Grade your draft

[becker]

Lay out your strategy and then how well you executed it....


My strategy was to take advantage of the money I had to spend, land a minimum of 4 top guys and then fill in the pen....I also thought landing someone who could be trade bait would help

I had 2 guys at the top of my list, and determined that for David Wright and Alfonso Soriano, I would pay 80 of my 150 bucks. Wright went to me for $43 and Soriano for $31, so they weren't cheap, but they were under what I had allotted. By the way, if any of you are wondering, Soriano's 29 bombs are going to play 2b for me, and right now is slotted 8th vs RH..Thank you Mike C for giving him a B at 2b for his 1 game!

I also wanted to land a top starter, and thought I had Volquez at $27 (computer locked up and I never saw the $28 bid)...I was prepared to go $30, so whoever got him, you got lucky! But I am ok with John Lackey at $25, who I think is a top of the rotation horse who should pair well with Haren, Lester, and Saunders as my top 4 guys.....

My one rookie mistake was getting caught bidding a guy up, but Alex Gordon is not bad at $21. He could easily be trade bait (for upgrades either at SP, CF, or maybe SS) or I can DH him while he benefits from Kevin Seitzer's tutelage...if you have to overpay for someone, its better to do so for a guy with still a lot of upside.

I then drafted pen with Howell, Carlson, and Francisco, spending under $30. I had hoped maybe to land Mo Rivera or Kerry Wood, but they predictably went higher than I was prepared to go, so I decided to spread the wealth.

My last guy wasn't bad, considering I had hoped to spend the last $5 on a top prospect. I settled for Branyan at a buck, hoping he hits for a ton of power this year in Seattle.

I'll give myself a B+ for this inaugural draft. I probably overpaid for Soriano, and for the pen. I didn't really land any top potential guys cheap either (like whoever got Travis Snider for $6, nice job!). But I landed some middle of the lineup bats and added to the core of my club.

[blbtrappers]

I went into this draft with a lot of holes and a fair amount of money to spend ($125). I needed about 85 or so starts, a fulltime LF, CF, 2B, backup catcher, part time RF, and about 3 RP. My philosophy was not to compete this year and instead invest in some parts for the future. As part of this strategy, I made the decision not to pay for RP, unless I got guys who happened to have relief innings but represented sleepers or young talent for next year. Here's how it went:

Jason Bay - $21. Here's a guy I targetted. He's been a solid hitter except for the one year he played hurt, and now he's in Fenway and gets to rap doubles off of the Monster. He's a bit old but should be productive for at least the next few years. I'm very happy to get him at 21 bucks to fill my LF void.

Benji Molina - $17. Ok, here's where I went off board and strayed from my plan. I was bidding up Molina to try to get others to spend money and I noticed the bidding was pretty slow. So I thought to myself, well I can get a fulltime catcher for the next few years and shift Inge to be my fulltime CF/backup catcher, IF I can get Molina for a reasonable price. I feel $17 is reasonable, maybe a few bucks high if he starts his decline soon. A bit risky due to his weight issues and the fact that catchers usually decline earlier than other positions.

Max Scherzer - $10. A guy I targeted going in because he kills two birds with one stone - he gives me relief innings and he's a future #1 or #2 type starter. $10 is high for this BLB season but I'm hoping he'll be a bargain as early as next year.

Lyle Overbay - $4. Again, I went away from my plan. I have Beltre, Guillen, and Cabrera to fill 1B, 3B, and DH, so why would i draft a fulltime 1B? Well, because Overbay has a nice card for this year (high OBP vs RHP), and there's a chance he has a decent card for the next few years until Cooper is ready in Toronto. Maybe I became a bit enamored with what he coudl do for my offense this year, so in that regard it might not have been a smart pick, but at $4 I figured it made sense.

