Concentration Report

Because I'm in so many leagues, I try to maintain a spreadsheet of my managed leagues to help me better stay on top of all of my players. I titled this my "Concentration Report" because there's been some objection in the community to "shares," and because my good friend Scott Pianowski first coined a wallet metaphor. I'm in 14 managed roto leagues, plus four Scoresheet leagues, one Ottoneu league, one Best Ball format (Razzball) and one Strat-O-Matic league. I'm limiting my review to the 14 roto leagues here, however, even though there's enough variance within my roto leagues. But here are my most rostered players.

First, here's my hitter grid. Apologies for the micro-fonts!

and

Catcher:

5 - Bo Naylor, William Contreras

3 - Rene Pinto

2 - Will Smith, J.T. Realmuto, Gabriel Moreno, Ryan Jeffers

Notable Omission - Adley Rutschman

For the most part, I wanted to invest in catchers. All of my leagues are two-catcher leagues, which drives that desire. I was surprised to see I ended up with Pinto thrice, but (a) "in Rays we trust," and (b) in two of those leagues, he's my third catcher. I wasn't necessarily fading Rutschman, and I have a little bit of FOMO in not rostering him, but I guess I was prioritizing other positions in the area where he went.

First Base:

4 - Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Jose Abreu

2 - Bryce Harper, Pete Alonso, Yandy Diaz, Spencer Steer (1/3/O/2*)

Noteable Omissions - Freddie Freeman, Vlad Guerrero Jr.

Man did I ever love the early prices on CES, though I also paid up for him last week in the 12-team "Beat Jeff Erickson2" draft as part of the NFBC's RotoWire Online Championship. As for Abreu, he's part of the eminently affordable boring old first basemen crew, sitting in a good lineup with a chance to knock in a slew of runs.

The lack of Freeman on my roster reflects draft position more than anything else. Very rarely was I in the middle of the first round where he usually goes. In one such league where I drew a middle pick, Beat Jeff Erickson2, I was able to draft Spencer Strider at 1.6. This lack of Freeman will probably be something I regret.

Third Base:

3 - Royce Lewis, Eugenio Suarez

2 - Austin Riley, Ke'Bryan Hayes, Max Muncy, Isaac Paredes

Notable Omission - Jose Ramirez

I don't find third base to be especially deep, so it's a little surprising that my rosters aren't more concentrated than they are here, particularly with Royce Lewis, who was absolutely a target. Unlike Freddie Freeman, I did sort of fade Jose Ramirez because of the team context.

Second Base:

4 - Matt McLain

3 - Marcus Semien, Jordan Westburg (3)

2 - Ozzie Albies, Jeff McNeil (O), Jackson Holliday

Notable Omission - Ha-Seong Kim (though I got him in RazzBall)

Sigh ... I really love Matt McLain, too. But in leagues where I don't have IL spots, he's a cut now. It was difficult to find an omission at second base, but I put Kim in here because he's coming off of a career-year without having the batted ball profile to support that season.

Shortstop:

3 - Anthony Volpe

2 - Trea Turner, Francisco Lindor

Notable Omission - CJ Abrams

I wish I had more of Volpe - despite all of his struggles last season, he still ended up as a 20-20 player and a near 10-percent walk rate. His contact quality was fine, too. This seems like a perfect post-hype sleeper to me.

As far as Abrams goes, I just don't what to expect from him. Abrams was a huge win for his fantasy managers last year, and he was a highly touted prospect with the Padres before he went to the Nats in the Juan Soto deal. Abrams had 18 homers despite hard hit and barrel rates that we've described in his outlook as "icy blue."

Outfield:

5 - Jack Suwinski

4 - Masataka Yoshida

3 - Parker Meadows, Chas McCormick, Kerry Carpenter, Ceddanne Rafaela, Colton Cowser, Lane Thomas, MJ Melendez

2 - Ronald Acuña Jr., Adolis Garcia, Evan Carter, Matt Wallner, Brandon Nimmo, Yordan Alvarez, Alex Kiriloff (1), Luis Robert Jr.

It's easier to draft a player multiple times the later in the draft he goes, so it follows that my two most-rostered outfielders were taken on-average after pick 200. Suwinski and Yoshida in essence are opposite players. Suwinski is a streaks-and-slumps player with a volatile power and speed ceiling and a likely lower batting average, whereas Yoshida is a good late-round batting average target that should provide decent runs and RBI while not doing as much in the power/speed categories. In a way, they compliment each other.

I didn't list an omission here because there are so many outfielders at each level that more often I had preferences for certain players rather than fades.

Here are my pitcher grids:

and

Starting Pitcher:

Because we roster so many more starting pitchers than any other position, I'm only listing those that are rostered in three or more leagues.

6 - Kenta Maeda, Louie Varland

5 - Spencer Strider, Christopher Sanchez, Jose Quintana

4 - Tanner Bibee, Griffin Canning, Zack Littell, Paul Skenes, Clarke Schmidt

3 - Zack Wheeler, Ryan Pepiot, Bryce Miller, Tyler Wells, Gavin Williams, Miles Mikolas, Reese Olson

With the exceptions of Strider, Wheeler and Bibee, you'll notice that most of these pitchers have been selected after pick-150 in virtually every draft. That's no coincidence, as everyone needs volume, and everyone needs strikeouts, so the top end pitchers are selected rather uniformily. You can only get so many of the elite, as dictated by draft position. One of the leagues where I have Strider was as a keeper (the RotoWire Staff Keeper League, where I have him at a delicious $3 salary again this year!), but otherwise I only let him go by once (Beat Jeff Erickson1). With my rankings, I've always had the NFBC mentality, more so than the rest of us ranking - probably because the only two leagues I won last year I had Strider.

Relief Pitcher:

4 - Paul Sewald, Hunter Harvey, James McArthur

3 - Jose Alvarado, Andrew Nardi

2 - Andres Muñoz, Alexis Diaz, Peter Fairbanks, Alex Lange

Notable Omissions - Edwin Diaz, Josh Hader

Two facts jumped out to me while doing this exercise. One, I didn't draft enough volume among relievers - in so many leagues, I have just two relievers total. Two, I rarely got the same closer. I think the latter fact is a feature rather than a bug, given how quickly relievers can go up in smoke - witness my most rostered closer, Paul Sewald (sigh ... part 2). At least with Sewald I had drafted him early on in the draft cycle and not much recently.

This also reflects my drafting style - I'm unwilling to spend an early pick / peak auction values on a closer. Not once did I start a closer run, instead usually waiting to nab someone in the 5-10 range among closers for my first one. The fact that four of those relievers (Sewald, Devin Williams, Jhoan Duran and Jordan Romano) are starting the year on the IL puts more pressure on us to roster a reliable one early in our drafts.