So many folks are doing shallow drafts these days I thought I would jump into the mix and share the results of that effort.

I was invited to participate in mixed league draft by John Halpin of Fox Sports on Wednesday March 25, 2015. How did I do? Let's lay out the format before we get to all that.

By the way John's dog, who was with him during the draft, let's just say chick magnet. Can I borrow the little one John?

FORMAT

12 Teams - Lots of the folks you follow on a daily basis were in this sucker. 
5x5 scoring
HITTERS: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, 3 OF, UT (9 batters)
PITCHERS: 5 SP, 3 RP, 2 P (10 pitchers)

I'm on record preferring deep leagues. I think that you should always try to do a 14 hitter, 9 pitcher setup or even larger with whatever scoring setup you prefer. But I understand that many of you out there play in leagues that are much shallower than that. This draft was set up that way with a twist. Yes, we were five hitters short of standard, but we also were tasked with adding an extra pitcher to keep things interesting.

TEAM

* Number in parenthesis is round taken.

C: Evan Gattis (7)
1B: Adrian Gonzalez (4)
2B: Ian Kinsler (6)
3B: Todd Frazier (5)
SS: Ian Desmond (3)
OF: Giancarlo Stanton (1), Kole Calhoun (8), Mark Trumbo (12)
UT: Alex Rios (16)

SP: Max Scherzer (2), Alex Wood (9), Chris Archer (13), Jered Weaver (14), Jose Quintana (15)
RP: Drew Storen (10), Jonathan Papelbon (11), Ken Giles (17)
PITCHER: Shelby Miller (18), Daniel Norris (22)

BENCH: Desmond Jennings (19), Eric Hosmer (20), Lorenzo Cain (21), Chase Utley (23), TJ House (24)

REVIEW

My team is killer. Wait, that's always my default position isn't it? Let me try to be more legit with my analysis. Upon further review... OK, it still rocks.

People talk all the time about power being in short supply. Who has more power than my team? Answer - no one. I think. Flipping crushers all over the place. Gattis, AGone, Frazier and Desmond are 25 homer guys while Stanton and Trumbo are 30+ guys (Stanton was an autopick because I slept through my alarm clock. I would have taken McCutchen if I had been there). Kinsler, Calhoun, Rios are all 15-20 homer bats.

Batting average could be a concern. Trumbo never impresses there, more on why I ended up with him below, and while I expect Rios to rebound he was pretty bad last season. Don't forget Gattis. He mashes but .250 might be the upper end there.

Speed? Kinsler, Rios and Calhoun can all run, and even Frazier swiped 20 last year. Still, I lack that one speed guy. I was targeting Ben Revere in Round 11. I figured I would grab my first closer in Round 10 and the grab Revere in 11. Ben went the pick right after Storen to close out the 10th so I was out on that one. Bad read on my part. I decided to go reliever again in 11 with Papelbon and then picked up Trumbo in round 12 to fill my last outfield spot. Basically I ended up with Trumbo when I was targeting Revere. Hey, you have to adjust on the fly, right? Revere would have been a better fit for my team however.

On the pitching side... Scherzer is a dominator as an ace (truth be told I wasn't logged in when the pick was made. I debated just acting cool like I was trying something new by taking an arm early, but the fact is it was human error that led to Scherzer on my squad. I wouldn't have taken him if I was in the draft room. From pick three on I was in control - or at least making the selections). I then did my thing... waiting on hurlers. You might look at my staff and think yuck. I get that. I'll tell you this though - I really like the group. Wood, Archer, Weaver, Quintana, Miller... do they strike fear? No. At the same time all five of those starters are in the top-30 starting pitchers in our Fantasy Alarm Rankings. That's right. I was able to roster my six starting pitchers with all being top-30 options... and only one was taken in the first eight rounds of the draft. Who says you can't build a solid staff waiting on pitching? I know I've never said that.

In the pen I have two guys I feel comfortable will give me 30+ saves each. I also rostered Giles with the assumption that he gets saves for at least half the season. The Phillies will deal Papelbon at some point allowing Giles to take over the 9th inning. As for Papelbon, is a team really going to add the most consistent closer in baseball - he has saved 29 games in 9-straight seasons - to setup for them? I highly doubt that. 

For a review of the draft results click on this link to Fox Sports.


FANTASY ALARM PLAYER PROFILE SECTION
Click on these links to see full write ups of the players.

T.J. House, Indians
Shelby Miller, Braves
Jose Quintana, White Sox
Alex Wood, Braves

Lorenzo Cain, Royals
Cole Calhoun, Angels
Evan Gattis, Astros
Eric Hosmer, Royals
Desmond Jennings, Rays
Alex Rios, Royals

GET YOUR COPY OF THE 2015 FANTASY ALARM BASEBALL DRAFT GUIDE NOW --- AND FOR FREE! REALLY, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? THERE'S STILL PLENTY OF TIME FOR YOU TO LEARN HOW TO DOMINATE THE COMPETITION IN 2015.