Thursday, February 28, 2008

Evaluating My Team - Team #3

I had my first draft in an ESPN league a couple days ago. It is a 10-team, standard 5x5 roto league with all the normal positions plus a MI and a CI spot, plus two extra outfielders. I had the ninth overall pick. Here's who I drafted and the round in which I took them:

Hitters
C - Geovany Soto (17th round) - Love the upside in this young catcher.
1B - Mark Teixeira (4th round) - I felt fortunate that the slugger fell to the 32nd overall pick.
2B - Brandon Phillips (3rd round) - I was praying for either Phillips or B.J. Upton. Someone took Upton right in front of me, so that made the decision easy.
3B - Ryan Braun (2nd round) - I'm in the camp that is bullish on Braun.
SS - Rafael Furcal (5th round) - I wasn't crazy about this pick at the time but, in retrospect, Furcal fits in well with the rest of this team.
MI - Ian Kinsler (8th round) - Maybe I should have waited and filled this spot with Kelly Johnson, but I just love Kinsler so much.
CI - Edwin Encarnacion (16th round) - I love the upside for Encarnacion.
OF - Matt Holliday (1st round) - I enjoyed grabbing Holliday with the ninth pick.
OF - Corey Hart (6th round) - Love this guy. He'll be on almost every one of my teams.
OF - Matt Kemp (7th round) - Maybe a little early for Kemp, but I didn't want to miss out on him.
OF - Chris Young (10th round) - Can you believe I got him with the 92nd overall pick?
OF - Jeremy Hermida (19th round) - The favorite to hit third in the Marlins order and, thus, drive Hanley Ramirez in many, many times.
Util - Joey Votto (21st round) - Power and speed.
Bench - Evan Longoria (22nd round) - Even if he starts the year in the minors, I'm willing to wait it out.
Bench - Justin Upton (24th round) - My bench has a lot of upside.

Pitchers
SP - Yovani Gallardo (9th round) - Looking back, I probably should have taken a pitcher who won't start the year on the DL.
SP - Felix Hernandez (11th round) - Let's hope he starts to turn some of that potential into actual ace production.
SP - Rich Hill (12th round) - The man-love continues.
SP - Francisco Liriano (13th round) - If healthy, he'll be dominant.
SP - Dustin McGowan (15th round) - If he was in the NL, I'd be pimping McGowan like crazy.
SP - Clay Buchholz (20th round) - Early word out of camp is that he has been very impressive. I'm excited.
RP - Rafael Soriano (14th round) - Saves, with room for Soriano to emerge as one of the top closers in the game.
RP - Kevin Gregg (18th round) - Saves.
RP - George Sherrill (23rd round) - Saves with some upside.
RP - Troy Percival (25th round) - Saves. (Maybe.)

Bottom Line
It's not a question of whether my lineup is good or not. The only question is whether I'm going to win every category. At this point, I think I stand an excellent chance of doing just that. My pitching, on the other hand...well, there are some big question marks there. If Gallardo isn't out too long, if Liriano returns to form, if King Felix finally lives up to his nickname, and if Buchholz performs like I think he will, my rotation will be incredible. But that's a lot of "ifs." Overall, though, I feel fairly confident that I'll win this league.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey,
I traded (Mauer for Andruw Jones). Here is my lineup, now. What do you think? Thanks.
C-Victor Martinez
1B - Mark Teixeira
2B - Ian Kinsler
3B - Adrian Beltre
SS - Julio Lugo
CI - Todd Helton
MI - Aaron Hill
OF - Corey Hart
OF - Matt Kemp
OF - Jeff Francoeur
OF - Raul Ibanez
OF - Andruw Jones
Util - Edwin Encarncion
Bench
J.R. Towles
Lastings Milledge
Conor Jacksom

Pitchers
Johan Santana
Dice-K
Javier Vazquez
Jeremy Bonderman
Chris Carpenter
Kevin Slowey
Matt Capps
George Sherrill

Cobb said...

I like it. You have a good team and can expect to perform well this season.