Had the ole keeper leaguer draft on saturday so I figured why not share with my 2.5 readers how it went. Here's a quick summary for the rules to give you a context for the draft. Positions: 2 C, 2 1B, 2 2B, 2 SS, 2 3B, 5 OF, 7 SP, 3 RP, no bench all active all the time. Hitting Categories: Runs, Hits, Steals, Homers, RBI. Pitching Categories: Innings Pitched, Ks, ERA, Wins, Saves. 12 team league, each team keeps 5 fielders, 2 starters and a reliever, so essentially the draft starts at pick 97. My keepers were Berkman, Rollins, Hamilton, McCann, Cano (over Bay), CC, Haren and KRod. I came in first last year so I was punished by picking last the first two rounds with the snake beginning in round 3. I labeled each pick with effectively the number pick the would be in a normal draft.
108. Corey Hart - So I had accrued a list of the top available players not kept and they included Kemp, Soto, Stephen Drew, Bay, Alexei Ramirez, Chris Davis, Granderson, Chipper, Vlad, Hart and Victorino. Of the top list only Hart and Victorino were left when I drafted, I really really hoped Davis would still be available but alas he was gone. The Hart, Victorino debate is really a coin flip debate. More power on one side more speed on the other. I've had Victorino back to back years on my championship squads, but in the end I decided to go with Hart in hopes that he would hit 30 homers and that with my next pick I would land...
120. Rafael Furcal - His health is a massive question mark but if he stays healthy he will give me Victorino's numbers at Shortstop. If he doesn't stay healthy than I'm gonna be really pissed I used my 2nd round pick on Furcal in back to back years. Don't be a jackass Rafael.
121. Roy Oswalt - With this pick I was targetted mancrush Yovani but with Oswalt's consistency on the board I just couldn't pull the trigger. I crossed my fingers and hoped that Yovani would make it through the next to laps around the table...
144. Yovani Gallardo - And he did. Awesomeness.
145. Brandon Morrow - This pick is probably going to confuse the hell out of you and in any normal draft this looks a little like crazy talk. But here's the thing, in this league, closers go like hot cakes. By this time approximately 20 closers were gone. So you're saying who cares just scrounge the waiver wire during the season, closers always change hands. Problem is in our league each move costs 10 bucks. The past two years I've only ended up with two closers at the end of the draft and each year dropped a ton of loot on the ever changing closer revolving door. Morrow has great stuff, the rest of the Mariners pen is shit, I think he's safe and secure in the position and will keep money in my pocket.168. Johnny Damon - In the umm why is this guy still on the board world of picks, I select Johnny Damon. I'm concerned over his number of games, but he hit 17 HRs and stole 29 bases last year, he's essentially to their lineup. I think he still plays 150 games if he stays healthy gives me double digit homers and 20+ steals. I don't love the pick, mostly cause I prefer youth, but I made it.
169. Matt Lindstrom - Ditto on everything I said about Morrow. This time there were like 5 closers left. I forgot about Lindstroms little shoulder balking in the spring or I would have taken Heath Bell. Oh well.
At this point in time I had no third baseman, and counted down the third baseman selected and it was something like 20 total third baseman selected meaning that outside of the two I needed to draft only 2 other ones were going to drafted. Thus I decided to say screw it and draft them with my last two picks.
192. Ramon Hernandez - I'm not saying I expect big things from Hernandez this year, but is 20 homers in that Cincy park too much to ask? I picked him up at this point because it is incredibly valuable in a two catcher league and especially mine with no penalties for a low average, to pick up a player who is in the lineup daily. Hernandez played 133 games last year and will likely do the same this year.
193. Chris Carpenter - And time to roll the dice. I was gonna try to take Bedard with this pick but he was gone. I thought about trying to wait on Carpenter for another round but couldn't come up with a guy I really wanted to draft so yay Carpenter.
216. Felipe Lopez - I wanted Rickie Weeks but he went way early. I decided to jump at Felipe Lopez because I'm hoping to get 20+ steals and maybe 10 homers from him. He hit the crap out of the ball when he went to St. Louis last year in 43 games, maybe Washington was just his Kryptonite. Plus, he's currently slotted in at leadoff which means ample at bats which is always good in my league.
217. Oliver Perez - Ok so here's my rational on the Ollie P pick. First off there's no WHIP in my league so let's get the walk conversation out of the way. Next, last year he had a 'bad' year, but he still threw over 200 innings had 180 Ks and his ERA wasn't that bad at 4.22. Yes, he's a roller coaster ride. And no I did not enjoy coming home from my draft and seeing he got his shit pushed in. 240. Adam LaRoche - We were at the bottom of the barrell for first baseman at this point, think Konerko, Helton's of the world. I went with LaRoche over them cause he's younger and has 30 home run potential. If I drop him I drop him, it's a late round pick.
241. Hideki Matsui - And this is probably the pick I liked the least. As I mentioned before, at bats are very very key aspect of this league because of hits instead of homers. I like the fact that Matsui is hitting after Teixeira and will likely hit after Arod come his return. What I don't like is the potential for Jorge to steal days at DH away from him. If that happens a couple of times a week than Matsui might be found on my leagues waiver wire.
264. Josh Fields - Hey look a third baseman. If you're going to draft the 22nd or 23rd 3rd baseman than you're gonna get an old guy or a youngster with potential to succeed or fail. So we get Josh Fields and his 23 homers in 07 and his no show in 08. Come on Fields of 07.
265. Scott Baker - I'm not really a fan of Baker or Slowey, but at 265 how could I not draft Baker? He's on the DL for maybe a week or two and he was supposed to be the Twins opening day starter.
288. Scott Rolen - What did you expect me to get? Rolen at least will play every day if he can ever stay healthy. Somehow he's only 33.
289. Cameron Maybin - He was my minor leaguer so I'm allowed to use my last pick on him and put him on my active roster. Yes this is awesome. Hooray Maybin and his Mike Cameron impersonation numbers.
So my pitching is stacked. My hitting has some question marks and I have some decisions to make. I DLed Baker and picked up Lohse strictly due to a Two Start week against poop opponents. I also have Porcello who I will have three weeks to activate. This means that come a few weeks from now, barring any other injuries on my staff, I'm either gonna need to dump or trade Porcello or another one of my pitchers. We shall see.
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