Ready for Baseball

Just finished 1st draft of year and am heading on vacation for a week. When I come back its baseball writing time. Thanks for your support throughout the year as we approach 50k hits on site and my 400th post. Let me know if there are any topics you want me to cover before Spring training.

2013 HOF Ballot

Here is the just released list. Just finishing up 1st draft and will have results by this weekend. Its time to get serious about baseball again. Like Bill Veeck said" There are only two season: Baseball and Winter."
Sandy Alomar Jr.
Jeff Bagwell
Craig Biggio
Barry Bonds
Jeff Cirillo
Royce Clayton
Roger Clemens
Jeff Conine
Steve Finley
Julio Franco
Shawn Green
Roberto Hernandez
Ryan Klesko
Kenny Lofton
Edgar Martinez
Don Mattingly
Fred McGriff
Mark McGwire
Jose Mesa
Jack Morris
Dale Murphy
Rafael Palmeiro
Mike Piazza
Tim Raines
Reggie Sanders
Curt Schilling
Aaron Sele
Lee Smith
Sammy Sosa
Mike Stanton
Alan Trammell
Larry Walker
Todd Walker
David Wells
Rondell White
Bernie Williams
Woody Williams
The holdovers from last year’s ballot are Bagwell, Martinez, Mattingly, McGriff, McGwire, Morris, Murphy, Palmeiro, Raines, Smith, Trammell, Walker and Williams.  All the rest are new.

1st Draft for 2013 Underway

Congrats to the Giants on a World Series Championship.  Now that baseball is over its time to start planning for next season.  So far I am more than planning. I am immersed in my first draft for 2013.

This will be a league set up for weekly line ups using a Roto 5x5 format. It will be a 2C league with standard positions that include 5OF, CI, MI and Utility. We will have a full pitching staff and 5 bench spots. The only caveat to this league will be no trades or FA pickups. It is strictly who you draft plays for the year.  This was originally going to be just an early mock draft but it quickly turned into a full blown league.

Due to this format teams will be unable to stream pitchers in and out of their line-ups. Because of this I decided to go SP heavy once the draft took off.  Originally I wanted to find some players with multi-position eligibility so I could have a little flexibility due to injuries. It was decided that a 20 game minimum would be in place to qualify for a position. That took players like Prado, Young, and Bonifacio down a notch in value from the previous year to their versatility.

With this format, staying healthy will be the biggest concern. So far we are about a third of the way through the draft. We are commenting on picks through Twitter if you would like to follow. The hash tag to follow is #FGDmock  . Some of the picks coming in are vastly different from last year’s draft. I called it a changing of the guard for 2013; at least for the few opening rounds. Here are the first 10 rounds of action to date.

Round 1
1)	Miguel Cabrera		3B		DET		Daniel Schwartz
2)	Ryan Braun		OF		MIL		Joel Hanard
3)	Mike Trout		OF		LAA		Cody Pfleiger
4)	Matt Kemp		OF		LAD		Greg Sullivan
5)	Giancarlo Stanton		OF		MIA		Mike Lester
6)	Albert Pujols		1B		LAA		Joshua Feiger
7)	Andrew McCutchen		OF		PIT		Brett Barton
8)	Prince Fielder		1B		DET		Scot Nesbihal
9)	Carlos Gonzalez		OF		COL		Scott Gilroy
10)	Buster Posey		C/1B		SF		Mark Rogovin
11)	Robinson Cano		2B		NYY		Yoram Batner
12)	Joey Votto		1B		CIN		Dan Kercher
Round 2
1)	Jason Heyward	OF		ATL		Dan Kercher
2)	Jose Bautista	OF		TOR		Yoram Batner
3)	Adrian Beltre	3B		TEX		Mark Rogovin
4)	Troy Tulowitzki	SS		COL		Scott Gilroy
5)	Adam Jones	OF		BAL		Scot Nesbihal
6)	Adrian Gonzalez	1B		LAD		Brett Barton
7)	Evan Longoria	3B		TB		Joshua Feiger
8)	Josh Hamilton	OF		TEX		Mike Lester
9)	Justin Verlander	SP		DET		Greg Sullivan
10)	Jose Reyes	SS		MIA		Cody Pfleiger
11)	David Wright	3B		NYM		Joel Hanard
12)	Clayton Kershaw	SP		LAD		Daniel Schwartz

Round 3
1)	Justin Upton		OF		ARI		Daniel Schwartz
2)	Ian Kinsler		2B		TEX		Joel Hanard
3)	Hanley Ramirez		3B/SS		LAD		Cody Pfleiger
4)	Dustin Pedroia		2B		BOS		Greg Sullivan
5)	Jay Bruce		OF		CIN		Mike Lester
6)	Stephen Strasburg		SP		WAS		Joshua Feiger
7)	Ryan Zimmerman		3B		WAS		Brett Barton
8)	Matt Holliday		OF		STL		Scot Nesbihal
9)	Billy Butler		1B		KC		Scott Gilroy
10)	Curtis Granderson		OF		NYY		Mark Rogovin
11)	Edwin Encarnacion		1B		TOR		Yoram Batner
12)	Starlin Castro		SS		CHC		Dan Kercher
Round 4
1)	Brett Lawrie	3B		TOR		Dan Kercher
2)	Bryce Harper	OF		WAS		Yoram Batner
3)	David Price	SP		TB		Mark Rogovin
4)	Cole Hamels	SP		PHI		Scott Gilroy
5)	Brian McCann	C		ATL		Scot Nesbihal
6)	Felix Hernandez	SP		SEA		Brett Barton
7)	Jacoby Ellsbury	OF		BOS		Joshua Feiger
8)	Ian Desmond	SS		WAS		Mike Lester
9)	Yadier Molina	C		STL		Greg Sullivan
10)	Jered Weaver	SP		LAA		Cody Pfleiger
11)	Elvis Andrus	SS		TEX		Joel Hanard
12)	Allen Craig	1B/OF		STL		Daniel Schwartz

