Post draft thoughts

[Matt]

First, a great big thanks to John for yet again running a wonderful event. Words can not express the gratitude for all you do, each and every day, for this league. I could not imagine a better commissioner, and even if it's not expressed all the time, you deserve a great deal of gratitude and respect for the job you do here.

Second, thanks to the Knights for being a great host while I was there, as he always is. Sorry I had to cut out on the second day, but that's the racket I'm in. (At least until I sideswipe a Brinks truck... )

I'll probably review the Calzones pick on the blog later, but I'll just toss a few random thoughts out here.

Surprised a bit that Kentucky didn't grab a pitcher with any of those 3 picks near the top of round 1. And that is by no means a criticism, just an a slightly surprised observation. Knights and I had already agreed that kentucky was the wild card at the top of the round, at least until the Knights pick at #8. We were both sure he would take at least one pitcher, and we even gave thought to the idea that he might grab 3 pitchers and really bring havoc to our own draft plans.

We had figured as many as eight pitchers might go in the first round. Xavior Gomes was the last pitcher on my list that I was willing to take at the top of round 2 with the third pick, and I was sweating that he wouldn't be there after everyone else on my list was taken.

The Knights were really zeroing in on Leslie McDonald, but we were both fairly sure he wouldn't be there. When Crystal Lake traded to the spot right in front of the Knights, he was convinced the Sandgnats did so to get McDonald. I wasn't so sure, I figured CL might be trying to angle for a pitcher. Judging by CL's reaction when McDonald was taken by Kentucky, the Knights were right.

The Knights and I bounced ideas off each other all day as the draft went along, about players we were looking at, who to take, etc. It worked really well getting feedback, especially in round 7. I had two picks, one at the beginning of the round, one near the end of the round. I was debating Wilder the LF or Gonzales the C. He convinced me to take the OF, he was convinced Gonzales would still be there at the end of the round, but Wilder wouldn't. His argument swayed me, I had actually already typed Gonzales in the box but changed it. As it turns out, PS was looking at Wilder and he probably would have gone to them before my pick late in the round came up.

My draft plan worked out almost exactly as I wanted, with one exception. I wanted 6 pitchers and 3 position players in the first 9 picks I had, and that happened. But on the position players I wanted one SS, one OF, one C, but ended up with 2 OF and a C. All the SS I targeted always seemed to go right before I would have grabbed them, and when I got down to round 6 I just went with the best player left on my board which turned out to be an OF. I had penciled Wilder and Gonzales into the 7th rd, it was just a matter of which order, so was extremely pleased to get both.

[John]

I'll start off by returning the thanks to you, Matt. You, and everyone else in this league, make this bi-annual experience a joy.

I don't usually second guess myself on these things, but I'm giving myself poor marks for my final draft as an owner. Right off the top, I don't believe I made good use of my first round selections, Taking a future DH with the first pick was a poor choice. Not ending up with a single pitcher in those first four picks was another poor choice.

But where I really blew it was this: I failed to draft one single middle infielder during the entire human-run portion of the draft. Finally, with my last pick, the AI selected a scrub SS for me that will no doubt be released to free agency before he ever plays a game with the Oceanic. That's just unacceptable. It shows a lack of preparation on my part. Hey, I'm all for picking the best guy available, but at some point you need to consider that you've got a roster to construct and positions to fill.

My "situational awareness" during this draft was not good. Now I'm going to have to compensate for my poor judgment via the trade market. I'm fortunate to have a number of good young outfielders in my system. I'll probably look to deal from that strength, targeting very young, raw middle infielders that I can plug into SS-A and hope they'll develop (and yes, you can take this as a hint to initiate trade talks).

[klewis]

Heh you beat me to the punch! Here are my thoughts:

I was trying to keep a journal of sorts during the draft but it was getting too hectic so I stopped. Anyway some thoughts:

I thought the #1 overall pick was going to be the other "Lewis" in Daryl Lewis. But I supposed you can't go wrong with Bill Lewis who throws in the triple digits range. I was surprised to see Daryl slip all the way down to #7 to Tempe. Similar to what Matt said, I for sure thought Kentucky was going to snatch up one of the pitchers. Daryl Lewis and Markus Hancock makes for a pretty nice 1-2 combo in the future. At any rate, both Lewis pitchers along with Rich "Spud" Jones are the pitching headliners of this draft.

