The results from last night’s “experts” draft can be found here. The following are some notes and observations about it:
To my surprise, I had a choice between Chase Utley and Carl Crawford with the No. 7 pick. Ultimately, I went with the premium on speed as opposed to the scarcity of the second base position. With the outfielder run I then proceeded with, I probably should’ve gone Utley in hindsight.
I normally like to take my sweet time during most drafts, but this one allotted just 45 seconds per pick, making it extremely difficult. Remember, this is a 15-team league, so when and where players are drafted will look quite different than the standard 12-team leagues.
I was pleased to have Garrett Atkins fall to me in the third but could just as easily have selected Jake Peavy there. In the first six rounds, I drafted four outfielders and a third basemen – not exactly attacking the shallow positions. Later nabbing Jorge Cantu and Bobby Crosby, two post-hype sleepers to be sure, wasn’t a bad way to fill my MI slots. Still, there were plenty of OF options later on as well, and it’s probably best to fill MI, C and 1B as soon as possible. Don’t underestimate just how shallow first base is this year.
Aaron Gleeman from RotoWorld swooped about 5-6 of the players I wanted directly in front of me during his 11 chances to do so. It’s always a drag when that happens, but when you have just 45 seconds to scramble for plan B, it’s especially rough. Todd Helton with pick No. 113 qualifies as good value, folks.
I think I’m higher on Cole Hamels than just about anyone right now, but I don’t see anyone else with his kind of upside available in the mid-rounds. The same could be said of perennial disappointment Mark Prior, whom I selected with the 219th pick!
Do not wait on catchers in a 2-C format. It’s safe to say I’m not thrilled with my Molina bros tandem, as cool as that is. Joe Mauer went round 2, to give an indication. Taking V-Mart over Atkins in round 3 would have been another option I could have gone with.
Barry Bonds’ fantasy value, or at least perception thereof, has officially bottomed out. The fact 187 players are picked before him says as much. Realizing his real life value greatly exceeds his fantasy value, I still think he should go earlier than this, especially in daily formats. He’s one more year removed from knee surgery, cleaned out his painful chips in his elbow and still rakes when in the lineup.
Carl Crawford, Bobby Abreu, Hideki Matsui, Rocco Baldelli and Jeff Francoeur form a pretty ridiculous outfield, but like I previously stated, it came at the sacrificing of a questionable MI and a weak catcher tandem. King Felix, Hamels, Zito, Prior, D. Cabrera, Z. Duke is a rotation with some real upside, albeit with plenty of question marks as well. Overall, I’d give myself just around a B here. At least it prepared me for some bigger upcoming money leagues.
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