Compiled by Bob in Cleveland

League 4

Greetings, fellow Mafia members!

As we wind down to the end of this series, we see what two more of our competitors, including ‘yours truly’ have to say!

Tim Collins (Pick #7) - “Texas Leaguers”

My strategy in any draft is to take the best player available for the first five picks and fill in needs after that. I love to build a great offense, but if pitchers fall to me in a spot where I’m comfortable taking them, I’ll do that, too.

I had the 7th overall pick in this draft and I fully expected Jimmy Rollins to get to me. A couple weeks ago, I probably could have gotten Rollins with the 11th pick but he seems to have been slowly, but steadily, gaining fantasy value throughout Spring Training. It makes sense, since he’s the last of the elite three shortstops, and the drop-off is pretty significant after that.

In fact, Jimmy Rollins was not available for me with that pick, so I stuck with my plan and went with the best player available, Miguel Cabrera. I passed up on the likes of Pujols, Howard and Fielder by doing this, but I could not pass up the average/power combination that Cabrera provides. I’m not jumping on the Buster Olney “Miggy for MVP” bandwagon just yet, but he’s an amazing hitter and should increase his runs and RBIs by accident.

I filled out my infield with my top four picks, which is unusual for me, because there are a lot of outfielders who I love this year (Chris B. Young, Corey Hart, Nick Markakis … to name but three) but since I didn’t want to get stuck fighting over the Yuniesky Betancourts of the world, I felt I had to take Troy Tulowitski early.

Best Pick? Anyone can take Miguel Cabrera in the first round, but I thought getting Bobby Howry in the 25 round was a big value. Worst case scenario is that he is a quality set-up man who doesn’t kill my ERA and WHIP, but with the Cubs pretty intent on keeping Carlos Marmol in the set-up role and Kerry Wood as closer, I could steal some saves here.

Worst Pick? Tom Gorzelanny. Not that I don’t think Gorzy is going to be a useful fantasy player, but I just didn’t need another mediocre starter here and ended up without a second catcher at all. I should have taken Chris Snyder with that pick, or even another pick I had after that when I took Brendan Harris. Big mistake.

Overall, I like the makeup of my team. I think I got a little bit too much mediocre pitching (Gorzelanny, Baker, Hill) and would have liked an extra bat (especially a useful backup catcher), but we’ll see how the season goes. Let the games begin!

Bob Sikon (Pick #13) - “Outlaws United BC”

Given general outfield scarcity, and the fact that I found myself in a league with a billion - well, all right, 15 - teams, I felt it critical that I come out of the first two rounds with at least one outfielder.

A ran a number or pre-draft simulations, and I kept coming up with the same two guys in the first two rounds, Ryan Braun (who I would move to outfield as quickly as possible) and Mark Teixeira. But Carl Crawford fell to me at the 13th pick, and the thought of all those SBs were just too enticing. Overall, I’m a bit worried about the “double-whammy” of a potential sophomore slump and big position switch coming out of nowhere to ruin Ryan Braun’s season, so Crawford became my guy.

Of course, this meant that Teixeira was a ‘lock’ for me to take with the #18 overall pick. What a speed/power combo to build upon! Thanks, Mr. Hitchin. I appreciate your choice of ‘Tex’ at #15. There I was, I went off my plan in Round 1 and had Round 2 ‘blown out of the water’ two picks later. Nice.

This put me into the position of having to “scramble” to select my 2nd player. I had intended to go outfield and corner infield in the first two rounds, but all of the worthy first and third basemen were gone. That’s when I realized I was left with choosing between two guys that I put not one second of time into thinking about drafting … Grady Sizemore and Alfonso Soriano.

Bob in Cleveland’s going to draft Grady, right? Nope. I just wasn’t comfortable with Sizemore as my second best hitter. Regardless of concerns over his various ailments, Soriano was my second pick … a pick that put me on the path to drafting a rock-solid outfield.

I have a firm belief that you win your draft between Rounds 10 and 20, so I usually spend quite a bit of time compiling a list of targets for that phase of the draft. For me, the real story of this draft were the “reaches”. They really took me by surprise as a lot of my targets got hit way before they were within my range. ADPs have been ‘translated’ for a 15-team league:

Ryan Garko -
3/22 ADP: 12th Round
My Target: 10th
Actual Pick: 8th

Aaron Hill
3/22 ADP: 13th Round
My Target: 12th
Actual Pick: 11th

Hank Blalock
3/22 ADP: 15th Round
My Target: 14th
Actual Pick: 9th!!!

Lastings Milledge
3/22 ADP: 16th Round
My Target: 15th
Actual Pick: 11th

Matt Diaz
3/22 ADP: 20th Round
My Target: 19th
Actual Pick: 15th

And this only scratched the surface! In the end, I think I responded well, followed my friend Pete in Jordan’s advice, and remained flexible. I feel I drafted a good team, and I look forward to the competitive season that lies ahead.