I really like Leslie McDonald. If all the stars aligned, I was hoping he would fall to me. He reminds me of Mark Richardson. For some reason, I was not hot on Lawrence Coleman. My scout does think he is top 5 worthy but it's just some gut feeling that I don't like him. Overall though, I think it is hard to go wrong having 3 top 5 picks. I am sure Kentucky is very happy.

I think Kalamazoo did well with their early picks. I really dig the Trent Jackson pick. I really wanted to pick him if I had a late-teen pick. But at my slot, I had my mind set on a pitcher. Outfielder was not much of a need for me anyway. Jackson looks like he will terrorize pitchers for years to come. Kalamazoo drafted Ming-feng Simba with their first second round pick. I thought that was a nice pick. A guy who can hit and run. With their second pick of the second round, Kalamazoo drafted River Adkins. I was kicking myself over this one. I would have considered drafted him if I realized he had the potential to be more than just a 1B. Guy looks like a bonafide hitter.

Although kind of a risk, I thought Bakersfield got a nice value pick in Felix Maese. On some draft boards, he was a top 10 player.

I was kinda surprised to see Roberto Cordova "fall" to me. After the top 3 pitchers (D. Lewis , B. Lewis, Jones), I had Cordova fourth rated. I did not even paid attention to him much as I was thinking he would be gone before my turn. I had 12 top rated pitchers. The aforementioned top 3 were tier 1. Cordova was tier 2. The rest of the pitchers were tier 2.5 or tier 2 with Cordova slightly ahead. I was zeroing in the likes of Jeff Brooks, Martin Francisco, Hiroyuki Nii, and other pitchers. So I was surprised and I suppose slightly ecstatic to see him fall to me. I had not even looked him over much so to be honest I don't know much about my own pick lol. I thought he would be gone by then. But upon looking at him more after the draft, I suppose he has outstanding leadership and appears to be a big time clutch performer. He plays an Ohio State team that has made the playoffs 3 out of 4 seasons. I am pretty sure there is no clutch factor in the game but it's always nice to see him be 3-0 in the postseason.

I really targeted Michael Ayers in the second round. I thought Ayers was first round quality. But nooooo, Tyler snatched him up before me. So I was kinda lost without a backup plan. I ended up drafting a "tools" type of high schooler in outfielder Javier Cruz. I'm still lukeworm on this pick. I probably could have selected a player I felt happier with if I did not panic.

I thought SA's Kenny Bender was an interesting pick. Prior to his injury, my scouts saw him as a top prospect. Post-injury, not so hot. His injury history is concerning so it will be interesting to see how he pans out.

As John mentioned, Aurora focused on power. They certainly did get some power in Dale Griffith, Rod Johnson and Ernie Brown. I am always scared when looking at Aurora's farm system. Year after year, they seem to get good picks. 1st pick last season in Bill Bradley. This season 4 picks in the first round. Their farm system is certainly stacked.

I thought Charleston had an interesting pick in Damon Lambert. My scout sees him as a 5-star prospect. So I thought that was a nice pick that late in the draft. Kid can run and hit. The question is will he be a defensive liability?

I didn't really have a draft plan. I usually draft BPA. I knew I was going to draft one of the top pitchers in the draft with my first pick. I had no clue what I would do after that except picked BPA. I certainly did wish Ayers fell to me. One of my goals was to improve my team's organization pitching. I also wished I had a chance to pick some middle infielders to improve my organization's depth. Instead I ended drafted quite a few outfielders. I have a bevy of talented outfielders. So not sure what to do there. A trade down the line is certainly I will have to explore. I already have 4 starting quality outfielders in Florida. I also have Luis Torres in a season or two. This draft, I selected Javier Cruz, Tim Jenkins, and Troy Tanner. You throw in Bill Tresidder from last season's draft and that's a lot of potential hitting outfielders down at SS-A. Of course I am sure one or two will not pan out and I won't have to worry about anything :)

I also wished I could have found a young 3B in this draft. I've been looking for a stable 3B ever since I took over Florida. In the end, I settled with 3B Corbin Hickman in the 4th round. His stats don't look too great. I drafted him hoping a light turns on for him and he gets a boost in ratings. But not bad for a 4th round I guess.

As the draft went on, I kept thinking to myself this Dixie Division is tough! I keep seeing Tyler add quality arms. Matt already had a potent offense and now he was adding some quality arms in the draft. Kentucky had top picks all over the place. Charleston got some nice value picks late in the rounds including Damon Lambert and Phil Anderson.

Edit: Haha whoops. I meant Troy Tanner instead of Paul Tanner. I keep seeing Paul Tanner under the active manager list every time I log into OOTP. I guess that's why I typed in Paul haha.

