Mock #2 Recap

So I think I am on to something here. Rather than post all my rankings, which are so subjective anyway and can also be found on dozens of other sites, I think most of my future entries will be these draft recaps. 

Here’s the mock I took part in last night on MDC.  Click Here

I think Mock Draft’s are a very effective draft prep tool.  In no way can they help you figure out who is going to take exactly which players, in which spot, in your REAL drafts, but if you do enough you see very clear trends develop that can help you understand where certain player will be going, and at what point YOU think you should consider drafting a particular player.

For example, in the first draft I selected Liriano in the 13th round.  Prior to last night’s draft, someone who had read that post told me he thought I could have waited on him.  In the 11th round of last night’s draft, when Liriano was the top rated pitcher on my current rankings remaining, I decided to wait another round and select Street to be my #2 RP.  Gamble paid off and I was able to land him the the 14th.  Maybe next time I’ll wait till the 15th? 

One thing is for sure though, I’d take him way before Rich Hill or Ted Lilly, two pitchers selected before Liriano.  Those guys are nice pitchers, don’t get me wrong, but neither has the massive upside potential like Liriano does.  He’s coming off major injury, but he’s had a lot of time to recover, and he’s not injury PRONE like Mark Prior (at least not yet:), so no reason for me to think he can’t bounce back from this.  Sure there is risk involved, but this guy was arguably the best pitcher in fantasy baseball for a sufficient amount of time, not too long ago.

Here are some other things that stood out to me:

• I found myself taking Cano even higher than last draft, in the 4th round, but I still don’t think that was too high. All the other big 2B’s were gone (Utley, Upton, Phillips, and even Roberts) and if you look at the other offensive players remaining, I thought Cano was the most valuable. 
• Albeit the last pick of the round, I though Pence in the 5th was way too high. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s a nice player, but I don’t think he should be going that far before (if before at all than)…
• …Delmon Young, who I was able to get in the 10th round!!! Lost in last year’s shuffle among other rookie breakouts (such as Braun, Tulowitzki, Chris B Young, Pence, etc.) Da Meat Hook’s kid bro put together a very solid freshman campaign, going .288/13/93/65/10. Let’s not forget this kid is only 22, and at a time was the #1 prospect in all of baseball. Moving to Minnesota, he’ll most likely get a shot to bat somewhere near the M&M boys (Mauer and Morneau) and he just may take the leap in 2008. I think it’s reasonable to expect a similar batting average and across the board improvement on the counting stats. Think .285/20/100/90/20.
• I already had an SS on my roster in Rollins, but when Furcal was there in the 9th I had to pounce. He suffered a tough injury right before the season last year, played through it, and his numbers suffered. BUT, in September, he bounced back nicely, going *** and 12 for 12 in SB attempts. I expect him to bounce back to his normal .280/8/60/100/40 levels.

Other picks I liked:

• Bay in the 7th. As I mentioned in my top 50, I think this guy is gonna go late like this in a lot of drafts and deliver top 20 numbers when all is said and done.
• Felix in the 10th. Right about where I’d take him. I didn’t here though, as I opted for Delmon.
• Brett Myers in the 11th. I was hoping he’d get back to me in the 12, but I wasn’t fortunate. I like him a lot.
• Shane Victorino in the 12th. After Myers went, I saw this name on the board and was shocked. Carl Crawford Lite should deliver .285/10/60/110/40 numbers hitting at the top of a very powerful Phillies lineup.

My First Mock of 2008

Just 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:

1. 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) 
2. 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)
3. 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.
4. 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)
5. 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.
6. I got some flak for taking Liriano in the 13th, but I am fine with gambling on my #4 SP with #1 upside there.
7. 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.
8. 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.

My Keeper Format and Tough Decisions

So here’s how the keepers work in RAMROD.  You are allowed to keep 1 player from each of 5 tiers based on last year’s draft, for one season after they were drafted.  At any time, you can substitute a player in lower tier for a higher one. For the upcoming season, my keepers are lined up as such:

 

• A Tier (round 1-3 from 2007 draft) – A-Rod.  The obvious choice.  

• B Tier (4-7) Ichiro.  He wins out over Konerko, Michael Young, Sheffield, Joe Nathan.

• C Tier (8-12).  Here’s where it starts getting a little tougher.  I have to choose between two of last year’s breakout SP’s, Dan Haren and Erik Bedard.  Untill he got hurt towards the end of last season, I would have said Bedard for sure, due to the high K potential, but the injury risk does concern me a little bit.  With Haren’s trade to the NL, his value certainly rises, but then again, Bedard may be joining him in quadruple A.  As of now, I’m still leaning toward Bedard, but that may change.  I think there is a chance last year was as good as it gets from Bedard, which is amazing, but I think Haren still may be rising.  He could take another big step this year.
• D Tier (13-18).  The options are two NY Yankee hurlers, Chien Ming Wang and phenom Joba Chamberlain (eligible as an E).  Now this decision becomes real easy if Joba stays in the bullpen.  If he ain’t getting saves, I ain’t wasting a keeper on him this year.  But if he does join the rotation as expected, then you have a tough call.  Wang is valuable because of his ability to get wins and post a respectible ERA and WHIP.  Being that they play on the same team, I think they should win about the same ammount of games.  Throw in that Joba has 200 K potential, and I think you may have to give the edge to the kid.

• E Tier (19-25 plus undrafteds).  Chris B. Young.  A 30-30 guy is hard to come by.  His terrible average from 2007 should go up, in turn raising his other counting stats (HR, RBI, R, SB’s) as he should be on base more.  I expect big things.

So basically, my two big decisions are what to do with my C and D keepers.  I’d love to hear what everyone thinks/