Rolling In The Deep: My 2025 Laura Holt Challenge Team!

Opening Day is finally less than two weeks away, but before we get to our regular season deep league programming, it’s time for a draft recap of my eponymous Laura Holt Challenge RCL. I may be a bit biased, but it’s hard to imagine a more competitive league in the land of fantasy baseball (starting with the fact that it features the last two RCL overall winners, as our league mate Gunk enters the season wearing the 2024 crown).

I decided to talk about my LHC team this week before we drafted on Wednesday, regardless of whether or not I came away happy with my roster. That’s probably just as well since this team might not have excited me enough to write about it otherwise. I don’t hate it, but it really doesn’t look like one of my typical teams (largely because the players I like were getting snapped up right and left). It’s also because I made decisions a little differently based on the RCL format, and also because I wanted to take a few shots at guys I’ve been tempted by but have mostly been fading. It was time for me to mix up my rosters a little bit, and spread out the injury/poor performance risk.

The great thing about the RCL format is that even if you aren’t particularly happy with your draft, it really doesn’t matter, since it will probably look largely different in a few weeks, if not a few days (at least if you enjoy churning players as much as I do… those 500 roster transactions aren’t going to make themselves!) One other thought: I’m never big on worrying too much about specific categories in these leagues, within reason of course. I just try to get as many players who are good at as many things as possible, and go from there as the season progresses. So, here’s my team along with the round each player was taken (I had pick #3) along with some thoughts, followed by some highlighted picks from the other teams.

You can see the entire draft HERE.

C  – Logan O’Hoppe (18). I’ll probably churn catchers all year, but I thought I’d start with O’Hoppe simply because the Angels have a soft schedule on paper to open the season and I think he has a chance to not completely suck.

1B – Michael Busch (16). Once Casas, Naylor, and Bellinger went with the first three picks of round six, I knew first base was the position I’d wait on and take what was left over later in the draft. I like Busch’s chances of putting a solid season together, but I won’t hesitate to move on from him quickly (and perhaps erroneously) if he doesn’t impress in the early going.

2B – Ketel Marte (2). I had a solitary post-it next to my laptop as this draft started, which said “Wait on 2B.” Clearly, I did not heed the advice of said post-it, but I will say it was nice not having to scramble at a weak position later in the draft.

3B – Jose Ramirez (1). I really wanted Ramirez on at least one team this year, just in case this is once again not the year he finally stops producing monster fantasy stats. I will say, I remembered third base as being weaker than it is, as in this draft it seemed like I passed on a third baseman I liked about every other round after locking up J-Ram.

SS – Willy Adames (4). This is my first share of Adames this year, who I think could be a relative bust and if nothing else seems unlikely to run anywhere near as much as he did last year. Why did I draft him then? Mostly so that I could hopefully pencil in some solid production without having to worry about missing out on a shortstop run later (or flipping shortstops every other day), and so that I could move on with my draft and start concentrating on my outfield and pitching.

CI/MI – Perhaps two of Carlos Correa (20), Willi Castro (21), and Christian Encarnacion-Strand (23), who all had early season schedules I didn’t mind, or perhaps whomever I’ve dropped them for by the time the season starts. Again, I’ll be churning all year here, until and unless someone sticks.

OFs – Jazz Chisholm (3), Lawrence Butler (5), Christian Yelich (7), Bryan Reynolds (8), Taylor Ward (14). I have much more injury risk tolerance in the RCL format, since it’s so much easier to find decent fill-in production compared to most of my leagues. It’s also hard not to boost a guy like Jazz who has 3B/OF eligibility up the draft sheet a few notches in a daily change league. And while it’s nice drafting in the middle of each round to avoid runs and whatnot, I do kind of like the freedom drafting closer to the end tends to give. Somehow it seems easier to just take the players I really want if I think there’s any chance they won’t make it back to me, even if it’s a bit of a reach on paper. I’m all in on Butler right now after getting over my initial sticker shock at how high he was being drafted right from the get-go this offseason. And I may be overdrafting Yelich, but didn’t want to miss out in case they actually fixed his back over the off season.

Reynolds was one of the last outfielders on the board that I thought had a chance to stick in my lineup indefinitely, so I made a spontaneous decision to choose him over a pitcher. As much as I love the fun of turning half my lineup over every other day in these leagues, there’s a point where it can become too much of a good thing. It’s not only a huge time suck, but it can also backfire when you outthink yourself and stream guys whose production doesn’t add up to the boring but safe player you could have just stuck in your lineup. So I made a concentrated effort to grab a few higher floor players that might keep me from needing to do this in this league (which is also one of the reasons why I structured my pitching staff a little differently than I usually do, which we’ll get to momentarily). As for my 5th outfielder if I move Jazz to CI, it’s Jorge Soler (19)… for now.

U – Let’s call it Michael Conforto (24) for the moment, since I thought it might be nice to have a Dodger to root for in the Tokyo series and all the rest were taken.

SP – Michael King (6), Hunter Greene (9), Sonny Gray (11), Joe Ryan (13), Reynaldo Lopez (17). I usually draft two starters fairly early in the RCL format and then ignore starting pitching for most of the rest of the draft. I decided to change things up this season, however — starting a little later with the SPs, but drafting no fewer than six of them (the above list doesn’t count Zach Eflin (22), who I just kind of drafted because it seemed like a good idea at the time and I just can’t quit him. He may or may not ever see my active lineup).

