Rounding Third: Never-Ending Story

I'm a little past midway through my drafts this season, with nine drafts and auctions complete, so I thought it was a good time to mark my progress on who my most frequently owned players are, and discuss a few noteworthy omissions. I'm listing these in order of the start date of the draft. This doesn't include three Best-Ball 10s that I've completed, RazzSlam (which is also a Best Ball format, but with 42 rounds and two FA periods) or any Mock Drafts. I'm only going to include the first seven leagues, which are all Mixed Leagues 15 teams or smaller. I've also done my annual AL-only home team auction, which is 11 teams, but it's also 4x4. Nor am I including the RotoWire Staff Keeper League, which has 18 teams and a 10-man minor league system for each team.

First, here are the hitters:

• XFL = XFL Hybrid Auction/Dynasty League; OBP instead of AVG. Players in italics are kept minor leaguers; auction in October at First Pitch Arizona, supplemental draft is in March.
• DC1 = NFBC Draft Champions League — 15-team, 50 rounds, no FAs.
• FSGA = FSGA draft; 14-team 5x5 snake draft league, 10 rounds live at the FSGA Conference in January, the remainder completed by slow draft.
• DC2 (AFL) = Draft Champions League, comprising speakers from First Pitch Arizona. Draft began in late January.
• LABR = Mixed LABR draft — 15-team Mixed Snake draft, 5x5, online on February 4.
• BJE = "Beat Jeff Erickson" — NFBC RotoWire Online Championship, 12-team mixed, online on February 25th.
• TGFBI = The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational, format mimics the NFBC Main Event.

Frequently Owned Hitters

Catchers:

I've mostly been waiting on catchers in my drafts so far. J.T. Realmuto in XFL was a function of where I already had solid hitting keepers elsewhere, and what was available in the auction. Otherwise, I've usually waited until the 15th round or later in my leagues to take a catcher, with the exception of the Mixed LABR draft, and I didn't like the roster build after that as a result. I felt that after taking Willson Contreras in the ninth round, even while liking the price, I was chasing saves and starters afterward. Otherwise, I have Carson Kelly in a pair of leagues and Yan Gomes three times as my second or third catcher. Neither are big targets, but rather the players I liked best when I was ready to take a catcher.

Corner Infielders:

My most owned corner infielder so far is ... Edwin Encarnacion? Really? I mean, I like E5 well enough and have rooted for him as a former Red who made good elsewhere, but as a 37-year-old, he's not exactly a centerpiece of my strategy. However, there is a point to all of this — if you prioritize finding some speed with your earlier picks, so that you don't get stuck having to chase steals from the likes of Dee Gordon or Jarrod Dyson late, that necessarily entails getting power in the middle rounds and often finding it from your corner infielders. In the last three weeks, Encarnacion is going around the 160th pick in NFBC drafts, and that's a spot where I'm finding myself looking for power if I already have a closer or two. Likewise, I have two shares of Christian Walker in my leagues, going about 35 picks later. After those two players, there's not that many first basemen with power potential available, and that pressure to find a suitable first baseman is only going to increase with injuries — such as Trey Mancini's condition that we're still learning more about.

Middle Infielders:

I've been pushing Trevor Story aggressively in the middle-to-late first round, where I've drafted him in all but one of my stand-alone leagues this season, taking him as early as sixth (FSGA) and as late as 11th (TGFBI), as well as in a few best ball leagues. I really like his power-speed skills, and for the last two years he's added the ability to hit for average. I took him once over Francisco Lindor, but I view those two players relatively equally. I do have him above Trea Turner, however. As a result, I have him in four leagues as my most owned player so far. Other middle infielders who are on multiple teams for me include Keston Hiura, Bo Bichette, Ketel Marte, Didi Gregorius, Cesar Hernandez, Tommy La Stella and Luis Urias.

