When do you take your first SP?

[cannonarm21]

Last year I waited until rounds 3 and 4 to take my first pitchers. There I selected Vazquez and Beckett, which basically blew up in my face.

In a H2H (5x5) league, are you always sure to take a pitcher with one of your first 2 picks?

[XTSilver]

No I dont think you need one in the top 2 rounds. It all depends on how the draft is going. For instance I drafted Sheets and Peavy in round 5-6 after going all hitting 1-4. Of course i wouldnt expect to be able to grab that kind of talent so late but you get the picture.

In general I'd say grab an ace in one of top 3 rounds.

[yeyo44]

I think it depends on your draft position. If I have one of the top 5 picks your looking at vlad, beltran, arod, puljos, and maybe bonds. If I have 6,7,or * I Draft Johan or Unit. I enjoy pitching in any type of league though. I figure drafting Santana, Hudson, Carlos Lee, and Kent lets say might be better than Beltran, Rolen, Vasquez and Beckett. IMO

[RugbyD]

You definitely don't need to. Part of your problem was that you overvalued Beckett, regardless of injury, so don't be too discombobulated by the blow-up. There's always talent in the lower rounds. Last year I missed a live Yahoo draft and the way my rankings were set I was given all batters until about the 12th round or so. I ended up getting Nomo, Clemens, and Clement (I didn't get a chance to rank my pitchers), so i ended up OK. That's not to say you should wait 12 rounds, but don't feel the need to jump on an ace right away all the time.

[flbtank]

I normally dont until rounds 3-5 and try & get 1-2 horses by round 7 to anchor my staff & fill in with Lima guys. Last year I took Nomar, Delgado & Sexon in 1-3 Rds...then took Mussina in the 4th. I thought I had an awesome offense started alongside my dependable ace starter. Just kidding.

[trevisc]

Last year I waited until rounds 3 and 4 to take my first pitchers. There I selected Vazquez and Beckett, which basically blew up in my face.

In a H2H (5x5) league, are you always sure to take a pitcher with one of your first 2 picks?

I don't pick a Pitcher until the 3rd round usually unless I can get my hands on Santana or something in the first round. I think the pitchers you selected is what caused that to blow up in your face not your strategy.

[sockeye]

I classify players as A+, A, B+, B, B-, etc. For the first few rounds, I focus on only taking players in the highest letter grades left.

In about the 7th round, I then start accounting for position.

This usually results in a fairly balanced team before even starting to worry about position.

Last year, I got to see what happened when this method failed. In one of my leagues, there was an unusually string run on SPs, and I caved and took the best available SP left in round 3 (18 team league) - Josh Beckett (grade B), when there were a couple of A RPs and hitters left. I had a miserable start to the season.

[Ylekiote]

In some leagues I try to pick the elite of the pitchers available (1st to 5th round) and sticking with this despite the unavailabilty of top tier hitters. The batters I would choose would be guys (low on everybody's radar) like Beltre, Dunn, Finley, Alou, etc, etc. If they hit as they did last year, it works well. I forget about closers and just grab a couple folks at the end, knowing (like Herges last year) they won't be good long. It also works because other folks often get itchy when Joe Rookie is heating up the league in April while Bret Boone is engulfed in yet another April Slump, I have had good success with this but other teams are able to put together a better lineup.
I have also picked as many others do, my entire IF and C prior to picking SPs, I have also had success with this due to keeping certain SPs (Harden, Santana last year) as the folks I build the staff around in later rounds.
Most generally though I look to balance the picks one round pitching, one round hitting with no definite thought in mind as which to choose 1st - just best player available - my opinion.

[AKhomebrewer]

My strategy has always been to take the best hitters I can find in 1-2, then grab my first SP in round 3. I may have to adapt that to my league, though, which is entering its sixth season with a cast of owners who invariably go on a staff-ace run early to mid 2nd round.

Since I was drafting 12th of 14, all my top pitchers were long gone by late 3rd round, so I 'settled' for Oswalt coming off his injury-plagued '03.

Worked out OK in the end, particularly since I also got Santana in the 7th , but I could just as easily have ended up with Beckett/Mussina in those spots.

My new strategy is to take what I consider a 'difference-maker' in the first round or two, regardless of position. Santana and Unit certainly qualify if I find myself picking at the end of the draft again.

[eftda]

I classify players as A+, A, B+, B, B-, etc. For the first few rounds, I focus on only taking players in the highest letter grades left.

In about the 7th round, I then start accounting for position.

This usually results in a fairly balanced team before even starting to worry about position.

I did the same, and it also blew up in my face I took 3 closers in a row. Rivera, Foulke and Dotel.