Wednesday night I participated in an "industry/expert" draft. The draft and participants were put together by my esteemed colleague Scott Pianowski and the draft was a 14-team auction completed on Yahoo. A few notes about the draft:

- With SP running it, it shouldn't be a surprise that we drafted on Yahoo. Aside of a few glitches if you're the commish (a TO limit) the Yahoo setup was awesome. Towards the end when dollar players could only be taken or someone bid more than anyone else it automatically ends that player's bidding and goes to the next owner. It moves things along faster and I'd highly recommend Yahoo to anyone looking to do an online auction draft.

- Speaking of auction drafts, they're the way to go. I've written before and will reiterate that if you've never done an auction draft, you're missing out. I'd encourage everyone to try one since there are no excuses in the end. Your decisions and bidding determine your team rather than position in a draft. I'm surprised that some sites still offer autodrafts.

- (Front door brag) I won this league last year, so there's a little motivation to see if I can go back-to-back. My big payoff last season happened when I traded pitching (if I remember correctly) for Albert Pujols right when he got hurt and lucked out when his Wolverine-like healing skills came into play. As a result, I felt the need to have him on my team again, well, that and, I have him No.1 on my cheat sheets.

- Typically I tend to overvalue and target pitching. In my mind I understand that a lot more money is spent on hitting but aren't there the same number of points awarded for pitching? I also think it's easier to make up hitting than pitching. Of course, I ended up spending the majority on hitting throwing my usual tendencies out the door.

Here's how my team ended up:

C - $1 Ramon Hernandez
C - $20 Buster Posey
1B - $48 Albert Pujols
2B - $7 Danny Espinosa
SS - $19 Elvis Andrus
3B - $10 Aramis Ramirez
CI - $4 Brandon Belt
MI - $2 Ian Desmond
OF - $36 Curtis Granderson
OF - $23 Nelson Cruz
OF - $8 Jayson Werth
OF - $8 Logan Morrison
OF - $3 Lorenzo Cain
UT - $5 Ike Davis
P - $25 Stephen Strasburg
P - $11 Brandon Morrow
P - $10 Brandon Beachy
P - $7 Rafael Betancourt
P - $3 Derek Holland
P - $1 Mark Buehrle
P - $1 Julio Teheran
P - $1 R.A. Dickey
P - $1 Brian Fuentes

B - $1 James Loney
B - $1 Rajai Davis
B - $2 Joey Devine
B - $2 Stephen Drew

Strengths:

I like my hitting. I didn't intend to get Curtis Granderson, I was merely pushing the bid up and crickets. I'm fine with that though, it's in no way overpaying and even with my anticipated regression of him he should earn that amount. I was in on the bidding for Adrian Beltre and he's a guy I'll be targeting this year. He went for $29 early and if you pro-rate last season's number to 155 games (assuming he stays healthy) he'd have 40 home runs, 131 RBI, 103 runs and a .296 average. I was more than happy to get Aramis Ramirez whose value has to be higher after the Ryan Braun decision. I expect a better season out of Jayson Werth and the three-way combo of Brandon Belt/Ike Davis/James Loney is all interchangeable depending on each player's status. I didn't expect to end up with the Washington infield but there's some solid fantasy value there, especially for the price. I've heard talk about Wil Myers breaking camp with the Royals and I just can't buy that yet. He only posted a .746 OPS at Double-A last season which means at best he's ticketed for Triple-A. Enter Lorenzo Cain who has done everything right so far in camp and is who I think will see the majority of time in center field. He could make a Desmond Jennings-like impact with more plate appearances. Between Stephen Strasburg, Brandon Beachy, Brandon Morrow and Derek Holland I've got four guys capable of a strikeout per inning (Holland had 80 Ks over 88.1 in the second half last season). I like Mark Buehrle this season; if either the move to the NL or his home park improves his numbers (or both), he could prove to be quite a steal. Rafael Betancourt has great peripherals and should rack up 35-40 saves even in Coors. If Grant Balfour isn't the closer in Oakland, someone on my team is.

Weaknesses:

I only have one closer and I got him relatively early compared to closer field. If I had missed on him I would have thought about punting saves. As the last few closers went – Matt Thornton, Frank Francisco (who I love) – I didn't have enough money to buy them. Hence, I tried to handicap the Oakland situation and hope Grant Balfour prefers a setup role. I've got four solid starters but not much after, especially if one of them gets hurt. I tried to sneak a couple of $1 starters to no avail – Tim Stauffer and Brandon McCarthy namely (look at their home numbers). Batting average could be an issue with Jayson Werth (.232), Danny Espinosa (.236), Nelson Cruz (.263), Curtis Granderson (.262) and Logan Morrison (.247) all being risks. Of course, I'd bet money that out of those five if you subtract this coming season's cumulative average minus 2011's, you'll get at least 60.

Final Assessment:

I'm happy with the team and out of 14 teams, four will cash. I'd be surprised if I don't but nothing is ever a given in baseball. I can address pitching via trade with my hitting if need be. Keep in mind closers pop up out of nowhere all the time.

Final Word:

What do you think? What am I right or wrong about in your opinion?

I'll be very busy going forward here on the site. Starting Sunday you can find a football article (I might discuss Peyton Manning this week), Tuesday will be my usual "Under the Radar" hoops column and Thursday will be my weekly column on daily fantasy leagues through Fanduel.com. I've been added to the Rotowire Roundtable and put in my top-350 (in which I have Hanley Ramirez 12, Adrian Beltre 18) as well as other surprises.

Feel free to comment below and follow me on Twitter @KCPayne26.