This is a recap of my selections from a recent Draft Champions league format for the National Fantasy Baseball Championship (NFBC). These leagues consist of 15 teams each drafting a 50-man roster with no Free Agents allowed during the season…what you draft is what you’ve got to play with all year. Starting Lineups are a standard 23-man format with C, C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CI, MI, OF, OF, OF, OF, OF, UT, plus any 9 Pitchers. Each league competes within the 15-teams, but is also part of an overall competition comprising of all other leagues (last year the overall competition consisted of 164 leagues and 2460 teams).
A unique aspect of the NFBC draft is their Kentucky Derby Style (KDS) system to allow teams to choose their draft position preference. All teams are required to list the 15 draft slots in their preferential order, and then are assigned the highest pick from their list when chosen at random – so rather than receiving the #1 selection when chosen first, the team would receive their first choice of draft slot from their KDS list. Mike Trout is clearly the top overall selection in Fantasy Leagues this season, but after that the draft is wide open; because of this my KDS preference list had the #1 slot first, then 7-6-5-4-3-2, followed by picks 13-14-15-12-11-10-9-8. I was awarded the #7 pick in the draft, which was my second choice on my KDS.
The following will detail my picks and my thought process behind my selections, plus some options and surprises from other selections in the round made by other teams.
1.07 – Jose Abreu (1B/CWS) — Many fantasy owners are expecting Abreu to regress this season, but I actually feel he has room to improve on last year’s gaudy numbers. If Abreu can meld together his strengths from both halves, he’s got a chance to be a Triple Crown contender. Abreu was the only player I considered at this pick (Trout, Clayton Kershaw, Paul Goldschmidt, Miguel Cabrera, Andrew McCutchen, and Giancarlo Stanton went top six). The surprise pick of Round 1 was Anthony Rendon (2B/3B/WAS) at #11, I actually like this pick and would have probably picked him at #12 (after Edwin Encarnacion) had I been in that spot; Rendon is a player with a bigtime pedigree (6th Overall pick in 2011 MLB Draft) and with MI eligibility plus .300/20/20 potential, there’s a lot to like with Rendon this year.
2.09 – Ryan Braun (OF/MIL) – Braun was not my intended target in the second round as I was looking at Josh Donaldson (3B/TOR) or Chris Sale (SP/CWS), who were the two picks right before me, but the other options such as Hanley Ramirez (SS/BOS), Stephen Strasburg (SP/WAS) and Madison Bumgarner (SP/SF) did not entice me as much as Braun did. Braun has taken a lot of flak due to the PED issue, but even struggling through a thumb issue last year he was still able to put up a .298/46/11/52/8 line in the first half before succumbing to the injury and shutting it down. He will likely not be a top five pick again, but I think there is still profit to be made taking him in the late 2nd round.
3.07 – Starling Marte (OF/PIT) – I was hoping that Strasburg or Bumgarner would fall, but they were selected at picks 3.03/3.04, so my decision came down to a pair of young OF in Marte or Yasiel Puig. I liked both options, but I felt that the stolen base boost I obtained from Marte was worth a little more than more rounded game I would get from Puig. The surprise pick of the round was Corey Dickerson (OF/COL), Dickerson is a fine young player, but by taking him in the 3rd round you are paying full price for a repeat of last season while at the same time making it impossible to platoon him in weeks where he faces a high number of left-handed starting pitchers.
4.09 – Cole Hamels (SP/PHI) – Yu Darvish (SP/TEX), Zack Greinke (SP/LAD) or Johnny Cueto (SP/CIN) were the targets here, but I was OK having to settle on Hamels when all the others were taken. Hamels is on a four-year stretch with stat lines better than 3.30 ERA, 1.16 WHIP and 194 K, trade rumors have only boosted his value in my mind. Had I missed on Hamels, I was looking at Yoenis Cespedes (OF/DET) or Greg Holland (RP/KC).
5.07 – Kenley Jansen (RP/LAD) – I typically do not take Closers this high in drafts, but this format with no Free Agency makes me alter that strategy a little bit. Kenley is one of the “Big 4” Closers this year (Aroldis Chapman, Craig Kimbrel & Greg Holland), so locking him in with no need to scramble for saves is extremely valuable here. Other options were Jonathan Lucroy (C/MIL) and Prince Fielder (1B/TEX); Lucroy would have given me a nice anchor at Catcher akin to Jansen anchoring my bullpen, and Prince would have been a gamble on a power piece as a bounce back candidate.
6.09 – Mark Melancon (RP/PIT) – One Closer is not my usual strategy, but doubling up on Closers this early is something I can not ever recall doing before. I did not see any hitters I liked much (Joey Votto was probably my top hitting option), and the two SP I was targeting (Sonny Gray & Alex Cobb) were the two picks right before me at 6.07/6.08. An interesting selection in this round was Dellin Betances (RP/NYY) who should become the Closer this season in New York; blessed with a 97 MPH fastball and plus control, Betances has a shot to move into the elite class of Closers.
In the next article, I will highlight my selections from Rounds 7 through 14.
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CHICAGO, IL – SEPTEMBER 25: Jose Abreu #79 of the Chicago White Sox bats against the Kansas City Royals at U.S. Cellular Field on September 25, 2014 in Chicago, Illinois. The Royals defeated the White Sox 6-3. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
