2024A Louisville Sluggers

This post is going to highlight the fantasy baseball team I've built for the first half (A) season of the OBFLB (Original Bitnet Fantasy Baseball League). As I've explained before, this is a 24 team league I joined in 1991 and we play 2 seasons each year, divided basically by the all-star break. There is an annual mid-year draft.

It features head-to-head competition in 10 categories. Five are offensive -- HR, steals, plate appearances, on base percentage, and "runs produced" (runs + RBI / ABs). Five are pitching -- ERA, WHIP, wins, innings pitched, and 2xSaves plus Holds. 

I'll note the 8 players I retained from last year in red and will indicate draft rounds for the other players. 

Lineup

C Will Smith LAD

1B Vinnie Pasquantino KC

2B Isaac Paredes TB

3B Gunnar Henderson BAL

SS Anthony Volpe NYY

OF Ronald Acuna ATL

OF Kerry Carpenter DET (10)

OF Will Benson CIN (14)

DH Jordan Westburg BAL (13)

Bench

C Freddy Fermin KC (26)

2B Michael Massey KC (23)

UT Zack McKinstry DET (21)

OF Trent Grisham (20)

OF Roman Anthony BOS (22)

OF Jason Hayward LAD (24)

OF Estevan Florial CLE (28)

Pitching

SP Sonny Gray STL

SP Nick Pivetta BOS (9)

SP Seth Lugo KC (11)

SP Luis Severino NYM (12)

SP Reynaldo Lopez ATL (15)

SP Clarke Schmidt NYY (16)

SP Keaton Winn SF (19)

SP Matt Waldron SD (25)

RP Adbert Alzolay CHC 

RP Hunter Harvey WAS (17)

RP Jason Adam TB (18)

RP Steven Wilson CHX (27)

My 2023B season team won the championship, which I'm fairly sure I did not previously note on the blog. I had also won in 2021 A (linked above) and the only carryovers from that team are C W. Smith, OF Acuna, and SP Gray. 

In total, the Sluggers have won 11 World Series (in 14 appearances) competing in 65 championship seasons. Another team (the Men of LA) has 10 titles in 16 appearances, but the teams have never met in the World Series. We have met at least once in the playoffs when Men of LA beat the Sluggers in 2021 B. Prior to 2012 the playoff matchups are not clearly delineated in the records.   


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2023 Bolts from the Blue

As I have previously written here, I began playing in the Hardy House fantasy baseball league in 1989. It was named for the building on the Northwestern campus where we conducted our first few auctions. I didn't have to travel far as I was teaching in the Political Science department there at the time. 

We started out as a standard 4x4 roto league, but switched from using batting average to on- base percentage as a hitting category in 2011 and also added strikeouts and runs as categories in that same season. We changed from saves to saves plus .5*Holds in 2019, but had no regular season in 2020 so this is still a fairly new category. 

The 2022 version of my team finished in the middle of the pack (6th) of 12 teams. It started slowly, had a strong run in the middle of the season, but ultimately had insufficient pitching to contend for the title. If I had purchased Kevin Gausman at the auction from the Toronto rotation instead of Jose Berrios my entire position and strategy might have changed. Their auction prices spring 2022 were nearly identical. As a result of my predicament, very late in the season I traded virtually all of my hitting stars (who would be free agents) for some players I could potentially retain in 2023.

Here's my roster from the auction, which was held in person for the first time since 2019, though two owners again participated over Zoom. Because of various time conflicts, the auction actually occurred on March 11, which is incredibly early by the standards of Hardy House. 

Retained players are in blue. 

