Expanding rosters to 29 may not be enough.

Ryan Tepera (P) CHI-N - Apr. 05

https://www.rotowire.com/baseball/player.php?id=740531

Tepera could earn one of the Cubs' final bullpen spots when the regular season is able to begin, Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune reports.

ROTOWIRE RECOMMENDS: If the Cubs and other MLB teams get to use expanded rosters when the regular season begins, many will likely deepen their bullpens to deal with what figures to be a compacted schedule. Tepera, who entered spring training on the roster bubble, would stand to benefit in this scenario. The righty had a down year in 2019.

In leagues that allow bidding on minor leaguers, will Mize and Manning cost more, each, than the Opening Day rotation combined?

Jordan Zimmermann (P) DET - Apr. 05

https://www.rotowire.com/baseball/player.php?id=740516

Zimmermann will likely be Detroit's No. 3 starter when the regular season is able to begin, Chris McCosky of The Detroit News reports.

ROTOWIRE RECOMMENDS: McCosky projects Zimmermann to slot in behind Matthew Boyd and Spencer Turnbull, and ahead of Ivan Nova and Daniel Norris. Zimmermann had a horrific 2019 campaign, posting a 6.91 ERA in 23 starts, and his time in Detroit could come to an end whenever highly touted pitching prospects such as Casey Mize and Matt Manning are ready for the majors. 

Joey Wendle (2B) TB - Apr. 05

https://www.rotowire.com/baseball/player.php?id=740523

Wendle worked on his arm strength this offseason with the intention of filling in more often at shortstop and third base in 2020, Josh Tolentino of The Athletic reports.

ROTOWIRE RECOMMENDS: The versatile infielder enjoyed a solid spring (.259, two doubles, two home runs, three RBI, six runs) and is considered a lock to be on the team come Opening Day, especially with MLB reportedly preparing to allow teams to expand rosters to 29 players for at least the first month of the regular season. Wendle has experience playing up to five different positions, but he's spent the majority of his time at second base over the last two seasons. However, a stronger arm would certainly make him a more effective player when deployed on the left side of the infield. 

Michael Perez (C) TB - Apr. 05

https://www.rotowire.com/baseball/player.php?id=740511

Perez was the leading candidate to win the Rays' No. 2 catcher job on the Opening Day roster before the MLB suspended its season March 12, Josh Tolentino of The Athletic reports.

ROTOWIRE RECOMMENDS: Mike Zunino entered spring training secure as the Rays' top backstop, leaving Perez to battle with non-roster invitees Kevan Smith and Chris Herrmann for the backup gig. Though both Smith and Herrmann boast more MLB experience, their statuses as non-roster players likely work against them as they attempt to unseat Perez for the No. 2 job. Additionally, Perez is helped by the fact that he bats from the left side, offering the Rays more flexibility if manager Kevin Cash wants to play matchups in the late innings rather than having the right-handed Zunino play the full game. 

Cameron Maybin (OF) DET - Apr. 05

https://www.rotowire.com/baseball/player.php?id=740519

Detroit manager Ron Gardenhire said Maybin would have been his Opening Day leadoff hitter if play hadn't been suspended, Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press reports.

ROTOWIRE RECOMMENDS: Maybin had a rough spring training, batting just .077 in 10 games, but Gardenhire said he trusted the veteran's ability to get on base. The Tigers would have faced Cleveland righty Shane Bieber, so perhaps Maybin is looking at a more regular role despite the presence of left-handed outfielder Christin Stewart on the roster. There was some thought that the two could platoon, with Maybin playing primarily against lefties. 

Players on the cusp are really hoping some baseball is played this year.

Cheslor Cuthbert (1B) CHI-A - Apr. 05

https://www.rotowire.com/baseball/player.php?id=740541

Cuthbert was one of the final candidates for the role of 26th man when spring training was halted, Scott Merkin of MLB.com reports.

ROTOWIRE RECOMMENDS: With MLB considering a 29-man roster for the first month of the season, whenever it opens, Cuthbert appears to have a strong chance at a roster spot. When camp was paused, he was in the mix with Nicky Delmonico and Andrew Romine. The 27-year-old Cuthbert plays both corner infield spots and is coming off a robust spring in which he went 11-for-27 with two doubles, three home runs and six RBI over 33 plate appearances. 

C.J. Cron (1B) DET - Apr. 05

https://www.rotowire.com/baseball/player.php?id=740512

Cron finished Grapefruit League play with a .346/.452/.731 slash line and three home runs in 12 games.

An excellent Traveling Salesman problem, indeed. 

I can wait for results. I'll be last. But it was sure a lot of fun.

I entered another team, swapping out Samuel 84, Donaldson 15 and Scherzer 16 for Raines 83, Jose Bautista 11 and Arrieta 15. I think that's better but it depends on the value of this and that. It's so great that we get the results this week. I'm hard up for results.

I lost Gooden to Ricky in 1985, which wasn't gamesmanship but reflected where I started and my sense I couldn't do without Ricky. 

