How would you rate this team

Your hitters are risky. Markakis and Victorino are good but not overly fantasy good and you don't have any annual 30+ HR 100+ RBI guys. Werth has 30+ HR potential, but is no safe bet. Your pitching is pretty solid.

 

I don't know about picking pitchers with your first two picks, I seem to be the only person who likes Ibanez more than the fantasy sites suggest

 

Your first two picks are solid, but you wasted pitching picks in a draft that bottoms out on power hitters at around 50ish.

You needed to had taken advantage of that, and THEN drafted pitchers who are still available around rd 6 -- Josh Johnson, Verlander, etc -- and picked off high risk/high rewards later on like Sheets/BWebb.

I don't like the VMart pick at 3, at that point you pass up on someone infinitely more valuable. I can guarantee you Jose Reyes was still there at that point and would have been a great pick-up.

BTW, yes, Raul Ibanez is underrated on Yahoo, I don't know why, but taking him with anything over the 8th or 9th pick is a steal.

Here's an example of my draft:
1. Ryan Howard (Phi - 1B)
2. Prince Fielder (Mil - 1B)
3. Ryan Zimmerman (Was - 3B)
4. Brandon Phillips (Cin - 2B)
5. Elvis Andrus (Tex - SS)
6. Justin Verlander (Det - SP)
7. Javier Vázquez (NYY - SP)
8. Clayton Kershaw (LAD - SP)
9. Raúl Ibañez (Phi - OF)
10. Johnny Damon (NYY - OF)
11. Francisco Rodríguez (NYM - RP)
12. Jorge Posada (NYY - C)
13. Brandon Webb (Ari - SP)
14. Carlos Beltrán (NYM - OF)
15. Billy Wagner (Atl - RP)
16. Ben Sheets (Oak - SP)
17. Rich Harden (Tex - SP)
18. Frank Francisco (Tex - RP)
19. Brandon Lyon (Hou - RP)
20. Homer Bailey (Cin - SP)
21. Clay Buchholz (Bos - SP)
22. Phil Hughes (NYY - SP,RP)
23. Ryan Madson (Phi - RP)

 

I never did a mock fantasy draft. I just go into my drafts "cold" and go from there. I thought the purpose of the mock drafts was simply to get a feel for where in the draft certain players were going. Also, to maybe refamiliarize yourself with the players.

If you take starting pitchers with the first two picks in a rotisserie league, you might be okay. If you do it in a h2h league, I think you will have a below .500 team. In a h2h league, you'd be in trouble in weeks when both Lincecum and Halladay each were to make only one start.

As for Victor Martinez, I'm not sure I'd rank him in the top 75. Taking him in the 3rd round was way too early in my book.

The middle portion of your draft (defined here as picks 4-12) seems solid.

Picks 13-23? Crapshoot with a lot of those guys.

 

I participated in my first ever auction draft last night. It started at 10 p.m. and was still going on at 2 a.m. when I logged off. My final selection was made right at 1 a.m.

It is a points league.

Roster Positions: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CI, IF, OF, OF, OF, OF, Util, SP, SP, RP, RP, P, P, P, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, DL, DL

Batters Stat Category Value
Runs (R) 1.5
Singles (1B) 1
Doubles (2B) 2
Triples (3B) 4
Home Runs (HR) 8
Runs Batted In (RBI) 2
Stolen Bases (SB) 4
Walks (BB) 1.5
Total Bases (TB) 1
Hitting for the Cycle (CYC) 10
Grand Slam Home Runs (SLAM) 4
Pitchers Stat Category Value
Wins (W) 18
Complete Games (CG) 10
Shutouts (SHO) 10
Saves (SV) 12
Outs (OUT) 1
Hits (H) -1
Earned Runs (ER) -1
Walks (BB) -1
Strikeouts (K) 1.5
No Hitters (NH) 10
Perfect Games (PG) 10
Quality Starts (QS) 8


One guy went crazy in the early portion. His team is extremely top heavy. It will be very interesting to see how his team fares. He probably has to hit big on several of his $1 players.