C Kirk TOR $7

C Jansen TOR $11

1B Pasquantino KC $29

2B Semien TEX $26

3B Rendon LAA $5

SS Crawford SEA $8

MI Paredes TB $5

CI Turner BOS $14

OF Ward LAA $5

OF Hays BAL $10

OF Kepler MIN $10

OF Stanton NYY $21

DH Moore SEA $3

$154 hitting (or 59% of the $260 allotment)

P McClanahan TB $20

P Eovaldi TEX $8

P German NYY $3

P Rodon NYY $23

P Kirby SEA $20

P Hall BAL $2

P Kluber BOS $1

P Bautista BAL $3

P Pressly HOU $25

P Beeks TB $1

$106 for pitching (or 41% of the budget)

Reserves (I selected 6th in the snake draft):

OF Eaton KC $3

P Paul Blackburn OAK $2

P Bryan Baker BAL $1

The league did a much better job of spending its auction money this year as there was not much left over. This was the first time in awhile that I spent every dime of my cash. The pace was also quicker and we finished nearly an hour earlier than we typically do when meeting in person. This was largely because we did not break for lunch -- owners were asked to bring lunch or arrange delivery. 

I probably spent more than anyone on pitching, partly because I expected Rodon's salary to go higher despite the injury reports. I was price enforcing and the bidding stopped on me. At the listed price, he could be a big steal and a potential retained player for 2024 even after his required raise to $27. I apparently also valued Kirby more than others did, but a couple of other starting pitchers were bigger bargains -- Jon Gray went for $10, Tyler Mahle for $8, Pablo Lopez for $14, Luis Castillo $24, and Logan Gilbert $20. If I could reconfigure my pitching costs to swap out some other players, I would. 

As it often turns out, I ended up with some guys who moved over from the NL in the off-season (Rodon and Turner). Blackburn and Moore are hurt to start the season and Hall was sent to the minors by the Orioles. Crawford also has a minor injury apparently. I need to have a good outcome in the initial free agent run Monday.

Pasquantino was likely retained at too high of a price, but my pre-auction calculations showed that 1B was not going to be a great position and it was probably ok to overspend a few dollars on a guy with very good OBP skills. By my calculations several of the veteran players I bought were a bit under their auction values. But no pick screams BARGAIN. Right after I bought Kepler some other outfielders of comparable talent went off the board for lower prices. 

During auctions, I often jump bids to $10 from the opening $1 to move the process along. That backfired this year when my brain momentarily confused Austin Hays and Anthony Santander. No one bid $11 on Hays and I ended up with an outfielder that I likely would not otherwise have pursued. That was dumb. Santander went later for $19. Sigh. 

 

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2022 Bolts from the Blue

I began playing in the Hardy House fantasy baseball league in 1989. It was named for the building on the Northwestern campus where we conducted our first few auctions. I didn't have to travel far as I was teaching in the Political Science department there at the time. 

There have been many ownership changes over the years, and I'm the only guy in the league who has played every season. A couple of other guys have been in all but one and just about everyone has been in the league for a decade or two. Even the "new guys" have now played for many years.  We have a healthy share of lawyers and academics, and most of the guys were debaters in college. 

We started out as a standard 4x4 roto league, but switched from using batting average to on- base percentage as a hitting category in 2011 and also added strikeouts and runs as categories in that same season. We changed from saves to saves plus .5*Holds in 2019, but had no regular season in 2020 so this is still a very new category. 

The 2021 version of my team won the Hardy House title, thanks to a solid offense and a core of inexpensive pitchers that I was able to retain from prior seasons. I'm surprised that I didn't blog about the victory last fall, but I was back on campus teaching in person with all the distractions that brought. 

2022 is going to be a bigger challenge because Sean Manaea ($5 keeper salary) got traded to the National League (San Diego Padres) right before the auction and was thus not eligible to be retained. Also, I decided not to retain the services of Lance McCullers (also at a $5 salary) because of the lingering effects of an injury he sustained in the American League playoffs last season. Those were two of my top starters last season and keeping them at an inexpensive price would have been very helpful in assembling an outstanding offense for 2022. Instead, I had to spend a lot more on a single ace. Oh well.

Here's my roster from the auction, which was unfortunately held again over Zoom. We had planned an in-person meeting in Chicago, but the major league labor lockout made the selected date untenable -- and we could not find a workable substitute.

Retained players are in blue. 