Aaron Cook - $21. I may live to regret this one in future years. This shows a mistake I made in the draft, where I should have spent money earlier on sure aces like maybe Volquez, Cueto, Lackey, etc, who will give me starts and who I know are good bets to be good for me in the next year or two. Cook isn't exactly a sure thing to repeat his solid 2008 performance, since he doesn't strike guys out and is at the mercy of his defense. But I kind of realized that there weren't many starts left and I had money to spend, so here it is, Cook at $21. I don't mind the pick for this year, but again I don't love it for next year.

Redding - $9. Eh, Redding isn't terrible. $9 may look like an overpay next year, but there's always a chance he cracks the Met's rotation and gives me some decent starts.

Purcey - $6. Well this is more in line with my strategy. $6 is solid for a guy who put up pretty good numbers at the end of last season, and who is the Jay's #3 pitcher as we speak. If he keeps his walks under control, Purcey could be a bargain next year.

Inglett - $7. Hill's return from a concussion is no sure thing, and Inglett fills a hole for me this year, so I don't mind him at $7.

Davies - $6. Again I'm chasing starts here, but Davies does have some upside. He's a former solid prospect who posted some real ugly ERAs with Atlanta before finally having a solid season last year with KC. He's entering his prime and is in an MLB rotation, so I'm happy to have him at $6.

Choo - $11. Choo had a quietly productive season last year, posting an OBP of nearly .400. He fills my part time RF need as he'll platoon with Justin Upton. Choo is penciled into Cleveland's OF and if he picks up where he left off, then he'll be a bargain at $11. There's some risk here though.

Snider - $6. Ah, here's my favourite out of all my picks. Getting Snider at $6 has to be considered a bargain, no? Even if he spends some time in the minors this year (please JP, no!), to have Snider under control for the next few years at that price is something I am very happy about.

Rickie Weeks - $3. Again, two birds with one stone, as weeks is a pick for this year at 2B (he'll form the other half of a solid platoon with Joe Inglett) and he does still have some upside, if he ever puts it together. Despite his short comings he has posted solid OBPs the last few years due to a lot of walks.

Penny - $2. Sleeper pick who gives me a lot of innings in the 'pen. If penny can even give me about 15-20 league average starts this year for Boston, he'll be worth the two dollars.

so that's my draft. If I had to give myself a grade right now, I might say a B, maybe B+. I seemed to stray away from my strategy a bit and get enamored with picking up guys for this year, which I shouldn't have done because I dont' have enough pitching to be a serious contender. I did however pick up a lot of the guys I was targeting (Bay, Scherzer, Choo, Snider, Weeks) so that has to count as something of a successful draft. Overall I'm excited for my offense, I'm ok with my starting pitching (there's some depth there but no real standouts) and I'm dreading my bullpen (Scherzer is the closer and then there's Guerrier, Penny, and Price's 15 IP, as well as whoever I get in the minors). I also did fill most of my holes so that has to count for something. And if any of the guys I got that have good cards flop this MLB season, I can always swing some deadline deals.

[archrivals]

Ah...this draft went a lot better for me than the last one...

Strategy going in was to get Granderson for 25 bucks, land a SS of some sort for 5-10, couple of good reliever for 5-10 and some backup OF for cheap.

Well, I got Granderson for 26, whiffed on the SS when Aviles and Barmes went way out of my range and I screwed myself on Maicer and Aybar, did get Infante for $1, but his defense is lacking. Landed 2 decent relievers for 5 bucks total in Rauch and Lincoln, missed on a couple of the ones I really wanted due to the fact I went off plan and snagged Volstad for 15. A couple of positives there though are that Volstad can be used in the pen, and 15 bucks for a guy of his caliber may be a blessing long term.
Also snagged two OF in Carlos Gonzalez for 3 and Dan Murphy for 1, they both have jobs, and Carlos is an A this year, so hello defense.
Took two $1 flyers late in Travis Hafner who if he bounces back will be all sorts of welcome, and Clayton Richard who may sneak some starts in Chicago.
Overrall I am pretty happy with my draft, Granderson was the one guy in the whole draft I wanted, and Volstad was a want pick that panned out into my salary range. I like my two OF snags, and my flyers, just wish I wouldve done better at SS and pen.

