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Tomorrow, I will be participating in a mock draft to be included in the Fantasy Baseball Express draft guide. I drew the 7th pick in a 12 team, 5X5 serpentine mock draft and am excited as I take a look at the Average Draft Position report from Mock Draft Central to see who I might nab with my first six picks. Here they are:
- Matt Holiday, OF
- Carlos Beltran, OF
- Brian Roberts, 2B
- Erik Bedard, SP
- Brian McCann, C
- Justin Verlander, SP
These were the players on the ADP report currently at picks #7, #18, #31, #42, #55 and #66. I like the beginnings of that outfield, but I doubt I would take two starters in the first six rounds. We’ll have to wait and see.
Shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment if you have someone you’d like me to grab at #7. If I get enough feedback by draft time tomorrow (10:00 AM EST) maybe I’ll do the democratic thing and let Crooked Pitch readers choose my first round pick. 
Expect a full write up recapping the draft and my picks late Sunday or early Monday morning.
Entries (RSS)
January 16th, 2008 at 8:12 am
I’m thinking about a Crazy plan and I’m wondering if you think it’s possible to pull off.
This I think is never done in the NFBC.
I’m playing two satellites this year. I am tinkering a little bit, I was thinking about trying a couple different extremes this year.
5×5 - 15 team league.
One plan is aiming for 15th pick in the draft and going Johan/Peavy with my first two picks. To me, that thins the pitching field quite a bit. Consider if I get Johan, how much better is he than Peavy? Definitely better but the guy who gets Peavy 3 picks later really isn’t in worse shape. Also, what I think it does is force the rest of the teams in to possibly go for starters earlier than they originally thought. Now of course, from the outset, this clearly sets me back pretty far in offense I know. It’s never been done before. I think it might work if I can maximize my offensive picks over the next 9 or 10 picks. Especially if my next starting pitcher pick isn’t until the 12th round. That gives me 10 offensive picks (maybe one closer) in the first 12 rounds. Usually stolen bases go early but I see a lot of stolen bases later ie. Kinsler, C. Young, Cameron, Victorino, Weeks, Ellsbury which supports my plan. I also see many power opportunities later ie Sexson, Swisher, Bay, Dye, Andruw Jones, Delgado, Glaus, Burrell, Blalock.
This may be the dumbest idea in the world, but I wanted to get your take on it. I don’t mind taking chances. I think taking those two pitchers could offset the whole draft in my favor. While many teams are scurrying to pick up mediocre pitching, I’m taking in a whole bunch of offense.
Last year, I absolutely dogged my first 2 picks Jeter, D-Lee. Got V-Mart in the 3rd, Peavy in the 4th. Picked 3 starting pitchers and one closer with my first 10 picks (bad idea I know)Although I picked my pitchers pretty well. Peavy, Hill, Schilling, Putz. Even with that miserable draft management/stupidity I still ended up 2 points out from 1st place.
Side note: My reasoning for even contemplating this plan is that Johan and Peavy give top 5 value IMHO. I can get starting pitchers in the 12th-20th that will solidify my rotation for sure.
Really, I want Johan for sure in the 2nd. If I get Johan with the 15th pick, does using one draft pick in the 2nd round really doom me?
Other reason for this plan is I see some real value on offense in the 3rd-10th rounds that you don’t see every year. Why not dominate pitching while securing some serious offense in the later rounds?
Put it this way, if I think Kinsler will come pretty close to matching Brandon Phillips and Phillips is a 2nd rounder, why not dominate pitching with Johan/Peavy and bust out Kinsler in the 3rd?
Could turn out to be huge if I’m right. The thing about winning is you can’t do things like everybody else. You almost have to take some chances in order to have the potential to dominate all your opponents.
Sorry for the long post. Obviously I’m thinking pretty hard about this. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I would not try this in the Main Event, but in a satellite things are a little different.
If you could spend just a minute of your time weighing the pros and cons it could really help me make up mind, if not help me win the satellite and go to the Main Event 2009.
January 24th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Matt - I don’t like your strategy of drafing both Santana and Peavy. While it definitely puts you ahead in pitching, it doesn’t put you so far ahead that you can sacrifice that much hitting. The power guys you mentioned are all low average hitters and offer little except some power. Not to mention that some of them are huge injury risks. I don’t think it’s an awful idea, but balancing your team with pitching and hitting is usually at least a pretty good formula. If the injury bug avoids you, which it did for me last year, the balance will lead you to the top.