I was listening to this song:
Just as I was looking at recent mocks for 2012 fantasy baseball drafts. Every time I heard the chorus, I saw Justin Verlander‘s name in the top ten. Only I didn’t hear the words. I heard… Fail! Blame it on his ADP, baby! Fail! Fail! Fail! Fail! Fail! Maybe I’m a different breed! Maybe I’m not listening! So blame it on his ADP, baby! Fail! Fail! Fail! Fail! Fail! And I wasn’t even stoned (I don’t think so, at least). When the song was over, I played Neil Diamond on repeat for 3 hours to clear my head of that song and I started thinking, am I missing something? Or s-thing, if you’re in a time crunch. Right now Verlander’s ADP is at 9 overall. He’s being drafted as high as 2 overall. I give this a little leeway because I do think some people mock draft like they would never really draft just to see what a team would look like with a pitcher in the first round. I’ll give you a hint. Your team will look terrible.
This isn’t even about Verlander, though I don’t think he repeats his numbers from last year. This isn’t even about him being drafted before Halladay or Kershaw, which I think is slightly crummy with crackers. This is more about your team with a pitcher in the first or even 2nd round. You can’t make up the missing offense without some luck. You don’t want to count on luck, especially if it’s as indecipherable as done by David Milch. Say you draft Verlander and David Wright (who is about 20 picks away from Verlander, so he’d be around for your 2nd pick) and someone else drafts Prince and Longoria. Then you have 25-ish homers and 15-ish steals from Wright in a good year and a number one starter. The other guy has 60-ish homers and 10-ish steals and drafts Dan Haren four rounds later. I’m ignoring wins, as you should, but between Haren and Verlander you’re missing 50 Ks and ~.50 ERA and ~.04 WHIP. Basically what you’re getting from any halfway decent reliever. If you say, “Well, Grey, with all due respect to your mustache, I’ll grab a 1st baseman where you’re taking Haren.” Okay, you’re drafting Napoli or Konerko. Now, be honest, do you trust Napoli and Konerko compared to Prince the same way you trust Haren compared to Verlander? Fail! Fail! Fail! Fail! Fail! (BTW, that isn’t the official video, but who can resist a girl fight? I can’t; no apologies.)
