Draft Review #1

The most exhilirating night of the whole year has come and gone. It's taken me over a week to get anything out on it, and i apologize. But isn't it awesome that we've already had three trades and Dan's been a part of two of them trading away a total of the four guys that he drafted just days ago! Way to go Dan and all involved in trades (that's right, a little pat on my own back).

Now on to the draft review.

"You can't win the draft in the first round but you can lose it."
"It's all about value."
"Get who you want when you can get them."
"Position scarcity."
"Don't reach for someone."
"Tanyon Sturtze."

Whether you are familiar with Crosson's infamous pick of Tanyon Sturtze or not, you probably have heard at least one of the draft day idioms mentioned above before. And no matter what your strategy is, a little bit of it gets thrown out the window when the draft actually happens. Just ask Dave or Tim who had the pleasure of having "the wheel pick" at the end of each round. You may love the idea of having back-to-back picks, but you also have to wait 28 picks between your own selections! And what happens if the guys you have queued up get selected? You effectively have two minutes to change your entire plan, and it impacts TWO players on your roster.

No doubt no matter where you ended up in the draft, you had similar anxieties. "Ah! You stole my pick!" "Now who do i go with?"

For me, i had five guys i wanted really badly for my first pick. They were Miguel Cabrera, Jose Bautista, Albert Pujols, Adrien Gonzalez, and Troy Tulowitski. Yup. The first five guys off the board, and i sat in 13th place. At least i had time to redraft the strategy a little.

I would love to take the time and do an opinion article on who won in the draft and who lost, just to spark up some controversy. But i'll give you who i thought had the top 3 drafts this year, starting with #3 and climbing to the top draft. Certainly not saying i have an expert opinion, i just have a blog.

#3 HomeRun Hero
Somehow Mahlon does it every year. We all know it. Yet we can't stop him, we can only hope to contain him. Up and down the lineup there are strong players. He got a steal in Buster Posey at catcher. A strong outfield. But why isn't he #1 this year? Well he simply has too many question marks. Wainwright and Johann in the rotation offer doubts, even though both would be really scary if they went back to their normal forms! And Morneau, Beltran, Jennings, Ackley and Rolen/Polanco all offer doubts of different varieties (concussion, age whether young or old, injuries, etc.).

#2 Chemical Bonds VII
This is what i would refer to as "solid." Not that there aren't any risks that Hersh took in his draft. But when you anchor your team on Pujols, have solid hitters up and down, though nothing too spectacular and then have a rotation that could be REALLY scary and two closers who were right at the top in their category, you have a team that can compete. The question marks here are can Yu Darvish be the ace in the hole and can the young guys in Hersh's lineup take the next step. I'm very fond of this draft.

#1 Dropkick Murphy's
If you aren't afraid of this team you haven't looked closely enough. 4 SPs who all averaged over 18.7 points per game last year. McCann (C), Adrian Gonzalez (1B), Adrian Beltre (3B) and David Ortiz (Util) all represent potential bests at their respective positions. And two enviable closers. The only question marks here are who will take the 5th SP position and will the OF be strong enough to not be a weakness. But those are GOOD question marks to have if you are going to have some!

Of course this is all debatable. So please feel free to debate! And hopefully soon i will have one of my favorite aspects of the Waffle Iron to you soon... The Sam Levy Draft Review.