BRAGGING RIGHTS 2013: Felipe's Dreadful Draft Experience

Jay Bruce will be counted on to provide power and run-production in 2013.
(photo courtesy of Mike McCann's FIELD OF FOTOS)

Felipe M

I have been playing in a keeper league for the last 10 seasons or so.  The League is Mardi Gras Madness.  My team name: Black Hole Army named after the villains of this video game:

Sunday night was the draft from hell for my keeper league's annual draft.  Aside from the fact that the league’s draft module kept breaking down on us, it seemed every time I was getting ready to draft somebody, another owner would swoop in and swipe that player out of my hands.  So I ended up selecting a lot of players that I really was not excited to have on my team, but these will be the guys I will be going to war with in this 2013 season:

KEEPERS

• Carlos Santana--C
• Edwin Encarnacion—1B
• Ian Kinsler—2B
• Ryan Braun--LF
• Allen Craig--RF
• Jay Bruce--DH
• Jason Motte--P

I actually like these players as they were the core to my run at the title last season only to fall short in the championship game.  Santana is an elite backstop and still young enough to fulfill potential.  Encarnacion and Craig had breakout years last season and their respective teams consider them part of their future.  Kinsler is still one of the best 2B in all of baseball.  Braun is arguably one of the best hitters in the league.  Meanwhile, Bruce can supply points by the truckloads due to his power bat and Motte can rack up the saves because of his power arm.  Unfortunately, Motte is expected to be placed on the DL to start the season with elbow issues—bummer.  Recently picked up Mitchell Boggs off waivers to offset the Motte injury. 

So coming into the draft, I have a few positions on offense to fill out, but I would have to focus on pitching, pitching, and pitching.  Will this strategy pay off?  It would have to because technically, coming into this draft, I have no pitchers.  Here are the results:

DRAFTED PLAYERS

• Martin Prado—3B
• Jordan Zimmerman—P
• B.J. Upton—CF
• Desmond Jennings—CF
• J.J. Putz—P
• Huston Street—P
• Brandon McCarthy—P
• Tommy Milone—P
• Tim Hudson—P
• Andy Pettitte—P
• Jedd Gyorko—3B
• Danny Espinosa—SS
• Gavin Floyd—P
• A.J. Griffin—P
• Ricky Nolasco—P

Clearly, other than Zimmerman (whom I was thinking of keeping instead of Motte until I read reports of ‘Z’ having issues with a “dead arm” earlier in the spring), a lot of the starting pitchers that I drafted this year are not my type of pitchers.  But what can I do?  All elite pitchers were kept by other teams coming into this draft.  So I was stuck selecting pitch-to-contact pitchers with good control.  Not very happy with the pitching staff, but I did what I could under the circumstances. 

I’m also not very happy with being stuck selecting both B.J.Upton and Jennings, but in the 3^rd and 4^th round, they seemed to be the best and most explosive players available in those two rounds. I’m not high on either one of them, but hopefully the gamble on picking the low patience/contact rate hitters will pay off in the end.

As you guys should know by now, I really like Prado and I even attempted to trade for him in the offseason, but couldn’t make a deal in time to beat our league’s offseason trade deadline.  So when I saw him available with the 11^th pick overall, I did away with my “select nothing but pitchers” strategy and jumped all over the very steady, high patience/contact rate hitter.  He also qualifies at LF so the versatility is an added bonus.

Putz and Street are two of my favorite relievers in the game and somehow, I’m always lucky enough to at least have one of these pitchers in one of my teams for the last three seasons.  In my Yahoo! league, I had both of them on my team, en route to a championship game loss.  I had Street in this keeper league last season as well.  So I was more than happy to see these two closers available to bring some sort of respectability to my pitching staff.

Not happy with the Espinosa pick, but he was my “last line of defense”shortstop.  I was actually going after Elvis Andrus in the 3^rd round, but he was immediately grabbed in the middle of the 2^nd round.  Ian Desmond was my second choice, but somehow, he also got picked up in that same round as well.  I was so desperate for a SS, I was even thinking of picking Derek Jeter, but our resident New York Yankee fan picked him up in the 13^th round.  Guess I’ll be keeping a very close eye on the waivers this season for another shortstop.

Before picking Espinosa, I rolled the dice and reached forGyorko.  As you guys should know, I’ve been excited about Gyorko for awhile now.  Whether I reached too early for him is debatable, but seeing how there were only a handful of players that I would consider selecting before him, I think I made the right choice going with Gyorko’s upside.  And he will eventually qualify at 2B as well and I have Prado manning 3B for now so Gyorko will be riding my bench for awhile until he shows that he can handle big league pitching.

Not really happy with my team, especially my pitching staff, but the best part about it is that it forced me to step out of my comfort zone and go after pitchers I would have never considered drafting in years past.  Last year, I did a good job in picking the pitchers that fit my paradigm as to what a fantasy pitcher should be.  The result last season?  I had the worst pitching staff in our league last year (I still don't know how I reached the championship game in 2012, but that's baseball).  So hopefully, this change in thought will bring me different results and put me over the hump and help me earn that elusive baseball title. 

