Introduction

I never played baseball growing up, but followed it on and off until I was introduced to fantasy baseball in 2001. Since then I've always dreamed of being a baseball general manger. I grew up fascinated by numbers and statistics. I tracked statistics for any game I watched. Kept score at baseball games, followed college basketball, minor league hockey and logged all the NFL scores for years. 

GRUNDLEball

The 2024 season will be my 10th year in the league (we did a one off season due to the shortened 2020 MLB season). 

GRUNDLEball is a 15 team dynasty baseball points league. The players in this league know baseball. Since this is a dynasty league knowing prospects is a must. I'm not just talking top 100 prospects but deep prospects. It's exactly what I had been looking for since starting my fantasy baseball career in 2001. My first season was 2014 and I did not know what I was doing. I had been playing in a head to head category keeper league, but this was different. I struggled adjusting to a new system and player values. I finished 12th my first season and snuck into the playoffs in my second. Then had back to back 7th place finishes. Heading into the 2018 season I knew that based on the league structure I needed to add impact pitchers in order to seriously complete. Before that season I made deals to acquire Trevor Bauer, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. I marked the change in by renaming the team from Moneyballers to Rochester Plates. Bauer, Snell and Jose Ramirez, my franchise cornerstone lead me to a second place finish. I must admit that I was first for the majority of the season until I was passed in the final week. I failed to make the finals that year, but the change in strategy worked as I focused on adding pitching. I made the playoffs again in 2019 and 2021 and finally in 2022 I finished as regular season champion. It was also the first, and only time, I made it to the Championship. Unfortunately the wheels fell off and one by one my pitchers were injured and I was beaten by a far superior team. The injuries to pitchers that late in the season wasn't new to me. It happened regularly to me and many others in the league every year. It caused me to rethink my strategy. Heading into 2023 I had a new plan...