1st Ever NFBC Draft

[Kelly_Leak]

I picked from the 9 spot, so 9th in odd rounds and 7th in even rounds. This was my first NFBC draft, but I think I did pretty well. I would appreciate any all comments.

C: Y.Molina-11, J.Buck-20 (A.Moore-26)
CI: E.Longoria-1, B.Butler-6, A.LaRoche-10 (D.Barton-30)
MI: J.Rollins-2, B.Phillips-3, L.Castillo-21 (C.Getz-27)
OF/DH: S.Choo-5, B.Abreu-8, B.Hawpe-14, C.Ross-16, C.Young-18, J.Cust-23

SP: J.Santana-4, W.Rodriguez-7, R.Dempster-12, R.Harden-15, M.Buehrle-17, H.Kuroda-19, K.Correia-22 (D.Braden-25, J.Garcia-28, K.Kawakami-29)
RP: F.Cordero-9, M.Capps-13 (S.Downs-24)

First, I know my BA could be a question mark. I was in good shape heading into the 18th, but the Young, Buck and Cust picks really tanked my average. At the time, my thinking was I may be able to find BA help in-season, but HR help can be difficult to find (or so I've heard). In retrospect, I should have taken Magglio over Young in anticipation of the Buck/Cust picks later. Second, it appears I will be spending some FAAB on saves in-season. In hindsight, I wish I would have taken Kerry Wood in the 19th over Kuroda...Wood dropped all the way to the 21st! It seemed like every time I was targeting a particular closer, reliever, or catcher they went within 3 picks before me - oh well lessons learned. In general, catchers went about 2 rounds before their ADPs and closers were about 1 round before.

Strengths:
- Strong 3B/SS/2B after 3 rounds...had 80 HRs and 71 SBs projected after 3
- SPs are pretty strong...700+ Ks projected from top 4
- HRs
- SBs are spread out in team - no reliance on 1 player to contribute significantly

Weaknesses:
- Team BA
- SP injury concerns
- Saves
- Catchers

Overall, the draft was fun. I did find the following picks interesting:
- J.Ellsbury went 1.4!!!
- M.Wieters went 4.12
- T.Hanson went 4.15
- H.Kendrick went 5.2
- R.Martin went 5.6
- C.Perez (Cle) went 10.13
- P.Hughes went 11.7
- W.Bloomquist 19.7

- R.Braun went 1.8
- J.Werth went 4.10
- C.Lee (Sea) went 6.10
- S.Victorino went 7.15
- A.Rios went 12.4
- A.Burnett went 12.15
- K.Slowey went 17.5
- K.Wood went 21.12

[deansdaddy]

[quote="Kelly_Leak"]I picked from the 9 spot, so 9th in odd rounds and 7th in even rounds. This was my first NFBC draft, but I think I did pretty well. I would appreciate any all comments.

C: Y.Molina-11, J.Buck-20 (A.Moore-26)
CI: E.Longoria-1, B.Butler-6, A.LaRoche-10 (D.Barton-30)
MI: J.Rollins-2, B.Phillips-3, L.Castillo-21 (C.Getz-27)
OF/DH: S.Choo-5, B.Abreu-8, B.Hawpe-14, C.Ross-16, C.Young-18, J.Cust-23

SP: J.Santana-4, W.Rodriguez-7, R.Dempster-12, R.Harden-15, M.Buehrle-17, H.Kuroda-19, K.Correia-22 (D.Braden-25, J.Garcia-28, K.Kawakami-29)
RP: F.Cordero-9, M.Capps-13 (S.Downs-24)

First, I know my BA could be a question mark. I was in good shape heading into the 18th, but the Young, Buck and Cust picks really tanked my average. At the time, my thinking was I may be able to find BA help in-season, but HR help can be difficult to find (or so I've heard). In retrospect, I should have taken Magglio over Young in anticipation of the Buck/Cust picks later. Second, it appears I will be spending some FAAB on saves in-season. In hindsight, I wish I would have taken Kerry Wood in the 19th over Kuroda...Wood dropped all the way to the 21st! It seemed like every time I was targeting a particular closer, reliever, or catcher they went within 3 picks before me - oh well lessons learned. In general, catchers went about 2 rounds before their ADPs and closers were about 1 round before.

Strengths:
- Strong 3B/SS/2B after 3 rounds...had 80 HRs and 71 SBs projected after 3
- SPs are pretty strong...700+ Ks projected from top 4
- HRs
- SBs are spread out in team - no reliance on 1 player to contribute significantly

Weaknesses:
- Team BA
- SP injury concerns
- Saves
- Catchers
quote]

Hey Kelly - I think you had a pretty good draft and it seems like you have a pretty good handle on your teams shortcomings. I think you are a little light on speed. I think you mitigated some of your SP injury concerns because I like your three backend starters Buehlre, Kuroda and Correia. Honestly I'm not a huge fan of either Braden or Kawakami - I like to speculate late or power arms, especially if I grab guys like Buerhlre and Corrie earlier. Someone like a Chris Tillman, Gio Gonzalez or even a Felipe Paulino. Don't be afraid to drop one of those three backup SP's in week 1 for anything that looks better- I think you could use one more OF to be specific.

