Todd's Super-fast Slow Draft

[Todd Zola]

We knocked this baby off in 3:38, 50 rounds, 750 picks, that is LESS THAN 17 SECONDS PER PICKS!!!

Anyway...

C Montero-5, Ramos-13 (Hanigan-27, Recker-44)

1B/3B Wright-2, Lind-9, Pena-16 (AdLaRoche-20, Chisenhall-26)

2B/SS Phillips-4, AlRamirez-8, Walker-12 (Carroll-22, Ryan-39, Kennedy-46)

OF Braun-1, Kubel-17, Cain-19, Snider-23, Bogusevic-24(Byrd-28, Bernadina-33, Lillibridge-34, Robinson-43, Fuld-47)

UT Ortiz-11

SP Felix-3, Cain-6, Shields-7, Masterson-14, Stauffer-18, Alvarez-25, Moseley-29 (Colon-30, Iwakuma-31, Noesi-36, Surkamp-37, Millwood-38, Dice-K-45, Blanton-48)

RP Betancourt-10, Balfour-15 (DCarpenter-21,Gregerson-32, Benoit-35,Wilhelmsen-40, Sipp-41, Dotel-42, Affeldt-49, Collins-50)

Not happy about the saves, got burned by the first run, but got lucky with Betancourt being there, )never been so happy to get a Rockie arm!). But maybe either Balfour of D-Carp gets the job. I can also make a reasonable case for all my other MR to luck into saves.

Starters have 4 Mariners I'll need to get real lucky on wins as I don't have a whole lot of guys from the better teams but they all pitch in a great hom park (except Henderson Alvarez) so they are ideal for streaming matchups.

Outfield is a clusterfrick by design -- the spaghetti method. Hopefully I get 3 to stick after Braun and Kubel.

Took a chance locking up DH, since that means if someone from another position gets hot, I can't play them, but I couldn't pass on 30 bombs in the 11th.

Catchers FLEW!!! I wanted Wieters for the durability and upside, but he went in the 4th (I was planning on the 5th) so I grabbed Montero instead and I'll hope for health. I think I am covered pretty well with Ramos and Hanigan, at least in terms of having someone active. I was also looking at Rosario, but was sniped on him. My sense is even if Mesoroco is the #1 guy, Hanigan will probably be someone's personal catcher and still see some AB.

I know my first two are sketchy in Braun and Wright, but on the other hand, it was not all that long ago that BOTH were considerations for the TOP overall pick.

[AllstonRockCity]

While I admittedly know very little about this format, I think your pitching rocks.

Your top 4 starters are great. Betancourt will be left in there every week. You have quite the stable of guys to fill what should only be 4 spots throughout the year. And if/when 1 of you speculative closers hits, that'll be down to 3 spots. I believe that Noesi is going to surprise a lot of people this year.

The speed of this thing seems crazy to me. If someone dared take a full minute, were they maligned severely??

Great point about Braun and Wright being top 5 players 2 years ago. The other side of that is; if about 70% of 1st rounders end up as 'busts', that means that there are a corresponding number of players not considered 1st rounders that end the year with 1st round stats. A 3rd baseman that's still young, hits 3rd for his team and has 25/25 potential sure seems like the kind of guy who could easily fill one of the voids in the 1st round when someone goes bust.

You still should have taken Cano though

[Todd Zola]

A 3rd baseman that's still young, hits 3rd for his team and has 25/25 potential sure seems like the kind of guy who could easily fill one of the voids in the 1st round when someone goes bust.

You still should have taken Cano though

And he also can hit .260-15-15 which I can get in the 12th, not 3rd.

Wright is my least favorite pick but I still have not figured out what to do with the end of the second round when you have an early first round pick. One option was Felix in the 2nd and Napoli in the 3rd but the ankle has me worried enough not to do it in this format and Santana went MID-SECOND round.

This format is won by attrition as much as talent. We'll see what happens.

[AllstonRockCity]

A 3rd baseman that's still young, hits 3rd for his team and has 25/25 potential sure seems like the kind of guy who could easily fill one of the voids in the 1st round when someone goes bust.

You still should have taken Cano though

And he also can hit .260-15-15 which I can get in the 12th, not 3rd.

Wright is my least favorite pick but I still have not figured out what to do with the end of the second round when you have an early first round pick. One option was Felix in the 2nd and Napoli in the 3rd but the ankle has me worried enough not to do it in this format and Santana went MID-SECOND round.

This format is won by attrition as much as talent. We'll see what happens.

And I thought I was an optimist

[EliGrimmett]

I thought you had a pretty decent draft. I actually liked my draft as well (surprisingly) except for one glaring problem that you helped contribute to.

Not happy about the saves, got burned by the first run, but got lucky with Betancourt being there, )never been so happy to get a Rockie arm!). But maybe either Balfour of D-Carp gets the job. I can also make a reasonable case for all my other MR to luck into saves.

The two closer runs in this draft were something I haven't seen in a draft in a long time.

11 closers taken between my 7th and 8th picks. Thought I could wait until round 10 to scoop up Betancourt (ADP 13th round) so I grabbed some hitters at the 8/9 turn. Then 11 more closers were drafted before my 10th pick! Including you taking Betancourt 2 picks before me. It wasn't pretty.

I almost took Braun first to save you the pain... (at least the Gekko seems to see the pain...)

Good luck this year.

[Todd Zola]

Thanks Eli - you too.

Lawr and I have talked and written about the dangers of ADP a lot lately. We should send them a copy of this draft if they still use ADP as a hard and fast guide.

The pick that sort of threw me was Gek's taking Wieters in the 4th -- I had him in my crosshairs for the 5th - just love him in this format: young, upside, no health risk out of the ordinary and plays a ton for a catcher. Oh well.

[deansdaddy]

Gek caught me in the previous draft with Wieters at the end of the THIRD round - C's went way highers in this format for sure. Is it too high - time will tell. I decided to wait and didn't take one til the 19th rd.

[Todd Zola]

My thinking is some positions you are strong because you draft better player, some are strong because you have better backups when guys get hurt and some you are strong because you draft a sheepload of guys for the position and hope enough of them click.

With catcher, I just don't see any other way to be strong than to draft strong, or opt to do what Ryan tried and hope there is usefulness late and hope that usefulness stays healthy, but I wasn't willing to roll the dice the usefulness would be there for me.

[wagner13454]

I've noticed you have taken Masterson and King Felix in your past couple of drafts. You really like them this year to make a step forward?

[Todd Zola]

I've noticed you have taken Masterson and King Felix in your past couple of drafts. You really like them this year to make a step forward?

Felix is already a top tier pitcher that is being penalized for a high 2011 LOB% and that some discount him because of low run support. I just need him to do exactly like he has done, the numbers take care of themselves.

Masterson has always been nasty versus RHB, but struggled versus LHB. The chief problem was walks against lefties and he cut that way back, so I more hoping he shows last year's skills bump was real more than anything. I just need him to show me last year's step forward was real -- many are expecting regression, I am betting against it.