Picnic and Draft
Apr. 23rd, 2022 10:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
billroperIt was a lovely warm day today, so Gretchen and I picked out carryout and had an in-car picnic lunch at one of the local parks. After that, it was time to head off for our annual baseball draft.
This year was a bit odd, as we are down two managers at the moment, which meant that I drafted for one of the absent managers while the other co-commissioner drafted for the other manager. As the draft order worked out, that meant that each of us was drafting for an absent manager who was drafting directly ahead of the other co-commissioner. The only good thing is that we were less personally conflicted this way.
The draft went very much as I expected and not at all as I'd expected for a variety of reasons. The position player talent available in the draft this year was extraordinarily thin, while there were four (maybe five -- no, just four) starting pitchers available under the pitching cap and sufficient relief talent to go around, if not make everyone deliriously happy. But really, there was going to be a shortage of good position players after the first round and a half.
So the fellow with the first pick in the draft grabbed Marcus Semien, which no one could argue with. I was drafting for an open franchise with the next pick and grabbed Wander Franco, who wasn't necessarily the player that the team *needed* the most, but clearly the most talented available player for a team that had remarkably few needs for a team drafting second. Things wibbled and wobbled down to me at the bottom of the round. I had thought to possibly take a starting pitcher, but none were left, which was largely ok, because Tyler Stephenson, a relatively young and talented catcher had fallen to me and my needs at catcher were large, so that was my first draft pick.
My bullpen had also completely fallen apart so I picked Emmanuel Clase, Andrew Chafin, Andy Kittredge, and Collin McHugh in successive rounds, filling four of the five open positions.
I still needed to collect some more catching talent, so I then picked Keibert Ruiz, the young catcher for the Nationals, who is not eligible to play this year, but will, I hope, be useful in the future. (The available catching this year was terrible. Really terrible.)
In the seventh round, I closed out the bullpen with Michael Fulmer. Then in the eighth round, I dropped the useless-this-year Chris Paddack who I had picked up on a flyer last year so that I could replace him with Zac Gallen, who is slightly more useful this year and (I hope!) a better flyer.
I finished up in the ninth round, adding second baseman Jazz Chisholm to replace Jake Cronenworth. I hope I have traded up, but in any case, I have traded younger.
And that's it. I mostly got everything I might have hoped to get.
Now, I need to see if I have enough of everything, given the lack of turnover among the position players.
It'll be interesting.
This year was a bit odd, as we are down two managers at the moment, which meant that I drafted for one of the absent managers while the other co-commissioner drafted for the other manager. As the draft order worked out, that meant that each of us was drafting for an absent manager who was drafting directly ahead of the other co-commissioner. The only good thing is that we were less personally conflicted this way.
The draft went very much as I expected and not at all as I'd expected for a variety of reasons. The position player talent available in the draft this year was extraordinarily thin, while there were four (maybe five -- no, just four) starting pitchers available under the pitching cap and sufficient relief talent to go around, if not make everyone deliriously happy. But really, there was going to be a shortage of good position players after the first round and a half.
So the fellow with the first pick in the draft grabbed Marcus Semien, which no one could argue with. I was drafting for an open franchise with the next pick and grabbed Wander Franco, who wasn't necessarily the player that the team *needed* the most, but clearly the most talented available player for a team that had remarkably few needs for a team drafting second. Things wibbled and wobbled down to me at the bottom of the round. I had thought to possibly take a starting pitcher, but none were left, which was largely ok, because Tyler Stephenson, a relatively young and talented catcher had fallen to me and my needs at catcher were large, so that was my first draft pick.
My bullpen had also completely fallen apart so I picked Emmanuel Clase, Andrew Chafin, Andy Kittredge, and Collin McHugh in successive rounds, filling four of the five open positions.
I still needed to collect some more catching talent, so I then picked Keibert Ruiz, the young catcher for the Nationals, who is not eligible to play this year, but will, I hope, be useful in the future. (The available catching this year was terrible. Really terrible.)
In the seventh round, I closed out the bullpen with Michael Fulmer. Then in the eighth round, I dropped the useless-this-year Chris Paddack who I had picked up on a flyer last year so that I could replace him with Zac Gallen, who is slightly more useful this year and (I hope!) a better flyer.
I finished up in the ninth round, adding second baseman Jazz Chisholm to replace Jake Cronenworth. I hope I have traded up, but in any case, I have traded younger.
And that's it. I mostly got everything I might have hoped to get.
Now, I need to see if I have enough of everything, given the lack of turnover among the position players.
It'll be interesting.