Dynasty Dynamics: Rebuilding in TGDX, Part II

Back in early April, I broke down what had been a busy offseason for my #TDGX team and promised to fill you in on updates as the season progressed. Seven weeks later, it seems as good a time as any to review the moves I’ve made through the season’s early days, which include a blockbuster trade and a whole lot of small, unexciting waiver wire pick-ups. Yay rebuilding!

If you want to get fully caught up on my #TDGX read the post from April, but for a general reminder, here are the league's parameters: The Dynasty Guru Experts League was founded two years ago. This 20-team, 5×5, 35-keeper (including 10 minor league slots) expert dynasty league was created by Bret Sayre to pit knowledgeable, dedicated dynasty-league fanatics against each other. I am in the early stages of what I hope will be a two-season rebuild, and I’ve totally blown up my roster over the past five or six months.

When I left you last, I spoke about the challenges I experienced while shopping Robinson Cano. For a long while, I couldn’t convince any owners to give up two excellent prospects for the aging slugger. That changed in late April, when I dealt Cano, Josh Reddick and spare parts for Bradley Zimmer, Franklin Barreto and additional prospects. To read a complete breakdown of the deal, check in with George Bissell’s TDGX Transaction breakdown here. For a summary, here’s what it looked like:

That certainly qualifies as the only super prominent move I’ve made so far during the 2016 season, but I’ve also entered low-FAAB bids for a litany of interesting MLBers and a few prospects as I continue to reconstruct my roster.

Of the players I bid on, I’ve already cycled through Cosart, Geltz, Navarro and Hoover. So yeah, I’ve wasted $5. But I’m going to make lots of $3-5 dollar bets on back-of-the-rotation type pitchers as the year progresses, both in the hopes that I’ll unearth a decent arm that I can flip after 10-or-so good starts (Peralta) and in the hopes that I find a longer-term keeper (Gonzalez).

As for players I’m sweeter on in the long-term? I was ecstatic to land Kopech, who’s still a top-200 dynasty prospect, for just $10. He would’ve fetched a far heftier price before he broke his hand. Taylor is hitting quite well in Triple-A, and Muncy has a chance to earn regular at-bats for the A’s; picking him up two days before he was summoned to the majors is extra sweet. Butler is probably the outlier here—even $3 might have been too much to spend—but bit players have value in #TDGX. Maybe he’ll be a pot sweetener for me later.

Add it all together and here’s what my roster looks like as I cost to the worst overall record in #TDGX this season. Players with asterisk were acquired at some point following the 2015 season:

There’s plenty of work left to be done. My power outlook isn’t too good, Aaron Judge aside, and I lack a true top-shelf pitching prospect. I’m also a little short on infield prospects, as people have seemed far more willing to give up outfielders. But a huge portion of my prospects should be playing everyday by mid-2017, and my few veterans—CarGo, Revere, Teheran, etc.—figure to be still be fantasy assets through 2018 and beyond.

I don’t think my rebuild has been perfect. In some ways I’ve chosen quantity over quality, and as I lamented in my last post, I’d probably be in better shape if I had realized the reality of my situation a year earlier. But compared to how my roster looked just six months ago I like where I’m at right now. Add another savvy waiver wire pickup or two and some strong draft picks to my crew for 2017, and it should be a much more fun season than 2016 has been thus far.