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Greetings as we close out January, virtual baseball friends! I’m going to do something this week that I’ve never done here at Razzball before and post a good old-fashioned draft recap. We’ll be looking at a team I drafted back in December after deciding to throw my hat into the ring of an NFBC 12-team, standard 5×5 roto mixed league. I haven’t participated in this format in quite a few years, opting instead for draft and hold style leagues at NFBC, mainly because I was trying to be realistic about the time it would require in-season to manage a shallow mixed league with very competitive weekly waivers. I honestly felt a bit like I’d entered a Willy Wonka-esque candy factory during this draft compared to the mono leagues and deep 50-round formats I’m used to. Even at the end of the draft, there existed a plethora of players available who I actually wanted on my team, and it was often difficult to make decisions, resulting in a new set of challenges I’m not necessarily used to. Instead of feeling like I needed to be familiar with every member of every bench and every bullpen in baseball, I was instead trying to navigate through a myriad of choices with the unfamiliar sensation of knowing that no matter who I chose, there would be players that I liked still available, even after the draft was over. I also had to keep in mind that, when faced with inevitable injuries and disappointing play, I would be able to find reinforcements through the free agent pool. Since this alone is a basically unheard of concept compared to most of my leagues, it was something I had to think about in terms of adapting to the league format… should I have been drafting with a much higher emphasis on upside over floor, especially so early in the offseason, since I’d actually be able to fix my team’s problems once March arrived?

Well, probably. But without further ado, here’s the team, for which I had the 7th pick of the draft. A few comments to follow, and speaking of comments, I’d love to hear from you and your thoughts about this team, its potential needs or particular players… or anything else on your mind when it comes to the wonderful world of baseball.

Position/Player/Round

C: Connor Wong (19)

C: Alejandro Kirk (30)

1B: Matt Olson (4)

2B: Jose Altuve (5)

SS: Francisco Lindor (2)

3B: Alex Bregman (12)

CI: Maikel Garcia (18)

MI: Bryson Stott (16)

OF: Juan Soto (1)

OF: Teoscar Hernandez (7)

OF: Seiya Suzuki (8)

OF: Tyler O’Neill (15)

OF: Alec Burleson (20)

U: Brendan Donovan (23)

Bench: Michael Busch (25)

SP: Logan Gilbert (3)

SP: Shota Imanaga (6)

SP: Freddy Peralta (9)

SP: Bryan Woo (10)

SP: Seth Lugo (13)

SP: Sean Manaea (14)

SP: Zach Eflin (17)

RP: Lucas Erceg (11)

RP: A.J. Puk (24)

Bench: Michael Kopech (21), Kutter Crawford (22), Chad Green (26), Seth Halvorsen (27), Jose Ferrer (28), Jameson Taillon (29)

Some notes (for which I will blatantly rip off Grey’s draft recap notes/questions and answers format, though the critical voice in my head speaks in italics rather than all caps ;) :

Did you avoid drafting a closer on purpose?  I feel I’m pretty good at avoiding top closers and finding value later in a very early draft, and felt even more emboldened to wait given the FAAB nature of this league’s format. Usually, I can draft 4 or 5 guys in November or December and by March at least a couple of them will be at the top of their team’s closer depth chart and I’ll be in decent shape. In this draft, however, my guys got pretty brutally counterfeited. Since the draft happened, 1) it was announced Kopech was hurt and the Dodgers signed two additional closers, 2) the Blue Jays signed Jeff Hoffman, sending Green’s value spiraling, and 3) the Royals signed Carlos Estevez, making Erceg’s role unclear at best. And that doesn’t even count the Nationals adding to their bullpen to make Ferrer’s paths to future saves even murkier. So, I’m going to have to be ultra vigilant searching for saves in this league from the get-go; SAGNOF to the rescue, I hope!

Wow, isn’t everyone in your infield not named Lindor old, boring, and probably going to be kind of bad at baseball this season? I told you last week that when I started drafting I was surprised at the price of young players with upside, and made some (potentially problematic?) decisions targeting a hopefully solid floor instead. Olson, meanwhile, was a mistake pick: I learned the hard way that the NFBC website is stuck in another decade and does not refresh on its own properly, and currently, they literally don’t have an app to use if you, say, need to make a draft pick from your kid’s high school band concert that you were present at for a few hours longer than usual because you are awesome and volunteered to help with both setup and clean up. I was absolutely irate when I got home and saw that Olson had been auto picked onto my team; I had no intention of drafting him and among other things, it forced me to shift my plans later in the draft. Weirdly, though, once all was said and done, I not only like this team quite a bit, I don’t mind Olson on it at all. Again, I’m hoping my deep league roots and experience will help me spot available young players with promise in 2025 a step ahead of my competition throughout the season, and that I’ll have a small stable of reinforcements to replace the tired old guys if needed.

