Rounds 3 and 4?

[Russell James]

oops, read your post wrong.

A 2nd outfielder like Markakis would be good or grabbing a SS. After the Orlando Cabrera is taken at the SS position there is a large talent dropoff, so taking a guy like Jeter, Tulowitzki in the late rounds wouldn't be too bad. 2nd Outfielder would probably be your best bet though.

[Syfo-Dyas]

So I'm noticing that with one of the later picks (8-12), once I get to the 3rd round

A. Ramirez, V. Martinez, Sabathia, Crawford (if somebody lets him slip that far) Bedard, Berkman, Tex, Atkins.

Berkman usually slips into the third along with Carlos Lee sometimes in most mock drafts I have done.

we're talkin about picks 32 - 41!
Only Sabathia, Aramis and Atkins are options here IMO.
I'd be happy to draft Tex with the 24th pick!
If any other guy of the afore mentioned slips that far, then the opponents are not good enough, and drafting shouldnt be a problem.
If this is competetive, than:
I assume you need a 1b, so 4th round would be Atkins or Hafner. If you need 1b and 3b than you can take both, but Atkins is a bit of a reach, while in the 3rd Manny Ramirez has a very nice upside.

Good luck.

[BronXBombers51]

After the Orlando Cabrera is taken at the SS position there is a large talent dropoff, so taking a guy like Jeter, Tulowitzki in the late rounds wouldn't be too bad.

I assume you meant Rollins, and not Orlando Cabrera?

[intodeep]

I am glad that you posted this thread.

I am picking 12th and have done a few mock drafts over teh weekend and I noticed the same trend. I 'm never really happy with who is falling to me for my 3rd adn 4th round picks.

I'm still not sure what i'm going to do here.

[chipper]

I am glad that you posted this thread.

I am picking 12th and have done a few mock drafts over teh weekend and I noticed the same trend. I 'm never really happy with who is falling to me for my 3rd adn 4th round picks.

I'm still not sure what i'm going to do here.

Yeah it's a tough one.
I guess the concensus so far has been to either get your SS (if you missed out on one early), or just grab an OF from a little further down the list. Also a 3B like Aram or Atkins could be an option, assuming you didn't get one of the earlier guys.

[Syfo-Dyas]

I am glad that you posted this thread.

I am picking 12th and have done a few mock drafts over teh weekend and I noticed the same trend. I 'm never really happy with who is falling to me for my 3rd adn 4th round picks.

I'm still not sure what i'm going to do here.

Yeah it's a tough one.
I guess the concensus so far has been to either get your SS (if you missed out on one early), or just grab an OF from a little further down the list. Also a 3B like Aram or Atkins could be an option, assuming you didn't get one of the earlier guys.

get your SS
you mean Jeter or Tulo?
theres noone else who should go that early.
Hmmm. Im not sure that I would do that.
They both are at the top of their ADP value IMO. No upside.

[hot4tx]

This is where I think a solo-mock can be handy. Go through the draft a few times, taking players off the board as you think they may come off. When you get to your 3rd round, take an OF, then follow through the next 6-7 rounds. Do this a few times and see what kind of team you could possibly end up with. Now try it with taking that C, or 1B, etc.

I usually will put in my player projections for these teams to see how they stack up (can sometimes be surprising).

There's always going to be some very odd or different flows of your draft other than what you think might happen, but this at least lets you get a feel for how your team might look depending on what decision you make in that 3rd round. Maybe you see that if you take a C you really do end up with better teams, or maybe taking an OF helps you so much with flexibility for the rest of your draft. Now throw it all out the window, because having a set "plan" makes you susceptible to missing value picks and to getting frustrated when someone jumps up and takes "your" player. But it is a good exercise and something good to have done so you can make a more informed decision should that case arise.

[J35J]

Here are picks 30-45 from the 2 cafeholics leagues I've done so far this year....for whatever its worth.

