BOXSCORE HUNGRY FREAKS....Difficult draft, but HDID

[Lucky]

This past Saturday, Boxscore Hungry Freaks from Florida to Phoenix gathered for the 2011 auction. It's a 15-team mixed keeper league, and I had inflation figured at 37%. My keeper list was decent, probably in the top five or six. It was a tough draft for me, hard to keep focused, but here's how I came out.

C Carlos Ruiz $6
C Yadier Molina $9 Catchers were expensive.
1B Adam LaRoche $13 Brrrrr.
CI Omar Infante $5 Freeze. I wanted to freeze him at 2B, but corners were scarce
3B Aramis Ramirez $24
2B Alexi Casilla $1 Freeze.
MI Tsuyoshi Nishioka $16
SS Alcides Escobar $13
OF Matt Kemp $36
OF Rajai Davis $6 Freeze
OF Corey Hart $4 Freeze
OF Nick Swisher $6 Freeze
OF Matt Holliday $33 Freeze
DH Travis Snider $17

P Dan Haren $27
P James Shields $12
P Ian Kennedy $3 Freeze
P Brett Myers $5 Freeze
P John Danks $6 Freeze
P John Lackey $12
P Joaquin Benoit $2
P Matt Capps $3
P Joel Hanrahan $1 Freeze

The two biggest mistakes I realized the second after I made them were buying Benoit and letting Derek Lee go, leaving me only Adam LaRoche.

I think this team has some really big problems. Not enough dingers, ribbies or runs. Not enough saves. Stolen bases should be okay, as should Wins and Ks.

I was fairly happy with my reserve draft. Besides some decent prospects, I wanted to get someone I could put in for Holliday, in case he is out for a long time. I also wanted to pick up some guys with save potential.

Here's what I got in the reserve:

Travis Hafner (He went to DH, with Snider moving up to replace Holliday.)
Scott Downs (He may have gotten the job they gave Walden if he weren't DLd.)
Jeff Francis (I'd pitch him against the right clubs.)
Jim Thome (Under-appreciated the second year in a row...provides me some depth.)
Koji Uehara
Takashi Saito
Rafael Betancourt
Mike Gonzalez
Jack Cust (possible trade bait)
Manny Delcarmen (brain cloud)
Jeremy Bonderman (fingers crossed)

Then came the $5 rounds, where people try to grab some prospects. I got:

Julio Teheran
Ben Revere
Shelby Miller
Josh Reddick
Yonder Alonso
Kyle Drabek

So, my impression is that it looks like a 7th or 8th place team...dead in the middle of the pack.

So, is there something I can do with this team, or do i start planning for 2012?

[joncarlos]

I think there's enough to work with. You're right that you're light on power. I like your pitching. You at least need to wait a few weeks to see if Shields can pitch well and whether you get enough saves from Capps/Koji/Saito to give you a top 3 or 4 staff. Offense is mid-pack even if things break right but maybe you have enough pitching to make some deals.

[Gregg]

Gotta love that $1 Hanrahan getting his 4th save today.

Without seeing the other teams, I think you might be under estimating your team.

I do like your reserves and prospect list. Some good trading pieces there.

So don't panic. Look for some vets that are starting out slow as buy low.

[Lucky]

Your Achilles heel may well be your hitting. I don't love the $15 catcher tandem but most of your other auctioned guys were nice. Kemp at $36 is a steal.

You'll be able to work with this team for sure. You may be subject to some risk with guys like Snider, Nishioka, and Aramis but with a couple decent breaks you should be a competitor. Your reserves take away some of the risk you've inherited. I like Cust and Thome as backup plans and I like Uehara and Drabek (especially Drabek) as fill ins as well.

I had Kemp targeted for weeks. I think he'll have a big year.

Catchers were crazy. Ten catchers went for $10 or more. Four good cheap ones were frozen. Wish I had the money back, but I was trying to find catchers who wouldn't hurt my batting average, and that was hard to do for under $10.

Thanks for the analysis,

[GwynnInTheHall]

I had you in the top 3 in keeper value going into the draft. I agree--there was a strange dynamic this year and inflation was high to begin with, but pitching went pretty at value or even a tad under--hitting went way over.

Not a fan of your pitching though you did make up for it a bit with some nice reserve MR selections, but I think it's your weakness. Hitting seems ok, I like your OF. I say these things feeling my auction sucked and my team is in trouble as well. let me know what you think when I post my team.

[chancellor]

Your pitching is going to live and die by Shields and Lackey actually returning to form instead of plain sucking as both of them did way too long last year. I'd actually rather have LaRoche instead of DLee. IMO, Lee's bat speed is diminishing rapidly. That's one wicked OF you have.

I'd have mined for one more SP or at least 80+IP MR in your reserves instead of all those CIWs. But that's quibbling. IMO, you have a very strong team. Good trade pieces, solid depth, speed, decent (not great, but decent) power.