The MLBFO Mock Draft
Despite the disaster that was fantasyauctioneer.com, thanks to the yeoman efforts of MLB Front Office and the flexibility of the expert participants we were able to do a mock draft last night. One thing that is great about expert mock drafts is that everyone is prepared and knows their stuff. We did a ten team, 23 player draft in just about one hour.
One idea that has always interested me, as an aside, was/is to do a live draft or auction with a 30 second time limit and where no one is allowed to have any material or documentation with them. Maybe next year I will have to try setting one up.
Anyway here is a summary of the results. If anyone wants to see the results they are here, but you may have to have a MDC account.
Round one was notable only because I passed up A-Rod with the first overall pick in favor of David Wright. Otherwise no surprises. My reasoning is as I stated previously, A-Rod is a bit too inconsistent for the number one overall pick.
In round 2 I wanted to point out the selection of Ryan Howard by our friends at Greener on the Other Side. In one of my posts today I took an expert to task over a supposed rule of not pursuing hitters with averages below .280. Thankfully Jay Sarney was smart enough to not follow that rule. Neither was Rotodaddy, who took Grady Sizemore or Kevin Orris of MLB Front Office who took Alfonso Soriano and his .277 projected BA per Baseball HQ.
Round three is where pitchers started going with Webb and Bedard coming off the board. Or at least that's what I thought was going to happen. Not surprisingly though, most of these experts really targeted hitting. In round four no pitchers were drafted, and in round five only another two, with no closers off the board.
Going along for the ride, I decided not to draft any pitchers until round nine, and since I had the wheel pick I decided to fill out with one hitter and one pitcher with each selection. At 8/9 I took Dye and Javy Vazquez; with 10/11 I took Francoeur and Rich Hill, who I love this year. At 12/13 I took Orlando Cabrera to fill up my last offensive hole and Dustin McGowan.
Hill is a very intriguing player. he had a 48% GB rate at AAA in 2006, but has been in the 30s in the bigs. If he can get back to a GB rate in the 45% range he really could take the next step forward.
Dye was really unlucky with his hit rate in the first half, and I took him in the Fantasy Baseball Search Expert League also, so you know I am a believer. I am hoping for a rebound. McGowan I have been pimping for a while, but he has gotten so much press as a sleeper I wonder whether he is now overrated.
Derek Carty, a former collaborator at The Hardball Times, had an interesting draft. He kept grousing that I was stealing his players, so naturally I told him I was studying him like a hawk. Too bad for him he never noticed the webcam I placed in his office so I could pirate his picks. Check near your wall outlet Derek.
I think it was a diversionary tactic of his since he had a very good draft. Like me, he went the all hitting route early but then completely shifted and snagged King Felix, James Shields and Yovani Gallardo in succession in rounds 11-13. Not too shabby with those three guys in the teens.
Jay Sarney was even more hitting oriented than Derek and I, if you can believe that. he took only C.C. Sabathia in the first twelve rounds. He also focused much more on mashers than Derek and I, nabbing Reyes in the first round, and then getting Howard, B. Phillips, Hafner, Atkins, Chris Young, Hawpe and Swisher. This is a good example of fluidity, since after he nabbed Reyes it was smart to target homers and leave the balance of speed to the end where there are lots of speedsters to be had who could nab 20 steals.
On the complete opposite side of the spectrum was Tim McLeod of RotoRob. Tim went the pitching route right from the get go, as someone usually does, nabbing Santana, Peavy, Webb and Lackey in the first six rounds. This isn't a bad strategy where everyone else is nabbing hitting, and he did get Adam Dunn and Nick Markakis as mashers, though I would have taken a hitter in round three after nabbing Peavy and Santana; there are diminishing marginal returns after all at some point.
Overall it was a lot of fun. It took just about one hour, and made me miss my coveted ladies of Lost, who I am sure missed me as well.
One idea that has always interested me, as an aside, was/is to do a live draft or auction with a 30 second time limit and where no one is allowed to have any material or documentation with them. Maybe next year I will have to try setting one up.
Anyway here is a summary of the results. If anyone wants to see the results they are here, but you may have to have a MDC account.
Round one was notable only because I passed up A-Rod with the first overall pick in favor of David Wright. Otherwise no surprises. My reasoning is as I stated previously, A-Rod is a bit too inconsistent for the number one overall pick.
In round 2 I wanted to point out the selection of Ryan Howard by our friends at Greener on the Other Side. In one of my posts today I took an expert to task over a supposed rule of not pursuing hitters with averages below .280. Thankfully Jay Sarney was smart enough to not follow that rule. Neither was Rotodaddy, who took Grady Sizemore or Kevin Orris of MLB Front Office who took Alfonso Soriano and his .277 projected BA per Baseball HQ.
Round three is where pitchers started going with Webb and Bedard coming off the board. Or at least that's what I thought was going to happen. Not surprisingly though, most of these experts really targeted hitting. In round four no pitchers were drafted, and in round five only another two, with no closers off the board.
Going along for the ride, I decided not to draft any pitchers until round nine, and since I had the wheel pick I decided to fill out with one hitter and one pitcher with each selection. At 8/9 I took Dye and Javy Vazquez; with 10/11 I took Francoeur and Rich Hill, who I love this year. At 12/13 I took Orlando Cabrera to fill up my last offensive hole and Dustin McGowan.
Hill is a very intriguing player. he had a 48% GB rate at AAA in 2006, but has been in the 30s in the bigs. If he can get back to a GB rate in the 45% range he really could take the next step forward.
Dye was really unlucky with his hit rate in the first half, and I took him in the Fantasy Baseball Search Expert League also, so you know I am a believer. I am hoping for a rebound. McGowan I have been pimping for a while, but he has gotten so much press as a sleeper I wonder whether he is now overrated.
Derek Carty, a former collaborator at The Hardball Times, had an interesting draft. He kept grousing that I was stealing his players, so naturally I told him I was studying him like a hawk. Too bad for him he never noticed the webcam I placed in his office so I could pirate his picks. Check near your wall outlet Derek.
I think it was a diversionary tactic of his since he had a very good draft. Like me, he went the all hitting route early but then completely shifted and snagged King Felix, James Shields and Yovani Gallardo in succession in rounds 11-13. Not too shabby with those three guys in the teens.
Jay Sarney was even more hitting oriented than Derek and I, if you can believe that. he took only C.C. Sabathia in the first twelve rounds. He also focused much more on mashers than Derek and I, nabbing Reyes in the first round, and then getting Howard, B. Phillips, Hafner, Atkins, Chris Young, Hawpe and Swisher. This is a good example of fluidity, since after he nabbed Reyes it was smart to target homers and leave the balance of speed to the end where there are lots of speedsters to be had who could nab 20 steals.
On the complete opposite side of the spectrum was Tim McLeod of RotoRob. Tim went the pitching route right from the get go, as someone usually does, nabbing Santana, Peavy, Webb and Lackey in the first six rounds. This isn't a bad strategy where everyone else is nabbing hitting, and he did get Adam Dunn and Nick Markakis as mashers, though I would have taken a hitter in round three after nabbing Peavy and Santana; there are diminishing marginal returns after all at some point.
Overall it was a lot of fun. It took just about one hour, and made me miss my coveted ladies of Lost, who I am sure missed me as well.
posted by Patrick DiCaprio at
Saturday, March 08, 2008
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home
Back To 2010 Draft Kit