2010 Draft

During the Winter Meetings, I traded away Justin Morneau and Alex Rodriguez for draft picks. I figured I needed to rebuild. I went into the draft looking to build a competitive team for 2010 but to set up a title run in 2011.
Here is my 2010 Draft recap.
1.10 Danny Haren, SP - Of the top 3 starters in the draft, Haren has the least risk.
1.12 Bobby Abreu, OF - Still going strong.
2.6 Jason Bartlett, SS - A bit of a risky pick with only one good year under his belt, but Bartlett figures to be a stud.
2.10 Nate McLouth, OF - Outfielders were thin this year so McLouth might be overvalued a bit, but he's a 4 tool player.
3.9 Wandy Rodriguez, SP - An up and coming starter, the new ace of the Astros.
4.10 David Aardsma, RP - My first (and only, as it turned out) closer. The M's are better this year so Aardsma will get plenty of saves.
4.14 Max Scherzer, SP - Mad Max rejoins the Bums and is my fourth starter capable of reaching 200 K's.
5.9 Rickie Weeks, 2B - A high-risk, high-reward pick in a very top-heavy position.
6.9 David Ortiz, DH - I have a thing for veterans, especially ones capable of 30 HR's and 100 RBI's.
7.9 J.P. Howell, RP - A reach here, but will get saves or holds.
8.9 Jack Cust, OF - Will help with HR, RBI and walks.
9.9 A.J. Pierzynski, C - The obligatory mid round catcher pick.
10.9 Luke Gregerson, RP - Will get holds until the Padres trade Bell.
12.9 Casey Blake, 3B - A solid but unspectacular third baseman.
13.9 Seth Smith, OF - Could put up nice numbers if he gets AB's.
13.11 Barry Zito, SP - Looks to continue his comeback. Not bad for a 5th starter.
14.9 David Murphy, OF - A good fill in player with power.
15.9 Robinson Tejeda, RP - A good source of K's.
16.9 Peter Moylan, RP - A good source of holds.
17.9 Daniel Murphy, OF - Backup first baseman.
18.9 Chris Getz, 2B - Could be a steal and get steals if he wins the starting gig.
19.9 John Lannan, SP - The Nat's best starter until Strasborg.
21.9 Ronald Belasario, RP - Solid reliever.
22.9 Darren Oliver, RP - Good with the Angels, can he keep it going with the Rangers.
23.9 Pedro Alvarez, 3B - Young prospects always have a chance of getting playing time with the Pirates.
24.9 Jason Marquis, SP - Not bad for the second to last pick of the draft.

Rest of 2008 Draft

7 - Carlos Gomez, OF - I needed some speed and Gomez could deliver. The only issue is playing time.
9 - Kelly Shoppach, C - My starting catcher. The Indians lineup is still up in the air, but 25 HR' and 70 RBI's are easily obtainable.
10 - Kevin Gregg, RP - Mandatory handcuff for Marmol. One will close, the other setup.
11 - Joel Zumaya, RP - Will this be the year for Mr. Guitar Hero? He will be in the mix to close, but I expect him to setup.
12 - Randy Wolf, SP - A solid starter when healthy, he is my 6th man in the rotation.
13 - Mark Fontenot, 2B - Finally picked up a second baseman. Fontenot put up good numbers last year but might not be the full time starter. I will probably need a backup.
14 - Sean Marshall, SP/RP - Yet another Cub. Marshall is a good pitcher that can't seem to stick in the rotation or bullpen. His RP/SP eligibility gives me some more flexibility.
15 - Jerry Owens, OF - Taking another chance on Owens this year. If he gets the starting leadoff gig for the Sox, he could put up very nice numbers.
16 - Roy Corcoran, RP - In the running for the Mariners closer spot. If he gets it, he will be a nice saves value pick, otherwise I hope he gets some holds.
17 - Anthony Reyes, RP/SP - Hopefully will start, but might have to wait for an opening.
18 - Taylor Teagarden, C - A nice high-reward backup for Shoppach.

2009 Draft

Recap of the first five rounds.
1 - Justin Morneau, 1B - I was looking to trade down, but couldn't get a deal done so this pick became a toss up between Morneau and Berkman. I went with youth since their stats are very similar.
2 - Ricky Nolasco, SP - I traded down in the second and picked up another 3rd rounder. Nolasco had a great 08 season. My primary target here was Edinson Volquez but he went two spots before me. Nolasco only had two less wins and a twenty less strikeouts, but a lower WHIP.
3a - Carlos Marmol, RP - Marmol put up an insane 11.78 K/9 strikeout ratio last year. I figure at least 45 saves for the Cubs this year.
3b - Max Scherzer, RP/SP - A bit of reach for this promising talent. He is slated to be in the rotation but qualifies at RP so I have lots of flexibility.
4 - Frank Francisco, RP - I took Francisco over other available closers due to his great K rate (11.84/9) and the fact that the Rangers should be better this year.
5 - Erik Bedard, SP - Was playing hurt last year on a terrible Mariners team. I expect a return to 180+ K's.

I don't have a 6th or 8th round picks. I will be looking to flesh out my empty roster positions in the later rounds.

