If you follow a bunch of Fantasy Baseball people, then you're probably aware that the 15-team Rotisserie league is sort of the industry standard right now. Most expert leagues are set up in that format, and most content is geared toward that format.
The problem is that hardly anyone plays in that format, which makes for a speaker/audience mismatch that's difficult to justify here at CBS Sports. It means more clicks for us but less practice for me, so when I do have the occasion to take part in a 15-team Rotisserie draft, I'm often surprised by how different the experience is. New stressors come into play as scarcities emerge in unexpected places, and you're so busy putting out all the fires (not enough steals, not enough saves, not enough strikeouts, etc.) that you're hardly able to address value. I've been harping for weeks about Jackson Holliday being under-drafted only to watch him to go someone else at Pick 191. The same went for Mitch Garver at Pick 188 and Brandon Lowe at Pick 237.
But for this draft in particular, I was most caught off guard by how quickly starting pitcher was depleted. I don't think of it as a particularly weak position, but if you've been following me this year, then you know I want four before "the glob" begins, which is about 35th in my rankings. In this draft, I got only two -- Kyle Bradish in Round 6 and Justin Steele in Round 7 -- and was fortunate to get them. It's not that I was intentionally avoiding them. I was just laser focused on filling my outfield and kept preferring the hitter values until, whoops, it was too late.
Broadly speaking, I like all of the starting pitchers I drafted -- Cristian Javier, Nick Pivetta, Cristopher Sanchez and Erick Fedde being the others -- but there aren't enough assurances for a format that leaves little to speak of on the waiver wire. What it's missing is an ace to slot at the top.
Looking back through the results, my best chances of getting one were either Gerrit Cole over Yordan Alvarez in Round 1 or Logan Webb over Mike Trout in Round 4. Either would have made for a more balanced team, and a Webb-for-Trout exchange feels less disruptive overall. If I had to do it over again, though, I might have just gone for Cole in Round 1 and really nipped the starting pitcher issue in the bud. I'd be getting way more strikeouts than I would from Webb, along with more wins and a better WHIP, in all likelihood. Alvarez is better than Trout, sure, but neither is providing steals and I can live with Trout's propensity for injury better in Round 4 than I can Alvarez's in Round 1.
I've been dead set against drafting a pitcher in Round 1 this year, but may I may have to relax my thinking for 15-team leagues. They're just a different world.
Let's meet who all took part in this one.
1) R.J. White, CBS Sports (@rjwhite1)
2) James Ganey, Woah Cubs Woah podcast (@CubbyNole)
3) Chris Towers, CBS Sports (@CTowersCBS)
4) Mike Carter, Fantrax (@mdrc0508)
5) Tim McLeod, Prospects 361
6) Frank Stampfl, CBS Sports (@Roto_Frank)
7) David Funnell, Fantrax (@sportz_nutt51)
8) Tim Kanak, Fantasy Aceball (@fantasyaceball)
9) JR Fenton, TGFBI participant (@JohnRussell215)
10) Nick Francis, Nick's Picks (@nicksMLBpicks)
11) Raymond Atherton, Fantasy Aceball (@RaymondAtherton)
12) Jake Wiener, Prospects1500 (@GatorSosa)
13) Zach Steinhorn, Steinhorn's Universe on Substack (@zachsteinhorn)
14) Scott White, CBS Sports (@CBSScottWhite)
15) Darren "Doc" Eisenhauer, Scout the Statline (@DocHollidayDyna)
