Ray Flowers participated in the SiriusXM Hosts League #2. How did his 13-team, mixed league draft play out from the #11 spot?

 

PARTICIPANTS

Here are the 12 other teams that were involved in the festivities besides yours truly. Players are listed by draft order.

1)      Tommy G
2)      Robert Wuhl
3)      Holden Kushner
4)      Jim Bowden
5)      Kyle Elfrink
6)      Cliff Floyd
7)      Peter Schoenke
8)      Jeff Mans & Ted Schuster
9)      Steve Phillips
10)   Tony Cincotta
11)   Ray Flowers
12)   CJ Nitkowski
13)   Walter Kuberski

SETUP

13-team Mixed League
Snake Draft
standard 5x5 scoring
Starters: 14 hitters, nine pitchers
Five bench spots (rostered by a snake draft)

 MY ROSTER

* Number in parenthesis is the round taken.

C: Matt Wieters (14). Chris Iannetta (28)
1B: Miguel Cabrera (1)
2B: Robinson Cano (4)
3B: Manny Machado (2)   
SS: Brad Miller (17)   
MI: Neil Walker (20)
CI:  Joey Votto (3)
OF: Matt Kemp (5), Christian Yelich (7), Yasiel Puig (8), Ben Revere (10), Steven Souza (21)
UTIL: Pedro Alvarez (19)

PITCHERS: Jon Lester (6), Marcus Stroman (9), David Robertson (11), Julio Teheran (12), Andrew Miller (13), Gio Gonzalez (15), Glen Perkins (16), Andrew Cashner (18), Fernando Rodney (23)
RESERVES:  Asdrubal Cabrera (22), Kevin Gausman (24), Kyle Gibson (25), Jose Reyes (26), Joaquin Benoit (27)

HOW THE DRAFT WENT

  • FINAL DRAFT RESULTS CAN BE FOUND HERE.

Here are my live thoughts as I went through the draft (I wrote the commentary after I made every pick in the draft).

First Round: Miggy or Andrew McCutchen was the question in my mind? I went with Miggy, the guy I’ve been telling everyone to take off the top. I figured I could grab Starling Marte in the second round in my ideal 1/2 of Cabrera/Marte in the top-2 rounds.

Second Round: Marte was there but… so was Machado. You never see Machado fall to 16th overall so I decided to grab the third baseman that I have first at that position. That’s right. He was the last of the Big-4 to be taken in the draft but he’s my #1 third sacker (see the Rankings). I can only hope against hope that Marte will be there in the third round. He won’t be. Maybe Joey Votto would fall.

Third Round: Votto is in the top-20 all-time in OPS. He’s a lock to hit .300 and should have 20-80-80 at least as well. How could anyone be upset with Votto? Look, he’s not sexy, I get it. At the same time, I now have 1,100 at-bats of a .315+ batting average from Cabrera and Votto. I can take plenty of options later that bring power or speed without any batting average stability because of that duo. The foundation is set with this top-3. A fantastic start.

Fourth Round: Cano is batting .388 with seven homers this spring. He also hit .331 with 15 homers and 49 RBI over his last 70 games last season. He ain’t finished folks. He’s a beast. My top-4 players will easily hit .300 as a foursome.

Fifth Round: I really considered going Jon Lester here and then taking Danny Salazar in the next round. Ultimately though, I really didn’t want to pass on all the outfielders through five rounds so I went with Kemp, who folks seem to have moved on from despite the fact that he hit 20 homers, stole 10 bases and scored 100 runs last season. That’s still good, ain’t it?

Sixth Round: Lester was the pick as I had hoped after passing on him in the fifth round. The question now becomes – will Salazar make it back to me in the 7th round? If he does I will pounce. We shall see how the draft goes, but I think it’s possible he does. Will be a great get if he does. If he doesn’t make it that far I’ll likely look back to the outfield with Christian Yelich and/or Yasiel Puig being my prime targets.

Seventh Round: Tony Cincotta, I hate you. One pick before me he took… Danny Salazar. Crap. I was able to get Yelich, but man did I think I was getting Salazar after waiting through 25 selections.

Eighth Round: I followed up Yelich with Puig. Risky? You bet. But that’s how you win. You can’t find better talents at this point of the draft than Yelich/Puig. With Salazar off the board at least I was able to get the two outfielders I was targeting. I will hope to get Ben Revere or Billy Hamilton next time around for the speed component. I’ll also need to get my second starting pitcher. Honestly, I might have to go with two SPs with the nest two picks. Truthfully, the draft might hinge on Puig. By taking him I left myself without the option of getting a top bullpen arm as I will have to attack starting pitchers before worrying about the 9th inning. I think.

Ninth Round: Both outfielders – Revere and Hamilton – were there. I’ll gamble and wait that one of the duo will be there in the 10th round. I don’t love Stroman as my #2 starter, would really love him as my third, but I pushed him ahead of a couple of other arms that were still left on my board because of my need for more of a home run on the bump. Stroman has huge skills, strikeouts and grounders, but can his body hold up to 190-innings?

10th Round: Revere was available. Revere is on my team. A .300 hitter with 30 steals who could score 90+ runs batting at the top of the Nationals lineup. See his Player Profile for more. If only Salazar had fallen to me in the 7th this would be a near perfect first 10 rounds.

11th Round: Able to grab Robertson for my pen after my prime target – Jose Quintana – was drafted. Robertson has the skills to be a top-5 closer this season. After all, Robertson owns a 12.02 K/9 mark for his career and is coming off a 34 save, 0.93 WHIP season.

