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10 team AL 4x4 traditional stats, old school rules, $260
Just flew back from Sin City, and boy is my liver tired. Another epic week of debauchery completed. I think I had something close to 10 whole hours of sleep over a 4-5 day period. In an interesting wrinkle, this year I offered to take over the league for a much beleaguered Commish who had 23 hard years under his belt. It was time for a change, and as the most successful franchise in the league, I felt it was time to give a little back. Should be an interesting year.
After a long day at the toptional pool, a late League Champions dinner Thursday night at the Circus Circus Steakhouse (one of the more underrated old-school steakhouses in America), and subsequently closing a night club at MGM, the old commish and I sat down for a little Pai Gow before our noon Friday draft. We got up from the table at 8:30AM. Capital idea, having both the new and old commish boozing it up at Pai Gow til about 3 hours before draft time, getting a tidy little nap, and running on fumes for a marathon 6 hour alcohol infused draft at the Mandalay sports book. God help us.
Anyway, long story short, our 19th Las Vegas draft was a mighty success, and went off with nothing more than the usual stupidly drunken hitches. (insert back pat here)
I was the 2017 league champ (extending my league record to 6 titles), and I had a pretty solid keeper list going in. This draft was unique in my 24 years of this league in that the sheer mass of available hitting talent was staggering. Available hitters this draft included:
Trout/Altuve/Betts/Stanton/Machado/JD Mart/Springer/Donaldson/Gordon/Sanchez/E5/Abreau/Miggy/Benintendi/Cano/Sano/Segura/Bogaerts etc etc etc.
After months of deliberating, I decided to cut my own Trout @ $53. My plan was to spend up to $128 on 3 big sticks, and save an average of around $2 per player for the endgame, to cherry pick the $1 players. With 6 high quality arms kept on the staff, I felt I was fairly set there. Here's how it went:
(keepers in bold)
C- Ramos $5
C- Joseph $1
1B- Olson $7
3B- Castellanos $11
CI- Cron $1
2B- Dozier $26
SS- Semien $11
MI- J Ramirez $11
DH- V Martinez $1
OF- Trout $53
OF- Betts $44
OF- Benintendi $29
OF- Mahtook $1
OF- Soler $1
P- Severino $10
P- Paxton $6
P- Morton $1
P- Manaea $7
P- Estrada $6
P- Junis $1
P- Herrera $10
P- Treinan $8
P- Diaz $11
I drafted my big 3 in the first 2 rounds and was quite pleased. I literally did not have a selection between 1:00 and 5:00, where I was then able to get back involved. I made a late pivot towards some more SP late in the draft as I <really> liked Manaea and Estrada for this season, and they stayed on the board until very late in the draft. I feel like my $1 players are all serviceable, and I've already been in talks with the Miggy owner who is rebuilding and entertaining the idea of trading him straight up for Cron. (!!!!!!!!!). As a Detroit guy, in recent years I've tried to get the heart of the Tigers order. I've been successful enough to get away with this homerism, and would love to be sitting on 3-4-5 in the order for local watching all year.
So, that's it. I'm quite bullish, but I am after most drafts. What do you think?
Just flew back from Sin City, and boy is my liver tired. Another epic week of debauchery completed. I think I had something close to 10 whole hours of sleep over a 4-5 day period. In an interesting wrinkle, this year I offered to take over the league for a much beleaguered Commish who had 23 hard years under his belt. It was time for a change, and as the most successful franchise in the league, I felt it was time to give a little back. Should be an interesting year.
After a long day at the toptional pool, a late League Champions dinner Thursday night at the Circus Circus Steakhouse (one of the more underrated old-school steakhouses in America), and subsequently closing a night club at MGM, the old commish and I sat down for a little Pai Gow before our noon Friday draft. We got up from the table at 8:30AM. Capital idea, having both the new and old commish boozing it up at Pai Gow til about 3 hours before draft time, getting a tidy little nap, and running on fumes for a marathon 6 hour alcohol infused draft at the Mandalay sports book. God help us.
Anyway, long story short, our 19th Las Vegas draft was a mighty success, and went off with nothing more than the usual stupidly drunken hitches. (insert back pat here)
I was the 2017 league champ (extending my league record to 6 titles), and I had a pretty solid keeper list going in. This draft was unique in my 24 years of this league in that the sheer mass of available hitting talent was staggering. Available hitters this draft included:
Trout/Altuve/Betts/Stanton/Machado/JD Mart/Springer/Donaldson/Gordon/Sanchez/E5/Abreau/Miggy/Benintendi/Cano/Sano/Segura/Bogaerts etc etc etc.
After months of deliberating, I decided to cut my own Trout @ $53. My plan was to spend up to $128 on 3 big sticks, and save an average of around $2 per player for the endgame, to cherry pick the $1 players. With 6 high quality arms kept on the staff, I felt I was fairly set there. Here's how it went:
(keepers in bold)
C- Ramos $5
C- Joseph $1
1B- Olson $7
3B- Castellanos $11
CI- Cron $1
2B- Dozier $26
SS- Semien $11
MI- J Ramirez $11
DH- V Martinez $1
OF- Trout $53
OF- Betts $44
OF- Benintendi $29
OF- Mahtook $1
OF- Soler $1
P- Severino $10
P- Paxton $6
P- Morton $1
P- Manaea $7
P- Estrada $6
P- Junis $1
P- Herrera $10
P- Treinan $8
P- Diaz $11
I drafted my big 3 in the first 2 rounds and was quite pleased. I literally did not have a selection between 1:00 and 5:00, where I was then able to get back involved. I made a late pivot towards some more SP late in the draft as I <really> liked Manaea and Estrada for this season, and they stayed on the board until very late in the draft. I feel like my $1 players are all serviceable, and I've already been in talks with the Miggy owner who is rebuilding and entertaining the idea of trading him straight up for Cron. (!!!!!!!!!). As a Detroit guy, in recent years I've tried to get the heart of the Tigers order. I've been successful enough to get away with this homerism, and would love to be sitting on 3-4-5 in the order for local watching all year.
So, that's it. I'm quite bullish, but I am after most drafts. What do you think?
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