the 2014 rubio begonias

The moment no one has been waiting for: the 2014 defending champion Rubio Begonias. Ten teams, combined AL/NL:

  C: Wilin Rosario

1B: Prince Fielder, Victor Martinez

2B: Dustin Pedroia, Chase Utley

3B: Ryan Zimmerman, Aramis Ramirez

SS: Jose Reyes, Alexei Ramirez

OF: Mike Trout, Carlos Beltran, Austin Jackson, Angel Pagan

SP: Chris Sale, Michael Wacha, Hyun-jin Ryu, Andrew Cashner, Drew Smyly, Zack Wheeler, Marco Estrada

RP: Grant Balfour, Steve Cishek, Tanner Scheppers, Mark Melancon

Limbo: Stephen Drew (I drafted Tim Hudson with my last pick, dumped him for Drew, hid Drew in a new position we have this year, “Not Available”, and grabbed Dan Straily to replace Hudson)

Comments

[Steve]

You've got playing time issues, but you've got Mike Trout. That's your cushion for tinkering.

[Steven Rubio]

Last season was the first time we had keepers, and I misunderstood the rules (i.e., I didn't pay any attention). For some reason, I got it in my head that after our four allowed keepers, the draft would begin from the top, but of course, you just lost your picks ... some owners froze fewer than four players, and thus got the first draft picks. This year, the only player I froze was Trout. Seven of the ten teams froze the maximum four players ... two others froze two players. Throw in the random placement in the snake draft, and I ended up with the first two picks in the draft, along with the 7th, before everyone else joined in. I could have frozen Jose Fernandez, Shin-soo Choo, and some other player ... in effect, I replaced them with Fielder, Pedroia, and Sale.

Yahoo league with liberal roster movement rules ... a big reason I won by a hair last season was that I was streaming pitchers like crazy at the end. Of course, I had to do something, since I also led the league in PED-suspended guys (including Braun, one of my freezes).