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Draft Buddy RotoBowl I – Week 10 Update

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Drew Brees

QB Drew Brees has Chris’ RotoBowl team currently 2nd, 1st and 1st in passing categories: yards, yards per attempt and touchdowns.

Roto fantasy football? It is true, it is a thing. Check the origin story, participants and league details and my Week 5 update for some history about the league.

Week 10 has come and gone and I’m currently sitting in 2nd place.

Rotobowl I Standings, Week 10

Draft Buddy RotoBowl I standings through NFL Week 10.

You can check the updated standings for yourself.

Passing Stats

My options: Drew Brees.

  • Passing Yards – 3004 (2nd)
  • Passing Yards per Attempt – 8.7 (1st)
  • Passing Touchdowns – 25 (1st)

That’s me driving the Brees for MVP wagon. He’s been a beast.

Receiving Stats

My WR options: Doug Baldwin, Alshon Jeffery, DeSean Jackson and Tyler Boyd.

My TE options: Jordan Reed, Vernon Davis, Vance McDonald.

  • Receptions – 315 (5th)
  • Receiving Yards – 3867 (5th)
  • Receiving Touchdowns – 24 (7th)

As I predicted in the last update, I regressed in TDs down from 3rd to 7th. The pleasant surprise is how I’ve been able to climb up in receptions and receiving yards when I’ve been focusing more on rushing. Getting Jeffery and Baldwin back and Boyd’s breakout season have certainly helped.

Rushing Stats

My options: Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, Phillip Lindsay, D’Onta Foreman, Ronald Jones, Chris Ivory, Rex Burkhead and Malcolm Brown.

  • Rushing Yards – 1401 (9th)
  • Average Yards per Rush – 4.0 (T-12th)
  • Rushing Touchdowns – 14 (T-6th)

In the last update I mentioned that I might need to pull off a trade. I was right. In Week 8 I traded WR Taylor Gabriel to @PJHofer07 for RB Phillip Lindsay. I now have Barkley & Lindsay as my two RB’s to plug in every week. After that it is matchups and lottery tickets.

Trades

Week 10 – @EvFWFB makes two trades: trades WR Golden Tate to Killer Fins for RB Josh Adams and trades WR D.J. Moore to Fighting Chance Steve for RB Ito Smith.

Week 11 – Fighting Chance Steve trades WR Kenny Golladay to @FantasyTaz for QB Ben Roethlisberger.

The running theme with these trades and my trade is it is not so much that you are trading players but that you are trading categories… which is a common Roto practice.

Mid-Season Observations on the Roto Format

I firmly believe giving each team the ability to start more than one QB is essential to maximizing the strategic potential of roto fantasy football. I’ve come across 2-QB formats in points leagues and prefer them for the shear fact that someone will have to start Eli Manning occasionally (if not every week). Now, in points leagues you’re just hoping for a few TDs to make his score palatable. In roto, your hoping he doesn’t kill your Yards/Attempt and other ratios. Chess over checkers.

When putting this league together I was asked by some about doing a Best Ball format. If you are not familiar with Best Ball it is where you draft players and never have to worry about setting the lineup as your top scores each week will be used to fill out the starting lineup to maximize your point total. It is becoming more popular each season in the fantasy industry. Well, in regards to the roto format it isn’t as easy to put into practice.

Since the scoring isn’t a cut and dry point total to judge players against it is nearly impossible to determine who the “best” player is each week. The only way you could do it would be to make the stats count for every player drafted. Due to the low participation in this year’s RotoBowl (only 4 of 15 teams have submitted a complete lineup every week), I may be forced to go that route in future years.

Draft Buddy RotoBowl I – Update

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Week 5 is in the books and I’m way overdue on giving you an update on how the roto fantasy football league is going. In case you missed it back in late-July, here is the origin story, participants and league details of this unique fantasy football league format.

I’m currently sitting in 4th place overall… but in trouble.

Draft Buddy RotoBowl I Standings

Draft Buddy RotoBowl I standings through NFL Week 5.

This update is as of the end of NFL Week 5, but check the current standings to follow along at home.

Passing Stats

My options: Drew Brees, Jameis Winston

  • Passing Yards – 1666 (2nd)
  • Passing Yards per Attempt – 8.7 (2nd)
  • Passing Touchdowns – 11 (T-4th)

As Brees goes, I go. Barring injury I should stay towards the top of the passing categories. I had Brees as the 3rd best QB going into the draft behind Wilson and Brady. I ended up getting him in the 6th round as the 6th QB off the board.

