Rounding Third: My Rosters

My 17th and final draft happened late Wednesday night, with the conclusion of my NL-only "Midnight Madness" league. It's been a helter-skelter March, but we finally made it to Opening Day. Hopefully, you avoided some of the early mine fields. 

Fourteen of my 17 leagues have a free agent component — 10 have weekly FAAB bids, eight on Sunday (four NFBC leagues, TGFBI, Tout Wars, LABR and the RotoWire Staff Keeper League). Two have daily lineup moves — Yahoo Friends & Family and the Ottoneu Industry League. Yahoo F&F also has first-come, first-served pickups. I really enjoy having one such league — I'd go crazy if all my leagues were like that. Here are my rosters, preceded by the key on abbreviations for each league:

Leagues

ME Thur - NFBC Main Event (snake draft, 15 teams) on 3/27, drafting from the 14th slot
ME Sat - NFBC Main Event on 3/29, from the 6th slot
BJE1 - NFBC RotoWire Online Championship (12 teams) "Beat Jeff Erickson" on 2/24, from 9th slot
BJE2 - "Beat Jeff Erickson 2" on 3/15, from 8th slot
TGFBI - The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitation, same rules as ME, from 2nd slot — slow draft.
LABR - LABR Mixed 15-team snake draft, early Feb., from 8th slot
Tout-AL - ToutWars AL-only auction league, OBP instead of BA, 3/20
XFL - 15-team auction league, OBP, auction on 12/5, reserve/minors on 3/30, keeper league
SKL - Staff Keeper League, 18-team 5x5 auction league, 10-minors, 7-reserves, 3/16
Amici - Old school AL-only (plus MIL) 4x4 auction league, 3/20 (four hours after Tout Wars)
MM - Midnight Madness, 5x5 NL-only auction keeper, 3 minors, 3 reserves, OPS instead of runs
Big Money - 14-team home league, 6x6 (holds & hits ), Yahoo eligibility and positions, 3/24, from 10th slot
Y! F&F - Yahoo Friends & Family, 16-team snake draft, 3/17, from 12th slot
Ottoneu - Ottoneu Industry league, 40-man roster, auction, $400 budget, keeper, 3/24
DC1 - NFBC Draft Champions League, 15-team slow draft, no free agents, 1/18 start
DC2 - Draft Champions, 1/26, comprised from First Pitch Arizona speakers
RazzSlam - 12-team best ball points league, modeled after NFBC Cutline, 3/8 start 

Hitters

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Pitchers

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Players in red are ones I will replace or have replaced in free-agent bids. Players in blue are on the IL and I need to replace — pour one out for Zac Gallen. Players in yellow are borderline whom I'm likely to replace but haven't yet.

By Position

Catcher

Multiple Leagues - J.T. Realmuto (3), Alejandro Kirk (3), James McCann (3), Will Smith (3), Chance Sisco (3), Yan Gomes (3), Travis d'Arnaud (2), Jorge Alfaro (2), Pedro Severino (2)

Notable Omissions (like Liss, I'll list purposeful omissions in bold) - Salvador Perez, Yasmani Grandal, Sean Murphy, Mitch Garver, Gary Sanchez, Yadier Molina, Danny Jansen, Wilson Ramos, Daulton Varsho, Austin Nola

I varied on my catcher strategy from league-to-league, but more often than not didn't shop in the upper tiers of the catchers. I really regret not getting any Murphy or Sanchez on my teams.

First Base

Multiple Leagues - Christian Walker (4), Carlos Santana (3), Mike Moustakas (3), Jose Abreu (2), C.J. Cron (2), Yuli Gurriel (2)

Notable Omissions - Cody Bellinger, Anthony Rizzo, Matt Olson, Josh Bell, Miguel Sano, Jared Walsh

Most of the omissions are the opposite of purposeful fades, but rather FOMO players. Olson, Bell and Walsh are guys I wanted to have but somehow got shut out. Bellinger was a fade-for-the-price guy, and Sano was a flat-out avoid. Walker is definitely a target, as is Moustakas, and I thought I'd end up with more Cron than I did, but his draft price skyrocketed.

Second Base

Multiple Leagues - Joey Wendle (5), Josh Rojas (5), Cavan Biggio (4), Gavin Lux (3), Jake Cronenworth (3), Enrique Hernandez (3), Jean Segura (3), David Fletcher (2), Mauricio Dubon (2).

Notable Omissions - Ozzie Albies, Jose Altuve, Keston Hiura, Jeff McNeil, Tommy Edman, Chris Taylor, Nick Solak, Nick Madrigal, Ryan McMahon

I jumped all over the Josh Rojas hype train — he was absolutely a target, as was Gavin Lux. The others were mostly happen-stance. I frequently waited to fill second base, finding a lot of players there I liked. I've pretty much been low-man on Altuve all season — I don't think that he'll run that often, his best power numbers came with the benefit of the juiced ball and the trash can banging, and he's at an age when second basemen start to fade. I see the logic that suggests he's a good "Last Year's Bum," but at least for him, I'm resisting it.

Third Base

Multiple Leagues: Kris Bryant (4), Jose Ramirez (2), Jonathan India (2), Anthony Rendon (2), Giovany Urshela (2), Evan Longoria (2)

Notable Omissions: Manny Machado, Ke'Bryan Hayes*, Alec Bohm, Justin Turner

I landed Bryant frequently in my early drafts, not as much later on, and every time I drafted him it was a case of finding "value." As spring training progressed, I became less convinced that I had a good deal. I'm shocked that I have no Machado or Bohm — I mean, I know I drafted and didn't get them, but I'm high on both. I guess it's a function of draft order, and/or having others already qualified at the position. You'll note there's a lot of 2B-3B cross-over, and I have a lot of those players (Wendle, Biggio, Segura, Fletcher). Finally, early on I was fading Hayes, and was too late to try to get on the bandwagon. I still think that the team context will eventually drag him down a little, but I think I underestimated him.