12th Round: Teheran is due for a comeback this season. He doesn’t have to go that far to be good truthfully. I mean, he has 170 strikeouts each of the past three seasons and owns a 3.44 ERA and 1.19 WHIP for his young career.

13th Round: Could go in so many directions here. An elite reliever, a solid starting pitcher that I need, or perhaps a backstop. In fact, I considered double-taping the catcher’s spot with this and my next pick. There were plenty of good names out there to do that, but it’s just so hard to trust those catchers. Ultimately I went with Miller who has the closer’s job in New York to start the season before he will slide into the setup role behind Aroldis Chapman in May. Miller has posted a 2.03 ERA, 0.83 WHIP with an average of 102 strikeouts the last two seasons. I need those numbers given the paucity of elite starting pitching on my roster to this point.

14th Round: Wieters was the choice. I considered going Dellin Betances for the ratios and strikeouts, like I did with Miller, but thought I would nab a catcher as I figure plenty of them will start to go. Here’s the current plan. Either a closer/Betances with the next selection followed by a starting pitcher. If that’s not how the draft plays out, then I will target Brad Miller up the middle and possibly another catcher. So many possibilities at this point but I need to be mindful about starting pitching which I’m still super thin at.

15th Round: Gio Gonzalez is underrated. Seriously. Read his Player Profile to find out why.

16th Round: So I took the starter before the closer, but the plan was executed. A 30-save guy in the 16th round, I’ll take Perkins with no hesitation. Not as confident in Perkins as I was 12 months ago, but Perkins has at least 32 saves in each of the past three seasons. Here are the only men to have saved 32 games each of the last three years: Aroldis Chapman, Greg Holland, Craig Kimbrel, Huston Street and Perkins.

17th Round: Miller – one of my guys. Player Profile.

18th Round: Cashner, like so many on my pitching staff in this league, is one of my guys. Check out his Player Profile.

19th Round: Was hoping that Carlos Santana would fall to me (Player Profile). That would give me too much first base – he’s my third guy – but he’s also an extremely consistent run producer who’s batting average drain I can take on after Miggy/Votto/Revere picks – three of about 10 guys in baseball who hit .300 year after year. Of course, Kyle Elfrink robbed me of Santana. That’s what I get for sharing my thoughts on the radio with him. Hello Pedro Alvarez instead.

20th Round: Walker is boring. I get it. He’s also a rock of stability who averages a line of about .272-15-70-70-5 per 145 games. That’s perfectly acceptable as a middle infield option.

21st Round: Souza is my 5th outfielder, and following along the lines of my 19th round selection (Alvarez), I’m able to roster his 15/15 talent along with that crappy average because of the strength I built in that category early on.

22nd Round: A-Cab is always overlooked, a fact I pointed out in his Player Profile. His knee issue seems behind him too meaning he has a good shot to be ready for Opening Day. Hoping that Avisail Garcia will be around the next time I’m up.

23rd Round: Ugh. No Garcia. Maybe I should have taken the upside of Garcia in the 22nd and waited on A-Cab. Still, I felt like I needed some stability at shortstop with Miller being slightly uncertain to produce, so Cabrera was still the correct pick for my club. Grabbed Rodney instead. If he gets 10 saves it was worth it. Hopefully he will pick up 20. This is my fourth potential closer. Hoping to deal from that position to bolster my starting pitching. Closers certainly have a lot of value to folks that don’t have them.

24th Round: Gausman is an arm I love. Just a month ago I would have taken him in the 14th round. Given his shoulder woes, and it sounds like he could miss the first week or two, he’s dropped a ton in folks eyes. I love him at this point of the draft.  

25th Round: Gibson Player Profile. Hey, at least I draft the guys I write about, right?

26th Round: Someone had to take Reyes. We have no idea how much time he will miss. Could be 20 games, could be the entire season. I’ll take the shot here, well worth it. What’s the difference between taking Reyes vs. Trea Turner or Tyler Glasnow? Exactly.

27th Round: Benoit was the choice. I’m already on record stating that I think Benoit will end up with the most saves on the Mariners.

28th Round: I waited, and waited. I paid the price. At the same time, if Iannetta hits .240 with 15 homers, numbers he can reach, I’ll be fine with it.

FINAL THOUGHTS

My infield is amazing: Cabrera, Machado, Votto and Cano in the first four rounds – no one can ever roster a better infield in four picks. Can’t be done. That foursome will hit well above .300 with all of them being potential stars at their positions. I never wait until the 5th round to take an outfielder, but I can live with it given my infield. Kemp/Yelich/Puig/Revere are a terrific foursome given how long I waited. If Puig and Yelich are healthy, my offense will be the best in the league. Period. I was able to take shots on Souza/Alvarez/Walker/Miller and not worry about their batting average outlook because of my offensive strength.

Things didn’t go as planned on the hill. After I lost out on Salazar I decided to change my entire approach and just crush offense while waiting on the arms. Lester/Stroman/Teheran/Gonzalez/Cashner/Gibson/Gausman are a great group of arms. However, their reliability factor is probably a C-. If they perform as I expect them to I will be fine. If they perform like they did last year, well, it’s going to be a long season. Realizing my staff was a bit spotty I invested heavily in relievers with Miller/Perkins/Robertson/Rodney/Benoit. If healthy, the combination of all those arms could net me a K per inning, a 2.75 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and conservatively 85 saves. Could even be better than that.

Ultimately the team will depend on Yelich/Puig offensively and all the return to greatness starting pitchers I rostered. Wish me luck.

 

Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Friday, 7 PM EDT and Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 6 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).