10 Posts Today: 4 Injury updates, several good articles, a draft day challenge for fun, and, maybe you win, and an informative, fun, funny Fantasy article by our 1st guest writer - Brian Worcester ... / Coming tomorrow: Part 2 of Brian's article ... Next wednesday: Our 2nd guest writer - Deb Gurke ... / Enjoy ... Have a Great Day!!!
Until next time, so long everybody ...
Lee [ Cowboy ]
PS/Please click on ''Older Posts'' at the end of the articles to read 3 of the injury updates. Thank you ...
Fantasy Draft Day Part 1 by Brian Worcester
Our mixed league is a friendly, 10-team, mixed 5x5 snake draft league, with OBP and SLG replacing BA and HR. My mission during draft day is to provide verbal abuse, braggadocio after being lucky enough to win one year, and an occasional inspired pick. Cowboy Lee’s mission during draft day is to absorb verbal abuse, make wild reaches no one expects, and draft every Cardinal and Colorado player that may be available to him. He also has a fondness for Albert Pujols and other ex-Cardinals and Rockies. All others in our league will remain nameless to protect the innocent. Anyone from our league who wishes to comment and therefore remove the mask of anonymity may feel free to do so.
All appeared well-prepared, and the draft moved at the most rapid pace I’ve experienced. We have many drafting remotely; the technology of Skype and FaceTime made the experience highly enjoyable. Well, for most of us. The two poor souls who were stuck with me on Skype may not have had as much fun…
I’m going to review my picks and logic; I was drafting 9th in our 10-team league. I’ll also comment on other exceptional picks, or, in Lee’s case, his draft picks that seemed to appear from outer space. Lee drafted 3rd. In general terms, in a mixed format league such as this, I follow the Patel Plan in the early rounds. The Patel Plan was hatched by two individuals on a bulletin board I frequent. After multiple fermented adult beverages, they developed some simple mixed-league drafting principles:
- Don’t even consider drafting pitching until the sixth round.
- Don’t even think of drafting a closer until the tenth round.
- By round five, have at least two power hitting OFs and two power hitting CIs. Having a power hitting MI is great, too.
- Speed and saves are cheap.
So, onto round 1:
1 Kemp Mig Cabrera Pujols Tulo Ad. Gonzalez Cano Braun Votto Bautista J. Upton
Coming into our draft, I felt five first basemen had first round value in our league – Miguel Cabrera, Pujols, Votto, Adrian Gonzalez, and Fielder. I had hoped to snag one of them and one of Justin Upton or Carlos Gonzalez in the second round. Under no circumstances did I believe Jose Bautista – the 2011 league leader in OPS, dual 3B/OF position eligibility, and 100+ R and RBI – would fall my way. That being said, none of the first round picks are bad picks – Tulo and Cano put up monster numbers at positions that can provide limited offense, and all the others are also solid anchor players that can provide huge 4-category support (MCab, Pujols, AGonz, Votto) or 5-category support (Kemp, Braun).
2 Kinsler Granderson Holliday Pedroia Longoria Kershaw Halladay Ellsbury Fielder CarGo
ß Pick Direction
After our pick 10 drafter took both Justin Upton and CarGo, I faced a dilemma: Take Jacoby Ellsbury, who I liked to anchor my OF, or take Prince Fielder, who I wanted to anchor first base. After brief thought and half a beer, I followed the Patel Plan and took the bigger anchor – Prince Fielder. I liked the start of my R/RBI/OBP/SLG categories, and knew I’d need to focus on some speed later in the draft. Lee took some heat for taking Holliday here – I admittedly like Granderson better than Holliday, and I’d have taken Kinsler in his position, but Holliday’s not a bad pick. Solid OPS, will hit in the middle of a still good Cards lineup.
3 Reyes HanRam Stanton Cliff Lee McCutcheon J. Weaver Beltre Verlander Teixeira Sabathia
Pick Direction à
Some interesting picks here. Not that I should have been surprised – I knew Cowboy Lee had a serious man-crush on The Player Formerly Known as Mike Stanton, and was only modestly surprised that he passed on better talent in McCutcheon to take Giancarlo. I did not expect four SPs to go in this round, either. When it reached my pick, Teixeira was still on the board. In a league with OBP instead of BA, Teixeira is still formidable, and the dropoff to the next 1B is considerable in my view.
4 Felix C. Santana Wainwright Pence N. Cruz Zimmerman Youkilis Lawrie Hamilton D. Wright
ß Pick Direction
Now we begin to move into some very interesting picks. In my case, I hesitated a lot with Hamilton – awesome talent mixed with a body that’s been gruesomely abused with alcohol, drugs, and a fondness for running full speed into walls far too often. But when doing the math, if he plays 140 games, I like him a lot here, and he solidifies my R/RBI counting stats and pushes my OBP/SLG into the elite area.
Hamilton was followed by three straight 3Bmen – I really like Brett Lawrie, but was surprised to see him taken with the 33rd pick. With legit potential for 20 HR and 30 SBs, I can see going for Lawrie early, as he’d not have made it back to the 8th pick in the fifth round. But the UCL-damaging, labrum-tearing, Tommy John surgery reach of the round was clearly Adam Wainwright. To Cowboy Lee. Mind you, I think Wainwright will have a fine year. But he comes with significant risk, and there was a whole lot of premier starting pitchers out there if one was looking for an anchor.
