A look back at the 2009 draft - Part 1

How much does the draft play into a teams success? What were the biggest blunders/steals in our draft last year? Lets take a look.

1st round
Worst Pick
The biggest surprise to me was Jimmy Rollins 5th overall in a dynasty league. Rollins was a year removed from his 30/40 MVP season. Rollins was also over 30 years old. Definite reach for Marv there.

Best Pick
In my opinion, it was Hanley Ramirez. Awfully tough to pass on Albert Pujols, but Hanley puts up numbers at SS that no one else in the league comes close to. Pujols is a beast, but 1b is the deepest position.

Closing Thought
Xtreme Dynasty ended up with 3 of the top 9 players drafted in the first round last year, only one of them Mark Texeira is 1st round material this year.

2nd round
Worst Pick
Alfonso Soriano was by far the worst pick in this round, possibly the entire draft. He did just come off a 30/20 season, but at the age of 33 in a dynasty setting he should have been taken much later.

Best Pick
It is tough to overlook Tim Lincecum, but Ryan Braun gets the nod here. 18th overall pretty crazy. Alfonso Soriano, BJ Upton (surprise surprise to Bruce) were both taking ahead of Braun.

Closing Thought
Two injury busts in this round were Josh Hamilton drafted by the KungFu Pandas & Brandon Webb drafted by Marv.

Round 3
Worst Pick
There really wasn't any bad players taking in this round, but Carlos Lee with the 1st pick in the 3rd round over A-rod & Prince Fielder. Crazy.

Best Pick
Best value goes to A-rod, but for dynasty Prince Fielder was the better pick. Fielder has 10 years on A-rod left in the tank.

Closing Thought
J-Fraud clearly missed the mark with "dynasty" taking Brian Roberts. Howard/Soriano/Roberts top 3 picks.




Round 4
Worst Pick
It is beat up on Marv day, because Dan Uggla definitely disappointed in 2009. Marv definitely had some bad luck with some guys last year. Even his golden boy Nick Markakis in round 3 didnt live up to the hype.

Best Pick
This is how unprepared I was last year. When Matt Kemp was drafted by KFP, I was like who the hell is Matt Kemp? It was my first year doing fantasy baseball, granted I know a lot more now, but still funny looking back at it.

Closing Thought
This round was pretty solid top to bottom, and Bruce had 3 Rays out of 4 when he got Carl Crawford. Would the trend continue?

Round 5
Worst Pick
Vladimir Guerrero was on the decline, and I think it was a reach grabbing him at the end of round 5. Chad Billingsley didnt live up to 5th round potential either, but at least in dynasty he could rebound.

Best Pick
Kind of obvious one with Felix Hernandez. Kudos for Jamie for solid prep and pulling the trigger at the right time with these picks.

Closing Thought
Aramis Ramirez to Marv in round 5. Another guy who missed most of the year. The fantasy gods were clearly not with him in '09.

Round 6
Worst Pick
Fransisco Liriano. Maybe he pulls it together this year, but man has he been a disappointment the last few years.

Best Pick
Joe Mauer by the Duffs was a great pick. Imagine Joe Mauer in the 6th round this year. Josh ended up with the best C/2B in the draft. Great pick

Closing Thought
Chris Davis was a stretch as well, but it seems that Jamie's "misses" all ended up getting traded. Good work by him.

Round 7
Worst Pick
Geovany Soto did not live up to his ROY season. Lucky Bill gives Soto another chance in 2010.

Best Pick
Derek Jeter might be old, but great value and he had one of his best years ever last year. Good pick by J-Fraud.

Closing Thought
Matt Wieters was drafted in this round by KFP who then traded him to Duffs at end of last year, who then got him back from Duffs this pre-season.



Round 8
Worst Pick
There were a lot of picks that didn't pan out this round, but BJ Ryan by J-Fraud was by far the worst. Ouch, just looking at it now.

Best Pick
Joey Votto by Kevin. I love Votto going forward. He missed a lot of time last year but I think he could crack top 5 in production for 1b this year.

