End of Season Recap: Tale of a Champion and How did our KEEPERS Do This Year?

 

Michael, shown here at the Atlanta draft party in 2019, reclaimed the trophy this week after a very strong year. He will not be cheering for the Marlins this week after having driven their bandwagon since July.

 

2020 Year to Date Power Ranks
TOTAL			HITTING			PITCHING
1	Michael	2.71	1	Michael	3.13	1	Michael	2.17
2	BJ	4.64	2	Arthur	4.25	2	Dean	4.00
3	Dave	4.86	3	BJ	4.50	3	BJ	4.83
4	Dean	4.86	4	Dave	4.75	4	Dave	5.00
5	Paul	5.21	5	Paul	4.88	5	Max	5.33
6	Arthur	5.29	6	Dean	5.50	6	Paul	5.67
7	Ryan	6.07	7	Keith	6.13	7	Ryan	5.83
8	Max	6.64	8	Ryan	6.25	8	Cory	6.33
9	Cory	7.00	9	Cory	7.50	9	Arthur	6.67
10	Keith	7.14	10	Max	7.63	10	Keith	8.50

 

It was a runaway of a Championship Week for Michael. Entering the week with a 12 point lead, that lead balooned to 19 by midweek and to 27 by week’s end. Michael did not quite reach the 2.57 Power Rank mark that Dave held through week 9.5 during his epic keeper league season of 2016, but it was excellent nonetheless. Two huge pickups carried Michael to victory after an underwhelming draft: Luke Voit who was claimed on waivers and Adalberto Mondessi who was a free agent. Leaving the draft table Michael’s offense really only had Marcell Ozuna and Nelson Cruz do much for him. Pitching though, Michael shined: grabbing Degrom, Kershaw, Bauer, and Maeda led to Michael owning 4 of the top 7 pitchers in fantasy, setting him up very well to be able to stream pitchers and still perform well in the ratios categories.

There will be no asterisk on the trophy. The question was raised back in July and the case and counter case were made for putting an asterisk on the trophy with no objection to my suggestion to not have an asterisk. So. Refer back to the emails from back then if you want to see the discussion.

Anyway.

Let’s pivot this thing to next year. Remembering back to the decision we made to freeze keeper status to ignore this year, how have things gone since then? Of course, valuations have changed significantly  so let’s see whose value has gone up and down since we last looked at things back in April. To be clear, for keeper purposes it will be as if 2020 didn’t happen. 2019 draft round or undrafted-ness status will carry over the 2021 draft.

 

Manager	Player	ESPN Rank	ESPN Round	Drafted 2019	Drafted Round	Keeper Round Available	Rounds of Value	Stock UP/DOWN /FLAT after 2020
Arthur	Rafael Devers	12	2	97	10	8	6	FLAT
Arthur	Gleyber Torres	38	4	105	11	9	5	FLAT
Arthur	Aaron Judge	20	2	85	9	7	5	FLAT
Arthur	Patrick Corbin	68	7	110	11	9	2	UP
BJ	Jack Flaherty	32	4	110	11	9	5	DOWN
BJ	Jonathan Villar	57	6	168	17	11	5	DOWN
BJ	Jose Ramirez	28	3	89	9	7	4	UP
BJ	Nicholas Castellanos	59	6	110	11	9	3	UP
BJ	Charlie Morton	71	8	132	14	11	3	FLAT
Cory	Gerrit Cole	9	1	110	11	9	8	DOWN
Cory	Trea Turner	17	2	66	7	5	3	FLAT
Cory	Chris Paddack	80	8	159	16	11	3	FLAT
Cory	Victor Robles	82	9	165	17	11	2	DOWN
Dave	Eloy Jimenez	52	6	111	12	10	4	UP
Dave	Yoan Moncada	90	9	#N/A	13	11	2	DOWN
Dave	Keston Hiura	81	9	#N/A	13	11	2	DOWN
Dean	Blake Snell	39	4	101	11	9	5	DOWN
Dean	Kyle Schwarber	88	9	198	20	11	2	DOWN
Ryan	Trevor Story	19	2	107	11	9	7	UP
Ryan	Javier Baez	21	3	110	11	9	6	DOWN
Ryan	Cody Bellinger	6	1	87	9	7	6	DOWN
Ryan	Luis Castillo	75	8	194	20	11	3	FLAT
Max	Ronald Acuna Jr.	2	1	98	10	8	7	FLAT
Max	Yordan Alvarez	31	4	#N/A	13	11	7	DOWN
Max	Ketel Marte	51	6	123	13	11	5	FLAT
Max	Eddie Rosario	48	5	110	11	9	4	FLAT
Michael	Juan Soto	10	1	108	11	9	8	UP
Michael	Pete Alonso	30	3	#N/A	13	11	8	DOWN
Michael	Josh Bell	41	5	179	18	11	6	DOWN
Michael	Shane Bieber	53	6	133	14	11	5	UP
Michael	Fernando Tatis Jr.	55	6	#N/A	13	11	5	UP
Michael	Jeff McNeil	89	9	#N/A	13	11	2	FLAT
Michael	Liam Hendriks	84	9	#N/A	13	11	2	FLAT
Paul	Walker Buehler	25	3	102	11	9	6	DOWN
Paul	Josh Hader	46	5	110	11	9	4	FLAT
Paul	Austin Meadows	62	7	164	17	11	4	DOWN
Paul	Eugenio Suarez	65	7	110	11	9	2	FLAT
Paul	DJ LeMahieu	83	9	#N/A	13	11	2	UP

Despite Pete Alonso likely losing most of his keeper value, Michael is going to be the big winner here. Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis, and Shane Bieber are all likely to be ranked as first round picks in 2021. Other big winners are team BJ with Jose Ramirez and Nick Castellanos and Ryan’s Trevor Story.

The biggest takeaway for me though is how much can change in one year. Out of 38 notable keepers, only 9 gained value while 15 lost value. By nature of being a keeper they had already increased their value from the previous year (think about the breakout Pete Alonso had the year before), so some regression is understandable. This is the beauty of our system, though, we allow for some year over year carry over but we don’t have a dynasty league where one team can rest on laurels of a talent base year after year. Things change. Every March is a new opportunity to have a great year.

I hope everyone enjoys the off season and comes back next March fired up for a new and (hopefully) 162 game baseball season!