Draft season is done and over. Did that seem to drag or what? I’m pretty sure I had a draft every night for about 11 straight days there. I’m ready for real baseball. You can close out of your cheat sheets now. Take a breathe….OK stop….time to get on the RCL grind! Grab your caffeine vessel of choice and start researching tomorrow’s batty calls.
We’ll be looking at all the draft data that all of you contributed from the evening of February 22nd all the way until this past Sunday night. That’s just over a month of draft data to break down, dissect and tear apart. Next week, we’ll be able to dig into all those RCL teams a bit, but this week, it’s all about those drafts. Without further ado, let’s dig into how the RCLers drafted this year.
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
- 74 Razzball Commenter Leagues were created this year for a total of 888 teams
- RCLers drafted 477 different players this fantasy baseball season
- 201 players were drafted in every, single RCL
- Greg Bird and Aaron Sanchez had the highest pick differentials (Bird was drafted – Hopefully mistakenly at #9 and went undrafted in some leagues. Sanchez was drafted as high as 50 and as low as pick 288)
- Mike Trout had the smallest, he either went 1st or 2nd in every league.
- There were 22 different first round picks, all of which we will get to later
- Mookie Betts and Kris Bryant never went later than 7th overall
- Clayton Kershaw and Kris Bryant are the only two #1 picks besides Mike Trout
- There were 7 consensus first rounders
- Clayton Kershaw was not one of them. He had a pick spread of anywhere from #1 overall to #20 overall.
- Besides the Greg Bird outlier, Nelson Cruz was the player drafted in the first round that had the lowest single draft position (High – 9, Low – 49)
FIRST ROUNDERS
Last year there were only 5 consensus first rounders, this year we had seven. They are Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, Jose Altuve, Kris Bryant, Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt and Manny Machado. I am a bit surprised that Anthony Rizzo didn’t make the cut. Bryce Harper was even closer to consensus than Rizzo, only missing the cut in two leagues. It is unsurprising that so many power corners made the consensus list. Here is how the first round distribution shook out:
| Slot >>>> | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Total |
| Mike Trout | 72 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 74 |
| Mookie Betts | 0 | 22 | 33 | 13 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 74 |
| Jose Altuve | 0 | 21 | 15 | 9 | 10 | 14 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 74 |
| Kris Bryant | 1 | 7 | 9 | 19 | 16 | 15 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 74 |
| Nolan Arenado | 0 | 8 | 8 | 13 | 20 | 18 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 74 |
| Paul Goldschmidt | 0 | 10 | 8 | 15 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 74 |
| Manny Machado | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 21 | 25 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 74 |
| Bryce Harper | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 17 | 19 | 14 | 3 | 1 | 72 |
| Anthony Rizzo | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 12 | 12 | 7 | 22 | 7 | 68 |
| Josh Donaldson | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 16 | 22 | 14 | 9 | 68 |
| Clayton Kershaw | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 5 | 13 | 54 |
| Miguel Cabrera | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 14 | 18 | 40 |
| Trea Turner | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 35 |
| Charlie Blackmon | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 13 |
| Carlos Correa | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 9 |
| Madison Bumgarner | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Max Scherzer | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Edwin Encarnacion | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Nelson Cruz | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| George Springer | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Jonathan Villar | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Greg Bird | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Someone was so upset over my “Don’t draft Kershaw in the first round” article that the very next day he was drafted #1 overall.
Only three single league first round outliers. I can only imagine that the Bird pick was made by an insane, crazed Yankees fan. The Springer pick was in one of my leagues and the next pick was Miguel Cabrera, so it’s tomato/tomahto at 12 or 13. Jonathan Villar being drafted in the top 10 is an interesting draft choice. Rudy’s point shares had Villar at #16, so someone out there was even higher on the speedster. Rudy also picked Villar as his fantasy bust, so there’s that.
