Mastersball Fantasy Forum

As you see in this forum and others, several have done the NFBC Slow Drafts - these are 50 round drafts with no FAAB during the year - so Draft & Hold if you like - the point is you get your entire roster in this early draft and then the only league management is setting your lineups each week. The entry is $150 with $125 of that going to your league payouts to the top three places - I believe - will edit later that the winner gets $1000. But the other $25 from each team goes to a pot for the overall winners of ALL the slow drafts and that persona will win $5K - actually the early drafts have been so popular that it may go higher and the overal will likely pay ten places some nice money.

But some of the slow drafts can get reallllllllyyyy slow - especially if you see a guy named Marcel in your league - his shortest time for a pick so far this year is 4 hours and 15 minutes so those drafts have become nightmares for several of the participants. Several has asked about doing the fifty round (750 players!) draft in one sitting so I helped set up the first of what will now become more popular drafts. We drafted yesterday at 1 PM ET and expected to finish in six+ hours and take a pair of breaks. Well the administration said no breaks but it hardly mattered as this group really got after it and we drafted our 750 players in the same time it took Marcel to get his - right an amazing 4 hours and 15 minutes.

So here is my team - from the 11th slot (NFBC does KDS so you get to give your preferences for your draft spot which I covered in one of the recent Captain's Logs)
The roster:
C - Y. Molina, K. Suzuki, A.J. Ellis, Shoppach, D. Norris
1B - Goldschmidt
3B - Beltre, Castellanos
CI - B. Lawrie
2B - Kipnis, R. Santiago
SS - Alexei Ramirez, Cosart
MI - Scutaro, W. Valdez (2B/SS/3B)
OF - CarGo, Cuddyer (1B), L.Morrison, Joyce, Carp (1B)
OF - Byrd, Parra, Dyson, Kalish, Abreu
UT - Moreland (1B/OF)
SP - Hamels, C.J. Wilson, Stauffer, Moseley, Braden, Saunders
SP - Lohse, Detwiler, L. Mendoza, Beavan, Feldman, T. Ross, Crow (hopefully)
SP (minors) D. Smyly, R. Delgado, M. Montgomery
CL - R. Betancourt, Farnsworth
RP - Venters, Bastardo, Wilhelmsen, J.P. Howell, K. Kendrick
RP (minors) Boxberger

Lots of flexibility with the positions - especially Wilson Valdez since he qualifies at all three infield spots (and I drafted partially as Cosart insurance.

Here is how the first five rounds went
1.11 Carlos Gonzalez (fine with CarGo but would have taken Justin Upton who normally goes later and went 10th in this draft)
2.05 Adrian Beltre (missed Tex by one spot on this side)
3.11 Cole Hamels
4.05 Brett Lawrie (had hoped to get Hosmer with 3rd or 4th pick but he went very early 3rd IIRC)
5.11 C.J. Wilson

I think the pitching is fine - if some of those names look a little iffy remember the season is long and lots of guys get opportunities at some point (eg Kyle Kendrick who started several weeks for my team last year) I try and get some of the better pitching prospects - but only if they really have a shot at being up by mid year. Right now Smyly has a shot at the opening day rotation for the Tigers while Delgado and Montgomery will have to pitch well in AAA and wait for the call. Not sure what San Diego will do with Boxberger but he is their closer of the future - just depends on when Street gets hurt or traded.

The offense is very solid - okay maybe chunky because unless all the possible stolen bases materialize I could be short there - but I should have plenty of HR and RBI and the starting lineup and several reserves play every day.

I could have done better - with a pace that fast you really have to adjust - updating your queue from a good list is imperative and there were several of the better fantasy players in this draft so I was snaked on several occasions - some that almost defy description.
If I saw some errors to help you, several of the teams are too thin at catcher - I think you should have at least four. And many others just don't have enough pitchers to last the season unless they are remarkably lucky with health and performance of their hurlers.

Now I have to put it way until time to put in the first lineup cards.

Cool, thanks for posting this.
I like your offense A LOT.
Starting pitching, I don't like as much as you do. Hamels and CJ are great but Stauffer as a 3 and then Moseley Braden Saunders and Lohse? You are definitely going to be short on K's, no?

