My First Mock of 2008
9 01 2008Just a note that I’ll be going on vacation tomorrow, so I don’t think I’ll be posting anything for the next couple of days.
Anyway, I was bored the other night, and I had a couple hours free, so I went to Mock Draft Central.
The results of the draft can be found here .
Some notes:
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I was fairly happy with my squad. As always, I focused on offense early, taking Holliday, Ortiz, Morneau, Hafner, Cano, Bay, and Figgins with my first 7 picks, before shifiting my attention to pitching, and I was able to put together a very solid rotation (Haren, Smoltz, Cain, Liriano, Schilling, Snell, Pettitte, Blanton)
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Getting Wagner in the 9 and Mariano in 11 round I thought were great value picks. They are not in the top 4 closers(Putz, Papelbon, KRod, Nathan) but both are on very good teams who should win a lot a games, and thus get plenty of save opps)
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Normally, I’m not a big Figgins guy, but I basically ignored speed in the early rounds, so I needed to get a specialist. Getting him the 7th was a great value. Let’s also not forget he did hit .330 last year.
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Someone else got Byrnes in the 7th, right before I took Figgins. I think that was the steal of this draft. He should go before Chris B Young (which was not the case here)
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I’m not as high on him as some others (due to his ballpark, lineup, inconsistency) but Adrian Gonzalez at the end of the 9th round was a nice pick too.
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I got some flak for taking Liriano in the 13th, but I am fine with gambling on my #4 SP with #1 upside there.
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Someone took Russell Martin before V-Mart. I don’t like that. I know Martin runs, but it’s not like he is Vince Coleman. V-Mart is better.
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I was surprised to see Peavy go before Johan, but in speaking with others in the draft room, there were a lot of people who agreed. That’s fine. They are all wrong though.
Good start to the site, I really enjoyed your starting pitcher thoughts. I know a lot of mock drafting is personal preference but I was slightly confused by some of your picks. I don’t really know the starting positions that you were looking to fill so some of that is problematic as well.
After looking at your draft I just thought you took away a lot of flexibility by drafting 3 1b/DH players in rounds 2-4. By doing this I thought you missed out on a lot of the well-rounded players (read players with steals who don’t hurt you in other cats). Holliday where you got him and Ortiz were both great deals but I don’t understand Morneau and Haf. I think picking Martin or Granderson (instead of Morneau) would have helped your steals and the overall balance of your team. I also think that adding Rios/Roberts instead of Hafner would have also helped.
Here’s what you have….
Holliday
Ortiz
Morneau
Hafner
Here’s what it could have been….
Holliday
Ortiz
Martin
Roberts
Holliday
Ortiz
Martin
Rios
Holliday
Ortiz
Granderson
Roberts
Holliday
Ortiz
Granderson
Rios
The last option gives you a sick OF but I kinda like the above permutations alittle more because they give you a better balance statistically and position elig wise. I’m curious to hear your thoughts.
Thanks
Scott
I retort:
In the fourth round I am generally still taking who I think to be the best offensive player remaining, and while I can only start one 1B, (Morneau), I can still start a corner and Hafner qualified there according to this draft format (Ortiz is my DH) I was actually debating between Pronk and Morneau in the third round, so when Hafner fell to me in the 4th, I had to take him.
Also, I think I formed a rather nice OF in the end anyway. On the draft recap page, it lists Figgins as my 3B, but I’d actually be using Glaus (pre-trade) there and Figgins would be an OF. Therefore, my OF would consist of Holliday, Bay (great value in the 6th), Figgins, and the Matthews, Melky, or Cameron as my #4.
I also feel like with Figgins (approx 50 steals) and Lugo (approx 30), I have a nice enough foundation for speed to go along with my super core of big boppers that should all be giving me at least 30-35 homers a pop in Holliday, Papi, Morneau, Hafner, Bay (who I expect a big bounceback from).