Closing Thought
Jamie missed on the Jay Bruce pick last year, but was able to package him in a deal to Bruce for Carl Crawford. Good value trade.

Round 9
Worst Pick
Rich Harden by Beantown is my choice. Harden is a DL trip waiting to happen. He actually had the 2nd most innings pitched ever last year though. Not a fan, and his ERA/WHIP were bot great either.

Best Pick
Jon Lester by NCU is the best pick in this round. Young, strikeout guy pitching for a winner. Great pickup.

Closing Thought
Joba Chamberlain the hype was drafted in this round. Don't think he goes in top 15 rounds in new drafts.

Round 10
Worst Pick
Garrett Atkins was absolutely horrible last year. Duffs clearly missed on this one. He didn't last long on his roster either.

Best Pick
Troy Tulowitzki by Kevin was the best pick. Tulo started off slow, but he was on fire for the rest of the year. Clear choice for 2nd best SS in the game.

Closing Thought
There were some other guys that didn't pan out in this round too. The Marv curse with Dice K, and the Pandas with Corey Hart.

Round 11
Worst Pick
Aubrey Huff was a severe let down for me last year. I was actually rolling with him as my starting 1b for a while last year. YIKES !

Best Pick
There were a lot of good pitchers taking this round, but Marv struck gold with Justin Verlander. Verlander was one of the few guys who actually panned out in the early goings for Marv.

Closing Thought
Carlos Marmol was drafted this round. Marmol for Scutaro !! Man, was Bill not happy about that one. I thought it worked out well for Marc though.



Round 12
Worst Pick
JJ Hardy was so bad last year he was called down to the minors. The Brewers who were shopping him because Alcides Escobar was their future SS had no takers.

Best Pick
Two great NL West pitchers were drafted in this round, and No, not Max Scherzer although he was taken by Bill here. Clayton Kershaw is my top pick for long term by Little Honus Wagners. Honorable mention to Kevin for Matt Cain

Closing Thought
I thought Scherzer was a top 5 pitcher? LOL

Round 13
Worst Pick
Almost a tie between Matt Capps & Vernon Wells, but I'm giving it to Josh for taking Vernon Wells. I was even dumb enough to trade for Wells after the break waiting for him to get out of his funk. It never happened.

Best Pick
Josh Johnson was taking by Bill, Ryan Zimmerman by J-Fraud, but the best pick was Zack Greinke by Jamie. We all know how nasty Greinke was last year.

Closing Thought
Fantasy inexperience cost me on Greinke as I had him in my draft queue. I valued closers too much and took Valverde the round before. Ugggg

Round 14
Worst Pick
Chien-Ming Wang by J-Fraud ended up being the worst pick here. Wang was absolutely brutal last year.

Best Pick
This might be the best pick in the entire draft. Kevin drafted Justin Upton in the 14th round. Great value.

Closing Thought
Jayson Werth was also drafted this round. Funny how some players were drafted by a team, and then traded away during the year, and ended up back on their roster at the end of the year.

Round 15
Worst Pick
Gonna beat up on Cocco a little more as Lastings Milledge was definitely the worst of this group here.

Best Pick
Although Robbie Cano was a great steal in Round 15, Adam Wainwright was one of the best pitchers in baseball last year. I give the nod to Duffs with Wainwright

Closing Thought
Marv had a nice pick this late with Shin-Soo Choo

Round 16
Worst Pick
Goes to Duffs with Ben Sheets. Sheets was clearly picked to stash for 2010, but Josh ended up dropping him, so the pick made zero sense in the long run.

Best Pick
There were 4 great picks this round. Chris Carpenter to Marc, I drafted Tommy Hanson, Marv drafted Adam Jones but the best was probably Pablo Sandoval to the KungFu Pandas.

Closing Thoughts
This round even produced all-star Brad Hawpe, and Johnny Queto (as bill calls him) was one of the top pitchers in baseball in the early goings.




