How do you draft 1st overall?

[The Mighty Trow]

So this will be my first time drafting first overall and I'd like your sage advise about how you've handled drafting at the corner.

A bit about my league -- competitive 10 team first year keeper (we're starting off slow and keeping only 3 for up to 3 years. Just the tip. haha.)

Typically I would wait till the 4th or 5th rounds to grab my Ace, and then wait till much later in the draft to grab my closers. But with 19 players disappearing between my picks, I feel I can't really risk waiting too long to take what I need.

So my strategy currently looks like this:

1st round - Hanley
2/3 corner - Either Lincecum or Santana/ and then the next best player on the board (according to my mocks, this would be a Beltran, Upton, Longoria, Soriano or Pedroia).
3/ 4 corner - whatever is best on the board
5/ 6 corner - I'd take the best closer available

I guess my strategy is to try and grab the very best a) batter b) pitcher c) closer and filing in the rest as the draft dictates. I will likely have to reach for the best pitcher and catcher, and I know I'd do so at the cost of an every day 5-tool bat.

Do you think it's a worth while strategy?

[JimmyBaseball]

I like what you've said for the most part. just my $.02, I would avoid the closer in round 5/6.

Question: When is your draft?

The cafe usually has a nice "closer thread" that has the leading candidate on every team and the top backup or two for each team. My strategy last year was to wait and draft most of the undrafted closers in rounds 16-22. I grabbed three closers in those rounds. I actually waited till the 8th round to draft a pitcher, period. Granted, I offensively knocked around every team, lead the league in saves, usually lost most pitching cats but ended up winning about every week 6-4 or 7-3. It worked so well that my brother commented he will be usuaing a similar mentality this year..... too bad we always play together.

[The Artful Dodger]

In a 10-teamer, you really don't need to think about reaching in the first few rounds. At the 2nd and 3rd, you're likely to have some great options at the turn where taking the best player is the best route. I wouldn't start targeting any position, stat, or player specifically until about the 4th/5th round turn at the very earliest.