Sons of Theo Fantasy Baseball

From the eyes of WTNY:

First of all, it was good seeing everyone again, on the day I refer to as “Christmas in April.”  Overall, the day was a complete success.  The commish and his wife (just a hunch) did a great job with the set-up and acting as the host (the cookies didn’t stand a chance).  EE may disagree, but some of us, myself included, enjoyed the addition of the projector, which helped the flow of the draft.  As always, the pizza was great (although Mama Mia’s has cost itself a few grand because they don’t deliver), and I happened to love the deeper minor league draft.  Heck, everyone knows who the top 100 prospects in baseball are, and if you don’t, google will lead you to multiple sources.  The additional farm slots, those guys that don’t make a top 100 or even 200 list, adds an element of scouting to our league that no other roto league can offer.  At the same time, some teams took advantage of the draft dominated with prospects to take the likes of CC Sabathia, Pat Burrell, Mark Derosa, Ken Griffey Jr, Brandon Inge, and John Smoltz.   Just like the actual MLB draft, many players drafted on Saturday will never sniff an SOT roster, which means there will be plenty of open slots to fill on the farm each SOT Christmas Day.  So with that as an appetizer, let’s move on to the meat and potatoes portion or the post, again, through the eyes of one guy.

Best Overall Draft – Jewish Mafia.

Coming off a disappointing season, and passover, the Mafia walked into 22 Water St armed with 6 of the top 22 picks and walked away with G Beckham, Hosmer, Ynoa, Westmoreland, and Morales.  In the later rounds, he landed Dixon, Jharmidy, and Casey Kelly.  Just a sick haul for a guy in need of a sick haul.  The selection of Derosa was questionable, especially that high in the draft for a team that’s in a rebuild mode, and the later round picks tailed off a bit as the talent thinned out.  Overall, Grade A (Could’ve been A+ with the selection of anyone but Derosa or Perry in Rd 2).

Worst Overall Draft – Tillman

While teams were calling the name of Beckham, Hosmer, and Ynoa, Tillman called the name Buck, as in Travis.  He followed that up with Trumbo and Valencia, two guys projected to go much later it the draft.  Overall, a very disappointing day for Tillman, who at one point only a few weeks ago said, “I’m going to take draft night off from work so I can drink some beers hang out and break down some rosters, we may need to increase the amount of beers for the draft!”  At 5pm, Tillman USA was as far away from Pembroke as Marcum is from throwing a pitch that counts.

Biggest Reach – tied Si7 & DMB

When Si7 uttered the word “Perry”, I think most heads turned to the TV looking for Kenny Perry, because there’s no way a middle reliever is going in Rd 2 of the SOT Rule IV draft, especially with names like Tazawa, Weeks, Westmoreland, Chisenhall, etc. still on the board.

Brad Emaus is a 2nd baseman who could “stand to lose a few pounds” according to one report.  He’s also ranked outside of the top 10 in Toronto’s system, which isn’t exactly on par with Texas and Oakland, and was drafted in the 11th round out of college, yet still went in the 4th to the defending champ.  I just looked it up, Brad Emaus in Greek is spelled Kevin Ahrens.

Left in the Green Room the longest – tied Jemile Weeks & Andrew Brackman

Weeks was thought to be in the mix at #8, the last pick in Rd 1 with DMB and WTNY talking about a draft day trade, only to fall down to Rd 3 where WTNY scooped him up.

Brackman, another former 1st rd pick in the MLB draft (as was Weeks), has #1 starter upside, but for one reason or another hasn’t turned that stuff into success.  101 hopes that will change, and maybe his snub on SOT draft day will give him the needed motivation.

Biggest slurve in the draft – tied 101 & TRC

Two words, Justin Smoak.  Wow, didn’t see that one coming, and neither did anyone else in SOT land.  Rosters were shaking, gchat was abuzz, and WTNY’s accountant and uniform maker were on the phone tying to fit the massive contract and belly of CC on the roster.

TRC, which formerly stood for TNSTAAPP started the prospect drafting with Tim Melville, and didn’t stop til every Latino, Caucasian, and park league arm was on the roster.  Evidently, Andy is playing a greater role in the drafting philosophy of TRC.

Potential Studs (after Rd 3) – Tazawa, Y Navarro, M Perez, Dixon, Crosby, Giovatella, Jharmidy, Romine, Kelley, Sosa, Hoes, Exposito, Heredia, D Gutierrez, Rondon, Matt Moore, J Ramirez

Potential Duds -Trumbo, Emaus, Doolittle, Moore, Duffy, Suttle

Signing off,

WTNY