Round 17
Worst Pick
I get the worst pick in this round taking Willie Taveras. Taveras was projected by many to be the top steals getter in all of baseball, boy did he disappoint. He was terrible last year.

Best Pick
Derrek Lee by Beantown was a great pick. He was batting under .200 after the first month of the year and I believe Bill ended up cutting him. Boy was that a terrible move.

Closing Thoughts
Speaking of terrible, Jorge Cantu was drafted in this round by J-Fraud. Cocco flipped Cantu for John Lackey & Edwin Jackson. Great move

Round 18
Worst Pick
Marv drafted Derrick Turnbow according to draft log, but im pretty sure that was to take a minor leaguer that wasnt in yahoo universe, so Mike Aviles to Duffs is my worst pick.

Best Pick
I think Gavin Floyd was the best pick in this round by me. I am so high on Floyd. I will do my best to get him back this year.

Closing Thought
Johhny Damon was great value for Marc this late in the draft.

Round 19
Worst Pick
Nate Robertson by CT Crush was the worst pick of this round.

Best Pick
A couple of nice picks in this round. I drafted Miguel Tejada and then cut him like a dope after a slow start only to hit .313 last year, Duffs drafted Huston Street, but NCU draftin Jair Jurrjens was clearly the best pick.

Closing Thoughts
Billy Butler also was drafted as well, great pick by Bill this late.

Round 20
Worst Pick
Does All count? This was one of the worst rounds in the draft by far. If I had to choose one it would be Bill with Carlos Silva.

Best Pick
Bruce gets the nod with Netfali Feliz. This isn't even close.

Closing Thoughts
This was just a miserable round, Kevin did draft Erik Bedard here. Not a bad pick if he stayed healthy.

Round 21
Best Pick
Jered Weaver by Duffs narrowly beats out James Loney by Marc as top pick.

Round 22
Best Pick
Heath Bell was a great pick this late by Kevin. One of the top closers in baseball last year.

Round 23
Best Pick
Jose Lopez by NCU was the best pick, too bad he cut him after a shitty start. He ended up with more RBI's last year then Chase Utley.

Round 24
Best Pick
This rivals the Justin Upton pick just because of how late in the draft it came, but wow Adam Lind here was a steal. Great pick by Marc.

Round 25
Best Pick
Marc again gets top pick with getting Trevor Hoffman.

Round 26
Best Pick
I think Bengie Molina was top guy here. 20/80 out of a catcher this late good value pick by me.

Round 27
Best Pick
Ubaldo Jimenez by Marc is a close close 2nd to Wandy Rodriguez drafted by me.


So lets tally it up

Best Drafts by Round
Kevin,Jamie 5
Marc 4
Andrew,Josh & Sean 3
Cocco,Marv & Bill 1
Bruce 0

Worst Drafts by Round
Josh 6
Bill & Cocco 3
Sean & Marv 2
Marc,Kevin & Bruce 1
Jamie 0

Fantasy Baseball All Luck?

So Bill brought up a good point on the message board today.

I think I read something somewhere that the experts picks preaseason (this one in particular anyway) are only right on about 42% of their picks over the last 5 years or something like that. So even the people that get paid to do this are right less than 1/2 the time on players being at, or outperforming their preseason value. I thought that was interesting.

This got me thinking, and I went ahead and googled a 2009 pre-season ranked list of players. What I found was definitely pretty interesting.

Lets take a look at Starting Pitchers.

Look at all of these players that didn't live up to their ranking.

1. Johan Santana - Santana was good last year, but no where near #1 overall, wasn't even a top 5 pitcher in the NL league last year.

4. Brandon Webb - Season ended early due to injury

6. Jake Peavy - Another pitcher plagued with injuries.

8. Cole Hamels - Mediocre, up and down season. really good or really bad

9. Roy Oswalt - WBC & age caught up with him

13. Ervin Santana - was horrible

15. Edinson Volquez - TJS ended season

16. Dice-K - Injury, and just sucked

17. Carlos Zambrano - Pretty average #'s

18. Scott Kazmir - Injuries, and poor #'s

19. Chad Billingsley - 1st half good, 2nd half injuries and was awful

You could argue some of these guys, but that is 11/20 that didn't live up to their expectations. Pretty crazy. 55%




Then have guys ranked much lower, and I would have taken any one of these guys over above guys for last season...

