Drafted Again!

Last night I had my second and final fantasy draft of the year. It might be the best one yet. This is a league I’ve been in for quite some time. It’s a standard 5x5 league, with big rosters. This year, we only had ten teams, and I had the 9^th pick. Let’s get right to the team!

C Joe Mauer

1B Adrian Gonzalez

2B Brandon Phillips

3B Mark Reynolds

SS Alexei Ramirez

CI Adam Lind

MI Juan Uribe

OF Carl Crawford

OF Colby Rasmus

OF Carlos Quentin

OF JD Drew

U David Ortiz

U Jason Kubel

U Nyjer Morgan

SP Jon Lester

SP Josh Johnson

SP Clay Buchholz

RP Jonathan Papelbon

RP Francisco Cordero

P Craig Kimbrel

P Kevin Gregg

P Daniel Bard

BN Josh Beckett

BN John Lackey

BN Tim Stauffer

BN Daisuke Matsuzaka

BN Bronson Arroyo

Pretty snazzy, right? The first four selections were Crawford-Gonzalez-Lester- Mauer. I think it was a nice start. I even managed to get the Red Sox without over picking them. Well, maybe Clay and Drew. But, much better than normally. I love the rotation. The five Red Sox starters offer a nice mix of wins, K’s, and comps. The NL aces may not get the wins (although Arroyo had 17 last year) but their percentages should help out a lot. I have 3.5 closers, which is my all-time high. Bard is there for strikeouts and low comps. The offense is lacking in steals a bit. Especially now that Morgan is a back up in Milwaukee. Once I got Crawford, I knew I was safe for a bit and sort of forgot about them. The power guys are spread out a bit, so it’s hard to realize it’s there. But, nine guys had 20 HR last year, and three had 30. Some of the batting averages are lower than I’d like, but Mauer should help with that. Overall, I’m pleased. I’ll have to replace Morgan obviously. I’m not sure what to do with Dice and Arroyo. I like having them, but that’s a lot of pitchers. I’ll be well over my innings limit unless I do a game of only starting them when they face weak teams, or something like that. Probably not a lot of trade value from my last two picks though. I’d like a bench hitter, preferably a catcher eligible non-catcher.

There’s room to play. I can’t wait for the season to start.

Go Red Sox!