This year we went to 15 teams because Rudy and I had a fight and he hates me and I’m typing this through tears while listening to Peabo Bryson. Nah, Rudy wanted to draft his own team, separate from me. Not sure why — *smells armpits* — can’t be that. To see Rudy’s mixed league draft breakdown, click that link-a-ma-jiggie. He goes over the fact that Pianowski drafted no starters and Dalton Del Don (best ‘pert name after yours truly) drafted, like, ten top starters. It’s probably collusion of some sort, but thinking makes my head hurt, so I’ll just assume they came up with separate strategies, ran said strategies by Funston and Funston nodded very slowly, indicating he either approved Godfather-style or he was on roofies administered by Brad Evans. These questions are not for me to wonder why, just do or die, or whatever that cliche is. Anyway, here’s my 15-team Yahoo fantasy baseball team with some thoughts:
C: Jarrod Saltalamacchia (22)
1B: Prince Fielder (1)
2B: Jedd Gyorko (7)
3B: Evan Longoria (2)
SS: Elvis Andrus (5)
CI: Nolan Arenado (10)
MI: Dan Uggla (20)
OF: Alex Rios (3)
OF: Wil Myers (4)
OF: Carl Crawford (13)
OF: Dexter Fowler (16)
UTIL: Mike Moustakas (14)
UTIL: Krispie Young (21)
P: Alex Cobb (6)
P: Julio Teheran (8)
P: Addison Reed (9)
P: Jose Veras (11)
P: Chris Tillman (12)
P: Alex Wood (15)
P: Corey Kluber (17)
P: Taijuan Walker (18)
P: Randall Delgado (19)
Bench: Tyler Skaggs (23)
Bench: Darren O’Day (24)
Bench: Alex Torres (25)
YOU SEE WHAT I’M TWERKING WITH? MY PITCHING IS BRINGING SEXY BACK
This is the 2nd league in a row I’ve drafted Alex Cobb and Julio Teheran to be my front two. This time I took Cobb first because he was higher up in Yahoo’s pre-draft rankings. Rudy likened by pitching staff to Children of the Corn because they’re a bunch of kids wandering out into the corn fields, Ray Kinsella-style. I’m just gonna name some random pitchers from last year that were all in the top 40 according to our Player Rater: Jose Fernandez, Madison Bumgarner, Matt Harvey, Shelby Miller, Chris Sale, Teheran, Patrick Corbin, Strasburg, Chris Tillman, Matt Moore and Alex Cobb. As of October last year, was there a 25 year old in that group? Not to answer, but to ruminate. So, Rudy can go ahead with his Jon Lester and Jake Peavy’s, and I’ll go ahead with my sexy mother-SPers.
HEY, GREY, FABULOUS MUSTACHE, BUT IT MIGHT BLOCK YOUR SIGHTLINES, YOU FORGOT TO DRAFT AVERAGE
Yeah, this hitting team is wonky as all-get-out for batting average, if I hold this team. No one really keeps the guys they draft in the last rounds, unless they fall into a coma immediately after their draft. Knock on wood, no coma and Krispie Young, Uggla and others probably aren’t long for my team. The rest of my hitting looks solid for power and speed. I haven’t drafted Carl Crawford in a few years, but there he was sitting, staring, popping his chewing gum while I was drafting around 200 overall and I figured what the heckfire. He’ll probably be day-to-day on my team, as in this day I want to drop him, this day I don’t, this day I’m hoping he gets DL’d, this day he’s supposedly healthy but being benched for Ethier. It should be a fun ride! Oh, and I drafted Moustakas after I already had two 3rd basemen, because I knew Rudy really wanted him. Natch! By the by, I was the one who liked Moustakas first.
BUT, REALLY, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS TEAM?
My goal with this draft was to take players I like. Someone from Fangraphs remarked during the draft that everyone was sticking pretty close to Yahoo’s pre-draft rankings, except for me. I was just having fun, drafting guys I’m goofy over. I grabbed Gyorko thirty spots prior to his draft spot, Longo fifteen spots before his, Moustakas about 50 spots prior to his ADP, Cobb and Teheran 25 or so spots early, Wil Myers 20 spots early, Wood, Arenado, Tillman, Skaggs, Delgado, etc. etc. etc. and so on and so forth. The only value I got compared to their pre-draft rankings was Andrus, and that was an injury discount because he was nursing a sore arm at the time. As long as he doesn’t pull a Herbathrowdite, I should be fine. I will live or die on my rankings, and I don’t plan on disappointing the banner hanging above my desk that reads, “Long Live Grey.”
