With only four-ish days of games so far, the RCL overall standings don’t amount to a whole lot, we’ll get those running in full force for next week. In the meantime, I thought we’d finally take a look at all the draft data we collected over the period known as the longest draft season of our lifetime. Our very first draft of the season was way back on March 1st, in the before times. Our final draft was July 22nd. During those 143 days we drafted 77 Razzball Commenter Leagues (four more than last season!) and 463 different players. It’s been a long time coming and it could be short lived, but we’ll be here for every bit of the MLB season that we can piece together. If you didn’t get in on the fun, well, there’s always next year, we hope! For now, let’s crunch some numbers on our RCL drafts.
First of all, here is the ADP spreadsheet, all finalized for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to keep that open as you read along.
THE NUMBERS
- 77 Razzball Commenter Leagues were created this year for a total of 924 teams
- RCLers drafted 463 different players this fantasy baseball season
- 202 players were drafted in every, single RCL
- Seth Lugo and Javier Baez Ramirez had the highest pick differentials (Lugo was drafted – Hopefully mistakenly at #22 and went undrafted in some leagues. Javier Baez Ramirez was clearly someone draft from a cell phone and trying to draft Javier Baez at #23)
- Ronald Acuna Jr. had the smallest, he either went 1st, 2nd or 3rd in every league.
- There were 27 different first round picks, all of which we will get to later
- Mike Trout went as late as pick 7, Christian Yelich never went later than 4th overall
- There were 6 consensus first rounders
- Gerrit Cole was not one of them. He had a pick spread of anywhere from #2 overall to #21 overall.
FIRST ROUNDERS
Most seasons there have been between five and seven consensus first rounders, this year we fall right in that range. They are Ronald Acuna Jr, Mike Trout, Christian Yelich, Cody Bellinger, Mookie Betts and Francsico Lindor. Trevor Story only missed the first round nod by one league, Gerrit Cole missed it by two and Juan Soto missed it by four. Here is how the first round distribution shook out:
| Slot >>>> | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acuna Jr., Ronald | 63 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 77 |
| Trout, Mike | 12 | 43 | 18 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 77 |
| Yelich, Christian | 2 | 20 | 45 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 77 |
| Bellinger, Cody | 0 | 0 | 6 | 52 | 16 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 77 |
| Betts, Mookie | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 20 | 25 | 14 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 77 |
| Lindor, Francisco | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 6 | 21 | 21 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 77 |
| Story, Trevor | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 16 | 12 | 15 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 76 |
| Cole, Gerrit | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 14 | 18 | 10 | 9 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 75 |
| Soto, Juan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 16 | 24 | 8 | 4 | 73 |
| deGrom, Jacob | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 6 | 10 | 7 | 61 |
| Turner, Trea | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 11 | 12 | 15 | 11 | 58 |
| Arenado, Nolan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 12 | 21 | 53 |
| Bregman, Alex | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 20 |
| Tatis Jr., Fernando | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 12 |
| Buehler, Walker | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| Verlander, Justin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| Ramirez, Jose | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| Martinez, J.D. | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Scherzer, Max | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Devers, Rafael | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Alonso, Pete | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Strasburg, Stephen | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Freeman, Freddie | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Rendon, Anthony | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Bieber, Shane | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Torres, Gleyber | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Marte, Ketel | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
We had five single league first round outliers. I can only imagine that the Gleyber pick was made by an insane, crazed Yankees fan, probably the same one that drafted Greg Bird in the first round a couple seasons ago. Nolan Arenado has been a consensus first rounder for the past few seasons, but slipped this season by a healthy margin.
FINAL ADP
You can peruse the above ADP spreadsheet for yourself to do a deep dive into the numbers. For those with tired clicking fingers from all that drafting though, I’ll give you a snapshot. Here is how the RCLers declared the first two rounds of drafts:
| PLAYER | ADP | HI | LO | DIFF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acuna Jr., Ronald | 1.21 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Trout, Mike | 2.23 | 1 | 7 | 6 |
| Yelich, Christian | 2.82 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| Bellinger, Cody | 4.22 | 3 | 7 | 4 |
| Betts, Mookie | 5.92 | 3 | 11 | 8 |
| Cole, Gerrit | 7.27 | 2 | 21 | 19 |
| Story, Trevor | 7.64 | 5 | 14 | 9 |
| Lindor, Francisco | 7.73 | 3 | 12 | 9 |
| Soto, Juan | 9.42 | 5 | 17 | 12 |
| deGrom, Jacob | 10.48 | 4 | 22 | 18 |
| Turner, Trea | 11.23 | 6 | 19 | 13 |
| Arenado, Nolan | 11.78 | 5 | 18 | 13 |
| Bregman, Alex | 14.38 | 8 | 21 | 13 |
| Ramirez, Jose | 16.06 | 10 | 24 | 14 |
| Tatis Jr., Fernando | 17.42 | 8 | 31 | 23 |
| Scherzer, Max | 17.83 | 10 | 43 | 33 |
| Freeman, Freddie | 18.19 | 12 | 36 | 24 |
| Buehler, Walker | 18.68 | 8 | 34 | 26 |
| Harper, Bryce | 19.45 | 13 | 27 | 14 |
| Rendon, Anthony | 20.27 | 11 | 40 | 29 |
| Devers, Rafael | 20.68 | 11 | 31 | 20 |
| Martinez, J.D. | 21.57 | 10 | 29 | 19 |
| Alonso, Pete | 21.7 | 12 | 32 | 20 |
| Bieber, Shane | 24.56 | 9 | 38 | 29 |
RECENT TRENDS
We had seven leagues that were drafted in July. These seven leagues had more info heading into the season than any other league, so I thought it would be interesting to see who the biggest ADP risers and fallers were. Most were not big surprises.
