PPA Tour Cape Coral – (Late) Fantasy Add/Drops and Start/Sit Preview
We are a little late in getting this up as we are already two days into Cape Coral. Nevertheless, we are still chugging along here.
This is the first add/drop waiver period for our 2-person season long fantasy creation. In an effort to keep the rules as complicated as MLP, each month we are requiring 2 drops from each main gender category, 1 drop from each main singles category and 1 drop from each outside top 25 doubles category. There are no restrictions on being able to pick up the opposing person’s dropped players.
In the chart above, we have our start/sits for the Cape Coral tournament and we have some reasoning on those start/sits below.
Add/Drops (Gritty)
Women: Kate Fahey and Lacy Schneemann (drop); Parris Todd and Etta Tuionetoa (add) – The Kawamoto’s will be dropped most likely the next waiver period because they are only slated to play a few PPA events this year so who knows when their next one will be. That makes the drops easy as Fahey and Schneemann are simply not in the same stratosphere as AB, Tyra and Rachel.
Easy choices for me to add the two drops of Parris and Etta. I think from a gameplay standpoint it was a mistake to drop Etta as stacking her with the Dizon partnership could have been helpful for Jer. I’m surprised Parris got the drop over Tina Pisnik too, but I’ll take it.
Men: Dylan Frazier and Jay Devilliers; Dekel Bar and Pablo Tellez (add) – my other men are simply better than these two. Dylan Frazier and Eric Oncins is the top team outside of the big 4, but Frazier’s mixed continues to be problematic as evidenced by a bad loss he and Lea Jansen suffered in the round of 64 to Tammy Emmrich and Carlos Di Laura. It’s nice to have some upside with Dekel at the back of my bench. Is he going to find his form at some point?
I also decided to go with my main man, Pablo Tellez, as he has had a good start to the year and the Jack Sock partnership that continues in Mesa remains intriguing. I remain reserved on Pablo’s long-term trajectory in the game, but he is still a quality men’s doubles player in the right partnership.
Outside Top 25: Jamie Wei and Max Freeman (drop); Maggie Brascia and Yuta Funemizu (add) – Mya Bui would have been my drop, but Jamie Wei is technically 25th in women’s doubles due to her Asia points. Max Freeman gets the dump simply because he is now inside the top 25 and is no longer eligible to be kept by me.
Maggie Brascia isn’t playing in Cape Coral but I get the stack potential in Mesa with Mary Brascia on my roster. I go with Yuta Funemizu, who just has more upside if he gets going here. These picks were done before the matches today, but the reason Tama Shimabukuro wasn’t in play is due to his partnership with Luc Pham coming up in Mesa. It’s tough to find good partners.
Singles: Parris Todd and Christian Alshon (drop); Catherine Parenteau and Roscoe Bellamy (add) – Parris was an easy one as she has semi-retired from singles. I hemmed and hawed about whether to drop Jack Sock, especially since he is coming off a bad hamstring injury and isn’t playing Cape Coral, but he’s too tantalizing to quit this early in the season after such a strong Masters performance. Alshon had a disappointing lose to Cason Campbell in Minnesota. Singles is such a crap shoot.
Catherine Parenteau is the add over Genie Bouchard. I think it’s possible Genie Bouchard has gone from underrated to overrated as I’m not liking what I’m seeing from Bouchard over the past few months. The men’s singles side is so tough but I’m happy to get Roscoe as he has been playing very well.
Outside Top 15: Salome Devidze (drop); Kiora Kunimoto (add) – If anyone can tell me where Salome is, please do. She gets dropped for not playing. She was a withdraw in Cape Coral as well. I take Kunimoto as she is really the only option in this outside the top 15 range. Isabella Dunlap has moved into the top 15 and I’m not sure when Sahra Dennehey is going to start playing PPA events.
Add/Drops (Slim)
Women: Etta Tuionetoa and Parris Todd (drop); Lacy Schneemann and Kate Fahey (add) – We’ll see how my drops turn out but I wasn’t a big fan of the Parris/Dekel partnership and like that Dizon and Pisnik have looked good in mixed.
Easy decision to pick up Chris’s drops so not much more to say there.
Men: Dekel Bar and Riley Newman (drop); Dylan Frazier and Jay Devilliers (add) – Dekel and Riley have both been playing at a not great level, and Riley taking a chance on newer partnerships doesn’t seem to be working out so far.
I was not sold on my pickups but I like Dylan with Eric Oncins and Jay with Jessie Irvine gives him a little mixed juice.
Outside Top 25: Lauren Stratman and AJ Koller (drop); Danni-Elle Townsend and Armaan Bhatia (add) – Stratman and Koller were uninspiring choices to begin with so they were easier drops as there is no long-term upside.
I don’t know if Townsend is coming over but I like her as a stash wait and see for now. Armaan Bhatia has shown a little juice to start 2026. He and Austin Bricker took Garnett and Augie to 3 games today.
Singles: Catherine Parenteau and John Lucian Goins (drop); Lea Jansen and Christian Alshon (add) – Another set of easy drops. CP has not had a hot start in singles and Goins seems to have hit plateau.
Jansen felt like the only realistic option with Parris gone. Alshon still has the athleticism and upside.
Start/Sits (Gritty)
The start/sits are pretty straightforward this week. The top 5 women and top 5 men are all in play in Cape Coral so nothing surprising there. Mary Brascia and Maggie Brascia is out so I only have Mya Bui. Yuta Funemizu sits for me this week as Wyatt Stone and Will MacKinnon are better options (although Yuta got a big win today).
Anna Leigh Waters is unfortunately missing this event so she is the easy sit here and Jack Sock isn’t in Cape Coral, making him another easy sit.
From a gameplay standpoint, the Kawamoto’s are my biggest edge from a roster standpoint and if they can make another big run I’ll be in a good position to win the week.
Start/Sits (Slim)
Meghan Dizon is out so she sits this week. Lacy Schneemann is my other female sit. Dylan and Jay will also take a seat for me this week with tough mixed matchups, and Dylan is not in a good spot for their QF matchup against Christian and Hayden.
Lea Jansen (singles), Federico Staksrud (singles), Jack Sock (outside top 25), Dani-Elle Townsend and Armaan Bhatia are all on my bench for this event. Jansen is the weakest singles player on my roster. Staksrud may be a controversial sit but he has not had a strong singles start to the year. Sock is not in Cape Coral,
Tyson has not had a great start to the year in singles and I maybe should have dropped him for someone like Tama. Cailyn Campbell was bested by Isabella Dunlap after almost losing in the round of 64 so we’ll see how things look for her coming up.