24. Felix
25. Verlander
26. Wainwright
35. Josh Johnson
39. Vazquez
40. Greinke
41. Cain
54. Jurrjens
67. Kershaw
78. Carpenter
83. Wandy

There is definitely a lot more luck involved in baseball then there is in football. If you lose a Larry Johnson, a replacement like Jamaal Charles can step right in and produce same/similar #'s. Of course in Charles case he trumped LJ. In baseball, if you lose Brandon Webb for the year, you have no where else to turn.

Will 2010 be any different then 2009? My money is on no. You can't predict injuries obviously, but just because the KungFu Pandas has 4 pitchers in ESPN's top 15 does not mean that they will end there this year. Chances are that 2 of the 4 will either be injured or not live up to the hype.

The winner this year is going to be the guy who realizes that pre-season hype is just hype. Projections are just projections. The team that finds the most Wandy Rodriguez's will end up winning this year, as the waiver pool is so much less with the addition of the two teams.

So who is this years Wandy?

Through 6 rounds - Draft grades

I for one think this email draft is the way to go. Live drafts are fun, but this adds a new element with trades. Trading up to grab a guy, trading down to grab extra picks. You can't accomplish this in a standard live draft when you have 90 seconds to make a pick. Everyone is on board now and the picks are running very smoothly.

So through 6 rounds, Here are my draft grades.

In honor of the #1 team on my list, name this Sox player above....

A-
Croatia Lebowski gets a solid B+ so far in my opinion. Steven Strauburg in the first was a no brainer. I am a big of James Loney. He may not have 25 HR power, but he is a great avg hitter, and very young. He draws comparisons to Mark Grace which is a huge honor as he was one of the most underrated players of all time. Grace is also one hell of a smack talker. Loney is a safe fall back if Chris Davis doesn't pan out in Texas. Nolan Reimold is a great young OF in Baltimore. Baltimore has a pretty nice young lineup. He has pretty good power. Great value in the 3rd round. Nick Johnson in the 4th was a solid pick. It might have been a little early, but Johnson's .OBP was like 20 pts higher then anyone else available, plus now playing in NY in that lineup. Johnson could be a very dangerous player this year. Mike Napoli was more of a need pick. Scioscia doesn't like Napoli's defense so Jeff Mathis will get a lot of run to, but Vlad is gone and maybe Napoli's big bat will get some run at DH if new DH Hideki Matsui breaks down. I'm not a fan of this pick though. Great draft so far for this team.


Little Honus Wagners gets a good A- in my book. Miguel Montero was a great pickup in the 2nd round. It was a need pick and a pick of value. The scraps were thin at catcher after him. Two guys I was targeting and missed out on were Scott Sizemore & Justin Masterson. Masterson was the guy I really wanted but waited too long. Great potential. Speaking of potential Marc lined up his minor leaguers nicely with Brown & Storen. Marc added another closer with Chad Qualls as well. Pretty good draft thus far, not only building for the future, but to win it this year as well.

B
The Montreal Expos get a nice solid B in my book. The Michael Taylor pick was not great, but Brian made up for it with Aroldis Chapman in the 2nd round who I tried to trade up for and get. We probably won't see Chapman this year, but great pick for future. You have to love those lefties ! Another player I was targeting was Milwaukees 2B Rickie Weeks. Weeks does have a history of injuries so he is a gamble, but when he is healthy he could be a legit 25/20, 100 run type player in that lineup. Will be interesting to see how Milwaukee sets their lineup for sure. Kyle Blanks & Drew Stubbs are both nice young OF. Blanks K's a lot but has a ton of raw power. Stubbs hopefully gives the Reds a lead off hitter that they lacked last year with the Willie Taveras bomb. Leo Nunez wasn't a bad pick, but I would have let someone else gamble on him. Can always find saves.

