My 2001 season in the league came to a frustrating end thanks to a horrible pitching staff, so that was my main goal for 2002: Improve my pitching. My strategy of drafting young players last year resulted in a number of promising prospects on my team (including Albert Pujols and Marcus Giles) and a wealth of keepers. Having finished 13th last year, I'd have the 4th overall pick in the draft, and I traded a few keeper years for additional picks in the 10th and 11th round. Overall, my strategy this year was:
- Try not to draft anyone over age 32.
- With my first pick, choose Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield or Mike Mussina. (If all of them had been taken, I guess I'd have taken Jeff Bagwell.)
- Sign an impact hitter with my second-round pick, preferably an outfielder, as my infield was strong.
- Target prospects starting around the 8th round.
Here's the team I ended up with:
Pos |
Player |
Team |
Round |
Age |
Comments |
C |
Michael Barrett |
Mon |
12 |
25 |
1B |
Mike Sweeney |
KC |
Keeper |
28 |
1B |
Richie Sexson |
Mil |
2 |
27 |
2B |
Marcus Giles |
Atl |
Keeper |
23 |
2B/SS/3B |
Desi Relaford |
Sea |
11 |
28 |
How much will he play? |
SS |
Christian Guzman |
Min |
Keeper |
24 |
SS |
Ramon Vazquez |
SD |
Suppl |
25 |
I felt lucky to get him so late. |
3B |
Morgan Ensberg |
Hou |
3 |
26 |
Seems like a risky pick. Should I have taken Eric Hinske instead? |
1B/3B/OF |
Albert Pujols |
StL |
Keeper |
22 |
My über-sub! |
OF |
Trot Nixon |
Bos |
Keeper |
27 |
OF |
Mark Kotsay |
SD |
5 |
26 |
OF |
Daryle Ward |
Hou |
7 |
26 |
OF |
Terrence Long |
Oak |
8 |
26 |
OF |
Dustan Mohr |
Min |
Suppl |
25 |
Missed out on Vernon Wells by a round. Not sure I expect a lot from Mohr. |
|
SP |
Mike Mussina |
NYY |
1 |
33 |
SP |
Barry Zito |
Oak |
Keeper |
23 |
SP |
Ruben Quevedo |
Mil |
Keeper |
23 |
SP |
Jason Marquis |
Atl |
Keeper |
23 |
SP |
Corey Lidle |
Oak |
6 |
30 |
SP |
Bud Smith |
StL |
9 |
22 |
Happy to get him so late. |
SP |
Kip Wells |
Pit |
14 |
24 |
Seems like everyone - including me - overlooked him. |
SP/RP |
Erik Hiljus |
Oak |
11 |
29 |
RP |
Octavio Dotel |
Hou |
4 |
28 |
I can't believe I spent so high a pick on a reliever. |
RP |
Arthur Rhodes |
Sea |
10 |
32 |
RP |
Scott Sullivan |
Cin |
Suppl |
31 |
|
2B |
Bobby Hill |
ChC |
10 |
|
Reserve/Minors. Could be up this year. |
OF |
Chris Snelling |
Sea |
13 |
|
Reserve/Minors. Kind of a wacky pick; might be 2 years away. |
SP |
Jerome Williams |
SF |
15 |
|
Reserve/Minors. The Giants are going to need someone to pitch for them in 2003. |
I think my pitching rocks. Mussina and Zito could be two of the most valuable pitchers in our league, and Wells, Smith, Quevedo and Marquis all seem like good picks with substantial upside. Lidle and Hiljus seem like gravy by comparison. Of course, pitching is always risky, but these seem like quality risks.
My hitting, though, concerns me. A lot depends on guys like Giles, Long and Ward developing like they should, without a significant dropoff from Pujols, Sweeney and Sexson. It seems like a lot of these guys are low-ceiling players, albeit ones who might be poised for career years.
My big lament is holding off for so long on picking a catcher. Michael Barrett seems like a very risky pick, and I don't have a lot to fall back on on the waiver wire. Other folks in the league seem to value catchers more highly than their raw hitting stats suggest, probably because the dropoff is so steep. I need to figure out how to compensate for that next year.
Finally, I'm very worried that I picked Morgan Ensberg way too high. I guess the Astros are basically committed to him, but you never know. If he just doesn't hit, then they'll find someone who can, even if he might not have a bright future. Seems like I could have been smarter here, but the 3rd-through-6th rounds seemed like tough ones to pick in. There were a lot of old veterans whose upside seemed to be in the past.
Well, even if victory isn't in my future, at least I should be able to climb out of the bottom quartile this year. Here's hoping!
Results
Another year, another disappointing season. This time around I finished 7th out of 16, which is better than 13th, but still. Not in the money. (We have 7 prizes in this league - not all for finishing at the top of the standings - but the level of competition is high.) Subrata finished 12th, but had the "Most Improved" team in the second half, and so got a prize share. My other recruit, Syd, finished dead last, which I think is what he expected as an expansion team.
The final standings (with the entertaining team names):
TW Mgr Team Total Diff Win% W-L GB Nxt PB AVG
1 Keith "Labor Contractions" 7055 1205 .603 98- 64 0 - 0 282
2 Steve 6962 1112 .595 96- 66 2 93 93 278
3 Nate "Standard Deviants" 6782 932 .580 94- 68 4 180 273 271
4 MichJ "Who's On First?" 6637 787 .567 92- 70 6 145 418 265
5 Chris "Retirement Home" 6348 498 .543 88- 74 10 289 707 254
6 Phil "Injured Reserve" 6060 210 .518 84- 78 14 288 995 242
7 MichR "Stupid Bat Tricks" 5951 101 .509 82- 80 16 109 1104 238
8 MichB "Titanic" 5822 -28 .498 81- 81 17 129 1233 233
9 Rao 5799 -51 .496 80- 82 18 23 1256 232
10 John "Sirang Katawan" 5786 -64 .494 80- 82 18 13 1269 231
11 Marcus "Defensive Specialists" 5386 -464 .460 75- 87 23 400 1669 215
12 Rick "Audball's" 5239 -611 .448 73- 89 25 147 1816 210
13 Subrata "Utterly Unremarkable" 5237 -613 .448 73- 89 25 2 1818 209
14 Tim "Axis Of Evil" 5067 -783 .433 70- 92 28 170 1988 203
15 Eric "PTFLBPPOBB... Hooray!" 4815 -1035 .412 67- 95 31 252 2240 193
16 Syd "They Might Be Pirates" 4660 -1190 .398 65- 97 33 155 2395 186
What sunk me this is year that every risk I took - even some, I thought, that we pretty good - went sour on me. Hiljus and Quevedo imploded, Marquis struggled for playing time, Long and Ward were both just awful, Marcus Giles fell into Bobby Cox's doghouse, Guzman stopped hitting, Ensberg was the scapegoat for the Astros' early troubles and was sent to the minors. Plus I got bit again by having a weak catcher.
There are definitely some things I can correct here. Like not spending my third-round pick on a prospect with questionable chances! I'll see if I can do better this year. My in-season management is good enough that if I could just draft an 8th-place team I bet I can struggle into the money. It'd be nice to do even better, of course.
hits since 8 April 2002.
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