C Plawecki BOS $1

C Mejia TB $3

1B Walsh LAA $17

2B Semien TEX $22

3B Rendon LAA $3

SS Torres NYY $13

MI Biggio TOR $9

CI Moncada CHX $19

OF Tucker HOU $16

OF Buxton MIN $25

OF Alvarez HOU $33

OF Kelenic SEA $13

DH Kepler MIN $11

$185 hitting (or 71% of the $260 allotment)

P E Rodriguez DET $16

P Berrios TOR $25

P Paddack MIN $3

P Hill BOS $3

P Gil NYY $1

P Pearson TOR $4

P Loaisiga NYY $5

P Duffey MIN $4

P Karinchak CLE $5

P Pagan MIN $5

$71 for pitching (or 27% of the budget)

I had $4 unspent -- saved for a TOR catching prospect (Gabe Moreno), but another owner had saved even more to buy him at the auction. One team had $20 unspent (!) and the league as a whole didn't spend $45. Several other teams had more left than I did. 

Reserves (as champ I could select first in the snake draft):

OF Ward LAA $3

P Tyler Wells BAL $2

P Chargois TB $1

Obviously, my offense is a lot better than my pitching. I selected many young pitchers and some guys traded from the NL just before the season (Paddack and Pagan), but two of the youngsters began the season on the injured list (Karinchak and Pearson) and another started in the minors (Gil). Moncada, among my hitters, also started hurt.

The results have been unimpressive through the first two weeks as my team has been mired in last place through most of the last week -- with the minimum of 5 pitching points on many days. 

But it's very early. 

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OBFLB 2021A Champions

I've periodically posted draft results or season results from my two long-running fantasy baseball leagues. This is an update for one of those leagues.

Since 1991, I've owned the Louisville Sluggers in the Original Bitnet Fantasy Baseball League (OBFLB), a 24 team online league that plays two seasons during each major league season. Generally, the team general manager-owners are from across the US. I've only met a few of them face-to-face, but have known many of them online for 25+ years. 

In this league, teams manipulate lineups to prioritize 9 hitters (at 8 defensive positions, plus DH/Utility), 5 starting pitchers (minimum 4), and 3 relief pitchers (minimum 2) at a time. Teams can actually use daily substitutes through the week, which means it is possible to have more than 5 starting pitchers and multiple players at various positions. Through the week, the teams compete in 10 categories, including on base average, home runs, stolen bases, plate appearances, runs produced average ((R+RBI-HR)/ABs), pitching wins, saves (times two) + holds, innings pitched, ERA and WHIP. We award 2 points per victory, with each team receiving 1 point for a tie.

The first (half) season begins at the start of the baseball season and typically features 11 or 12 weeks of head-to-head competition by teams in four 6 team divisions. Everyone plays a double round robin schedule, plus 1 or 2 teams from the other divisions that are determined largely by previous performance with an eye toward equality. This year the season lasted 11 weeks, though the first week included a few extra games. A weekly is typically Monday through Sunday but the season started on Thursday April 1 for most major league teams and we included those first few games. 

The Sluggers finished with the second best regular season win-loss record in the league and thus played the #3 seed in the opening round of the playoffs, the Southern Hemispheres -- a team operated from western Australia. That owner I met once when he was visiting Louisville!  As measured by CBS's statistical Breakdown (universal head-to-head results), the Sluggers were the best team in the league and thus survived that matchup via tiebreaker -- it otherwise ended in a 10-10 tie. 

The top seed was the Loaded Basses, which won its playoff matchup and thus made its fourth straight World Series appearance (both of the 2019 half seasons and the only 2020 abbreviated season). The Basses are loaded with baseball stars, but both SS Cory Seager and 3B Alex Bregman were injured and did not play in the Series. 

Thus, in the 2021A season, the Louisville Sluggers ultimately won the championship 18-2.  Here's the line score from the World Series via CBS, our stats service:

This was the Sluggers 9th World Series championship (of 12 appearances) in fewer than 60 (half) seasons of competition during the past 30 years. One other team has 8 titles and another has 6. Obviously, there was only one season in 1994 and 2020.