2.15 Brandon Webb, SP, AZ
3.01 Manny Ramirez, OF, BOS
3.02 Alex Rios, OF, TOR
3.03 Victor Martinez, C, CLE
3.04 Adam Dunn, OF, CIN
3.05 Bobby Abreu, OF, NYY
3.06 Nick Markakis, OF, BAL
3.07 Garrett Atkins, 1B/3B, COL
3.08 Travis Hafner, 1B, CLE
3.09 Russell Martin, C, LAD
3.10 Torii Hunter, OF, LAA
3.11 Brian Roberts, 2B, BAL
3.12 Erik Bedard, SP, SEA
3.13 Robinson Cano, 2B, NYY
3.14 Derek Jeter, SS, NYY
3.15 Justin Morneau, 1B, MIN


3.02 - Travis Hafner, 1B, CLE
3.03 - Curtis Granderson, OF, DET
3.04 - Alex Rios, OF, TOR
3.05 - Nick Markakis, OF, BAL
3.06 - Adam Dunn, OF, CIN
3.07 - Victor Martinez, C/1B, CLE
3.08 - Garett Atkins, 3B/1B, COL
3.09 - Justin Morneau, 1B, MIN
3.10 - Erik Bedard, SP, BAL
3.11 - Magglio Ordonez, OF, DET
3.12 - Josh Beckett, SP, BOS
3.13 - Bobby Abreu, OF, NYY
3.14 - Manny Ramirez, OF, BOS
4.01 - Cole Hamels, SP, PHI
4.02 - Chone Figgins, 2B/3B/OF, LAA
4.03 - Derek Jeter, SS, NYY

[MTUCache]

This is a HUGE problem I had on my team as well....

I had my first real league draft last week, and ended up with the 11th pick (out of 12). At first I was pretty excited... there seems to be a pretty large dropoff after the first 18-20 players, so I liked the idea of having two of them. But, as I got in to the 3rd and 4th rounds, I quicly found out that this was not quite the blessing I thought it would be.

For my first two rounds, I almost always insist on taking one CI and one OF. The tiers in those two categories almost demand it, at least to my mind. So, I was quite happy that Howard fell to me at 11, and I was quite happy to take Crawford at 14. I felt like these two could provide a very nice base to my team.

Then, with the wraparound, things started to fall apart quickly. Going strictly by my value rankings, I initially felt pretty good about snapping up Granderson at 35, as I felt like having two of the top-10 OF would really set me above the rest of the league. Then, at 38, I almost couldn't pass up taking Victor Martinez... I mean, I had his ADP at 27 (above Granderson even!).

Of course, as soon as I completed those two picks, the rest of my league rattled off a string of 3B, OF, and SP picks, leaving me either following the run and scraping the bottom of the barrel at those positions, or bucking the trend to try and keep taking value players. I ended up doing a mix of the two, taking Tulowitzki at 59 (who I had a 39) and Oswalt at 62 (this was a mistake).

Bottomline, 3B is way too shallow of a position for me to go beyond the 4th or 5th round, the dropoff after ARod, Wright, MCab, Braun, and ARam, is pretty steep. If you then miss out on Figgins and Atkins (as I did), you're left waiting for the rounds 8+ candidates like Zimmerman, Lowell, Gordon, or *gulp* EE (as I ended up with in the 13th round, taking the 14th best 3B probably two rounds early).

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but for the past few mocks I've done, the only teams I feel comfortable with are the ones where I fill up my 1B, 3B, and 3 OF spots in the first five rounds. After that then I'm probably going for a SP and then coming back to the MI spots... apparently I'm just not quick enough on my feet to be mixing up my selections on the fly as I tried to do here.

[tmlfan4ever]

I usually look for these guys in the 3rd round: A. Ramirez, V. Martinez, Sabathia, Crawford (if somebody lets him slip that far) Bedard, Berkman, Tex, Atkins.

If Crawford falls to the third round, that league isn't worth playing in. I also don't like taking pitchers that early, but I think Aram is a great target at that price. No way Carlos Lee or Tex fall that far either. As a serious fantasy player, those are the kind of league that you're better off not being a part of.