Let me preface this post with some no holds barred truth:  I hate catchers.  I don’t just hate them, I deep down inside loathe them so realize how painful this post is going to be.  I’m going to offer you a strategy that is palatable but realize I’ll likely not follow it.  The first catcher I’ll be drafting will go in a round after 18 in my league.  I just don’t put much faith in drafting high on a position that you’re not going to get 150 games out of.  Last I checked, Buster Posey and Joe Mauer were going to light the world on fire last year.  They combined to play 127 games total for 2011.  In my league – which is also a keeper – the one team that made the playoffs with his keeper Mauer traded him for spare parts by the All-Star Break and the Posey keeper finished 8th.  Relying on Catcher numbers is something I refuse to do.  Compromise you say?  Alright, I could talk myself into taking Yadier Molina as my first catcher off the board in the 15th round and round that out with a Russell Martin chaser in the 21st.  Molina should balance out Martin’s BA drain and Russell provides the pop.  Plus you’ll get a sneaky 10 to 15 SB from your Catcher position.  See what happens when you compromise?  No one is happy!

Please, blog, may I have some more?

For everything that went right in 2010 for Travis Wood, 2011 saw everything go epic fail wrong.  His K/9 dropped, his BB/9 rose and ERA jumped a full run.  It got so bad, even Dusty Baker didn’t want to abuse his arm anymore as they sent him to AAA in June.  I’m giving his 2011 a ‘lack of confidence’ pass; I didn’t see an organization that fully trusted him and I saw that turn into a lack of trust for himself.  It’s my theory and I’ll type if I want to.  I’d love to hear how you think a guy goes from striking out 8 per 9 to 6.5 per 9 in the matter of 1 season without signs of an injury.  The only thing that seemed to get hurt to me was his pride.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

‘How could anything get past Grey Albright!’  you say in an incredulous tone.  It’s true, it is very hard to sneak out from under Grey’s all-seeing ways.  He is the fantasy baseball equivalent of the Eye of Sauron, though slightly less malicious.  But we here at Deep League Thoughts (like how I tied my previous title into it’s own thinktank like it’s not just one lunatic behind these posts?  Genius.  Sheer, evil genius.) believe that sometimes all a guy needs is a chance for 500 ABs and  Wilson Betemit could be an example of that.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

First off, thanks Grey for this opportunity. Second, please be gentle, Razzballers…this is my first time.

I’ve now played in a 12 team yahoo mixed league where we start two at each infield position and five in the OF (LF,CF,RF,OF,OF) for over five years.

Please, blog, may I have some more?