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 !!!