| PLAYER | ADP | ADP JULY | DIFF |
|---|---|---|---|
| Syndergaard, Noah | 141.43 | 300 | 158.57 |
| Price, David | 156.18 | 300 | 143.82 |
| Mancini, Trey | 180.27 | 300 | 119.73 |
| Sale, Chris | 221.36 | 300 | 78.64 |
| Urquidy, Jose | 217.1 | 281.57 | 64.47 |
| Puig, Yasiel | 191.38 | 255.29 | 63.91 |
| Rodriguez, Eduardo | 119.77 | 182.43 | 62.66 |
| Alvarez, Yordan | 39.97 | 102.29 | 62.31 |
| Wheeler, Zack | 105.71 | 155.43 | 49.71 |
| Archer, Chris | 250.34 | 300 | 49.66 |
| Helsley, Ryan | 293.12 | 250.43 | -42.69 |
| Kim, Kwang-Hyun | 263.88 | 217.57 | -46.31 |
| Kintzler, Brandon | 258.42 | 209 | -49.42 |
| Pressly, Ryan | 274.42 | 224.57 | -49.84 |
| Stripling, Ross | 282.65 | 232.57 | -50.08 |
| Kendrick, Howie | 292.36 | 236.43 | -55.94 |
| Magill, Matt | 283.64 | 224.29 | -59.35 |
| Crick, Kyle | 291.87 | 232.29 | -59.58 |
| Hill, Rich | 285.83 | 211.29 | -74.55 |
| Britton, Zack | 289.27 | 189.29 | -99.99 |
These are the top ten biggest differences in ADP in each direction. A 300 ADP means the player was not drafted. The top four are not a surprise at all. Yasiel Puig has likely been drafted all over the map this year. I was so excited when he was on the Braves for those three hours! Jose Urquidy, Eduardo Rodriguez and Yordan Alvarez all got the COVID knock. I have no idea if or when Yordan will actually make it into an MLB game, but a swing from a fourth rounder to a ninth.
On the other side we have an entire list of would-be closers and two old farts in Howie Kendrick and Rich Hill. Kendrick gets that NL DH bump and Hill wasn’t going to be ready to start the season back in April, so he gets drafted appropriately in July.
Each week we’ll peek in at our resident ‘perts to see who is laying claim to best “expert” RCLer in the land. We’ll take notes, check the standings and generally stalk them. The heading is also hyperlink, so feel free to follow along as we go.
As of Monday morning it was Son with the early lead of The Itch. Defending champ, Grey sits in eighth and with my near infinite ERA, I’m currently in DFL.
TRADES
All the trades that have gone down in the past week. Public ridicule is not only allowed, but encouraged.
| DATE | LEAGUE | DETAILS |
|---|---|---|
| 7/26/20 | NOTLZ |
Backdoor Cutters Traded Hansel Robles & Corey Knebel to St Votto’s MapleLeafs for Kenta Maeda
|
| 7/27/20 | RCL #58 |
Team tfjacks1 traded Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to Real Joey Bart for Mike Soroka & Max Fried
|
We had two trades this first week of baseball. Some relievers for Kenta Maeda and Vladdy Jr. traded for my NL Cy Young pick, Mike Soroka. I’m torn on that one, which means it was a great trade.
Speaking of trades, we are in the process of changing the trade deadline for the RCLs from August 8th to September 6th. If you see a warning banner at the top of your league page, it means I haven’t gotten there yet. I’m changing them by hand, so it’ll be a minute. If the banner is still there come August 1st, shoot me a message and let me know. Happy trading!
Want to be Matt’s Twitter pal? That’s kinda creepy, but you can follow him here: @MattTruss
