Re: 2019/20 Rocky Horror Roto Show
Haha thanks Comish! But if I'm being truthful, that was NOT strategy... but rather some rookie Auto-drafting errors that gave me a surprising top 9 picks lol.
To that end, because I didn't join live until Round 10, I won't go deep into justifying those rounds. But let's just say that while it was not at all what I was expecting to see upon arrival... it could have been much worse.
Round 1: Crosby. Picking at #7, I am pleased.
Rounds 2/3: F.Andersen/B.Holtby. Due to auto-drafting had to ensure my 2G spots were filled early. Hat tip to Horror Fan for his dobberforum tips on how to optimize an autodraft.
Rounds 4-9: Letang, Subban, Doughty, M.Dumba, Ghost, OEL. Getting 4 of these guys while sprinkling in some elite C/W would have been ideal. I admittedly misread the RHRS crew in thinking they'd be gone earlier, and therefore putting them higher on my (pre-set) draft board to ensure I didn't completely whiff on solid D.
Round 10: L.Couture. A big target of mine this year. Let's hope he produces value from that slot.
*This is where I joined in, and to be honest, it took me at least 3-4 rounds to even begin to assess what had happened to my own draft, much less what every one else was up to.
Round 11: N.Kadri. Decided I'm too far down the C/D/G path to try and pivot now. Kads was another highly ranked C. I also saw that there was still a TON of W-value out there (although soon to be decimated) so leaned into it even further.
Round 12: R.Getzlaf. Underrated imo. No he's not the Getz of 5 years ago, but he can deliver sneaky good value if healthy. That fills 4C, 6D, 2G slots. 0RW, 0LW. Not how I'd drew it up... but admittedly kind of intrigued to see how it plays out now.
Round 13: L.Ullmark. First "live" mistake. But in fairness, if you want any shot at hitting max gps at G, you need at least 3 "starters" if not 4... or go full Pengwin7 mode and stream, stream, stream whatever's on the wire. Also secretly a big fan of Ullmark. He's yet to put it all together... but each year I wonder if he might.
Rounds 14-18: JVR, N.Schmaltz, J.DeBrusk, J.Schwartz, Hornqvist. All 5 of these guys I felt were undervalued by prognosticators in our setup. Happy to land each of them... and if I'd been able to nab a couple of higher-end W's over D5/D6 - I would be THRILLED with my draft so far.
Round 19/20: M.Hutchinson/P.Copley. 2 points to be made here. 1st, if I'd known I'd have landed both backups to my starters, I'd have foregone L.Ullmark and had another solid W asset instead. There was also some W value to still be found in these rounds... so while I'm really comfortable with my Gs this year, I didn't really execute it optimally. Either go W early (no Ullmark) and risk missing on backups on Ullmark early and grab W's here. Didn't maximize this advantage.
Round 21: A.Tuch. Happy enough with him here both because I was desperate for RW and also because I felt like he fell (a little) further than he should have due to injury. Still lots of uncertainty being on L3, but at worst he's a guy I have fun watching play, and the 20's are rounds where it's rare you're keeping that guy all year on your roster anyways.
Rounds 22-25: N.Foligno, V.Olofsson, C.Dvorak, I.Kovalchuk. Fully just looking for a deep sleeper on the wing. Am really big on Foligno having a sneaky good year in our setup, and know I'm going to need some Goals... so Olofsson/Kovy are worthy dart-throws.
Team:
C: Crosby, Couture, Kadri, Getzlaf
L: JVR, J.Schwartz, N.Schmaltz, N.Foligno
R: Hornqvist, J.DeBrusk, A.Tuch, V.Olofsson
D: Letang, Subban, Doughty, M.Dumba, Ghost, OEL
G: F.Andersen, Holtby
BN: L.Ullmark, M.Hutchinson, P.Copley, C.Dvorak, I.Kovalchuk
Tl;dr:
While obviously the autodraft didn't execute optimally for me, I'm actually really comfortable with my squad going in. YES I need to make a good trade or two to balance out, but my C, G & D are really solid, so it's a matter of complementing that with the right mix of W.
I'm likely in the bottom 1/3 of the league post-draft, but I really like my assets, meaning that with a lucky waiver pick-up or two and a couple of D-for-W astute trades (which tend to be the easiest deals to make mid-season), I could theoretically cobble together a roster that could at the worst be a pain in the butt for those winning.
Excited for another RHRS season to get underway!!
YL
RHRS, Yahoo, 12-team, Roto
PQMC, Yahoo, 12-team, Keep 11, H2H
Taro Tsujimoto Draft League, Fantrax, 6-team, pts-only (*2018 draftees or later only)
Hanson Bros., Fantrax, 10-Team, Keep 8, weighted scoring
Black & Blue, Fantrax, 12-Team, Dynasty, H2H weighted
The Dream Team League, Fantrax, 14-Team, Dynasty, H2H
On Frozen Ponds, Fantrax 10-Team, Dynasty, Roto
"When I do not know who I am I serve you, and when I do know who I am, you and I are one." - Hanuman-ji