A link to my Tout Wars Review.
A link to my LABR Review.
A link to my FSTA Review.

SETUP

13-team Mixed League
Snake Draft
standard 5x5 scoring
Starters: 14 hitters, nine pitchers
Five bench spots (rostered by a snake draft)

 MY ROSTER

* Number in parenthesis is the round taken.

C: Matt Wieters (14). Chris Iannetta (28)
1B: Miguel Cabrera (1) 
2B: Robinson Cano (4) 
3B: Manny Machado (2)   
SS: Brad Miller (17)   
MI: Neil Walker (20) 
CI:  Joey Votto (3)
OF: Matt Kemp (5), Christian Yelich (7), Yasiel Puig (8), Ben Revere (10), Steven Souza (21)
UTIL: Pedro Alvarez (19)

PITCHERS: Jon Lester (6), Marcus Stroman (9), David Robertson (11), Julio Teheran (12), Andrew Miller (13), Gio Gonzalez (15), Glen Perkins (16), Andrew Cashner (18), Fernando Rodney (23)
RESERVES:  Asdrubal Cabrera (22), Kevin Gausman (24), Kyle Gibson (25), Jose Reyes (26), Joaquin Benoit (27)

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Miggy was a star, and as I noted in the original piece… you were all wrong about Cabrera this year. Ditto Votto. Please stop doubting this duo of bats. They were both wondrous stars that lived up to even the lofty expectations that I had for both of them.

Cano was, once again, a star. He was one homer and two hits from a .300-40-100-100 season.

Machado inexplicably stole no bases, a year after hitting 20. Utterly vexing was that. His bat though was as good as expected as he hit .294-37-96-105 with 40 doubles. He also played 45 games at shortstop to further boost his outlook.

Miller, who seemingly was on all of my teams, hit 30 homers while qualifying at two spots (1B and SS).

Walker hit 23 homers with a .282 batting average in just 412 at-bats in a season that was short circuited by health woes (his back was operated on and we will see if that solves an issue that has lingered for years).

Kemp was no superstar, not with one steal and a .262 batting average, but 35 homers, 108 RBI and 89 runs scored are still a hell of an effort.

Yelich did it all… other than steal bases. He only swiped nine bags, but his 5x5 line was still terrific: .298-21-98-78-9. Odd he didn’t score more runs with that .376 OBP.

ACab was a great 22nd rounder with his .280-23-62-65-5 line.

Lester had arguably the best season of his career at 32 years of age. He won 19 games with a 2.44 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 197 strikeouts over 202.2 innings. Fantastic was he, especially in the second half when he was a superstar (1.76 ERA, 0.93 WHIP with a 10-1 record).

Robertson (37 saves), Miller (10 victories, 12 saves), Rodney (25 saves) all lived up to their cost. Even Rodney with his up and down season and wishy-washy ratios.

Teheran went 7-10. That’s the only negative. He posted a 3.21 ERA a 1.05 WHIP and 167 strikeouts over 188 innings. I’m counting it as a win. So should you if you rostered him.

Gausman, who I had to keep begging people to maintain the faith in, finished the year with a 3.61 ERA, 1.28 WHIP and 174 strikeouts over 179.2 innings. Not bad for a 24th round draft pick wouldn’t you say?

 

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WHAT WENT WRONG

Iannetta stunk. Wieters was solid with 17 homers and 66 RBI, but his .302 OBP killed his overall value enough that I took him down to this column, though I could have easily put him in the success column.

My outfield had two stars, but the other three were a total mess.

Puig is an immense talent. He’s a total knucklehead. Worse than that, he’s also dealing with his body breaking down. He had a nice couple of weeks here and there, but 11 homers, five steals and a .263/.323/.416 line over 104 games was/is abysmal.

Revere hit .306 the last two seasons. He hit .217 in 2016. He averaged 35 steals a year for 5-straight years heading into 2016. He swiped 14 bases this season.

Souza hit 17 homers with seven steals. He also posted a .713 OPS a year after he was at .717. No growth whatsoever.

Alvarez wasn’t terrible, but 22 homers, 49 RBI and 43 runs are way below what I expected (I was thinking 25-75-75). He only picked up 337 at-bats as the Orioles used him very conservatively.

Stroman had a strong second half but do to a slow start his season long numbers just didn’t impress: 9-10, 4.37 ERA, 1.29 WHIP with 166 strikeouts over 204 innings.

Gio went 11 with a 4.57 EERA, 1.34 WHIP and 171 Ks in 177.1 innings. Moderate at best.

Perkins saved a mere… well he threw two innings and didn’t save a game before he needed shoulder surgery that ended up being pretty significant. It’s unclear what he has to offer for 2017. He offered nothing this year.

Cashner – as I’ve already written… I’m out.

Gibson – see my Cashner comments. It’s just never gonna happen with Gibson. Never.

Reyes never got on the field. Shame for me trying to figure out how his punishment was going to play out.

TRADES/WAIVERS

Added Mallex Smith on April 10th, dropped Reyes. He stole bases until he was hurt (16 steals in 72 games).

Added Melvin Upton on April 24th. Unfortunately, I dropped him two weeks later to add some saves with Kevin Jepsen. #ThatWasABonerMove

Added Chris Herrmann on May 22nd. He was pretty darn effective when he was on the field (.284-6-28 in 148 at-bats). Too bad injury ruined his second half.

Took a shot on Blake Snell June 12th. He brought strikeouts, but little else.

Picked up Junior Guerra on July 3rd. He made nine start with a 2.24 ERA and 1.20 WHIP from that point forward.

Picked up Sandy Leon July 17th. He went .263/.330/.405 from that point forward. Pretty basic stuff.

Added Corey Dickerson on July 24th. He just never got going did he? I dropped him on August 14th and added Keon Broxton. In 29 games Keon hit six homers, stole nine bases and posted a .364 wOBA.

One of the best adds of year was Dan Straily on August 7th. Don’t know why he was dropped but I enjoyed the 11 starts he gave me with a 8-2 record, 3.69 ERA and 1.28 WHIP. He even struck out 61 batters in 63.1 innings.

Some other minor moves…

C.J. Cron was added September 4th.

Jim Johnson was picked up September 11th.

CONCLUSION

I finished fourth out of 13 teams.

Lots of counting category stuff on offense, but lack of steals directly tied to Revere and Mallex struggles. On the hill, the ERA of the club was a league best 3.41, the WHIP was 3rd at 1.19, but there just wasn’t enough from my starting pitchers.

Another ho-hum finish in the year of mediocrity.