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Thursday, March 28, 2024

As we enter the last weekend for most mixed league drafts, I have to give Thanks to NYY fanatics and drafters overboard with both position scarcity and some measured risks.

Okay, I didn’t really have that in mind until Thursday night when Greg Morgan (Masters of the NFBC published on Tuesday here at Mastersball) and I drafted our one “Captain Morgan" team this year, an entry into the new Fantasy Baseball Players Championship. A spinoff of the very successful Fantasy Football Players Championship, this is the first year and as such all the drafts are online. The inaugural Main Event is paying a $50,000 Grand Prize to the overall winner which, given the $1600 entry of only sixty teams, makes it a very attractive "return on investment" event.

The format is slightly different from the NFBC, each of the fourteen teams in each league having a tenth pitcher and an eighth reserve slot. The ten pitchers must be six starters, two relievers, and two free/flex hurlers who can be either starters or relievers. The contest also allows lineup submissions twice a week for two periods: Mon-Thurs and Fri-Sun.

As Greg and I settled in behind our computer screens connected by phone, we wondered what would happen to us with the third pick in the draft. We both agreed that our preference would be 1) Miguel Cabrera; 2) Mike Trout; and 3) with perhaps slight consternation, Ryan Braun.

The draft room fills and finally the first pick goes up on the screen – Miguel Cabrera to Team 1.

No surprise but perhaps a slight sigh as we hoped for a Braun pick there. What happened next both shocked and amazed us in all the good ways: Robinson Cano to Team 2. (Thank You!)

So we happily took Mike Trout and now we could get ready for a long wait before our next pick. Actually, before the draft I had listed all 13 pitchers in my top two tiers so we could see what was left as we decided on our second and third picks. With the extra pitching slot and the ability to better stream starts, pitching would be very important in this league. But, that didn’t necessarily mean that there would be lots of early picks. In the very first FBPC satellite draft in January, there were only four pitchers taken in the first three rounds (Justin Verlander and Stephen Strasburg in the 1st, Clayton Kershaw in the 2nd and David Price with the last pick in the 3rd). But that was many drafts ago, and even in the NFBC main events last weekend there were more pitchers taken in the second and third rounds.

So we waited and as we did so Greg prophetically said “wouldn’t it be great if Jose Bautista or Josh Hamilton came all the way back to us at 2.12?”

Back to the pitchers drafted Thursday, there were three in the first round – Verlander at 1.05, Strasburg at 1.07, and Kershaw at 1.09. More surprising was there were only two drafted in the second round – David Price at 2.06 and Felix Hernandez at 2.08. Yes, if you looked closely, that means both Team 7 and Team 9 started this draft with a pair of hurlers. Maybe I should add them to the groups above.

But when the two teams in front of us both selected the appropriate second basemen, yes both Bautista and Hamilton were still there and I voted for Bautista to join Trout in our outfield. On the turn (Hamilton,Yoenis Cespedes, Cole Hamels, Paul Goldschmidt), we decided on Cliff Lee to be our staff ace. And now another long wait.

I was very happy to see Allen Craig still available and we started him at first base with our fourth round pick. With the third pick in round five we selected Madison Bumgarner, who together with Lee should give us a base of 400 strikeouts with great ratios and 25-30 wins.

We continued to see a player slip to us (at least based on the previous NFBC drafts Greg and I had seen in the last week and on FBPC team he did with his father) and 6.12 was a fine spot to add Jimmy Rollins and get a top-tier shortstop. With the wrap around pick, we again added a pitcher, this time Tampa Bay closer Fernando Rodney (fourth closer off the board after Craig Kimbrel, Ardolis Chapman and Jonathan Papelbon).

Since we had missed the second tier of second basemen and because we both see a healthy Chase Utley (at least so far this year), we added the Phils keystone player at 8.12. There were a lot of good choices for our ninth round pick but we agreed that more power was good and another first baseman might allow us to push Craig to the outfield later if things went well, the corner infield pool being very deep this year, so we took Paul Konerko, having just missed on Ryan Howard. Trout will lend Konerko a few steals, Paulie pretty unlikely to even get one on the back end of a double steal, but Konerko is a nice plus with batting average in addition to the power categories.

As our pick in the tenth round neared, we saw that despite eight or nine closers rostered, the Giants’ Sergio Romo was still there, so we added him at 10.12 to not only serve as a great partner with Rodney but to hopefully fuel a closer run, and we did as nine more were drafted in the 11th and 12th rounds. We actually doubled up on pitchers on the 10/11 turn, adding Doug Fister, who several rounds earlier I had asked Greg if he liked because he was sitting in the pool with more than a dozen less worthy pitchers drafted over that time. Adding another 180+ strikeouts with an elite WHIP would obviously be great as SP3.

