My first slow draft of 2012 season (NFBC 50 round / No FAAB)

[southpaw]

Saves look to be an issue -- was this by design?

While I do not like to generalize, in a competition like this, my general feeling is you can win the league by being light on a category, but it is really hard to win the overall unless that was your plan and you specifically constructed your team to be extra strong in other areas.

Yes, it sort of was by design but not as the way it turned out.
I was planning to get two known closers. But one team went with an all relief pitcher strategy and cobbled up the closer I was going to take in one round.
So I ended up with one bonafide closer (Valverde), one potential closer (Addison Reed) and a couple closers in waiting/vultures (Venters and Salas).
I noticed one team ended up with zero closers so I know I'm good over him. Really hoping Reed wins the job although Ventura could anoint Thornton the closer even though that was a disaster last year. If I can get two closers out of this group, I'm fine with that.

The team that won my league last year and finished rather high in the overall had one central closer all year and was really strong in everything else. I think he ended up with either 3 or 4 pts in saves but ran away with the league title so I sorta modeled my strategy from him.

[Todd Zola]

I don't know if you were following the All Time Drafts on the NFBC site, but other then being a blast from a keep busy during the off-season standpoint, I think they were pretty instrumental in showing how having a plan and sticking to it with respect to category management is as necessary as player evaluation. Of course, dealing with the known of using the player's historical numbers versus the unknown of using what we think the player will do are two different things, but at minimum, the blanket statement, "you can't win in the NFBC by dumping a category" can now be argued with tangible support.

[southpaw]

A little easier in this format:


Starters

C Alex Avila
C Chris Iannetta
1b Joey Votto
2b Danny Espinosa
3b Edwin Encarnacion
SS Jose Reyes
MI Zach Cozart
CI Paul Konerko
OF BJ Upton
OF Carlos Quentin
OF Howie Kendrick
OF Delmon Young
OF Chris Heisey
UT Andres Torres

P Cole Hamels
P Ricky Romero
P Daniel Hudson
P Tim Hudson
P Jose Valverde
P Brandon McCarthy
P Jonathan Sanchez
P Addison Reed
P Felipe Paulino


Bench (not in order picked during reserve rounds)

C Hank Conger
C Gerald Laird
1b Lyle Overbay
1b Matt Adams
2b Justin Turner
3b Lonnie Chisenhall
SS Clint Barmes
SS Brandon Crawford
OF Eric Thames
OF Leonys Martin
OF Roger Bernadina
OF JB Shuck
SP Aaron Crow
SP Charlie Morton
SP Brad Peacock
SP Nathan Eovaldi
SP Alex Cobb
SP Jake Arrieta
SP Nick Blackburn
SP Mike Pelfrey
SP Tommy Hunter
SP Tyler Chatwood
SP Anthony Swarzak
RP Jonny Venters
RP Fernando Salas
RP Octavio Dotel
RP Ernesto Frieri

I feel like I have some flexibility with a few guys have multiple position eligibility. Like Todd pointed out, I'm really light on saves, unless I get lucky on the couple guys I have.

[Captain Hook]

P Ronny Paulino presumably Felipe Paulino (KC)

[southpaw]

P Ronny Paulino presumably Felipe Paulino (KC)

Oops, yes, fixed.

So what do you think Hook?

[NorCalAtlFan]

i think your counting stats will be ok, though i think your BA is at serious risk.
i like your potential starting rotation and bullpen, but i think your SP depth is pretty weak.
your offense is in much better shape to absorb slumps/injuries imo. some really nice upside guys in the reserve rounds.

altogether i don't think it's a bad squad at all, but i think you'll need your core SP to stay healthy and hopefully, not regress.

[whipsaw]

I'll hijack his thread on two different sites. Here's my squad in the same draft (from the 5 hole). I am also light in saves, which necessitated me throwing some darts for potential closer changes. I decided not to draft a backup 1b (unless Canzler actually wins the job and plays first base) due to having Berkman, Sanchez, and Duda all 1b eligible. I took some minor league pitchers under the theory that Strasburg and Moore will be shelved due to innings in early September, and some of the minor leaguers should be up by then. I wanted to avoid taking really marginal starters just because they have a rotation spot, and would rather toss a stud MR in to the rotation instead if someone is nursing an injury.

All thoughts appreciated - I'll be doing more slow drafts and am trying to get the hang of non-FAAB formats.

Starters

C Nick Hundley
C Ramon Hernandez
1b Lance Berkman
2b Omar Infante
3b Martin Prado
SS Troy Tulowitzki
MI Elvis Andrus
CI Gaby Sanchez
OF Mike Stanton
OF Ryan Braun
OF Peter Bourjos
OF Dexter Fowler
OF Lucas Duda
UT Alfonso Soriano

P Stephen Strasburg
P Matt Moore
P C.J. Wilson
P Cory Luebke
P Andrew Bailey
P Gavin Floyd
P Javier Vazquez
P James McDonald
P Rick Porcello


Bench (not in order picked during reserve rounds)

C Jason Castro
C Lou Marson
UT Russ Canzler
2b Daniel Descalso
2b Nick Punto
2b Taylor Green
3b Jimmy Paredes
3b Scott Sizemore
SS Trevor Plouffe
OF Casper Wells
OF Juan PIerre
OF Norichika Aoki

SP Jacob Turner
SP Joseph Wieland
SP Kevin Slowey
SP Marco Estrada
SP Shelby Miller
SP Tyler Skaggs
SP Zach Stewart

RP Chris Resop
RP David Robertson
RP Eduardo Sanchez
RP Joaquin Benoit
RP Joba Chamberlain
RP Joey Devine
RP Steve Cishek
RP Vinnie Pestano

[Captain Hook]

P Ronny Paulino presumably Felipe Paulino (KC)

Oops, yes, fixed.

So what do you think Hook?

Reallllllly hard to evaluate these things in a vacuum (you might want to run your starters with the rest of your league through START or Mastersdraft and see how you stack up)....BUT over six months it will likely be a question of how many useful at bats your reserves can contribute - I like Chisnenhall to help out (and you may need that depending on how many at bats EE will get in Toronto) and while I like Laird as a receiver he doesn't add much even if he get some playing time - given you rostered Conger you might have been better served to add Bobby Wilson over Laird so at least you would have all the Angel catching at bats.

Your reserve outfielders (other than Shuck) might give you some useful stats and at least Barmes will be playing.
Maybe one of the best things about your reserves is that with Kendrick's 1B/2B/OF eligibility you can move him around quite a bit and create different places to move them in.

I am not as thrilled with your reserve starting pitchers (outside of Crow) but the relievers are very good and you may need them to be. You will need some saves from them I think because you can't stand very few points there as well as in BAvg.