At the end of every season I revisit my draft to see if there are learnings and/or takeaways from the season. You can find the initial recap of this draft here.

In this league I came in 7th; 6th in hitting and 10th in pitching.

This team had some bad luck and me being wrong on players.

Bad Luck

Willson Contreras only playing 84 games. I projected he would bat high in the lineup and DH a lot. He was on pace to achieve that but injuries unfortunately got in the way. I think next year he splits half the time at DH and the other half catcher.

I thought Gleyber Torres would have a breakout season. It turned out it would be his worst season since 2021. In the second half he hit .292/.361/.419 so there may be some optimism for 2025 depending where he lands. My best guess is he takes a one year deal and tests free agency again.

Michael Harris under performed in a shortened season. His batting average will fluctuate wildly year-to-year but I still think in a full season he’s a 20/20 hitter.

Me Being Wrong

A lot of times when I try to get big power for cheap (like Spencer Torkelson) it rarely works out. I thought Torkelson would be way to get 30-plus homers with a below average batting average. I think he bounces back next year but his upside 25 homers instead of 30.

I thought Ke’Bryan Hayes would build off his of 2023 improvement but instead he reverted back to his pre-2022 self. He has the raw ability to be 20-25 home run hitter but he hits the ball on the ground too much.

David Bednar and Edwin Diaz were both horrible this year. Bednar was hurt to begin the year but I didn’t think it would effect him as much as it did. According to Stuff+ his stuff was better than 2023. His Location+ dropped 4%. My bet is Bednar rebounds next year.

I dropped Hunter Brown in May. If you remove the first month of the season he has a 2.51 ERA and a 1.122 WHIP with a strikeout per inning.

Overall Takeaway

When I go cheap pitching in drafts its very important I find at least one, preferably two, pitchers that outperform. Unfortunately, I missed on some pitchers, I dropped an ace and got unlucky with injuries.