Crooked Pitch

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I had a lot of fun last night participating in my first real draft of the year over at Mock Draft Central. The league is a 12 team roto league called Battle of the Fantasy Gods. Here’s how I did drafting from the 12th spot at building my 23-man roster. Remember that we have no bench spots, so all of these guys will start for me each week.

I also spent the night on twitter broadcasting my thoughts, picks, and asking for opinions. Thanks to @fakebaseball, @tmo119, @piraterev, @xxldaddyo, and @angels2717 for hanging out, listening and not laughing at all of my picks. Follow these guys on twitter as well as keep up with my updates too at @crookedpitch.

1. Catcher: Joe Mauer - I grabbed Mauer in the 5th round after Soto, Martin and McCann went earlier. I’m looking forward to his .320+ batting average this season and hope he’ll approach triple digit runs scored and double digit home runs.
2. Catcher: Ryan Doumit - I wasn’t expecting to grab another catcher of this quality, but I did so in the 11th round and can safely say that I have the best catcher tandem in the league. I’m not sure if Doumit will hit over .300 again due to his high hit rate, but .280 or so would be great. Especially if he can approach 20 dingers.
3. First Base: Mark Teixeira - Teixeira was my 2nd round pick at #13 and I expect big things from him hitting in that Yankee lineup.
4. Second Base: Brandon Phillips - I took Phillips in the 3rd round as I felt there was a huge drop off in talent at the second base position after him. I love the power / speed combo.
5. Short Stop: Jimmy Rollins - Rollins was my first round pick and I feel very fortunate that he fell to me at the #12 pick. His speed / power combo also excites me.
6. Third Base: Alex Gordon - At around the 5th round I decided to wait a while for a third baseman. I waited until the 14th round and grabbed Alex Gordon. I’d love it if he hit 20 home runs this season, but it’ll more likely be in the high teens. He could also steal double digit bases for me and since his walk rate is rising, and his strikeout rate is dropping, I’d love to see his batting average climb a bit too.
7. Outfield: Nick Markakis - I took Markakis in the 4th round and I’m looking for triple digit runs scored, 20+ home runs, 10+ stolen bases, and a batting average above .300. Shouldn’t everyone’s standards for a 4th round pick be so high?
8. Outfield: Chris Young - My 8th round pick was Young and I’m going to need my 2008 .300 hitters to stay above .300 to supplement Young’s .250 average. But Young’s 20+ home runs and hopefully 20+ stolen bases will be nice.
9. Outfield: Jay Bruce - In 413 at-bats Bruce hit 21 home runs. So, in 2009, his first full season, I’m hoping for 30+ home runs. The 90-100 RBI that would come with that would be nice for a 10th round pick.
10. Outfield: Nick Swisher - My 17th round pick isn’t even going to get full time at-bats on his new team. I’m hoping that Swisher gets traded from the Yankees or some portion of the log jam there does, or this pick is a bad one.
11. Outfield: Adam Lind - Lind was a 19th round pick to finish out my outfield. I’d love to see him prove that 2007 was an outlier and that the rest of his career at a .300+ batting average is the norm. 20+ home runs would be a gift to me as well.
12. Middle Infielder: Howie Kendrick - Kendrick is a big injury risk, I know this. But, if healthy, he could hit above .300, blast 10 home runs and steal 20 bases. That’s a big if. Plus I got him for a value price in the 13th round at pick #156 when he had an ADP of 130.
13. Corner Infielder: Billy Butler -Two thirds of my corner infield spots play for Kansas City. Am I screwed or what? I hope that Butler can hit north of .290 and come close to 20 home runs in 2009, which wouldn’t be bad for a 20th round pick.
14. Utility: Jason Bartlett - With my last pick of the draft (23rd round) I wanted some more speed. I grabbed Bartlett and hope he’ll reach 20 stolen bases and not hurt me anywhere else.
15. Pitcher: Jonathan Papelbon - I took Paps in the 6th round and he wasn’t the first reliever selected, Francisco Rodriguez went in the 5th. He’s going to notch a lot of saves pitching for the Red Sox. Which I am going ot need since I did not draft another closer.
16. Pitcher: Josh Beckett - Beckett was my 7th round pick and I hope he’ll rebound in 2009 to get his ERA below 4.00 and bring his win total back up.
17. Pitcher:  Scott Kazmir - After Beckett, I wasn’t going to take another pitcher so early. But, when Kazmir was still available at my 9th round pick (#108) I had to jump on him since his ADP was 68. In theory, that’s 6th round talent in the 9th round. Score!
18. Pitcher: Rich Harden - Wish list for my 12th round pick: 1)Please stay healthy! 2)Keep your ERA close to 3.00. 3)Please stay healthy! 4)10+ K/9 ratio would be fantastic. 5)Did I mention please stay healthy?
19. Pitcher: Gavin Floyd -  I’m not expecting 17 wins again from my 15th round draft pick. But 12 wins with 150 strikeouts and a 4.00 ERA would be nice.
20. Pitcher: Matt Garza - I grabbed Garza in the 16th round and expect similar numbers to Floyd from him; 12 wins, 150 strikeouts, sub 4.00 ERA.
21. Pitcher: Max Scherzer - I reached a little bit for my 18th round pick here. I’m hoping for Scherzer to stay in the rotation all season and continue his 10+ K/9 ratio pace.
22. Pitcher: Manny Parra - Parra is my 21st round pick and if I get 10 wins from him and 135 strikeouts with an ERA around 4.00, I’d be happy.
23. Pitcher: Mark Buehrle - 10 Wins, 4.00 ERA, 130 strikeouts. That’s all I want from this 22nd round pick.

