This draft is a crock pot vs. a microwave. A love sesh vs. a ‘hold the moan.’ A nature hike vs. “I’m gonna sit in the car as we drive past some mountains.” Guys and five girl readers, it’s a slow draft. This slow draft took about twenty-three days, 18 hours, four minutes and–okay, only a lunatic counts seconds. Not almost 24 days of straight drafting, mind you. I don’t need to ice my clicky finger. It’s five minutes of drafting, twelve hours of waiting. It does allow you to second-guess your picks. Actually, more like triple-guess. (Who are we kidding, you quadruple-guess, fiveruple-guess, sextruple-guess, ochocinco-guess your picks.) And, still, of course, I drafted Rougned Odor. *takes a long inhale* Damn, that smells good! For those not in the know, it’s a weekly, 15-team, two-catcher league that lasts for 50 rounds and there’s no waivers. Anyway, here’s my NFBC draft recap:
C: Stephen Vogt 19th round
C: Andrew Susac 25th round
1B: Hanley Ramirez 4th round
2B: Rougned Odor 2nd round
3B: Maikel Franco 8th round
SS: Orlando Arcia 14th round
CI: Chris Davis 6th round
MI: Dee Gordon 5th round
OF: Bryce Harper 1st round, 7th pick
OF: Byron Buxton, 9th round
OF: Nomar Mazara 10th round
OF: Yasmany Tomas 13th round
OF: Melky Cabrera 17th round
Util: Kevin Pillar 21st round
Bench: Aaron Judge (23rd round), Pablo Sandoval (24), Freddy Galvis (26), Avisail Garcia (29), Chris Herrmann (31), Mark Reynolds (32), Whit Merrifield (34), Jhonny Peralta (36), Luis Sardinas (38), Ryan Rua (39), Jake Bauers (41), Dylan Cozens (43), Dustin Garneau (44), Aaron Hill (49), Leury Garcia (50)
P: Corey Kluber 3rd round
P: Roberto Osuna 7th round
P: John Lackey 11th round
P: Aaron Nola 12th round
P: Fernando Rodney 15th round
P: Jeff Samardzija 16th round
P: Lance Lynn 18th round
P: Trevor Bauer 20th round
P: Wei-Yin Chen 22nd round
Bench: Andrew Triggs (27), Drew Storen (28), Amir Garrett (30), Jhoulys Chacin (33), Mike Fiers (35), Scott Kazmir (37), Jake Barrett (40), Tyler Duffey (42), Wade Miley (45), Sal Romano (46), Albert Suarez (47), Steven Brault (48)
YOUR PITCHING STAFF LOOKS LIKE A DAY OUT WITH MY AUNT: BORING AND POTENTIALLY AWFUL. PLEASE EXPLAIN YOUR METHODOLOGY OR TELL ME YOU WERE DRUNK.
Well, I wasn’t drunk. I was chasing boring 200 IP guys pretty much through the 20th round. I can’t emphasize enough how important innings are in this league. As I said in the lede, there’s no waivers. You will lose at least four, prolly closer to seven starters at different times through the year. If you don’t have six starters going at any given time, you will fall behind in wins and Ks. If you fall behind in wins and Ks, you can’t just make it up in future weeks without costing yourself saves. It’s not like you can start five guys on Tuesday, then move them to the bench to start five more guys on Wednesday. You will also have weeks where you think someone is starting twice only to get to Wednesday, have a rainout and lose a Sunday start. Or a pitcher suddenly needs Dr. James Andrews to recalibrate his elbow because the mole on his elbow that was facing due north is looking more northeast and his Inverted W is an N with a tilde. So, yes, they are boring, but if I got 180 IP from all of them and a 3.60 ERA, I’d be happier than Puig in shizz.
EXCUSES ARE LIKE ODORS, THEY ALL STINK, EXCEPT ROUGNED. BESIDES YOUR NEW GIANCARLO, EXPLAIN YOUR HITTING AND WHY YOU HAVE THE LECHE-DOR ON A TEAM.
By The Leche-dor I can only assume you mean Melky.
YES!
