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What was I thinking?by Ben PritchettJanuary 30, 2012 Ben Pritchett can be reached for questions, comments, gripes, or considerations at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or you could follow his whims on twitter @pritchettclan. Comments
Derek Ambrosino said...
I didn’t expect myself to pull the 2 ace catcher move, but I wanted to see how it would work out. More on my insights from this draft later in the week. Posted 01/30 at 04:01 PM
Ben Pritchett said...
@Nate- You are correct that my assessment of Youk’s OBP history is of the Bill James mindset that getting on base creates runs. In that Red Sox lineup, Youkilis will always have a good fantasy value as long as he regains his career norms. I think he will and it seems the room thinks he won’t. So that’s where you find value. @Derek Ambrosino- I echo your Mauer sentiment, but you are dead to me for stealing him… Posted 01/30 at 04:29 PM
philosofool said...
Not sure I get the love for Singman’s team. Not enough pitching and low batting averages. Outside Wright, Sandoval and Votto, that’s a collection of guys that hit .240-.265 and you’d have to trade one of the better hitters for a pitcher to have a winning team. Posted 01/30 at 05:55 PM
Paul Singman said...
@philosofool - In general I agree with you. My round 9/10/11 picks were Lind/Espinsosa/Willingham—all redundant, low avg, power guys. Substituting out Lind and Espinosa for a guy like Howie Kendrick and then another SP would have given my team a lot more balance and probably improved it. Posted 01/30 at 09:43 PM
Jthom17 said...
This mock draft seemed to not value closers very high. I would have preferred another closer to one of your SP. I have very little confidence in either Liriano or Jurrjens. Posted 01/30 at 11:14 PM
Ben Pritchett said...
@Jthom17- At the point in the draft that I took Liriano and Jurrjens all of the confirmed closers were off the board. It wasn’t until after the draft that we started hearing that Matt Thornton was the proclamated choice of Robin Ventura. However, I do agree as I stated above I wish I would have taken Thornton even if he’s bound to lose the job to Jesse Crain or Addison Reed. There were some other decent set-up guys I could have drafted as well, like Rex Brothers, Mike Adams, and Dan Bard, and I agree that I could have done better with those picks over Liriano. But I wasn’t really thinking middle reliever, my mistake. Posted 01/30 at 11:20 PM
DrBGiantsfan said...
Suggested alternative picks: Round 7: Matt Cain instead of Youk. Round 9: Johson’s injury is a shoulder, right? What about Gio here? Drafting Matt Cain in Round 7 frees you up to go position player here: Montero? Kipnis? If you take Kipnis, then you can use Ackley as your MI which looks a lot better than Beckham. Round 15: Cespedes? Some scouts are saying he’s going to have to start in AA! If you are going to take a flyer on someone here, why not Rasmus or Harper or Moustakas? Heck, I’d take Austin Jackson over Cespedes! If you took Cain instead of Youk, then Moose could be your 3B here. Or you could go back to pitching here and take Derek Holland who is a steal in round 16. Round 17: Angels OF situation is way too crowded to count on Trout for much this year, plus he’s no sure bet to start off with a bang. There’s not a whole lot exciting out there, so maybe Trout is a good gamble, but you have to consider Pagan. Round 20: What about Ian Desmond instead of Beckham? Round 22: What about Scott Baker instead of Liriano? Round 23: Consider Lucroy, Salty or Hundley over Perez although Perez is not bad here. Posted 01/31 at 01:00 AM
Jonathan said...
I like your offense, but on the pitching side I’d be a little hesitant to put so much risk on your rotation. Between Johnson, Darvish and Wainwright you could have one of the best rotations in the league, or they could all have issues and you could have the worst. This is the kind of rotation that I see people bemoaning at the end of the year. I probably would have targeted a few more solid rotation options along with some of those risky choices. Wainwright may win over Cain as far as talent, but as currently constructed, I’d rather have Cain to provide solid numbers and stabilize the risk of ruin. Posted 01/31 at 06:35 PM
Ben Pritchett said...
@DrBGiantsFan- I love the analysis. I wouldn’t actually consider Matt Cain over Kevin Youkilis. I may be one of the few, but I think he’ll be a steal in round 7. Your assessment of Josh Johnson is more spot-on. With the risk of Wainwright, I should have gone with one of the six or so solid, healthy pitchers that were drafted after him. If I was to do that pick over again and decided to go pitcher, I would have drafted Beachy or Gio Gonzalez. As for the hitters, I like Montero and Kipnis but I still feel like that might be a little high for both. No way I’d take Austin Jackson over Cespedes. I like what you’re thinking with Moustakas, but there’s really no risk with a 15th round pick. I also don’t believe a team pays Cespedes the amount of money that he will require and not start him immediately. Look at the Marlins, they are going to want to showcase him from day one. Agree on Trout. I hate Desmond. I wouldn’t draft Liriano if I drafted over again. I would have gone middle infielder. I don’t see much difference in all those catcher options except I see Salvador Perez getting tons of playing time. I can’t say the same for those other guys. Posted 01/31 at 11:29 PM
Ben Pritchett said...
@Jonathan- I love each of those three pitchers a lot. I just don’t like that I drafted them as a trio. If I had to do it over again. I wouldn’t have drafted Josh Johnson, but I would still draft Wainwright and Yu Darvish. I think they have less risk. Furthermore Jonathan, I am a risk-taker. We don’t play fantasy baseball to be competive. We play to win. So educated risk can really be used to your advantage. I am a very risky player, and I don’t ever finish at the bottom of leagues. So there may be something to be said for that. But a real team, I would need to be slightly more risk averse. This team is as volatile as a Reds/Cardinals series. Posted 01/31 at 11:35 PM
will h. said...
what i love most about ben is that he says my mistake… which is why i trust him Posted 02/02 at 12:58 AM
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Nice article breaking down your thought process. One thing I’m confused about: You reference Youkilis’ being an OBP monster, but it’s a 5x5 league. Is your thinking that OBP equates to decent average and lots of runs?