Shortstop

Multiple Leagues: Dansby Swanson (4), Marcus Semien (3), Trea Turner (2), Javier Baez (2), Didi Gregorius (2)

Notable Omissions: Fernando Tatis Jr., Tim Anderson, Adalberto Mondesi, Elvis Andrus

Swanson was both a target and a function of draft position; I had very few early draft slots, meaning that Tatis, Turner and Trevor Story were often gone before I picked. The only league where I have Story this year is where I already had him as a keeper. In another one of my keeper leagues, his contract expired. Thus, Swanson, who was at the end of a tier of shortstops, was one of the last guys I liked unless I really waited on the position. Anderson was a target, yet I always seemed to fall short on him — thus I guess I didn't like him enough to go get him in my two AL-only auctions. Mondesi was a fade according to cost, though I didn't want to see him get hurt like he did this week.

Outfield/DH

Multiple Leagues: Mike Yastrzemski (6), Brandon Nimmo (5), Aaron Judge (4), Clint Frazier (4), Nelson Cruz (4), Alex Dickerson (3), Nick Senzel (3), Adam Duvall (3), Tyler O'Neill (2), Kole Calhoun (2), Trent Grisham (2), Charlie Blackmon (2), George Springer (2), Michael Conforto (2), Leody Taveras (2), Kyle Tucker (2), Ronald Acuna (2), Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (2), Teoscar Hernandez (2), Jackie Bradley Jr. (2), Austin Hays (2), Jarred Kelenic (2), JaCoby Jones (2), Mike Trout (2)

Notable Omissions: Mookie Betts, Nick Castellanos, Ramon Laureano, Michael Brantley, Joey Gallo, Alex Verdugo, Giancarlo Stanton, Jorge Soler, Max Kepler, Kyle Lewis, Andrew Benintendi, Jesse Winker, Manuel Margot, Joc Pederson

My most-drafted hitter is ... Mike Yastrzemski! Maybe someday I'll be able to spell his name reflexively without having to double-check. I'm open to the claim of hypocrisy that I'm willing to pay sticker price for Aaron Judge and yet not for Giancarlo Stanton. I'm also using injury-susceptibility as a reason to not draft Ramon Laureano at cost.

Starting Pitchers

Multiple Leagues: Sandy Alcantara (6), Yu Darvish (5), Zach Eflin (5), Jose Urquidy (5), Corbin Burnes (5), Tejay Antone (5), Zac Gallen (4), Yusei Kikuchi (4), Kyle Davies (4), Kwang Hyun Kim (4), Lucas Giolito (3), Gerrit Cole (3), Jack Flaherty (3), Kyle Hendricks (3), Domingo German (3), Justus Sheffield (3), David Peterson (3), John Gant (3), Aaron Nola (2), Sixto Sanchez (2), Chris Bassitt (2), Cristian Javier (2), Marco Gonzales (2), Carlos Martinez (2), Tyler Mahle (2), Ryan Yarbrough (2), Clayton Kershaw (2), Brad Keller (2), Chris Paddack (2), Trevor Rogers (2), Andrew Heaney (2), Joe Musgrove (2), Hyun Jin Ryu (2)

Notable Omissions: Jacob deGrom, Trevor Bauer, Walker Buehler, Max Scherzer, Luis Castillo, Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, Zach Plesac, Lance Lynn, Max Fried, Kenta Maeda, Pablo Lopez, Ian Anderson, Julio Urias, Stephen Strasburg, Jose Berrios, Jesus Luzardo, Dinelson Lamet, Lance McCullers, Marcus Stroman, German Marquez, Carlos Carrasco, Patrick Corbin

I could have gone deeper on the omissions list, easily, but I'm frankly a little surprised how I didn't diversify as much among the starting pitchers than I did with outfielders. The end of the first round and beginning of the second presents a lot of choices among ace starters, and I landed on Darvish and Giolito when given the choice more than Nola and completely over Bauer, Buehler, Scherzer and Castillo, the first two by choice and the latter two more by happenstance. Fried and Maeda were fades for the cost, and not necessarily a refutation of their ability. I'm bummed that while I have Alcantara more than anyone else, I don't have him on either Main Event team.

Relief Pitchers

Multiple Leagues: Liam Hendriks (4), Pete Fairbanks (4), Kenley Jansen (3), Gregory Soto (3), Chris Martin (3), Drew Pomeranz (3), Kyle Crick (3),  Jake McGee (2), Emilio Pagan (2), Taylor Rogers (2), Jordan Hicks (2), Lucas Sims (2), Ian Kennedy (2), Tyler Duffey (2), Alex Colome (2), Amir Garrett (2), Richard Rodriguez (2), Brad Hand (2), Diego Castillo (2)

Notable Omissions: Josh Hader, Trevor Rosenthal, Edwin Diaz, Aroldis Chapman, James Karinchak, Jordan Romano, Anthony Bass, Devin Williams, Craig Kimbrel, Joakim Soria

That's a lot of top-of-the-line closers I don't have. I'm only fading Hader in the sense that I took Hendriks anytime I wanted to go with the early closer, and I went with Kenley Jansen or Ryan Pressly instead of Rosenthal/Diaz/Chapman/Karinchak every time, as a combination of cost for the top three and role certainty for Karinchak. I'm not super-worried about Fairbanks, though I regret not getting both he and Castillo, as was possible, in XFL — I had taken Fairbanks already and four picks later Castillo was there, and instead impulsively I took Luis Urias to back up three infield positions instead. Castillo went with the next pick.

That's a lot of players and a lot of targets/fades. Who lands on each of your lists?