Free Agent Fantasy Team: Setting the Rosters-Off the Radar

March 18, 2013; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; Cincinnati Reds shortstop Cesar Izturis (3) makes the play for the out in the third inning during a spring training game against the Colorado Rockies at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

With Texas and Houston playing last night, the MLB season has officially started. This means that I had to set my all free agent fantasy team roster, 25 MLB players, along with 15 players that are inactive, whether in the minors or on the DL (or in Bartolo Colon’s case, suspended). This means I had to cut 20 players, though some were already cut during spring training. So here is how my roster looks going into the season:

TEAM

MINOR LEAGUES

Released

Obviously for minor league contracts that were selected and added to the MLB roster, we don’t have the contract data for (at least via Baseball Reference). So for now, and I will update it if they change, I am putting them at .5 million dollars, which is about league minimum. This means I have spent 98.66 million dollars out of my 108 million “cap”. So I have plenty of flexibility to purchase contracts from the minors all year, along with perhaps even being able to sign a Grady Sizemore/Brian Wilson type guy in the middle of the season if needed or wanted (and I will always be looking for minor league free agents).

For my minor league team, I had to balance out positions, to make sure I have depth, while still trying to keep players that have a legit shot of making the Majors at some time this season. My starting pitching depth is not nearly as good as I thought it was. I am not left with a lot of options, as Randy Wells is my only healthy minor league starting pitcher. Obviously I will add Bartolo Colon to the 25 man roster after the first week of the season when he is eligible again. Obviously a good number of my releases were minor league relief pitchers, which was by design, as I just signed a bunch of them and hoped some would stick. For those wondering, Dan Wheeler was the last cut (which probably shows up because he is last in order).

The two tough decisions I had on my MLB roster was Cesar Izturis versus Cody Ransom (I obviously picked Ransom) and Yorvit Torrealba versus Nate McClouth. I decided to keep Torrealba and have 3 catchers just because catching is so volatile and I have a lot of outfield depth. Both Ransom and Izturis project to basically be replacement players, but Ransom has the potential to hit for an empty average and has a little more versatility than Izturis, so he will probably have a better chance of hanging around all season. Other than that, the 25 man roster sorted itself out pretty well.