Draft Results: No Gimmicks Needed

Two weeks before the season started, TheBaseballStars held its annual draft for the “State” league. It’s a 7×7, 10-team, head-to-head keeper league where owners keep five players and a prospect. All five of ‘Stars are in this league. Below is the analysis and results of team “No Gimmicks Needed.” In case you’re wondering, the team is in fact named after Chris Candido (pictured here) whom I felt had one of the coolest monikers ever.
I entered the draft with my entire infield locked up as my keepers consisted of Justin Morneau, Dustin Pedroia, Jose Reyes, David Wright and Grady Sizemore. I had Clayton Kershaw as my rookie keeper. My goal heading into the draft was to get a big outfield bat and then a good pitcher with my first two picks. I was drafting in the nine spot, so I had the ninth and twelfth picks overall. From there I was looking to go pitching heavy in the draft unless the situation dictated otherwise.

In the first, the outfield class was thin and the biggest bat available was Adam Dunn, so I chose him. He would not have gotten to the 12th pick because the winner of last year’s league (FreeSanJose) ALWAYS drafts Adam Dunn and he had back-to-back picks after me. On the way back I took James Shields, whom I love and was hoping would get past FSJ, who also had kept him at one point.

From there I was kind of looking for value picks, hoping that I could pick up another good bat in the next two or three rounds and then flank him by solid arms. I had an extra pick (fifth round) because I traded Francisco Liriano to The Jon right before the draft. As it turned out, things went better than expected. In the third and fourth I nabbed Alex Rios and John Lackey, which is crazy because both guys were keepers last year.

With the extra fifth rounder I drafted Bobby Abreu — whom I am not a big fan, but felt this was steal here — and Francisco Rodriguez (we had a closer run in the fourth, so I had to go here or suffer the consequences.) The rest of my picks (in order) included: Chris Young (Pitcher), Pablo Sandoval, Scott Baker, Randy Johnson, John Danks, Brett Myers, Kerry Wood, Carlos Delgado, Aubrey Huff, Matt Capps, Madison Bumgarner (prospect keeper) and Francisco Cordero.

I’ve since made a few roster moves. On Opening Day I traded Carlos Delgado for Vernon Wells — statistically a wash at this point, but the upside of Wells is undeniable. Plus I’ve already got two Mets in my lineup.

I’ve also managed to snag rookie hurler Jordan Zimmermann — who will make his major league debut on Sunday despite having that ugly red NA next to his name.
And for about a week I owned Kelvim Escobar, another waiver wire guy, until shoulder issues started to emerge again. I’ve since dumped him for Paul Maholm. I would havd placde Escobar in my DL position, but I reserved that for Scott Baker and John Lackey.
My squad at present (4/16) looks like this:
c- Sandoval
1-Morneau
2-Pedroia
s-Reyes
3-Wright
o-Sizemore
o-Rios
o-Abreu
util -Dunn
bn-Wells
bn-Huff

sp-Shields
sp-Chris Young
rp-K-Rod
rp-Wood
p-Kershaw
p-Randy Johnson
p-Danks
bn-Myers
bn-Zimmermann
bn-Capps
bn-Lackey
bn-Maholm
dl-Baker