as case to not take the best available? WHIR 100%

[gws226]

Every year I spent some time planning out the first few rounds of my keep 5/6 leagues. I've always found it extremely useful to have a good understanding of what your opponents needs are going to be before and after your pick.... This way you can better maximize the value you receive with each pick.

This year (Keep 5 +1 rook) SP was WAAAAY overkept, 23 of the 60 available keepers are SP.
My keepers are Aroid, reyes, braun, Pedoria, LinceK and MadMax.

Due to the overkeeping of SP and other teams needs, there is a LOT of offensive talent comming my way at my first pick 9th(81) BUT, picks 82-87 (I pick again @ 88) all have similiar pitching needs.

I use ADP as part of my draft strategy, but these are by no means my exact placement of players....

If I lay out teams needs vs. best available player there is a VERY high likelihood that round 4/5 type Offensive talent will fall in my lap at 81... there are 12 with an ADP of less then 64 (including Bay, Kemp, Vlad) but a very high probability that there not be an SP with an ADP higher then 96 left by the time the snake gets back to me at pick 88.

So, my question is... is this a case where you DONT want to take best available? If I don't take a pitcher at 81(my choices would most likely be Billingsley, Lackey or Liriano) , I could very easily wind up with an AJ burnett as my #2 SP.

Odds are high that I would be forced to overpay for pitching through trade later on...

Thanks for the advice.

[sigriffey]

In general, I like best available but never consider it gospel. I have many times passed on a guy who is deemed the best for someone that fits a need (and am currently having a tough decision like that with whether to keep Soriano or Grander, so please see my post below). I would say if you are one to pull off trades with relative ease, then I might actually say assemble the best pitching staff you can because owners always seem to overpay for arms when there are few to go around. So unless you are going to pass up a Manny Ramirez for a John Lackey -- where I would say Manny is too unique an asset to pass up -- I would lean towards those elite arms. Just my opinion anyway.

ok, here is mine... viewtopic.php?f=26&t=369269