The Aftermath: 4 Fantasy Baseball Drafts

Last Thursday, March 26th, the first of four Tomahawk Take reader and staff fantasy baseball drafts took place.  This Thursday, April 2nd, there were two drafts at the same time that completed the draft season for TT readers and writers.  Here’s a quick review of what my strategies were in these drafts and how my teams ended up:

Fantasy baseball drafts: Draft 1 – Yahoo 14-team H2H, 12th pick

With a 14-team head to head set up, I wanted to target offense early and often, secure two aces, and go from there.  A secondary goal would be to target offense at shallow offensive positions early.  My team:

C – Carlos Santana
1B – Victor Martinez
2B – Anthony Rendon
3B – Kyle Seager
SS – Troy Tulowitzki
OF – Justin Upton, Marcell Ozuna, Ben Zobrist
Util – Alex Rios, Steven Souza
Bench – Michael Saunders, Luis Valbuena
SP – James Shields, Lance Lynn
RP – Huston Street, Jonathan Papelbon
P – Tyler Clippard, Sean Doolittle, Ken Giles, Danny Farquhar
Bench – Michael Pineda, Derek Holland, Aaron Sanchez

I was amazed how fast top-end pitchers went, both starters and closers, so I shifted my pitching focus to solid-stat relievers along with high-upside starters.  I like my offense, and I’ve swapped out Aaron Hill for Luis Valbuena, who has 2B eligibility to cover me for the start of the season with Rendon out.

Fantasy baseball drafts: Draft 2 – ESPN 14-team, Roto, 12th pick

With a deep roto, I didn’t want to force myself into stats, and I ended up deciding to see how the draft led me in a few different stats as to whether I bail on stats like steals, wins, or saves early on. I wanted to focus more on starting pitching in this draft with the deeper league and needing better starters in a roto versus a H2H format.  My team:

C – Yan Gomes
1B – Victor Martinez
2B – Neil Walker
3B – Josh Donaldson
SS – Troy Tulowitzki
MI – Jean Segura
CI – Brandon Belt
OF – Christian Yelich, Alex Gordon, Wil Myers
Util – Adam Eaton, Lorenzo Cain
Bench – Michael Saunders, D.J. LeMahieu
P – Julio Teheran, James Shields, Alex Wood, Hisashi Iwakuma, Brett Cecil, Ken Giles, Edward Mujica, Adam Ottavino, Danny Farquhar
Bench – A.J. Burnett, Daniel Norris

I’d like a do-over on this draft in general. A second go at the 12th pick had me thinking the league would play out like the Yahoo league did for some reason, and it didn’t at all.  I got sniped on a bunch of closers and speedsters, so I ended up “booting” steals and saves somewhat, but it seemed like I didn’t pull the trigger on guys to give my team depth.  I do really like my starters on my pitching staff, but otherwise, I have a feeling I may be looking to watch the waiver wire.

Fantasy Baseball Drafts: Draft 3 – Yahoo 10-team H2H, 2nd pick

Thursday, April 2, found me drafting the last two Tomahawk Take leagues at the exact same time, and while I was worried it’d be very difficult, both drafts moved quickly enough for me to be able to keep up yet not ever be bored for about 2 straight hours!  My strategy in this league with a standard roster setup was going to be getting a first round ace and then a good secondary ace as well.  I also wanted to target flexibility in my roster construction as well.  My team:

C – Carlos Santana
1B – Freddie Freeman
2B – Mookie Betts
3B – Josh Donaldson
SS – Troy Tulowitzki
OF – Ben Zobrist, Alex Gordon, Ryan Zimmerman
Util – Adam LaRoche, Leonys Martin
Bench – Wil Myers, Brett Lawrie
SP – Clayton Kershaw, Julio Teheran
RP – Huston Street, Glen Perkins
P – Zach Britton, Brett Cecil, Luke Gregerson, Brad Boxberger
Bench – James Shields, Drew Smyly, Taijuan Walker

This might be my favorite team of all the ones I drafted.  I got the ace of all aces in Kershaw, but I also got Teheran and Shields to go with him.  I ended up not picking up Joc Pederson because I got too many good flexible guys who could play outfield with Zobrist and Zimmerman.  All said, 5 of my 12 players have multiple position eligibility, which allows me to absorb a lot of injuries.  I took a risk with Kershaw #2, but I like the way the roster turned out.

Fantasy Baseball Drafts: Draft 4 – ESPN 10-team H2H, pick #3

The draft strategy here was easy – offense, offense, offense.  I wanted to fill my offense completely before my first closer, and stick to 2-3 pitchers total in that time.  I wanted good balance of speed and power on offense and find plenty of upside and strikeouts and hope for the best in my pitching.  My team:

C – Yan Gomes
1B – Victor Martinez
2B – Rougned Odor
3B – Josh Donaldson
SS – Ian Desmond
OF – Andrew McCutchen, Bryce Harper, Carlos Gonzalez, Alex Gordon, Leonys Martin
Util – David Ortiz
Bench – Wil Myers
P – James Shields, Hisashi Iwakuma, Glen Perkins, Anibal Sanchez, Drew Smyly, Hector Rondon, Andrew Miller, Neftali Feliz, Brad Boxberger
Bench – Nathan Eovaldi, Derek Holland

This did exactly what I hoped for.  My offense looks tremendous, and I like the upside grabs I got in my pitching.  I had only Shields and Iwakuma when I picked my last offensive player, Myers.  The rest of my pitching staff was all picked in the last 9 rounds of the draft, and I think my staff is still fairly good.

Conclusion

So what did I learn? For one, two drafts at the same time can accelerate one’s pulse quite a bit!  I seem to be higher than others on James Shields as I ended up with him in each draft.  I also have only Cleveland players manning catcher for me in my leagues, which is not intentional but funny nonetheless.  I also have a focus in the infield in my drafts, especially on guys like Tulo and Josh Donaldson, who I do think will be a top-1o guy this year in Toronto.

All in all, this was a lot of fun.  I’ll be sure to update throughout the year on how each league is doing.  I just can’t wait for the season to start!!