CCO Fantasy Baseball – Opening Week

There is nothing like Opening Day and Opening Week in baseball. It is a fun time to over react to players having their best week of the season and putting up silly stat lines. Slow starts are also magnified as their stat lines look really bad. Be on the look-out for guys being dropped in your leagues just because of a slow start. Some really good value can be found that way. You also don’t want to snooze on the hot starts as some are guys who maybe we weren’t expecting to start, but you also don’t want to be constantly chasing short term stats, especially in leagues that have a limit on transactions.

Kyle Schwarber’s injury was a big story in the first week. CBS offered their take on Kyle Schwarber Contingency options, and so did the Rotoprofessor looking at the fantasy appeal of potential replacements. Also looking at other options in the league now that Kyle Schwarber’s season ends.

Speaking of chasing fast starts, pitching is always one to chase if you have room to add arms or guys going on the DL you can stash. Here are some of the Early Standouts: Thoughts on Maeda, Finnegan and more.

Trevor Story was the guy everyone was talking about in Opening Week and the question is can he keep it up. I would say trading him would be a good way to capture the value he has right now, but playing in Colorado can be good for any hitter. So, maybe don’t sell high on Trevor Story.

Bad first starts can make any fantasy player get worried about a player, let alone a Top 10 pick. But should fantasy owners be concerned about Hisashi Iwakuma?

When making trades we always worry about trading away the guy that has a great season. So most of the time we like to wait out the early part of the season. We had some trades in our CCO leagues, but mostly to clean up rosters, as the question is always, is it too early to start trading?

Not only did Kyle Schwarber go down with an injury, but A.J. Pollock did as well, but he will be back. Pollock was a late bloomer and burst onto the fantasy scene a few years ago and makes everyone want to find the next player with A.J. Pollock potential .

This is one of my favorite places to try and figure out decisions between players, a list that is updated weekly and is based on Going Forward Rankings.

MLB Best of Last Week

Each week we will review the best performances of the week in all of MLB.

Trevor Story: 50 pts (7 HR – 12 RBI)
Eugenio Suarez: 44 pts (4 HR – 9 RBI)
Josh Donaldson: 41 pts (2B – 4 HR – 9 RBI)
Jean Segura: 37 pts (2 2B – 3B – 3 HR)
Anthony Rizzo: 36 pts (3B – 2 HR – 10 RBI)

What a story for sure! Trevor Story got his shot with Jose Reyes not able to go and now he may never relinquish his starting spot. Seven home runs in one week is hard to explain for a guy never had more than 10 in a FULL SEASON in the minors. I really don’t expect him to keep it going, but playing in Colorado can make any player a viable fantasy option, at least during home games.

Eugenio Suarez was one of my sleepers on the season, but more because of decent production and he will be dual eligible at third base and shortstop by the end of April. Great first week, that will likely be, just like with Story, his best week of the season. Josh Donaldson and Anthony Rizzo will appear on this list many more times this season, but Jean Segura might have his only appearance (just like the top two guys) this week. I think Segura is in for a good season, but 37 points, I don’t see that happening again.

Top Two Start Pitchers

Clayton Kershaw: 55 pts (15 IP – 14 K – W)
Jake Arrieta: 49 pts (14 IP – 12 K – 2 W)
Feliz Hernandez: 44 pts (13 IP – 16 K)
Cole Hamels: 43 pts (13 IP – 12 K – 2 W)
Jeremy Hellickson: 42 pts (11.2 IP – 11 K – W)

As is usually the case, the best pitchers are the ones that get two starts each week. The first week of the season is usually just TOR guys, but some teams (Phillies) don’t have any and Jeremy Hellickson snuck into the list this week with a big first week for him. The rest of the names are all elite pitchers and are must start options every week.

Top One Start Pitchers

Noah Syndergaard: 29 pts (6 IP – 9 K – W)
Marco Estrada: 28 pts (7 IP – 8 K – W)
Ian Kennedy: 27 pts (6.2 IP – 7 K – W)
Juan Nicasio: 27 pts (6 IP – 7 K – W)
Vince Velasquez: 27 pts (6 IP – 9 K – W)

This year thought I would highlight the best weeks a little different and honor those pitchers who have a great week, while not having the benefit of two starts.

