Fantasy Baseball Draft 2007

A tradition unlike any other. The draft summary, on this shit right here.

Before starting, let me just say that I'm absolutely fed up with the 20 character limit on team names. Do you people have any clue how many piss-your-pants hilarious names I've come up with over the years that require 21 characters? I'd have pulled a Brodie Bruce and gotten my own talk show by now if I'd been able to make those names public. But no. Yahoo! wants to save a character. As far as I'm concerned, they can eat a bag. How dare they give us subpar software for free!

I think we all did a pretty good job adjusting to the keeper draft format this year. Everyone did a pretty good job, for the most part. Lots of parity, too... the teams that I thought didn't draft well tended to be last year's good teams, and vice versa.

There weren't any major goofs that I can see... all the biggies happened at the keeper deadline. And the "keep less than eight" rule worked pretty well, in that those who kept fewer players were the ones who capitalized on those goofs. (Mind you, I'm not thinking of anyone in particular.)

And speaking of goofs, what's with nobody drafting Braden Looper? Am I to believe that nobody thinks he'll work out in the rotation? Come on, that's crazy talk! He'll be fine! (Of course, since writing that, he's thrown 5 shutout innings against the Mets. Doh.)

Seriously though, a couple guys went undrafted that shouldn't have... Edgar Renteria, Johnny Estrada, Hank Blalock... so those guys aren't in the top 250 players? I don't believe that.

So let's just get into it. Lemme know if there's typos or unfinished sentences/thoughts that I missed. In alphabetical order:

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Alex
Team Name: Tokyo Sexwale
Team Name Should Be: I AM NOT AN ANIBAL!
Steals: Mariano Rivera (13), Ian Snell (22)
Reaches: Mike Cameron (12)
Strengths: SP, RP, 2B
Weaknesses: OF, 1B
Rookies: James Loney (1B-LA), Felix Pie (OF-CHC)

Keepers
The exploits of the fantasy baseball Sex Cannon have been discussed ad nauseum elsewhere. What I will say is this: less the Anibal/McCann thing, Lehr would have been pretty much bulletproof on this front, because all the other guys he kept are pretty damn good.
Keeper Grade: B-

Draft
On the one hand, I get the feeling that he could have done better. But at the same time there's nothing particularly wrong with most of his picks; you can't point at, say, Mike Cameron and say "you should have picked Alex Rios, God what a stupid ass" or whatever. Because seriously, who cares? Still, I wasn't really into what he did. It's like, they're all OK, but none of them were great picks. Verlander was fine, though I'm not as convinced of his staying power as other folks. I like Conor Jackson too, though maybe not at 11. Mo at 13 was a great pick, though. There's really no excuse for him to have dropped that far, regardless of age.
Draft Grade: B-

Roster
Lehr's in pretty decent shape. His pitching is pretty phenomenal, especially if Brad Lidge gets his act together. (Even if he pulls a Flowers For Algernon and reverts to being a strikeout-king middle reliever, he's still a fantastic #3 fantasy reliever.)

The offense is a little weak compared to other teams. Dunn/Hawpe/Bonds is a shaky group, Jackson's his only 1B, and there's no viable options on his bench should any of his starters get hurt. If I were him, I'd try to pick up some April-revelation position players and lose his weaker SPs.

But the core is solid. As of Opening Day, he had the top three players in fantasy in Hanley, A-Rod and Dunn, so he must have done something right.

(Look, I didn't tear Lehr a new one in the draft review! There's a first time for everything.)
OVERALL GRADE: B-

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Andrew
Team Name: Choke-asoraus RexGr
Team Name Should Be: FEAR THE PAPELBONER
Steals: Jon Papelbon (9), Brett Myers (11), Ramon Hernandez (14), Bronson Arroyo (17)
Reaches: Rafael Furcal (12)
Strengths: OF, SP, 2B
Weaknesses: None
Rookies: Chris Iannetta (CA-Col), Dustin Pedroia (2B/SS-Bos)

Keepers
I'm not sure I would have kept Dontrelle or Lowry, based on last year. Could have had them later. But the four OFs and Atkins are no-brainer keepers.
Keeper Grade: B

Draft
I believe I did a friggin fabulous job drafting for him, with help from everyone else. It's like I got to draft without being invested in a strategy: as an impartial observer, decide who you would take, and just take him.