The World Series heroes for the Sluggers played mostly on offense.  Veteran infielder Max Muncy hit 3 HRs with a  .423 OBA and .619 RP, completing his strong half season. Whit Merrifield hit 2 HR and stole 2 bases to go with a .433 OBA. Dom Smith had a weak first half, but he also hit 3 HR in the Series with a .440 OBA and .458 RP. Star 3B Nolan Arenado hit a HR and is the only player from the last Slugger championship in 2016B. All of the pitchers from that team are gone

On the pitching side, Nate Eovaldi threw 7 innings of shutout ball for a win and his Red Sox teammate Matt Barnes had a win and 3 saves. 

Below, you can find my regular lineup with substitutes at their primary positions. I'm putting my pre-season retained players ("keepers") in bold red text and noting draft round or free agent acquisition (or trade) status for all other players. The draft is 28 rounds, but begins with round 7 as all teams have to keep at least 6 players. I kept 11 players, so my draft started round 12. The first few rounds included some great picks, but the last 8 or 10 picks did not turn out well. I was active on the free agent market, but not many of those players contributed significantly to the season. The keepers were strong and determined the team's fate:

C: W. Smith LAD
   Pina MIL  (free agent)

1B: Muncy LAD (eligible 2B/3B)
    Tellez TOR (traded to MIL in early July) (round 17)

2B: Merrifield KC (OF eligible)

3B: Arenado COL
   
SS: Rojas ARI (acquired via trade)

      Lopez KC (free agent)

OF: Acuna ATL

OF: D. Smith NYM (1B eligible)

OF: Bradley MIL (round 21)

    Wade SF (1B eligible) (free agent)

    Stewart BAL (free agent)

    Olivares KC (free agent)

    Kelenic SEA

DH: McMahon COL (eligible 2B/3B)

SP: Bauer LAD
SP: Gray CIN
SP: Greinke HOU

SP: Eovaldi BOS (round 12)

SP: Rogers MIA (round 14)

SP: Taillon NYY (acquired via trade)

SP: Mejia CLE (free agent)

 
RP: Barnes BOS (round 13)

RP: Fairbanks TB (round 19)

RP: Staumont KC (round 25)

RP: Zimmer KC (free agent)

RP: Antone CIN (injured during the Series) (round 16)

I released these draft picks during the season:

C Sisco BAL (round 28)

IF Adrianza ATL (round 26)

SS Ahmed ARI (round 15)  (actually, he was traded)

SS Garcia CIN (round 20) (now named Barrero)

UT Tsutsugo TB (traded to LAD) (round 23)

SP Peterson NYM (round 18) (released during Series after Gray recovered from injury)

SP Ponce de Leon STL (round 24)

SP Lucchesi NYM (round 22)

RP Wendelken OAK (round 27)

The trade for Rojas included some "cash" (we use fictional trading points) plus free agent pickup P Josiah Gray LAD, who is a top prospect. He was injured shortly after I acquired him just as it looked like he might join the Dodger rotation after the Dustin May injury.

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Bolts from the Blue 2021

The long-running Hardy House fantasy baseball league skipped 2020. Nearly all of the owners competed in an AL-variant of the league during the 60 game season, but it was not a keeper league, the draft was not an auction, and we experimented with some rules variations (especially in the free agent bidding process). We drafted quickly online last summer.

This past Saturday, March 27, we "met" online for our first Zoom auction. Most owners likely hoped it would be our last in that format, but the truth is that one to three owners seem to miss the auction every year and participate by phone. Zoom is probably a superior option for those owners. 

It is a 5 by 5 keeper league with many idiosyncratic rules. I've been playing in the league since 1989 and a couple of the other owners have been around that entire time as well. Most of the owners have a decade or two involvement at minimum. 

So this is my roster, with auction prices noted. My 9 pre-draft keepers are in red. 

