Top 100 Starting Pitchers – (T.G.F.B.)I…Finally Finished A Slow Draft

Happy Monday, Razzball faithful!

It’s good to (figuratively) see you all back for another week! Last week, I ran through “The Next 100” and outlined our 101-200 ranked starters from the 2024 Preseason Player Rater. Next week I’ll be trudging through the sludge that is the Next Next 100.

But what to do in the meantime? Prepare for Easter? Uh…maybe. Figure out my keepers for my two home league auctions? That might make sense too.

I should at least shout out our RCL drafts that are currently up and running. There  are a few free leagues to test your drafting and in-season management skills. If you’ve got an extra $20 and want to come see me on Saturday night, I’ll be drafting in RCL #35!

(Editor’s Note: Here is the link to play against MarmosDad for $20:CLICK HERE TO JOIN!  If that doesn’t fill by Friday, I’ll toss my $20 for an autograft as well, so there could be some dead money in there.  But let’s see if we can fill it by then!)

I suppose I could continue to sift through all that is available in Rudy’s Razzball subscriptions, too. I’ve shared before that the tools, ad-free-browsing, Streamonator, and War Room access make it well worth the price of admission.

But I have been staring at those Google sheets for three straight weeks now and every time I look at my dogs, I see green, yellow, beige, and blue bars with numbers written all over them. 

Ah…I know what we can do this week. I can give you a run-down of my pitching selections from the TGFBI draft. (Author’s note: I started with an attempt at breaking down this and the first 32 rounds of RazzSlam together, but I figured after last week’s novella, I’d better try to keep this one succinct).

First, a word or two about the TGFBI league…

TGFBI is apparently an acronym for “The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational” that Justin Mason runs each year with fantasy baseball writers and/or podcasters from the industry. This year we had 28 leagues with 15 teams in each. So, 420 managers in total. Cheech and Chong would be proud.

The scoring is a traditional Rotisserie format with a 30 round slow draft (4 hour clock for each pick). Essentially, we start a squad of 23 active players with a 7 man reserve squad that we can sub in and out weekly (twice a week for hitters), and cycle players in/out with weekly FAAB runs ($1000 for the year).

In good old league #859, it was a pretty long haul. Seriously, I think a more fitting title would have been “That God-Forsaken (Draft) Board Isn’t (Moving)”.

This Draft-o Is Too Slow-num!

Despite the assistance from Albus the Spellcaster, things moved along at a snail’s pace. If the snail was heavily medicated on painkillers. And had been stuck in a bottle of cough syrup for three weeks.

Mercifully, we finished this past Thursday. The second last draft out of 28 to wrap up 30 rounds (apologies to whoever is in that #855 league that still has one round to go).

But, I guess if FantasyPros have anything to say about it, I’m in good shape to start.

Besides being fairly surprised in setting the max. pick on Corbin Carroll at 1.09, there are a few other selections that I had on the pitching side that made me pretty happy by end of that draft marathon.

I’ll break it into six sections of five rounds each.

Rounds 1-5 – Let’s Get an Ace … Or Two

4.52 – Freddy Peralta – First and foremost, I wrote up a bunch of these guys already in my “Celebrity Razzmatch” post from a couple of weeks ago. Just as a quick note – I had targeted Peralta as a worthy ace for this league and had planned on taking hitters in the first 3 rounds, anyway. I justified the 1.09 max. pick of Carroll with a 2.22 min. pick of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and followed him in Round 3 with Bo Bichette. They can’t say I’m not true to that maple syrup and poutine brand, now.

Luckily, Peralta was still there on the way back up (or down?). I’ll take that #1 at an SP14 cost.

5.69 – Logan Gilbert – Again, I dove into it a bit more in that Razzmatch post, but seeing GIlbert in Round 5 was too good to pass up. The control and ratio numbers are off the charts. In a good way. Other SP had been flying off the board, too, so he was the best option in the group of Jesus Luzardo, Bobby Miller, and Eury Perez.

Rounds 6-10 – Closer to the Heart (of Florida?)

6.82 – Pete Fairbanks – Unlike in the Razzslam, pitching is pretty important to load up on early in a Roto-league. I needed a top-flight closer, and missed out on a mini-run of four of them, including the guy I had hoped would make it back – Blue Jays stopper, Jordan Romano.  Between my Gilbert pick and this one, I could’ve gone with Andres Munoz, Evan Phillips, or Ryan Helsley. I waffled back and forth with all three, so I asked our bullpen guru JKJ for advice. He’s all in on Helsley this year but was equally bullish on Fairbanks. I like Fairbanks a lot…*crossing fingers for a full and healthy season*…so let’s hope he locks down 30+ saves.

10.142  – Carlos Rodon – For me, this guy is like the pitching version of Adalberto Mondesi. I know I shouldn’t do it. I really know the injury bug is just waiting to embed itself into that left arm. And I know that despite the big contract, he’s not necessarily guaranteed to ‘bounce back’ to the form that saw him win 13 games in 2021 or strikeout 237 guys in 2022…but when my other SP options in Round 10 were Chris Bassitt, Merrill Kelly, and an already injured Mr. Kate Upton Verlander…meh…It was time to roll the dice and pray, again.