[klewis]

John, I was thinking the same as you in my situation. I really felt guilty for not getting more pitchers or middle infielders. I selected a lot of outfielders that will end up being a logjam in the future. But I still stood by my best player philosophy. I figured you can always make trades or even free agent signings. Besides there's always next season's draft to fill out areas that you didn't focus on this season. With young guys like Steve McDonald and Jose Rivera, I think you still got some time barring injury and pending extension demands.

I really wanted more middle infielders myself but there were not many middle infielders I was enamored about. So I figured Kichida and McNeill will be entrenched in my infield for a few seasons. So I have time to address those needs. Free agency and trades can also be used short term to shore up the depth while I improve the depth in the next draft.

I'll start off by returning the thanks to you, Matt. You, and everyone else in this league, make this bi-annual experience a joy.

I don't usually second guess myself on these things, but I'm giving myself poor marks for my final draft as an owner. Right off the top, I don't believe I made good use of my first round selections, Taking a future DH with the first pick was a poor choice. Not ending up with a single pitcher in those first four picks was another poor choice.

But where I really blew it was this: I failed to draft one single middle infielder during the entire human-run portion of the draft. Finally, with my last pick, the AI selected a scrub SS for me that will no doubt be released to free agency before he ever plays a game with the Oceanic. That's just unacceptable. It shows a lack of preparation on my part. Hey, I'm all for picking the best guy available, but at some point you need to consider that you've got a roster to construct and positions to fill.

My "situational awareness" during this draft was not good. Now I'm going to have to compensate for my poor judgment via the trade market. I'm fortunate to have a number of good young outfielders in my system. I'll probably look to deal from that strength, targeting very young, raw middle infielders that I can plug into SS-A and hope they'll develop (and yes, you can take this as a hint to initiate trade talks).

[John]

Yeah, you're lucky to have Kichida and McNeill as young sure-thing middle infielders going for you. I'm also lucky to have Steve McDonald, as you said. I'm going to have to hope my gambit with acquiring Mark Richardson in the offseason pays off to secure the long-term future at SS; otherwise I may end up really kicking myself over the outcome of this draft.

This draft, I selected Javier Cruz, Tim Jenkins, and Paul Tanner.

You need to get in touch with New Orleans during the Winter Meetings and see about trading them their GM's son.

[Matt]

Seems middle infield became a theme for a few of us, who seemed to have similiar thoughts. I kept looking at guys waiting for them to fall to a certain spot, and none of them ever quite got there. Every time a guy did not make to me at the spot I figured on, I went back to my pitching list or, in the case of round 6, the best player I could find. Fortunately, I have some decent middle infield prospects in my system in McGinnity, Romero, Boone, and Wilson, so it's something that can wait until next year.

I thought the Knights did great to get Quagmire. We were both shocked he made it that far. I was screaming for him to take him, and he was in shock he was still there. I think he was actually looking at a position player as his pick approached, and then when Lewis was there it became a no-brainer.

Bender was a bit of a risk, but every draft I seem to take one or two high risk/high reward types. I went back to the numbers on him and just could not pass up the production. We'll see what happens.

Next years Calzones draft strategy is already taking shape. A middle infielder, a power hitting outfielder, and tons of relievers. With one or two starters mixed in for balance. And the usual middle round catcher.

[klewis]

I think its always good to have depth especially if you have injury prone players or smaller budget where you need to replace soon to be free agents who are too expensive to resign. Like in my instance, I'm still trying to figure out how I can fit Tsumemasa Morimoto, Kevin McNeill, and Kwang-chih Zhu once their arbitration years are up. Fortunately I do have prospects (except for McNeill) to replace them if I happen can't afford to resign them. I surely hope my last year round one pick pans out. That high schooler Nick Rose needs to shape up. He's the only middle infield prospect I have (and doesn't appear to have the arm for SS).

