An entertaining draft it was. First of all, my draft buddies were great. Hans kept me posted via email, voicemail, text messages, and carrier pigeon as to the status of the draft and all the previous picks. Great job. I even almost ordered a few reams of paper after listening to his spirited voicemail answer-message. Prep, traveling by planes, trains, and automobiles thru the Mississippi delta seemed to pick up on my periodic messages enough to at least get a pick made, although it is generous to call some of them 'picks'. He must have stopped at the Crossroads for some of them. He also provided some entertaining moments, once claiming that he could not make a pick because his "scroller" was broke, and then this morning wanting help searching the 'vast' number of previously picked players to be sure not to repeat the Kelly Johnson double-draft error again. Geez, as if I have time to train a lawyer to learn how to find factual information. The draft itself churned along with the expected periodic snafus, although the software (kudos again to Tom J.) and the ICC seemed to keep things pretty well controlled. For the most part, draft selections were timely and reflective of the experience of this league of roto-brothers after all these years (how many Fox, 10?). About half-way through the draft, I had done enough reading to decide that I was going to hold off on drafting Ps as long as I could and concentrate on loading up the offense. Contrary to some of my comments, I enjoy 'scouting' the pitchers and finding overlooked, undervalued, sleepers, whatever you want to call them. Fox called them "diamonds in the rough", a nice analogy. Maybe they'll be rough on the diamonds. Anyhow, Fox started encouraging this approach, which made me suspicious of a possible sly attempt to help me tank my team, but also made me think about sticking with the strategy and leave all the Ps till the last 9 rounds. Somewhere around Rnd 12 I decided to go ahead with this approach, including taking the Catchers ahead of Ps as well. I was tempted to use the strategy old Johnny Goodtimes used to preach when he was a rotoballer (I miss our philosophical baseball discussions John- remember the David Justice trade?)- that of drafting Catchers with hardly any projected At Bats so their crappy stats wouldn't hurt BA while doing little for any other categories. If I had done that, I would have at least gone with Ronny Paulino, who Terry grabbed later on. Instead, I went for 'decent' (ha!) catchers with acceptable historic BA's. It was fun to be stocking up on batters and not worrying much about whether I would get a stud P who then turned out to be nursing a sore shoulder or scheduling Tommy John surgery. Later I got to do my research and still (I think) select from some decent mid-level Ps, some of whom I suspect will turn out well while others will be busts. I like the way it turned out. Theoretically, I should do pretty well in the Batter categories and I think I'll be fine in Ks and ERA. We'll see how it works. I'm not going to dis any of your selections, although a few of them had me thinking "Really?" or "Who the hell is that?". But I wasn't delving into any rotomagazines, relying only on the free online info at our CBS Cyberzahm site, ESPN, or Rototimes.com. But here' are some of the picks I thought noteworthy, either because I scored with a timely star, got snaked, or thought of your picks as those Really? or Who-the-hell? types: My Stars: - Utley of course (though I doubt many drafts saw him go at the #2 slot) - Ortiz at pick #19, should have gone sooner - Uggla as my third Middle Infielder - Ellsbury - a bit of a gamble but a great player to watch and root for - Kelly Johnson, snaking Prep (although with an 11-round hiatus) - Andruw Jones, still on the board in round 12! - Johnny Damon- a steal in round 13. I remember Willo taking him early in Round 1 when he used to play with us. - Pitchers... well nothing too certain but happy with Street. Joba will be fun to track too. Your "Really?" picks: Prep- too many to list! But Stairs, Pierzynski, and Anderson are really Really? Mazins - Kerry Wood, really? Dead wood, really. Jackers- Yorvit the Terrible and Miguel Barrista, really? And, Who the Hell are these guys?: Hans - Edinson Volquez? Gabes- Johnny Cueto? Ter- Geovanny? Mazin - Longoria? (also a "Really?") Fox- Catchers Towles AND Ruiz? And Slowey? You Snaked Me: Fox- Abreu, Harden Sobo- Wainwright Mazin- Tulowitzki, Isringhausen Terry- Bedard (I would have taken him that round and changed my whole strategy!), ditto for Saito! Busters- Bonderman Hans- Chipper, Posada, Buehrle, Westbrook Prep- A-Rod!, Sizemore, Liriano And Albert, I razzed you about Dontrelle, but I almost picked him every time I took a P until you finally put him and me out of our misery! Finally, Jack, thanks for all of the downtime between picks- gave me a chance to catch up when I got home in the evening and do some roto-research. Lotsa fun guys. Play ball! Mags (the Mad Bomber) ---------------------------- Mags- Great writeup, and I think you fully captured the culture of he draft. Look forward to doing a deal with you this year- especially based on using the draft as how you judge talent. Your trading buddy, Sobo PS- and for some analysis FWIW, I think Towles was a great value pick - even though Fox sucks for snaking me on Josh Hamilton ---------------------------- Great job! Thanks. I'll post soon. I woulda taken Street as my last pitcher. This is our 13th year.. see http://www.cyberzahm.com/rotobaseball/archives.php Fox ----------------------------- Wonderful writeup. The Kelly Johnson pick was a bummer. I was just hoping so much that he would sneak through 23 rounds. If necessary, I think I can find a way to package Stairs with a certain Met in an early trade. But every team needs some heft. Prep