National Fantasy Baseball Championship Draft Results – Part 2 of 4

1) Johan Santana, SP – My first choice at this pick, I had him 3 overall as did Corey Schwartz’s projections on the Fantasy 411, great value

2) Brandon Phillips, 2B – I’m not sure why he’s not a top 10 player right now, David Wright numbers at a vastly thinner position, lock for top 10 next year and maybe top 5 – bottom line is I fell like we have 2 top 10 players out of the 14 hole, Phillips’ home run spray chart in Graphical Player sold me that he’s for real

3) Adam Dunn, OF – The last train to 40homerunville is the Adam Dunn express, punch my ticket I love it, chips in 6-9 stolen bases for style points

4) Brandon Webb, SP – In my mind the #2 pitcher in fantasy baseball, improved on ERA, WHIP and Ks 3 (or maybe 4) straight years, arguably a better season last year after his Cy Young in 2006 – we might have the 2 best pitchers in fantasy baseball

5) Michael Young, SS – I don’t love Michael Young because his counting stats are light but he’s a lock to hit over 300 and we need some BA to cover for Dunn, plus pair him with Phillips and that’s an awesome middle infield in NFBC format

6) Jeff Francoeur, OF – HRs dropped last year and doubles jumped, a workout program in the off season spells rebound, Matthew Berry of ESPN Fantasy Focus Baseball broke that news and on further investigation I drank the Kool-Aide

7) Juan Pierre, OF – His ADP was 90, we got him at 104, I think anytime in the 5^th round (60-75) you could make a great case for locking in 50+ SBs, a 290 BA in the OF, I think he was massively undervalued at 90 and at 104 it’s like having 2 5^th round picks, we dug a hole with grabbing starting pitching and this makes up for the Webb pick in one move – the league let us up off the mat on this one and we’re going to make them pay

8) Todd Helton, 1B – The only pick in the first 10 that was out of need more than love, we pictured pitchers here but the miracle of Santana/Webb means we need more bats, Helton isn’t what he was but he is what he is, 320 BA, 20 HR, 90/90 – really nice counting stats and high BA – we’ll use that later in the end game with some mashers, plus we needed a corner infielder

9) Edwin Encarnacion, 3B – I’ve always liked this kid but as his ADP crept up I got less interested, the Fantasy 411 sold him big time on their preview show so I jumped back on the bandwagon, at worse he has power with some steals so it works

10) Brad Lidge, RP – Based on everything I read his knee injury is nothing to worry about – just dropped him a round, cover up the name and look at last year’s stats and this guy is money on a contending team, he essentially has no competition at closer (Gordon? please) this was another one from Schwartz at the 411

National Fantasy Baseball Championship Draft Results – Part 1 of 4

My partner and I drafted out of New York last Saturday for the National Fantasy Baseball Championship. Finally month of preparation, strategizing and mock drafts get put to use as we chase the $100,000 prize for the Main Event.

Our overall fantasy baseball strategy was to defer closers. All closers have risk so why not assume a little more to pick up 3 and 4 category players in the mid-first 10 rounds. This also means we’ll need to ear mark a significant amount of FAAB (auction money for free agents) to pick up at least one more off the waiver wire in season. The handicap of more potential volatility and less FAAB money seemed like a sensible trade off. It’s also a way to indirectly use FAAB before the season even starts. The sooner you use it the sooner you can get a return – better to spend $400 on someone in April than $100 in August.

We also wanted to target some higher batting average bats so that we could grab some late round power and speed guys with garbage batting averages.

Our goal was to pick out of the 14^th slot and that’s exactly what we got. The National Fantasy Baseball Championship uses a KDS (Kentucky Derby Style) drat order. You basically rank your preference and when your name gets pulled out of the hat you get the best spot available. We wanted 14 to exploit something very specific that I saw in the mock draft. Of the 7 that I did either Ryan Howard, Carl Crawford or Johan Santana fell to 14 – every time! Everyone of these guys is a top 10 player and I was fairly indiscriminant as to which one we got. This also yields the 17^th pick which would give us a great chance to grab second baseman Brandon Philips (featured in the baseball card at the top). It’s beyond me why a 30/30 second baseman isn’t top 10 right now but he will be next year. In other words, the 14^th pick could allow us to grab 2 top 10 players – in my opinion.