Rounds 11-15 – Let’s Find A Deal

11.159 – Jordan Montgomery – Somehow he’s still without a home. Mr. #26 on our Top 100 went as the 42nd SP in this league. I assume he signs with a legitimate playoff bound team (just put your issues aside, Yankees, and bring the guy back already). I thought it wasn’t a bad scoop at nearly 20 spots behind his Top 100 slot.

13.189 – Shota Imanaga – This guy has been a bit of a darling for the Razzball Writers’ sewing circle. I slotted him into the Aggregator VS Razzball in Round 6 of that Razzmatch article. Short version: the 40th SP on the Top 100 board going as the SP50 slot in our draft? Yep. I’ll take that.

15.219 – Carlos Estevez – The panic reliever. By this point, I was happy with Fairbanks, but the remaining closer options on board were not exactly appealing. Don’t believe me? Alex Lange had just gone two picks prior to this selection, and the next three RP were Robert Suarez, Hunter Harvey, and Yuki Matsui. It made it easier to stomach taking Estevez here because his main threat, Robert Stephenson, is still hurt. Perry Maniasian, please do the expected Angels thing and not give the job to Ben Joyce so you can suppress his future arbitration earnings. As the kids say (4 years ago)…YEET!

Rounds 16-20 – About That Extra Closer…

19.279 – Kyle Finnegan – This is another one that JKJ has been high on for at least the last year or two. If I had to choose between Finnegan and Harvey, I’d still go with Finnegan. Hopefully, Dave Martinez thinks so too.

Rounds 21-25 – A Double Shot For The Boss

23.339 – Jon Gray – The following pair are guys were two SP that I had on my shortlist for late rounds. Yes, they’re not spelled the same way as it is on Mr. Albright’s driver’s license…or as you’d find it in a Canadian dictionary…but I went with back-to-back Gray arms based on offensive support and job security (at least with the first one here). DeGrom and Scherzer are out? The guys behind him in the pecking order are…Dane Dunning and Cody Bradford? And Jon Gray is penciled in as the SP2? I’m ok taking a shot on that in Round 23.

24.352 – Josiah Gray – The similar story with this one, aside from the name, is the opportunity. The Nationals do not have a lot of other options for a 5-man rotation. Honestly, before I looked at the projections I thought the only real arm they had ahead of Gray was maybe MacKenzie Gore. I’d apologize to Patrick Corbin for forgetting him, but I assume a lot of you have some ax to grind with that guy if you’ve had him over the last 5 years. I picked this kid up in RazzSlam, too. I’m kind of tempted to have him as my breakout pick this year as well. Edit note: Yesterday, the Nationals announced that Gray would be their opening day starter.

Rounds 26-30 – Broken Birds and Baloney

28.412 – John Means – Ok. So, this should give you a bit of insight on the problem I have with certain players. Did I say I originally wanted to list Means as an injury bounceback in the AL East pod with Keelin? Yes. Did I break down why I changed my mind and then flipped him to a sell? Also, yes. Did I release him ahead of one of my home keeper mixed league protected list submission dates? Yep. Can I entirely avoid taking a risk on him, especially in a weekly FAAB league where he could give me an easy drop if he’s out for an extended period of time? I can almost hear you now: “But I thought you said you were out on Means! Phoney Baloney alert!” Get out of my brain!

30.442 – Bowden Francis – I wrote up him, and the rest of the Blue Jays back end of rotation hopefuls, in last week’s Tea For The Tiedemann. A guy with a legitimate shot at SP5 for my hometown-ish team as the final round pick? Sold.

Some final words about the draft

• I managed to follow my plan, for the most part, and secure a good hitting base with a couple of top end SP and at least one good closer by the end of Round 6.
• A straight draft is a lot easier to roll with the plan or shift gears mid-draft than it is in an auction. With a 4 hour clock, and 15 teams drafting, it was much easier to re-assess where I needed to make improvements and act accordingly.
• Using a tool like Rudy’s War Room makes things so much easier. You don’t have to follow it like it’s the Roto-Bible, (but…it kind of is). It’s a fantastic resource to have at your disposal if even to just track player selections and make sure that you’re hitting all of your category targets.
• After a certain point, ADP becomes less of a tether and more of a general, loose guideline. You’ve heard it before. If you’re 2/3 through a draft like this, (eg. Round 20), go get your guys…or someone else will.

That’s all for this week! I hope you enjoyed it! As I said in the introduction, I’ll be back next week to wade into the depths that is SP200-300 for you deep draft/only league peeps.

Drop some comments in the chat if you’re feeling extra fired up about some of picks I made here. Have a great week and for those of you drafting leagues, good luck…unless you signed up for RCL #35!

Follow me @marmosdad on Twitter/X and Bluesky @marmosdad.bsky.social