Well it's that time of year again folks. Baseball is back baby! I recently had my fantasy draft for bragging rights in The New England League. I won the championship the past two years and am going for the threepeat. So without further adieu...
So I had the 8th pick out of 10 teams. This is my 10th year of participating in this league and I've had a top 3 pick once. Once. Ridiculous. Not that I need a top 3 to win this league, but it would be nice to have a sure thing in the 1st Round. I had four players targeted for a first round pick. Miguel Cabrera, Robinson Cano, Albert Pujols or Prince Fielder would've been fine. They all went 3-4-5-6. Crap. I didn't have a plan for that scenario. After throwing up all over my cheat sheet, I took Giancarlo Stanton first. Yes, Giancarlo Stanton. Who is Giancarlo Stanton? Vegas oddsmakers have him tied with Jose Bautista to win the HR title in 2013. He hit 37 bombs in just 449 ABs last season. I didn't want Votto or CarGo and I feel like Andrew McCutchen won't top what he did last season. I learned something long ago. Never draft a pitcher in the first round, and when in doubt, draft home runs. Here were my first 4 picks:
1. Giancarlo Stanton (OF)
2. Clayton Kershaw (SP)
3. David Price (SP)
4. Edwin Encarnacion (1B)
Two top 5 pitchers and between Stanton and Encarnacion I'm looking at 80-90 home runs. So far so good. I'm excited by the Encarnacion get. He hit 42 HRs last season and is on a MUCH improved Toronto Blue Jays' offense. In fact, at the time this post was published, Encarnacion smacked a two run double to give the Dominican Republic an early two run lead. They went on to win the game and the World Baseball Classic. Come get some!
Picks 5-8 went like this:
5. Starlin Castro (SS)
6. Ryan Zimmerman (3B)
7. Madison Bumgarner (SP)
8. Joe Mauer (C,1B)
I locked up my SS position quickly with Castro, and Bumgarner is an absolute STEAL in round 7. He is young and plays on the SF Giants which means now he has a ring to go with his 191 strikeouts from last year. Stick him with Kershaw and Price and that's the best 1-2-3 in the league. Starting pitching; check. Zimmerman seems like a nice player and went late in round 6. He should've been gone in the 4th round. Joe Mauer is a career .300 hitter. Sweet.
Picks 9-12:
9. Jonathan Papelbon (RP)
10. Carlos Beltran (OF)
11. Rickie Weeks (2B)
12. Brandon Morrow (SP)
I took Papelbon as my 9th pick figuring my starting pitching is good for a bit let's get some relief. I am notorious for drafting terrible relievers and I'm looking to break that trend with Paps in 2013. Carlos Beltran hit 32 HRs last season and goes nicely with Stanton in the outfield. The one position I neglected this year was 2B. That's ok given that the position isn't very deep to begin with and Weeks hit 21 homers last season. The only downer is his .230 batting average. Brandon Morrow has a lot of upside given the improvement of the Blue Jays who are my pick for 2nd in the AL East and a wild card in the playoffs.
Picks 13-16:
13. Joe Nathan (RP)
14. Chris Davis (1B,OF)
15. Nelson Cruz (OF)
16. Norichika Aoki (OF)
Joe Nathan secures my relief pitching and is in a different league than Paps so no chance they play each other unless there is an interleague matchup between the Phillies and Rangers. Chris Davis is another HR hitter (33 last season) and Nelson Cruz rounds out the outfield nicely. Round 15 is super late for him to be going off the board so there's some added value there. I like Aoki and his speed. He'll be a nice compliment to the power on my offense.
Picks 17-22:
17. Tim Hudson (SP)
18. Chase Utley (2B)
19. Jason Grilli (RP)
20. Alcides Escobar (SS)
21. Jeremy Hellickson (SP)
22. Grant Balfour (RP)
Hudson and Hellickson both play on good teams and should help my win total in pitching. Utley in Round 18 could be the steal of the draft if he stays healthy. In fact, I have him poised to take the starting job from Weeks at 2B. Utley is a potential 20/20 guy when at full strength. Escobar is a speedy backup to Castro at SS and Grilli and Balfour round out my bullpen nicely.
Hopefully this team can produce enough offense to compete. I love my pitching staff this year and I feel like I made the most of my draft position. Interestingly, I don't have anyone on my offense that I had last year. These are all new guys so we'll just have to see how it goes. Hopefully everyone stays healthy. Check back to this blog for my 2013 predictions on how the MLB standings will turn out. Till then...
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