Well, that was a fun, if insanely hectic weekend, right from the moment the baseball fantasy draft started at 9am on Saturday morning - this is about the first chance I've had to sit down at the computer since. Wrestlemania, yesterday, was certainly an event: if somewhat disappointing on some levels, the final match made up for it. I reposted my review of it over on Cageside Seats, for those interested. From a baseball point of view, Bob Uecker was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame for his work as an announcer. Probably the only person to be in both that and be honored by the baseball Hall of Fame (having won their Ford C. Frick award in 2003).
Anyway, details of the draft and stuff after the jump.
The scheduling proved nightmarish. As noted preiously, I sent out a poll soliciting opinions on when the event should be held for Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and there was no clear consensus, but the most popular choice was 9am on Saturday, so that's when it was. However, it looked like only five or so of those who'd picked that time actually showed up - I'm wondering what happened to the others. If you couldn't make it, why say you could?
That did make for a speedy draft, in part thanks to one of the nice innovations on CBSSports.com. While you get sixty seconds to pick a player, if you don't make a selection automatically, your draft list is used to choose one for you. That's fairly normal, but the next time your turn comes around, unless you have turned off the auto-pilot, it will pick for you immediately, rather than forcing the other teams to wait the minute again. That certainly sped up the process, and the whole thing was completed in less than fifty minutes. I also liked the way injured players were tagged in the list with a red symbol, and you could hover over it to get a brief summary of whether they were day-to-day or out for longer. Of course, you had to be there to get the benefit of that.
Here are the first-round choices. Those marked with a * were made by the computer automatically.
| Pick | Team | Player |
| 1 | Moving on Uptons* | Pujols, Albert 1B STL |
| 2 | warlords* | Ramirez, Hanley SS FLA |
| 3 | AZ SnakePit | Mauer, Joe C MIN |
| 4 | Baked | Upton, Justin RF ARI |
| 5 | The Fighting Amish | Rodriguez, Alex 3B NYY |
| 6 | Balco's Boys | Utley, Chase 2B PHI |
| 7 | 7-2 Offsuiters* | Braun, Ryan J. LF MIL |
| 8 | Confederate Generals | Longoria, Evan 3B TB |
| 9 | Funny Team Name* | Kemp, Matt CF LA |
| 10 | Shoryukens!* | Fielder, Prince 1B MIL |
| 11 | Sofa King Juiced* | Lincecum, Tim SP SF |
| 12 | Blonde Streaks* | Teixeira, Mark 1B NYY |
| 13 | Lady Gaga Regatta* | Cabrera, Miguel 1B DET |
| 14 | NiceCrispyBacon* | Crawford, Carl LF TB |
Probably the most surprising pick was Justin Upton going as high as #4, given he has been chosen an average of 58th in most drafts. With my selection, the first non-automated one, I went for Mauer, my strategy being to use my early rounds to get good players in the positions where they were thinnest, and leave the deeper ones (pitching and the outfield), for instance, to fall where they may. This strategy certainly left me with a few holes: while I did get a couple of decent closers in Chad Qualls and Trevor Hoffman, my starting pitching is perilously thin. Here's what I got.
Active Batters
Mauer, Joe C
Youkilis, Kevin 1B
Roberts, Brian 2B
Stewart, Ian 3B
Jeter, Derek SS
Cruz, Nelson R. OF
Ethier, Andre OF
Soriano, Alfonso OF
Kubel, Jason Util
Active Pitchers
Arroyo, Bronson
Davis, Wade
Kershaw, Clayton
Myers, Brett
Rodriguez, Wandy
Hoffman, Trevor
Qualls, Chad
Reserves
Ruiz, Carlos C
Hudson, Orlando 2B
Furcal, Rafael SS
Davis, Rajai OF
Guerrero, Vladimir DH
I will likely trawl the waiver-wire to see what I can find in the way of pitching, though since we are down to the likes of Kevin Correia and Jarrod Washburn, I'm not too optimistic. Still, could certainly do with a reserve or two; somehow, my bench is entirely composed of position player! The waiver process will start at 11pm Arizona time, on Wednesday March 31st, so we could see some wholesale changes resulting in rosters and line-ups at that point - especially for those who had their teams automatically-drafted for them.
All other managers are welcome to post their teams - be they Division 1 or 2 - here, and any appropriate comments on how they feel they did. Maybe PhoenixFly can give us an update on the lower tier's first-round too, so we can compare how things went there? And, as always, it's not too late to sign up for your own league with CBSSports.com. You get 50% off the regular cost, we give the winner a free SnakePit shirt, and as a special, added bonus, you will also get a guaranteed slot in SnakePit Baseball's top division for 2011. What more could you possibly want?
[CBSSports.com is an SB Nation partner and paying sponsor of the SB Nation baseball communities. This post is one of a series of sponsor endorsed posts related to the CBSSports.com Fantasy Baseball Commissioner League.]