Speaking of Aurora, I think they are ok with pitching. Aurora has a top flight big league rotation. You also have Bill Bradley and Sugar Bear Garica (acquired from Manchester). So I think you are set. I'm not sure how you feel about losing Hanna in the process. Hanna certainly would have given you some infield depth and versatility. But you did end up with a great pitching prospect and first rounder out of it. So I wouldn't be too hard on yourself. After all your team is in first place and did win it all last season. You should be happy

So yeah, I think depth is great. It is good to have top flight minor league systems from top to bottom. But bottom line is you're trying to win at the big league level. There's only 25 roster spots. With injuries, I tend to think you need about 28-30 major league quality players with the remaining 3-5 in AAA waiting for an injury callup. So after 30 guys, extra depth would be nice but you can risk it about. Depth is something you acquire over several seasons. So I wouldn't worry about a weakness too much. It's easily fixed with a future draft, trade, or free agency. I think depth acquired through the draft is more important for smaller market teams. Teams that can't use money for a free agent patch. Or can't sign their own players. I don't like to use examples because I don't want to give GMs gray hair but what will London or Tempe do when Orlando German and Markus Hancock are looking for free agent dollars? Or in my instance... even if Mark Richardson was healthy, I was staring about a $15-20 million asking price. That's hard to pony up for one player. Speaking of Richardson, I do hope he returns in fine fashion. He was my favorite Florida player.

Yeah I agree with Matt's take. Middle infielders are hard to come by! I think this year's draft was more balanced and had more quality than last season though. I certainly did like the pitching in the first round of this draft. Even though there were quite a bit of quality catchers, I did not really like any of them.

Edit: One last thought on depth. Even if you select a college middle infielder, it will take 2-4 seasons before he is ready. A high school infielder will take longer than that. 2-4 seasons is quite a long way to look ahead. Who knows what happens in 2-4 years. You may have signed an All-Star free agent. Your GM may have found an international gem. I'm sure it will be harder to find that quality LRS free agent now that it is human controlled but there's always possibilities of signing a star player from another league whether it be LRS or one of the Latin leagues.

[Sandgnats (Bill)]

Just to answer a thought that was mentioned at first by Matt (SA):
Yes, my top choice at #6 overall was Leslie McDonald. A potential hitter of his caliber in a middle IF spot, me likey! A LOT! He has great contact skills, with above average power, eye, and defense. He can run a little, a 7 Work ethic and a 10 in leader ability? He's coming out of college(not high school) and just hit over .400 with 22 frickin HR's in less than 200 AB's and his injury history consists of 3 days!!! Umm, yeah, McDonald was easily my number 1 hitting choice.

I didn't think we would land him, but what was had me vexed was that we literally picked 3 guys (not including any pitchers) to grab at #6, seeing that there was basically zero chance that all 3 hitters would be selected through 5 picks. Well, KEN took those exact 3 we had targeted!!! McDonald, Coleman, and Valentin. Hell yeah, I was pissed! But.... how can you complain when you're selecting #6 overall??? I mean life is pretty good when you're upset about not getting who you want and you still land a SS, like Chris Long. My personal knocks against him is that he's coming out of high school and has a potential in the Eye department of only 3. But, he's a SS who my scout rates as having Contact-Gap-Power potentials of 8-9-7! Also, his defensive ratings are sensational at 10-10-8-9! I really hate drafting 18 year olds as our first pick, but there's a lot to like about Long.

We're not used to drafting highin the first round, so usually I don't have any expectations being at the bottom. I just usually just get what's leftover in each round.

But overall, we're very happy with our draft! We accomplished our goals. We wanted to get strong hitters with some power and land a few 10 leadership players. We accomplished exactly that!

I'm happy and it was another very well managed draft. I also want to thank John as he routinely puts in a tremendous amount of time into PEBA and I'm guessing receives next to no thanks. Well, thanks a ton for all you do John! You honestly do an excuisite job at running PEBA! I know John won a championship and is dominating this year in 2010, but his GM success is completely separate from his commissioner duties. The commissioner duties are immense at times and John, you handle things quite flawlessly.

So, please give yourself a pat on the back and hang your head high! This game of OOTP is very complex and managing it with dozens of different personalities has to be even more complex. I myself give John an extra amount of crap to deal with and he deals with it very well! So, again thank you to John and thanks to all of you PEBA owners who make this fun!!

[klewis]

Some interesting tidbits. Ohio State had both Jeff Brooks and Roberto Córdova on their team. That's a pretty good tandem for a college team to have. Both players were drafted #12 and #13 respectively. Look at Ohio State's team leaderboard. You will see Brooks and Córdova everywhere. It will be interesting to see which pitcher will have the better career. Of course, I'll be interested since I do have Córdova :) To make it even more fun, West Virginia has Brooks. So the two former teammates will be facing one another often for years to come. Looking at Brooks' numbers, he reminds me of a little of Greg Maddux. He is not too flashy but totally gets the job done. His ERA, WHIP, and win totals exemplify that. Córdova reminds me of John Smoltz. He appears to have more electric stuff than Brooks. Córdova's strikeouts and K:BB ratio is pretty impressive if you check the leaderboard. Regardless, both pitchers are great and I look forward to see both face one another.

