My final final final final draft of the year. Believe it was four finals, might’ve been five finals. Finally, the final final, as we extend our arms and coax into the 2021 fantasy baseball season. HalleBerrylujah, we’ve made it. Since this is my fourth or fifth final final draft of the season, I decided to throw everything to do with ADP out the window.
— Razzball (@Razzball) March 30, 2021
I mentioned at one point in the draft, I wonder what a draft would look like if all players were simply listed alphabetically rather than by ADP, or some arbitrary ranking by someone I don’t trust. It would likely mean at least one person would autodraft Andrew Abbott, but besides that I think it would change the entire draft landscape. Whether people want to believe it or not, they are influenced by the in-draft rankings. When it says a player is the next hitter or pitcher off the board, they don’t sit there for very long. Well, except for Sixto Sanchez in our league who went in the last round to Coolwhip. When you ignore ADP, it feels. Dot dot dot. Freeing. The most YOLO of drafts incoming. Anyway, here’s my RCL draft recap, 12-team mixed league:
C: James McCann 24
1B: Freddie Freeman 2
2B: Jake Cronenworth 20
3B: Austin Riley 11
SS: Trevor Story 1, 10
CI: Bobby Dalbec 18
MI: Tim Anderson 4
OF: Michael Conforto 3
OF: Lourdes Gurriel Jr. 6
OF: Kyle Lewis 8
OF: Dylan Moore 10
OF: Tyler O’Neill 21
UTIL: Jonathan India 22
P: Lance Lynn 5
P: Dylan Bundy 7
P: Sonny Gray 9
P: Pablo Lopez 14
P: Freddy Peralta 15
P: Dustin May 17
P: Matt Barnes 12
P: Amir Garrett 13
P: Richard Rodriguez 16
Bench: Aaron Bummer, Jake Diekman, Brandon Workman
OKAY, LET’S SEE THE WAR ROOM TOTALS AND GET THIS SHOW COOKING LIKE BAREFOOT CONTESSA FIVE MINUTES BEFORE JEFFREY WALKS IN.
I didn’t use the War Room for this.
YOU…WHAT? AN INNER MONOLOGUE CAN’T SPIT TAKE, BUT YOU ALMOST GOT ONE THERE.
That’s right, no War Room.
NOW, I’M INTRIGUED. DID YOU USE A COMPUTER?
This was my YOLO draft and I didn’t pay attention to ADP or War Room totals. I’ve done enough drafts this year, and RCLs that I know the general gist of what I’m trying to accomplish. Also, General Gist is my high school band name, and our most memorable song was, “I Know Enough (Kinda).” So, this is it, man and five womans! I just shook off my Lil Nas X blood-soaked Nikes, kicked up my well-manicured toes, cracked my eleven Alfonseca fingers and drafted a team I wanted!
AND??? HOW DID IT COME OUT?
Surprisingly familiar. Drafting out of the 10th spot and Trevor Story for what feels like the tenth draft this year sets a certain tone, and, even if I throw out ADP, I’m still a slave to it. Or Slave 4 ADP, if Britney Spears is reading. You’re stacked at shortstop right off the bat, then you need a corner man. Not reaching for Devers that early in the 2nd, so Freeman it is, then you’re going best outfielder in the 3rd, and I wanted OZUNA, but he was taken one pick before by Ralph, so I got Conforto. More on that in a moment. Then from Conforto, you go with best bat available, and that happened to be Tim Anderson, which was good for speed, where I was feeling weak, but did hamstrung me to my 2nd shortstop early. Then you grab a starter in the 5th, and alternate bat and pitcher until the end, unless someone drops. So, I threw out all roadmaps, but still looked up and could see landmarks for East, West, North and South, without the use of Brandon Moss.
LIKE A PITH-HELMETED CEO SETTING UP A CALL CENTER, I SEE YOU’RE GOING ALL IN ON INDIA.
This goes back to Ralph robbing me of my OZUNA. For payback, I might’ve subconsciously drafted all players he liked. He loves Bobby Dalbec, India, and Tyler O’Neill so I swallowed the bitter Conforto pill, but Ralph was going to pay! Though, no one stays on RCL teams, except maybe your first ten picks, and even those guys better produce quick and hard, like horny rabbit, so I might drop Dalbec, India and O’Neill prior to tax day, and he can likely just pick them up off waivers in a week. That’ll teach him, huh?
THIS POST IS LIGHT ON ACTUAL STRATEGY AND LONG ON SIDE-EYED GLANCES. DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR TEAM TO ADD?
First share of Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and it caused me to do a fist pump into my mirror’s reflection with a sly smile. Lou-Gu-Ju was a guy I loved in my top 40 outfielders in the “Ricola commercial guy with giant lips” tier, but he kept going so early in drafts. Well, ignoring ADP has its benefits and I just grabbed Lou-Gu-Ju on the YOLO firebrand tip. Next up on the “what the heck, let’s do this” strategy, Dylan Bundy hadn’t been drafted by me yet, and I was like, “Try to count to 5 on me grabbing Bundy, you won’t get there.” Also, didn’t mind getting the injury discount on my boy, Sonny Gray. In an RCL, there’s plenty of guys to pick up for an injured player. Gray can’t norm his core and he’s in street clothes for a few weeks? Meh, whatever, will just pick up someone else. Unlike someone like Sixto Sanchez, who you have to stash vs. IL. Samesies with Kyle Lewis and the IL. One guy who I was actually excited about drafting that surprised me a lot was James McCann. A possible top three catcher in the next-to-last round? Yeah, I’ll take that. And likely drop him by Friday, but for a few fleeting seconds I enjoyed drafting a catcher. Oh, and I got Dustin May within an hour of him making the rotation, and upped him in my top 80 starters and top 500.
OKAY, GIVE ME ONE BIG TAKEAWAY SO I CAN PUT THAT CHESTNUT IN MY BRAIN CHEEK FOR THE SEASON.
Saves are a mess. SAGNOF feels more like SAGNOFAGNOF. There’s maybe five closers I trust, and four of them are wildly overdrafted. The fifth is Rafael Montero, and he went in the 13th round of this draft, so that ain’t no bargain either. Jake McGee went in the 12th round! I’m kinda shocked I was able to get three three-quarter-ish closers. Matt Barnes isn’t good, and has Ottavino behind him; Mrs. Muslim Garrett can’t get the manager’s nod of approval, and Dick-Rod has a Crick in his armor. Peter Fairbanks, Clint Frazier, Anthony Santander and Eric Hosmer all went within four picks. There’s no world where Fairbanks should be in with those other three with the uncertainty in that pen. Gonna see how this year goes, but I might shock the world next year and show up saying guys like Josh Hader and Aroldis Chapman are worth their prices. We’ll see how this season plays out, but when Anthony Bass is being drafted in the 14th round of a 12-team mixed league, we might need to reevaluate. Now LFG! Start the season!
