Friday, March 28, 2008

My Baseball Fantasy Draft 2008

Well, I had my fantasy draft Sunday for baseball. I did something I never do this year. I actually drafted some closers. I can't believe it myself. My pitching staff is pretty terrible, but I am not worried. I build it later as the season goes. I have an Ace in CC Sabathia, so I can build it from there. All I did was draft these guys late and just pull everyone I could get that was going to have a solid K rate and more than 150 Ks on the year. That is how I am shedding positive lighting on my draft.

There were quite a few comeback options in the draft this year, and I pretty much took them when they were there. Guys that would have been keepers a year or two ago. Other than Jason Bay I probably picked up 2-3 of these guys at least.

Stat categories:

Scoring for Batting Categories
2B - Doubles
BA - Batting Average
H - Hits
HR - Home Runs
KO - Strikeouts (Batter)
OBP - On Base Pct
R - Runs
RBI - Runs Batted In
SB - Stolen Bases
SLG - Slugging Pct

Scoring for Pitching Categories
BBI - Walks Issued (Pitchers)
CG - Complete Games
ERA - Earned Run Average
K - Strikeouts (Pitcher)
Kd9 - Strikeouts per Nine
L - Losses
QS - Quality Starts
S - Saves
W - Wins
WHIP - Walks + Hits / Inning

Keepers going in: Albert Pujols, CC Sabathia, Adam Dunn, Ichiro, Manny Ramirez.

Not going to put these in order. I can't remember and i'm not going to copy/paste them from the draft because I have to delete everyone elses' picks to do it. One thing I had was 6 of the first 37 picks in the draft with trades in the preseason so you can see some of the reason with the hitters I have. A couple other notes about this league and draft. This is a mostly Tiger fan league, and I wanted Aramis Ramirez as my first pick, but I picked #2 and the first guy took him even though he has Miggy already as a keeper.

C-R. Hernandez (came to camp in great shape, one of my late picks)
1B-Pujols (keeper)
2B-Kelly Johnson (real happy with this acquisition. Expect a lot from him)
SS-Tejada (Got him in the 2nd non-keeper round. Big year in Houston expected)
3B-Blalock (HAving a great spring, and I gamble on him every year. This is the year!)
OF-Manny (keeper)
OF-Ichiro (keeper)
OF-Dunn (keeper)
UTIL-Curtis Granderson (#2 overall non-keeper pick. Went on DL day after draft, but not a long stretch. Had to do it in this league. On DL right now)
UTIL-Carlos Pena (2nd round non-keeper pick. Former Tiger so people had doubts. Think this was a steal)
BN-Cuddyer (Got him real late. Last few rounds.)
BN-Andruw Jones (Nobody wanted him so what the hell. I'll take 35-40 HRs and 100 RBI form a guy who is out to prove last year was a fluke.)
BN-DeRosa (garbage fill in player. Probably drop him when something better comes along)
BN-Alexei Ramirez (didn't actually draft him. Picked him up because he is potential and will play 2B and OF)
BN-Todd Helton (steal. Late teens. Monster in with these settings)


SP-Sabathia (keeper)
SP-Bronson Arroyo (His 2nd half last year was solid. Consider first half an abboration)
SP-Bonderman (Meh...Tiger league. Maybe he has a chage up)
SP-Jeremy Guthrie (lol..who knows. Opening day for O's.)
SP-Wainwright (Could be cgood. Could suck. Worth a shot)
RP-Wagner (HAd to. It was late. monster K rate)
RP-Francisco Cordero (same as Wagner. High K Rate)
RP-Gregg (Really late. Great K rate)
RP-Open (meh)
BN-Jon Lester (coin flip)
BN-Jason Bergman (coin flip)
BN-Jason Schmidt (Worth a shot. LAst year sucked, but he isn't that far removed from 180Ks and sub-4 ERA. 2006. Not sure how long he will be out.)

Clearly my pitching will need work, but I have 3 hitters on my bench that would start on any other team. Pitching is a crap shoot anyways. There will be plenty of surprises in the free agent pool as the season goes on. With hitting like I have I really don't need to get a ton from my pitching to win H2H in a given week. Just need to run a few categories and eat the hitting ones. Saves, K/9, and Ks may be good for me most weeks. Wins/losses BBI, ERA, and WHIP are a crap shoot.

Detroit Tigers Pitching Scares Me

After spring training is over there doesn't appear to be anyone under 40 in the rotation that looks like they are ready to shut people down. Even Verlander looks a bit off so far. Bonderman is working on a change up for the 50th season in a row, and Dontrelle Willis looks like a minor leaguer who can't hit the broad side of a barn.

What started as an incredible off season is starting to feel like it will shape up like recent Yankee seasons, or even that post-World Series White Sox teams a few years back. Tons of hitting, and terrible pitching. We may be hitting the old shower faucets early this season if the pitching doesn't sahpe up.

The bullpen was already a question, but the starting pitching was supposed to be at least solid. The way it looks right now we may have t average 8 runs a night just to get a win.

I don't worry much about Verlander, but Dontrelle looks like a bust already with his new contract, Bonderman is never going to reach the lofty expectations we all had, and Robertson is whatever. Rogers will be fine and win games, but how long is he going to make it this year?

Chicken Little.