End of Season Review

My long, sad 2008 season has mercifully come to a close. I somehow managed to climb out of the cellar and finish 7th in the Western Division ahead of the Redbirds. League-wide, I finished 13th but that didn't qualify me for the consolation bracket.
There is some hope for next year. I finished up 3-0-3 and if I didn't start the season with 6 straight losses, I would have been in the hunt for the postseason.
What went wrong? Almost everything.
First off, my draft stunk. My first 2 picks, Ordonez and Carmona had decent years when they weren't on the DL; you need more from those very important picks. Brett Myers was the epitome of awful until he was finally demoted to the minors; he did come back very strong after his recall so hopefully he won't be dead weight heading into next year. As bad as Myers was, he was an All-Star compared to my next couple picks: Khalil Greene and Manny Corpas; enough said, its too painful. Garko and Lowe were decent, not great, but decent. Out of my remaining picks, only Randy Johnson and Adam Jones got meaningful playing time. The rest stunk. My strategy of getting all the Rockies second baseman backfired as they all stunk; although Clint Barmes came around late in the year but wasn't starting full time. My other strategy of getting young speedsters also backfired as all those guys stunk even worse.
Injuries also killed me. Almost every started I had spent some time on the DL. Only late in the season was my team healthy and playing well.
All this adds up to a dismal 111-134-19 record. There is always next year.

DL is full

Milledge, Ordonez, Cuddyer, Dumatrait all go on the DL in the last week. The roster is getting mighty thin.

2008 Draft Picks 8+

The rest of the draft was spent rounding out the roster, hoping to find that diamond in the rough.
Round 8 started out bad when I took Tony Pena. He was the favorite to be the Diamondback's closer but seemingly the next day, Brandon Lyon was named the closer going into training camp. Hopefully Pena will setup and get a bunch of holds.
I had two sub-strategies for the later rounds. The first was to get all the young speedsters I could. I was able to pick up Reggie Willits, Jerry Owens and Rajai Davis. None of the three are starters but all have the ability to steal tons of bases. Willits will get his chances on the Angles offense most likely filling in for injured players. Owens will probably platoon and pinch hit. Davis has the best chance to get at-bats as he is behind the fragile and old Dave Roberts and the Giants are going with youth. I figure at least one or two of these guys will pan out and I will get steals and possibly trade one to fill a hole.
The second strategy revolved around the second base position. Robinson Cano was the only tier one 2B available and he went 8th overall. The rest of the guys were bunched up. Since I was filling other positions I never picked a second baseman. I had Clint Barmes on the roster (please don't snicker) and he is a candidate for the Rockies 2B job. So I decided to pick up the other likely candidates in Jayson Nix and Ian Stewart. Both of whom are highly touted. I figure one will get the starting gig and I drop the others (except for Barmes).
Overall I like my draft. I picked solid guys for the most part. My biggest deficiency is lack of infield depth. Only at catcher do I have a backup. I will certainly remedy that before the season by dropping some duds and hitting the waiver wire.
A couple of late round gems (IMHO):
Randy Johnson - injured last year, put up decent numbers in 07 and was great in 06. I think he still has something left in the tank and he's playing for a contender.
Rajai Davis - a mentioned his speed, but he plays for a terrible team. I think he starts most of the season and gets 50+ steals.

2008 Draft Picks 1 - 7

The eMLB draft has begun and things are humming the Beach Bums war room. Our priorities shifted slightly away from SP due to the winter meeting trades. But we still needed talent at every position except for 3B. I was in the position of taking the best available player almost every round.

Round 1 - Magglio Ordonez - Although I had two OF's, Ordonez was too good to pass up. He is a lock for .310/25/110/100. I know have plenty of run production in the outfield with Ordonez, Beltran and Cuddyer.

Round 2 - Fausto Carmona - I had to get a top SP here. I was leaning towards Smoltz or Holliday, but some Indian fan swayed me on the younger Carmona. A repeat of last year's 19/3.08/137/1.21 looks to be in order.

Round 3 - Brett Myers - I was planning on going infield here but I had a feeling about Myers. He was wasted in the bullpen last year but put up great numbers in 05 and 06. I am looking for 15/3.90/200/1.27.

Round 4 - Khalil Greene - With the infielders going fast, I had to jump on the last decent SS left. Greene puts up good numbers (except for average). I predict .260/25/95/90/4.

Round 5 - Manny Corpas - My second year with the Rockies' closer. Corpas was great last year replacing Brien Fuentes and I expect at least 35 saves on a good Rockies team.

Round 6 - Ryan Garko - An up and coming talent. Hit 21 dingers last year and I expect more of the same.

Round 7 - Derek Lowe - A solid but unspectacular starter.

13th - 17th Round Picks

The final part of my draft:

13th - Jeff Baker - gotta love those young Rockies players. Baker looked last year, but he might not get any playing time. This is a high reward pick but only if someone gets traded or injured.

14th - Chris Iannetta - yet another Rocky. I had decent production from Yorbit Torrealba last year and Iannetta might the starter this year. Have to watch out for Javy Lopez stealing AB's.

15th - Marcus Thames - not a lot of OF's left so I grabbed one with at least some talent. Another guy looking for playing time, but may fill in at first.

16th - Olive Perez - Perez's middle name is high-risk. If he can recapture his stuff from 2004 I could be looking good. Doh, I just read he stunk up his first spring start...BUST!

17th - Adam Lind - The Bum's Mr. Irrelevant is Adam Lind. Looks like the 4th OF right now, but there are some rumors Reed Johnson is being shopped so he might pan out.

That wraps up the Bums 2007 draft. With all the contracts I had coming in, I was the first to finish.

6th - 12th Round Picks

6th - Ramon Hernandez, one of the top hitting catchers, should get .275/20/85
7th - Brian Giles, not a power threat anymore, but will help with runs, walks and average
8th - Ryan Dempster, was one of the last proven closers on the board, with the improved Cubs team, he can get 40 saves
9th - no pick, traded to Gaylord
10th - Boof Bonser, love the name, let's hope his game matches
10th - Bob Howry, handcuff to Dempster, will close or setup
11th - Vicente Padilla, solid 7th SP, will probably in my lineup when the Rangers are on the road where his ERA and WHIP and decidedly better
12th - Troy Tulowitzki, supposedly a star in the making, which means I will bust out on a Rockies shortstop two years running