Draft recap

So, I'm in this pseudo dynasty league that holds a 40 round megadraft once a year.  Said occasion in 2010 was this past Saturday, and I'd like to tell you about it.

The first thing you need to know is that keepers are the norm in this league, and well over 100 guys were kepts anywhere between the 2nd and 26th round.  The keeper policy is pretty straightforward.  You can keep any player you want provided a) he has played in the majors and b) that you keep him four round earlier than the slot which you used to draft or keep the player the year before.  You also cannot keep anyone in a round lower than 26.  So, any guy you take in round 30-40 can be kept in round 26 (or, you can move guys up rounds to keep them if you have more than one keeper per round?  Get it?  No?  Okay, we're moving on.

The team I co-own is defending a championship that was earned largely because of the stregth of our keepers (which were partially gathered two years ago, when we held a yearlong firesale to load up for a sustained run).  This year, as you can see, our keepers are strong again.

Round 5 -- Verlander
Round 6 -- Bruce
Round 11 -- Rios
Round 14 -- Grienke
Round 15 -- Pedroia
Round 16 -- Cahill
Round 18 -- J. Upton
Round 19 -- G. Beckham
Round 24-  Hughes
Round 25 -- Nunez
Round 26 -- Coghlan

There are a couple of head scratchers in there, I know.  We kept Bruce because we thought he would be the best available in round six due to all the stars being kept.  We also kept him becuase our man love for Bruuuuuuce knows no bounds.  We had to keep Cahill, just trust me, not because we like him that much (though he's a nice post hype guy, but in the later rounds for sure), but because our league rules are more complicated than mapping the human genome.  We actually acquired Nunez and Cahill in a package for nothing.  In other words, "You can have Nunez at a good value if you take Cahill and his crappy kepper status off my hands."  We were happy to do so.

Here is the rest of our draft (keepers in bold).

1 --1B Miguel Cabrera
2 --SP Felix Hernandez
3-  OF Adam Dunn
4 --SP Josh Johnson
5 --SP Justin Verlander
6 --OF Jay Bruce
7 --OF Juan Pierre
7 --RP Fran. Rodriguez
8 --RP Francisco Cordero
9 --3B Chipper Jones
10 --SP Johnny Cueto
11 --OF Alex Rios
12 --OF Colby Rasmus
13 --SP Scott Kazmir
14 --SP Zack Greinke
15 --2B Dustin Pedroia
16 --SP Trevor Cahill
17 --1B Justin Smoak
18 --OF Justin Upton
19 --2B Gordon Beckham
20 --OF Cameron Maybin
21 --3B Brandon Wood
22 --C Jesus Montero
23 --OF Michael Brantley
24 --SP Phil Hughes
25 --RP Leo Nunez
26 --2B Chris Coghlan
27 --OF Sean Rodriguez
28 --SP Martin Perez
29 --RP J.J. Putz
30 --3B Lonnie Chisenhall
31 --SS Orlando Cabrera
32 --SP Dustin McGowan
33 --SP Chris Withrow
33 --SP Vicinte Padilla
34 --OF Chris Heisey
36 --SP Jake McGee
37 --OF Jordan Schafer
38 --OF Andrew Miller
39 --2B Clint Barmes

We loved getting Miggy with the 12th pick.  I thought we'd have to settle for Holliday or Crawford.  Both were taken before us.  We wanted the big stats in the power cats, and we don't believe as much in positional scarcity.  Miggy was much higher on my board.  We have sketchy options at third (though I still believe in Larry) and short, but I'd MUCH rather take Orlando Cabrera (or any other stiff) in the 31st round than reach for Brandon Phillips at MI.  How about Tejada in the 8th versus Cabrera in the 31st?  That is why you don't reach just because you need to fill a position.  Going back to the Bruce thing, the only guy I would have taken instead of Bruce with that 6th was Manny, who lasted until the middle of the round.  We took Juan Pierre with a Demitrius Underwood bonus pick in the 7th (that we acquired via offseason trade) beacuse we needed speed and got sniped on BJ Upton in the third round.  Other than that, we leaned heavily on keeping our farm stocked with young prospects who are ready to play.  Of all the guys we took, Martin Perez, Lonnie Chisenhall and Jesus Montero are the guys we are crossing our fingers get the call.  Montero is going to be a beast for us in the future if he can just play this year.  We think Putz could get some saves this year and he is on a one year deal, so he could sign somewhere else to close in 2011.  And yes, we have no catcher.  I don't really value that position in one catcher leagues, and we'll just pick up a Ramon Hernandez, John Baker type when we put McGowan and McGee on the DL.

Obviously this is a very strong squad, mainly due to our keepers again, but I thought we drafted pretty well.  What are your thoughts?

Cheers,
TFAM