Overrall grade a B. Woulda been an A had I gotten Maicer.

[nfeuerer]

Badgers were needing over 100 starts, an extra bat (either 3B or DH), and almost an entire bullpen. I had a little more $$ than expected, but also would have had fewer holes with Dunn and Crede still on board. My plan was to grab starts early as I expected the price to be high for the quality guys (over $30 was my guess), and then slide down. My offense was pretty much set except DH and a couple platoon guys, and a 3B if one came in at the right price.

When Lohse popped up 2nd in the draft, I got in quickly and snagged him for $19, which I thought was a little high, but happy I knocked 33 starts out right away. I correctly had Nolasco going at over $35, so I figured the rest of the top notch guys would settle in at $30-34. I was a little wrong. I got a little gun shy on Cueto and Lilly, who I think both were great deals. I got Meche at $25, which I was happy about, and then was in on Volquez at $26 and thought I had him at that. Apparently, I had the same problem as Doug because, the next thing that happened was another guy was on the board. Oh well. Really didn't want to touch Harden for $25, and Shields went high too, so that left Lackey and Kershaw in my top tier. I really didn't like Lackey's splits, and Kershaw just got a little high for me. Randy Johnson droppping to me at $17 was great, basically filled all my starts for $61, when i thought it would be closer to $85 to get quality guys. Really pleased when guys like Cook and Blanton went for more than Lohse and Johnson.

On offense, was upset at not being more aggressive on Ordonez, Nady, and looking back Fielder. At one point, i looked at my list for DH type guys, and Ibanez was the only guy left, and I had to get him. At $17, i was pretty happy, but wish i would have gone after some younger, better guys like Longoria. REally had my eyes set on Kapler and Willy Aybar to fill out my offense, but when bidding got up to $10 on each, that was too much. Hairston and Jeff Baker at a combined $4 will be alright, but their splits limit me a little more than those other 2 guys.
In the pen, i was planning on doing it on the cheap again, as it worked for me last year. First I wanted to make sure I got a solid lefty, and when they started coming off, they went high. Getting Downs at $5 was ok, but I was in on almost every other guy and they just went too high. After watching some guys go for 11, 12, 14, and 16, i figured i may have to adjust my strategy, but i just waited it out, and the prices came a little lower. Johnson, Adams, and McClung for a combined $15 was ok all things considered. McClung will steal starts from Francis, and be the long guy. Adams and Downs will set up, Johnson will be a middle type.

Hits: Getting my 3 starters for $61 (2 JAMS), solid pen guys, good D in Hairston and Baker
Misses: Left a ton of money on the table ($36 i think), could have gone after some higher priced guys as a result. Team aged quite a bit in one afternoon (Johnson and Ibanez helped that).

All in all, it was a lot of fun again. I'd grade myself a B, mainly because with the money I left out there, I could have had some studs compared to just solid players. But my team should contend again this season, so that is positive.

[happytimefunboy]

This was an interesting draft that didn't go the way I thought it would.

I expected pitchers going for big bucks.. like $50 for Nolasco and Shields and Volquez. So congrats to those players that got them ... good deals.

I went in with $84, looking for an OF preferably a CF, a 3B, and a ss. I didn't want to spend money on a bullpen and I had all my starts already.

I snagged E. Longoria 3B as my first pick. With Wright and A-Roid gone I had to get him. At $40 he should pan out for a 23 year old. Seeing Cantu go so cheaply to my cross town rivals Garson hurt a little.

I really missed the boat on my OF. I let Granderson and Span slide by relatively cheap. I ended up with Nady for $18. He's in his prime and had a clutch so that is decent.

At short I grabbed M . Izturis for $3. He's a great platoon for Inj. Furcal. Also landed Casilla for $2.

As for Prospects I picked up Joyce, (Who will play till he's out of AB's, has a lot of pop and a starting job this year) D. Ryan (Ca) Again has some pop but will have to fight to play this year in Det. As well as Santiago (IF), I think/hope he lands the every day job in Detroit at ss.

