{"id":10381,"date":"2011-03-14T14:54:42","date_gmt":"2011-03-14T14:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=10381"},"modified":"2011-03-14T14:58:37","modified_gmt":"2011-03-14T14:58:37","slug":"reflections-on-the-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=10381","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on the draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BgbFantasyHeadline\"The BaseballGB Fantasy League draft took place on Sunday evening and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going through the annual ritual of looking at my roster in the cold light of the\u00c2\u00a0day after.<\/p>\n

Mark George will be offering his expert opinion on each team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s draft in the near future.\u00c2\u00a0 My very much non-expert opinion on my draft for the Cheddar Chasers is that it went quite well.\u00c2\u00a0 Not spectacularly well, but decent as a starting point and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good enough for me.\u00c2\u00a0 One lesson I have learned over the past two seasons is that in-season pick-ups can make a big difference, so there are\u00c2\u00a0always opportunities to fill holes and make a trade or two along the way.<\/p>\n

I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give myself as much preparation time this year as I have in the past.\u00c2\u00a0 In truth, the draft snuck up on me, which it shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have done because 13 March was the date it was always set to.\u00c2\u00a0 I was able to check out player rankings from various sources, but I only ended up participating in one mock draft and that was of questionable value, except for a reminder of how Yahoo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s draft system works.<\/p>\n

When someone takes Jered Weaver with the first pick, you get the feeling that it might not be greatly representative of what to expect when the real thing comes along (thoughts of quitting and joining another draft left my mind when Albert Pujols slipped to me at pick number 3 and I decided it would be too much fun not to continue).\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the actual draft, fourteen of us lined up to draft our teams of twenty players apiece in an enjoyable process lasting around\u00c2\u00a0one hour fifty minutes.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Handed a draft position slap-bang in the middle (7th<\/sup>), I had plenty of time to think about each selection.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

I always go into the draft with a selection of players that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to draft if I can get them.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not so much a case of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsleepers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 or any great strategy, more that I plump for a few favourites (normally based on fantasy reasons, I should add) and do my best to get them.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the soundest strategy, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m an enthusiastic rather than a die-hard fantasy player so if it costs me over the season then I can live with that.\u00c2\u00a0 If these players\u00c2\u00a0have good years then it always makes it all the sweeter.<\/p>\n

Zack Greinke was one of the players on that list and I was able to select him, helped no doubt by the rib injury that will lead to him missing a few starts at the beginning of the season.\u00c2\u00a0 He was brilliant for my Cheddar Chasers team in 2009 and while 2010 wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t so great for him, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m confident he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll bounce back strongly by getting out of the malaise in Kansas City and facing National League lineups.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another guy I wanted and was able to select was Drew Stubbs.\u00c2\u00a0 He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not exactly an impact player and experienced fantasy owners may well raise an eyebrow at me for selecting him in the sixth round, but he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got a good mix of skills and strikes me as a player who could work well in a Head-to-Head league where season-long consistency isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite so important.\u00c2\u00a0 While he might have some cold weeks, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m betting on him having other weeks where his contributions push me over the top in several offensive categories.<\/p>\n

Finally, Carlos Pena was still on the board in the ninth round and he was another player on my \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc2011 favourites\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 list so I snapped him up.\u00c2\u00a0 His terrible batting average last year (.196) makes him a gamble and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mind having a high risk\/high reward player or two.\u00c2\u00a0 He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never going to hit for a good average but that .196 mark was very harsh (he had a .222 batting average on balls in play, for a start) and I can see him getting back to around .240.\u00c2\u00a0 I have a hunch he could be the Adrian Beltre of 2011 after joining the Cubs on a one-year deal hoping to have a big year to set up a multi-year contract.\u00c2\u00a0 I tend to watch quite a few Cubs home games, due to them playing so many during the daytime, and can see Pena having some multi-homer days with the assistance of the Wrigley wind.<\/p>\n

Away from my 2011 favourites, I made some customary irrational decisions based around my Oakland allegiance.<\/p>\n

Dan Haren was available when my turn came around in the eighth round and after something of an emotional struggle, I passed.\u00c2\u00a0 He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a former Oakland A now playing for the Angels and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not having any divided loyalties on this: I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to be cheering if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing well. I then went against my better judgement and selected A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s starter Gio Gonzalez.\u00c2\u00a0 The fault here wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t favouritism: I genuinely think he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to take a jump forward.\u00c2\u00a0 My mistake was that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve now probably jinxed him. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

That was something I learned from during the draft.\u00c2\u00a0 Coco Crisp was available late on and I probably would have taken him as an additional bat if I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t already worried that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to break down again.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t so much the fantasy risk at play, more that if I drafted him it would guarantee that he would spend time on the DL.\u00c2\u00a0 I know Spring Training stats count for little, but his impressive performances so far\u00c2\u00a0in Arizona are a reflection on his current good health and if he can stay that way (a big if, I know), he will be a real sparkplug for the A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s offence.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m more than happy for him not to\u00c2\u00a0be helping my fantasy team if that means he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s helping my real team.<\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the cold, analytical approach I should be taking, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how I like to run my fantasy team.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maybe this year, with a big slice of luck, it might just work out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One player’s take on the BaseballGB Fantasy League draft, which took place on Sunday 13 March<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[68],"class_list":["post-10381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy-baseball","tag-baseball-gb-fantasy-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10381"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10389,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10381\/revisions\/10389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}