Then again, Andrew did give me specific instructions for the early going:

1) Get a first baseman. (Giambi)
2) Get a closer. (Papelbon)
3) Get 2B/SS with speed. (Roberts, Furcal)
4) After that, who cares. (Los Hermanos Giles! Arriba!!!)

With the exception of the Brothers Giles, I thought we did a pretty decent job stocking him with talent. It's like, all the mistakes the rest of us made were corrected immediately by someone saying "give Andrew player X." That contrarianism is why proper Autodraft teams kick so much ass.
Draft Grade: A-

Roster
See where I said he had no weaknesses? I'm serious. He has no position unfilled. All holes filled with hard baseball player.

He maintained his sick OF depth, playing four guys who would be legitimate #1 outfielders on several teams (Crawford less so, but in non-bizarro fantasy world he's a top-20 pick). That's just cruel. He nearly made the playoffs with Dontrelle and Noah Lowry as his ONLY pitchers. Now he's got real pitching depth to work with.

I know he's one of the less-attentive participants in the baseball league, but this team won't require much attention. I think he's in really, really good shape.
OVERALL GRADE: A-

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Charles
Team Name: Bologna Mazzone
Team Name Should Be: 5-Star Breastaurant
Steals: Jered Weaver (9), Freddy Sanchez (22), Corey Patterson (25)
Reaches: John Maine (20)
Strengths: IF
Weaknesses: RP, OF
Rookies: Andrew Miller (RP-Det), Mike Pelfrey (SP-NYM)

Keepers
Loewen? Cabrera? They were pretty safe drops. I'm not convinced Cabrera would have even been drafted, not after that unholy 2-ish WHIP from last spring. Combined with the fact that Charles' roster could have used extra picks the most, and would have landed Matsuzaka if he'd dropped those two and maybe Granderson or Matsui, this was a huge, GOB-caliber mistake.
Keeper Grade: D+

Draft
It's a good thing, then, that Charles brought his A-game to the draft. Tons of solid, helpful picks. The 9-13 picks are all pretty strong. His first eyebrow-raiser was John Maine, and that was in round #20.

The only real problem I had was in relief... he could have used another closer beyond Armando Benitez. In hindsight, given that *four* legit relievers followed his selection of Jeff Francoeur in the 17th round (Cordero, Zumaya, Gordon, Fuentes), seems like he could have grabbed one of those four guys in that spot. But otherwise a real good job.
Draft Grade: A-

Roster
There's still a problem with high-end talent on this team. He's got six outfielders, but they're all depth outfielders. If Jered Weaver improves, the rotation will be solid, but if he has a sophomore slump then Charles isn't looking so good. And his relief situation is kind of a mess. His infield is looking pretty good at the moment, but beyond that he's got lots of room for improvement.
OVERALL GRADE:C+

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Chas
Team Name: Uggla Retrospective
Team Name Should Be: Kendrick in a Box
Steals: Carlos Guillen (12), Frank Thomas (15), Ken Griffey (24)
Reaches: none
Strengths: OF, IF, DL
Weaknesses: RP
Rookies: Delmon Young (OF-TB), Erick Aybar (SS-LAA), Josh Fields (3B-CHW)

Keepers
I dunno about keeping Harden, but the rest are pretty good.
Keeper Grade:A-

Draft
Chas did pretty well here too, as evidenced by the absence of silly reaches. He built up positional depth and collected a pretty impressive stable of young starting pitchers. It's not a deep stable, but as long as none of them shit the bed he ought to be OK. And if Pedro returns to form at any point in the season, Chas becomes that much more dangerous.

The RPs aren't doing so well, however. Fuentes isn't likely to pick up many saves in Colorado, and Wickman is vulnerable to two different would-be replacements (Gonzalez, Soriano) should he struggle at any moment. He'd do well to figure something out there. Unless he's just punting saves.

Then there's the whole disabled list problem. I mean, between Pedro, Griffey, Crosby, Harden, and Chipper Jones, he stands to lose a lot of Man Games. It's time for Chas to own up to his addiction. But despite stocking up on injury risks, he's got the depth to replace those guys.
Draft Grade:B+

Roster
Even with the impending trip(s) to the DL, Chas' team looks pretty tight. Tight like a tiger. After all, those guys might not all end up on the DL. Even if only most of them get hurt, he wins.