Carpenter (SP) if he come back to his old form 2 years ago I believe will be the steal of the draft at $1. I see him as the Ace next year. He'll also add 3 starts if I want or fill out a few Pen innings this year at worst.

I picked up E. Stutlz by accident, Though someone would bid $2. But now he's a $1 trade bait. (7 starts any-one?)

As for my pen, I grabbed Thorton at $7. A little high I think, but he's fairly consistent and rumored to be the #2 closer. But he'll be my closer.
Oliver will be the goto man with 72IP, Tejada has a wicked card this year. (My kid drove his price up on me!)
Lindstrom a righty killer this year for me and Florida's closer this year could pan out to be a great pick for $2 as well.

So, I filled my holes, but now have a weak CF. (Lewis with a C in CF)
Did pick up 2 clutches. A few possible prospects and some great potential in SP/RP.

I was left with $2. Over-all I give my draft a B+. (An A+ if Carpenter wins the Cy Young, and Lindstrom gets the Rolaids relief award.)

It was a great draft and I think I'll be in the running this year again, but will need a few trades to win!

[BLB Tejanos]

My strategy was simple - I only had $46 dollars to spend, and 12 players to draft. So when you don't have much money, you won't find yourself overbidding on many players!

My goals were simple; get offense!

My first player to bid was Michael Young who is one of my favorite players; I knew the likelihood was low I'd get him, but I bid anyway. I obviously did not, but despite being a fan favorite, I couldn't justify spending $26 of my $46 dollars on him, so i passed. My next bid was Gary Sheffield, which got a lot of weird looks. Yes, he sucks, yes he's old. But for a buck, I was guaranteed a player no one would bid on who would give me close to 500 PA.

Most of the players I put up for bid early on were players I didn't expect to realistically have a chance to draft, but I knew were guys people didn't want to pass up on. So while people still had money to spend, I put guys out there that had value, in order to drive up their price. Still, at some point, I was going to have add more than just Gary Sheffield. I finally got into my first bidding war, for Casey Blake. Surprisingly, he went for only $12 and ended up being the most expensive player I drafted all day!

I then noticed I could probably start getting a few players that could play everyday and still be somewhat useful for a decent price, now that the big spenders had already blown their wads, or guys with money left were running out of roster space, and had very specific needs at that point. I was able to snag Jose Guillen for $7, Ben Francisco for $7, and Juan Pierre for $6. I really didn't want to spend $6 on Pierre, but was enticed by the 10 baserunning and A-1B and someone else was driving him up. I'd rack him up to being the only overpay for the day for me.

Erick Aybar was another $7 pickup, when I noticed that a) I didn't have a shortstop, and b) shortstop was going off the board. I'm still not sure if he's a $7 guy yet, but based on need, it wasn't a bad investment.

The next 6 of the 12 guys I needed were all $1 guys to go with Sheffield at $1: Eric Byrnes, Kendry Morales, Gabe Gross, Eric Bruntlett, Greg Dobbs, and Jeremy Sowers.

I managed to fill all my rotation spots, fill almost all my position needs, and my bullpen already has my 7th/8th/9th inning guys. Once the minor league phase started, I added another corner guy in Jose Bautista to fulfill all my roster needs, now all I need is some long relief and I'm done.

I'd grade myself as a C+; not because I did bad or anything, but because I wasn't a major player in the draft, since I had so few $ and wasn't going to get many big names.

[dougnsjr]

I went into the draft with 51$ and needing 39 starts i knew this would be challenging but was very surprised at the low price tag on premiere players I made many deals in the off season figuring money would not help me in the draft but if I hadn't taken on so much salary I could have purchased quality guys cheap I was crying when Hanley, Arod, McCann Molina and Howard all sold for below market value in my opinion and was not happy at the low price of Lilly and Harden.

