The Outrageously Early New Year's Day Mock - Part I

[Madison]

Alright cool, I very much appreciate the explination. I still personally feel that it is easier to make up for a weak AVG. than it would be to make up for weak SB totall. Again, thanks for the explination though.

I'd argue it's easier to find steals in the free agent pool than it is to find a .300+ hitter, but all is good. Seems I do that every year (plug in a free agent for a week or two to gain some steals) except last year. Eric Byrnes took care of any extra steals I might have needed since I wound up drafting him in 4 out of my 5 leagues.

[WaCougMBS]

I understand. I still couldn't see picking Vlad or Ichiro over Beltran though. Yes, Beltran will not steal as many bases as Ichiro or hit as many home runs as Vlad. But in hitting between Reyes and Wright he is bound to get plenty of RBI's and score a ton of runs, on top of the mentioned, and what i feel to be a more than likely 30-30 season.

Even with 130 healthy games, I see Beltran with more HRs than Vlad at the end of the year. Barring an injury, Ichiro will steal more bases. Both guys will hit significantly higher (average-wise). Other than that, I think Beltran has a pretty significant advantage over these guys (so long as you are willing to fill in for him when he goes on the 15-day DL twice). I think I would have him in the 17-20 range because of his injury risk and low batting average. He still has top 8 upside if he can recreate 2006 and stay mostly healthy. He would be a steal in the 21-30 range, obviously

[Fenway Punk]

Just wondering why team 9 gets your nod for best draft at this point with 3 of the 4 picks being just 1B and Util eligible. What format do you play in where you can start 3 1B?

[chris8]

Any sign of Part 2 coming soon? It would be good to see the rest of this Mock before any of the ones taking place in the Cafe get finished...

[tonyt0328]

I know this is a little late for posting comments since part 2 is up, but i wanted to know why you thought team 9 did the best in the first four rounds. Three of the picks were 1B and unless you are playing with corner and middle infielders one will be utility and the other will be trade bait or keeping the bench warm. I have never been in a league with corner infielders so it might be more popular than I think.