So, there you go. How’d I do?

What was my best pick? Worst one?

Here are a few links to the results of the draft:

• Draft Grid
• Team Rosters
• Draft Results

My first real draft of the season occurs tonight over at Mock Draft Central. The Battle of the Fantasy Gods is a 5X5 mixed league with a 23 man roster (no bench), 2C,1B, 2B, 3B, SS, MI, CI, 5OF, 1DH, 9P. We’ll be playing this one out over at CBS Sports this year.

I’ll be writing up results and thoughts on my team in the next few days, but if you want to keep track this evening I’ll be updating the draft (especially my picks) via twitter. You can follow along at @crookedpitch, the draft starts at 8:00 PM EST. I’m not too excited about picking in the #12 slot (double picks are great, but the wait is miserable in between picks) so jeers and cheers would be welcomed if you wanted to heckle as we go.

Here are the cast of characters I’ll be up against this season:

• Mike Kuchera - The Fantasy Man
• Geoff Stein - Mock Draft Central
• Scott White - CBS Sports
• Brad Stewart - MLB Front Office
• Tim McLeod - Roto Rob
• Troy Patterson - Fantasy Pros 911
• Todd Farino - Fantasy Baseball Search
• Brian Fitzsimmons - Sports Buff
• Jeff Boggis - Fantasy Sports Empires
• Mojo Moshovetis - Crucial Sports
• Chris McDonnell - FantasyBaseball.com
• Knox Bardeen - Crooked Pitch

I’m a little behind in reporting the final standings of the Crooked Pitch fantasy baseball league final standings. I have to say that most of the guys in this league came to play, knew their stuff, and competed viciously (and might I say never quietly). I’ve never been around more brutal attacks and trash talking. What fun!!!

At the end it was a three team race with the championship going to Matt who managed The Rusty Kuntz. And, to the victor go the spoils. For winning the league, I’m going to buy Matt the 2009 Baseball Prospectus, which should be available on February 16th. He’s also going to get the 2009 Baseball Preseason Package that the folks over at Mock Draft Central were fantastic enough to donate as a prize to the league champion.

Here are the final results:

1. The Rusty Kuntz - 91
2. 12th MAN - 89.5
3. Sleeping Giant - 88
4. Atl Snakes - 80
5. Tigers - 70.5
6. Victorious Secret - 65.5
7. The Mercs - 61
8. Crooked Pitch - 60
9. Da Bomb Cheifs - 56.5
10. Last Place Grabbers - 51.5
11. Library Bats - 41
12. The Uggla Stick - 25.5

With 14 MLB games left on the bill the Crooked Pitch Fantasy Baseball League is going to be a photo finish. It’s a two-team race for the championship with a possible (and it’s really a small chance only) third team.

The Rusty Kuntz are in first place currently with 93.5 points and 12th MAN has 90 points in second place. The underdog here in third place is actually Underdog with 86.5 points. Someone is actually going to win all of the nice prizes that were donated to us, as the rules stated that to get the goods, you had to beat me. Well, I’m mired in 5th place with 66 points and no chance to catch up.

There are multiple categories where each of these teams can put a dent in the others lead or put some distance between them. All three teams are hitting the waiver wire like crazy over the past few days with The Rusty Kuntz leading the way today with six waiver wire acquisitions, all pitchers.

I’m not going to handicap this race, yet. I’ll do a little bit of that over the next week or two as I update the blogosphere on a daily basis about this race. All I know is that this will be a fun championship run, and I expect the trash talking to be fierce, as it’s already been.

I remember a few leaguemates making fun of some of my picks and claiming my team would be weak. The fantasy baseball projections looked ugly too, placing me last in batting average and last overall. I noted during the draft that would not happen. I’ve been very competitive, and batting average has been my best stat. Conclusion: The projections do not account for day to day management.

Anyway, some of my players have overachieved: Chipper Jones isn’t going to keep hitting .478, and Jeff Keppinger might find it difficult to keep up his consistency when Alex Gonzalez comes back. McLouth produced four of his five RBIs in one game. I have also received positive stats from such waiver wire luminaries as Ryan Church, Mark Reynolds, and Geoff Jenkins.