I give the mighty Pandas a solid B. It is clear that the Pandas want to taste fantasy glory this year with the picks of Raul Ibanez, Andy Pettitte & Adrian Beltre. Beltre I like the most of the 3 this year. He could have a "monster" year. All are old and could potentially break down so there are some concerns. I am not a big Franklin Guitterez guy. He is a solid player, but not spectacular in my opinion. Ted Lilly also a gamble, but one KFP can take a shot on with his great rotation. The only great move KFP made for the future IMO was getting Wieters from Duffs which was a great move.





B-
I hated the Matt Wieters trade for the Duffs, but it was a fair trade on paper and filled a huge need for him. Ackley is nothing but a prospect right now, a highly regarded prospect, but just a prospect. He was arguably the top offensive prospect on the board at pick #10. The #4 overall pick was great with JA Happ. My ranking for the Duffs might have been low after round 1, but his draft rounds 2-5 was great. Yunel Escobar was a great pick up in round 2, and Placido Polanco who may be hitting in the 2 slot this year in Philly is going to be one of those players that just comes out of no where and has a great season. Rajai Davis gives him some much needed speed. With Joe Nathan done for the year, I think Josh scrambled well and got 2 decents relievers in Mike Gonzalez & Octavio Dotel.

Xtreme Dynasty gets a B- I liked trading up to get Lopez a position of need, and am very happy that the HR/RBI/TB of Ryan Ludwick fell into my lap. I might have reached a bit for John Maine in the 6th round. I was still pissed off I missed on Masterson. Ian Stewart will not hit .220 again and he could be this seasons big breakout player. Great risk/reward there. Joe Blanton is solid, but not lights out front line starter material. He was my pick mainly because of pitching for Philly and liked W-L opportunities. Kerry Wood gives me my 2nd AL Central closer. On the older side, but don't see any way besides injury or trade he loses that job in Cleveland. I am happy with my draft, just a couple of failed opportunities, like not taking Greinke last year.

C+
Team Berkley hates Jamie had a great start of the draft adding Russell Martin via trade and drafting 20/20 100 run potential Nate McLouth, since then it has gone down hill. I really didn't like the Michael Brantley or Cody Ross selection. I am fine with taking a gamble on Alex Gordon this late in the draft. Marv will be able to stash him on his DL for the beginning of the year. He has obvious talent being drafted 2nd overall in 2005 draft. Ryan Franklin was a good pick giving Marv a 3rd closer, but Jon Rauch in the 6th was pretty weak in my opinion. He is the projected closer to replace Nathan, but nothing is set in stone. It is not a bad gamble, but with so much other talent out there, the last place team in the league could have filled a hole elsewhere.

The defending champ North Country United also gets a C+ Shawn Marcum & Tim Hudson were two guys I was targeting that I missed out on. I didn't like the Jason Frasor pick that much. Big Papi like others who have taken veteran players on their last legs was a great pick up for this season. There is a ton of value with Papi. I am not a Howie Kendrick guy because he just doesn't fit the two type of middle infield types. You got the power hitting guys, and the speed guys. Kendrick is neither. He is kind of average in everything.



CT Crush's future ace.....

C
The over/under is set at round 10 for when CT Crush selects Rays OF Matt Joyce. To be successful in fantasy sports, you need to separate real life and fantasy. I wouldn't draft the Titans WR corp because I am a Titans fan. It's not like I am not drafting a Colt because I hate them. Jeremy Hellickson is a good young pitcher, by some a top 10 prospect, so I am not faulting the pick. I had Drabek/Chapman higher on my board is all. When you have a stacked team like the Pandas did, you can afford to take a favorite player like Pablo Sandoval. It is important in fantasy sports to have a team full of players you like to route for, but overboard is overboard. Have the two new teams offered Zobrist / Garza & Jennings yet? I loved the Martin Prado pick, good average and eligible in 3 positions. It is definitely nice having a player like that on your team. Chipper Jones, why not? Good pick there. He may only have a year left in the tank, but we are only keeping 16 players next year, and since the Crush has 16 Rays on his team, Chipper will be shown the door. Sean Rodriguez would have been on the board later in my opinion. Tampa obviously likes him enough to trade Kazmir away. I dont like Alberto Collaspo, but I do like Paul Konerko. Konerko = Consistency.


