Unusual Drafting Strategies

[Long John]

Just curious to see how far anyone's taken draft day fun.

I once pulled a near flawless Labadini Plan in NL Tout Wars in 2005 (I spent $10 on pitching because I felt the needless urge to say $2 when Brett Tomko's name came up - I finished 7th), but I haven't really pulled off any strategy that I would call unusual or interesting since then. Thinking of cooking up something a little less obvious for one of my home leagues this year and wanted to see what you've done in the past that has garnered good results. Who's got something good?

[chancellor]

I'm in a fun, 11 team mixed league, and have done the Patel Plan two years in a row. Won with it last year.

[Judge Jude]

In 2007, I think it was, I did what Shandler later termed "Total Control Drafting."

You figure out which top players you want - and pay whatever it takes to get them.
I went 49 on Holliday and 45 on DWright - when those sort of guys always went for 40-41, tops - and wound up winning the league anyway.

Would have been happy to get them cheaper, but one rival ran me up the board and I was not going to be denied.


If you have a decent freeze list, and you know which 2-4 guys you really want, just get 'em even if you spent 5-10 extra units.

You may get lucky and find that the guys you'd pay $6 to $8 for wind up in the end game anyway.

It's also fun to then have several uber-studs in the bag, even if you don't have a ton of money left. Some owners won't get any of those guys, and they are doomed. It can take some oxygen out of the room, because more owners are chasing fewer big studs, only 10-12 players into the auction. Sit back and watch!

[Porcello]

Draft only Padre and Mariner pitchers.

[Long John]

One of the weaknesses that I've always found in myself is that I never seem to draft enough power. I draft players that I expect to get 15-20 HRs out of and it consistently doesn't work out for whatever reason. For that reason, I'm considering a Sweeney Plan this year. Anyone ever won with that?

[chancellor]

One of the weaknesses that I've always found in myself is that I never seem to draft enough power. I draft players that I expect to get 15-20 HRs out of and it consistently doesn't work out for whatever reason. For that reason, I'm considering a Sweeney Plan this year. Anyone ever won with that?

Back in 2000, but I was darn lucky. Erstad fell to me late in the draft and he had a never before and never after career year. I got Johnny Damon relatively cheap, and he put up decent numbers and stole a pile of bases. I had a couple other guys who started fast, held good numbers until mid-May, and I dealt them for some additional power, so I ended up mid-tier in power, top in runs, SBs, and BA, and had a very solid pitching staff.

With power numbers being down, and everyone paying for premier power, you might be able to pull it off.

[Gregg]

This year in my NL only I am doing my auction pre-auction. What I mean by that is I have traded for and keeping some top talent at or slightly above value as I think inflation will be insane this year. In a $260 budget I will have spent $216 on 13 players giving me $44 to spend on the rest.

[Moonlight J]

One year I didn't draft anyone over the age of 30 but nobody younger than 25 going with the peak years theory. I finished in the money, but didn't win.

[DJBeasties]

I used Shandler's Extreme Regression Drafting (XRD) last year and throttled a 14-team mixed. In hindsight it almost seemed easy but mostly because I scored big on guys like Jacoby Ellsbury, Lance Berkman, Josh Beckett, Ben Zobrist and Mike Napoli.

[DMT]

I used Shandler's Extreme Regression Drafting (XRD) last year and throttled a 14-team mixed. In hindsight it almost seemed easy but mostly because I scored big on guys like Jacoby Ellsbury, Lance Berkman, Josh Beckett, Ben Zobrist and Mike Napoli.

So can we assume you'll have Holliday, Dunn, and Rios on your team this year? I'm actually thinking of trying that this year, who are some other XRD targets?

[joncarlos]

My NL only league has a 1-catcher, 2-UT setup. Most people don't bother spending money on catchers so I usually end up with a good catcher and another good catcher in one of my UT spots. Normally you'd never do that because of position scarcity but for some reason it works in this league (or at least it did until I posted this)

[DJBeasties]

So can we assume you'll have Holliday, Dunn, and Rios on your team this year? I'm actually thinking of trying that this year, who are some other XRD targets?

Dunn I wonder about him personally. I try to remove my bias but he looked dead. Other guys I will target in that league are Martin Prado, Andre Ethier, Delmon Young, Clay Buchholz, Jason Kubel, John Danks and maybe Ricky Nolasco. Good skills, weird circumstances in most cases.

[Cobain's Ghost]

I'm in a fun, 11 team mixed league, and have done the Patel Plan two years in a row. Won with it last year.

whazzat?

[Moonlight J]

I did have a friend one time draft all Hispanics....he finished 5th

[chancellor]

whazzat?

I must credit GITH and Daniel for posting the information on the Patel Plan. They both claimed to be hammered when creating the plan, but...Going from memory, draft 3 OFs and 1 stud CI in the first four rounds. No SPs until round 6, no closers before round 10. I actually use a modified version - 2 OFs, 1 1B, 1 3B and 1 MI in the first five rounds, concentrating on the four hitting cats except speed. Not that speed is bad, but you typically can get it later and cheaper in a shallow draft.

I've gotta admit, it's worked really well for shallow leagues with weekly transactions. In a starts limited league (like typical ESPN leagues), I'd take a closer earlier since I like to have 3-4 closers and a limited number of SPs at the beginning of the year and stream starts late.