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My $100 Fantasy Baseball Team: Diamond Kings

Posted on March 27, 2018March 27, 2018 by BBCARDZ Leave a Comment

Sunday (March 25) was my first of three drafts of the 2018 fantasy baseball season. This year I am in four Yahoo fantasy baseball leagues (one of which each team’s roster is that of an actual MLB team–thus no draft is held). Yesterday’s draft was for a 12-team head-to-head private money league called So Cal All Stars and my team is the Diamond Kings.

This is my third year in this league. In 2016, I finished in 9th place but last year I finished in 4th place, narrowly missing out on the 3rd place cash prize. Hopefully this year I’ll finish in the money. Of course, that will depend a lot on whether I had a good draft and my players have a good season. Here are my draft results:

Diamond Kings Draft
1. (5) Mookie Betts (Bos – OF)
2. (20) Joey Votto (Cin – 1B)
3. (29) Josh Donaldson (Tor – 3B)
4. (44) Carlos Carrasco (Cle – SP)
5. (53) Byron Buxton (Min – OF)
6. (68) Chris Archer (TB – SP)
7. (77) Miguel Sanó (Min – 1B,3B)
8. (92) DJ LeMahieu (Col – 2B)
9. (101) Trevor Story (Col – SS)
10. (116) Whit Merrifield (KC – 2B,OF)

11. (125) Nicholas Castellanos (Det – 3B,OF)
12. (140) Ian Desmond (Col – 1B,OF)
13. (149) Eduardo Núñez (Bos – 2B,3B,SS,OF)
14. (164) Eddie Rosario (Min – OF)
15. (173) Russell Martin (Tor – C,3B)
16. (188) Dylan Bundy (Bal – SP)
17. (197) Kevin Gausman (Bal – SP)
18. (212) Chase Anderson (Mil – SP)
19. (221) Jake Faria (TB – SP)
20. (236) Alex Cobb (Bal – SP)
21. (245) Tanner Roark (Was – SP)

Our league has the usual five pitching categories (Wins, Saves Strikeouts, ERA and WHIP) and a not-so-common category–Losses. We also have the usual five hitting categories (Runs, Home Runs, RBIs, Stolen Bases and Batting Average) along with On-base Percentage.

Having the fifth pick in the draft, I think I did ok, considering I had to use my mobile phone to draft players while I was at work. I’m glad I pre-ranked the players but my draft probably would have been better had I picked up a couple of closers for the Saves category. Hoping to salvage that category, I dropped my 12th and 14th round picks (Ian Desmond 1B-OF and Eddie Rosario OF) and picked up two undrafted closers (who may or may not have a lot of save opportunities). They are Joakim Soria of the Chicago White Sox and Blake Parker of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. I really did not want to drop Desmond and Rosario but I figured they would spend most days in a BN (bench) spot not accumulating much in the way of stats.

Depending on how full my plate is at work, I will try to post weekly recaps/standings of each of the four leagues I’m am in. Of the four leagues I was in last year, my best finish was third place but it was not a money league. Hopefully this year will be better than last. Stay tuned…