A fan of the Yankees, Red Sox, and large sample sizes.

 
YAHOO 5X5 AL-ONLY 11 TEAM DRAFT

As mentioned in the post below, I just completed a Yahoo draft (details in title of post). My strategy was pretty simple - use the cool Baseball Prospectus cheat sheet and draft the most valuable player, letting my personal feelings get involved as little as possible. I think ten out of the eleven teams actually showed up to the draft, which must be a Yahoo record. They weren't as bright as the people in my other leagues - even some friends that are getting involved in fantasy baseball for the first time would have laughed at some of these picks. Joe Mauer in the fifth round? Javy Lopez and Ivan Rodriguez to the same team in the second and third round? Vernon Wells number 8 overall? Loiaza before Hudson? Berroa in the third? Palmeiro in the fourth? Tom Gordon in the 10th, one pick after Corey Koskie? Anyways, I'll stop.

Here's the team I got, in order, drafting from the pole position:

A. Rodriguez
D. Jeter
E. Chavez
J. Damon
H. Blalock
J. Contreras
F. Cordero
A. Kennedy
B. Williams
C. Koskie
L. Matos
M. Mora
O. Hudson
G. Balfour
V. Martinez
B. Fullmer
F. Rodney
M. Olivo
L. Bigbie
K. Ainsworth
E. DuBose
M. Cuddyer
C. Leskanic
J. Zimmerman
M. Hendrickson
J. Westbrook


Some value and strategy notes:

* I got $355 total, and $336 for my active lineup.

* I got $258 of active hitting value and $78 worth of active pitching value. Pitching went earlier than BP thought it should, so I passed until Contreras/Cordero were steals, and then again until I couldn't.

* I passed on Koskie a couple rounds when I had Blalock and Chavez at third, but when he came around with the second-best hitter left worth $10 less, I had to grab him.

* Hudson and Cuddyer won't be starting, but Kennedy's no lock at 2B, and it's always nice to have a backup OF.

* I'll probably need to trade for pitching or pick it up off the waiver wire. In most Yahoo leagues there are one or two dominant teams, so you can't finish middle of the pack in pitching, dominate the hitting, and expect to win. You need to score well in all categories. $78 won't cut it. I think I have the hitting to trade, though. And since I have a lot of pitchers only worth a few bucks, it won't hurt to cut most of them.

* I really enjoyed drafting from a list that I "trusted" 100%. BPro's projections/values are definitely very different from most of the stuff you see out there. I like some of the numbers, and others I shake my head at. But since I committed myself to this experiment, the draft was a breeze. No worrying about mistakes - my picks were always made 10 seconds after the last pick.

* Keeping in mind that the BPro projections are regressed heavily, my hitters project to a .279 AVG, 284 HRs, 158 SBs, 1183 RUNs, and 1079 RBIs. Those stats look like they'd finish at the top of the league. The pitchers look like they need serious help: 4.15 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, 65 Wins, 61 Saves, and 786 SOs. ERA and Saves are decent, but the rest are awful. Waiver-wire, here I come.


Posted by Sky at 12:07 AM | 0 comments