Ray Flowers End of Season Report 2019: Couldn’t Get Over the Hump

TOUT WARS (15-TEAM MIXED): 9th Place

By RAY FLOWERS

HITS: Jorge Soler for $2 (he led the AL in homers), Paul DeJong $6 (30-78-97), Amed Rosario $12 (.287-15-72-75-19), Michael Brantley $11 (.311-22-90-88-3), Stephen Strasburg $18 (18 wins, 3.32 ERA, 1.04 WHIP with 251 Ks in 209 IP), Julio Teheran $3 (3.81 ERA, 162 Ks), Archie Bradley $4 (eventually 18 saves), Ryan Pressly $2 (2.32 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 11.93 K/9), Anthony DeSclafani free (3.89 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 9.02 K/9), Carlos Martinez free (24 saves), Eric Thames free (25 homers, .346 OBP). I added Marco Gonzales off waivers on April 8th, Griffin Canning on April 29th, Homer Bailey on July 11th and Nick Solak August 26th. Some strong adds off waivers.

MISSES: Jesus Luzardo $2 was my last grabbed player. If he had been healthy it would have been a huge win. He wasn’t healthy though so it was a loss. Had to drop Martinez when he came back from injury with no role. Jameson Taillon was my most expensive pitcher at $23. He made seven starts. Nick Pivetta for $9 felt good on draft day. Boy was I wrong. Yoenis Cespedes was a reserve pick, but he never showed up. Jesse Winker at $14, in an OBP league like this one, was a strong buy. In the end, not so much though as he battled injury and ineffectiveness (16-38-51 with a .357 OBP). Jose Altuve was good when he played, but he stopped running and wasn’t worth the $34 bid.

LAST WORD: The team just couldn’t get over the hump. There were some clearly solid moves, but too many of those offensive guys just didn’t leave up to expectations, and I could never solve the bullpen concerns as I finished 14th in saves (at least I was second in strikeouts).