My "No Pitchers In At Least the First 5 Rounds" Mock Draft

[tuff_gong]

I joined a Yahoo! league to see how my team would turn out if I didn't draft a pitcher in at least the first 5 rounds. Unfortunately, I drafted Jake Peavy first pick of the 6th round, so that didn't work out very well, but it was interesting to see how my team turned out. I had the last pick in a 10 man draft.


1st - Miguel Cabrera
2nd - Crawford
3rd - Morneau
4th - Holliday
5th - Furcal
6th - Peavy
7th - Sheets
8th - McCann
Now at this point in the draft something unexpected came up and I had to leave, but I put some players I was wanting on my player queue and ended up with these guys over the next few rounds.
9th - Francoeur
10th - Rios
11th - Chris Young
12th - Dan Haren
13th - Prince Fielder
14th - Dan Uggla
15th - Adam Laroche
16th - Michael Cuddyer
Now at this point there I must have not had any good players left on my queue, cause my picks were pretty bad after this, so I won't bother getting to them (Ryan Dempster! Yikes! ).


But anyways, I don't think that's a very bad team at all. I have a pretty good offense, and I solid staff of 4 pitchers. Now I feel as if I could have drafted the middle-late rounds instead of Yahoo's Brandon Funston powered thinking machine, that this team would have been great. I also am taking into account that some of these drafters weren't experienced fantasy players. But still, I think this could be a good strategy going into drafts this year. If anyone else who likes the idea of not drafting a pitcher early and banking on the large crop of pitchers in the second tier (I understand I didn't completely do that with Peavy and Sheets) wants to do something simliar to what I did and post their results in this thread, I think it would be a Great way to determine if this could be a legitimate strategy this year.

[roninmedia]

This was probably a 10 team yahoo public league. This is not a clear reflection on how certain draft strategies would work, especially in a larger league with more competitive owners.

I personally agree with the strategy because pitching is deep, but man, if a pitcher is the best available player, I'm taking him.

[LiveForever]

Well you have no closer but other then that this team looks great. Trying to not draft pitchers and then getting left with Peavy and Sheets is rediculous.

[tuff_gong]

This was probably a 10 team yahoo public league. This is not a clear reflection on how certain draft strategies would work, especially in a larger league with more competitive owners.

I personally agree with the strategy because pitching is deep, but man, if a pitcher is the best available player, I'm taking him.

It was basically a public league, it was a custom league you can join. I'm not saying my draft is clearly reflective this idea would work, but that if people who think it's a good idea to avoiding drafting one of the "aces" in the upper tier posted results of the same drafting method, that maybe we could get an idea of what the general kind of team someone would have if they do draft this way this year. And I totally agree on the best player available, which seems kind of contradictory, but I couldn't pass up Peavy in the 6th. And if Johan was there at the 10th pick, it's not like I was not going to draft him.

[tuff_gong]

Well you have no closer but other then that this team looks great. Trying to not draft pitchers and then getting left with Peavy and Sheets is rediculous.

Yeah, I kind of screwed up that when I had to leave the draft early, but let's say I had drafted one in rounds 10-15, it would have been an even better team.

[teddy ballgame]

Well you can definitely build a solid team, the question is just do you want a solid ace. I'd rather take a guy like Carpenter to anchor the staff even if it's a few rounds earlier.

[BigLebowski]

1. (7) Vladimir Guerrero OF
2. (18) Carlos Lee OF
3. (31) Justin Morneau 1B
4. (42) Paul Konerko 1B
5. (55) Gary Sheffield 1B,OF
6. (66) Ryan Zimmerman 3B
7. (79) Felipe López SS
8. (90) Josh Barfield 2B
9. (103) Cole Hamels SP
10. (114) Jason Schmidt SP
11. (127) Erik Bedard SP
12. (138) Ryan Freel 2B,3B,OF
13. (151) Dave Bush SP
14. (162) A.J. Burnett SP
15. (175) Kelvim Escobar SP
16. (186) John Patterson SP
17. (199) Salomón Torres RP
18. (210) Russell Martin C
19. (223) Taylor Tankersley RP
20. (234) Bob Howry RP
21. (247) Jonathan Broxton RP

I did the same thing this is what I got.

[BritSox]

I'm considering doing a similar challenge for one league this year, setting myself a series of rules. Any ideas?

[jbauer2485]

12 team roto

C - AJ Pier
1b - Konerko
2b - Phillips
3b - Arod
SS - Rollins
OF - Sizemore
OF - Delmon young
OF - Rios
Util - Laroche
BN - Sexson
BN - Edwin Encarnacion
BN - Jorge Cantu

SP - Lackey
SP - CC sabathia
SP - Sheets
BN - Mussina
BN - Rich Hill
BN - John Patterson

RP - Joe Nathan
RP - Zumaya
RP - Shields



That's my latest draft utilizing the "don't draft pitchers before the 5th round" strategy. I took Lackey, CC, Sheets in round 6,7,8. Two idiots drafted 6-8 opening day closers in the hopes that they can trade them, so that's why my RP is weak. Maybe I'll give them Sexson.

What do you think of the team? I'm pretty sure this is how my teams would always end up if I followed it again (By taking those 3 pitchers in 6,7,8). Would you be comfortable with doing that?