I managed for the most part to stick to my game plan and and not get tied into to many large contracts just try to find deals I managed to pick up 4 players i wanted Sandoval @ 8$ Prado @ 1$ Smoltz at a 1$ and Campillo @ 14$ I couldn't let Cantu go by @ 16$ even though he was not on my short list of needs the 700 plate appearances with CLUTCH gave him value and makes him possible trade bait.

I also picked up Scutaro at 6$ Hanigan @ 1$ and when the auto draft took over i ended up with Bruney and Albers @ 1$ each.

I covered all my starts and AB's except for SS i'm lacking about 100 PA's but i'm willing to take a minor league SS for these duties

Overall i'd say a B on my draft not exactly what i would have liked but i have a ton of money coming off the books this year so I basically drafted enough to back up at every position next year in the hopes that i am a big player in the next draft

[blbtrappers]

Report card is out, feel free to nitpick my comments or grades in here. I welcome the feedback!

[evilempire]

Tremendous coverage, Mike. Very well done. It takes a certain mind to draw all that up and even go as far as project to W-L totals. I needed 2 SPs and got who are going to be my #2 and #4 starters in Lilly (my top choice) and Perkins. True I might not have needed Shields but I was willing to get enough relief IPs...and will certainly round that out with some lefty reliever help plus an extra OF in the minor league and prospect phase. Still figuring out where my weak spots are, and will have fun getting my team in the W column while they duke it out in MLB. I wasn't able to fill SS adequately, as I didn't honestly realize the OC was not to be on my roster...so frankly I didn't mind overspending on IFs with SS coverage to compensate.
I am also considering do a review of teams based on a couple of niche ideas that will probably come into play.Probably will do something along the Bill James route. I have my own formula that I want to shop.

[M24H]

I was a disastrous 66-96 last season, and there are plenty of reasons why.

It had been approximately two decades since I’d had the task of trying to put together a good PTP/Dynasty team, I wasn’t particularly good at it back then...I had 61 starts worth of lefty human teeball stands Tom Gorzelanny and Dontrelle Willis...I could go on and on, but you all know how it went down. Pretty much every team in the BLB got well at the expense of the Horsemen. The only MLB teams to lose more games last season were the Mariners, Nationals and Padres. It was a train wreck.

But the fact is, it wouldn’t have gotten as bad as 66-96 if I hadn’t realized what I needed to survive in this league as early as I did.

The official time of death for my season was...(according to my Gmail records)...exactly 1:12 pm PST on 7/10/08 when Edmonton asked if Miguel Cabrera and the remaining 2 years and $138 dollars of his salary was available for trade. Mike was loading up to make a second-half run, and I suddenly was giving up on even trying to weasel my way into a wild card spot. If my season were a movie, the movie would be Million Dollar Baby, and Clint was about to pull a Kevorkian on Hilary Swank.

By dinner it was done, and I now had two (low average but) high OBP/OPS guys in Burrell (2 years, $18 remaining) and Giambi (minor leaguer, so only a year for $10 if I wanted to keep him), and more importantly, a little bit of money to actually spend in this year’s draft to start rebuilding.

Between Cabrera and the 3-year $111 deal I gave Erik Bedard, I was going to be coming into this year’s draft with a 66-96 record and no money to do anything about it. The Cabrera deal was big. The deadline deal that sent Bedard and his salary and his bum hip to Clearwater in exchange for another (low average but) high OBP/OPS guy with pop, Rick Ankiel, who only had 1-year and $22 remaining on his deal, helped a little more. Bedard almost won a ring for Howard, but that’s a disastrous $37 card that I no longer had to deal with. For Howard’s sake, I hope Bedard has a good MLB 2009 so he can help in BLB 2010.

Coming into this draft, here’s what I knew:

1. I needed an impact player offensively. I lost 18 one-run games last season. And 17 two-runs games. Miggy Cabrera would have turned some of those games around, so I needed a new Miggy, preferably one who wasn’t a huge liability defensively.

2. I needed a FT shortstop. Badly.

3. I needed a jam starter. I already had one in $3 Scott Baker (easily my best inaugural draft pick, in retrospect), but in order to not be a doormat again in what is officially a sick IPA division, I needed a second one.

