inthedougout

It's December and, for the diehards, it's officially draft season for fantasy baseball.  Frankly, it's fair to ask whether the fantasy baseball season ever really ended.  While it's true that many of us began tending to our wounds in October, diagnosing the hits and the misses, a few of us never really stopped thinking, obsessively, about fantasy baseball.  For me, personally, I have been trying to stay permanently in "draft-season" meaning I want to be in some form of a draft between now and the end of March.  Recently, I was fortunate enough to join several industry experts, including Scott White, Frank Stampfl, and Chris Towers in a 12-team head-to-head points mock draft .  In this article, I will cover a few high-level observations (heck, even a few things that surprised me) and the lessons I learned. Lesson #1 :  Aaron Judge was not universally considered a first overall pick and that surprised me. This one surprised me.  As soon as I drafted Judge, the

                           The Major League Baseball winter meetings are officially over and there was one clear winner from free agency: the players.  While I have yet to dig through the official numbers, this year's free agent class appears to be getting longer contracts, by and large, to their predecessors.  I expected neither Trea Turner nor Xander Bogaerts to fetch 11 year contracts, but here we are.  The other winners?  Let's look at it through the perspective of fantasy baseball.  Here's Part 1: Clear upgrade:  the Phillies lineup Adding a player of Trea Turner's caliber is a boost to any lineup, but adding an elite leadoff option to an already potent lineup is borderline cheating.  Last season, the Phillies trotted out Kyle Schwarber as a leadoff hitter, followed by Rhys Hoskins and JT Realmuto.  By no means is that a bad  lineup, but there's no speed in the top end of that lineup.  As good as Schwarber may be at getting on base, he also struck out 200  time