My Razzball Experts League Draft Results

I got an email from Razzball's Rudy Gamble around 3:15 yesterday afternoon, asking me if I had interest in participating in the Razzball Experts Mixed League draft at 8pm last night. Well, my wife was going out to dinner with friends, so I had an easy decision. Of course.

The participants in this league were as follows, in draft order:

Scott Pianowski, Yahoo

Bret Sayre, Baseball Prospectus

Rudy Gamble, Razzball

Paul Singman, Baseball Prospectus

Grey Albright, Razzball

Clay Davenport, Baseball HQ

Ray Guilfoye, Fake Teams

Mike Podhorzer, FanGraphs

Nick Minnix, KFFL

Derek Carty, DerekCarty.com

Dr. Roto, Rotoexperts

Ryan Carey, Mastersball

The league is a 12 team, 5 x 5, 25 round, one catcher mixed league. I had planned on going with a strategy that I have used several times in my home leagues. I was going to draft as many hitters as possible, while drafting a starter and a closer in the first 10 rounds. I would then draft 2-3 more closers, and fill my pitching staff with middle relievers. This strategy basically punts wins and strikeouts, but almost guarantees winning the saves, ERA and WHIP categories. The strategy focuses on building a very strong lineup, and a bunch of closers and middle relievers. Like I said, I have used this strategy to win several home leagues in the past, but it was not to be last night.

After Craig Kimbrel and Aroldis Chapman went off the board in the 5th and 7th rounds respectively, I decided to change course just a bit. I did draft 3 closers, but none in the top five in my rankings. But, I did load up with hitting, drafting hitters in 11 of the first 13 rounds.

Complete draft results

Razzball Draft Results

Let's take a look at my draft results, by position:

C - Matt Wieters (Rd. 9)

1B - Prince Fielder (Rd. 1)

2B - Chase Utley (Rd. 12)

SS - Asdrubal Cabrera (Rd. 7)

3B - Ryan Zimmerman (Rd. 3)

MI - Dan Uggla (Rd. 20)

CI - Ryan Howard (Rd. 11)

OF - Bryce Harper (Rd. 2)

OF - B.J. Upton (Rd. 4)

OF - Alex Gordon (Rd. 5)

OF - Ben Revere (Rd. 17)

OF - Juan Pierre (Rd. 22)

U -Chase Headley (Rd. 10)

P - Madison Bumgarner (Rd. 6)

P - Matt Moore (Rd. 8)

P - John Axford (Rd .13)

P - Chris Perez (Rd. 14)

P - Grant Balfour (Rd. 15)

P - Hiroki Kuroda (Rd. 16)

P - Tim Hudson (Rd. 18)

P - Edwin Jackson (Rd. 19)

P - Wade Miley (Rd. 21)

BE - Justin Maxwell ( Rd. 23)

BE - Chris Tillman (Rd. 24)

BE - Oscar Taveras (Rd. 25)

I had the 7th pick in this draft, and after Ryan Braun, Miguel Cabrera, Mike Trout, Andrew McCutchen, Matt Kemp and Robinson Cano came off the board with the first 6 picks, I grabbed Prince Fielder. Yes, Albert Pujols and Joey Votto were still on the board, but I wanted Prince, as, for me, he has no questions about his performance from 2012, while Pujols and Votto are coming off injuries and down power years in 2012.

With my second round pick, I grabbed Bryce Harper. I could have taken Jason Heyward, Justin Verlander, Stephen Strasburg, or Evan Longoria, among others. But elected for the upside that Harper possesses. I see a 25 HR, 25 stolen bases from him this season, and that may prove conservative.

I won't go through every pick, but you can see my lineup is pretty solid, with plenty of power, with some stolen base artists tossed in to balance out my roster.

I waited on pitching and feel that this draft couldn't have gone any better. I couldn't believe Chase Headley lasted until round 10. I kept looking at his name in rounds 8 and 9, and just couldn't not take him in round 10. He has a thumb injury, but not one that will severely impact his power, in my opinion. His injury is to the tip of the thumb, and he will miss the first month of the season. I don't see him repeating his 2012 power display in 2013, but he is still a very good hitter who can steal double digit bags at the third base position.

So how did I do? In a 12 team league, most rosters look great right now. Is my pitching staff lacking a dominant ace? Do I need more depth in my pitching staff? Where are my strengths and weaknesses?

Let's hear it, Fake Teams readers.

I hope to have more analysis of this draft on Thursday, along with my updated NL only league rankings.