Two drafts in one day can be a chore. Two drafts with different formats can be even harder. That’s what I did a few days ago. In the early afternoon I participated in the redraft of our old money keepers league. The league that I won the last three years by the way. What seemed to happen in this 10 team league with 5 keepers each is that a few teams ended last year with really only 2nd and 3rd tier players as keepers. I suspect this may happen in other leagues too. So instead of keeping the haves ahead of the have nots we collectively decided to redraft from scratch while adding 2 more teams. So a fresh 5x5 Roto league with 2C in addition to a CI & MI with no innings limit…time to stream baby.
The 2nd draft of the day came courtesy of an invite from the guys at Fake Teams for their inaugural H2H point’s league. I’ll admit I am a virgin to any type of point’s league. This draft was a real challenge trying to decipher a drafting strategy. The scoring is as follows, including my team per pick.
Runs (R) | 1 | FantasyBasebalVision | ||
Singles (1B) | 1 | (11) | Joey Votto(Cin - 1B) | |
Doubles (2B) | 2 | (14) | Dustin Pedroia(Bos - 2B) | |
Triples (3B) | 3 | (35) | Jered Weaver(LAA - P) | |
Home Runs (HR) | 4 | (38) | Brett Lawrie(Tor - 3B) | |
Runs Batted In (RBI) | 1 | (59) | Shin-Soo Choo(Cle - OF) | |
Stolen Bases (SB) | 2 | (62) | Madison Bumgarner(SF - P) | |
Caught Stealing (CS) | -1 | (83) | Jimmy Rollins(Phi - SS) | |
Walks (BB) | 1 | (86) | Adam Jones(Bal - OF) | |
Hit By Pitch (HBP) | 1 | (107) | Heath Bell(Mia - P) | |
Strikeouts (K) | -1 | (110) | Ichiro Suzuki(Sea - OF) | |
Hitting for the Cycle (CYC) | 10 | (131) | Huston Street(SD - P) | |
Pitchers Stat Category | Value | (134) | Sergio Santos(Tor - P) | |
Innings Pitched (IP) | 3 | (155) | Shaun Marcum(Mil - P) | |
Wins (W) | 7 | (158) | Corey Hart(Mil - OF) | |
Losses (L) | -5 | (179) | Wandy Rodriguez(Hou - P) | |
Saves (SV) | 7 | (182) | Johan Santana(NYM - P) | |
Hits (H) | -1 | (203) | Alex Rios(CWS - OF) | |
Earned Runs (ER) | -2 | (206) | Adam Dunn(CWS - 1B) | |
Walks (BB) | -1 | (227) | Roy Oswalt(Phi - P) | |
Hit Batters (HBP) | -1 | (230) | Carlos Zambrano(Mia - P) | |
Strikeouts (K) | .5 | (251) | Hisashi Iwakuma(Sea - P) | |
Quality Starts (QS) | 3 | (254) | Tim Stauffer(SD - P) | |
(275) | Ryan Doumit(Min - C) | |||
The challenging part of the draft was deciding what type of players to target…especially after the commish, which picked 2nd overall and has many seasons of experience in points leagues, drafted Kershaw his his 1st overall selection. That threw me immediately. I decided on a strategy to collect guys who do not strike out and can be a doubles machine. On the pitching side I tried to crunch the numbers for a staff that would get points for innings pitched and QS vs. stocking up on Closers who get just as many points for a save as a win. After seeing many teams completely punt on closers I started to target SP with QS from last year. Like I said this is all new to me but I am excited for the experience and I will figure out the best type of staff to run out every week…strictly SP, a combo of SP and RP, or heavy on the closers. I do feel SP with low WHIPS will keep the negative points at bay. I figured my bench should consist of SP so I can run them out every week they have 2 starts…I know that will be a good strategy and a points accumulator.
Back to my first draft of the day, the opening rounds went pretty much chalk with no surprises. I took Adrian Gonzalez and wanted Pedroia at pick 2 but he went just ahead of me and I settled on Hanley. With my 3rd round pick from the 7th position I went with Sandoval over Beltre. Looking back I should have gone the other way. Of course Beltre went the pick after I took Sandoval. Round 4 saw both elite Catchers go. In a 2C format I expected as much. I got the player I wanted in Lawrie and soon 3 other 3B came off the board too. At this point 7 SP and Kimbrel have been taken. I feel no need yet to scramble for a SP.
