makes zero sense. We have a start limit not a relief limit.. Will need to be voted on if it comes into play., Also just checked other ESPN leagues I am in with start limits none have that rule. Seems like a cheap way to try and stay in the playoff hunt.

[Sportscards515]

Originally Posted by Dbacksbaseball

Was never discussed in the rules, we have a start limit not a relief limit.. Will need to be voted on, also just checked other ESPN leagues I am in with start limits none have that rule. Seems like a cheap way to try and stay in the playoff hunt.

I have been in the same situation in the past and i'm like 99% sure my relievers points were counted although it said max. You will be fine buddy.

[Hollywood42]

What? Come on now...

It's entirely how ESPN is coded to handle the situation. It's been that way for years. If you reach or pass the start limits before the last day of the matchup, it locks all stats from all pitchers. Maybe that's not how they should do it, but it's how it is

Might as well wait and see if it even turns out to be relevant here first

Originally Posted by Dbacksbaseball

Was never discussed in the rules, we have a start limit not a relief limit.. Will need to be voted on, also just checked other ESPN leagues I am in with start limits none have that rule. Seems like a cheap way to try and stay in the playoff hunt.

It allows it if you reach the max starts on the last day of the matchup. If you get to 12 before the last day, it locks all pitchers. This is to prevent people from getting around the max starts and putting someone like Junior Guerra, Ross Stripling, and so many other players into a RP slot and allowing stats to accrue

Originally Posted by Sportscards515

I have been in the same situation in the past and i'm like 99% sure my relievers points were counted although it said max. You will be fine buddy.

[Dbacksbaseball]

Originally Posted by Sportscards515

I have been in the same situation in the past and i'm like 99% sure my relievers points were counted although it said max. You will be fine buddy.

Thanks. I’ll keep an eye on it.

As for Hollywood’s response—it’s simple—punishing guys for not dragging a start into Sunday isn’t how it works. It doesn’t come into play often because 1.) matchups are generally not close enough for it to matter and 2.) there are maybe four of us in the league who can cap out starts weekly.

Its could be the first time we have run into this situation. It’s very likely that with Clevenger going 6 with 0 ER and Castillo throwing a gem it could very well come down to a save either way. For me not to have closers in a tight matchup and the guy running the league to say ‘oh well’ is fishy. Sorry I call it how it is.

[Hollywood42]

It's rare, yes. So when things like that happen, bring it up and we can discuss it like we are now. Don't accuse me of trying to manipulating the rules to my advantage. That's just silly

I've explained why it says what it does in ESPN. If it turns out to matter, we can vote on what to do

Originally Posted by Dbacksbaseball

Thanks. I’ll keep an eye on it.

As for Hollywood’s response—it’s simple—punishing guys for not dragging a start into Sunday isn’t how it works. It doesn’t come into play often because 1.) matchups are generally not close enough for it to matter and 2.) there are maybe four of us in the league who can cap out starts weekly.

Its could be the first time we have run into this situation. It’s very likely that with Clevenger going 6 with 0 ER and Castillo throwing a gem it could very well come down to a save either way. For me not to have closers in a tight matchup and the guy running the league to say ‘oh well’ is fishy. Sorry I call it how it is.

[Hollywood42]

It appears I am incorrect. ESPN does count RP stats if you've reached the max, provided the player in that slot did not start their game

[Hollywood42]

Wow. I had pretty much accepted a loss on the week by yesterday, but I managed to pull off a strong W. I have a good schedule for the rest of the season, so I think I'll be able to win out from here. Might be able to sneak into the playoffs after all. I'll stand by my decision to do a bit of light selling, though. Not comfortable enough with my team to consider myself a favorite, so no use working hard to make the playoffs if you're going to finish outside the money anyways

[Hollywood42]

I'm dropping Michel Baez and Zack Collins from my minors and replacing them with Gonsalves and Touki

[Cornerstore]

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

I'm dropping Michel Baez and Zack Collins from my minors and replacing them with Gonsalves and Touki

I get collins, but surprised to see baez dropped tbh

[Hollywood42]

I was going to have to drop someone I didn't really want to no matter what. Had a couple other guys closer to the bigs that I wanted to hang onto slightly more. End of the day I'll probably be able to draft Baez back again next year if I want to

The bigger thing for me with that was figuring out if I should have put Gonsalves or Touki on my MLB squad right away. I'm really hoping they both get some experience this year but stay under the IP threshold so I can hold them on my minors roster until next year. I'll be irritated if they go over and I have to promote them before the season ends, meaning I could have saved Baez/Collins from being dropped if I put Touki/Gonsalves right on my MLB roster in the first place

End of the day, prospects are such a crapshoot anyways, so we'll have to wait and see

Originally Posted by Cornerstore

I get collins, but surprised to see baez dropped tbh

[Hollywood42]

I really don't understand my team at all. Super strong week in the extended AS break matchup where I score over 500, and then I don't break 200 the next week. But then I score over 300 each of the next 3 weeks. And now I'm back to just 214 with a day left in the matchup. I still have a chance to win this week, but I'm sure not making it easy on myself

Lately it's been such a tossup what I'll get on any given week. I could score top 2 points in the league, or I could score bottom 3. Who knows

[Dbacksbaseball]

Terrible Manager error. Missed the cut on adding Bieber by 1 minute. Unless one of my last 4 guys pops one out in there last few innings I will take an L this week. Whoops. Looks like I'm locked into the playoffs however.

[Hollywood42]

In attempts to make it easier for myself and everyone else to see how close their prospects are to exceeding limits, I'm trying something new on our sheet with rosters. If a player is over limits, I'll highlight their name in red until they are promoted or dropped. If they are getting close to our 150 AB or 50 IP limit (I'm defining "close" as over 100 AB or over 30 IP, I'll highlight their name in orange. If they have MLB experience but not 100 AB or 30 IP yet, I'll highlight their name in yellow. Anyone without a color doesn't have MLB experience yet

I'll try to update the colors every few weeks or so. If anyone notices something that looks off, let me know and I'll give it a look

At this time, I only found 2 players that are over limits and must be promoted or dropped- Firerunner's Joe Jimenez, and silverandblack's Max Fried. Please let me know what you'd like to do with those guys so I can update accordingly

Friendly reminder for everyone, please post here or shoot me a PM if you'd like to promote someone so I can keep the sheets accurate. I don't know off the top of my head who each team has, so I probably won't know that you're promoting a certain player when I see you've added them in the league. So just drop me a line so I can keep the sheet updated. Thanks!