I promise I’ll talk about things other than my Scoresheet Baseball team once the season starts. It’s just that, well, this is what’s on my mind at the moment.
As previouslynoted, I’m participating in this year’s BP Kings league. We started our spring draft not long ago (we’re wrapping up round 16 as I write this), and… it’s been interesting, as drafts tend to be. You make plans, prepare for different scenarios, and then watch as things unfold in ways you couldn’t have imagined. It’s the best.
Anyway, I had cut down to five veteran players, which meant that I started drafting in the sixth round (first full round is the 11th). Here are the first 20 picks of the draft:
Pete McCarthy: Aroldis Chapman
Pete McCarthy: Derek Holland
Pete McCarthy: Jose Lopez
Pete McCarthy: Edwin Encarnacion
Geoff Young: Kyle Blanks — I adore Blanks, have since he was in A-ball; yeah, Petco Park, but you should see where he hits baseballs
Geoff Young: Rickie Weeks — I was hoping to get either Lopez or Weeks; maybe this will be the year he puts it together… or not
Pete McCarthy: Yadier Molina
Pete McCarthy: Brandon Morrow
Geoff Young: Jhonny Peralta — Last year’s decline is scary, but he’s young, he’s shortstop eligible, and he’s had some nice seasons in the past
Geoff Young: Marcos Scutaro — Because I don’t really believe what I just said about Peralta
Bill Baer: Ben Sheets
Jeff Angus/Grant Sterling: Bobby Abreu
Jeff Erickson: Jorge delaRosa
Pete McCarthy: Trevor Cahill
Jay Jaffe: Andy Pettitte
Jay Jaffe: Ryan Doumit
Pete McCarthy: Anibal Sanchez
Jeff Erickson: Cody Ross
Jeff Angus/Grant Sterling: Placido Polanco
Bill Baer: Raul Ibanez
And my next picks:
Justin Masterson — I’m probably too big a fan from having watched him in college
Andy LaRoche — As with Peralta and Scutaro at shortstop, I doubled up early at third base (I’d protected Kevin Youkilis); this gives me some flexibility and keeps me out of the mad scramble for lousy-hitting utility infielders that inevitably comes in a deep league
Rafael Soriano — I didn’t need another reliever, but he shouldn’t have lasted until the end of the 12th round
Delmon Young — This is crazy stupid, but I need to take some risks; either he’ll continue to hack at everything and be useless or he’ll figure out what he’s supposed to be doing with all that talent
Randy Wells — Here’s hoping his rookie performance wasn’t a fluke
Mike Wuertz — I’m a little uncomfortable being this pitching heavy so early in the draft, but I have a hard time separating the available options at positions of need so I’m hoping others will help me decide; plus I love Wuertz’s strikeout numbers
Melky Cabrera — He has center field range, he’s young enough to improve, and he won’t bat higher than eighth for me
Lyle Overbay — I’d fully intended to grab another outfielder here, but there were too many to choose from and only a couple of first basemen I liked; at least two or three of my outfield targets should still be available at my next pick
I won’t give you a blow-by-blow of the entire draft, but I will pop in from time to time. If you’d like to follow along, thanks to the magic of the Internet, you can do just that.
Joe Hamrahi is co-managing the team listed under my name, and talked me out of drafting all starting pitching for the first 6 rounds. But a late-night email ended up resulting in an 11th-hour trade of Aramis Ramirez for a draft pick which became Luis Valbuena, Simon Castro, Wilmer Flores, and a slight draft upgrade. Here are the picks with our current position-by-position roster:
Wow. I so badly wanted to draft Masterson, but another manager got to him before I could on our second round R15 (standard 10 AL league). How all those players were drafted ahead of him in the BP Kings, I don't understand. Edwin Encarnacion? no. 4? Yuck. I think you did quite nicely getting Scutaro and Soriano when you did as well.
- www.scoresheetwiz.com
P.S. Our draft (http://www.scoresheet.com/CWWW/AL_Robinson.htm):
R14:
Peavy
Kouzmanoff
Torii Hunter
Scherzer (bargin)
Damon
Rajai Davis
Hardy
Scutaro
Nick Johnson (my pick - fits my team's needs perfectly)
Bedard
R15:
Cuddyer
Ordonez
Tejada
Sheets
Matsui
Masterson
Saltalamacchia
Pineiro
Gio Gonzalez (my pick in panic* for not lassoing Masterson)
Camaron
R16 (so far):
Aardsma
Pettitte
Bergesen R. Soriano
Hochevar
Mike Gonzalez
Valverde
* yeah, perhaps, too much of a long shot for this early in the draft, but my record is pretty good when picking in a similar state of panic.
To finish R16 (third round after each team kept 13 players):
.
.
.
Thornton (wanted to draft him - easily best lefty reliever)
Marson (who I ended up with)
Peralta
Wow. I don't know who Pete McCarthy is or what the rules of the league are, but given who was taken later on, first glance says those are some really terrible picks. I just can't comprehend a league where a Molina gets picked ahead of high upside pitchers like Cahill and De La Rosa, not to mention sure-contributors like Abreu.
That is the one major way Scoresheet isn't like real baseball. The men who designed it decided there isn't any reliable way to quantitively measure catcher's defense (other than basestealing against), so they just don't incorporate it into the game (again: other than basestealing against).
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Joe Hamrahi is co-managing the team listed under my name, and talked me out of drafting all starting pitching for the first 6 rounds. But a late-night email ended up resulting in an 11th-hour trade of Aramis Ramirez for a draft pick which became Luis Valbuena, Simon Castro, Wilmer Flores, and a slight draft upgrade. Here are the picks with our current position-by-position roster:
11. Marc Rzepczynski.
12a. Carlos Ruiz
12b. Alex Rios
--> extra pick was acquired for Scott Kazmir, allowing us to retain Homer Bailey. Is Rios+Bailey for Kazmir a good return? We'll find out; both sides seem risky for now, though Kazmir in a new division should rebound nicely.
13. Huston Street
14. Matt Diaz
15. Bobby Jenks
16. Alex Avila
c: Ruiz, Avila, Salome, (Tony Sanchez), (Hank Conger)
1b: Swisher
2b: Valbuena, Todd Frazier
3b: Zimmerman
ss: Alcides Escobar, (Wilmer Flores)
lf: Coghlan, Michael Saunders
cf: Bourn, Rios, (Brett Jackson)
rf: Matt Diaz
sp: Brett Anderson
sp: James Shields
sp: Ervin Santana
sp: Aaron Harang
sp: Homer Bailey
sp: Marc Rzepczynski
sp: Aaron Poreda
sp: (Simon Castro)
rp: Huston Street
rp: Bobby Jenks