Monday night was the blog's fantasy baseball league draft. Good fun was had by all, which usually portends to a competitive fantasy season as a whole. Let's be honest though: we're all smart people who are competitive about our baseball knowledge. Fantasy baseball is the perfect format to test one's abilities to evaluate players and play GM.
That being said, 11 readers, David, David's wife Kristen, clack, Stephen and myself make up the 16 team league which engaged in just that sort of exercise on Monday. The draft order was as follows:
| Pick | Team Name | Owner |
| 1. | Bud Norris Facts | Bryan Trostel |
| 2. | Sluggin' Squirrels | Kristen Vogel |
| 3. | Beltran's Ear Mole | Evan Hochschild |
| 4. | Masked Mooners | Tim De Block |
| 5. | Team 10 | Andrew S. |
| 6. | Team 11 | Richard Hosein |
| 7. | John Kruk's Ball Club | Alan Bentrup |
| 8. | Team 4 | Nathan Snellenberger |
| 9. | Ed Wade's Relievers | David Coleman |
| 10. | Team 2 | Stephen Higdon |
| 11. | Hangin' with Cecil Cooper | Nick H. |
| 12. | Lucky Number Slevin | Mr. Goodkat |
| 13. | MDC3's Pitching Coach | Jeffrey Talty |
| 14. | Armadillos | Clarence "clack" Johnson |
| 15. | Team 15 | Steven Carter |
| 16. | Lancealot | Ross Foreman |
For the first five rounds (or the first 100 or so selections), I'll break things down like this:
To clarify, the draft was a "snake" draft where the person who had the 16th pick (last pick of round 1) of the first round also has the 17th pick (first pick of round two), and so on until you get back to the owner who had the first pick overall. The process repeats itself until the 21 rounds are complete.
Here is how it all went down.
The Breakdown
Round 1
Best Value: Nick H.'s selection of Hanley Ramirez . Ramirez is far and away the best shortstop available. The potential for 30 HRs/100 RBI/110 R/30 SB/.315 BA far outpaces that of Troy Tulowitzki. Getting Ramirez sixth overall is a steal, which is hard to say in round one of a draft where every player selected is a star.
Riskiest Selection: None. Maybe Joe Mauer who went fourth overall. It's no sure thing that the power will remain at its 2009 levels with Joe. I wouldn't be that surprised to see Brian McCann approach his stats in a 5x5 fantasy league.
What I was thinking: Middle infield is shallow in most seasons, and this is especially true in 2010. In retrospect I should have gone with Hanley here, but in all honesty I assumed he was taken second. Imagine my surprise when I saw Fielder was taken second! Oh well, that'll teach me to pay better attention.
Round 2
Best value: Nick H. does it again with Matt Kemp. Getting the second best fantasy outfielder late in the second round is tremendous.
Riskiest Selection: Steven Carter's choice of Justin Morneau with the 18th pick overall. I hope he was autopicking. If there is one position that isn't shallow, it's first base. Morneau may not even be a top 8 first baseman overall. Also qualifying: Miguel Tejada! I guess when you have the opportunity to pick a guy who hits few home runs and rarely steals in the second round, ya gotta do it.
What I was thinking: Going with my middle infield philosophy, I picked up Jimmy Rollins with the 18th overall pick. This is later than he would go in most drafts, and considering the dearth of shortstops, I think this may qualify as the second best value in the round.
Round 3
Best value: Bryan Trostel's choice of Carl Crawford. He is typically a first round outfielder in ten team leagues. Third round pick in a 16 team league? Well done, Bryan.
Riskiest selection: Jason Bay. Citi Field doesn't help his cause at all. Moving to the NL may help. He isn't really a .300 hitter and won't be a tremendous threat on the basepaths.
What I was thinking: Dan Haren is my boy. Stephen can confirm I've picked him the past three years in fantasy and wanted to nab his 1.0something WHIP to anchor my staff. Considering what I'm about to do, I'll need his ace-ness quite a bit.
Round 4
Best: Bryan does it again. This time with Jacoby Ellsbury. Nabbing him with the 64th pick is beyond a steal. He's Michael Bourn with more runs, RBI, a higher BA and more homers.
Riskiest: clack's pick of Josh Hamilton. Ham-bone can be a beast, and by that I mean he was a beast in one season. He is injury prone and doesn't have a real track record of success.
Evan: Enter Sandman. 16 teams in this league, 30 teams in MLB. Not everyone in our league can have two closers to fill their roster. I seized the opportunity to draft Mariano Rivera, the game's best closer, to further take advantage of this fact.
Round 5
Best: Andrew S. CHOOses Shin-Soo Choo. The definition of an underrated performer.
Riskiest: Bryan comes back after a great Round 4 pick with the riskiest player in 2010- Jose Reyes. Lots of upside. Lots of risk.
Riskiest: I have a ton of confidence that I can find value in the late rounds, so picking Papelbon in this round doesn't scare me. Getting arguably the second best closer in baseball at this point was tremendous.
After looking at the whole draft, who do y'all think did the best overall? Who is destined to be a cellar dweller? Did the Crawfish Boxes writers out-wit and out-draft their readers?
If you haven't signed up for your league yet and are looking for a site to host it, the Commissioner League is 50 percent off for SBNation users. Just follow this link to get the discount. As an added bonus, any SBNation user who signs up for a league will get a free TCB t-shirt for the league champion. Pretty sweet, huh? We can also run your league standings in our monthly update post during the season and you can keep us updated on how things are going with FanPosts. Reason enough to sign up, right?
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