Thought I’d take a look at a random fellow RCL manager’s draft and in-season moves to see if we could learn anything that may help us improve our own management skills. First, a look at DRAFT DAY. These are the SIX player positions (of the TOP TEN picks) that are still left on his team from draft day:
1 Infielder (Weren’t we supposed to target more than one on draft day?)
1 OF (Round 9; got to have at least one from Pujols, Braun, Kemp, Holliday, don’t we?)
2 SP (Isn’t pitching much more fragile than hitting?)
2 RP (SAGNOF; wow, Round 6 and Round 8; wouldn’t they have been better off with another infielder and outfielder?)
Is it possible that this team is dead last, given that they only have TWO POSITION PLAYERS left from their top ten picks on draft day? Maybe I should have picked another team, but let’s try to glean something.
Let’s see if the players that they still will bring more clarity:
Rnd/Pos/Player
1/SS/Ramirez
2/SP/Halladay
6/RP/Broxton
7/SP/Hanson
8/RP/Rivera
9/OF/Rios
Some solid quality, but is this nearly enough to compete?
The rest that still remain from draft day:
11/MI/Uggla
13/CI/Loney
14/OF/Heyward
21/MI/Prado
3/DL/Pedroia
ONE survivor from round 15 through 25? I MUST have done better than that with my draft!
To recap, he has TEN active players and ONE DL’d left of his TWENTY-FIVE draftees.
Then they made TWO, and ONLY TWO, trades.
1. VOTTO for LESTER (when Morales went down).
2. STRASBURG/Kuroda for Thornton on May 1 (one month eating up an SP slot waiting to get a start).
Well, if I had Morales go down on me, I’d be happy to give Lester for Votto, while Strasburg definitely outperformed Thornton. Does seem like our friend made pretty good use of our two trades.
But that’s a lot of roster room left over to expect from the FA list, isn’t it?
These are the names they picked up:
Chris Perez, Posey, Pagan, Torres, Axford, Crisp, Ibanez, L. Scott, Chris Johnson. The only player with any sort of pre-season standing might be Ibanez. Even so, some pretty productive players here. I think every one of them appeared on my league’s FA list at some point. I own three of them, and, at one time, owned three others. How did he manage to collect ALL of them? Let’s take a look:
Chris Perez – Was a no-brainer. He picked him up before the season even started. Of course, he had the vision to take out insurance on Wood.
Buster Posey – Was definitely on his watch list. After Posey’s first game (3 for 4), our manager picked him up immediately.
Angel Pagan – Was hot from May 5. After three very good weeks, picked up on May 25. (Pagan had an excellent second half last year. Should have been ready to grab him seeing his early production.)
Andres Torres – Hot from May 14; grabbed on May 31.
John Axford – First save May 23, second save May 29, added May 31. (Hit the add key, and got “sorry, the player has been added to another team.” Who is that guy?)
Coco Crisp – Hot for five days off the DL. Picked up June 26; dropped July 26. Had significant steals, but the .191 AVG was hurting more than the steals were helping.
Raul Ibanez – Hot five days. Big game July 9. Picked up July 9.
Luke Scott – Solid early season. Hit the DL and was dropped. Picked up July 17, two days before eligible to return. Somebody was watching.
Chris Johnson – Hot since July 19. Added August 2.
Yes, there were pitching moves, but way too many to list.
So, if you haven’t figured it out already, our mystery team is none other than BABY GORILLAS, presently the top-scoring team in RCL with a point total of 113.5. My team, Simply Fred, sits at 67. Humble we are; much to learn.
The biggest lesson so far: There’s always hope, no matter your draft. If BABY GORILLAS can be at record point levels carrying less than half the players he started with, with only two trades, and by picking up FA players that were available to me, there is, simply, hope for all of us.