Receiving Stats

My WR options: Doug Baldwin, Alshon Jeffery, DeSean Jackson, Kenny Stills, Tyler Boyd, Taylor Gabriel, Allen Hurns

My TE options: Jordan Reed, Vernon Davis, Vance McDonald

  • Receptions – 146 (11th)
  • Receiving Yards – 1905 (8th)
  • Receiving Touchdowns – 14 (T-3rd)

Work to be done here. Touchdowns are more random so I shouldn’t expect to stay towards the top in that category. Getting Baldwin and Jeffery back will (hopefully) help me move up in receptions and yards. In a 15 team league you’re going to see the likes of Gabriel and Boyd contributing.

Rushing Stats

My options: Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, Doug Martin, D’Onta Foreman.

  • Rushing Yards – 687 (9th)
  • Average Yards per Rush – 3.7 (15th)
  • Rushing Touchdowns – 5 (T-11th)

Losing Rex Burkhead and Jeremy Hill to injury didn’t help my poor showing. Even the guys not injured are dragging me down. Henry is pulling down my yards per rush and I don’t have any other options. I missed out on Wendell Smallwood this week and took a flyer on Kapri Bibbs hoping Adrian Peterson and/or Chris Thompson can’t go this week. Unfortunately for me I can’t confuse hope for a plan. I may be forced to try and pull off a trade to land a RB worth a damn and try and improve my standing in these rushing stats.

Early Observations on the Roto Format

Too much emphasis on one QB? The perfect roto league would seem to have the ability to start more than one QB each week so that the passing stats aren’t driven predominantly by one player. In roto baseball it would be like tracking home runs and RBI hit by catchers separately from other hitters.

You still need balance. I know this in roto baseball and I thought I knew this coming into this league. I’m in a bad spot with my RB and need to adapt. Much like in roto baseball you need to aim for finishing high in each category. Not necessarily 1st in each but in the 3rd to 4th place territory.

Make sure you have your lineup in each week! Unlike the head-to-head format where you can start a player on a bye and risk just losing the week, in roto that wasted opportunity could create a gap too big to make up. Take Rushing Yards for example, I’m in 9th place: 51 yards behind 8th; 149 yards behind 7th; 283 yards behind 6th and 364 yards behind 5th… and that is with filling out my lineup each week!

Best/Worst through First 5 Weeks

CategoryBestWorst
Passing Yards464 – Week 4 / @MStepney71118 – Week 1 / @MikeKAdamson*
Passing TDs5 – Week 3 / @kingsperry370 – 10 Times
Receptions54 – Week 2 / @Razzball_MB17 – Week 5 / @Roto_Chris
Receiving Yards646 – Week 5 @MikeJAdamson172 – Week 4 / @PJHofer07
Receiving TDs7 – Week 3 / @FantasyTaz0 – 5 Times
Rushing Yards447 – Week 2 / @PJHofer0738 – Week 4 / @Razzball_MB*
Rushing TDs4 – Week 1 / @PJHofer070 – 24 Times
Turnovers0 – 16 Times5 – Week 1 / @FFzinger

*Removed @EvFWFB since he hasn’t set a lineup the past few weeks.

Straight Cheese Streaming Starting Pitchers – 2018 Post Mortem

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Anibal Sanchez, Atlanta Braves

Atlanta Braves Anibal Sanchez was one of Chris’ most used pitchers in his weekly streaming starting pitchers analysis – Straight Cheese. Texas Rangers were his most picked on opponent. Here is the 2018 season review.

Fantasy baseball owners, this is the place where you come to get the Straight Cheese on less than desirable, questionably talented, less than 50% owned starting pitchers you can use for a spot start. Streaming pitchers is necessary to get those all-important counting stats for your roto league without drop-kicking your ratio stats into submission.

But before we dive into the 2018 post mortem, let’s take a look back at my picks from Week 24.

Week 24 Review

NameDateGSIPERHBBKDecERAWHIP
Eric Lauer SDP9/14 vs TEX15.002314ND3.600.80
Vince Velasquez PHI9/15 vs MIA12.004414ND18.002.50
Robbie Erlin SDP9/16 vs TEX15.331606L1.691.13
Shane Bieber CLE9/16 vs DET16.005904L7.501.50
Total for Week 418.3312222181-25.891.31

Not a strong finish to the season. In fact, can we just ignore September? It was easily my worst month.

