My final 2009 fantasy baseball draft occurs this evening. It is a 12-team NL-only 4x4 $260 auction with 15 keepers and a two round minor league draft. Normally, there are several marquee players to bid upon, but this year the number of stars appears greatly diminished. What makes that particularly noteworthy is the amount of money available at the draft remains the same as it has been in previous years.
My keeper list was constructed, as it always is, with an eye towards laying a foundation of production across the eight categories. Additionally, I reviewed a pro-forma list of available players before deciding to protect my two most expensive players - Johan Santana at $41 and Chase Utley at $46.
Without Utley, I would have entered the draft needing to address AVG. Utley would have been the exact player, along with David Wright, who would have been my target. Given his apparent full recovery from off-season hip surgery, I foresaw little chance he'd go for less the $40 and rolled the dice and protected him at a fully-priced $46.
With my keepers, I have just $45 to spend on 11 players. However, I don't need to over-pay for pitching with a staff led by Johan Santana, Tim Lincecum and Yovanni Gallardo. As a matter of fact, with limited resources I am unlikely to spend anything on pitching. Dollar Days are here again!
My hitting appears set across the four categories, but I recognize there is considerable risk in relying on Emilio Bonifacio to be an NL version of Chone Figgins and OF Jordan Schafer to produce at a consistent level all season long. Never mind, hoping Michael Bourn can rebound from last season's disaster ex-SB.
What few resources I have available tonight will be spent trying to add as much upside as I can in an effort to diversify the chances of any one risky hitter from sinking the season. Here is what I take into battle this evening.
- C Carlos Ruiz PHI 3
- 1B Ryan Howard PHI 20
- CR Adrian Gonzalez SD 20
- 2B Emilio Bonifacio FLA 10
- MM Chase Utley PHI 46
- OF Lastings Milledge WAS 15
- OF Michael Bourn HOU 15
- OF Jordan Schafer ATL 5
- SP Yovanni Gallardo MLW 15
- CL Mike Gonzalez ATL 2
- RP Carlos Villanueva MLW 3
- SP Johan Santana NYM 41
- SP Tim Lincecum SF 15
- FARM: Mat Gamel, Alcides Escobar, Todd Frazier, Geraldo Parra, Ross Detwiler