However, I also have players who have underproduced in Sheffield, Carlos Pena, Orlando Cabrera, and Juan Pierre. I’m sure the first three will only get better, and Pierre has the potential if an injury or trade gives him a fulltime job.

I still think my strength is in pitching, despite Sabathia, Hoffman, Lilly, Tom Gordon, and Bonderman starting out cold. Peavy has justified his first round selection so far by going 2-0 with 12 Ks, a .56 ERA, and .56 WHIP. Cueto and Volquez have made up for poor performances from my veteran pitchers. Gordon has since been released, and Volquez and Randy Wolf had good starts from the waiver wire.

My team should stay in the race, considering the pitching stats should go up and my hitting is right around where I thought it would be.

The first week is in the books and here’s how we stand so far.

1. The Mercs - 101.5
2. Crooked Pitch - 93
3. The Rusty Kuntz - 87
4. Tigers - 84.5
5. Shock & Awe - 66
6. Victorius Secret - 63
7. Atl Snakes - 60.5
8. Da Bomb Cheifs - 57
9. Library Bats - 56.5
10. Impish - 51.5
11. Last Place Grabbers - 37.5
12. 12th MAN - 22

You can see the roto breakdown here.

I’m sharing a few more questions that I asked of the guys from the Crooked Pitch fantasy baseball league.

What do you think your best pick was?

• Matthew from the Rusty Knutz: Matt Diaz - Round 23: Very late draft pick on someone with an excellent avg to boost my BA challenged hitters and a chance to at least contribute to some other categories.
• Jason from the Tigers: My best pick was probably Sheffield. If he doesn’t miss too many games, he’s still a multi-stat threat.
• Mike from 12th MAN: Its hard but if I must I’d say Eugenio Velez 2B San Francisco in Round 25. The guy is a stolen base machine and led the Majors in SB during the spring. Especially with a team of power, I am going to need stolen bases from somewhere and this pick was huge. Also watch out for Jason Giambi in Round 20.
• Marc from Impish: Hunter Pence - this guy will be an all star 5 category man this year. Next year he’ll be an arguable 1st round pick. He’s that good…
• Mercs: Based off games played through 3/31, my best pick was Ben Sheets in the 11th round. 1 start, 6 innings, no runs 7 K’s. Hope he keeps it up all season. If he can stay relatively healthy, Kerry Wood in round 16 could be a huge steal. Big if, we’ll see how the season plays out.
• James from Shock & Awe: My round 20(230) selection of Rich Harden, If he stays healthy. He shut down Boston in Japan and at that pick number I’ll take the risk.
• Daniel from Da Bomb Cheifs: I think my biggest steal was another catcher with Pudge, I thought he was steal in the 15th round. Pudge has had a great spring and with the rest of the tigers line up should have a pretty solid season.
• Patrick from Library Bats: My best pick has to be Sizemore at 24. I think he’s the 2nd best OF after Holliday, and it wouldn’t shock me if he put up a top 10 season. I was shocked and delighted to see him fall to me. I like Feliz at 264 an awful lot as well. 80/25/90 wouldn’t shock me in that park and lineup.

What do you think your worst pick was?

• Matthew from the Rusty Knutz: Joba Chamberlain - Round 14: For some reason in another draft I had this grand plan where he would give me awesome lights out relief numbers for a bit then become a solid starter by the end of the year. In this league, with a cap of 1250, the Yankees would effectively help me with my own Joba Rules, maximizing how innings limit and his usage. This may still end up being the case and working out well, but Round 14 was too early.
  
• Jason from the Tigers: Worst pick was Pierre. I only took 11 seconds to decide between him and Victorino. I know I’d rather have Victorino, but was hoping he’d come back to me.
  
• Mike from 12th MAN: A couple here as well. Saltalamacchia in Round 13 as he’s gonna be in the minors for a while and Kazmir in Round 7. I love Kazmir but I probably could have gotten a legit healthy starter here instead.
  
• Marc from Impish: Probably Vlady Guerrero, considering the guys I passed on to snag him. His risk is greater than the reward. Lets hope he is just the recipient of some bad fantasy press. But everyone’s acting like he is done. Maybe the Angels will stink and he’ll get traded…
  
• Mercs: Josh Fields in 15th round. Two days later sent to the minors. I still think he was a great pick then, but by being sent to the minors, it pegged it as a wasted draft pick. Could have had Jeremy Bonderman or J.R. Towles.
  
• Patrick from Library Bats: Milledge at 145 was panned by the other managers. He was definitely a reach, though I think he can earn that position and more. My worst pick was absolutely Kelvim Escobar at 169. I had some browser problems and ended up with him and Gallardo at the turn. Whoops. I think Gallardo comes back to earn that value, but Escobar was obviously a waste.