The Tale of Two Teams

So I had a couple of fantasy baseball drafts this past week. The first, ominously, was in an 18 team league, in which I had the last pick. The second was with my friends from school, whom I compete in fantasy sports with all year long. I’m famous for getting second place in everything. I had the 5th pick in that draft. Here’s a sneak peak at my two teams.

The first, the one in the 18 team league, is with a bunch of Twins fans, 18 to be exact. I named the team “Gassner’s All-stars” after the only player in the Twins’ system (Dave Gassner), to my knowledge, that went to my alma mater, Purdue. Despite my status as the last picking team, I was able to secure Miguel Cabrera and Roy Halladay with my first two picks. From there, I built on offense, with picks of guys like Jimmy Rollins, Pat Burrell, Ken Griffey Jr., Grady Sizemore and Kevin Mench. I figure that in a league with so many teams, such as this, the pitching would be so thin that it would be hard to get more than one dominant starter, whereas there are 9 easy positions in which to draft offense and stack your team that way, which is what I did. The only pitchers I drafted before I had to leave and have Yahoo autodraft for me were Halladay and Derrick Turnbow. My team, then, had the following roster:
Jason Larue -C
Darin Erstad – 1b
Orlando Hudson – 2b
Rollins – SS
Cabrera – 3b
Sizemore, Burrell, Griffey – OF
Mench – DH
Garrett Atkins, David Dejesus, Preston Wilson, and Mark Kotsay – bench
Halladay, Shawn Chacon, Mike Mussina, David Wells, Jason Marquis, Adam Eaton – SP
Turnbow, Aaron Heilman, Ryan Madson – RP

Since I had about 15 outfielders and no backups anywhere else, I traded Kotsay and Wilson for less talent and more flexibility in Eric Hinske and Damian Miller. A roster spot was added, and curiously, I added another outfielder, Gary Matthews Jr., which gives me the league leade in Junior outfielders. The thing that worries me most is that I only had one pitcher with over 200 innings last season, and that was Marquis. Also, I’m missing a major opportunity by not having a 1b who can really mash. Otherwise, I’m in excellent shape given my draft position and size of the league.

Then there was the smaller league, which I had a higher draft pick. I named my team in this league “VictoriaTimes” since I am, in fact, a shameless self-promoter. The prize of this draft for me was Chone Figgins, since I grabbed him in the third round, after my boy Mark Teixeira and Bobby Abreu. I got my first pitcher in the 5th round (after picking Joe Mauer in the 4th to solidify a tough position to find production from) and he was Dontrelle Willis. I then picked up John Smoltz and Joe Nathan before returning to position players. My strategy here was similar as with GAS, although there were more dominant pitchers available that I wanted to grab, as ths is a 10X10 league. The final roster was this.
Mauer – C
Teixeira – 1b
Figgins – 2b
Garret Atkins (oh no!) – 3b
Julio Lugo – SS
Coco Crisp – LF
Willy Tavares – CF
Abreu – RF
Burrell – DH
Mark Loretta, Prince Fielder, and Brad Wilkerson – bench
Willis, Smoltz, John Lieber, Ervin Santana, Greg Maddux, Francisco Liriano – SP
Nathan, Keith Foulke, Jason Duchscherer, Aaron Heilman – RP

Some things stuck out at me right away. For example, how is a bench player on my team in a larger league starting on a team in a more talent rich league? Also, how did I get 4 lead off hitters on my team? If I lose stolen bases in any week, I’ve got a lot of thinking to do. I’m a big loser in the home runs department, but I win in singles, doubles, triples, and average, so I think the exchange is fair. Also, I like that Pat Burrell has made an appearance on both teams. I complained about him all season last year but he was surprisingly effective. I’d like to say I have some trades in the works on this team as well, perhaps for another SP or a 3b, but unfortunately, I can’t. Unless I can trade Teixeira for Cabrera between Gassner’s All-Stars and VictoriaTimes. -Ryan