Round 5
1)	Desmond Jennings	OF		TB	Daniel Schwartz
2)	Matt Wieters	C		BAL	Joel Hanard
3)	Alex Rios	OF		CHW	Cody Pfleiger
4)	Chase Headley	3B		SD	Greg Sullivan
5)	Carlos Santana	C/1B		CLE	Mike Lester
6)	Joe Mauer	C/1B		MIN	Joshua Feiger
7)	Victor Martinez	C		DET	Brett Barton
8)	Gio Gonzalez	SP		WAS	Scot Nesbihal
9)	BJ Upton	OF		TB	Scott Gilroy
10)	Yoenis Cespedes	OF		OAK	Mark Rogovin
11)	Craig Kimbrel	RP		ATL	Yoram Batner
12)	Jason Kipnis	2B		CLE	Dan Kercher
Round 6
1)	Austin Jackson		OF			DET	Dan Kercher
2)	Aroldis Chapman		RP			CIN	Yoram Batner
3)	Cliff Lee		SP			PHI	Mark Rogovin
4)	Ben Zobrist		2B/SS/OF			TB	Scott Gilroy
5)	Aramis Ramirez		3B			MIL	Scot Nesbihal
6)	CC Sabathia		SP			NYY	Brett Barton
7)	Adam Wainwright		SP			STL	Joshua Feiger
8)	Mark Teixeira		1B			NYY	Mike Lester
9)	Paul Goldschmidt		1B			ARI	Greg Sullivan
10)	Aaron Hill		2B			ARI	Cody Pfleiger
11)	Matt Cain		SP			SF	Joel Hanard
12)	Madison Bumgarner		SP			SF	Daniel Schwartz

Round 7
1)	Jimmy Rollins	SS		PHI		Daniel Schwartz
2)	Freddie Freeman	1B		ATL		Joel Hanard
3)	Adam LaRoche	1B		WAS		Cody Pfleiger
4)	Michael Bourn	OF		ATL		Greg Sullivan
5)	Matt Latos	SP		CIN		Mike Lester
6)	Pablo Sandoval	3B		SF		Joshua Feiger
7)	Zack Greinke	LAA		SP		Brett Barton
8)	Johnny Cueto	SP		CIN		Scot Nesbihal
9)	Matt Moore	SP		TB		Scott Gilroy
10)	Kendrys Morales	1B		LAA		Mark Rogovin
11)	Carlos Beltran	OF		STL		Yoram Batner
12)	R.A. Dickey	SP		NYM		Dan Kercher
Round 8
1)	Shin-Soo Choo		OF		CLE		Dan Kercher
2)	Corey Hart		1B/OF		MIL		Yoram Batner
3)	Jonathan Papelbon		RP		PHI		Mark Rogovin
4)	Alex Gordon		OF		KC		Scott Gilroy
5)	Brandon Phillips		2B		CIN		Scot Nesbihal
6)	Roy Halladay		SP		PHI		Brett Barton
7)	Yu Darvish		SP		TEX		Joshua Feiger
8)	Josh Reddick		OF		OAK		Mike Lester
9)	David Ortiz		Util		BOS		Greg Sullivan
10)	Ian Kennedy		SP		ARI		Cody Pfleiger
11)	Chris Sale		SP		CHW		Joel Hanard
12)	Anthony Rizzo		1B		CHC		Daniel Schwartz

Round 9
1)	Max Scherzer	SP	DET		Daniel Schwartz
2)	Josh Willingham	OF	MIN		Joel Hanard
3)	Eric Hosmer	1B	KC		Cody Pfleiger
4)	Kris Medlen	SP	ATL		Greg Sullivan
5)	Yovani Gallardo	SP	MIL		Mike Lester
6)	Ike Davis	1B	NYM		Joshua Feiger
7)	Ryan Howard	1B	PHI		Brett Barton
8)	Jason Kubel	OF	ARI		Scot Nesbihal
9)	Jason Motte	RP	STL		Scott Gilroy
10)	Jose Altuve	2B	HOU		Mark Rogovin
11)	James Shields	SP	TB		Yoram Batner
12)	David Freese	3B	STL		Dan Kercher
Round 10
1)	Miguel Montero			C		ARI	Dan Kercher
2)	Michael Morse			OF		WAS	Yoram Batner
3)	Norichika Aoki			OF		MIL	Mark Rogovin
4)	Jordan Zimmermann			SP		WAS	Scott Gilroy
5)	Jim Johnson			RP		BAL	Scot Nesbihal
6)	Adam Dunn			1B		CHW	Brett Barton
7)	Shane Victorino			OF		LAD	Joshua Feiger
8)	Danny Espinosa			2B/SS		WAS	Mike Lester
9)	Mark Trumbo			OF/1B		LAA	Greg Sullivan
10)	Joe Nathan			RP		TEX	Cody Pfleiger
11)	Paul Konerko			1B		CHW	Joel Hanard
12)	Kenley Jansen			RP		LAD	Daniel Schwartz