Diary of a Draft
By Dave Wysocky
As most of us have drafts scheduled in the near future (or
some that have already taken place), I’m cheating a bit
tonight by reprinting (with my permission)
a play-by-play (or misbid-by-misbid) account of my 2007 draft travails
in the long-running East Coast
Rivals League which is a 5x5 N.L. only extravaganza. What I can tell you is that luck
and providence were with me last
year as I won the league by 10 points, which is still unbelievable based on my
lackluster
draft results.
As part of my annual draft prep, I always look back at when
players were drafted and for how much in order to find
some drafting wisdom to apply in
the upcoming battle. Alas, that wisdom
always rings hollow when applied in real world
draft situations!
Follow along on as we view the wreckage from the side of the
road!
******************
“Da-Mench-a”:
Ramblings from the East Coast Rivals Draft
For those of us in keeper leagues, the draft strategies can
be more a measure of what’s not available then what is. In the 19th
annual running of the East Coast
Rivals Draft (5x5 N.L. only) held in Atlantic
City, wallets were emptied early and often
and not just at the blackjack
tables. Here’s how it went down:
7:30am: Wakeup and realize I’m in Atlantic City…no, didn’t oversleep for the
draft as 6 league members decided to partake
in a pre-draft party Friday night. Uh… where are the aspirin?
8:30am: Draft begins… wait… one owner’s car broke
down on the Garden State Pkwy
about one hour from his house.
His wife had to come pick him up and take him all the way
back home before he could start his journey back to Atlantic City.
Said owner shows up on time, albeit in the doghouse…man,
that’s dedication.
8:40am: I quickly
download the Tout Wars values to use as a reality check during the draft. As you’ll see, many of the values
are left in the dust.
9:07am: Carpenter, Oswalt, Webb, Smoltz, Zambrano,
Peavy and Chris Young are all off the board before the draft starts.
That’s right, even at retail value, some owners keep the
best pitchers in the league. I had Brett
Myers on my roster at $8 (bargain),
but needed at least one anchor to
help offset the Claudio Vargas’ of the world (despite what several LABR Draft
owners think).
Ben Sheets’ name comes up and I sweat my way to a $22 bid….
not too bad, expected worse given the lack of quality pitching.
9:08am: Take a deep breath… I’ve got a second
pitcher!
9:17am: OK, the expected run on big-time hitters has
started. Cabrera goes for $37, Derek Lee
for $34, Bay for $35, Carlos Lee
for $35, Pujols for $42, Andruw
Jones for $34 and Garret Atkins goes for…. gulp…. $37. I scan my lists and realize that I can’t let
the drain on power can’t go on much
longer without jumping in wallet first.
I take Adam Dunn for…. second gulp…. $29. Yes,
way overpriced, but with so many
good keepers, owners still had plenty to spend and in a power hungry league,
the brand names
command a price.
10:01am: Speed has followed power and Pierre leaves the board at
$33, Ryan Freel for a whopping $24, Chris Burke for $18 and
Jimmy Rollins for $30 (not too shabby).
10:02am: I now realize I’m screwed for SBs! Will need to punt SBs and look for quality
ABs and more starting pitching which
has been of light interest since the
very early rounds.
11:06am: I spend a little too freely on Matt Cain
($22), but there’s plenty of demand for Cain’s strikeouts.
11:08am: Zito goes for $19, Capuano for $18 and Hudson
for $15 (not the amazing $6 in the LABR Draft…. that price was
discussed as we passed the $6
mark!). I’m still holding some pitching
budget for a John Patterson or Harang who have not been called yet.
11:13am: Closers?
Anyone need a closer? Our league
completely devalues the save as F. Cordero is nabbed for $16, Izzy and
Wickman go for $13. As per the plan, I stay away from closers…
still of the mind that closers are “conjured” and more difficult to
predict from year to year. My working theory? “If Tyler Walker can close, so can you”.
11:37am: Bargains?