I made values as I do, but it was hard to figure the weight of the quals. So I ran through counting them and then ran through a second time trying to fix things using only quants. 

Hitter, Pitcher, Pitcher, Hitter. And then I fixed things. I was so happy to actually have a legal roster I stopped knowing there was a long way to go.

Read something new tonight which was MLB may be looking to have each team play one or two doubleheaders a week to get as many games in as possible. Teams would likely run with a 6-man rotation in that case. Mahle commented because he would be the Reds guy.

Shhh. Ray was barely worth anything.

Alex -- I still own Benson's "Playing for Blood"

The better question... do we really think he wasn't worth $13 last year in 5x5?

12 wins, 235 SO -- I mean, come on.

But maybe this is a good time to start a new thread called Notes for Masochists.

Can't think of a better time.

Piazza means no Clayton Kershaw season, among others.  I really wanted Kershaw's season with 300 Ks. Also, taking 97 means no Larry Walker, which I considered the most balanced offensive season.

I think you only beat me in Saves.  That Rodney season is a really nice pull.

I started with the quantitatives.  As I posted, my original team batted .337 and my Ratio was 0.87.  I thought it would be harder to correct quantitatives.  

Regarding common seasons: 

Mauer's season may be the most used.  His avenge blows away the other catcher seasons without giving up HR.  And, he's the only Twin worth considering other than a Johan Santana season.  

There are so many ARod and Bonds seasons it's tough to figure out the best one.  I just used ones that fit the open years for me, so as to avoid a conflict.

Pedro 2000 is likely a huge choice too, even though 1999 competes with it directly and is a reasonable choice. 

Anytime someone doesn't take Gooden '85, I think it's gamesmanship.  His IP/ERA with so many Ks and Wins just can't be beat.

Randy Johnson 02 is also hard to pass up unless you go with his 370+ season.  Maddux 95 is likely a near unanimous too, unless people are too put off by the low Ks.  His ERA/Ratio are absurd.  I think you shorted him some IP, affecting both.

My desire for quantitatives is how I got Pujols and Miggy, but I should have had Miggy at 3B and Ryan Howard's MVP instead of Schmidt 1980 - would have gotten more HR and RBI, plus gotten my avg up to .330.  The 12 steals probably aren't as important.

With the quantitatives, I did a lot of sorts in the player index.  I started with all 20-40 and 40-20 seasons and sorted by Avg/RBI/Runs/SB/HR.  I sorted a lot by position as well.  I came close on Molitor a few times.  But, he never had the one perfect season with the average, SB, and Runs.  That's how I finished with Hanley 07.  .335 125 Runs 29 HR and 51 SB.  It's near perfect, just light in RBI.  Roberto Alomar, Yount, Trammell 87, a few others are very balanced, but not dominant in any one category.  Eric Davis' 87 is also near perfect.  A .293 average is a drag.  Bonds 93, Walker 97, Pudge Rodriguez 04 are all perfect seasons.  5 category dominance.  Not the most valuable, necessarily, but the most balanced across all 5 categories.  

It's going to be interesting to see which lines are common and which useful ones are uncommon. I started with a ranking of all the seasons, and worked down, trying to incorporate the best ones. It's hard to imagine many seasons below where I fetched Robin Young (who other people had) that add more. At which point it come down to: Piazza. He is the stinker, since he's so much better than all the other catchers, but he cuts you out of so many Dodgers. Is it right or wrong to roster him? It would take some more hours to figure that out.

After I posted my list I looked through and saw some lines that might improve my team. But I also saw we all landed on a lot of the same seasons. An excellent project.

Nine of our player/seasons are identical.

Two things: Seadogs, I thought they were starting Kelly in the pen to start, but I like his chances better on the season than Leake's. But Kelly was terrible during the summer allowing homers, which may be a problem or could be a fluke. He was good in September FWIW. 

Texpope, I missed this post. I don't know why the Patton$ earnings are so high on Ray in 5x5. I mean I do, he's a strikeout guy, but there aren't many who earn 4x or even nearly twice more in 5x5 than 4x4. 

One way my prices differ from Alex's is that my guys start $4 in the hole. That's the value of an empty spot -$4. Usually on the whole season it doesn't mean much, but it does on the guys with limited playing time. 

Another way our prices differ is I give positive prices to the Top 108 pitchers on the year, which is a different population than Alex's draft day group. 

We'll look into this anomaly because it is odd for Alex to give a guy so much more value in 5x5 than 4x4. But Ray himself is a bit of an anomaly.  

Exactly Gene. The question was how much BA, ERA and WHIP to give up to improve the quantitatives. Here's my answer today. 

I tried to weight the cats as equally as I could for that exact reason: we don't know what everyone else will do. X percent will themselves attempt balance (I would guess the majority but that could be wrong). Y percent will accept less here to get more there, and I'm assuming that they will balance each other. The extent to which my Y assumption is wrong will decide a lot.

And then perfect balance in ten cats is impossible. At the end you have to sacrifice one or more cats here to get better cats there. I think I'm chasing my tail.