I really miss baseball. I guess that's why I spent the third lunch hour in two weeks drafting at Mock Draft Central.

I think this team is the best I've drafted out of the three. I've got offense coming out of my ears. I might be a little light at SP, but it's nothing I can't cure with a few wire pickups here and there.

My first seven picks were position players, including Mauer in the 5th, Tulo in the 6th and then Chris Davis in the 7th. I'm not a huge Mauer fan, but I wanted to shore up my first catcher slot and batting average before I went further.

Instead of drafting a SP as my first pitcher, I went out and got Nathan in the 8th round, then followed with Burnett and Cain, and was about to select Brett Meyers, but got greedy when I saw Milton Bradley still there in the 11th. I followed with Greinke, then Nady in the 13th and DeRosa in the 14th. I got good value out of Burrell in the 18th.

Overall, I like my team, and am comfortable with my draft strategy which was pretty much to draft as many balanced position players as I could, though I probably could have passed on Mauer, and I only drafted Alexis Rivers in the 4th round out of respect for Grey.

You're welcome.


Final Roster
Pos Name Team Pick
C Joe Mauer MIN R5 P9
C Dioner Navarro TB R21 P9
1B Mark Teixeira ANA R2 P4
1B Chris Davis TEX R7 P9
1B Pablo Sandoval SF R19 P9
2B Mark DeRosa CHC R14 P4
SS Troy Tulowitzki COL R6 P4
3B Blake DeWitt LA R23 P9
OF Grady Sizemore CLE R1 P9
OF Matt Kemp LA R3 P9
OF Alex Rios TOR R4 P4
OF Milton Bradley TEX R11 P9
OF Xavier Nady NYY R13 P9
OF Pat Burrell PHI R18 P4
SP A.J. Burnett TOR R9 P9
SP Matt Cain SF R10 P4
SP Zack Greinke KC R12 P4
RP Joe Nathan MIN R8 P4
RP Joey Devine OAK R15 P9
RP Justin Duchscherer OAK R16 P4
RP Brandon Morrow SEA R17 P9
RP Armando Galarraga DET R20 P4
RP Kevin Gregg FLA R22 P4

Mazel tov/hallelujah/jumping on Oprah's couch -- You finally got past that starting pitcher early drafting shizz. Well played. I love your offense minus DeWitt, but for a late flier, he's not even awful. Also, your pitching is better than a middle of the pack pitching staff. With the right moves during the season, you would be battling for first with this team.

I sort of ran out of ideas with DeWitt when I picked him. There really weren't any MI left. I was set to pick Jeff Baker, but got (insert Razzball Glossary term here that refers to someone picking him right before you)'d on that one.

Scooped, you were scooped.

If anyone's interested, I'm doing another mock draft over my lunch hour today at MockDraftCentral.com. The draft room called "SERGEANTS#1" starts at 12 eastern, and at last check, there were 5 slots left.