With two first-year-player drafts behind me and two underway as I type, fantasy baseball is officially back in the Itch household. Today I plan to share my early takeaways with you, dear reader, starting with the guys I actually selected.
I’ll start with the Razz 30: a 30-team league filled with skilled players. We can keep as few as seven minor leaguers and as many as 18 major leaguers, so the draft is 13 rounds across a couple weeks, adding up to 320 total picks this season. 2B Cesar Prieto of the Cardinals was Mr. Irrelevant, a solid selection in a league where playing time is king and low-minors lottery tickets tend to end up back in the draft pool. I like this about the league. The free agent pool gets a full scouring in comparison to the new guys coming in from the draft, and the two pools get well shuffled up and mixed together. Phillies RHP Moises Chace, for example, went 1.19. I was disappointed because I wanted him at 1.30. He went undrafted in the 15-team FYPD I completed this week, which made sense. Pitching is a lot easier to find in that league, and proximity is almost a punishment because each team has 30 MLB roster spots, and players are exceeding their minor league eligibility all the time.
Razz 30 Royals Picks:
1.30 Cardinals SS Yairo Padilla
I mentioned Padilla as the 80th prospect in my Top 100, and I’m glad I got him here because I got sniped in the other league. Well, sniped might not be the word because I didn’t pick until 43rd overall, but I do think he’d have been there for me if my brother wasn’t in that league. I’m not sure how long you can wait in most leagues, but I’d take him between 25 and 50 just to be safe.
2.60 Marlins OF Griffin Conine
As I said in the introduction, playing time is king in this league, and Conine looks like a middle-lineup option in Miami until he proves otherwise. He’s been whittling away at his strikeout rate the last few years in the minors and might make just enough contact to pop about 20 bombs.
3.90 Padres 3B Eguy Rosario
I made this pick before the Padres went on a signing spree and brought in the Jason Heyward, Connor Joe combo. I knew their ownership situation might get a little clearer during the draft, and that’s just what happened, but at least we’ve heard Rosario will be playing left field this season, which gives him a better shot at joining the Fankenstein’s monster mix the club is building at the bottom of its lineup.
4.119 Brewers RP Abner Uribe
Here’s another pick I made before a blurb dropped. Uribe will be “taking it slowly” on his way back from a torn meniscus, which I could’ve guessed, but this quote seems to indicate he’ll miss a big chunk of spring training, and this guy needs reps to start finding the strike zone. I might pass here if I had it to do over again, but this is a SV+HLD league, so all Uribe has to do is become part of the late-inning picture.
5.148 Red Sox SP Yordanny Monegro
I was looking at org-mate SS Dorian Soto with this pick but was happy to land Monegro. Boston’s player development crew is cooking, and Monegro dominated down the stretch for High-A Greenville (0.70 WHIP over his final 44 innings).
6.177 Reds SS Leo Balcazar
Balcazar missed most of 2023 after tearing ACL just 18 games into the season, but the club promoted him along to High-A anyway for the 2024 season, and he didn’t disappoint, batting .264 with six home runs and nine steals in 102 games against players who were, on average, 2.2 years older than him. He swung at everything and walked just 3.3 percent of the time, which would be disqualifying if he can’t get it figured out. On the other hand, he hit .323 with six homers and five steals over his final 39 games, good for a 142 wRC+ despite the free-swinging ways.
7.204 Guardians RP Franco Aleman
Dominant relievers with MiLB eligibility have a lot of value in this league, as in most SV+H leagues.
8.231 Royals SS Austin Charles
I couldn’t decide between Charles and Balcazar for a while, but once I’d let Charles go, I had a feeling he’d eventually come back to me. Happy Valentine’s Day!
9.256 Athletics SP RP Ryan Cusick
So one quirk I like in this league is that we have four SP spots, two RP spots and three P spots, so if you can find a reliever with SP and MiLB eligibility, it can extend your roster just a hair. I’ve been chasing this rainbow since I joined the league, and I’m not sure it’s ever panned out for me, but I’ve seen others turn a Jhoan Duran or a Jorge Lopez into a sizeable edge, particularly for a league that closes the rotisserie season on September 1st and starts a head-to-head playoff stage.
10.278 Dodgers SP Nick Frasso
See above blurb, though I’ll concede that Frasso has a Lloyd Christmas style chance to start for this team, at least in the short term while the injuries are stacked up.
11.295 Mariners SP RP Carlos Vargas
Just figured I’d roll three times in a row on this spot. The Mariners know how to develop a pitcher, and Vargas seemed to be putting it together late last season.
12.307 Royals RP Evan Sisk
Dynamic left-handed relief arm I’ll probably cut if he doesn’t make the major league team out of spring training.
13.316 Pirates SS Mitch Jebb
Pittsburgh kinda needs a shortstop isn’t IKF, a guy they’d probably prefer to use as a utility man. Jebb isn’t gonna jump from High-A to the majors in spring training, but he could look like the obvious heir apparent (or at least the guy who gets a chance before Konnor Griffin is ready) if he hits early in Double-A.
I’ll have reports from three more first-year-player drafts in this space moving forward.
Thanks for reading!