I really like what he did with his position players. His pitching is weak, though, and that's gonna hurt him. Slanting towards offense is the way to go, if any, but I think Chas went a little too far. HE CRAYZAY!
OVERALL GRADE: A-

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Dan
Team Name: Mung Beans
Team Name Should Be: I've Got The Sheets
Steals: Rickie Weeks (9), Tom Gordon (17)
Reaches: Nick Markakis (11)
Strengths: SP, RP, OF
Weaknesses: no major ones... Posada sucks, but I dunno
Rookies: Humberto Sanchez (SP-MFY), Jason Hirsh (SP-Col)

Keepers
The eight players that Dan kept left him with a pretty good nucleus. Personally, having owned Ben Sheets before, I would have tossed his ass out, especially when Oswalt and Webb were already on board. And, as it turned out, he could have done better than Huston Street if he'd dropped him and taken the draft pick. Still, those are minor quibbles.
Keeper Grade:A-

Draft
Solid. Nothing great, nothing particularly insane.

I particularly like what he did with the relievers. He's got his main three guys, then he nabbed Borowski and Gonzalez just in case they work out. Worst case, nobody else gets those guys (although Borowski only has his job by default).

I'm not sure what he was thinking with the Markakis pick, though. He's not a bad player, but he's not a guy I'd have sprung for that early.
Draft Grade:B

Roster
Though I'd like to make a joke about Dan having to overhaul the roster he was given by a drooling vegetable of a manager, who wouldn't know what VORP was if it took a dump on his face, the fact is that the roster was actually pretty strong, and didn't require much in the way of change. You can do worse than Jose Reyes, Vernon Wells and David Ortiz as your linchpins. While the non-slugging tendencies of Reyes and Weeks might come back to haunt him, I doubt that'll mean much.
OVERALL GRADE:B+

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Frank
Team Name: cheese and rice!
Team Name Should Be: Aramis Up Your BUTT!
Steals: Daisuke Matsuzaka (6), Bill Hall (11), A.J. Burnett (21), Russell Martin (22)
Reaches: Pretty much everything from 12 to 15 (Escobar, Freel, Youkilis, Reyes) was bad IMO
Strengths: 1B, SP
Weaknesses: OF
Rookies: Chris Young (OF-Ari), Adam Jones (OF-Sea)Andy LaRoche (3B-LA)

Keepers
Frank's roster was pretty thin. I actually think he kept too few players. Never mind the fact that he ended up drafting the guy he shouldn't have dropped (Lackey) in a later round. It's just the principle of the thing. I hate you, Frank.
Keeper Grade: F A

Draft
Apart from the huge mistake he made to start things off, this was a pretty on-and-off draft. There were plenty of great picks (Hall at 11, Gagne/Zumaya at 16/17) but there were some head-scratchers too (Anthony Reyes? Him? You wouldn't rather have Beckett or Mussina?)

Also of note is Russell Martin at catcher. In the 22nd round. I think that pick will look pretty good.

I guess if there's a way to judge the draft, you'd have to look at his two glaring pre-draft holes (SP, OF). He addressed SP insanely well (almost too well... seriously, there's other positions) and did a decent job with the outfield. It'll look a lot better if Chris Young hits, and once Hall picks up his OF eligibility in a week or two.
Draft Grade:B

Roster
His starting lineup looks fairly decent now. He's got depth problems in the outfield (again, until Hall gets his eligibility) but he seems alright for the time being. The infield is pretty good, including Hafner. The starting rotation has two legitimate studs in Matsuzaka and Lackey. He's got a top reliever in Wagner, a future star closer in Zumaya, and a good gamble in Gagne.

But I still don't see this being a dominant team. He should be better than last season though.
OVERALL GRADE:B+

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Gary
Team Name: Pronounced POO-holes
Team Name Should Be: I've Got Wood Nothin' But Wood Jeter, BJ, Cum, Wood I guess all I've got is Wood jokes
Steals: Adam Wainwright (18)
Reaches: none
Strengths: 3B, IF
Weaknesses: RP
Rookies: Tim Lincecum (SP-SF), Alex Gordon (3B-KC), Brandon Wood (SS-LAA), Adam Lind (OF-Tor)

Keepers
Gary pretty much kept the six guys he had to. He could have kept Thome and Liriano, and arguably Kinsler too given how thin 2B is, but decided he could do better. The six he kept are pretty hard to quarrel with.
Keeper Grade:A

Draft
Gordon and Hamels were a good haul in the post-keeper slots. In general he got good value, although he did spend picks 11 and 13 on development players (Liriano and Lincecum) who aren't likely to help this season. That could hurt this year's team. His later picks were decent, but nothing to raise hell about besides maybe Chris Duncan at #22. Still, the rookie haul was very, very impressive, between Lincecum, Wood and Gordon. That may end up being a huge deal... he gets to keep Gordon and one of Wood/Lincecum for free. Not a bad deal.

