2009 Head-to-Head Draft Results and Analysis

Our 2009 head-to-head draft has been completed and I thought I would share my results. For background purposes, here are the settings (10 team, 6×6 head-to head scoring format):

• Positions: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, IF, OF1, OF2, OF3, OF4, DH, SP1, SP2, RP1, RP2, P1, P2, P3, P4 and 6 Bench Positions
• Scoring Categories: Runs, HR, RBI, SB, Average, OBP, Wins, Saves, K’s, ERA, WHIP and K/BB

Draft Results (by position, bolded results indicate picks 1 through 5)
Hitting Lineup:

• C: Pablo Sandoval (round 12)
• 1B: Mark Teixeira (round 2)
• 2B: Chone Figgins (round 7)
• SS: Jimmy Rollins (round 1)
• 3B: Aramis Ramirez (round 3)
• IF: Justin Morneau (round 4)
• OF: Magglio Ordonez (round 5)
• OF: Bobby Abreu (round 9)
• OF: Justin Upton (round 13)
• OF: Cameron Maybin (round 19)
• DH: James Loney (round 17)
• BN: Travis Snider (round 21)
• BN: Felipe Lopez (round 24)

Pitching Lineup:

• SP: Scott Kazmir (round 10)
• SP: Yovani Gallardo (round 11)
• RP: Jonathan Papelbon (round 6)
• RP: Mariano Rivera (round
• P: Brian Fuentes (round 16)
• P: Chad Qualls (round 18)
• P: Frank Francisco (round 22)
• P: Jose Arredondo (round 25)
• BN: Zach Grienke (round 14)
• BN: Chris Carpenter (round 15)
• BN: Chein-Ming Wang (round 20)
• BN: Kelvim Escobar (round 23)

General Observations
Overall I am pretty satisfied with this draft. I ended up picking last in the first round and feel lucky to have been able to grab Rollins. Anything less than 100/30/100/.300 for Teixeira would be a disappointment. I probably bid too aggressively for Ramirez (3rd round) and Ordonez (5th round) but I wanted power out of 3B and feel Ordonez will provide scoring in every category but SB’s.

Like last season I was the only manager to stock up on 6 relief pitchers. There’s certainly no guarantee all 5 closers will stick but I’d rather compete with lots of solid relief than a slew of starters.

At the back end of the draft, I tried to go almost exclusively with youth, including Upton, Loney, Maybin and Snider and am hoping at least 2 or 3 of these guys breaks out. I picked up Escobar solely to stash him on the DL and be able to pick someone else up for the first month or so of the season.

The Upsides and Downsides
The upside to this draft is that I feel I have a well rounded team on paper. 3 or 4 base stealers coupled with a power. The key issue is whether or not some of the young players I picked up produce, particularly Pablo Sandoval, Justin Upton and either Maybin or Snider. I am also hoping James Loney’s 2008 season was not a ceiling and he improves across all categories at even a reasonable level (90/20 to 25/90/.295 would be fantastic).

My starting pitchers have some injury potential but I was happy to put together a staff that was basically picked in the latter half of the draft. While all pitchers have risk attached all five of my closers have fairly safe job security, assuming they perform as expected.

Since I picked last I enjoy first waiver priority; which I will save for some point during the season. There are no free agents that I see worth using that with and it would be great if a frustrated manager drops a prospect like Wieters because they auto-drafted.

Conclusions
So that is my draft in a nutshell. Is it enough to win this year’s championship? Probably not. But I may have the right foundation for building that championship team throughout the season. I would love to hear your thoughts on this team.