To start round 5 BIGDog…team name…selected his 3rd SP with Hamels. He now has CC and Lincecum as well to go along with Miggy as the 1st overall pick. He also collected many players that are injured or in free fall decline IMO like A-Rod Crawford, Utley, Jeter, Chris Perez, Salvador Perez, Grady Sizemore and Juan Pierre. My only thought is he thinks it’s 2009.
After I picked up Uggla in 5 and BJ Upton in 6 I briefly thought about trying the 6 hitters followed by 6 pitchers strategy. I went with Baumgartner as my ace then picked up my anchor of a closer in Storen. For round 9 I really gambled on Josh Johnson and his shoulder. This pick could really come back and haunt me. He was by far the pitcher with the highest ceiling on the board. The next I felt was Zimmerman and I thought I could snag him in the next round or two. I also anticipated a round where there would be a run on closers and I could scoop up some more quality SPs.
After the last pick of the 9th round I like to evaluate the teams and see what their strengths and weaknesses are at this point. I also jot down what positions they are lacking so I can anticipate where their next few position picks might come from.
Just about every team had two SP, one team had not selected a SP yet. Two teams already filled both C slots which was surprising. One team already had 3 of the 6 closers selected through nine rounds. Over half the teams had at least one speed guy, I did not and was feeling left out. The biggest surprise of top third of the draft would have to be Howard in round 7. He could have been had in round 17 I feel.
So I go speed with Gardner hoping to pick up some more power with Reynolds with my next pick. He got swiped two picks ahead of me so I sent that manager a note that I would trade for him. I then went speed again with Maybin. As I was going speed 6 more closers went off the board. I went with Santos in 12 and hoped to use my closer strategy and get 4 by drafts end.
I thought I got a fantastic pick in the 13th with Kipnis for my MI. It seems every year teams tend to forget about MI until very late. One league last year I had both Pedroia and Kinsler for 2B & MI. No one even came close to the production I got from those two spots. Once again I feel my combo of Uggla and Kipnis could be 55 HR 150 RBI 25 SB .255 for the year. No other 2B MI combo can touch that in this league. That includes Captain Crunch with Cano and Dee or Kinsler and Kendrick on buffet busters or Lafayette Yankees with the Weeks Brothers.
I finished out the draft selecting many previous opening day SP like Santana, Rodriguez, Stauffer, Zambrano, and Oswalt…he will pitch for a contender by late May. Drafted 2 Catchers in the later rounds that I am actually happy with and even reached for Adam Dunn in round 17 just because I wanted him. Here is my over all team.
FantasyBasebalVision | ||
1. | (7) | Adrian Gonzalez(Bos - 1B) |
2. | (18) | Hanley Ramirez(Mia - SS) |
3. | (31) | Pablo Sandoval(SF - 1B,3B) |
4. | (42) | Brett Lawrie(Tor - 3B) |
5. | (55) | Dan Uggla(Atl - 2B) |
6. | (66) | B.J. Upton(TB - OF) |
7. | (79) | Madison Bumgarner(SF - SP) |
8. | (90) | Drew Storen(Was - RP) |
9. | (103) | Josh Johnson(Mia - SP) |
10. | (114) | Brett Gardner(NYY - OF) |
11. | (127) | Cameron Maybin(SD - OF) |
12. | (138) | Sergio Santos(Tor - RP) |
13. | (151) | Jason Kipnis(Cle - 2B) |
14. | (162) | Ervin Santana(LAA - SP) |
15. | (175) | Brandon League(Sea - RP) |
16. | (186) | Joe Nathan(Tex - RP) |
17. | (199) | Adam Dunn(CWS - 1B) |
18. | (210) | Wandy Rodriguez(Hou - SP) |
19. | (223) | Josh Willingham(Min - OF) |
20. | (234) | Ted Lilly(LAD - SP) |
21. | (247) | Brett Myers(Hou - SP) |
22. | (258) | Roy Oswalt(Phi - SP) |
23. | (271) | Ryan Doumit(Min - C) |
24. | (282) | J.D. Martinez(Hou - OF) |
25. | (295) | Jason Bay(NYM - OF) |
26. | (306) | Tim Stauffer(SD - SP) |
27. | (319) | Carlos Zambrano(Mia - SP) |
28. | (330) | Brayan Pena(KC - C) |
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