Friday, March 23, 2012

Post-draft breakdown: 10 burning questions


It's one of my favorite nights of the year, as I'm sure it's yours, too: Draft night.

But even better is the post-draft analyzing and scrutinizing that comes with it. So without further hesitation, I give you 10 burning questions I had following the 2012 MTL Keeper League Draft.


1) Where was Adam?
Fans were buzzing when Adam didn't show up to the draft, but at a deeper glance it may have been a calculated move. After experiencing in 2010 his best season ever due to an auto-draft, and after seeing Shea's success last year, maybe Adam did this on purpose. Turns out, Adam was at the Flyers game, but if he was home by 10:30, why didn't he show for the second half? Twitter was abuzz with speculation of a purposely missed draft - an unprecedented move, if true.

2) Did Dave make the right move at No. 2?
Incredibly, Adrian Gonzalez is likely to go back into the draft pool next year after Dave stunned many by taking the Red Sox slugger as his third big-time bat rather than ace pitcher Cole Hamels, whom he could have signed to a 3-year deal. With Albert Pujols and Matt Kemp already on the roster, Gonzalez likely won't be kept. On one hand, Dave has a scary-good offense, with three top-8 bats. On the other hand, was it necessary - short and long term?

3. Cruz over Stanton: Will it come back to bite Shea?
The injury-prone Cruz will likely have a nice season, but if Shea is thinking his first-round pick might be a keeper after this season, was Cruz over Stanton the right move? Vegas has Stanton as the odds-on favorite to win the home-run crown this year, and who knows what he could produce in the next couple years?

4. Why are team names being carried over?
Sure, we have the classic Billy Ball and Fireballs that seemingly will never get switched. But Hal, Ken, Shea, Bob, Jack, Rick and Chris (to an extent) all carry over their same team names. How boring. And we're not even talking about real good team names in most cases, either. If Joe can get rid of the Smutt Peddlers, anyone can mix it up. If Mike, the champ, has a name change, anyone can mix it up. And on a similar note about names, what was Andy thinking naming the divisions "Apples" and "Oranges"? Terrible.

5. Who does Jack hate more? Barack Obama or Evan Turner?
I think we got more commentary about "The Messiah" and "The Big Ten Wonder" than we did baseball from Jack.

6. Did Ken throw darts at the draft board to pick his team?
Considering Ken went into the draft knowing: Carl Crawford would start the season on the DL, his keeper pitcher Jaime Garcia was not in the upper tier, and he would be losing two (relatively high) draft picks, what exactly was Ken's strategy? With Prince Fielder already on board as a long-term keeper, Ken took Mark Teixeira in the first round over Cole Hamels; he took Ryan Howard in the fifth round; his starting pitching staff may be non-existent by May given their history of injuries: Strasburg, Josh Johnson, A.J. Burnett and the retired Javy Vazquez are four of his six drafted starters (seven if Bard isn't sent back to the 'pen). What was the draft plan here?

7. Since when did we become so hitter-friendly?
Feel free to dispute this, but was it just me or did it seem like the run on hitters just completely obliterated the player pool by the middle rounds? I know at least twice I had to shift strategy for a particular round because I was stunned at how many hitters kept getting drafted. I can't remember many years in the past in which teams just loaded up on hitting during the early rounds of the draft.

8. He Dunn'it again. Why, Hal, why?
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." So, with that, I ask simply: Why is Adam Dunn on Hal's roster? One could easily make the case this was the single-biggest reason Hal missed the playoffs last season after winning the division in 2010. So why bother again with Dunn, even as a low-risk bench player?

9. Can Mike ride the same approach to back-to-back titles?
We sense a very, very similar approach to this year's draft from Mike as he did last year: Pitching. And who can blame him, really, after last year's triumph. Ian Kennedy, who could have very well been a keeper, fell into Mike's lap as his third starter.

10. Why don't our managers understand that the draft order never appears as is during the pre-draft 30-minute countdown?
I could make money on this by taking bets. It's kind of like the Super Bowl: "What will the first commercial be? Bud Light beer!" Only in our draft, it's "Who will comment on the fact that the draft order appears to be backward?" This year, our winner was Jack! And then Shea, later on.

So there you have it. My 10 burning questions. Feel free to answer these questions or post your own burning questions from the draft in the comments section below.

7 comments:

  1. Well done Andy.

    Pitching wins championships. Went into the draft expecting to go with Castro/Cruz and Cain. But once Stanton "fell" to me I panicked and almost went against my plan as I took Castro...Still suprised I took him over Cain, I really wanted to get him.

    But with Kennedy on board in the third round, I was able to get back on my plan of attack.

    Still think I was able to put together a solid lineup, but I will ride my pitchers to another title.

    Good luck everybody.

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  2. how are you going to ride your pitching to a title when mine is better

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  3. Cause I have a solid staff, and my team as a whole is better. Fact.

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  4. Nice work Andy. Who do you have ranked in 3rd now that Bob and Mike have anointed themselves tied For first?

    The Big 10 wonder and Messiah talk filled the gaps in the average of over a minute to pick pace we were on for most of the draft.

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  5. I value hitting more than pitching. There will always be that pitcher who you can pick up off the wavier wire who can contribute. 2011 for instance saw pitchers like; Humber, Tomlin, Morton, being viable fantasy pitchers. I wanted to take the best players available regardless of position. I'd rather have A-Gone for an entire week of stats rather than having Hamels for possibly one outing.

    I'm not going to worry about next year's keepers now, when we have haven't even played a game this season. I happy with my pitching staff, and got a lot of the guys that I really wanted. I feel like I have a better shot at stealing a few pitching categories than anyone does than out slugging me but we'll see.

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  6. Dave this is why you don't make the playoffs

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