Last night, I had my first higher-stakes fantasy baseball draft. It is a 12-team 5x5 mixed non-keeper league. I drew the seventh selection and took OF Matt Holliday. When the draft swung back, both Johan Santana and Jake Peavy were taken so I selected Dave Ortiz. He has 1B eligibility in this league. I couldn't pass up Ortiz with that postion eligibility.
With Holliday and Ortiz anchoring my power and AVG, I took SP Brandon Webb with my third pick. I wanted to test my pitcher theory, but losing out on Santana and Peavy changed it. However, I still wanted to give a little more emphasis to the SP because this league starts just seven pitchers which should make the top hurlers more valuable.
In the 4th round, I decided to play on position scarcity and selected Minnesota's Joe Mauer. With Holliday and Ortiz on board, I felt adding Mauer would make it easier for me to reach for a Adam Dunn/Andruw Jones type of power hitter later. I followed-up the Mauer selection with Oriles' OF Nick Markakis, whose availability in the 5th round was too good to pass-up. I went with him over Hunter Pence.
Scott Kazmir was my target in the 6th round, but he was taken right before my selection. Aaron Harang became my #2 SP. In the seventh, I grabbed Diamondbacks' OF Chris Young for his incredible power/speed combination. With my earlier selections at hitter, I had little concern about Young's AVG. Much to my satisfaction, Hunter Pence was still available in the 8th round. I could not pass him up.
In the 9th round, I began to get greedy and hoped to land both Nationals' 3B Ryan Zimmerman and Brewers' 2B Rickie Weeks. When my 9th selection came-up, I decided to take Zimmerman because he was the top 3B on the board, and I felt he wouldn't make it back. Unfortunately, Ricke Weeks was taken four picks before he got back to me.
With a solid four-out-of-five categories covered, I turned to completing my pitching staff and grabbing speed/power combos to use as trade bait to address my roster needs as they arise during the season.
How did I do? I've included the PECOTA projections for the players I drafted.
| POS | PLAYER | HR | SB | RBI | R | AVG |
| C | Mauer | 9 | 10 | 59 | 80 | 0.294 |
| 1B | Ortiz | 35 | 6 | 121 | 108 | 0.283 |
| 2B | Johnson | 17 | 11 | 70 | 89 | 0.279 |
| SS | Lugo | 6 | 21 | 47 | 64 | 0.274 |
| 3B | Zimmerman | 24 | 8 | 95 | 93 | 0.292 |
| OF | Holliday | 29 | 13 | 109 | 106 | 0.319 |
| OF | Markakis | 18 | 10 | 83 | 87 | 0.287 |
| OF | Young | 27 | 22 | 79 | 85 | 0.274 |
| UT | Pence | 23 | 13 | 80 | 82 | 0.286 |
| POS | PLAYER | W | SV | K | ERA | WHIP |
| SP | Webb | 14 | 0 | 155 | 3.403 | 1.242 |
| SP | Harang | 13 | 0 | 176 | 3.744 | 1.24 |
| RP | Soria | 4 | 35 | 79 | 3.161 | 1.191 |
| RP | BWilson | 2 | 27 | 38 | 3.807 | 1.438 |
| P | RHill | 12 | 0 | 161 | 4.055 | 1.258 |
| P | Burnett | 11 | 0 | 163 | 3.827 | 1.288 |
| P | CWilson | 3 | 30 | 47 | 4.136 | 1.428 |
| RES | PLAYER | HR/W | SB/SV | RBI/K | R/ERA | AVG/WHIP |
| BN | Milledge | 13 | 15 | 50 | 58 | 0.29 |
| BN | JUpton | 20 | 18 | 76 | 94 | 0.271 |
| BN | Patterson | 13 | 21 | 54 | 75 | 0.268 |
| BN | Butler | 18 | 3 | 85 | 77 | 0.287 |
| BN | Garza | 12 | 0 | 155 | 4.338 | 1.396 |