C
I'm giving Team Hanson a C- which is a pretty good rebound from the big fat F from the 1st round with Rich Harden. Kevin needed pitching, but another injury gamble with Erik Bedard? I guess if you combine Harden & Bedard's numbers you get a solid pitcher, but it takes up two roster spots. I will refer to this duo from now on as Bedarden. I loved the Oswalt pick. He clearly isn't the Oswalt of old, but i don't think he ever recovered from the WBC last year. Great value, and possible trade to contender down stretch helps value. I also liked the Colby Rasmus pick. Rasmus was a top 10 prospect heading into last year, has a ton of talent for sure. Chris Iannetta was more of a need pick, but he clearly was best catcher available at time of pick. I still can't get over that 1st rounder though.



D+
J-Fraud started out pretty well with the Drabek pick. I think he has the talent to be a frontline starter in the majors, but like a young high schooler who had his penis touched for the first time, he blew his load. J-Fraud already had a lineup full of speed guys like Nyjer Morgan & Julio Borbon. Why draft Juan Pierre? I hope it was to move one of these guys later to a team that needs speed. Complete overkill. Then the draft selections of Vernon Wells & Juan Rivera were even more puzzling. As of right now, he has a total of 10 outfielders on his roster with a max of 7 spots to start (4 Of, 3 Util) Heisey will be in minors or cut for other prospect, but still no depth in the infield. I liked Napoli over Posada. Both will probably play the same amount of games, but Napoli has more upside. Ben Sheets is definitely worth the gamble though.

D-
I guess we will see how the draft finishes, but man has the Beantown Brawlers made a few odd selections. Dexter Fowler in the first was an average pick. Steals could have been found later, and Fowler might have been around in the 2nd round as well. Ryan Doumit to me was a oh crap Napoli got picked I better draft a catcher. He got caught up in position run. I am not 100% sure, but I think every team has a starting catcher on their squad, and most teams last year did not carry two catchers on their team. Garret Jones? No thank you. The Ian Desmond pick was brutal. Waaaaaaaay too early for a player who is not even guaranteed a roster spot. The only pick I liked was Brandon Morrow. Morrow is a good strikeout guy, and maybe he can turn his career around. It was a risk I would have been willing to take. Go Pirates !!!

Grading the 1st round - Dynasty League

Well thanks to one fantasy owner whose dog wants to eat the bones off the commish the first round of the 2010 Dynasty League Draft felt like the 2007 NFL Draft, but like any die hard fan you sat through it and watched it all. Here is hoping that the rest of the draft runs smoothly. Good boy Berkley, bite that commish.


A+
Team Wood with their selection of Steven Strasburg. He was the clear cut #1 choice in this draft. Any other selection in my opinion would have been a F. In the past 20 years a pitcher has gone #1 overall in the MLB draft seven times. They were all pretty much busts. Twenty years from now looking back at it, I will still remember one of those guys mainly because of his lunatic wife. I still remember Anna Benson to this day on the Stern show saying that she would sleep with the entire Mets organization if she ever found out if her husband Kris cheated her. I wonder if the bat boys or Mr.Met would be included in that.



Matt Wieters in the 17th round is incredible value even though it cost the Pandas Wandy Rodriguez & his first rounder. Might I add that Wandy Rodriguez was a final round selection in last years draft by yours truly. Jamie basically gets a catcher who could be in the top 5 this year and every year for the next 10+ years. I like Wieters a lot and if I were Duffs I would have shopped him around a little more as I think he could have gotten more for Wieters then he did.

