FANTASY DRAFT RESULTS

Well, it's too late to do a piece on Fantasy pitchers, as we conducted our draft yesterday. Even if it wasn't too late, I looked at a couple of ways to do it, and I'm not even sure how to produce a meaningful graph on the subject - pitchers don't break down into neat, easy-to-color-code categories like position players do. If I come up with something in the near future, I'll be sure to post it.

In the meantime, I have something much more fun to report, analyze in-depth, and otherwise fiend on:

OUR FANTASY DRAFT RESULTS!!! WOOOO!!!!1

Here's how my team broke down, round by round:

ROUND 1 - I was randomly selected for the first pick! What a boon! I naturally decided to pick the best overall player in all of baseball, Albert Pujols. Sure he plays in a deep position, but there's no one else who even comes close to putting up his kind of numbers with his consistency.

ROUNDS 2 & 3 - From here on out, because we had selected the snake-draft system (where the draft order alternates every round, first to last for odd rounds, last to first for even rounds), I got to make two choices in a row. Since there were 10 teams in our draft, my next two picks were numbers 20 and 21.

With these picks, I took AL Cy Young winner Zack Greinke and shorstop Troy Tulowitski. Greinke is arguably the league's best pitcher (next to Felix Hernandez), and I decided he was too good to pass up, even though the experts all say that you should usually gravitate towards NL pitchers, who get to face the opposing pitcher rather than the opposing DH. Tulo was basically MLB's second best shortstop last year, and puts up numbers comparable to an elite left fielder or third baseman at a much scarcer position.

ROUNDS 4 & 5 - Jonathan Broxton and Andre Ethier. Broxton is either the game's best closer or second best, depending on how bullish you are on Mariano Rivera remaining dominant at age 40, so he's a solid foot in the door regarding saves. Ethier, the game's second best right-fielder, should benefit from a full season of Manny Ramirez and another year of maturity.

ROUNDS 6 & 7 - Chone Figgins and Josh Johnson. I needed someone to steal bases and draw walks, and Figgins seemed like the perfect choice, given the possibility that he will spend significant time at second base this year for the M's. Johnson just got a big contract from the Marlins, so he should be pitching free of job security worries.

ROUNDS 8 & 9 - Shane Victorino and Shin-Soo Choo. And with that, my outfield is complete. How, you ask, since both Ethier and Choo played right field last year? Well, my friends, his 20 games in left field (against 124 in right) qualified Choo for the other corner spot, which means I get a right field quality producer for the price of a left fielder. Victorino's just pure scrappy talent: triples and steals abound.

ROUNDS 10 & 11 - Heath Bell and Lance Berkman. I admit it, I panicked here. Bell was a cinch, as it's pretty essential to have two dominant closers, and Papelbon, Joakim Soria, and Andrew Bailey just went in the previous round. For my next pick, I had my sights set on Kurt Suzuki, but I was really uneasy to draft someone ranked so far below slot. I didn't have a good enough awareness of the needs of other teams, and I went with a big bat to fill my DH slot (or so I thought). Had I looked closer, I would have seen that Berkman has barely done any running this spring and is a good bet to start the season on the DL. Suzuki went five picks later.

ROUNDS 12 & 13 - Jorge Posada and Clayton Kershaw. Nervous about my prospects of picking up a useful catcher, I sat biting my nails until I saw that Posada was still available. Kershaw is a good bet to break out and take on the responsibility of being the Dodgers' ace, if Joe Torre's handling of Matt Kemp is any guide.

ROUNDS 14 & 15 - Jose Lopez and Rajai Davis. Lopez was the only really productive second baseman left on the market, and ironically he might switch positions with my starting third baseman Chone Figgins. And if two guys who can steal bases (Figgins and Victorino) is good, why not add Davis and make it three?

ROUNDS 16 through 25 - From here on out I basically drafted a pitcher and a hitter each round. Pitchers: Roy Oswalt and Joe Blanton who I'm banking on to eat some innings. J.A. Happ, who looks like he's developing quite nicely. Octavio Dotel as a sleeper closer; hopefully he's ready for the start of the season. And Matt Guerrier, a setup man; because we have Holds as a scoring category this year.
Batters: Ryan Ludwick, who will likely have Pujols and Matt Holliday on base quite a few times to knock in. Garrett Jones, who can fill in for my IF spot if Berkman falters. Erick Aybar, another scrappy basestealer and backup shortstop. Ian Stewart, to back up the other two infield positions. And Jack Cust who will serve as my full time DH.

I have another thing to admit: I goofed on the rules. I saw the "DH" spot, and I thought that anyone could occupy it. As it turns out, though, you need someone who actually qualifies as a DH (which doesn't leave you a lot of people to work with. Knowing this, I might have passed up Rajai Davis in favor of Julio Borbon, the projected leadoff hitter for the Rangers. He could have been by DH and then my sleeper Ludwick could have been my fourth OF. But the way it works out, I have more A's on my team, which is good, because I want them to succeed unqualifiedly.

Here's a graphical representation of my team. These are the guys I'll be rooting to succeed all season.

POS	Name	swp	swp/g
3B	Chone Figgins	2,108	13.3
CF	Shane Victorino	2,077	13.3
1B	Albert Pujols	3,196	20.0
SS	Troy Tulowitski	2,304	15.3
RF	Andre Ethier	2,223	13.9
LF	Shin-Soo Choo	2,198	14.1
C	Jorge Posada	1,447	13.0
DH	Jack Cust	1,593	10.7
2B	Jose Lopez	1,797	11.7
1B	Lance Berkman*	1,826	13.4
IF	Ian Stewart	1,456	9.9
SS	Erick Aybar	1,481	10.8
CF	Rajai Davis	1,477	11.8
RF	Ryan Ludwick	1,584	11.4
1B/RF	Garrett Jones	1,239	15.1
SP	Zack Greinke	2,726	82.6
	Josh Johnson	2,093	63.4
	Clayton Kershaw	1,655	53.4
	Roy Oswalt	1,289	43.0
	Joe Blanton	1,454	46.9
	J.A. Happ	1,557	44.5
RP	Jonathan Broxton	2,152	29.5
	Heath Bell	2,062	30.3
	Octavio Dotel*	525	8.5
	Matt Guerrier	861	10.9