Monthly Totals

Month GS IP K W-L ERA WHIP
April 15 79.00 80 6-4 4.90 1.51
May 16 94.33 86 5-5 3.72 1.09
June 5 31.00 31 3-0 1.74 0.97
July 12 73.34 71 7-3 2.70 1.16
August 14 88.33 86 10-1 1.83 0.88
September 9 34.00 34 0-5 9.00 1.94
TOTAL 71 400.00 388 31-18 3.64 1.20

Still, 400 innings of 3.64 era and 1.20 whip are commendable considering all pitchers were less than 50% owned at the time. Some pitchers that ended 2018 with an era higher than 3.64 and a whip higher than 1.20: Jake Arrieta, German Marquez, Dallas Keuchel, Cole Hamels, Jose Berrios, Julio Teheran and Jose Quintana… to name a few.

Most Frequent Opponent

The team I found myself picking on the most was the Texas Rangers. In fact, I went against them 12 times this year (five more than the next most frequent: Baltimore and San Diego). My line when picking a starting pitcher versus the Rangers: 2.39 era, 1.25 whip, 57 strikeouts and a 6-2 record in 64 innings.

Interestingly enough, here is my line for starting pitchers versus Rangers, Orioles and Padres: 2.85 era, 1.19 whip, 149 strikeouts and a 15-3 record in 148 2/3 innings (26 games). That’s Mike Clevinger with a lower era.

Most Frequent Pitchers Recommended

There were four pitchers that I suggested three times this year:

  • Anibal Sanchez: 1.53 era, 0.85 whip, 17 strikeouts, 1 win in 17 2/3 innings
  • Kyle Gibson: 3.66 era, 1.17 whip, 21 strikeouts, 2 wins in 19 2/3 innings
  • Lance Lynn: 4.91 era, 1.77 whip, 17 strikeouts, 1 win in 14 2/3 innings
  • Trevor Cahill: 1.84 era, 1.16 whip, 23 strikeouts, 1 win in 14 2/3 innings

All four combined: 2.97 era, 1.21 whip, 78 strikeouts, 5 wins in 66 2/3 innings (12 games). That’s 66 2/3 innings of Noah Syndergaard with a slightly better era and more strikeouts.

My Best Calls

  1. Ross Stripling (5/25 vs SD): 6 2/3 ip, 0 er, 6 h, 0 bb, 10 k, 1 win; 60 FanDuel points, 35.4 DraftKings points
  2. Trevor Cahill (8/5 vs DET): 6 ip, 0 er, 3 h, 1 bb, 10 k, 1 win; 58 FanDuel points, 35.1 DraftKings points
  3. Trevor Cahill (5/5 vs BAL): 6 ip, 0 er, 4 h, 1 bb, 12 k, 0 win; 58 FanDuel points, 34.5 DraftKings points
  4. Daniel Mengden (5/26 vs ARI): 9 ip, 0 er, 2 h, 0 bb, 5 k, 1 win; 52 FanDuel points, 38.05 DraftKings points
  5. Danny Duffy (7/14 @ CHW): 7 ip, 0 er, 4 h, 3 bb, 8 k, 1 win; 55 FanDuel points, 31.55 DraftKings points

My Worst Calls

  1. Brian Johnson (9/2 @ CHW): 1 1/3 ip, 4 er, 7 h, 1 bb, 2 k, 0 win; -2 FanDuel points, -5.8 DraftKings points
  2. Daniel Mengden (4/28 @ HOU): 2 1/3 ip, 4 er, 6 h, 1 bb, 1 k, 0 win; -2 FanDuel points, -4.95 DraftKings points
  3. Zack Wheeler (5/4 vs COL): 6 ip, 8 er, 10 h, 3 bb, 3 k, 0 win; 3 FanDuel points, -4.3 DraftKings points
  4. Trevor Cahill (9/9 vs TEX): 2 2/3 ip, 3 er, 2 h, 6 bb, 1 k, 0 win; 2 FanDuel points, -2.8 DraftKings points
  5. Steven Matz (5/19 vs ARI): 4 ip, 4 er, 6 h, 1 bb, 2 k, 0 win; 6 FanDuel points, 0.8 DraftKings points

I still can’t figure out #4 on the Worst list. Cahill vs Texas should have been a slam dunk.

Well, that closes the book on Straight Cheese for 2018. I hope you enjoyed my work and I look forward to getting back to the grind in 2019!

And remember, my suggestions aren’t ludicrous. They’re @Roto_Chris.