Mastersball

Doing double duty drafting Sunday evening on the computer. In the first, competing in a FF mock draft with several other well-known site/players at 8 PM ET and in the second, doing a monthly free agent draft for the XFL starting at 9 PM ET. So I thought I would let those interested follow along as we zig and zag between FF and FB. I will be updating as both drafts progress but here are the basics going in.

The fantasy football mock is for a 12 team league starting QB/RB/RB/WR/WR/WR/TE/Flex/K/DST with five bench spots. I will be drafting tenth out of twelve and hoping for a TE/WR or RB/WR start but of course you can’t really predict what nine others will do and the first pick will change the second.

It will be interesting to see how these sites/writers draft their Quarterbacks

• BFD Fantasy Football - John Duckworth
• Roto Experts –Adam Ronis
• FF Pools – K. Bross
• Rotowire – Howard Bender
• Draft Calc.com
• Rotowire – Mike Gottlieb
• Faketeams.com – Mike Gallagher
• Reality Sports Online
• GridironExperts - Mike Rodriguez
• Mastersball – PVH
• Erik Siegrist
• GridironGod.com – Craig Macchi

Personally I am old school there and would never draft a quarterback in the first round and likely not in the second round (although I can see a case for taking Aaron Rodgers early in the second). I suspect there will be two quarterbacks taken before my pick in the first round which should mean I will get a better RB or WR than I might if everyone held off on getting a passer. And the sound argument for waiting is that while the top quarterbacks will outscore the other positions there isn’t much variance in the top PPG amongst the top ten although clearly Rodgers makes the counter argument.

Current basic ADP at MDC for drafts in the last three weeks in fact shows four QBs – Rodgers, Brees, Newton, and Brady all going in the first round, along with seven RBs – Foster, McCoy, Rice, MJD, Forte, Johnson, and Mathews. That leaves only one WR – Calvin Johnson and no tight ends being drafted. Seems odd – let’s see what comes of the board tonight:

1.01- Arian Foster, RB, HOU

1.02 - Ray Rice, RB, BALT

1.03 - LeSean McCoy, RB, PHL

1.04 - Calvin Johnson, WR, DET

1.05 - Aaron Rodgers, QB, GB

1.06 - Maurice Jones-Drew, RB, JAX

1.07 - Drew Brees, QB, NO

1.08 - Chris Johson, RB, TEN

1.09 - Cam Newton, QB, CAR

1.10 - Jimmy Graham, TE, NO

1.11 - Victor Cruz, WR, NYG

1.12 - Andre Johnson, WR, HOU

 Pretty happy the way it went and I got the Charger's Ryan Matthews with my second round pick

I expect that we should draft four rounds – maybe well into the fifth in the first hour in this draft and then I will have to make my first pick in our monthly free agent draft in the XFL. I will have the seventh pick in the first round as I am currently 9^th in the fifteen team league (was 8^th yesterday having just gone up to the next group with total points in the 80s this week).

I need to get the best MI I can with Tulowitzki now on the DL and of course there is always the need for more pitching. I probably won’t have the internal debate again on Quintin Berry as I suspect a team drafting ahead of me may either consider him a possible $10 keeper for next year or just need the stolen bases to move up this year. The problem of full time at bats affects the MI choice – really only Cody Ransom is a full time player although for a while at least Everth Cabrera may be in the lineup every day with Andy Parrino now on the DL. It would be a tough choice if both Ransom and my top pitcher, another Brewer – Mike Fiers were both available but let’s see…………

Okay here is how the mock draft went for me for the first ten rounds

1.01 - Graham

2.03 - Mathews

3.10 - Mike Wallace, PIT

4.03 - Steve Smith, CAR

5.10 - Willis McGahee, DEN

6.03 - Eli Manning, NYG

7.10 - Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis, CIN

8.03 - Santonio Holmes, NYJ

9.10 - Tony Gonzalez, ATL

10.03 - Nate Washington, TEN

Amazingly we finished the fifteen rounds in one hour - all the picks weren't the best (sorry fellas) but they were Fast.

Here is the rest of my draft - will add analysis later. If you have any questions it is better in the FF Forum on the message boards than here.

11.10 - Tim Hightower, WAS

12.03 - Davone Bess, MIA

13.10 - Steelers DST

14.03 - Randall Cobb, GB

15.10 - K....for me Rob Bironas, TEN good leg with a late bye

Okay, over to the chat room for the XFL draft where it turns out I had plenty of extra time to turn off the extra laptop and get set up.

As I suspected Lawr took Berry with the first pick, so with my first round pick I actually had my choice of starting pitchers and took Kyle Kendrick over Mike Fiers who was grabbed later in the round.

Still had all my MI choices in the second round and didn't try and get cut and took Cody Ransom......actually if I had noticed that Gene McCaffrey was below me that way maybe I would have taken Pacheco but for my team he would be more of a next year hopeful and I am trying for a run to the top five this year.

With my third round pick I wanted one of the SP with an upcoming two start week and like Scott Feldman's schedule (@ OAK and @ SF) over Travis Blackley or Cole Devries.

I took one more player (we used to only get three picks per month but expanded it to as many as you could make room for). I had strongly considered the Athletics Ryan Cook who could well be there closer next year but fortunately for me and my shiny coin he was taken before my next turn. So I took Jerry Hairston Jr. who can and hopefully will play all over the Dodger infield - not a big leap given the drek and youth they have on the team. If he gets to be a regular I will play him otherwise he is a great backup for my team.

That was actually fun - two drafts in less than two hours. Good company and barbs and comments back and forth without making me late for dinner. Now for a good bottle of red wine and some television with wifey. Juggling my rosters and lineups can wait until tomorrow morning.