nilodnayr

Except last year when I was really happy to have a frontline of Sheets, Harden, and Patterson. Ehh, who am I kidding, I'm hoping to draft him again this year :D Ohh and thanks so much for the pitcher run...by the time I come around again maybe I'll be lucky enough to get Zito as my ace :evil:

1-1) Albert Pujols 1-2) Jose Reyes 1-3) Johan Santana 1-4) Alfonso Soriano 1-5) Alex Rodriguez 1-6) Carlos Beltran 1-7) Ryan Howard 1-8) Miguel Cabrera 1-9) Carl Crawford 1-10) Chase Utley 1-11) Derrek Lee 1-12) Chris Carpenter 2-1) David Wright 2-2) Lance Berkman 2-3) Grady Sizemore 2-4) David Ortiz 2-5) Vladimir Guerrero 2-6) Manny Ramirez 2-7) Mark Teixeira 2-8) Travis Hafner 2-9) Derek Jeter 2-10) Carlos Lee 2-11) Matt Holliday 2-12) Carlos Zambrano 3-1) Jake Peavy 3-2) Aramis Ramirez 3-3) Justin Morneau 3-4) Joe Mauer 3-5) Paul Konerko 3-6) Miguel Tejada 3-7) Jason Bay 3-8) Hanley Ramirez 3-9) Jimmy Rollins 3-10) Roy Halladay 3-11) Brandon Webb 3-12) Dan Haren 4-1) Garrett Atkins 4-2) Ichiro 4-3) Vernon Wells 4-4) Brian McCann

I was really hoping Konerko would fall to my next pick. I thought konerko was a bit of a reach, but then I looked at the 1bmen behind him and saw a bunch of guys that would probably hurt you in BA. Of the guys I was hoping would fall to me in the third round, Peavy, C. Lee, and Tejada were at the top of the list. I know, a dream, but sometimes a guy falls through the cracks a bit.

I'm more of a category/position scarcity type of guy. For example, with my third pick I wanted a top tier ss because I think there is a sizeable drop off after the top 5. I was hoping Tejada would fall to me, but was fine with either Rollins or Hanley. I'm definitely worried about my lack of power so far as two of my three picks will probably hit about 20 HRs each. Tejada provides power at SS unlike anyone else and thats why he was the top choice of those three, in addition to the fact that I drafted Crawford, who will provide only average HR power for an OF. I try to go for balance so you can guess my next pick is either going to be position based or a power hitter. In the league I've been playing in the last few years, in order to win you have to average about 2.5 place in each category so you cant punt any categories. I'm keeping Manny, Berkman, Holliday, Rollins, and Figgins, which I'm pysched about because I have 3 elite power 4 category players and two top SB guys to balance them. Plus the diversity of defensive positions allows me flexibility in the draft. Other notes...I concentrate on drafting for BA...I know it sucks, but I hate getting burned by that category and its tough to trade for. I overdraft steals because its by far the single most valuable stat due to its scarcity and is a great trading chip.

Daily News Hmmm, didn't see that before I made Hanley my preference, but maybe Rollins will close the SB gap. And if he actually doesnt completely suck in the first half, he could have a really amazing year. I made a huge mistake and drafted Jhonny Peralta in the 4th round last year and suffered, but knew Rollins was a second half player and managed to trade Peralta and spare parts for Rollins before the break. Unfortunately that works only once in a keeper league.

I've checked Yahoo everyday for when fantasy baseball starts for the last week. 21 days till spring training. PS, can we turn this into a keeper league? When does it start? I love tearing through their rankings. I agree, we should turn this into a keeper league. Did we ever decide on how many bench spots we would have? Also, I know that we are "competing" against each other in the mock draft, but I would like people to make comments about their picks. Doesnt have to be now as they are making them, but maybe later in the rounds or after the draft, just to get insight as to what they were thinking.

That was my thought but at the last second decided to go with the upside. My preference as well...Hanley will probably get about 10 more steals, which can really come in handy.

Damn you...I wanted Hanley. Ohh well have to settle for J-Roll, the risk adverse version of Hanley.

Two pitchers in a row, Vance? Wow!

The second the Big Hurt gets hurt, absolutely.

1-1) Albert Pujols 1-2) Jose Reyes 1-3) Johan Santana 1-4) Alfonso Soriano 1-5) Alex Rodriguez 1-6) Carlos Beltran 1-7) Ryan Howard 1-8) Miguel Cabrera 1-9) Carl Crawford 1-10) Chase Utley 1-11) Derrek Lee 1-12) Chris Carpenter 2-1) David Wright 2-2) Lance Berkman 2-3) Grady Sizemore 2-4) David Ortiz

Nick is going to chose every first baseman so someone is going to get stuck with Shea Hillenbrand...genius strategy. Doesn't Berkman have OF eligibility? I sure hope so. Yeah he does, he played a good amount of games in the OF last year. I was just kidding, I love Berkman. Hes a keeper on my real fantasy team. I would have taken him if Papi was off the board in this draft.

Nick is going to chose every first baseman so someone is going to get stuck with Shea Hillenbrand...genius strategy.