Not even close. Adam Kennedy for
$12, Pat Burrell for $20, Sledge goes for an ungainly $16, Mark DeRosa for $10…
will someone stop the insanity?
Noon: We walk over from the hotel to Game On,
which is quite the Sportsbar/restaurant in the new Caesar’s Pier. Breathe deep,
absorb some oxygen and notice that
there’s a lot of $7-$12 pitchers still on the board… time to pounce.
1:37pm: It must have been the beer, but I bid $18 on
Luis Gonzalez followed only 12 minutes later by a $12 bid on the
Mench (baseball’s equivalent to the Grinch). Nice.
I’ve carefully saved two of my OF spots for a part-time lefty masher and
a 15HR,
75RBI… uh… lefty. Not
too happy, but AB’s of any type are beginning to disappear and I realize that I
might have to draft….
1:53pm: Izutris… ‘nuff said.
3:01pm: OK – Rich Hill, John Patterson and Harang are
still on the board. I want Harang, but
think I could potentially take Patterson
AND Hill for only $5 more than what Harang will go for. I take Hill for $21…. OUCH! Toward the end of the draft and owners are
in “spend what it takes mode”.
3:17pm: John Maine… yes, that John Maine, goes for
$18…. need we go any further?
3:37pm: I fill in some blanks taking Edmonds for $14, Nick Johnson for $6 (great
keeper for next year) and Jeff Baker for
$5 (he will play… somewhere)
4:10pm: Finally, some bargains start to fall… Bobby
Howry and John Rauch for $1 (both second in line for saves), and one of
my faves, Carlos Villanueva, also
for $1.
5:27pm: Mercifully, the draft ends with the following
results for yours truly:
OF C. Young $9 (keeper) P Myers $8 (keeper)
OF Dunn $29 P Sheets $22
OF L. Gonzalez $18 P Cain $22
OF Mench $12 P Hill $21
OF Edmonds $14 P Wells $4
1B Berkman $23 (keeper) P Vargas $2
2B Utley $12 (keeper) P Villanueva $1
SS S. Drew $9 (keeper) P Howry $1
3B Encarnacion $11 (keeper) P Rauch $1
CO Ensberg $18 P Valverde $1 (keeper)
MI Izturis $3
C Martin $1 (keeper)
C Ruiz $3
U N. Johnson $6
U Baker $5
Draft Wreckage Review:
OK – it’s clear that my keepers, including the incredible
Pujolsian (Colbert… you need to invent this word!) performance from
Ryan Braun (stashed on my supplemental bench) were what
propelled my team to the top. I ended up
trading Dunn and some
secondary players for Oswalt to
replace the gaping hole in my rotation created by the “Myers Experiment”. BUT, Edmonds,
Mench, Ensberg and Baker all completely crapped out. Gonzo performed credibly, but I paid way too
much even at the point
in that draft where ABs were harder
to find than the truth in a senate committee hearing. Izturis?
Let’s not go there. Boomer
Wells? We all had a
good laugh over that one.
Couple of things I did right:
1) I
always look for those secondary relievers at the end of the draft, and when
they cost me only a buck or two, I’ve made
some low priced, high upside gambles.
2) I
didn’t draft the budget killer $35-$40 yet managed to land an anchor HR hitter
(Dunn) that also added ample amounts
of RBIs
and Runs.
3) I
used some of my supplemental spots for players like Alex Gonzalez (Reds) that
overproduced and made an impact. Even
in our keeper league, too many 19 and 20 year old Single-A
players get taken early in the supplemental rounds despite their
miniscule chances of playing during the year. Not the preferred strategy if you’re trying
to win THIS year.
4) It’s
easy to laugh at those that draft the Sal Fasano’s of the world when you have
Russell Martin, but there always a handful
of low dollar league average catchers that will not hurt
your squad. Grab one.
Thoughts, questions, comments? Any draft stories to tell? I want to know at gm@baseballinsights.com.
