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billroperWe managed to finish up our annual APBA baseball draft in a bit less than five hours, which was a pretty good pace, given that it ran sixteen rounds before it was over. I was done in seven rounds, but I had a lot fewer holes to fill than some of the teams.
As I mentioned before, I had a lot of quality starting pitching coming back in a year when no quality starting pitching was available in the draft due to the league-imposed cap. And it turned out that I was able to deal off Zac Gallen, who I had picked up in last year's draft and who had come back as a top-rated pitcher, for the number two pick overall in this year's draft. The team that I dealt Gallen to was woefully short on pitching and quite long on outfield, which helped, because the best young players in the draft were outfielders.
Then I got a surprise. The fellow with the first pick in the draft decided to take a flyer on a relief pitcher who had a uniquely excellent card with a pitching grade (A&B with control) that we *never* see in the draft, despite the fact that he's limited to pitching very few innings. I hadn't expected him to go that early because of the limited innings, but I was wrong.
And I was happy to be wrong, because this meant that I could pick up AL Rookie of the Year Julio Rodriguez with the number two overall pick in the draft. This was really helpful, because although I have excellent outfielders (Harper, Buxton, Acuna, Soto) they were really short on at bats, because of injuries. Rodriguez covers a multitude of sins and is young and talented.
Having solved the at bat problem for outfield, I still had at bat problems at second base (Albies, Chisholm) due to injuries, and catcher (Stephenson, d'Arnaud, Ruiz -- the last providing some at bats, but not particularly *good* ones this year, although he remains a prospect). Harris went right after Rodriguez (no surprise) and then Adley Rutschman, the young Baltimore catcher, followed by Andres Gimenez, *another* relief pitcher, and Alejandro Kirk, the young Toronto catcher. And now it was back to me, with both of the good young catchers in the draft gone. I wasn't surprised.
Except that the not-quite-so-young-but-won-the-NL-batting-title-last-year second baseman for the Mets, Jeff McNeil was still available with a whole bunch of at bats. Well, solve the problems that you can, so I grabbed McNeil.
The rest of my draft was simple. As usual, I needed to fill in the bullpen, and having determined that there were "plenty" of quality relief pitchers for my purposes, I drafted A.J. Minter in round two, followed by Erik Swanson in round three, and Ryan Helsley in round four. Bullpen rebuilt, with Emmanuel Clase and Collin McHugh as holdovers.
I picked up MacKenzie Gore as a starting pitcher prospect in round five, and added Brendan Donovan in round six as a backup *everything* because he spent the winter working on his power stroke and if he develops some power, he will be really impressive.
Finally, I grabbed one more pitching prospect in the seventh round with Hunter Greene.
We're playing with the DH this year, following the major leagues, so my DH slot is already covered by the returning Shohei Ohtani. Unnamed players around the infield include Freddie Freeman, Manny Machado, Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa, and Dansby Swanson, while the starting rotation consists of Clayton Kershaw, Max Fried, the aforementioned Ohtani, Yu Darvish, Brandon Woodruff, and Luis Severino, with Jamethon Taillon and Walker Buehler as spot starters.
This should be a good team. (Remembering that this is an eight team league, there are a *lot* of good players.)
We'll see how it plays.
As I mentioned before, I had a lot of quality starting pitching coming back in a year when no quality starting pitching was available in the draft due to the league-imposed cap. And it turned out that I was able to deal off Zac Gallen, who I had picked up in last year's draft and who had come back as a top-rated pitcher, for the number two pick overall in this year's draft. The team that I dealt Gallen to was woefully short on pitching and quite long on outfield, which helped, because the best young players in the draft were outfielders.
Then I got a surprise. The fellow with the first pick in the draft decided to take a flyer on a relief pitcher who had a uniquely excellent card with a pitching grade (A&B with control) that we *never* see in the draft, despite the fact that he's limited to pitching very few innings. I hadn't expected him to go that early because of the limited innings, but I was wrong.
And I was happy to be wrong, because this meant that I could pick up AL Rookie of the Year Julio Rodriguez with the number two overall pick in the draft. This was really helpful, because although I have excellent outfielders (Harper, Buxton, Acuna, Soto) they were really short on at bats, because of injuries. Rodriguez covers a multitude of sins and is young and talented.
Having solved the at bat problem for outfield, I still had at bat problems at second base (Albies, Chisholm) due to injuries, and catcher (Stephenson, d'Arnaud, Ruiz -- the last providing some at bats, but not particularly *good* ones this year, although he remains a prospect). Harris went right after Rodriguez (no surprise) and then Adley Rutschman, the young Baltimore catcher, followed by Andres Gimenez, *another* relief pitcher, and Alejandro Kirk, the young Toronto catcher. And now it was back to me, with both of the good young catchers in the draft gone. I wasn't surprised.
Except that the not-quite-so-young-but-won-the-NL-batting-title-last-year second baseman for the Mets, Jeff McNeil was still available with a whole bunch of at bats. Well, solve the problems that you can, so I grabbed McNeil.
The rest of my draft was simple. As usual, I needed to fill in the bullpen, and having determined that there were "plenty" of quality relief pitchers for my purposes, I drafted A.J. Minter in round two, followed by Erik Swanson in round three, and Ryan Helsley in round four. Bullpen rebuilt, with Emmanuel Clase and Collin McHugh as holdovers.
I picked up MacKenzie Gore as a starting pitcher prospect in round five, and added Brendan Donovan in round six as a backup *everything* because he spent the winter working on his power stroke and if he develops some power, he will be really impressive.
Finally, I grabbed one more pitching prospect in the seventh round with Hunter Greene.
We're playing with the DH this year, following the major leagues, so my DH slot is already covered by the returning Shohei Ohtani. Unnamed players around the infield include Freddie Freeman, Manny Machado, Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa, and Dansby Swanson, while the starting rotation consists of Clayton Kershaw, Max Fried, the aforementioned Ohtani, Yu Darvish, Brandon Woodruff, and Luis Severino, with Jamethon Taillon and Walker Buehler as spot starters.
This should be a good team. (Remembering that this is an eight team league, there are a *lot* of good players.)
We'll see how it plays.