The 2011 Raging Chlorophyll

This afternoon I drafted my fantasy baseball team, the Raging Chlorophyll. I was drafting last in a 12 team league, with a snake draft format. The league is head-to-head, 5×5 scoring, and is becoming a keeper league this season (three players can be kept, each retained player costs a draft pick in the round they were drafted in the previous year).

My draft preparation did me no good. Things went off the rails early, and my picks look nothing like the list I had put together. My first pick was Joey Votto, a player I had every intention of avoiding, but in the moment drafting him seemed like the right thing to do. I followed that up by drafting a pitcher n the second round. I’ve never drafted a pitcher that high before. It was a chaotic and crazy draft for me.

Round / (Overall) / Name / Position

1. (12) Joey Votto – 1b
2. (13) Roy Halladay – SP
3. (36) Shin-Soo Choo – OF
4. (37) Rickie Weeks – 2B
5.(60) Justin Morneau – 1B
6. (61) Josh Johnson – SP
7.(84) Curtis Granderson – OF
8. (85) Drew Stubbs – SP
9.(108) Ted Lilly – SP
10. (109) Adam Jones – OF
11.(132) Huston Street – RP
12. (133) Ian Desmond – SS
13.(156) J.J. Putz – RP
14. (157) Mitch Moreland – 1B
15.(180) Jaime Garcia – SP
16. (181) Edwin Encarnacion – 3B
17.(204) Yunel Escobar – SS
18. (205) Garrett Jones – 1B/OF
19.(228) Chris Ianetta – C
20. (229) Johan Santana – SP
21.(252) Ramon Hernandez – C
22.(253) Stephen Strasburg – SP
23. (276) Ryan Madson – RP

The Santana and Strasburg picks are shots at value keepers for next year.

I’ll give my team some time to settle in before I form a verdict. I must admit it’s the least excited I am about a team I have drafted in the past five years, but that’s influenced by some of the guys I really wanted that fell through.

Play ball!

Draft Day 2009

This afternoon I drafted The Raging Chlorophyll 2009 roster. The league is a head-to-head 5×5 (AVG, HR, RBI, R, SB and W, K, SV, ERA, WHIP) format. If that means nothing to you this will probably be a boring post. Sorry (I’m afraid that was a rather insincere apology).

I drafted out of the 7th position. Here are my picks:

Rd    Player

1.  Ryan Howard (1B) 
2. Alex Rodriguez (3B)
3. Brian Roberts (2B)
4. Nate Mcclouth (OF)
5. Rafael Furcal (SS)
6. Shane Victorino (OF)
7. Garrett Atkins (1B/3B)
8. Jonathan Broxton (RP)
9. Yovani Gallardo (SP)
10. Alex Gordon (3B)
11. Ricky Nolasco (SP)
12. Brett Myers (SP)
13. Pat Burrell (OF)
14. Rick Ankiel (OF)
15. Brian Wilson (RP)
16. Shin-Soo Choo (OF)
17. Mark Buehrle (SP)
18. A.J. Pierzynski (C)
19. Ubaldo Jiminez (SP)
20. Gavin Floyd (SP)
21. Yunel Escobar (SS)
22. George Sherrill (RP)
23. Kurt Suzuki (C)

Let the games begin!

The Baseball Draft: Ballplayers and a Troubling Lower Half

I watched a few minutes of the ESPN coverage of the MLB draft yesterday afternoon. After every pick Steve Phillips would say of the draftee: “He’s a ballplayer.” You’re kidding? He plays ball? You mean the Devil Rays didn’t just draft an electrical engineer from Tulane who starred on the chess team? He was a member of the baseball team? He knows how to run? And throw? And hit?

My favorite moment occurred when St. Louis drafted Brett Wallace from Arizona State University. Wallace is a big third/first baseman (6’2″; 235 lbs) who can really hit. Scouts have some reservations about his weigh distribution (one report states: “Wallace has been described as a good athlete trapped in a bad body”). To state this bluntly, he has large thighs and a large posterior. When the ESPN analysts were interviewing him after he was drafted they fired this beautiful question at him: “Do you feel you will be limited by your lower half?”

Priceless.

A Fantasy World

I’m afraid this entry might be very boring to many of my readers. Sorry. This afternoon I drafted my fantasy baseball team, which happens to be called The Raging Chlorophyll. I’m in an ESPN head-to-head league that contains twelve teams. I drafted from the 9th position. So here they are:

C – Carlos Ruiz

C – Ronny Paulino

1B – Ryan Howard

2B – Brian Roberts

3B – Garrett Atkins

SS – Michael Young

2B/SS – Aaron Hill

1B/3B – Carlos Pena

OF – Alfonso Soriano

OF – Jeff Fancoeur

OF – Shane Victorino

OF – Pat Burrell

OF – Michael Cuddyer

UTIL – Frank Thomas

SP – Chris Young

SP – Brett Myers

P – Brad Penny

P – Rich Harden

P – Miguel Batista

P – B.J. Ryan

P – Brad Lidge

RP – Tom Gordon

RP – Carlos Marmol

I hate to spend picks on closers, so I picked up two (Lidge and Ryan) from the scratch and dent bargain bin in the late rounds of the draft. I also picked up Gordon and Marmol as potential closers, figuring they provide some help in the Ks, ERA, and WHIP categories even if they aren’t closing currently.

I am very excited that I managed to land Soriano and Howard at 9 and 16.

Play ball!