Good Luck - and drop by the Rookie Forum to talk about your team and league anytime.

[Kelly_Leak]

Good Luck - and drop by the Rookie Forum to talk about your team and league anytime.

Ryan, thanks for the input. To be honest, I did most of my preparation for this draft by reading every post (no joke) in the Rookie Forum as well as following the MB slow draft that took place in Feb.

I see your point about speculating on power arms. I think I may have overcompensated with my SP injury risks. There are a couple arms I like that went undrafted. Also, there are several OFs available that went undrafted that I liked, so I can definitely look for some help there. I was torn on my last pick between Barton, one of the OFs I liked, and a prospect. Barton's spring numbers won me over (I know - its only ST!!! I can be a sucker sometimes).

As I examine my team now (12 hours later), I may look towards grabbing an OF, "power arm", and MR with the first FAAB week.

[Kelly_Leak]

I picked from the 9 spot, so 9th in odd rounds and 7th in even rounds. This was my first NFBC draft, but I think I did pretty well. I would appreciate any and all comments.

C: Y.Molina-11, J.Buck-20 (A.Moore-26)
CI: E.Longoria-1, B.Butler-6, A.LaRoche-10 (D.Barton-30)
MI: J.Rollins-2, B.Phillips-3, L.Castillo-21 (C.Getz-27)
OF/DH: S.Choo-5, B.Abreu-8, B.Hawpe-14, C.Ross-16, C.Young-18, J.Cust-23

SP: J.Santana-4, W.Rodriguez-7, R.Dempster-12, R.Harden-15, M.Buehrle-17, H.Kuroda-19, K.Correia-22 (D.Braden-25, J.Garcia-28, K.Kawakami-29)
RP: F.Cordero-9, M.Capps-13 (S.Downs-24)

So this team (after much in-season management) ended up winning my $125 Satellite league...BARELY. The winning margin was 2.5 points, but that doesn't fully explain how close it was. In the final standings, we ended up tied with two other teams in saves; were tied with a team in HRs and one up on another; and our 0.2708 BA narrowly beat out the team behind us, which was at 0.2706. Basically, if Francisco Cordero doesn't get a save and Alex "effing" Gordon doesn't hit a HR on the last day of the season we end up ahead by a mere 0.5 overall. Also, the 2nd place team finished 1 run and 1 save behind the team above them in each respective category.

If you look back at the draft, the first 10 or so selections disappointed to certain degrees:
1.9 Longoria - a lot more power was projected, but the SBs were nice.
2.7 Rollins - ugh!!!
3.9 Phillips - fell short of 20/20...a little bit more was expected, but most top tier 2Bman underwhelmed this year.
4.7 J.Santana - would have been a great season if he didn't miss September.
5.9 Choo - basically hit projections...would have been nice if he didn't miss 3+ weeks.
6.7 Butler - was hoping for a bit more power.
7.9 W.Rodriguez - thankfully came around in the final 3 months.
8.7 Abreu - basically performed to expectation.
9.9 F.Cordero - saves are saves, but did not help the ERA or WHIP.
10.7 LaRoche - pretty close to projection across the board.

Team MVP goes to (draft position weighted)...
- On the hitting side, Chris Young who was taken in the 18th round, but put up 1st/2nd round numbers. 2nd amongst the voters (of 1) was John Buck whose .280 average crushed projections.
- On the pitching side, the award goes to Jaime Garcia (28.7) who narrowly beats out Hiroki Kuroda (19.9) and FAAB week 2 pickup Brett Myers.

Team LVP goes to (draft position weighted)...
- On the hitting side, Jimmy Rollins (2.7)...at least he stole some bags when he was healthy. Brad Hawpe (14.7) was a dark horse candidate for this award.
- On the pitching side, Rich Harden (15.9) wins in a run away.

Best in-season FAAB pickup...
- On the hitting side, Luke Scott ($16, uncontested). Picked up on 5/16 went on to hit 20 HRs for the squad. Interestingly he was the 2nd player in a list of conditional bids...thank goodness someone else wanted Jack Cust more.
- On the pitching side, Brett Myers ($22, uncontested). Picked up on 4/11 and ridden until the very end.

Other bits of information and fortune...
- Matt Capps got traded to the one team (the Twins) that planned to use him as a closer.
- Carefully budgeted all FAAB dollars - had $0 after the last FAAB period.
- Ended up with the most ABs in the league by ~100...RBIs and more specifically Rs were very tight categories.
- Ended up with the 2nd in Ks, which makes sense when I tell you we were 2nd in IP...but we also somehow finished 2nd in ERA (with Cordero and Capps as our only relievers for most of the season).

Thought I would share my final results, since this was my first NFBC experience. Thanks to all who gave input before and during the season!

[southpaw]

Wow, thanks for following up with your reflections on the entire season. Great job!
I'm about to do my first NFBC and I hope I have the success you had.
I'm probably going to do 2 - first one will be a slow draft and the other a regular satellite league. I think.