But still, gotta wonder about his rotation. Beyond Zambrano and Hamels, you've got Mussina (ehh), Wainwright (nice, but not likely to be great), minor-leaguer Lincecum, and Patterson (pitching for potentially the worst team EVER). I'm all for keeping fewer starters, but that looks awfully thin to me. The Liriano/Lincecum investments are going to cost him quality in the short term.
Draft Grade:B+

Roster
Gary's stacked. We've known this for a while. The four main positional players he kept (Utley, Howard, Wright and Beltran) are frighteningly good, and unlikely to backslide any time this decade. The infield is ridiculous, and the outfield is solid with the additions of Ordonez, Pierre and Hunter.

The weakness is the pitching as a whole. Ryan's excellent, but unless Broxton or Wheeler is anointed soon, he's going to need another closer. And as mentioned above, the rotation's kinda thin also, unless Lincecum or Wainwright breaks out.
OVERALL GRADE:A-

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Jeff
Team Name: Dirty Balloon Knot
Team Name Should Be: Rusty Sheriff Badge
Steals: Cordero (17), Ensberg (20)
Reaches: Kinsler (8), Longoria (16), Hochevar (18)
Strengths: starting OF depth
Weaknesses: SP not very good, 3B production mediocre
Rookies: Evan Longoria (3B-TB), Luke Hochevar (SP-KC), Miguel Montero (CA-Ari)

Keepers
I made a play for Dice-K Matsuzaka that I thought was pretty safe. I didn't think Rusch would have the balls to drop Lackey. Little did I know about Frank's balls after all. What a fucker. Still, I think keeping anyone beyond those five wouldn't have been all that bright. The switcheroo with Papelbon was unfortunate, but even then I'd have had to choose between him and Nathan. Given that I couldn't/shouldn't have predicted that, things worked out pretty OK here.
Keeper Grade: B

Draft
Even without Matsuzaka on board, I think I made out pretty well with my higher picks. I shored up nearly every offensive position, I didn't overpay at deep positions like SP or 3B, and I got good value at RP. McCann was a steal, and the 7-12 picks are all solid. Sheffield's the most questionable of the lot, but he tends to succeed whenever he arrives in a new city; besides, as a DH he's likelier to stay healthy.

Where I didn't do so well was rookie timing. Longoria and Hochevar are highly-touted, but probably didn't need to be drafted where they were drafted. Not horrible picks, and 16/18 aren't going to cost me a whole lot, but I could have done better. Montero was a stab in the dark; if he's as good as AZ thinks he is, then he'd be a valuable commodity.
Draft Grade: B+

Roster
I got rich off some offseason trade heists. I turned peak-value Justin Morneau into Vlad Guerrero (minor upgrade), and injury-prone Scott Rolen into best-in-baseball closer Joe Nathan (major upgrade). That helped.

My core is very strong... top hitter in Pujols, top 3 pitcher in Carpenter, top closer in Nathan, and a pair of studs (Guerrero and Lee) at a position that isn't as deep as one would think. I've got young, in-all-likelihood keepable talent up the middle in Kinsler, Drew and McCann. I have aces at starter and closer. It's a solid group.

But the starting rotation's kind of a mess. Besides Carpenter, there's nobody keeper-worthy in the lot. Plenty of "ifs" as well: Schilling's old, Beckett's dumber than a rock, Hill plays for a cursed franchise, Sowers doesn't strike anyone out. I stand to do pretty rotten on that front, barring some April waiver pickups.
OVERALL GRADE: B

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Jesse
Team Name: Detritivores
Team Name Should Be: Burger King Felix
Steals: Josh Barfield (19... WTFBBQ!?!?!!??)
Reaches: Varitek (16)
Strengths: Outfield, starting pitching, 3B
Weaknesses: Catcher, relief
Rookies: Homer Bailey (SP-Cin), B.J. Upton (2B/3B-TB), Matt Garza (SP-Min), Troy Tulowitzki (SS-Col)