Kentucky's Leslie McDonald could be the best college hitter of all time. He even won best hitter in 2008! If that is not enough, check out the college leaderboard. His name is plastered there all over the place.

If Leslie is the best college player and second baseman of all time, then Alberto Torres has to be considered amongst catchers. Drafted 10th overall by Fargo, he is all over the leaderboard amongst catchers.

There are other familiar names on there as well. Last year's #1 pick, Aurora's SP Bill Bradley holds quite a few single season records. The aforementioned Jeff Brooks is the all-time wins and VORP leader. The #2 drafted player Rich "Spud" Jones is the career strikeouts leader.

Josh Hancock, drafted in the 6th round by Palm Springs, has been a big time performer in the past. He was the 2007 College Pitcher of the Year. Curious to see why he has not springboarded off that 2007 year. He was a 2009 All-Star too.

[Alan Ehlers]

I was happy to get Lewis at number 8 I did not think he would last that long. He is 21 and if all goes right he should be in the majors in a couple of years and will round out a rotation that includes Hancock, Sharp, and Collins. That is a pretty good rotation for my money. I love Hernandez who I also got in the first round, he is perfect for my park and will provide much needed offense for my team. I also made a trade to get Flores from Kentucky because I think I have a realistic shot of getting the last wild card and bullpen help is my number one priority. If I can grab that last wild card spot it will be the 4th of July, Christmas and my birthday all wrapped into one. If I do get it it will be one year ahead of my 5 year plan

[Duane]

Howdy all,
Yes we threw a wrench into the early draft ... sorry CL

We all agree that this years draft was weak in pitching. My scout really only liked two, and personnaly I had 4 starters and 2 closers ranked high. Why did I not jump on the pitching wagon? Well if you all remember, 2 seasons ago I left my draft list to 'Bill' and he proceeded to draft 9 straight pitchers. Not that you can ever have too much pitching, we felt we were weaker at scoring runs. After missing the entire season, last years #1 pick, Dan Traux, is off and running in A Roanoke and will probably see a promotion to AA Parma very soon. The trades in the off season gave us boost position wise also. But that is not the reason we ignored pitching.

2B McDonald was a no-brainer ... how can you pass on him, with any pitcher in this draft available ... my #1 over-all no question.

3B Coleman ... scout and I both feel he is the answer to Barry Murdock. We have other third-basemen in our system but Coleman looks like a sure thing with impact ability.

OF Valentin ... here is where it gets interesting. My scouting team ranked him as the best over-all player in the draft. He has great everything. We dropped his ranking becasue it is easier to find outfielders. Still he was not our #3 ranked pick. We wanted Bill Lewis ... why not Daryl? Well all I can say is I have an issue with the name Daryl ... just kidding. Actually my scout was not thrilled with Daryl. Now I know youcan't believe you scout 100% but hs is from the inner working of the game and has to know something as opposed to what I can see in the stats. But still Valentin was not a sure pick fo rus. Up until the time I typed in his name we were torn between him and a C (not Torres)

Round 2 we took another outfielder in Willard (may have spelled wrong) ... we loved his contact, defense, and speed. Potential lead-off which we are greatly lacking in our system.

Round 3 we take a catcher who is very solid (year of the cather in this draft) and a top Closer (had to get one).

[Alan Ehlers]

Macdonald was what I was targeting. I was thinking he might fall to 8 because I thought people would draft pitchers and he might slip through the cracks. I can not complain I got Lewis and he will be part of a solid rotation in a few years

[Paul Moots]

Once again the Fishermen draft was terrible. We are going to try to buy ourselves a championship instead of developing one.

[Coqui]

I'll join the thanks parade by thanking Joel (Duluth) and Jared (Yuma) for keeping contact with me over the phone so I was able to make my picks from work.

My strategy was to replenish my horrific farm system by getting as much talent as possible, regardless of position. This led to me taking four right fielders in the first four rounds, but that's what happens when you GM a consistently bad franchise. Round 8 pick Jesus Silva and Round 15 pick Sam Tillman both could be sleepers if they get the chance to develop well. Beyond that, I'll just keep trading for prospects.

[Bill]

I believe that Yuma may have snared a battery that will power (see what I did there?) their big club for years to come with Lewis and Espinosa in the first two rounds. The draft was deep with catchers, but lefties who throw noise like Lewis does are a rare breed. If injury luck is kind to them, both those players should have no problem surfacing within a few years.