League of Nations draft recap

A friend of mine that works with Rachel needed one more owner to fill-out a Yahoo! league, and I agreed to do it. It's a 12-team, head-to-head mixed league. I don't like the idea of head-to-head for baseball. I think that's more of a football thing, but I've never tried it (baseball or football) so I shouldn't pre-judge.

The draft was by computer, which also worried me, because I'm not very good at the computer. I did a couple mock drafts against the computer to get the feel for it, but couldn't figure out how to rank and/or queue players, so I went solely from the Yahoo! rankings and my own experience; no notes or anything.

I drew the 8th spot, which wasn't terrible on the odd rounds, but was on the even rounds, because I had to wait like 15 spots in between picks. I had three strategies going in: 1. Try and get guys I'm already rooting for (Blue Sox, Legends, Reds); 2. No NL Central guys; and 3. No D/L guys (like A-Rod). I wanted a complete roster that wouldn't have to be messed with.

The categories are weird to say the least. For hitters, you count runs, singles, doubles, triples, home runs, rbi's, sacrifice bunts and flies, stolen bases, caught stealing, walks, hit-by-pitch, and strikeouts. For pitchers, you count innings pitched, wins, losses, shutouts, saves, earned runs, walks, strikeouts, and blown saves. Your team must pitch at least 7 innings per week to score any pitching points. Each category win counts as a win, etc.

Several of the owners apparently let the computer draft for them. I don't know if they ranked players or not. The first round went like this:

Hanley
Pujols
Reyes
Wright
M. Cabrera
Sizemore
Howard
Kinsler - me
Braun
Hamilton
Longoria
Teixeira

I had Kinsler ranked tenth or eleventh, but he fit my "guys I'm already rooting for" (Blue Sox) category.

Here's how the rest of my team went (with the round in parenthesis):

C Napoli (16)
1B Morneau (3)
2B Kinsler (1)
3B Encarnacion (10)
SS Alexi Ramirez (5)
OF Holliday (4)
OF Bruce (7)
OF Young (14)
Ut Ortiz (6)

Bench Sandoval (17)
Bench Span (18)
Bench Felipe Lopez (20)
Bench Travis Snider (21)

SP Johan (2)
SP Joba (8)
RP Broxton (9)
RP Fuentes (13)
P Nolasco (11)
P Harang (12)
P Bedard (15)

Bench Jonathan Sanchez (19)

Notes:

I specifically targeted Sandoval and Lopez for my bench. Sandoval is eligible at catcher, first base, and third base, and Lopez is eligible at second, short, third, and the outfield. With those two bench players, I have a sub at every position. I also wanted Scherzer because he can be a reliever or a starter, but I got Joba early, who is also duel-eligible, so I didn't bother with Scherzer. (He's on the D/L, but only until they need a fifth starter next week.)

I wanted Ianneta as my catcher, but he went a little earlier than I thought. On the fly, I went with Napoli, but I probably could have waited another round or two and gotten similar value (like an A.J. Piersynski or Dioner Navarro, who was picked right after Napoli).

I had targeted Chris Young and Nelson Cruz as my final outfielders. Both were available when I took Young in the fourteenth round. Cruz went in the fifteenth.

Broxton was the closer I wanted, and Fuentes is a Blue Sock and a decent #2, so that worked out well.

I really wanted Alex Gordon, who was ranked 146, but he went in the ninth round while I was picking up pitching (between Joba and Broxton).

I also missed out on Derek Lowe and Josh Johnson, two pitchers I really wanted.

Finally, in my big mistake of the night, I picked Big Papi in the sixth round. On its own, this was a great pick and a great value. I knew I had a back-up plan for my bench, so his utility-only status wouldn't hurt me. But I had already picked Morneau at first base. In round seven, I started to pick the one guy I had to have, Joey Votto. But I realized just before I drafted him that I would be picking a bench player in the eighth round, and I didn't want to do that (see rule three above). So I took Jay Bruce. I did make a post-draft trade offer for Votto, but that got soundly rejected. I'll see what else I can do to get him, or live with Big Papi's 35 homers and 125 rbi's.

Let me know how you think I did and whether or not you think I should trade an extra outfielder for another reliever.