Keepers
The only legitimate beef I have with the roster. When he handed in his list, I was pleasantly surprised by some of his drops (Putz, Wagner, Johjima). If he was gonna keep eight, he kept the right eight. The thing is that I think Fielder and Rolen would have made it back to him at the 7th/8th turnaround. (Sure, the Rolen/Nathan trade wouldn't have made much sense if he'd dropped Rolen, but still.) I think he could have made himself a little better.
Keeper Grade: B

Draft
This was a very, very good draft. He only had just a couple rough outcomes... catcher and relief. Only three or four players have no problem at catcher, and relief is one of the positions that always results in a lot of upheaval as the season progresses. If you're going to punt positions, those are good ones to punt. Meanwhile, the infield is pretty tight (presuming Tulowitzki is for real) and the outfield is pretty tough to argue with. Whether this translates into wins, I don't know, but I thought Jesse did a really nice job.
Draft Grade: A

Roster
I see a great many errors in Jesse's future, apropos of nothing.

Otherwise, his team is young, deep, and talented. Very weak at catcher, very weak at RP, strong at 1B/2B/SS, ridiculously strong at SP, 3B and OF.

He's got a big problem, though: he has two startable 3Bs in Rolen and Cabrera, but a blue-chip DH in Jim Thome. Only two of those three can play. Whoops. Rusch didn't deal with his logjam last year, and it almost cost him a playoff spot. This is something that needs to be dealt with at some point (though I suspect Rolen will resolve the situation all by himself).

Don't like the Varitek pick. If you notice a shiny object behind his helmet this season when he's behind the plate, that's just the fork. If you're going the crappy-catcher route, I gotta think either Iannetta or Russell Martin would have been better.

And the RP corps is a mess. His only true closer is in Kansas City. He went from having three top-notch guys a year ago to having zero. (Jesse, I think you may come to regret that Nathan/Rolen trade.)

Still, I like the youth movement... with all those young studs, he ought to be able to field a pretty goddamn excellent team in 2008.
OVERALL GRADE: B+

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Kabir
Team Name: Douche Ex Machina
Team Name Should Be: Douche Ex Machina (even I can't improve on that)
Steals: Joe Crede (19), Rocco Baldelli (23)
Reaches: Chris Young (10)
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Rookies: Kevin Kouzmanoff (3B-SD), Elijah Dukes (OF-TB)

Keepers
Kabir had a tough job. By my count, he had at least 11 keepable players. Apart from the eight he kept, you could have argued for Stephen Drew, Nick Swisher, and Justin Verlander. But I think he did just about the right thing. Personally, I'd have kept Swisher and not Damon. But he had a situation where you just can't lose.
Keeper Grade:A-

Draft
Here's where Kabir lost. I didn't like what he did, for the most part. He piled up on starters early, but a bunch of them were kinda redundant... Smoltz, Young, and Harang to go with Santana seemed, to me, like a lot when you consider that he could have locked up a killer OF, or grab a Brian Roberts to make his infield deeply terrifying. Hell, he could have grabbed a closer instead of ONE of those guys. But three in a row... jeez.

And then Chone Figgins. Yikes.

After that, his picks were fine. Plenty of good stuff. He certainly piled up on relievers, eh? But those 9-11 picks were the killers, in my mind. That's where the draft hinges, and he's not gonna gain a whole lot by grabbing those three guys, instead of waiting a little later to get that 4th (or even 3rd) starter.
Draft Grade:C+

Roster
For all my griping about the draft strategy, Kabir's lineup is definitely solid. 7 of the 8 keepers were positional, and he spent his first 3 picks on pitching, so talent-wise he's fine. I guess my gripe is more that I didn't like the pitchers he chose. No Myers. No closer. Smoltz is excellent, but spending picks on Harang and Young seems like a missed opportunity.

But it's not like his team is screwed up. Far from it. Maybe he just didn't make himself any better. I guess that's what happens when you're stuck with the 10th pick.
OVERALL GRADE:B

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And now for the final curse of the evening. And it's a biggie.

PREDICTED CHAMPION: Andrew

I'll wait while you stop laughing. But I'm serious. I get evil vibes from that lineup. I've seen the Ring. Beware. And when you see him towards the top of the standings, you remember what I said...