Thanks - only thing the offense needs to be very good is for steals to take a step up

SP - well yes and no....lets use round numbers for SP - 200 each for Hamels and Wilson; 125 each for the next four spots....thats 900 for six spots.....another 200 for Betancourt, Farnsworth, and Venters would give us 1100 and yes that would be low.....BUT that is without any of the breakout guys specifically Crow or Detwiler and the minor leaguers being counted on plus there will be a lot of streaming for two starts in the 5th and 6th SP slot and 85 for Venters is bumped up for streaming into the 7th slot as well. So I feel comfortable it is 1200 which is at least 100-150 lower than I would like for the Main Event...BUT this is not a main event and some of the staffs in my league and the others will have problems getting nine starts per week throughout the season - I shouldn't have that problem.

Very nice team.

I was in the fast draft yesterday and it was quite a rush. I would love to hear how Ryan C. enjoyed the experience. I drafted next to him and I think we kept snaking each other.

Yeah - I had a lot of fun and yes you did steal more than a few guys I liked when you picked before me. On more than one occasion the guys in question were IMO easily the best guys on the board - so you did well to grab falling talent. Rob picked 10th I was 11th (like Perry)

EXAMPLES:

RD 1 - Jose Bautista (I took Upton) -I would have grabbed Bautista if he had made it.

RD 3 - Felix Hernandez (I took Weaver) - I was salivating as Felix dropped. Hosmer and Lawrie went early in rd - one guy took KIMBRAL then CC went. Sadly Rob stole the King from me.

RD 7 - SS Choo - Choo was sliding. Some putz made a comment about it a few picks before us which pissed me off - SHHHHH! Stubbs goes right before Rob robbed me of my Indian. I had to go to plan B Howie Kendrick.

RD 11 - Derek Jeter - (I took Hanson) - I had no SS and Jeter was a steal in the 11th. Sadly Rob needed a SS also and rightly nabbed him. This one hurt the most because SS was a wasteland after that.

RD 17 - Scott Baker - (I took McCarthy) - I had Baker all lined up when Rob stole him. Had to scramble here so I went with a guy I like just as much McCarthy. Very similar P's IMO.

RD 18 - Javy Guerra - This was after one of my picks (S-rod - my SS)- but I had taken Jansen earlier and waited too long on Guerra - not happy to see someone else grab him.

RD 23 - Alex Presley (I took Stauffer) - I was searching for some speed and Presley is a guy I like a lot. He was MINE dammit.

Can't say you stole anyone else I was specifically targeting with my next pick the last 27 rds - although you did grab some guys I had on my short lists.

I'm going to post my own thread and list the whole team later on. Looking forward to playing in a league with you again this year. We had a great battle last year and both of us faded down the stretch. (I did hold on to 3rd place luckily).

I would say early on, that you either took my player I wanted or after I picked, you took the guy I was debating on.

Rd 4) I wanted Zobrist there after already taking a pitcher. I haven't seen him go that early, so I was already writing him in. Obviously, I shouldn't have.

Rd 5) Since I took the starting pitcher in rd 4, I didn't want to go three in a row, but couldn't believe that Haren was still there. You got a steal. I took Phillips to compensate for the missed Zobrist pick, but in the end, both of us were looking at similar combos with Greinke/Phillips vs. Haren/Zobrist. I would have rather had your guys.

Rd 6) I had Morse and Konerko as the guys...you took Morse, I went with the other.

Rd 7) Choo was a gift, enough said.

Rd 8) I had Maybin as my guy there, but Gekko snaked him. Was set on Cuddyer, but of course you picked him, so went with solid stats and a higher batting average with Butler. I wasn't in love with that pick.

Rd 16) I wanted Willingham, but you snagged him, so I went with his brother in Carlos Quentin. Those were the last 30 homer upside guys on the board.

As far as Jeter...I really didn't want him, but as you said, he was the best SS on the board.

I'm in Friday's with what is being called a loaded lineup -- we'll see what happens.

Good luck. I wanted to join that one as well, but will be traveling. I will be anxious to see how that one plays out.

Funny - Willingham was a fall back for me after Gekko snagged Rasmus.

And I get the 3rd pick

Could be my second SD with Phat Albert.

Or, maybe not...