2009 Mixed League Draft Results: The Danger Of Missing Your Draft

by faketeams on Mar 19, 2009 11:00 AM EDT in Baseball

At 2:15 AM, the fact I missed the first draft of the 2009 fantasy baseball season diminished in importance. With the birth of my fourth son, I was reminded of the importance of perspective. However, I still was thinking about what went wrong with the team that was auto-drafted.

Here is my team:

1. (12) Josh Hamilton

2. (13) Chase Utley

3. (36) Matt Kemp

4. (37) Brian McCann

5. (60) Joey Votto

6. (61) Jay Bruce

7. (84) Bobby Abreu

8. (85) Joakim Soria

9. (108) Brian Wilson

10. (109) Pablo Sandoval

11. (132) Troy Tulowitzki

12. (133) Yovani Gallardo

13. (156) Adam Wainwright

14. (157) Zack Greinke

15. (180) Josh Johnson

16. (181) Chris Pérez

17. (204) Conor Jackson

18. (205) Adrián Béltre

19. (228) Kelly Johnson

20. (229) Bengie Molina

21. (252) Ryan Theriot

What surprised me the most was not having a SP drafted until the 13th round and then seeing the auto-draft take nothing but hitters for my bench. If I had attended the live draft, I would have grabbed three or four pitchers to gamble on saves and to use to stream in and out of the line-up. This would especially be so because Pablo Sandoval qualifies at C and 1B in this format.

Why was the computer taking hitters at the end? There was a tremendous run on starting pitching in the first ten rounds and then throughout the remaining ones. This left nothing but higher ranked hitters available when my turns came around.

For perspective, the top five starters went in the first 25 picks. By the time my Votto selection came around, there were ten SP off the board. Before the end of the 7th round, another nine SP were off the board.

I had missed a huge run. Will it prove to be fatal?

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Comments

Congrats

Congrats on your new addition!
I like the team, and would rather be missing pitching rather than bats. I suffered a similar fate last year due to missing a live draft. As you know, pitching is a lot easier to pick up during the season than new hitters.

by Recon on Mar 19, 2009 11:03 AM EDT reply actions

Congrats!

You aren’t dead, but you do have a lot of moves to be made. If you are looking to improve immediately, I’d say Bruce or Abreu are your most tradable commodities without hurting your team. It is easy to pick up pitchers, but I’d keep this simple and trade for the pitcher of your choosing.

Radical idea: Kelly Johnson is a solid 2B. Move Utley for an ace of Webb or Haren quality. I’m sure there’s someone with a good pitcher that’s struggling at 2B.

I just sit back and root for the taser

by Hyatt on Mar 19, 2009 11:32 AM EDT reply actions

Radical Idea

Very nice advice. Thanks.

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by faketeams on Mar 20, 2009 8:43 AM EDT up reply actions

Congrats!

and your team is fine, this league is so shallow it is almost impossible to screw up a draft. Gallardo, Grienke and Johnson can all be top 20 SP’s at the end of the year and Wainwright is no slouch either.

by DB11 on Mar 19, 2009 11:44 AM EDT reply actions

Congratulations Eric!

If this is your first, than you are in store for some hard work and sleepless nights…but some of the greatest joy and love you will ever experience.

I likey your SP’s. Gallardo in the 13th is great, especially given the run on SP’s. Hate the early Closers, but they are pretty good. You have to pretty much concede K’s…given that, I would consider moving Gallardo early if he is lights out. Maybe team him with a hitter and do a 2 for 2 trade in hopes of finding two good control pitchers with less K potential, since you will not compete in that category. Overall, it could have been much worse with an auto drafted team.

by Ratdog90 on Mar 19, 2009 1:32 PM EDT reply actions

Fatal? Nah.

Starting pitching is the most fudgeable thing there is out there.

Mind you, you’ll have to hope for the best from the four you did take, scour the waiver wires, and pull off a trade or two, but you could still very easily finish near the top in pitching from this.

by nuke187 on Mar 19, 2009 3:18 PM EDT reply actions

Thanks

This is my fourth kid, so I left the hospital around 3 AM so I could get some sleep and bring the other three kids to school. Sleeping next to the bed in a lounge chair stops after the second kid.

Looking at the Yahoo! projected ranks, the Hitters it drafted where all top 14 rounds types. Makes sense if the league went pitching heavy.

I agree Abreu seems superfluous. with just 3active OF and a SH, i would have probably reached for a SP there. My choice would have come down to John Lackey or Scott Kazmir

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by faketeams on Mar 19, 2009 10:27 PM EDT reply actions

I did the same exact thing!

Except for instead of having a child, I was watching the UCLA game….
And instead of missing the whole draft, I missed 15 minutes…
Ok…. Maybe not the exact same thing. : )

But my 1st six “auto” picks were still BS!

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect." - Mark Twain

by Dustin SLO,CA on Mar 20, 2009 2:49 AM EDT reply actions