How is everyone hanging in there? Hopefully you are doing well, maintaining proper social distancing, washing well and catching up on all those shows you’ve been meaning to binge. I’ll admit, I’m at a bit of a loss without baseball on the horizon, but what else is a fantasy baseballer to do but draft? You know, we prepare for weeks leading up to draft day and I’ve found drafting to be a bit therapeutic in this time of turmoil. Many of my bigger money leagues have moved their drafts to a later date to be determined, but I’ve been enjoying drafting RCLs aplenty. We went ahead and moved a couple handfuls of RCLs all through the month of April. Now, you all will be able to draft to your heart’s content while under quarantine. Go ahead and pop down below and take a gander at the spreadsheet to pick a league to join. We’ll also be looking at how this delay in the start of the season has affected some player’s ADPs.
DRAFT TRENDS
This week we’re going to look at how the COVID-19 delay has changed ADPs in the last week and a half or so. I used Thursday, March 12th as the cutoff for when the world went upside down. That allows us to look at 23 leagues pre-delay and 22 post-delay. Pretty much even if you ask me. As always, if you’re curious about any ADPs, you can consult the RCL ADP SPREADSHEET that I maintain for all of your viewing pleasure. I’ve seen plenty of anonymous animals with that spreadsheet open and I’d consider it a great resource during your RCL drafts. You can also just copy out the data to your own Excel sheet and use it in your own War Room if that tickles your fancy. Enjoy and deity of choice speed.
BIGGEST FALLERS
| PLAYER | PRE-COVID ADP | POST-COVID ADP | DIFF |
| Sale, Chris | 177.83 | 221.09 | -43.26 |
| Mancini, Trey | 157.04 | 178 | -20.96 |
| Arraez, Luis | 232.04 | 251.5 | -19.46 |
| Giles, Ken | 116.74 | 135.95 | -19.21 |
| Pagan, Emilio | 261.48 | 279.45 | -17.97 |
| Polanco, Gregory | 272.57 | 289.86 | -17.29 |
| Aquino, Aristides | 206.65 | 222.82 | -16.17 |
| Hudson, Dakota | 248 | 264.09 | -16.09 |
| Murphy, Daniel | 257.61 | 272.23 | -14.62 |
| Gardner, Brett | 282.3 | 295.73 | -13.43 |
| Manaea, Sean | 180.78 | 194.18 | -13.4 |
| Robert, Luis | 73.13 | 85.86 | -12.73 |
| Seager, Kyle | 274.61 | 286.82 | -12.21 |
| Quintana, Jose | 277.7 | 289.68 | -11.98 |
| Hendricks, Kyle | 132.83 | 144.77 | -11.94 |
| Hernandez, Cesar | 282.57 | 294.36 | -11.79 |
| Ray, Robbie | 130.52 | 142.27 | -11.75 |
| Gray, Jon | 233.83 | 245.45 | -11.62 |
| Puk, A.J. | 223.48 | 234.91 | -11.43 |
| Verlander, Justin | 28.3 | 39.41 | -11.11 |
Chris Sale being the biggest faller in this list comes as no surprise as his Tommy John surgery was announced in the middle of this mess, making him entirely undraftable. Trey Mancini’s non-baseball surgery was also announced right around this time, dropping him a bit as well. Luis Arraez’s drop is a big of a mystery to me, unless I’m unaware of some news, I’m not really sure what could have caused his drop. Maybe folks just stopped punting average until the end of drafts. Honestly, I’d chalk most of the rest of this list up to simple drafting variance. The exception of course, being Justin Verlander who announced his groin surgery. Given the expected time frame of his recovery, this has led to a major buying opportunity. I was able to nab Verlander at 77 overall in the FCL draft where savvy RCLers discount pitching appropriately. In RCL 59 Verlander went at pick 100. Anywhere in the 60+ range is pretty sweet risk/reward if you ask me.
BIGGEST RISERS
| PLAYER | PRE-COVID ADP | POST-COVID ADP | DIFF |
| Judge, Aaron | 113.7 | 75 | 38.7 |
| McCutchen, Andrew | 256.52 | 229.95 | 26.57 |
| Carlson, Dylan | 250.91 | 225.05 | 25.86 |
| Verdugo, Alex | 254.7 | 230.23 | 24.47 |
| Lugo, Seth | 274.35 | 253.14 | 21.21 |
| Happ, Ian | 268.35 | 247.68 | 20.67 |
| Pearson, Nate | 277.09 | 258.23 | 18.86 |
| Pederson, Joc | 263.87 | 245.27 | 18.6 |
| Stanton, Giancarlo | 96.91 | 78.59 | 18.32 |
| Jimenez, Joe | 232.7 | 214.82 | 17.88 |
| Nunez, Renato | 285.52 | 269.27 | 16.25 |
| Matz, Steven | 295.52 | 279.36 | 16.16 |
| Kingery, Scott | 177.78 | 163.14 | 14.64 |
| Puig, Yasiel | 211.74 | 197.36 | 14.38 |
| Lowe, Brandon | 193.26 | 179.45 | 13.81 |
| Wood, Alex | 270.39 | 256.64 | 13.75 |
| Givens, Mychal | 277.74 | 264 | 13.74 |
| Gore, MacKenzie | 287.96 | 275.32 | 12.64 |
| Gregorius, Didi | 187.52 | 175.05 | 12.47 |
| Riley, Austin | 253.96 | 241.86 | 12.1 |
Aaron Judge and Andrew McCutchen are perfect examples of the impact of the season delay. Two injured stars, who were not going to start the regular season on time who now likely will. This boosts their ADP tremendously and if you can sneak Judge at a discount, it’s a great time to pounce. The same can be said for Giancarlo. Alex Verdugo is another injured player who has a much higher likelihood of starting the season healthy now.
I think I might be to blame for driving up the ADPs of terrible closers and would-be closers as I’ve drafted three times since the 12th and always spend picks 200+ just racking up SAGNOF delights.
MacKenzie Gore is an interesting riser. Maybe a lot of Padres fans have drafted recently? My guess is people expect with the possible shortened season the Pads will call him up quicker than they would have during a full season. Makes sense. A similar thought process might be there for Austin Riley as Grey elluded to the other day. No way the Braves bench the kid for Camargo at this point.
TO JOIN A LEAGUE
Click the LINK in the ‘League Link’ column (see below grid) for the time you want and YOU’RE IN. Damn, that’s too easy. Oh, I guess I should also mention make sure you’re joining a league for free or for money, depending on your preference. If you want a league for money, then 1) Click the link. 2) Pay the money. That’s it! No pesky third requirement! Again, Fantrax and Razzball take no money. You can join as many free or paid leagues as you like. To quit a league, go to OTHER –> All Options –> Quit League (located at the bottom). Now go join some leagues!
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