Drafting #9 in a 12 team roto league - advice needed

[dakotablake78]

I've got the 9th pick in an upcoming draft. It's a tough pick. I was planning to target Cano and then pick up an elite 3rd baseman (or perhaps a Matt Holliday) with the 16th pick. With my 3rd round pick I planned to lock down a upper tier 1B such as Ryan Howard, Kevin Youkilis or Adam Dunn.

My problem is I don't really have a good strategy if Cano is taken before my pick and I select an OF, 3B or 1B. My choices will likely be Crawford, AGon, Braun, Cargo, Wright, Zimmerman, Hamilton, Arod (I refuse to draft a SP this early so Halladay is out). I am not excited about any of these players as a first round selection. I prefer a guy who's a lock for 150+ games with a proven track record, so that excludes pretty much everyone I mentioned except Crawford. I'll take him if I need to, but I'd prefer to get a major run producer in Rd one and then target steals later in the late middle rounds.

Who would you recommend? Who should I target in rounds 2 and 3? Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[abrage22]

Maybe you'll get lucky like me and get Votto, Braun, Youk, Kemp and Dunn in the first 5 rounds

[dakotablake78]

That's impressive. Not gonna happen in my league though.

[BitterDodgerFan]

i find that it's nearly useless to make those plans because it will not go that way...
you can't really plan on taking certain position players at certain points because i find it will not go as you expected after the first few picks.

[Tis]

I have the tenth pick in a 12 teamer coming up and my strategy is to get a 1B and a 3B in the first two picks, OF is too deep for me to buy in the first round, and Cano has usually been gone in my drafts. 3B especially is really thin to me this year, and since my league also starts a CI, those big 1B bats don't last as long as they might elsewhere. So I want either 1)Wright 2)Pick of Tex/Fielder/Howard, or 1) A-Gon 2)A-Rod/Zimmerman. Then *usually* in my mocks I can get either Kinsler or Uggla in the 3rd and Dunn in the 4th, if not I've usually gone with Dunn followed by a good 5 tool OFer.

But thats just me. Its a flexible enough strategy that it allows me to jump on opportunities, but still fill the holes my overall strategy expects to have filled early.

[AllDay]

That's what I did this year, and got Wright on the way back. Doubt that happens often. After Utley got hurt my first draft related response was to covet Cano more than I probably should. Not sure I recommend it - but can understand the pick if nobody else falls. I passed on Braun to take Cano and that might have been a mistake.

Honestly I don't think it matters that much. At worst you are going to be picking from Votto, Cano, Wright, Crawford, Gonzo at 9-12 and Fielder, Howard, Tex, A-Rod, Holiday, Hamilton, maybe Kemp or Zim with your next pick if you aren't thinking SP.

The rest of the draft is where you have to make some meaningful decisions.

Instead of discussing your particular draft situation in the 'Leftovers' forum (that's a 'Draft Advice' topic), I'd be interested in hearing other people's thoughts on Cano's value at pick 9ish with Utley's status an ugley unknown, Pedroia's bum foot, Kinsler's chronic breakability, and the rest of the not so enticing 2B options. Are you more interested at pick 9 or going for more power stats?

[kab21]

Even with the Utley uncertainty I think 2B is still a fairly deep position. It's worse to be left out at 3B imo (not mentioning the obvious - SS).

[MTUCache]

Even with the Utley uncertainty I think 2B is still a fairly deep position. It's worse to be left out at 3B imo (not mentioning the obvious - SS).

Yeah... I really don't get targeting Cano/Pedroia early. I mean, if they happen to be there and you're willing to work around them that's fine, but I wouldn't be planning on drafting a 2B that high unless one fell in my lap (like say, with your 2nd round pick).

I personally feel like the three positions that have the steepest dropoff from the 1st to 4th rounds are: SS, 3B, and 1B.

(Yes, we've had the "1B is deep" conversation here, but when you play in a league with UT spots there's going to be 9-11 of them off the board by the end of round 4.)

If you get stuck out in the dark without one of those guys you're in for a world of hurt in the HR/RBI categories. Then you're almost forced to start targeting low-BA guys who can slug you back up the leaderboard (Reynolds, Pena, etc). Assuming you're missing out in the SS guys, I'm going 1B/3B/OF with my first three picks (in some order) 90% of the time.

[mojoorising]

I had the 8th pick in mine and went with braun so if he is there at 9 go for it just come back with arod/zimm/youk in the second then target dunn in the 3/4 round picks. Here is how my team ended up just to give u an idea.

C-Weiters
1B-Dunn
2B-Beckham
3B-Zimmerman
SS-Rollins
OF-Justin Upton
OF-Kemp
OF-Braun
Utl-Victorino

SP-Haren
SP-Carpenter
P-Broxton
P-Street
P-Hanrahan
P-Lilly
P-W Rodriguez


Bench-Papi
Bench-Ogando
Bench-McGee
Bench-Bedard
Bench-J Zimmermann
Bench-Nolasco

12 Team HTH Scoring ---- R, RBI, HR, SB, AVG, K'S, BB'S, XBH, HITS -- WINS, SAVES, K'S, TOTAL BASES, HOLDS, WHIP, ERA, LOSES, IP


C-Napoli
1B-Votto
2B-Kendrick
3B-A Roids
SS-Aybar
OF-CarGo
OF-Rodriguez
OF-Soriano
Utl-Miggy

SP-Jimemez
SP-Lincecum
RP-Wagner
RP-Bel
P-Simon
P-Liriano
P-Lester


Bench-Figgins
Bench-LaPorta
Bench-BJ Upton
Bench-Kubel
Bench-Elsbury DL

Bench-Wandy
Bench-Anderson DL
Bench-Scherzer

[BalataGrande]

I've done a fair amount of Mocks at position 9. I started out building around Cano and at the end, always came up short in the power cats. The big reason, is that I'd be weak at either 1b or 3b. That was fixed by drafting 1b/3b or 3b/1b with my first 2 picks. Pick 27 you can grab Uggla/Kinsler and be set. You can compensate by picking up SB guys later, but to not get 2 studs at corner in the first 2 rounds puts you at a big disadvantage IMO.