I don’t have King ranked as highly as some, but was happy enough to land him near the end of round six. The other four were all boosted slightly for me in this format by virtue of hopefully providing a solid K/9 rate… the question is whether any or all of them will be able to consistently pitch at a level that doesn’t negatively impact my WHIP and/or ERA too much. The other question is whether I’ll be patient enough to stick with them after a bad start or two, and the third question is whether or not I should. I have no problem being ruthless in this format, so if carrying five or so starters doesn’t seem to be working or if anyone disappoints early, changes will be made, for better or worse.

RP – Tanner Scott (10), Trevor Megill (12), A.J. Puk (15), Alex Vesia (25).

Again, this just doesn’t look like most of my teams. This is my only share of Scott, and overall I didn’t realize how few relievers I’d rostered until after the draft (I often go nuts with the RPs in an RCL). I had to remind myself that I have all year to churn relievers and speculate for saves (and I may well drop one or more of my hitters and replace them with relievers by the time you read this), though SAGNOF is a double edged sword in a competitive RCL. Yes, there will be valuable relievers available in the free agent pool, but there are also eleven other smart and diligent owners lying in wait to snap them up. The fact that we have only three bench spots is where the fun really begins though, since every player added to a team means the release of another who may be just as interesting back onto the waiver wire.

Moving on, let’s look at some interesting picks from the eleven other teams in this draft. This is not really a league to expect bargains in; the only guys that tend to fall with this group of sharks are the guys you didn’t want either. So interesting, in this case, could mean “great deal that late,” or it could mean “wow, that owner was damn smart to pick that player — who we all really would have liked to leave the draft with and won’t remember which round he went in when he’s getting named to the All Star team this summer — two rounds earlier than any of us expected.”

After starting with Ohtani, Bluefield Baby Birds took three starters (Zack Wheeler, Garrett Crochet, and Cole Ragans) and the number one ranked closer in Emmanuel Clase with their next four picks. A bit of a zag versus the traditional Razzball zig, but I’m thinking there’s a chance this works out brilliantly in this particular league. MC’s Hammer, meanwhile, waited until round eight to take a starter, and compiled a swoon worthy SP staff (in my opinion, partly because it looks SO much like many of mine, and makes me wish I hadn’t branched out in this draft ; ) They spent five of their six picks (#2 overall) between rounds 8 and 13 on pitchers, landing Bryce Miller, Bailey Ober, Shane McClanahan, Justin Steele, and Robbie Ray.

Young Guns IV picked fourth, and it’s one of those ‘earlier than I expected’ picks that I’m highlighting here, namely Michael Toglia in round 12. I had Toglia in one of my NL-only keeper leagues last year, and can’t decide if he just had a few career months last year or a legitimate breakout. Rostering him as your first baseman in an RCL league is the perfect place to find out, as he’ll be a game changer if the latter is true, and easy enough to replace if it’s not. On a similar note, I really liked #5 pick Donnie Baseball‘s selection of Ian Happ in round 7. Again, it was earlier than I expected Happ to go off the board, but I think he’s being undervalued this year. Those of us who suffered through some admittedly excruciating stretches from him last year may have forgotten just how solid his overall 2024 numbers ended up being.

Picking sixth was the aforementioned returning champ Gunk Squad, and looking at his team I’m reminded how much I like drafting smack in the middle of a 12-team league. You don’t just need to be in the position to make picks, though, you have to make the right ones, and I love a lot of the mid-draft players Gunk snapped up. A couple examples: Seiya Suzuki in the 7th round, and Jared Jones (who may be in the fantasy baseball version of a love quadrangle with me, my fellow Razzball writer MarmosDad, and Bryan Woo… albeit one that that Jones and Woo don’t know about yet) in the 13th.

Moving on to the team picking seventh, rloyod, I’m zooming in on his grab of the all-but-forgotten Jung Hoo Lee in round 21. I have no idea what to expect from Lee even assuming full health, but this could be a very wise pick if he impresses, and an easy flip to the next guy if he doesn’t. Ted’s Splendid Splinter, meanwhile, made sure I went one more draft without rostering Spencer Schwellenbach, who I’ve been targeting since I started drafting in October, drafting him in round seven. There are few players with as much helium right now, and this is starting to feel like a really fun party where I’ve been unceremoniously left off the guest list. Now it’s time for a closer shout-out, with Poison Control drafting Kenley Jansen in round 18. If Jansen acclimates well in Anaheim, this pick could prove to be on of the draft’s few true steals.

Rounding out the final quarter of the draft was Atavistic Abalones picking 10th. How can I not mention Bryan Woo, whom they added to their team in round 9? (This also means I’ve somehow managed to mention Woo twice in a draft recap where I didn’t draft him, which is much less shocking than the fact that I don’t have him on this team in the first place). Let’s pivot to another smart potential bargain closer pick with Dunphy’s Joint Venture, who was able to land Ryan Pressly in round 19. They also cleverly grabbed Porter Hodge in round 22, who is not only a sensible handcuff, he could be a valuable reliever in this format even if he’s not closing. Finally, team Blah Blah Blah has a lot of picks I like out of the final draft spot, including starting that little first base run I mentioned by aggressively taking Casas, whom I’ve been slowly but surely moving up my rankings this offseason, to kick off round 6. I also love his pick of Colton Cowser in round 13, as these are two players who could both have some serious upside in relation to their current draft position.

Well, there you have it. When we meet again there will be two MLB games that count in the books, and until then, happy drafting!

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