I would give myself a 60 grade on parenting. Solid, all star level father. Lots of strengths and only one 20 grade. That would be building toys. Legos, especially, are the bane of my existence.
I hate them. I always have. When my brilliant daughter wanted to do a building competition, I could only build two things: a robot or a spaceship. My friends got sets and I was like cool but why not Strat o Matic? I’m okay at building using directions; I need to know the purpose of things before I can build them.
Fantasy baseball is the same way. I need to know what position my guys are playing or I just forget about the players. Multi position guys are my weakness. It’s not something I’m proud of. Oh well, add it to the list.
Let’s highlight a few Lego players who can be used at multiple spots around the diamond.
Ty France: either corner, obviously third is better because third is shallower than a basin in California.
Luis Arraez: I think he’s close to a top five second baseman, but at first you need more power. Gotta go Arraez as a middle infield option or something went wrong
Miguel Vargas: soon to have 2B eligibility and his crazy plate discipline works in either. Dodgers have a deal with Mephistopheles (not a baseball player). Vargas leads MLB in walks with 9 and is now hitting .375 in only 8 at bats.
Brandon Drury and Jake Cronenworth: jack of all positions and master of nothing that helps but so much, good to plug in the extra games you’ll need to make up. Of course, they both are off to horrible starts.
Joey Gallo: will have 1B soon. If you have like Arraez AND two other average helpers I’d do it as a corner IF but the disaster potential is about 90%. Of course the night I write this he goes yard again and is hitting .333. I’ll put him in the rankings and write gulp by it. That’s an indicator that I’m not confident but upside is too much to ignore.
This is a weak spot that I just learned I had. My new goal is to get some multi position guys. Time to get creative and do something besides a Lego robot.
Weekly Recap
Valedictorian: Brendan Donovan
Of course, the Lego of all Lego players has to get my brand new, meaningless but soon to be of utmost important award. Stats aside he looks like the leadoff hitter on a team with an absolutely loaded lineup. Look at Tommy Edman last year, it’s gold, Ponyboy, gold. And he can play any position but catcher! I wanted him but always tried to get him one round too late. He’s debuting as the number 8 first baseman as a token of my belief.
Hittertron has him ROS for a .273 average and .360 OBP. With those numbers, in the leadoff spot, we can expect 100 runs I think, 15-20 HR, and a guy you can use to fill in any gaps in your roster. Tremendously valuable.
Honor Roll
I guess I have to highlight C.J. Cron leading the position with three HR, and he’s not even in Coors right now. It’s possible I’m too low on him but it’s your call if you want to keep rolling him out there in road games. Coors, fire him up with impunity. Indemnity, even.
See Me After Class
You will never guess what the seven day player rater ranks as the top rated first baseman. Joey Meneses travels to Coors, so if you’re looking for a quick boost he is projected number one. Also, subscribe to this stuff!
Suspended
There are a lot of guys off to poor starts, of course, but Josh Bell is something special. Off to a 1-17 start is he. With Bell, you know the bad times are coming, and I’m worried about him. I’m kinda always worried about Bell, but this time I might be thinking Josh Naylor (7th on the player rater) and he (yes, I used “he” correctly for all of the grammar police in the audience) flips roles. Bell does have 6 walks so maybe his results just aren’t matching his approach. *Checks some stats* Ah, Bell has as many barrels on the season as you do, unless you are a baseballer who has a barrel, in which case I apologize. It’s too early to move on from Bell, but the leash just got shorter.
I tried to warn you all about Vinny P. .143 average which will come up, but those counting stats and power numbers are going to disappoint.
Updated Rankings
These of course are written in pencil rather than stone. Some small cosmetic differences kinda like when I got that nose extension.
I bumped up Mountcastle and Ty France over Nathaniel Lowe (I’m just calling him Than cuz he keeps changing that name).
Tristan Casas is in the six spot for the Red Sox which puts him in a terrible spot for his counting stats, so he stays low.
I was way too high on Brandon Drury and he’s hitting low in the Angels order, so he gets dropped out.
I’m not moving off much at the top obviously because it’s April, and we’ve had five days of baseball. Personally, it’s hard to switch from NBA fantasy leagues where one game can portend a marvelous future. I’ll try to contain myself here. There are some decently significant changes because of some tweaks to my secret sauce of a formula and checking the Player Rater
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
- Freddie Freeman
- Pete Alonso
- Matt Olson
- Paul Goldschmidt
- Jose Abreu
- Andrew Vaughn
- Brendan Donovan
- Anthony Rizzo
- Ryan Mountcastle
- Ty France
- Miguel Vargas
- Nathaniel Lowe
- Luis Arraez
- Vinnie Pasquantino
- Joey Gallo (gulp)
- Alec Bohm
- Luis Arraez
- Josh Naylor
- Yandy Diaz
- Christian Walker
- Jose Miranda
- C.J. Cron
- Triston Casas
- Joey Meneses
- Spencer Torkelson
- Rowdy Tellez
- Josh Bell
- Trey Mancini
- Dominic Smith
- David Villar
Thanks for the honor of reading my stuff and let me know if you have any questions/critiques in the comments!
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