Top Closers

Roberto Osuna: 31 pts (4 IP – 6 K – 3 Saves)
Zach Britton: 26 pts (3 IP – 4 K – W – 2 Saves)
Wade Davis: 25 pts (3 IP – 4 K – W – 2 Saves)
Jeremy Jeffress: 25 pts (3.2 IP – 3 K – 3 Saves)
Trevor Rosenthal: 25 pts (3.1 IP – 8 K – 2 Saves)

Also thought I would highlight the closers separately which is led by a guy who no one was really expecting to be a closer until a day or two before the season started, and has another guy who only got a shot because of an injury. Ever wonder why I say not to spend auction dollars or high draft picks on closers. I was able to swap out two of my four teams to get Osuna, missed on Jeffress though.

Chicago Cubs Batters

Anthony Rizzo: 36 pts (3B – 2 HR – 10 RBI)
Dexter Fowler: 33 pts (2 2B – 3B – HR)
Ben Zobrist: 24 pts (2 2B)
Jason Heyward: 21 pts (2B)
Miquel Montero: 20 pts (3 2B – HR)
Kris Bryant: 18 pts (3 2B)
Matt Szczur: 14 pts (2B – HR)
Jorge Soler: 12 pts (HR)
Addison Russell: 12 pts (2B)
Tommy LaStella: 7 pts (2B)
David Ross: 6 pts (2B)
Munenori Kawasaki: 2 pts
Kyle Schwarber: 1 pt

Rizzo and Fowler had great weeks and we had many who had good weeks, but this was really a team effort all week to go 5-1 and I would expect this to be the case most of the year.

Chicago Cubs Pitchers

Jake Arrieta: 49 pts (2 GS – 14 IP – 12 K – 2 W)
Jon Lester: 25 pts (1GS – 7 IP – 4 K – W)
Kyle Hendricks: 22 pts (1 GS – 6.2 IP – 5 K – W)
Jason Hammel: 16 pts (1 GS – 6 IP – 6 K)
Hector Rondon: 15 pts (2 IP – 4K – Save)
Justin Grimm: 11 pts (3 IP – 3 K)
Pedro Strop: 10 pts (3.1 IP – 4 K)
Travis Wood: 8 pts (2.1 IP – 2 K)
John Lackey: 7 pts (1 GS – 6 IP – 4 K – W)
Neil Ramirez: 5 pts (1 IP – 2 K)
Adam Warren: 4 pts (1.1 IP – O K)
Trevor Cahill: 0 pts (1 IP – 1K)

Nothing shocking here with Jake Arrieta on top of this list as he will do it many weeks even when he is only getting one start. I like that John Lackey was able to stay in the game long enough to make his first start not so bad after a horrible to start to the game.

CCO Fantasy Leagues

The leagues are off and running. This year with three leagues it will be harder for me to watch all teams to see if someone isn’t playing. If you see a team that didn’t make any moves all week during your match-up, let me know. Sometimes teams just need a reminder or life happens and they can no longer keep up with a team. On the other side of that, if you would like to take over a team to get your foot in the door to these leagues, send Neil an email to forward to me or comment below. There are always openings as the season goes in leagues of this size.

CCO Leagues Trades

Trading is tough early in the season, mainly because most teams want to see how the early parts of the season goes. But most trades this time of year are done to clean up drafting too many of a position or from using auto draft.

CCO Fans Trades Last Week

No trades

CCO Trades Last Week

Theo traded Hunter Pence, Eddie Rosario, Carlos Martinez to Clark n Addison for Adrian Beltre, Nick Markakis, James Shields.
The Wrong Team traded Christian Yelich to BigJonLilJon’s for Mark Trumbo

CCO Auction Keeper Trades Last Week

Woody’s Way traded Felix Hernandez to Bull Pen MacGyvers for Andrew McCutchen
Hunt’s Hosers traded J.D. Martinez and Vince Velasquez to BigJon’s Clubber Lang’s for Delino DeShields and Jason Hammel