Never Do a Facebook Draft

The first 14 rounds of this draft were done on Facebook so that we didn't have rosters with 30 autopicked players. 14 rounds took about 14 days. NEVER DO A FACEBOOK DRAFT IF YOU HAVE OVER 6 LEAGUE MEMBERS!!!

I have two major fantasy baseball teams, the rest are just fillers. One is AL-Only on ESPN, the other, which I shall mention here, is a mixed-league Roto league with 12 members and 6x6 scoring (Runs,RBI,HR,OBP,SLG,NetSB and Wins,Saves,ERA,WHIP,Ks,Holds) and a 30 acquisition limit.

And this is what I drafted: (People who I have already replaced will have replacements in ()

Round 1: Miguel Cabrera
Round 2: David Ortiz
Round 3: Carlos Beltran
Round 4: Troy Tulowitzki
Round 5: Cole Hamels
Round 6: Brian Roberts
Round 7: Gary Sheffield
Round 8: Paul Konerko
Round 9: Takashi Saito
Round 10: Matt Cain
Round 11: Hideki Matsui
Round 12: Rafael Soriano
Round 13: Jeremy Hermida (put on D.L. replaced by Ian Kennedy)
Round 14: Dustin McGowan
Round 15: Jeremy Bonderman
Round 16: Kelly Johnson
Round 17: Josh Willingham
Round 18: Jack Cust
Round 19: Jeremy Accardo
Round 20: Brian Wilson
Round 21: Rafael Betancourt
Round 22: J.D. Drew
Round 23: Carlos Ruiz
Round 24: Jon Lester (traded for Travis Buck)
Round 25: Nomar Garciaparra (replaced by Jose Bautista)
Round 26: David Riske
Round 27: Matt Diaz
Round 28: Brian Bannister
Round 29: Adam Jones
Round 30: Shawn Hill (put on D.L. replaced by Peter Moylan)

Analysis: Most of the picks I'm very happy with with the possible exception of about 3. I regret having taken Matt Cain over Rich Hill, but I was feeling sick that night and didn't want to hold up the draft. Lester over Harden now looks like a complete bust and Garciaparra is a useless pick, especially when I went against my draft strategy of hogging DHs, where I could've taken Millar. Everything else I am happy with, even Konerko over Smoltz, at least for now...
And Adam Jones in round 29 is the steal of the draft bar NONE.

Mock Draft

Mock Drafts are Mock Drafts.... but sometimes I wish they weren't. Basically, the team below I drafted recently in a mock draft, and based on my standards, I love this team.

Is it perfect? Course not. I could have passed on Jason Bay and grabbed Miguel Tejada instead. I also may have been too eager to grab Russell Martin so early, but for me to have grabbed two Phillies before any other players and still enjoy the team I drafted, things must have gone right. Chipper Jones fell down to me without having to select him a round early. I got my OBP guys in Burrell and Willingham, nabbed Taveras to make-up for my slow OBP guys, and got three excellent closers without having to really overpay. My staff seems very solid with a mixture of proven veterans and young studs and I got some undervalued bats in Derrek Lee and Billy Butler. I also managed to draft the steroid king in Barry Bonds.

Round: 1
** (7) - Chase Utley 2B

Round: 2
** (14) - Ryan Howard 1B

Round: 3
** (27) - Carlos Lee LF

Round: 4
** (34) - Josh Beckett SP F

Round: 5
** (47) - Chipper Jones 3B

Round: 6
** (54) - Russell Martin C

Round: 7
** (67) - Derrek Lee 1B

Round: 8
** (74) - Chris Young SP

Round: 9
** (87) - Jason Bay LF

Round: 10
** (94) - James Shields SP

Round: 11
** (107) - Huston Street RP

Round: 12
** (114) - Edgar Renteria SS

Round: 13
** (127) - Tim Hudson SP

Round: 14
** (134) - Rickie Weeks 2B

Round: 15
** (147) - Pat Burrell LF

Round: 16
** (154) - Jason Isringhausen RP

Round: 17
** (167) - Jeff Francis SP

Round: 18
** (174) - Greg Maddux SP

Round: 19
** (187) - Josh Willingham LF

Round: 20
** (194) - Willy Taveras CF

Round: 21
** (207) - Mark Buehrle SP

Round: 22
** (214) - Brandon Lyon RP

Round: 23
** (227) - Billy Butler DH

Round: 24
** (234) - Homer Bailey SP

Round: 25
** (247) - Barry Bonds LF

I Think Aaron Harang Is Awesome

And yet this is what keeps me from drafting him...

Why do I dislike Dusty Baker? Oh, this is why?

Who knew I'd base my fantasy draft picks based on a manager? Harang will be overworked to death by the time June rolls around, I'd bet my scholarships on it!

Matthew Berry, I Doth Hate Thee, Too.

Mr. Berry you used to be cool. What happened?

Chipper Jones, 3B, Braves: Know what I am? Not chipper about Chipper! (Pause.) If it makes you feel better, I'm groaning too. He's another guy who will put up good numbers, but not what he did last year. It's all about value.

I think I need to print this blog out for him. And a stat sheet. And send him a valentine... or not.

Happy Valentine's Day! (Not to you, Matthew Berry!)

Over/Under

There was a question on an ESPN Fan Board about who was the most overrated and underrated players in MLB. Sticking to batters only, here's what I found out, which seems to be the opposite of many people.


Over/Under on Batters

Overrated - here are ten players with a career SLG under .450 and a OBP under.350 and yet are given way to much hype as good or great players... meaning these players are actually quite crappy in the long run. (and one was voted MVP last year)
1. Khalil Greene
2. Jose Reyes
3. Juan Pierre
4. Jimmy Rollins
5. Mike Cameron
6. Shane Victorino
7. Brandon Phillips
8. J. J. Hardy
9. Michael Young
10. Carl Crawford

I also want to note that Torrii Hunter has a career OBP of .324 and is a great player if what you are looking for is outs.

My Underrated: If you think I'm crazy, look up their career stats on baseball-reference.com
- J.D. Drew
- Chipper Jones
- Derrek Lee
- Adam Dunn
- Pat Burrell

Another Odd News Story

This single-engine plane actually crashed just a half-mile west of the Florida State University campus, hitting a power line and causes a blackout for the area and the campus. I actually heard it thud while in the student union and the explosion of the power shorting out. But on the bright side, the pilot survived!

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle - Our NL East Boys

Jose Reyes and Jimmy Rollins are the overvalued SS this year. No, cut that. EVERY YEAR!!!
Look at the 162 game career averages for these two and my boy Hanley:

OBP/SLG/XBH/RCperG

Jose Reyes: .33o/.426/58/5.3
Jimmy Rollins: .331/.441/68/5.4
Hanley Ramirez: .386/.562/81/7.2

Now tell me how the heck Rollins deserves the 2007 MVP when he basically was a whole lot worse last year than Hanley Ramirez, let alone Matt Holliday. Yeah, I'm still frickin pissed!!!

Now, why does this matter? For one, it is much more likely for a player to be able to steal a base or score a run if they are ACTUALLY getting on base. It is also more likely for a player to accumulate more RBI if they are hitting more than just singles. I can't tell you what their batting averages are going to end up, but that is why sabermetrics is so important and why BA is such a horrible stat to base projections on.