C Jansen (TOR) $7

C Maldanado (HOU) $3

1B Walsh (LAA) $14

2B Semien (TOR) $19

3B Y. Diaz (TB) $9

SS Bogaerts (BOS) $29

MI Simmons (MIN) $3

CI M. Cabrera (DET) $9

OF Tucker (HOU) $13

OF Buxton (MIN) $21

OF Kepler (MIN) $21

OF Hicks (NYY) $20

DH Y. Alvarez (HOU) $29

P McCullers (HOU) $3

P Manaea (OAK) $3

P E. Rodriguez (BOS) $13

P Minor (KC) $5

P Turnbull (DET) $3*

P Staumont (KC) $5

P Fairbanks (TB) $16

P Loaisiga (NYY) $3

P D. Castillo (TB) $7

P Pressly (HOU) $5

Reserves:

3B Ruiz (BAL) $3

P Gibson (TEX) $2

P Dyson (KC) $1

Yes, that's a lot of faith in players from the teams I think are going to be competing for AL playoff spots -- the Houston Astros (5 players), Tampa Rays (3), Minnesota Twins (3), Toronto Blue Jays (2), and NY Yankees (2). There are some players from the bottom teams as well, including the team I grew up rooting for -- the KC Royals (3).

A couple of the players are guys I historically like for various reasons, but many of these guys I had no specific intention of drafting. Other players I wanted went for more money than I wanted to pay and I shifted to a strategy of buying lots of guys in the $5 to $20 range. Even then I paid a bit over my draft sheet price for a few of the picks. I needed to buy some stats and positional scarcity was starting to play a role. 

I'm worried that I may not have enough starting pitching, but I genuinely like my offense even though it might be a bit light on steals.  There are guys with checkered injury histories on my roster, including one player* currently on the COVID-19 restricted list. 

Feel free to leave criticisms in the comments. 

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Louisville Sluggers: 2018A champions

I periodically blog about  my fantasy baseball teams -- mostly when they win a championship or make it to the World Series.

My Louisville Sluggers recently won the 2018 A season of the Original Bitnet Fantasy Baseball League. The league members play a long half season before the All Star break and a shorter half season afterwards. During the break, we make cuts and redraft teams to keep it interesting. This post will not cover my mid-season keepers or draft.

Here's the winning 28 man roster from 2018A (with retained players from 2017 in red):

C:   LuCroy OAK
1B: Votto     CIN
2B: Merrifield KC
3B: Arenado COL
SS: Russell CHC
OF: Benintendi BOS
OF: Peralta ARI
OF: Almora CHC
DH: Muncy LAD

SP: Greinke ARI
SP: Stripling LAD
SP: Bauer CLE
SP: Skaggs LAA
SP: E Rodriguez BOS
RP: Rondon HOU
RP: Bradley ARI
RP: Trivino OAK
RP: Williams MIL

We used daily transactions this season for the first time, so I had a number of substitutes that contributed during the week. Plus, I had a couple of good players who were injured during the playoffs. This was my bench:

C:   Flowers ATL
1B: Pearce BOS
2B: Wong STL
IF: Blandino CIN
OF: Buxton MIN
OF: Acuna ATL
SP: Archer TB
SP: Duffy KC
SP: Romano CIN
RP: Brault PIT

Pre-season, I had also retained OF Kevin Keirmaier TB, but I traded him as part of a deal for LuCroy and Stripling on June 4.

The team went 142-76-22 in the regular season. Remember, this is a 24 team head-to-head league with 2 points possible per category. We use 10 categories including these 5 for hitting: HR, SBs, batting average, plate appearances, and runs produced ((R+RBI-HR)/at bats). For pitching, we use these 5 categories: innings pitched, wins, saves, ERA and WHIP. For ties, each team gets one points.

For winning percentage, figure the Sluggers went 153-87, or 0.637. Or the equivalent of 77-44 if that makes it easier.

In the first round of the playoffs, my team beat the Loaded Basses, a young and talented team that was 146-80-14 in the regular season, or 153-87. The Basses roster included stars Mookie Betts, Javy Baez, Alex Bregman, Christian Yelich, Yoan Moncada, Juan Soto, and Garrett Cole. The Sluggers and Basses were the 2nd and 3rd seeded teams in the playoffs with identical records.

