RCL Update, Week 1: 85 Leagues Under The Razz

That’s a wrap on the 2016 Razzball Commenters League fantasy baseball draft season.  You can close out of spreadsheets and stop worrying about whether or not you should handcuff Ken Giles with Luke Gregerson (Yes, yes you should have).  What’s done is done and now it’s time to prep for the daily grind that is an RCL league.  So, grab your caffeine ingestion method of choice and start researching tomorrow’s batty calls.  

This week, we’re going to take a look at all the draft data that all of you contributed to our leagues.  We span from drafts the morning of February 28th all the way until this past Sunday afternoon.  That’s just over a month of draft data to break down, dissect and tear apart.  Next week, we’ll be able to focus things on you all as we’ll have a week’s worth of stats to ponder.  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

• 85 Razzball Commenter Leagues were created this year for a total of 1,020 teams
• RCLers drafted 501 different players this fantasy baseball season
• 206 players were drafted in every, single RCL
• Domingo Santana had the highest pick differential (High – 86, Low – Undrafted)
• Desmond Jennings had the smallest, he either went undrafted or was drafted with the very last pick of the draft.
• There were 23 different first round picks, all of which we will get to later
• Mike Trout never went lower than 3rd overall
• Paul Goldschmidt never went lower than 4th overall
• Bryce Harper never went lower than 5th overall
• There were only 5 consensus first rounders, can you guess the other two before scrolling to the chart below?
• Nope, not Clayton Kershaw.  Of the top 21 players by ADP, Kershaw had the largest spread (High – 2, Low – 22)
• 3 other players broke into the top 3 in one draft or another.  Josh Donaldson (High – 2), Giancarlo Stanton (High – 2) and Anthony Rizzo (High – 3)
• Besides the two outliers we’ll see in the chart below, Max Scherzer was the player drafted in the first round that had the lowest single draft position (High – 10, Low – 32)

FIRST ROUNDERS

I was a bit surprised that there were only 5 consensus 1st round selections and that Nolan Arenado (missed it by 1 pick in 1 league) and Anthony Rizzo weren’t among them.  Instead, it was Josh Donaldson and Carlos Correa that joined the likes of Trout, Harper and Goldy.  It seems that no one could resist snagging a top 3B option before things got too ugly at that position and everyone was a sucker for a 5 tool shortstop.  Here is how the first round distribution shook out:

The Maikel Franco pick was surprisingly not made by Razzball friend, Prospect Mike.  Instead, it was made in one of J-FOH’s leagues, so I hit him up for an explanation.  Apparently this pick was made by a first time fantasy baseballer and SHE took “Get your guys” a little too literal.  On the plus side, I think that brings our total to 6 female readers!  

The Cody Allen pick was made in a draft full of questionable activity (Yan Gomes #21, Anthony Rizzo #19, etc) followed by more questionable trading after the draft.  I would pretty much just throw this data out.

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:

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-3rd.  The bigger the DIFF number the higher the player is currently being drafted and vice versa.

It’s a tale of two relievers here with Roberto Osuna and Drew Storen who had their assumed roles reversed and RCLers reacted accordingly.  Trevor Story got more and more love as the draft season went on and he rewarded his drafters Monday night with an opening night double dong.  On the flip side of that, Jose Peraza started to garner more draft day love only to be sent packing to AAA.  The Luke Gregerson buzz got strong last week and he moved from nearly undrafted into the 19-22 round range.  Those that had their ear to the grindstone were rewarded with a shiny new closer, leaving Ken Giles owners in despair.  Those hoping for the same result from stashing Andrew Bailey were rewarded with a trip to the minor leagues.  That dream was short lived as Dalier Hinojosa became the freshest face on the Phillies closer block.  News of Hyun Soo Kim not having a job drove his ADP down as did the health of the Yankees outfield for Razzball favorite, Aaron Hicks.  RIP A.J. Pollock.

I hope you all had fantastic (Pollock free) drafts and maybe you’ve been gifted a waiver wire closer already.  If not, I suggest making a sacrifice to the almighty SAGNOF 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 Matt’s Twitter pal?  That’s kinda creepy, but you can follow Matt here: @MattTruss.