5 Bruce Price Berkman Kimbrel Crawford Hosmer Andrus Zobrist Hamels Konerko
Pick Direction à
Our first closer comes off the board with pick 44. Given that Kimbrel K’s batters at an inhuman rate and has one of the best setup men and young starting staffs in front of him, it’s a good strategic pick. I had my eyes on Zobrist, but he went the pick before me, throwing me into a quandary. So after thinking for a bit, I decided to build the front end of my staff and go with Hamels.
6 Sandoval Phillips M. Young Markakis A-Rod A. Gordon Haren Castro Lincecum Greinke
ß Pick Direction
And here’s where I go really astray. Whatever possessed me to take Lincicum, I have no idea. Especially with quality sticks on the board that went in this round and the next. A 3B would have been a very good idea for me here, allowing me to move Bautista to the OF. This, of course, dawned on me immediately after the Great Panda was taken, and I was hoping for Aramis Ramirez to make it back to me in round 7.
7 Cain Butler Gardner A. Ramirez BJ Upton As. Cabrera Lester D. Jennings Bourn D. Ortiz
Pick Direction à
And my hope is dashed with pick 64, as A-Ram disappears off the board. So, onto plan B – find premier speed. So I grabbed the Bourn Alternative. Since we carry two UT slots in this league, the pick of David Ortiz is an excellent one. Lee went with Gardner here, so we were thinking alike.
8 Uggla Morse Strasburg Victorino Utley Romero Choo Gallardo R. Weeks Mo Rivera
ß Pick Direction
2B is also a direction I wanted to go, as I saw three 2B that I still wanted on the board – Rickie Weeks, Uggla, and Kendrick. In a conventional HR/BA league, I’d take Kendrick first of the three. In our OBP/SLG league, I like Weeks the best, so I snagged him and filled my 2B slot. I have plans in the next two rounds to take my SS. I really like Victorino here, and was considering him. Morse was another I liked, and was hoping to make until the 9th round. Choo’s a huge comeback opportunity; I’ll admit I’m doubtful he is as good as two years ago.
Lee’s pick of Strasburg here is a solid one. Sure, he’ll be innings limited, but Lee’s pretty sharp on the waiver wire and can certainly find a decent replacement once Strasburg actually is sat down by the Nats. Combine 160 IP of Strasburg with 40 IP of a decent alternate SP, and Lee gets a heck of a SP here.
9 Reynolds Bumgarner Nathan Axford Rollins Storen Papelbon Kennedy Napoli Shields
Pick Direction à
The first closer run is upon us in round 9. Four front-line closers go this round. I liked Axford the best of the four. I decided to reach for a C – something else I normally ignore in a one catcher league until late, but in an OBP/SLG league, I figured Napoli carried a lot of value in the C slot. I almost took my SS here, and should have, given how badly I wanted him on my team.
10 Adam Jones Bonifacio J. Weeks M. Montero N. Walker C. Young Wieters Werth D. Gordon McCann
ß Pick Direction
As another writer noted, his father had a paunch and pitched, yet he was called Flash. His kid is rail thin, and faster than the wind, and he gets stuck with the name “Dee”. Life just isn’t fair sometimes. But I love speed at my MI positions, and while he won’t provide any SLG or many RBI, Dee Gordon has 60-70 SB potential and could score many, many runs in front of Ethier and Kemp. Two other potential speed demons follow in Jemile Weeks to Lee and Bonafacio. I like Bonifacio, too, as Ozzie will run him early and often. I like Adam Jones here as well; he has real athletic upside, and has provided consistent solid performance.
11 Latos Ethier Beltran Freeman Mauer Me. Cabrera Kendrick Posey Hart R. Roberts
Pick Direction à
While I like my MI situation, I realize my OF leaves much to be desired. I’d have loved to get Ethier, but was happy to settle for Hart. Beltran is a solid pick here also. He’s a known injury risk, and doesn’t run much anymore, but the man can still flat out hit. I prefer Hart to Beltran due to the injury risk, but if Beltran can play 140-145 games (even allowing for a DL stint), he will put up impressive numbers.
I’m very interested to see how Melky Cabrera plays in San Fran.
12 Gio Gonzalez Bell Cuddyer Y. Escobar Heyward Avila Aybar CJ Wilson J. Johnson Valverde
ß Pick Direction
High risk, high reward SP choice in Josh Johnson. I’m not a believer in Spring Training, other than to monitor how players coming back from injury look. And Johnson looked sharp, with decent velocity and breaking ball command. All that said, CJ Wilson is the safer, smarter pick in this round. Cuddyer went earlier than I expected, but I like him a lot in Colorado. If he can sneak in a game at 2B (our league uses single game qualification), he’ll really jump in value.
13 Ichiro Darvish Trumbo Duda M. Moore D. Hudson Maybin Ackley Stubbs Jeter
Pick Direction à
And round 13 begins with a Japanese invasion, followed by the biggest shock of the draft so far in Trumbo. If Trumbo had a position to play every day, I’d really like him here. But given his defensive minded manager – remember that Scosc had to be essentially beaten into submission to actually play a catcher who can hit – won’t play Trumbo at 3B much and there’s no other slot for him unless one of the corner OFs gets hurt. Of course, I can’t be too critical – I took a guy who could sink my OBP into the 7th plane of Hell, where it will disappear over and over again. But I couldn’t resist the lure of Stubbs potential for 40 SBs with some residual power. In hindsight, Swisher is probably the better and safer pick at this p
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