Sluggers won that matchup 14-6.

In the World Series, the Sluggers beat the top-seeded Tennessee Valley Authority, a very strong pitching-rich team featuring Trea Turner, Justin Upton, Carlos Carrasco, Chris Sale, Luis Severino, and Craig Kimbrel. TVA was 150-76-14 during the regular season, or 157-83 (0.654). 

This was the Sluggers 9th World Series championship in 12 appearances in the final. TVA fell to 6-2 in the Series. The league has now had 55 seasons of history.


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Dynasty baseball

Jim Thome's election into the National Baseball Hall of Fame has me reminiscing about my dynasty-league fantasy baseball championship teams of the late 1990s.

In a 24 team league, the Louisville Sluggers lost in the World Series in the 1996 B season. The OBFLB divides the season every year at the All-Star break. The Sluggers won its first championship with Thome at third base in 1997 A. The team repeated in 1998 A, 1999 A, 2000 A, 2002 B, and 2003 B. There was also a runner-up finish in 1999 B. That made 6 championships and 8 World Series appearances in 8 years, covering 15 possible World Series. There were some playoff losses in there too: I found a file for 2000 B, but seem to be missing other data from the early 2000s.

The team has had some success since then, but not as sustained as that dynasty.

I found an old file with my mid-year roster of retained players from 1997. Below, I've highlighted in yellow the players subsequently elected to the Hall of Fame:

Louisville Sluggers 
15 (14 + 1 DL) Players

 C:Mike Sweeney         R 97    (KCR AL)
2B:Roberto Alomar       R 91    (Bal AL) 
3B:Jim Thome            R 93    (Cle AL) 
3B:Kevin Orie           D1897   (ChC NL)
IF:Edgar Alfonzo        D1797   (NYM NL)
OF:Rich Becker          R 97    (Min AL)
OF:Shawn Green          Rm95    (Tor AL)
OF:Darin Erstad         Rm95    (Ana AL)
OF:Jeromy Burnitz       D1997   (Mil AL)
SP:Pedro Astacio        Rm96    (LAD NL)
SP:Greg Maddux          R 91    (Atl NL) 
SP:Pedro Martinez       R 94    (Mon NL) 
SP:Shane Reynolds       Rm94    (Hou NL)          DL
RP:Mike Fetters         Rm94    (Mil AL)
RP:Mariano Rivera       R 97    (NYY AL)

The following off-season, in February 1998, I traded Mariano Rivera and Kevin Orie for SS Derek Jeter (plus "TPs," which are points used as cash). Jeter will one day be in the HoF. 

The R or Rm designations reflect when a player was first retained in the league (D## indicates drafted round and year). I inherited Greg Maddux when I received my team in 1992. Pedro Martinez was a trade acquisition prior to the 1994 season. According to one of my old files, I got him for two guys who together had over 30 saves in 1993 -- P Jerry DiPoto (Cle) and P Gene Harris (SD)! Martinez himself had been a relief pitcher in LA prior to that 1994 season in Montreal.

Jim Thome was probably  also a trade acquisition, though a year earlier -- after the 1992 season. He had hit 3 HR in a small number of plate appearances prior to his 1993 season as a Slugger. I cannot find the details. 

A few moments searching reveals that I traded Jeff Cirillo and Marc Newfield for Robbie Alomar in February of 1997. He was not a member of the 2002 and 2003 teams, though I cannot find the  details explaining why.  

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2017 B Louisville Sluggers

The Louisville Sluggers are again participating in the World Series in the Original Bitnet Fantasy Baseball League.

I've participated in the OBFLB since 1991. It's a 24 team fantasy baseball online league that plays two seasons during each major league season. The second (half) season begins after the all star break and typically features 9 weeks of head-to-head competition by teams in three 8 team divisions. This year, however, we lost 2 owners at mid-season and didn't have sufficient time to find replacements. Thus, we had 2 divisions of 11 teams. There were not enough weeks to play a complete round robin, as we usually do.

