After finishing dead last in One Less Curse last season for the second time in franchise history, Brooklyn Bron went through another rebranding, becoming Pinstripes Empire for the 2024 fantasy baseball season. Despite the previous campaign’s finish, the league’s draft order is auto-generated every spring, and Pinstripes Empire drew the sixth overall pick.
In an attempt to reverse the franchise’s losing repetition, this year, we opted to enlist the service of FantasyPros to assist in our draft preparation. After participating in eight mock drafts, including several auto-drafts, we noticed that some players were falling into the same position draft after draft.
Creating a winning formula began to take shape in those mock drafts, but to ensure a successful draft, we upgraded to the FantasyPros Hall of Fame level, which offered real-time expert advice with every selection. Although there are no guarantees in fantasy sports, spending $16.99 to win money in the league and challenge for a championship for the first time may be one of the best investments in franchise history.
2024 Pinstripes Empire Fantasy Draft Results
As mentioned, Pinstripes Empire had the sixth overall pick. Unsurprisingly, Ronald Acuna Jr. (Atlanta Braves) was the top pick, followed by Bobby Witt Jr. (Kansas City Royals) and Bryce Harper (Philadelphia Phillies). Next, Mookie Betts (Los Angeles Dodgers) was drafted, followed by Freddy Freeman (Los Angeles Dodgers), leaving Julio Rodriguez (Seattle Mariners) available. Rodriguez joins the organization for the first time in his career as our top pick from the 2024 fantasy draft.
The remaining picks in the first round included Corbin Carroll (Arizona Diamondback), Kyle Tucker (Houston Astros), Spencer Strider (Braves), Matt Olsen (Braves), Shohei Ohtani (batter-Dodgers), and Trea Turner (Phillies).
When it was time for the Pinstripes Empire to select again, they drafted Baltimore Orioles starter Corbin Burnes with the 19th overall pick. This move came after two New York Yankees sluggers, Aaron Judge (17th) and Juan Soto (18th), went back-to-back.
In the third round, Corey Seager (Texas Rangers) joined the team, followed by Arizona Diamondbacks star pitcher Zac Gallen. Pinstripes Empire acquired an outfielder, shortstop, and two starting pitchers through four selections.
With the fifth pick, Edwin Diaz (New York Mets) joins the rotation and will be the team’s primary closer. Meanwhile, Mike Trout (Anaheim Angels) gets another turn with the club, having previously suited up as a second-round pick in 2022. Interestingly, he slipped down to the sixth round of the 2024 fantasy draft as the 67th pick.
By round seven, we realized that we were not tracking FantasyPros’ recommendations while selecting their suggestions with every pick. For example, in the seventh round, when it came time for Pinstripes Empire to pick, the experts agreed that Kyle Schwarber (Phillies) would be the best fit for our team, with a 37% consensus.
In one of the more surprising draft moves, Devin Williams (Milwaukee) became the second relief pitcher (eighth round) after the experts indicated he was our best option at 40%. However, according to the post-draft analysis, he is considered a “reach,” getting drafted more than two rounds ahead of the Yahoo projections. Although Williams is on the IL with an estimated return time of mid-summer, there’s no telling if this move will be a steal or a bust until October.
The next three Pinstripes Empire draft picks were all considered steals, as they were selected two or more rounds ahead of their projections. First, in the ninth round, Bryan Reynolds (Pittsburgh Pirates) became the team’s third outfielder with an expert consensus of 66%. He was followed by infielder Ketel Marte (Arizona Diamondbacks) in the tenth round, who clocked in at 59%.
Then, in the 11th, to keep adding to the outfield and utility positions, the experts suggested Chicago Cubs’ outfielder Seiya Suzuki, who had the second-highest consensus rating (71%) out of the final 16 rounds we tracked.
In the 12th, Pinstripes Empire added their third infielder by selecting Vinnie Pasquantino (Kansas City Royals), who had a 52% rating. Considering most of the elite catchers were gone by the 13th round, we selected Salvador Perez (Royals) despite having only 26% of the experts agreeing on the pick. As one of the most critical positions in the lineup, we couldn’t wait much longer without selecting a backstop.
