I know what you’ve been thinking these last few weeks… “why no post about Jim’s fantasy baseball draft? I have been looking for in depth analysis of how things went and the coverage on SportsCenter just hasn’t covered it.” Fret not, here is your post.
… there are now officially between 0-1 people reading.
This is a 12 team draft and I picked #11 in every round (no snaking).
We start off with 3 keepers. This league has you keep your best 3 players (no rewards for getting “good deals” last year, etc). Rios is a bit of a stretch in the 3rd round (even at the end) but not terrible — I debated keeping Haren there but really didn’t want to start my draft with 2 pitchers (as you’ll see… I tend to basically ignore them until hitting is taken care of).
#1. 2B Utley
#2. SP Lincecum
#3. OF Rios
#4. 1B A.Gonzalez
I knew going in that around this area of the draft I was looking for 2 of about 5 OFs that should be left… little did I know that I was about to get FOUR of them. The result was that while I was happy with using the 5th and 6th round picks on them – had I known that I could get Victorino and Dunn in 7/8, I would have spent elsewhere — and that’s not even taking into consideration getting Cruz/Span at ridiculous deals (see below).
#5. OF Abreu
#6. OF Ordonez
#7. OF Victorino
#8. OF/1B Dunn
For the second straight year, I went in planning to take a catcher pretty late (I wanted Sandoval) but ended up getting one of the better ones when I just couldn’t pass on the deal. Last year it was Russell Martin in the 6th. This year, Victor Martinez in the 9th. The guy could be hurt in the first month of the season — or he could (easily) clear 70/25/100/.290
#9. C V.Martinez
I knew going in it was either Peralta or Young. If I hadn’t gotten him at this point, I definitely would have punted the position.
#10. SS Peralta
With all my hitting positions filled except 3B (and 5 guys I had equally rated there) it was time to actually start picking up some pitching. I’ll include the overall SP rank that I had for these guys to the right of their names. As you can see, according to my rankings – I got some pretty good deals here.
#11. SP Volquez (19)
#12. SP Harden (26)
#13. SP C.Young (29)
#14. SP Harang (31)
The deals were drying up a bit in SP and I normally like to stream one spot anyway + at the same time Mark DeRosa was being taken, leaving Cantu as the last man standing of the 3B group I mentioned earlier.
#15. 3B/1B Cantu
So, I guess I should take some relievers. I picked up a couple “closers” here. That’s in quotes because as of Opening Day Lyon wasn’t the closer… and I actually already dropped him 1 week into the season.
#16. RP M.Gonzalez
#17. RP Lyon
Seriously. Cruz was still there. I know that I took 5 OFs that I was VERY happy with, but seriously? I just had to take him at this point. I had this guy rated above guys that went 10 rounds ago. I actually had a note on my spreadsheet that said “11th?”… so, I guess that just means that if I hadn’t had gotten all those other OFs earlier… I would have been picking this guy much sooner.
#18. OF Cruz
We count holds in our format which for me is license to (almost) ignore saves and pick up great (high K/IP) setup men. If these guys stay healthy – they’re perfect for me. (count Shields in this comment too)
#19. RP Kuo
#20. RP Balfour
And a few more starters to spot start. I ended up dropping Saunders before the season started. Dudes gonna get a lot of wins this year (probably) but not much to go along with it.
#21. SP Pettitte
#22. SP Saunders
#23. RP Shields
#24. SP Galarraga
And finally, with the 2nd to last pick of the whole draft — I get another OF that I was targeting. I had him rated about 215; this is pick #299 so again — just had to do it. Hopefully these guys look good early so I can either trade them or trade the guys I’ve got starting over them. Maybe I’ll even get a closer out of the deal!
#25. OF Span
