Compiled by Bob in Cleveland

League 4

Greetings, fellow Mafia members!

The ferocious competition is well under way, but let’s get back to some of our writers and see what they thought of their Staff League draft …

Gabriel Lundeen (Pick #11) - “An Offer They Couldn’t Refuse”

My strategy coming into the draft was to nab two high average power hitters, and I was delighted to get Chase Utley with the 11th pick and David Ortiz in the 2nd round.

After that, I drafted Webb, Manny, Figgins and McCann, all of whom I felt were great values and gave my team a balance of categories from positions all over the diamond.  From there, I just went for a combination of upside, value, opportunity and reliability to fill out my squad.

With the scarcity of strong catching this year, I loved getting Brian McCann in the 6th round.  I was prepared to wait on catching because I thought people might jump the gun on the top five guys, but when McCann fell to me I had to alter my plans.  My catching tandem of McCann and Kurt Suzuki is going to be a real strength for my squad … as long as they both stay healthy.

My worst pick came in the 10th round, when I accidentally drafted Adam Laroche.  He should provide decent stats, but he would never have been my choice there.  In fact, he wasn’t even on my radar. The pick won’t kill me, but I would have preferred a second closer like Chad Cordero or Joakim Soria, both of whom could have been had there.  At least Laroche is my CI and not my main first baseman.

If I could do it over again, I would have gone after one more strong outfielder early in the draft.  I like having a strong outfield, and my Writer’s League “crew” is a little anemic for my tastes.  I’ve got Manny and Andruw Jones as my big boppers, followed by Justin Upton, Carlos Quentin, and Rajai Davis … all of whom have upside but are by no means a guarantee.  Figgins qualifies as an outfielder, but I’m not sure that’s the best position to maximize his value.

I like my team, but there are still some tweaks to be made. This is my first year doing a 15 team league, but I think I made the adjustment well and came out with a very balanced team.  I have places to improve but no major weaknesses.  Still, I’m going to have my work cut out for me against 14 other writers who clearly know a thing or two about fantasy baseball.

Phil Stupak (Pick #12) - “Tortious Malfeasance”

I knew this was going to be a challenging draft. There are the obvious challenges to drafting with experienced owners who voluntarily spend their time either playing fantasy baseball or writing about fantasy baseball. Then, there is the added difficulty of drafting in a 15-team league.  And most challenging of all, I had the worst draft pick - 12th - ensuring that I would miss out on the elite hitters without gaining the benefit of a wheel pick.

Because of these challenges, I had two draft plans: traditional and mercantile.  Under a traditional draft I would focus on power-corners, speedy infielders, and twenty-twenty outfielders.  I was going to implement this strategy only if I could get a top-tier hitter.  Assuming that Alex Rodriguez and the R-surnamed shortstops were taken, I focused on drafting Matt Holliday, David Wright, Miguel Cabrera, Ryan Howard or Prince Fielder. Unfortunately, these nine players were all taken before my first pick, so I switched to my alternative strategy.

I sought to corner the market in the rarest categories: steals and saves.  I hope to win the rare categories and then trade for the more plentiful categories.  I hoped that with 15 teams in the league, rather than 12, it would further benefit this strategy because it will take fewer stolen bases and saves to win those categories.

In practice, my strategy worked (Russell Martin, Brian Roberts, and Kazuo Matsui for stolen bases; Joe Nathan and Francisco Rodriguez for saves) but I could have done better. My biggest mistake was a failure to appreciate how much a 15-team, NFBC-style draft would create scarcity at every position: we start 75% of infielders and 83% of outfielders in Major League Baseball.

Positional scarcity forced me to forgo players who would further my strategy in order to draft the last useful player at a position (e.g. Carlos Pena). I think my alternative strategy would have worked better from a different draft position.

Best Pick: Jason Bay (9th).  I foolishly waited until the 9th Round to pick my first outfielder, but I was lucky enough to snag Bay. Luck favors the foolish.

Worst Pick: Todd Pratt (21st). I accidentally clicked on Pratt’s name instead of John Buck’s name. This hurt me because Buck was drafted before my next pick, and I was forced to draft a third catcher, which ended up costing me the fourth pitcher I wanted.

Draft Grade: B-.

Keith Wire (Pick #14) - “Grammercy Riffs”

For a 15-team league, I thought the draft went really fast. I am not much of a chatroom participant during drafts but the conversations I did participate in were fun and conducted in good spirits.  This league should be great fun.

My strategy going in had two key elements.  First, I wanted at least 100 home runs and 60 stolen bases in the first four rounds, and, secondly, with it being a 15-team league, I knew everybody’s starting pitching would have holes and thus wanted to make sure I got three closers.

Based on most projections, if not all, I would say I achieved my first goal: I took Ryan Braun and Carlos Lee in the first two rounds followed by Justin Morneau and Eric Byrnes.  As for meeting my second aim, that’s in question because I got one closer and three guys currently possessing closer jobs but not so many closer skills - Jason Isringhausen, Todd Jones and Brandon Lyon.

As much as I like to delay the selecting of starting pitching, I think my best picks in this draft were Felix Hernandez at 77 (round 6) and Yovani Gallardo at 167 (round 12).  I also like the Dan Wheeler pick, late, because of the shaky ground that Troy Percival currently inhabits.

My worst picks were probably grabbing two closers in rounds thirteen and fourteen when I could have taken a catcher or added some speed.  I really wanted Eugenio Velez, but he went right before me in the 18th round.

My corner and middle infield spots are occupied by two older and injury prone guys in Scott Rolen and Bobby Crosby, so that is a definite concern.  If I had it to do over, I would have addressed those two positions earlier. I also probably have too many relievers, presently, compared to starters; I will address that soon enough, and all in all I am happy with my draft.