My game plan for drafting pitching in 2019

Drafting pitching in a 15 team 5x5 Standard Roto league.

Goal: Be among the league leaders in ERA, WHIP and Saves while settling for middle of the pack in Wins and upper middle tier in K’s.

Round 1-5: Get 2 Aces

Rounds 7-12: Get 2 Quality Closers (Do not draft one until at least the top 2 Closers have been drafted)

Rounds 16 -18: Get 1 Middle reliever with a chance to close that can get 80k+ with a great whip and era (Betances, Seranthony, Minter) or your 3rd starter with high k/9 rate that won’t kill your whip.

That is a total of 5 pitchers through 18 rounds. You must Pound, Pound, Pound hitting with your 13 other picks. Make sure to dominate all Hitting Categories, don’t punt any category when it comes to Hitting.

Round 19–23: Get 4 pitchers to make a total of 9 pitchers by the end of round 23. You need to solidify your rotation while not screwing up your whip and ratios. I know... easier said than done. There will be lots of bargain pitchers available as other owners will be scrambling to fill out the rest of their starting offensive players.

Problem is several of these guys are going to end up being horrible, but a handful will help you win a title, key is choosing the right one. Good thing about drafting pitchers this late is if/when they become a detriment to your team, you will have no problem dropping them. 1/3 to over 1/2 of these players will be drafted prior to round 18. Resist the urge to reach for any pitcher listed. Let the other owners help make the decision for you so when it’s your turn to pick in round 19, you can just select the next available player of your choice from the players listed below.

Bounce back Starters:

Robbie Ray

Jose Quintana

Jon Gray

Zack Godley

Dylan Bundy

Luke Weaver

Starters with mixed results returning from injury:

Alex Reyes

Tyler Skaggs

Michael Fulmer

Steven Matz

Julio Urias

Yu Darvish

Jimmy Nelson

Jeff Samardzija

Carlo Rodon

Michael Pineda

Vincent Velasquez

The Reliever turned (possible) Starter:

Tyler Glasnow

Collin McHugh

Corbin Burnes

Josh James

Mike Minor

Matt Strahm

Brad Peacock

Seth Lugo

Freddy Peralta

Yonny Chirinos

Jonathan Loaisiga

Under the radar guys who had a nice 2018 - can they build on it in 2019?

Andrew Heaney

Nathan Eovaldi

Joe Musgrove

Joey Lucchesi

Tyler Anderson

Mike Fiers

Kevin Gausman

Matt Boyd

Jhoulys Chacin

Joey Lucchesi

Marco Estrada

Zach Eflin

Jose Urena

Derek Holland

Marco Gonzalez

Reynaldo Lopez

Dereck Rodriguez

Jacob Junis

Robert Erlin

Trevor Richards

Rookies:

Jesus Luzardo

Forrest Whitley

Chris Paddack

Allen Logan

Brent Honeywell

Touki Toussaint (Mike Soroka, Luiz Gohara)

Reserve rounds: Add a couple from the leftovers listed above and add another middle reliever with a chance to close

Relievers worth stashing:

Trevor May

Blake Parker

Joe Jimenez

Jose Castillo

Kelvin Herrera

Ryan Brasier

Sergio Romo

Diego Castillo

Keone Kela

Yoshihisa Hirano

Hector Neris

Swung-Huang Oh

Reyes Moronta

Craig Stammen

Like with all strategies, you must be a little lucky. But I believe you create your own luck by being prepared. The beauty of this strategy is if you choose wrong, you weren’t heavily invested on that player, so the player is an easy drop. If you reach for a player in the late single digit or early teen rounds, you end up being married to that player and continue to start him to your team’s detriment as their era and whip destroy your pitching.

Give this strategy a shot…

Thank me at seasons end. #oftenwrongneverindoubt

About me: I have been playing fantasy baseball since 1987. I have no analytical expertise or crunch any numbers to support my conclusions. I simply gather up as much info as I can from the smart guys in the industry and then come up with my 2 cents. My one advantage over most of the smart guys is that they are too smart to take risks on certain players as the data won’t allow them to do it. I on the other hand, take all the data and add the human element to it, things that cannot be quantified through math and incorporate my knowledge through experience to foresee a player’s potential breakout or potential bust alert. So, while I cannot back up anything I write about with actual data, my history of winning as well as losing these past 30 years has allowed me to adapt to the year to year trends and strategies which make me a better fantasy baseball player. I can be found 24/7 on Baseball 365 Facebook page or on Twitter @iRotohead

Cheers & Play Ball,

Khang Do (Can Doe)



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