In any case, the Sluggers won the Clarkson division with the best record in the league: 115-65. It was actually 110-60 with 10 ties. We have 10 categories and it is not uncommon to have ties in pitcher wins, saves, home runs, or stolen bases. Two other teams shared the best record, but the Sluggers held the tiebreaker based on better week-to-week performance against all the other teams in the league.

In this league, teams submit lineup cards to prioritize 9 hitters (at 8 defensive positions, plus DH), 5 starting pitchers (minimum 4), and 4 relief pitchers (minimum 2). Through the week, the teams compete in 10 categories, including the 4 mentioned above plus batting average, plate appearances, runs produced average ((R+RBI-HR)/ABs), innings pitched, ERA, and WHIP. We award 2 points per victory, with each team receiving 1 point for a tie.

The winners of the divisions play against a wild card team in an initial playoff round during the next-to-last week of the regular major league baseball season. Then, the winners of those head-to-head matchups play each other in the final week of the regular season to determine the World Series champion for the B season. The Sluggers beat the Arizona Young Guns 13-7 in last week's playoff. Arizona was managed by another long-time owner.

In the World Series, the Sluggers are matched up with the Southern Hemispheres, owned by an emeritus academic from western Australia.  We're both old-timers in the league and met in person once years ago when he was traveling across the States and stopped in Louisville. In fact, this is a rematch of  the 1996B, 1997A,  and 1998A World Series! Southern won the first of those prior matchups, the Sluggers won the next two.

The Sluggers are 8-2 in all prior World Series; Hemispheres are 4-5. Reminder: there have been over 50 World Series titles during the 26 years I have been in the league.

This is the lineup I'm using in the Series, with notes about acquisition of each player (the 8 players retained before the mid-season draft are in red):

C: Ianetta ARI (drafted round 27)
   Hedges SD  (round 19)

1B: Votto CIN 
     Olson OAK (free agent July 24)

2B: Merrifield KC (round 14)
    Escobar MIN (round 20)

3B: Arenado COL
    Escobar MIN
    Hernandez LAD (round 22)

SS: Escobar MIN
     Russell CHC 
     E. Hernandez LAD

OF: Benintendi BOS
OF: Buxton MIN
OF: Kiermaier TB (round 24)
    Phillips MIL (free agent September 25)
    Kepler MIN (round 16)
    Acuna ATL

DH: Olson OAK (injured and presumably won't play)
      Phillips MIL
      Kepler MIN

SP: Archer TB
SP: Bauer CLE (round 15)
SP: Greinke ARI (trade August 28)
SP: Duffy KC (round 9)
SP: Cobb TB  (round 11)
   Gonzalez TEX  (free agent July 17)
   Biagini TOR (free agent September 11)
   Foltynewicz ATL (round 12)
   Keller PIT (minors) (free agent August 28)
   Nelson MIL(mlb and OBFLB DL) (round 10)

RP: Bradley ARI (round 18)
RP: Greene DET (trade August 28)
RP: D. Hernandez ARI (round 26)
RP: Lorenzen CIN (round 23)

Players no longer with the team:

SP Pineda NYY dropped July 17 (Tommy John surgery)
Round 13 M Smith TB traded August 28 for Greinke
Round 17 Renfroe SDP traded August 28 for Greinke
Round 21 Buehler LAD traded August 28 for Greinke
Round 25 Duffey MIN traded August 28 for Greene
Round 28 Choi NYY dropped July 24

I'll post results in a few days. The stats we use include Monday September 25 through Sunday, October 1.


Update 10/1/17: Southern wins 12-8. Sluggers win steals, plate appearances, ERA and WHIP decisively. The team needed 3 more hits to win batting average.

	BA	HR	SB	PA		RP	INN	ERA	WHIP	W	S
Spheres	0.310	9	1	164		0.283	47	5.5532	1.5957	3	4	12-8
Sluggers	0.293	8	6	184		0.240	35.33	3.8208	1.3302	2	2	8-12

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