As the draft progressed into the 14th round, Max Muncy (Dodgers) was our next draft pick, with the experts giving him the green light at 45%. The utility infielder was joined by pitcher Hunter Brown (Astros), who had a 44% consensus.
The team’s following selection came in the 16th round (198th overall) when Ke’Bryan Hayes joined his Pirates teammate Reynolds in the lineup. He was suggested with a consensus rating of 33%, the second-lowest total of any player selected in the late rounds. Pinstripes Empire then added to their pitching pool by selecting Kodai Senga (Mets) in the 18th round after he was recommended as our best option at 40%.
Meanwhile, in the 18th round, Trevor Story (Boston Red Sox) made history by becoming the first player ever drafted to our fantasy franchise from the Red Sox. In an attempt to qualify for the postseason for the first time, all rules were abandoned, including never employing anyone from the Red Sox, Astros, or Toronto Blue Jays. His consensus rating was 60%.
After several rounds of recommendations, we finally selected St. Louis Cardinals utility player Tommy Edman in the 19th round (222nd overall) with a 74% consensus rating. As the draft entered the 20th round, we added to our pitching depth with Kenta Maeda (Detriot Tigers), who had a low 22% rating, the lowest of all 23 players drafted in 2024.
With only three picks left, the next player to join the team was first baseman Jeimer Candelario (Cincinnati Reds) in the 21st round. He completed our infield with Ryan McMahon (Colorado Rockies). According to the experts, Candelario was a 49% fit, and McMahon was 56%.
The final pick for Pinstripes Empire came in the 23rd round at 270th overall, and pitcher Robert Stephensen was recommended at 62%. As another thrower who is set to begin the season on the IL, he’s scheduled to return before the end of April.
After the draft, Pinstripes Empire drafted a single catcher and two shortstops. The team consists of three relief pitchers plus three first—and second-basemen. Their most stacked positions include third base, starting pitchers, and outfielders.
2024 Pinstripes Empire Fantasy Draft Analysis
So many fantasy managers will want to know if spending $16.99 to get assistance to draft a fantasy baseball team was worth it? Here’s the data behind the selections and the projections based on the 2024 performances of these 23 players.
At first glance, Pinstripes Empire is on pace to be the second-best team in One Less Curse, with great starting pitching and superb offense, but will struggle with our collection of hurlers. Moreover, the extra players give us the third-best bench in the league.
A deeper analysis indicates that Pinstripes Empire will be a top-three team in scoring runs, hitting dingers, and collecting RBIs. However, like almost every season, we will not be a threat to steal bases. One drawback of aiming for power is that our hitters will rank in the bottom half of the league in batting average, just four percentage points from ranking dead last.
As mentioned, FantasyPros recommended some great starting pitchers for us to draft; overall, our rotation and bullpen will struggle to get us points this season. Most teams loaded up on key statistics like wins, saves, and strikeouts. Based on the post-draft numbers, Pinstripes Empire will be the second-worst team in wins and strikeouts while collecting the eighth most saves. The hurlers’ only saving grace will be their ERA and WHIP numbers, which rank in the top five in each category.
According to FantasyPros, seven players were considered “steals,” getting drafted at least two rounds after their initial projections. Only two players were labeled “value” picks, getting selected one round after expectations.
Their in-depth recap indicated that three picks could be considered reaches. This means we took them way ahead of their average draft position and could have probably waited and still selected them.
Final Thoughts
Since joining One Less Curse in 2017, the fantasy baseball team, Pinstripes Empire, has never made the playoffs. Their highest finish came in 2022 when The Bronx is Burning finished sixth.
We will not know for sure whether getting “professional” help in the draft with expert opinions on every pick will pay off in the long run, but after so many unsuccessful attempts to build a winner, it was worth a shot to try something out of the box.
You can follow Pinstripes Empire and their adventures throughout the summer on social media and by bookmarking the team’s main page.
Keeping the Stats 