B+
I am giving myself Xtreme Dynasty a B+ for the first round of the draft. Looking at needs before the draft started it was clear to me that I needed to focus on HR/TB/RBI. I struggled with them a lot last year. My team is pretty solid coming into the year at every position, but I lacked a 2b. Jose Lopez was not only one of the top players available in HR/RBI/TB, he filled a glaring need at the 2b position since I lost Brandon Phillips. Lopez was waiver wire material after the first two months of the season last year, but after the slump he finished very strong. Safeco definitely is a pitchers park which is great if you have King Felix or Cliff Lee, but not if you have a hitter from that park. Lopez home splits were pretty dreadful, but away from Safeco he hit .313 last season. If Seattle is out of it come trade deadline time, Lopez could be shopped to make room for prospect Dustin Ackley. If a trade happens, Lopez potentially could be a top 5 2b.



I am also giving the other team in this trade a B+. Stonehenge clearly needed help, and picking McLouth 3rd overall in this draft would have been a decent 1st round for him. Stonehenge got McLouth who should be a lock for another 20-20 campaign, and have a high run amount as well. In the trade he also got Russell Martin. Martin was a top 5 catcher going into last year. I am not ready to disregard Martin in the fantasy world yet. I don't think we will see any more 20 SB seasons out of him, but he does have a great OBP for a catcher, and should score a good amount of runs in explosive Dodgers lineup.

B-
I am giving the Beantown Brawlers & Little Honus Wagners both a B-. Fowler helps Beantown out in steals, but he K's a little too much for my liking. If you are going to draft a guy who K's a lot why not just keep Nelson Cruz who will also hit you 35 HR's and steal a good amount of bases? Fowler has potential though. Montero busted out last year, and I definitely like the fact that Arizona's lineup is filled with young talent like Upton,Reynolds & Drew. He was my top catcher on my board. Both of these picks were good solid picks, but both with questions.

C+
J-Fraud has a veteran pitching staff that includes Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, AJ Burnett & John Lackey. Getting a young pitching prospect who many say can be as good as Roy Halladay some day I think was a great move. Drabek was one of the top SP prospects available, plus he is well known as he was mentioned endless times around the trade deadline.

Todd Helton is not the prototypical dynasty league draftee at age 36, but if NCU can squeeze another .310/.400 75/75 season out of him, then he would be well worth the pick here. Great value for one season, but when will the wheels fall off ?

C-
Michael Taylor drafted 2nd overall by the Expos was a tad bit high in my opinion. There were plenty of young players that could help win now. Taylor would have been on the board most likely to start round 2. OF is pretty deep, and most of the other teams protected 2-3 OF's at least. I would have gambled and waited knowing I already have Jennings & Montero on my minor league squad.



When will CT Crush's man love for the Rays end? Jeremy Hellickson is Ray #9 on his team. I like Hellickson but not as much as Drabek who has that pitching pedigree. The over/under is set at 12 for the amount of Rays on Bruces final roster. I like the pick even though he is a Ray, but I think it was a round too early.

D+
I think this is where Duffs belongs after round 1. The picks he made JA Happ & Dustin Ackley were fantastic. The big question is though, does Wandy Rodriguez & Dustin Ackley = Matt Wieters. In my opinion it doesn't. Not enough for one of the best hitting catcher prospects to come our way since Mike Piazza. I do give credit to Josh however for making the move. His current pitching staff was filled with question marks. If Ackley who is a top 10 prospect by many going into this year pans out, then this trade is well worth it. I would have wanted a front line starter someone like Wainwright to move Wieters.

F
One team gets the big fat F in my book, and that is Team Hanson. Rich Harden was a terrible pick in my opinion. #1 He now pitches in Texas where balls fly out all summer long. #2 This guy is a trip to the DL waiting to happen. Harden had his second best season in the bigs in his seven year career in innings pitched with 141. Harden has only topped 100 IP three times. Harden is a very good pitcher when healthy, but I don't want to start the playoffs seeing DL next to his name. Too much of a gamble for me.


Im ready for round 2! Lets get going.