4. I needed to have a plan when it comes to finding pitching. My everyday lineup was, unfortunately, locked in for the most part. I needed the SS, but other than that and a platoon catcher, I only really needed reserves. I needed pitching, and all kinds of it. 101 starts, effective bullpen innings thanks to unexpectedly below-average MLB seasons from Betancourt and Pena, I needed arms, ones that work.

Well, I turned #1 and #2 into Hanley Ramirez, at a steep $54/year. Too much? I don’t know. We’ll find out. But what I do know is, he’s Hanley Ramirez. What he’s shown so far has been pretty damned good, and apparently he’s trying to make a point of improving defensively. Even if he doesn’t improve defensively...he’ll still be Hanley Ramirez. He’s Miggy with a better glove and a higher ceiling. I’m willing to take my chances.

Arlington and I battled over him, and I didn’t enjoy it very much. I needed Hanley. My only other real choices were Jeter, who’s my favorite player in baseball but not even the same species of player as Ramirez, and Michael Young, who’s great but slowing down and currently isn’t even scheduled to play SS in Texas anymore. I liked what I read about Aviles, and thought it was fate when I saw he was born in Manhattan, but it’s still a risk and a platoon situation with someone else. Had to get Hanley. I almost bailed at least twice, and I dropped a LOUD f-bomb when we went over 50 (it was early here in SoCal), but I got a helluva player to try and fashion a team around.

I had no time to celebrate, though, `cause I think the very next name was Ricky Nolasco, who was on the short list to fill point #3. In terms of the jam starters available who miss bats, and were of the highest value in terms of starts (I’m looking at you, Rich Harden), it was between Nolasco and Volquez. I said I wasn’t leaving without one or the other. I had a preference, and it was admittedly Volquez, but I had to get in on Nolasco and see how it went. From there I got sucked in, and as the bidding went up, all I kept thinking about was how it could go even higher for Volquez. So I stayed in until the end, and spent a little more than I thought I would, but I got my jam starter.

Nolasco had the elbow problems in 2007, but he stayed healthy and discovered the cutter last season. We shall see, but Nolasco joins Baker and Marcum as a nice 1-2-3. Paid $36, and Arlington gets a little revenge by getting Volquez for only $28.

I came in with lots of needs and $117, and I spent $90 of it in about four minutes, on two guys.

I leaned on my pitching plan the rest of the way, and ended up drafting 5 more starters who can help me, and the 77 starts that come with them, for $13. With the possible exception of Sean Marshall, there’s nothing sexy about the names...Rowland-Smith, Cha Seung Baek...Horsemen legend Zach Miner...but Rowland-Smith is a lefty who can be tough on RHs (.658 OPS against), Miner can too as a RH, and there were plenty worse in the draft than Baek. Radhames Liz is going to provide for some bumpy rides, but he can get a strikeout here and there so maybe he can hang around. And again, I had twice more starts from Dontrelle Willis last season, Liz will never be worse than that. (The 7 starts I have to give Phil Hughes will take care of that.)

As for the bullpen, I got 66 innings of solid Taylor Bucholz for $9, which I like except for the fact he’s all of a sudden got ligament damage in his elbow. Fantastic. But most of the other guys I got to round out the pen are cheap strikeout guys who are tough (or at least semi-tough) on RHs and solid against LHs: Edwar Ramirez cost me $3, but David Robertson and Jorge Julio (a little shaky against OPS-wise) were free in the minors draft. I still have Fuentes, who’s been tough for me, so we’re a much better bullpen than what I had last season.

Not sure how I’ll do. It’s a tough division. Pretty sure I’ll be a more competitive team, and I’m shooting for a .500 record come season’s end. With any luck, Yonder Alonso (4th overall prospect pick) will get fast-tracked and I can get a year of him in the lineup with Hanley Ramirez. Bounceback seasons by Cano and Francoeur would be nice too.