Third round’s a little early for a starting pitcher, isn’t it? I guess I kind of figured that I might as well start sooner with the pitching in a league this shallow in an attempt at getting a true ace, but perhaps I should have done the opposite given the pitching that will theoretically be available in the free agent pool all season? So we’ll see how that works out. While we’re talking about the third round, though, I have noticed something this draft season that I may write an entire post about: in my estimation, there is a weird lull around the third, maybe fourth round of a 12-team draft, where there’s about 20 players on the top of the queue based on ADP that I don’t really like at all. So, instead of reaching for a hitter I know I’ll be able to get a round or two later anyway, I figured it might make sense to take a top SP (or, gasp, even a closer, which I actually did in another draft) at this point.

Didn’t you tell me last year you would in no way, shape, or form, be rostering Freddy Peralta this season?  That I did. (Sighs). That I did. I’m not sure how this happened, but I can only compare it to seeing a sweater that doesn’t quite fit you and isn’t your color at your favorite clothing store, and purchasing it anyway because it’s on sale and it just feels like too good a deal to pass up, even though as you’re doing it you know it’s likely an epic mistake. So hopefully 2024 Laura will be wrong about Peralta being someone to fade at any price this year, and/or 2025 Laura will be able to, once again, work that waiver wire and find some juicy SP streamers with the help of her fellow Razzball writers to advise her.

Did you mean to draft Alejandro Kirk?   Have I mentioned that you can add players via waivers in this league? It’s hard to not start daydreaming about all of those under the radar, positive-value catchers I’ll be able to uncover! Okay, that may not happen, but at least I know I can spend the season attempting to find this year’s version of 2023 Yainer Diaz if I need to. (Also, I say there’s a solid 6- 8% chance Kirk doesn’t completely suck again this year).

 

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JKJ
JKJ
8 days ago

“Since the draft happened, 1) it was announced Kopech was hurt and the Dodgers signed two additional closers, 2) the Blue Jays signed Jeff Hoffman, sending Green’s value spiraling, and 3) the Royals signed Carlos Estevez, making Erceg’s role unclear at best. And that doesn’t even count the Nationals adding to their bullpen to make Ferrer’s paths to future saves even murkier. So, I’m going to have to be ultra vigilant searching for saves in this league from the get-go; SAGNOF to the rescue, I hope!”

I gotchu. I do think you’ll be hurtin for saves but reallllly like everything else you’ve got goin on, tho.

Last edited 8 days ago by JKJ
JKJ
JKJ
Reply to  Laura Holt
8 days ago

Could def see Puk taking over sooner rather than later. Guy was phenomenal last year.

Yeah for sure. Weekly roto SV-only is pretty brutal these days. Gotta pay up!

SVHD is where it’s at! Get you some Edwin Uceta.

Chris Mellon
Chris Mellon
10 days ago

Hey Laura, Chris Votto from Zombinos. Now I see why you more often than not kick out butts. You’re actually drafting teams in December while I listened to my 1st fantasy podcast only yesterday. Haha! I guess I better get to work

DrHocker
DrHocker
11 days ago

You killed it Laura! Apparently these fools had no idea what they were up against. I predict a very competitive team with a good shot at the tiara.

DrHocker
DrHocker
Reply to  DrHocker
11 days ago

But yeah…you will need to deploy some SAGNOF.

Sea Pilot
11 days ago

Offense is pretty good, well done. Pitching is decent, but a little risky with some of the SP, although bullpen is worrisome. I’m not sold on Erceg, and Hunter Harvey is lurking for a rebound. But nice draft overall.

Roget
Roget
11 days ago

Short speed no?(no not referring to the Altuve pick) What were the picks 1-Lindor?

Roget
Roget
Reply to  Laura Holt
11 days ago

I was deep in analysis as to how Lindor slipped to 17 and whether Tucker was available at 7.

Rog
Rog
Reply to  Laura Holt
11 days ago

thanks! and nice draft!

Grey
Admin
11 days ago

i love this team! I don’t know how you got that good of a hitting team with that pitching staff…

Grey
Admin
Reply to  Laura Holt
11 days ago

It’s wild how good your hitting looks considering your pitching is not bad all