Taking the Plunge in Score Sheet

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Published on March 9, 2009

I completed a 7.5-hour Score Sheet draft on Saturday, after getting an invitation to the 24-team Murphy mixed league several weeks back. The 35-round draft had me excited about drafting Wesley Wright in the endgame. It could be a long season.

Dalton Del Don and I are co-owners of a team in the league, which allows up to eight keepers each year. Combined, our experience with this format includes reading the occasional article tidbit on the site or listening to guest spots on Jeff Erickson's radio show. Unfortunately, Dalton was away for LABR on Saturday, so it was one inexperienced GM trying to learn on the fly and make reasonably educated selections.

The other owners in the league haven't been shy about the fact that we're taking on a significant rebuilding project, which I'd compare to being given the keys to the Washington Nationals and getting "good luck" as the parting words of advice from the other 29 clubs.

Our keepers were hardly impressive, and in hindsight, we probably would have kept less than eight players to get first dibs at some of the other teams' castoffs rather than waiting 25-30 picks to get our first "new" player.

Here's what our roster looks like after the draft:

(|STAR|denotes keeper)

Rotation

Chris Carpenter (R)
Ted Lilly|STAR| (L)
Bronson Arroyo (R)
Sean Gallagher|STAR| (R)
Jordan Zimmerman (R)

Other Starters (includes prospects, injured guys and long relief fodder)

Jon Niese (L)
Seth McClung (R)
Matt Harrison (L)
Jhoulys Chacin (R)
Derek Holland (L)
Tim Hudson (R) -- Tommy John surgery

Bullpen

Jose Valverde|STAR| (R)
Octavio Dotel (R)
Damaso Marte (L)
Jason Motte (R)
Ron Mahay (L)
Wesley Wright (L)

Position Players

Keeping Francoeur is a mistake in hindsight, since we would have had a crack at Johnny Cueto if we'd let him go. Score Sheet doesn't reward having elite closers the same way as traditional rotisserie formats, so Valverde may have been better served as an early draft pick as well.

Unless everything breaks our way and the young players end up in major league rotations sooner than expected, we're probably going to have to continue the rebuilding effort throughout the season as owners in stronger positions for 2009 look for extra pieces. Still, as long as we're able to get enough starts out of our rotation option, I don't think we're looking at a complete disaster here -- perhaps only a mild one.

Anyone else out there taking the plunge and trying Score Sheet this season?