Triple B, Short of the Cubs acquiring a right-handed platoon partner for Jones, I still think that when the Cubs are facing a lefty, Lou Piniella will consider using DeRosa in RF and starting Theriot at 2B. Hoops Essentially, offensively you are platooning Theriot and Jones. While Theriot is definitely an improvement over Jones vs lefties, we could do much better without costing much. I assume we are going with 12 pitchers, which means that our bench will be done with Floyd, Ward, Pagan, Theriot, and Cedeno. I could see Cedeno starting off in Iowa, but that leaves us a middle infielder short, not an OF. I don't think there's much of a chance that Cedeno will start the year in the majors. Theriot can play 2B, SS, OF - DeRosa can play 2B, SS, 3B, OF - Ward can play 1B, LF, RF - Soriano can play 2B in a pinch. Floyd and Ward will be counted on off the bench and in Floyd's case against many righties. Pagan is not a lock to make the team, but probably will as our backup CF. You're forgetting Blanco - which puts the Cubs at 13 position players (8 starters + Blanco, Theriot, Ward, Pagan, Floyd). I see Pagan not making the team and a surprise player to make it instead - this surprise player can play anywhere since Theriot and Jones can back up in CF. (Scott Moore?) Just came back to say I forgot Blanco...beat me to it. I would be fine with Cedeno starting in AAA and Pagan not making the team, but Moore is a lefty too, we need a righty.

Barrett Lee DeRosa Izturis Ramirez Jones Soriano Murton Blanco Ward Theriot Cedeno Floyd Pagan Thats 14 position players. Either we carry 11 pitchers or someone has to go.

Triple B, Short of the Cubs acquiring a right-handed platoon partner for Jones, I still think that when the Cubs are facing a lefty, Lou Piniella will consider using DeRosa in RF and starting Theriot at 2B. Hoops Essentially, offensively you are platooning Theriot and Jones. While Theriot is definitely an improvement over Jones vs lefties, we could do much better without costing much. I assume we are going with 12 pitchers, which means that our bench will be done with Floyd, Ward, Pagan, Theriot, and Cedeno. I could see Cedeno starting off in Iowa, but that leaves us a middle infielder short, not an OF.

However, that doesnt mean that some righties can't hit lefties better than they can hit righties. A guy who is only a righthanded half of a platoon will never make it to the majors, this is true. However, as a righty who hit righties good enough to make it to the majors exits his prime his production vs righties may diminish so that he is no longer valueable on a full time basis, but he may still be usefull against lefties.

Thanks for the review Vance. Looks like we aren't going to hire Tangotiger as an assistant or anything, but at least we are taking some baby steps.

Wow...that should rank us as one of the highest increases in ticket prices.

Marshall is almost giving her a foot massage. You dont give another man's girl a foot massage and you don't put her in your five.

Ehh probably not as much as you'd think...Crawford and Rios seem to be in pretty high demand. People don't seem to have a problem projecting them to play CF even though they are playing the corners right now.

I prefer one of the weekend games of the home opener series (gotta get the magnet schedule), and have had no problem getting them the last three years either. You gotta be commited to the VWR though. I take the day off or work and enlist an army of friends.

Yeah, that's 300 at-bats. I'll take the career numbers over those any day of the week to compare. Really? I'll take 350 PAs over the last 3 years over 1100 PAs over the last 9 years as far as using experience to project future performance. Except there's too much variance from it. It's not like he's a young player developing, it's the other way around. Not really. I am not taking them equally into consideration overall - I am taking the platoon difference into consideration. A players not going to "forget" how to hit righties and "learn" how to hit lefties. There's usually a pretty consistent split throughout a players career. Of course for a righty versus lefties there's a lot more year to year variance because the sample size is pretty low. Let me know if I'm misunderstanding, but what you are saying is looking at Preston Wilson's career as a whole, he has been basically equal vs lefties and righties, so whatever you project Preston Wilson's performance vs righties is going to be, would be the same as what you would predict his performance vs lefties. Interesting. It would be a good study to see if as hitters exit their prime their same handed vs opposite handed splits grow On a non-stats level it would make sense that that would be true because as you age, bat speed slows so the longer reaction time against the opposte handed pitcher would become more important. Don't know if the stats prove that, but it would be an interesting study.

Yeah, that's 300 at-bats. I'll take the career numbers over those any day of the week to compare. There's something to be said for trends, especially when they span 3 seasons and are for a not-insignificant sample. Besides, even looking at his career numbers he's got a .076 IsoD against LH(.061 v. RH) and a .215 IsoP against LH(.203), so the career similarity is more of a BABIP thing. It's not a significant sample size. There's nothing to be said for trending upward when he's on the wrong side of 30. It's a statistical anamoly. He may be slightly better against lefties, but whenever the righty platoon argument is looked at statistically - it doesn't hold water. In order to predict what Preston Wilson will do in the future, counting a Preston Wilson plate appearance in 1998 equally as one in 2006 would be a horrible mistake.

Yeah, that's 300 at-bats. I'll take the career numbers over those any day of the week to compare. Really? I'll take 350 PAs over the last 3 years over 1100 PAs over the last 9 years as far as using experience to project future performance.