Breaking Down My Fantasy Baseball Draft

With the Blackhawks struggling (I still believe, but it's a little frustrating right now), I've focused more of my energy towards baseball as Opening Night is Sunday and Opening Day the following day. And with Opening Day marking the start of the baseball season, the fantasy season also kicks off. We had our draft about 10 days ago and I wanted to take this time to go through my draft  and take a look where I reached for players and why I took other players. The league is an 11 team league 5x5 scoring but OBP is a category instead of batting average. So let's take a look at who will be manning "Where my Pitches at?" this season

Round 1: Hanley Ramirez SS. I had the second pick of the draft so Ramirez was the no-brainer pick once Pujols was taken off the board. Shortstop isn't the shallowest position this year in my opinion but there obviously isn't a player like Ramirez. He's a player that contributes to all five categories, and was probably the easiest pick I had to make in the draft.

Round 2: Pablo Sandoval 3B. As I mentioned in the intro, I was going to talk about players I reached for and I think Sandoval could arguably fall into that category. The only reason I don't think it was a reach to grab him is because 3B is very shallow depth wise from a traditional offensive standpoint. Others could argue that it was a reach because Ryan Zimmerman was still on the board when I made the selection but I think Sandoval has better protection around him in the lineup and he'll put up very similar numbers to Zimmerman.

Round 3: Kendry Morales 1B. I'll be honest, I'm not thrilled with this pick, just because Morales basically came out of no where to put up such insane numbers that there is a fairly big question mark on whether he can put up those type of numbers consistently. I'm expecting some kind of drop off from last season but I still think he could put up impressive numbers.

Round 4: Ubaldo Jiménez SP. Preparing for the draft beforehand it was clear that pitching would be valuable as 10 of the top 15 pitchers were being kept from the previous year. So with that in mind I thought it's time to nab a starter and Jiménez was my choice. Being a strike out pitcher is almost a most pitching in Coors field but he also won 15 games last year as well as posted an ERA of 3.47. I think his ERA rises a little bit but there's no reason to suggest he can't win 15 games again and post similar strikeout numbers.

Round 5: Félix Hernández SP. As I mentioned, a lot of the top pitchers were kept going into the draft and Hernández was my keeper. There isn't much to say about Hernández that isn't already known.

Round 6: Torii Hunter OF. I'll admit it, I was scrambling when my pick came up at this point, and that's because I targeted Gordon Beckham this round and he was snatched up just before my pick came up. I wasn't thrilled with this pick at first (because I was sulking at not getting Beckham) but after the draft I figured that Hunter could put up similar numbers to Beckham. Hunter missed some time last season but he'll be hitting third in the Angels lineup so I expect an increase in home runs and RBI as well as some more stolen bases for Hunter.

Round 7: Joakim Soria RP. Last year I experimented with drafting closers late and while I don't think it hurt me too badly, it was nerve-racking monitoring the waiver wire all the time looking for new closers to grab. So I determined I wouldn't go through that again and decided to grab quality closers this year and Soria is about as high quality as it gets.

Round 8: Jake Peavy SP. Sticking with my pitching theme, Jake Peavy seems like a quality pick. He was grossly underrated in my opinion, but based on the three starts he made at the end of the season for the White Sox was simply dominate. He's only 28 and I believe he's going to make a run for the Cy Young this year.

Round 9: Michael Cuddyer OF/1B. When I was looking at Cuddyer's numbers I was shockingly surprised. When you think Minnesota Twins, you think of a team that dinks and dunks offensively, but Cuddyer had 32 home runs and 94 RBI last season. Those types of numbers are welcomed with open arms on my team.

Round 10: Adam Jones OF. Another keeper pick for my team, Jones is going to break out in a big way this year. He experienced some time on the DL last year so the health is a little bit of a concern but he has a great mix of speed and power.

Round 11: Edwin Jackson SP. Jackson had a very solid 2009 for the Detroit Tigers but was sent to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the offseason. The move the NL offsets any of the concerns I had about moving form a cozy pitcher's park to a hitter's park and I think he'll post up similar numbers to last season.

Round 12: Billy Wagner RP.  I think Wagner is fully healthy and ready to make an impact again closing games. He's reportedly hitting triple digits on the radar gun this spring and has been extremely effective as well.

Round 13: Andre Ethier OF. My last keeper of the draft is Ethier and I expect big things from him this year. I think he can duplicate his 30 homer 100 RBI performance but I'd also like to see about 3-5 more stolen bases from him

Round 14: Jorge De La Rosa SP. With a cap on the number of innings a team's staff can have, finding guys who just wins was important and that's De La Rosa. The Rockies are a good team with a good offense that can help out their pitchers. Will De La Rosa win 16 games again? Probably not, but he should be able to win double digit games and being my #4 starter, that's all I ask for.

Round 15: José Lopez 2B. Lopez is that prototypical all or nothing type of hitter, he'll help me out with home runs and RBI but he'll absolutely destroy my OBP and doesn't provide many runs or stolen bases.\

Round 16 & 17: Trevor Hoffman and Bobby Jenks. I'm putting these rounds together because it's the same position in back-to-back rounds. Hoffman and Jenks round out my relievers and I feel very happy with these four closers. Jenks had an injury scare this spring but has bounced back and seems to have recaptured that magic he had in the beginning of 2009. I'm counting on Hoffman's changeup to continue to deceive hitters.

Round 18: Jorge Posada C. Surprisingly, catcher seemed to be a pretty deep position this year. I was able to wait this long and I still had choices between Posada and A.J. Pierzynski. I went with Posada because of the impressive power numbers and OBP he put up last season.

Round 19 and 20: Tim Hudson and Bronson Arroyo. I made these two picks to fill out my rotation. After a little bit more research, Tim Hudson may be the steal of the draft. He's 3-1 this spring with a 1.35 ERA and 17 K's in 20 innings. He looks to be fully healthy after arm surgery and could be an extremely valuable piece this season. Arroyo was pretty much just filler for my rotation and I'll probably not even pitch him his first time through the rotation just to take inventory of what I have in him.

Overall, the draft didn't go how I planned but I still came out with a team that I like. I think my team lacks stolen bases and it's an area I'm looking to address as well as OBP and Runs. From previous years, the teams I draft usually aren't the same guys that finish the season with me.