As the 12th round inched towards us, we were hoping that one of our third base choices would last, and in fact when both Kyle Seager and Manny Machado did, we chose Seager at least partially for a little more experience and perhaps a few more home runs. We both like Machado’s upside and would be glad to add him later should the opportunity arise.

There wasn’t a pitcher we really liked there and there was a good hitter we both liked, so we added Torii Hunter at 13.03, not expecting him to duplicate last year’s numbers but as a good run producer in that Tigers' lineup. But almost two rounds later, there was a pitcher still there that begged to be rostered, and so our 14th round pick was Cardinals' starter Lance Lynn. At 15.03 we added more power with Josh Reddick as our fourth outfielder.

At 16.12 we added another 30+ swipes with the Brewers' Jean Segura filling out our MI slot. There are lots of times when, drafting in tandem, you are hoping your partner can accede to your preferences, and thankfully Greg was there to allow me to add Hyun-Jin Ryu, the Dodgers' new Korean import. Having seen Ryu pitch a couple of times, including spring training, I can tell you he should be a very good pitcher to have – another hurler who can add 200 strikeouts.

We had not found the right catcher to add in our previous selections but it was time to take a stand and I lobbied for Chris Iannetta to join us at 18.12 and Greg relented. Iannetta has shown considerable power before but I think there is a chance for him to contribute a better batting average this year for the Angels, and of course for Captain Morgan. Greg got his choice of starters at 19.03, as we added A.J. Burnett and his nice strikeouts as SP #6. While the Pirates hope to win more games this season, it would be unlikely for Burnett to repeat his win total, but as long as he keeps the ratios down he will be a fine starter for us. We added our second catcher at 20.12, hoping that Wilson Ramos is fully recovered because if healthy, the Nats backstop should keep Kurt Suzuki on the bench most of the time.

With our 21st and 22nd round picks, we added two more pitchers – Sergio Santos to hopefully add some saves during the season and Dillon Gee as another decent NL starter to use for matchups and two-start weeks. But we still had one outfield spot open and our utility slot, which at this point, with the draft very OF rich, would be a home for our sixth fly chaser. Carlos Quentin and a prayer for him staying healthy was the choice at 23.03. The pick at 24.12 was another promising NL starting pitcher in Ross Detwiler.

Back to offense with the next three picks – first at 25.03 Gordon Beckham as our Utley insurance and reserve MI. At 26.12 we succumbed to the incredible upside of a player who won’t start the year in the major leagues, but there was not a hotter hitter in either the Cactus or Grapefruit leagues than young Cuban outfielder Yasiel Puig of the Los Angeles Dodgers. And the starters for Don Mattingly’s team are not exactly bastions of health, so who knows when Puig might get a flight back from Double-A Jacksonville. Incidentally, if you are looking for comparisons, I am not the only one who thinks a full year of Puig would dwarf what Yoenis Cespedes put up last year. It would be great to see the first A's/Dodgers game when both are on the field.

At 27.03 we added our final starting hitter, Indians’ outfielder Michael Brantley, who had no business being on the board at that point in the draft, but of course every team is chasing different needs there.

Our last five picks were more reserves - four more pitchers, Houston’s Josh Fields for saves potential at 28.12, Miguel Gonzalez, Eric Stults and Jake Westbrook in rounds 30, 31 and 32. In between, we added an extra outfielder, Collin Cowgill, who is now playing for the Mets (Cowgill has a nice skill set, as Lawr Michaels described earlier this spring).

Below is the final roster for Captain Morgan by position with round selected. Both Greg and I are glad to answer questions about the players or the draft and possibly help you with your decisions in drafts this weekend. Good Luck!

 

CAPTAIN MORGAN ROSTER

C – Chris Iannetta (18.12) and Wilson Ramos (20.12)

CI – Allen Craig (4.12), Kyle Seager (12.12) and Paul Konerko (9.03)

MI – Chase Utley (8.12), Jimmy Rollins (6.12) and Jean Segura (16.12)

OF – Mike Trout (1.03), Jose Bautista (2.12), Torii Hunter (13.03), Josh Reddick (15.03) and Carlos Quentin (23.03)

UT – Michael Brantley (27.03)

Reserves – Gordon Beckham (25.03), Yasiel Puig (26.12) and Collin Cowgill (29.03)

SP – Cliff Lee (3.03), Madison Bumgarner (5.03), Doug Fister (11.03), Lance Lynn (14.12), Hyun-Jin Ryu (17.03), A.J. Burnett (19.03), Dillon Gee (22.12, Ross Detwiler (24.12), Miguel Gonzalez (30.12), Eric Stults (31.03) and Jake Westbrook (32.12)

RP – Fernando Rodney (7.03), Sergio Romo (10.12), Sergio Santos (21.03) and Josh Fields (28.12) {jcomments on}