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 |
| Mike Trout | 1.03 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Mookie Betts | 3.08 | 2 | 7 | 5 |
| Jose Altuve | 4 | 2 | 9 | 7 |
| Kris Bryant | 4.55 | 1 | 7 | 6 |
| Nolan Arenado | 4.73 | 2 | 8 | 6 |
| Paul Goldschmidt | 4.91 | 2 | 9 | 7 |
| Manny Machado | 7.49 | 4 | 10 | 6 |
| Bryce Harper | 8.47 | 3 | 13 | 10 |
| Anthony Rizzo | 9.97 | 6 | 15 | 9 |
| Josh Donaldson | 10.34 | 7 | 15 | 8 |
| Clayton Kershaw | 10.38 | 1 | 20 | 19 |
| Trea Turner | 12.43 | 5 | 17 | 12 |
| Miguel Cabrera | 12.61 | 7 | 18 | 11 |
| Charlie Blackmon | 14.11 | 8 | 20 | 12 |
| Carlos Correa | 14.41 | 6 | 20 | 14 |
| Madison Bumgarner | 19.51 | 12 | 39 | 27 |
| Freddie Freeman | 20.28 | 13 | 35 | 22 |
| Corey Seager | 20.51 | 15 | 32 | 17 |
| Max Scherzer | 21.15 | 11 | 36 | 25 |
| Starling Marte | 21.74 | 14 | 31 | 17 |
| Joey Votto | 22.03 | 15 | 33 | 18 |
| Francisco Lindor | 22.45 | 13 | 35 | 22 |
| Edwin Encarnacion | 23.09 | 12 | 35 | 23 |
| Trevor Story | 24.14 | 13 | 42 | 29 |
Whoever got Trevor Story at 42 overall, I award you one slow clap. That’s amazing value. Story was the most polarizing pick of this group, but I absolutely love him in the second round.
The pitchers were very polarizing as well. This likely has a lot to do with the type of RCL. If it was an RCL that’s been around for some time and knows the format well, pitchers likely fell. If it’s a league where people have an IP limit mentality, pitchers likely went at their more typical ADPs.
RECENT TRENDS
Here we have a chart showing some of the changes in ADP from the week of 3/20 – 3/27 and this, the final drafting period from the 28th-2nd. The bigger the DIFF number the higher the player is currently being drafted and vice versa.
| PLAYER | ADP (3/21-3/27) | ADP (3/28-4/2) | DIFF |
| Blake Treinen | 286.59 | 234.46 | 52.13 |
| Greg Bird | 186.18 | 144.96 | 41.21 |
| Yadier Molina | 264.76 | 230.77 | 34 |
| Marcus Semien | 179 | 149.19 | 29.81 |
| Matt Shoemaker | 186.53 | 157.27 | 29.26 |
| Devon Travis | 202.71 | 174.73 | 27.98 |
| Nate Jones | 231.18 | 204.62 | 26.56 |
| Mitch Haniger | 257 | 231.35 | 25.65 |
| Michael Pineda | 189.82 | 165.27 | 24.55 |
| Lance McCullers | 144.94 | 121.23 | 23.71 |
| Dylan Bundy | 264.06 | 287.88 | -23.83 |
| Yasiel Puig | 224.06 | 248.96 | -24.9 |
| David Price | 148.12 | 175.58 | -27.46 |
| Didi Gregorius | 268.76 | 296.38 | -27.62 |
| Troy Tulowitzki | 143.76 | 171.62 | -27.85 |
| Wade Davis | 98.29 | 130.62 | -32.32 |
| Carlos Rodon | 209.47 | 246.81 | -37.34 |
| Hunter Renfroe | 235.82 | 279.62 | -43.79 |
| Addison Reed | 215.06 | 262.77 | -47.71 |
| Ian Desmond | 119.71 | 168.54 | -48.83 |
What a ride Dusty Baker has given us already. The Nationals closer guessing game has created an ADP roller coaster. First, it was Shawn Kelley, then it was Koda Glover and now, it’s Blake Treinen keeping the seat warm until David Robertson arrives.
The Greg Bird hype almost reached Jose Peraza level the final week of the draft season. Another two week and Bird would be being drafted in the top 100.
Addison Reed was a big dropper the final days as we learned that he’d only have the gig for two weeks instead of the four or even eight that were being speculated.
I hope you all had fantastic drafts and maybe you’ve been gifted a waiver wire closer already. If not, I suggest making a sacrifice to the almighty SAGNOF deity of choice ASAP. We’ll be back next week to cover the week that was in the RCLs as well as a little dive into the Razzball ‘Perts league. Until then, may streamers have low WHIPs and your batty calls bring slams and legs.
Want to be my Twitter pal? That’s kinda creepy, but you can follow me here: @MattTruss