Oh-kay. I grabbed Melky (and to a certain extent Hanley and Maikel) because my team felt most wonky on average. Melky is also a guy that has much more value in this sort of league because he stays on the field for 550+ ABs and accrues counting stats. Of course, now that I’ve said that, he will get hurt and try to HTML his way out of negative headlines. In general (and I know I’m jinxing myself here), my team feels like a healthy bunch that plays a lot. For me, NFBC breeds drafting a boring team and hoping your few upside gambles pan out. According to the War Room projections, my team has 41+ on RBIs, 37+ on HRs, 35 on runs, 35 on AVG and 40+ on SBs, where you’re aiming for 30. By the way, I use an insane Rudy Gamble War Room for this draft and here’s a sneak peek (click to expand):
That’s from the 19th round and 282nd pick (19 and 282 are in 3rd row, closest to left), but after my pick. On the right, it shows percentage chance a player makes it back. So, my two targets in round 21 (Choo and Pillar) had a 82% (Choo) of making it to me and a 40% chance (Pillar). Both were taken in round 21. I took Pillar because I like his health better, then two picks later Choo was taken. Here’s what the chatroom said:
They’re sweet, but I was just following Rudy’s War Room. Guess my point is, when you’re going deep, you need to be well-equipped — that’s what she said! By the way, if you want to inject some of Rudy’s magic into your fantasy teams, our fantasy baseball subscriptions are now live.
I HONESTLY HAD NO IDEA MY INANE QUESTION WAS GOING TO LEAD TO SUCH AN INFORMATIVE AND TERRIBLY BORING ANSWER. GUESS I ONLY HAVE MYSELF TO BLAME. OKAY, TALK ABOUT SAGNOF! BECAUSE YOU LEGIT DON’T LOOK LIKE YOU FOLLOWED BASIC TENETS.
You know your stuff, Mr. Al Boldencaps. SAGNOF! means not drafting Dee Gordon or Roberto Osuna, unless, of course, they fall to you, but SAGNOF! also requires grabbing cheap closers off waivers, or juggling in handcuffs that become closers. However, middle relievers (handcuffs) are such a waste of roster space in this league. Here’s what happens, it’s Tuesday and Ryan Madson goes down. You have Sean Doolittle, but you can’t change your lineup until the following Sunday. So, the following Sunday you put in Doolittle after missing three saves on your bench. Then, that Tuesday, Madson is suddenly closing again and you have Doolittle in your lineup for no reason. It’s sheer agony. Shagony? As for steals tenet of SAGNOF!, A) Steals go for a premium in NFBC, B) You can draft cheap steals later on, but it’s a weekly league so when Dyson falls into the inevitable platoon out of the nine hole (you know it’s happening), you’re going to get one steal a week from your UTIL guy and go crazy or just bench him, punt steals and go crazy anyway. C) There’s no C. D) Since I’m going off of Rudy’s values, which are based on his 15-team auction values, Gordon’s ranked 41st overall. E) Equals MC Serch. F) Hernan Perez or any guy that will platoon. You can’t start a guy in your lineup only when he’s playing. GHI) Alternate spelling of ghee.
IS THERE A TAKEAWAY FROM YOUR BENCH THAT CAN HELP SIPHON SOME KNOWLEDGE INTO MY BRIAN. OR IS THAT SPELLED BRAIN?
You need starters, starters, starters and as many at-bats as you can get. When injuries invariably hit, you have to field a team without the help of waivers. Last year, I had Curt Casali and Devin Mesoraco as my catchers. You can imagine how well that turned out. Well, I still finished 2nd overall in the league, but if I had better backup catchers I might’ve caught 1st place. Literally!
THAT WAS ALMOST AS INTERESTING AS THE ANSWER WITH ALL OF THE JPEGS. LEAVE ME WITH SOMETHING, PLEASE!
Depth and safety is the name of the game here. I love a guy like Moncada, but Mike Mostsuckass is safer. Tom Murphy is dreamy, but Vogt will definitely get ABs. Greg Bird is the word, but when he’s replaced late in the game for Chris Carter you’re going to miss ABs.
SNOOZE! OKAY, ONE LAST QUESTION, YOU DON’T HAVE AN EXCUSE FOR DRAFTING FERNANDO RODNEY, DO YOU?
Nope.