Outfielders:

Scott Jenstad and I both had David Peralta on our lists for our "Category Helpers in the Back Half of Drafts" podcast on Sunday night — I like his broad base of skills and his ability to help in the counting stats (runs, RBI) in that Diamondbacks lineup. With an average pick of 245 in the NFBC over the last three weeks, he's eminently affordable, too and won't kill your batting average. To that end, I've drafted him in four leagues so far. Other frequent fliers in the outfield for me include Michael Conforto (3), Shogo Akiyama (3), Brett Gardner (3), Austin Meadows (2) and Kevin Kiermaier (2). Gardner to me is strangely cheap — though he hit .251 last year, he had 28 homers, 74 RBI, 86 Runs and 10 stolen bases, and yet his average draft position in the NFBC is around pick 330. He's going to play nearly every day — with Aaron Hicks out, he was going to be the starter even before Aaron Judge's injury. It's weird to say that a Yankee hitter is being undervalued, but I think it's true with both Gardner and Mike Tauchman (400!).

DH:

I have a true DH in five of my seven leagues, which is a little surprising to me. But that's also because Nelson Cruz continues to get the David Ortiz DH-only/"he's too old" discount, falling on average to pick 78 over the last three weeks — and I got him at pick 98 in LABR (and yes, I made the same Ortiz comparison in my article there). I thought that I'd get Yordan Alvarez more often but only got him once early, and not recently, perhaps as a result of the reports on his knees, or because I've wanted more speed where he frequently goes in drafts.

Frequently Owned Pitchers:

Starting Pitchers:

You'd think that either Jack Flaherty (3), Julio Urias (3) or Zac Gallen (2) would top this list, for as often as I've talked about them. And I still intend to get more of each of them over the course of draft season. But they aren't close to being my most-owned pitcher. In fact, my most owned pitcher, and player period, is someone who's not getting taken until the endgame in every draft, with an average pick of 435 over the last three weeks in the NFBC. That pitcher is the Nationals' Anibal Sanchez, whom I have in a whopping six leagues.

There's a reason why Sanchez is freely available — he's not a big strikeout guy and he isn't terribly durable. However, we still need to add pitchers in this range of the draft just as any other area, and he stands out to me as desirable for his ratios and his team context. 

Other noteworthy starters include Jose Urquidy (3), Zack Greinke (I like having variants of "Zack G" on my teams — two teams here), Mike Foltynewicz (2) and Mike Soroka (2).

Relief Pitchers:

It's probably not a good thing that my most-owned closer is one I sort of regret — Brandon Workman of the Red Sox, whom I own in three leagues. I blame it on my podcast partner Jenstad, who put Workman on his fade list. His approach is fair, though — Workman had a whopping 15.7 BB percentage last year and doesn't exactly have a long tenured history as an effective reliever. In his favor, the change in his pitch mix to include his curveball more often worked, leading to a 36.2 K percentage and a ton of ground balls. Moreover, the Red Sox's recent concern with their finances led them to not improving their bullpen, so Workman's competition is light.

Workman's presence on my teams early in drafts came in early drafts, with all three of them beginning in January. That's relevant because I've changed my approach with closers. Early on, I was far more willing to wait until after the 10th round to take my first closer, meaning I was fishing in the same waters as Workman, Archie Bradley and similar pitchers in that tier, and looking for two of them. That ended up in disaster in LABR, where I went with Emilio Pagan two days before the Rays traded him to the Padres. Now I'm trying to get at least one earlier closer before getting riskier with my second slot.

Other multi-team relievers for me include Roberto Osuna (2), Ian Kennedy (2), Emilio Pagan (2) and Steve Cishek (2). I actually have Aaron Bummer ahead of Cishek among those who could replace Alex Colome on the White Sox, but Cishek came on teams with 50-round drafts in the Draft Champions Leagues, meaning he came much later.

I still have two NFBC Main Events, another Online Championship, Tout Wars, Midnight Madness (my NL-only home keeper league), Yahoo Friends & Family and another home league, so I don't really have any "FOMO" concerns, yet. But I probably will in two weeks, especially if I keep adding Anibal Sanchez to my leagues!