We were to have the remainder of the draft live on Tuesday, but only 4 of the 8 showed up, for various reasons. Some things were discussed more at length (remember, this is the inaugural draft of an NL-only, 10 player keeper league that will run until I'm an old man, barring unforseen circumstances) and it was decided to continue with the draft online, just by simply checking the league home diligently, and picking when it was your turn. Like I have said previously, I'm friends or related to all but 2 of the guys in the league, so a lot of text messages were exchanged as picks were made, alerting the next person as best you could. I was way ready for it to be over, but, all things considered, it went pretty well for never nailing down an actual live draft. Interesting to say the least.
Well, I went into this thinking long-term, as the bold print above indicates. I came away with a lot of the young prospects that I targeted when I started looking exclusively at National Leaguers. Even if it means suffering a little this year, I'm ecstatic that I can choose 10 of them and watch them grow up.
I'd also like to say we have 24 total spots, but we also have 2 injury spots, and 2 minor league spots that don't count against that total.
Here's my team:
1B James Loney
RF Brad Hawpe
SP Brandon Webb, Ted Lilly, Chad Billingsley, Kyle Lohse, Carlos Villanueva, Johnny Cueto, Rick VandenHurk, Josh Fogg, Jason Hirsh*, Shawn Hill*
RP Jonathan Broxton, Carlos Marmol,
Reserves Willy Tavarez, Ryan Theriot, Colby Rasmus, Andy LaRoche*
*denotes player can start year on my injured list. So, I can still pick up another two pitchers, or 1 pitcher, 1 fielder, etc. If you have anymore names to throw out, that you think may have somehow gone undrafted, I'm all ears.
Thanks a whole bunch, SmallMarketFan, franticantic, xxgobosoxxx, and Joe Khyser. Your input and suggestions were fantastic, and I can tell you all love fantasy baseball. Any comments were greatly appreciated.
Tell me what you think, and be honest. I know I need some breaks with starting pitching. Villanueva needs to be in the rotation for you guys, SMF.
Hopefully he doesn't give them a choice. I love that I got LaRoche at the end of the draft. He could be a beast when he returns. Billingsley, Cueto, Broxton/Marmol were all personal targets going in. If the relief duo come along like I think they will, I'm set for a long time. Maybe package 1 of them in a trade, who knows? Rasmus can just bide his time on one of my minor league spots until the Cards bring him up. If they don't call him up, he can stay in minors spot and be kept without counting as one of my 10 keepers. I have 1 open minors spot...anyone I should be looking for, since they can just sit?
I don't know what to expect out of a lot my youngsters this year, but I certainly expect a lot out of them in the years to come.
Here's to crossed fingers.