His team-

Beastly whitesox
1. (1) Josh Hamilton $12
2. (3) Albert Pujols $65
3. (5) Álex Rodríguez $50
4. (12) Ben Sheets $12
5. (17) Joe Mauer $50
6. (24) Vladimir Guerrero $13
7. (25) Mark Buehrle $21
8. (45) Hunter Pence $17
9. (167) Nyjer Morgan $3
10. (181) Hiroki Kuroda $1
11. (193) Marco Scutaro $1
12. (205) Randy Wells $1
13. (217) Randy Wolf $1
14. (228) Erick Aybar $1
15. (239) Gerardo Parra $1
16. (249) Kenshin Kawakami $1
17. (259) Maicer Izturis $1
18. (268) Mike Adams $1
19. (277) Scott Rolen $1
20. (285) David Murphy $1
21. (292) Jack Cust $1
22. (299) Ryan Madson $1
23. (303) Kyle Lohse $1
24. (306) Darren O'Day $1
25. (309) Allen Craig $1
26. (312) Gaby Sánchez $1


The first player I got was the 20th player picked. However, I was the first to finish selecting. At the time I had selected 26 players, multiple teams still had to pick 10 or more players.

After I had selected my first 25 players, I noticed I still needed a corner infielder. When it was my time to nominate a player, I was scrambling for a CI. I couldn't find one in time and because J.P. Howell was first on my queue he got selected for me.

My team-

North Dakota Corks
1. (20) Ichiro Suzuki $27
2. (22) Mark Teixeira $32
3. (46) Pablo Sandoval $26
4. (50) Mariano Rivera $16
5. (64) Adam Jones $17
6. (75) Nick Markakis $22
7. (79) Jayson Werth $20
8. (95) Dan Uggla $13
9. (102) Mike Napoli $4
10. (111) Manny Ramírez $14
11. (128) José Valverde $10
12. (132) Scott Kazmir $6
13. (135) James Shields $6
14. (144) Jair Jurrjens $7
15. (145) Jered Weaver $8
16. (148) Matt Garza $6
17. (157) John Lackey $5
18. (168) J.J. Hardy $1
19. (177) Carlos Beltrán $4
20. (180) Austin Jackson $1
21. (194) Miguel Tejada $2
22. (196) Carlos Zambrano $3
23. (200) Rich Harden $2
24. (204) Paul Maholm $1
25. (212) Bobby Jenks $2
26. (216) J.P. Howell $1

 

the guy who went stars and scrubs started fabulously, but he made some mistakes in his pitching. Your league setup is bizarre and massively rewards starting pitching, in fact no one should be drafting closers or MR in that league. 8 points for a quality start, 10 extra for a win and 1 point for every out recorded? That makes Buehrle a nice pickup, ben sheets was a waste of money.

Your team came out pretty decent, but you shouldn't have drafted valverde he's a waste in this format. Rivera is probably worth it just because he is so consistent for a high number of saves, but the format really rewards SPs. I would have loaded up on pitchers in good parks late, marquis and lannan from the nats. scott olsen might be worth a shot too. All the padres guys, young, garland, richard, correia, latos.

 

The commissioner had advertised all sorts of leagues-
h2h
rotisserie
points-based
points/h2h
h2h with one score like in fantasy football

I wanted to try a points-only league and an auction draft. I killed two birds with one stone by joining this particular league.

I also wanted to take part in an auction draft in February because, if good, I was going to conduct my league with an auction draft sometime in March.

I had very little time to devise a draft plan. Considering that, I believe I did okay enough to compete for the league title. My team might finish in the 4, 5 or 6 range, but at least it would be in the mix and it would be an enjoyable season.

I was the one who nominated Ben Sheets and Vladimir Guerrero. I was not going to go more than $7 on the former and I had no interest in the latter. I figured it was good to nominate them early to let two people waste good money while players I truly wanted were still on the board. As it turned out, it wasn't two people. One guy got both Sheets and Guerrero.

 

hard to tell how you did without knowing who was available at your picks, but off the top of my head Zobrist is too early at the top of the 4th, mcCutchen too early beltran could be a steak, McCutcheon seems way too high unless there was a massive run on steals.

 

I like your second draft much more. Are you actually going to roll with that team or was it just another mock thing?

