We've just concluded the draft for the top tier of SnakePit fantasy baseball. It took a fraction over two hours for the 23 rounds to be completed by the fourteen teams that took part - well, there were a couple who were no-shows and had the joy of having some or all of their players auto-drafted by the cold, unthinking hand of Yahoo's 'bots [and they don't necessarily take little things like broken limbs into consideration]. After the jump, we'll take a look at the first round, and some other spots of note.
- Miguel Cabrera (Det - 1B) AZ SnakePit
- Troy Tulowitzki (Col - SS) Sofa King Juiced
- Matt Kemp (LAD - OF) Blonde Streaks
- Albert Pujols (LAA - 1B) Alabama Slammers
- Jose Bautista (Tor - 3B,OF) Ignatius J. Rallies
- Joey Votto (Cin - 1B) MyWieterGetzLongoria
- Justin Upton (Ari - OF) Waffles
- Ryan Braun (Mil - OF) The Fighting Amish
- Robinson Cano (NYY - 2B) CompleteGameShutout
- Adrian Gonzalez (Bos - 1B) Los Wailoracles
- Jacoby Ellsbury (Bos - OF) Phoenix Platypi
- Evan Longoria (TB - 3B) Mizzoula Osprey
- Carlos Gonzalez (Col - OF) Lil Bitches
- Dustin Pedroia (Bos - 2B) soco knows
For the first time ever, I had the first pick, though didn't discover this until I swanned in to the draft room with less than a minute to spare. Picking first has some pluses and minuses: you then have a LONG wait until your next selection, at #28. Then you get #29 immediately, before another long wait. It was like that for the two hours. The first pitcher selected was Clayton Kerhaw, an auto-pick that went at #16, with Justin Verlander and Roy Halladay both following soon after.
After Upton, the next Diamondback chosen was a real surprise, Paul Goldschmidt going in the early stages of the fourth round, at #45 overall, to the reigning champion Mizzoula Osprey. To give you some idea, that was just ahead of Chaparral High alumni Paul Konerko. Ian Kennedy went late in that same round, with Chris Young next off the board, at #86 and in the seventh round. The next two sets saw Miguel Montero and J.J. Putz selected, with a gap then following to Aaron Hill in the 13th round.
Trevor Cahill, Jason Kubel and Stephen Drew also went around this time, with Ryan Roberts, Gerardo Parra, Josh Collmenter, David Hernandez and Willie Bloomquist the other "established" Arizona players selected [I think the last was largely Marc falling on his sword!]. Of interest, however, MyWieterGetzLongoria snagged both Trevor Bauer and Tyler Skaggs, in the 21st and 23rd rounds, a speculative punt which could pay off handsomely... Or could prove entirely pointless. We'll find out over the next six months...
Managerial comments are welcome. I feel I've got a reasonably balanced team - I did take a gamble and picked Bryce Harper in a later round, so we'll see how that works out, and also Johan Santana, who is the epitome of the phrase "when healthy..." Of course, the gap between how you think things will work out, and how they actually do, is what makes this game such fun!