Liss has posted his team already, here's mine:
Drafting from the third slot:
| RotoWire-Erickson | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1. | (3) | Álex Rodríguez |
| 2. | (26) | Jacoby Ellsbury |
| 3. | (31) | Kevin Youkilis |
| 4. | (54) | Nelson Cruz |
| 5. | (59) | Derrek Lee |
| 6. | (82) | Ubaldo Jiménez |
| 7. | (87) | Asdrubal Cabrera |
| 8. | (110) | Wandy Rodríguez |
| 9. | (115) | José Valverde |
| 10. | (138) | Miguel Montero |
| 11. | (143) | Ryan Ludwick |
| 12. | (166) | Rajai Davis |
| 13. | (171) | Brad Hawpe |
| 14. | (194) | Stephen Drew |
| 15. | (199) | John Danks |
| 16. | (222) | Matt Thornton |
| 17. | (227) | Homer Bailey |
| 18. | (250) | Orlando Cabrera |
| 19. | (255) | Kevin Correia |
| 20. | (278) | Joba Chamberlain |
| 21. | (283) | Mike Cameron |
| 22. | (306) | Travis Snider |
| 23. | (311) | Clayton Richard |
| 24. | (334) | Ryan Rowland-Smith |
| 25. | (339) | Rick VandenHurk |
Some thoughts on a few picks:
- I didn't really want to go with Ellsbury in the second round. I agree with the consensus that you can find late speed, particularly in the outfield. Thus, with four picks before in the second round, I had three players targeted - Adrian Gonzalez, Joey Votto and Grady Sizemore. Of course, the next four picks: Gonzalez, Jimmy Rollins, Votto and Sizemore. At that point, I decided to take what the draft was giving and accept a big bump in steals. The other picks following mine that were alternatives: Ryan Zimmerman, Ben Zobrist, Pablo Sandoval, Kevin Youkilis (my 3rd round pick), Justin Morneau or Victor Martinez. Because it is a one-catcher league, I decided against going with Victor there. But the consequence of going with Ellsbury was that I don't have that strong of a middle infield (Cabrera |STAR| 2, Drew) and was chasing power the next couple of rounds.
- DDD snaked 3 times in the first four even rounds, with Votto in the 2nd, Elvis Andrus in the 6th and Ian Stewart in the 8th. And he also took a personal fav in Brian McCann immediately before me in the 4th, though I had already resolved to not go with McCann with that pick, because it's a one-catcher league. I got him back in the 21st round with Mike Cameron. Yeah, that's a fair trade.
- Despite those snakes - because hey, snakes happen - I'm still pretty happy with my offense. Before accounting for injuries, I think I'll be top 3-4 in all the counting stats, and competitive in batting average. Snider is a nice hedge against someone like Hawpe (who I don't love, but he was discounted properly) or Ludwick declining.
- Pitching is obviously risky, but as Liss pointed out, in a league like this, I'm embracing a little bit more of a high-variance strategy to chase the K's. I caught at the end of a run of second closers and refused to overpay for the likes of Matt Capps to chase, so I'll be dumpster diving for closers early on. The good news - they're out there. The bad news? Churners like Pianowski and Gelhken are in the league, so I'll have to do some preemptive pickups.
- I've already made one transaction, picking up Trevor Cahill, dropping Ryan Rowland-Smith. Cahill didn't get his K's last year, but I think that there's a parallel between him and Rick Porcello - the stuff is there, and as they learn to harness that stuff, the K's will come. I'm gambling that it will be this year and not 2011. He'll have to win a roster spot first, too, but that's essentially a bet against Ben Sheets or Justin Duchscherer being healthy. I'll take those odds.
- Joba will be on a very, very, short leash. But that K/9 is hard to ignore.