 

Just did a 12 team mock auction first I've done this year:
1. Ryan Braun (Mil - OF) $38
2. Matt Kemp (LAD - OF) $34
3. Joe Mauer (Min - C) $28
4. Adrián González (SD - 1B) $25
5. Ryan Zimmerman (Was - 3B) $21
6. Brandon Phillips (Cin - 2B) $18
7. José Reyes (NYM - SS) $15
8. Jayson Werth (Phi - OF) $20
9. Jake Peavy (CWS - SP) $8
10. Vladimir Guerrero (Tex - Util) $1
11. Kevin Correia (SD - SP) $11
12. Adrián Béltre (Bos - 3B) $3
13. Geovany Soto (ChC - C) $2
14. Jason Marquis (Was - SP) $1
15. Brandon Webb (Ari - SP) $2
16. David Freese (StL - 3B) $1
17. Erik Bedard (Sea - SP) $3
18. Mark Buehrle (CWS - SP) $2
19. Kenshin Kawakami (Atl - SP,RP) $2
20. Orlando Cabrera (Cin - SS) $2
21. Ryan Franklin (StL - RP) $3
22. J.A. Happ (Phi - SP,RP) $2
23. Kyle Blanks (SD - OF) $1

Initial thoughts are that pitching is severely underrated, I overpaid by a ton for correia early not realizing this, I could have had paul maholm or clay buchholz for $1, also I saved too much, there end up being tons of good bench guys both hitters and pitchers available late, had I known I would have sprung extra money for kinsler fielder or longoria. Also I overpaid for Mauer I could have had mccann for less than half that.
If this were a real league I'd drop Happ probably and pick up hoffman or sherrill to be my 2nd closer.

 

You are probably right about those two. RichMiano took them in rounds 4 and 5. This March in my h2h and rotisserie snake-style drafts I am likely to pass on both Zobrist and McCutchen until at least the 8th round.

I think McCutchen is the real deal (and already one of my very favorite players), but I don't know if he is going to produce 5th round numbers this year. 2011 probably, but 2010 I don't know.

Zobrist will not have a great follow-up year. He should be pretty good, though. I can't see him being a real life bust. He certainly could be a fantasy bust, however, if he gets drafted too high.

 

I nominated Happ early in the process last night. I had no interest in him and simply wanted to see someone waste good money early in the draft. I'll have to check to be sure, but if memory serves, Happ went for $8 and then someone else commented that $8 for Happ was a steal.

As I mentioned above, this was my first ever experience with an auction draft, but I can see already that the nominations themselves can be an artform. Auction drafts are so much more interesting than regular drafts.

 

It all depends on the league too, you can get a group that loves pitchers and the reverse of my league happens.

 

Double Post

 

Very solid draft, I think Lincecum is a solid first round choice especially at 12. Great Wins, SO, and WHIP.

I disagree with cellar-door and think the Zobrist pick is a great one. He was one of the most underrated players last year mainly because he came out of nowhere. He will give you solid numbers across the board.

Zobrist teammate however, Josh Bartlett, is one of the most over hyped players going into next season. Yea he had a great year last year, but I am just not sold he will be able to do it again.

Wieters is a risk, and I think Ibanez also had a year that is bigger than his talent. I think Philly fans will be asking for his departure come mid season.

Inge and Cust were 2 great late picks (depending on who was there when you pick Cust).

I'll post my draft when it's done. Expect many Yankees.

 

On the league message board this morning, one guy sent a message directed at the commissioner. He wrote that he is not at a disadvantage this year (because he now understand the settings better) and expects to beat the commish. The league existed in 2009 and had the same settings aside from the draft style. Last year it was a regular draft as auction drafts were not yet an option. Same point values and roster sizes, though.

I did not play in the league last year so I can't say exactly what to expect. At first and second and third glance I would agree with you that closers seem to be less valuable in this setup than starters. Then I looked at the commissioner's draft. The commissioner, last year's winner, is closer-heavy, so who knows-
The Clear Winner
1. (4) Hanley Ramírez $42
2. (21) Prince Fielder $32
3. (35) Adrián González $25
4. (37) Grady Sizemore $20
5. (44) Curtis Granderson $24
6. (59) Robinson Canó $20
7. (74) Jonathan Broxton $17
8. (97) Adam Dunn $18
9. (110) Jonathan Papelbon $13
10. (134) Francisco Cordero $6
11. (147) Nolan Reimold $6
12. (152) Brad Hawpe $7
13. (166) Álex Ríos $6
14. (178) Huston Street $5
15. (182) Brian Fuentes $4
16. (191) Stephen Drew $3
17. (201) Corey Hart $2
18. (202) Geovany Soto $2
19. (220) Francisco Liriano $1
20. (231) Chase Headley $1
21. (251) Mike González $1
22. (270) Ervin Santana $1
23. (278) Bronson Arroyo $1
24. (286) Octavio Dotel $1
25. (293) Andy Pettitte $1
26. (300) Clint Barmes $1

 

To the original poster, you have one hell of a staff.