I really like the batting lineup I have assembled: Encarnacion and Craig are not flukes, I feel this is Santana’s year to blow up, Gyorko and Prado at the hot corner, Jennings and Upton sharing duties in CF, Espinosa is a 15/15 guy, Bruce can light up the scoreboard with his power, and of course, they will all be led by Kinsler and Braun throughout the season. 

So that’s my team—what’s yours?

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CATCH!: 2013 Early Pre-Rankings--Catchers

Is this the year that Carlos Ruiz cracks the
Top 10, Catchers' list?
(photo courtesy of Mike McCann's Field of Fotos)

Felipe M

It's only February, but I'll go ahead and release my preliminary rankings at every position, beginning with the catching position.  The list has a deep emphasis on the upcoming, fantasy baseball season. Names highlighted in GREEN indicate players that are currently on my keeper team.  Other different colors will indicate "tier breaks" on the list.

TOP TIER

1.  Buster Posey: Let me count the ways that Posey has become a valuable commodity in baseball:

• The San Francisco Giants seem to always win with him in the lineup.
• Probably the best keeper catcher in any format imaginable
• Quite possibly the best, all-around hitting catcher in the game today.
• And I can go on and on, but we'll have to save that for another day...

2. Yadier Molina: Has always been an above-average defender, but has seen his offensive production increase in terms of batting average, on-base%, and SLG%.

3. Joe Mauer: Like Posey, Mauer was once considered the best, all-around catcher in the game, but age and lack of power production has slightly dropped him from the top spot.  Nevertheless, Mauer is still a good-hitting catcher and is a solid, "safe" pick at the position.

4. Mike Napoli: Injury concerns in the offseason along with decreases in his slash line last season prevented Napoli from one of the top 3 spots.  However, a move to the Boston Red Sox, where he will be permanently situated at 1B and the fact that he can still provide power, put him comfortably in our top 5.

5. Carlos Santana: Santana has had to battle injuries that has sapped some of his ability to produce power and average, but he's still an on-base machine and he's still young enough to prove his prowess.

6.  Miguel Montero: MLB Network has named the Arizona Diamondback catcher the face of the franchise.  He basically has also become the D'backs' best hitter by default as well.  

7.  Matt Wieters: Just like Santana, Wieters, at 26, is young enough to improve on his offensive numbers, but unlike Santana, Wieters' low batting average also comes along with a low, on-base%.  The switch-hitting catcher can still hit for power, but he needs to prove he can contribute in other categories before we move him up on our list.

SECOND TIER

8. Salvador Perez: Seems like every baseball publication has him ranked high, but we warn our readers about this guy: he's only 22 and is far from having fully developed batting skills.  His power production, at this stage of his career, is merely based on potential.  Be cautious.

9. Wilin Rosario: Another, young, power-hitting catcher.  But as we explained on this site already, Rosario comes with a lot of holes in his game including poor plate discipline, low contact rate, and unpolished defensive game.  Just like Perez, many publications have him ranked high, but be cautious of this player.

10. Jesus Montero:  Struggled mightily as the Seattle Mariners' DH, but he's only 23 years-old and Safeco Field will have new, somewhat hitter-friendly dimensions for 2013 so that should help the young hitter as well.  

11. Carlos Ruiz: His advanced age and the fact that he will begin the season on suspension drops him outside the top 10, but Ruiz has been one of the more dependable, steady catchers for the past few years or so and has a reputation for his clutch-hitting.  Having Ruiz along with one of these younger catchers would provide you with insurance at the backstop position.

12. Ryan Doumit: Injuries have been a hindrance to Doumit reaching his full potential.  Despite no real position for Doumit for the Minnesota Twins, he's still projected, by many publications, to reach 500+ at bats.  He can be a cheap source of power, injuries notwithstanding.

13. Jonathan Lucroy: A career year moves Lucroy into a borderline, starting fantasy catcher.  However, as impressive as 2012 was for him, it's hard to envision him posting another .881 OPS in 2013.

14. A.J. Pierzynski: A career year by A.J. gave him the opportunity to sign with the Texas Rangers. Very questionable that he'll hit for that much power again, but playing in Texas gives him the opportunity to come close to reaching those numbers again.

15. Brian McCann: I'm the biggest McCann fan and his biggest apologist.  It's hard to look past the decrease in his numbers last season, but he was battling a nagging shoulder injury.  The Atlanta Braves still have confidence in him and he'll be given every chance to come back at 100%.

THIRD TIER

Here are how the rest of the catchers pan out:

• John Jaso
• Alex Aliva
• A.J. Ellis
• Jarrod Saltalamacchia
• J.P. Arencibia
• Tyler Flowers
• Chris Iannetta
• Russell Martin
• Welington Castillo
• Rob Brantly

And here are a few catchers to keep an eye on this spring:

1. Travis d'Arnaud
2. Wilson Ramos vs Kurt Suzuki-- Suzuki is still ahead of Ramos in the Washington Nationals' depth chart.
3. Mike Zunino

First Base is next!  Who?  Exactly!

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For our list of 1B, click here.