If it’s April, then we must have had our fantasy baseball draft by now, right? Right!
Here’s the team I ended up with:
| Pos | Player | Team | Round/ Pick |
Age | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | Jarrod Saltalamacchia | TEX | 5/78 | 23 | Another year with a tandem of two half-decent catchers. At least they’re both young this year! |
| C | Jesus Flores | WAS | 13/206 | 24 | |
| 1B | Albert Pujols | SLN | Kept | 29 | |
| 2B | Kelly Johnson | ATL | 1/14 | 27 | |
| 2B | Mark Ellis | OAK | 21/334 | 31 | |
| 2B/SS | Clint Barmes | COL | 10/158 | 30 | Wonder how long he’ll have a starting job? |
| 3B | Ryan Zimmerman | WAS | 2/30 | 24 | He’s going to break out some year, right? |
| 3B | Bill Hall | MIL | 15/238 | 29 | |
| SS | Derek Jeter | NYA | 4/62 | 34 | As a Red Sox fan, I’m happy his bat is declining rapidly. If he does have one more great year in him, though, it’d be great if 2009 is it. |
| OF | Daniel Murphy | NYN | 6/94 | 24 | |
| OF | Chris Young | ARI | Kept | 25 | |
| OF | Josh Hamilton | TEX | Kept | 27 | |
| OF | Mike Cameron | MIL | 11/174 | 36 | |
| OF | Michael Cuddyer | MIN | 19/302 | 30 | |
| OF | Juan Rivera | LAA | 22/348 | 30 | |
| SP | James Shields | TBA | Kept | 26 | |
| SP | Hiroki Kuroda | LAN | Kept | 34 | |
| SP | Zack Greinke | KCA | Kept | 25 | |
| SP | Edinson Volquez | CIN | Kept | 25 | |
| SP | Paul Maholm | PIT | 7/110 | 27 | |
| SP | Andy Pettitte | NYA | 8/126 | 36 | |
| SP | Jon Garland | ARI | 14/222 | 29 | |
| SP | Anthony Reyes | CLE | 16/254 | 27 | |
| SP | Ross Ohlendorf | PIT | 17/270 | 26 | |
| SP | Doug Davis | ARI | 18/286 | 33 | |
| SP | Jordan Zimmermann | WAS | 9/142 | 23 | Should be in the Majors in a few weeks. |
| RP | Jonathan Broxton | LAN | 3/46 | 24 | |
| RP | J.J. Putz | NYN | 12/190 | 32 | |
| RP | Bobby Howry | SFN | 20/318 | 35 | |
| RP | Justin Masterson | BOS | 23/361 | 24 |
The draft this year was really weird: We got down to the end of the draft, where last year I took Paul Maholm and Zach Duke with my last two picks, and the year before I took Josh Hamilton with my last pick. This year, though, there was no one left I wanted, not role players with guaranteed starting time, not second-tier prospects, nothing. So I passed my last 5 picks. I’m not sure whether the player pool is smaller this year for some reason, or if the league as a whole is drafting better. Or maybe I’m just too picky. But I felt I’d do better waiting to see how roles change in April than drafting guys with those last 5 picks.
As usual I ended up with a bunch of quality hitters, and a pretty weak pitching staff. It seemed like the pitchers I wanted kept getting taken just before I wanted them, and there was always a good hitter I wanted more than the next other pitchers. I had especially hoped to get Josh Beckett with my first-round pick (14th overall), but he went 2 picks before me.
I feel like the rest of the league is passing me by in drafting prospects who stick, as it’s been a while since I’ve drafted a young impact player at a premium position, so I keep spending early picks on 2B, 3B, SS and even catcher (although the “two decent catchers in tandem” strategy has worked surprisingly well). And I still haven’t worked out how to draft pitchers.
But I don’t think I have a bad team. And I did finish in third place last year (out of 16), and I finish in the top half more often than not.. So maybe I’m overly pessimistic.