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

[southpaw]

1B Votto
SS Reyes
SP Hamels
OF BJ Upton
1B Konerko
2B/OF Kendrick
SP Romero
C Avila
SP D Hudson
RP Valverde
OF Quentin
2B Espinosa
SP T Hudson
3B/OF Encarnacion
3B Chisenhall
OF D Young
SP McCarthy
RP A Reed
C Iannetta
SP J Sanchez
OF Heisey
SS Cozart
OF Torres
SP Paulino
OF Thames
RP Venters
RP/SP Crow
C Conger
RP Salas
SS Barmes
SP C Morton
2B/3B J Turner
SP Peacock
OF Leo Martin
SP A Cobb
OF Bernadina
SP Eovaldi
SS B Crawford

That's it so far. Round 38 of 50.

I have mixed feelings about this team so far. Waited waaaaay too long for 3B. Every time I targeted someone, they went right before my pick. 3B were flying off the board way earlier than I anticipated. Something to keep in mind for later drafts for sure.
My goal for the last 10 or so picks is to keep stockpiling some expected playing time. That's a big key in one of these. You want the AB's to cover starters injuries and DL stints. Also, a 4th catcher is necessary but there's not much left.

[Captain Hook]

All in all it looks pretty good - I didn't break it down just looked at the players....but a few thoughts

IMHO you are way behind on pitchers - when there are no replacements during the season I think at least half of your players should be pitchers.....otherwise in August you may trouble just fielding nine healthy arms, much less picking which ones.

I don't like to go crazy with the minor league arms.....Unless they are pretty likely to arrive in the first half of the year. Then again you can find pitchers who started for their teams last year but don't project to be in the rotation in March......pretty good chance some of them will get an opportunity later in the year. Vance Worley was one of those pitchers for me last year.

I do agree about a 4th catcher - even with Shoppach's signing in Boston I like Lavarnway to get some at bats there next year and don't forget about platoon partners or backups who may end up seeing more action

[Todd Zola]

Love the Peacock pick -- bet his ADP is 10 rounds earlier by March

[NorCalAtlFan]

Love the Peacock pick -- bet his ADP is 10 rounds earlier by March

i don't know, he's actually going backwards in the drafts i've seen him in!
i disagree with Hook saying you are way behind in pitching. it's not your strength, but you have a few high upside arms that if you hit on, you're fine. you need more depth, but just about every team will be saying that at some point! and you seem to be addressing that anyways.
i wouldn't have gone with espinosa where you did, but that's a minor quibble. looks like you have a nice power-speed foundation with even your speed guys contributing 10-15 bombs. i think your BA will be weak, but that's the price of doing business with Upton, Espinosa, Quentin, EE, etc.

[Captain Hook]

i disagree with Hook saying you are way behind in pitching

I didn't say he was behind in pitching categories or quality of pitchers rostered - just that he is heading towards NOT having ENOUGH pitchers for a 50 man roster with NO additions/replacements.

These rosters should have 25 pitchers (at a minimum, personally I like 23/27 as the right balance between hitters/pitchers).

[NorCalAtlFan]

fair enough.

i'm not sure i would lean that heavily towards pitching, but I understand the reasoning. i would fear not having enough ab's than enough ip's, so my lean would be more 27-23 hitter/pitcher.

it is good to read people's thoughts on these. we all have different philosophies and comfort levels.

good luck southpaw

[southpaw]

Thanks for the comments guys. I appreciate it.
Hook may be right in that I might be short SP's come Aug/Sept. Last year in one of these, I ran out of hitters due to injuries. I had to resort to using Jose Lopez and his once every 10 days 0 for 4 night at the CI spot. It was disgusting. So just playing off of what I learned last year, I committed to getting more hitters than pitchers this time around.
That being said, I'll probably lean towards SP's than hitters in these later rounds although I doubt any will contribute very much. For example, I took Arrieta in the last round.

Here are my updated selections since B. Crawford:

OF JB Shuck
RP O Dotel (I wanted Valverde's handcuff, unfortunately Benoit was already taken. Maybe Dotel gets the save opportunities in Valverde's absence?)
SP Arrieta
C Laird

[Captain Hook]

The thing is both hitters and pitchers as a group will have injuries...BUT hitters don't usually lose a job but might just get fewer at bats. Closers will lose the role occasionally; starters will get traded or become less effective or give way to Manny Banuelos when he is called up this summer. Whatever. I just think you NEED a lot of pitchers to survive the whole season.

It does bring up another point - hitters with multiple position eligibility are worth more than a comparable hitter - if I am in one of those drafts this year I really like Howie Kendrick of the Angels not only because he will see a lot of fastballs hitting in front of Pujols but because he qualifies at 1B and 2B and OF. Those guys are really valuable if/when you do have a hitter injured.

[southpaw]

Just finished up. Here's my complete team:

1B Votto
SS Reyes
SP Hamels
OF BJ Upton
1B Konerko
2B/OF Kendrick
SP Romero
C Avila
SP D Hudson
RP Valverde
OF Quentin
2B Espinosa
SP T Hudson
3B/OF Encarnacion
3B Chisenhall
OF D Young
SP McCarthy
RP A Reed
C Iannetta
SP J Sanchez
OF Heisey
SS Cozart
OF Torres
SP Paulino
OF Thames
RP Venters
RP/SP Crow
C Conger
RP Salas
SS Barmes
SP C Morton
2B/3B J Turner
SP Peacock
OF Leo Martin
SP A Cobb
OF Bernadina
SP Eovaldi
SS B Crawford
OF JB Shuck
RP O Dotel
SP Arrieta
C Laird
SP Blackburn
SP Pelfrey
1B Overbay
SP T Hunter
SP Chatwood
1B M Adams
SP Swarzak
RP Frieri

Any comments/criticisms? I'm going to do at least one more of these, probably two during the next couple months.

[Todd Zola]

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.

[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.