Over the past week, I have been taking part in my first draft of the year. It is a 16 team NL only draft. Every card is used. It is the same league that Lawr plays in and just wrote about as well.
My team, the Dublin Ducks, went to the World Series and lost in seven games. I was leading 3-to-1 at one point. Very frustrating to say the least. Now, I’m in the bitter pill phase. I made a series of moves to help increase my chances of winning the World Series. Now it is time to pay the consequences for my actions.
In May of last year, I traded my #2 pick and a package of prospects to acquire a season of Chris Carpenter. Having Carpenter on my roster improved my team’s situation especially when you consider the fact that every card is used. So, I go into the draft missing my second pick, and I will not have Carpenter until Spring of 2010, at least. It would be fine if I got the ring, but I didn't.
I traded my #3 pick to get a #4 pick in the AL draft. That might seem silly, but I determined my chances of getting something useful with a #4 AL pick was better than my chances of my late #3 in the NL. That is how weak the NL new cards are this year.
On top of it all, the person picking behind me because I beat him for the NL Championship is Jason Grey of LABR and Tout Wars fame. He’s certainly not going to make a mistake. (And he didn’t.)
The team isn’t too bad. I have a rotation of Brandon Webb, Jeff Francis and Tom Gorzelanny, but it drops off after there. The bullpen is good. Hitting wise, the downward turn of Jason Bay and Andruw Jones means that I’m not going to score the runs like I did last year. I will be over .500 but I have a low chance of making the playoffs. The reason that it is low is that I knew I would be unable to fix any issues the team had via the draft. The team is older, but not old. I’m not willing to take on any additional “debt”.
Basically, the team doesn’t need a rebuild; it just needs to be reenergized. Just like January when you get your holiday credit card bills, you just need a little bit of time of belt tightening to pay the bills, but you don’t need to declare bankruptcy.
So, I need to get through this draft and position myself for a return to the playoffs in 2009.
To give you an idea of how shallow a 16 team NL draft is my first pick was Felix Pie. Homer Bailey almost fell to me, but Jason Grey wasn’t going to let him pass him by. Basically, there wasn’t a pitcher left who had a sure shot at a starting job. In 15 picks, anyone who was very likely to be in a rotation was snatched up.
The goal was to get a starter with a job (card value not necessary.) After Bailey was taken, according to my sheet, Mike Pelfrey was the best next option. Well, I don’t think the Mets are going to make room for him, so I passed.
If I couldn't get a starter with a sure job, I was going to get a skilled position player (CA, 2B, SS or CF). I'm strong at catcher. There are no prospects at second or short. That left center field.
There were three centerfielders to choose from. I had Pie, Michael Bourn and Carlos Gomez to choose from. Michael Bourn is a good fantasy player due to his speed, and he’s going to start, but he has no power. That makes him a poor Strat player. Carlos Gomez’s stock improved significantly when he was traded to the Twins, but he isn’t as projectable. Felix Pie hit .362 as a 22-year old in Triple-A. Yes, he didn’t do that well in a couple of call ups, but I’m willing to wait. I hope that he’ll be starting in my outfield as soon as next year.
The other positions I could have picked from included first and third and catcher, but I’m strong in those positions. Centerfield was the way to go.
To give you an idea of what a league like this is, my #4 pick, 64th overall was (I can’t believe I’m saying this...) Augie Ojeda. I was glad to pick up Ojeda (I can’t believe I said that either) because he has good on-base against right-handers and good defense at second, third and short. He was one of only two players left that had a signed major league contract, so he's likely to get a card next year. He’ll also get 120 at-bats spelling Alex Gonzalez at short and playing defense at third for Garrett Anderson.
My #5 pick, was Daniel Barone because he was only of the only players left on a 40-man roster, had a working arm, and an age less than 32. He’ll get 6 to 7 starts for me. They’ll be brutal.
There are three more picks yet. Now I’m weighing through injury types and how long they’ll be out, the players who signed to play in a foreign country and the retired.
Despite my joking around about this, in my 20-team home league, I spend the month of October with a list of new carded player names and I sit there like a Roman emperor at a gladiatorial match. Thumbs up, he is worthy of a roster spot. Thumbs down, he's crossed off never to be looked at again. In this league, every player is analyzed. Is he an A bunter? That's good. Can I get a handful of starts from him? Sign him up! It is a lot of fun.
My AL draft will be much more exciting to write about. That should happen next week.