10 Responses to Rotoprofessor Mock Draft #1

1. Sean A. says:

   January 15, 2009 at 8:45 am

   Professor,
   Thanks for letting me take part in this mock draft. It was a great group you assembled. These guys must read a lot of what you write and what I am reading elsewhere as well. I was finding players I normally target flying off the draft board earlier than i have experienced in all my previous mocks.

   To try to explain some of what i did fist i must let you know this was my first draft that i had a top three pick. In all my previous mocks i have been at round 9 or below. I think this inexperience at that draft spot on my part showed as I felt I was picking players early and missing on others late all draft long. Hey, this is exactly why we mock from all different positions.

   One of things i try to do in all my drafts is to eliminate risk (I obviously did not do a good job of this in this mock!). That is one reason why i normally stay clear of any early pitchers since you never know whose arm will fall off tomorrow. So like here if I wait until taking my first starting pitcher in round 10 I need to make sure the next few pitchers I take will have high strikeout totals. I had a list of four of those when I grabbed Vazquez and felt the other 3 would be around for my next picks. The way these guys were picking Vazquez has been hyped up a lot recently and figured he would go sooner than my other targets Gallardo, Greinke and Cain. Unfortunately only Gallardo lasted and I grabbed him with my next pick.

   I tried some other things here that i might not normally do, took a top 3 catcher, grabbed 2 SS’s early, waited on by 3b/CI slot too long, etc… Anyway it was fun and I definitely learned the increasing value of many players from this. Keep on mocking!

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2. butchwoyme says:

   January 15, 2009 at 10:18 am

   Hey, PTBNL here. Have to comment on the Utley pick. My thinking was that rather than take the chance that he did not come back to me in the 2nd and the fact that he would never have come back to me in the 3rd, I took him in the 1st (see Pujols, Albert circa 2008). Got a guy I wanted in the 2nd, so, in my eyes, it worked out. For me, there was also a huge drop off after the 9th Pick, so I wanted to get a guy that could be Top 5 when all is said and done.

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3. Mike Podhorzer says:

   January 15, 2009 at 10:20 am

   Wow, Matt Wieters in the 9th now?! Every mock draft I look at, he goes earlier and earlier! He’ll be a 1st round pick by the end of the month at this rate! And now speculation is he won’t be called up till June to push back his arb clock. It’s amazing how fantasy players always think they are so smart by picking the sleepers and hot rookies earlier and earlier, and don’t even realize they are totally giving up all their profit potential by doing so.

   And wow, same goes for Chris Davis!

   Gavin Floyd in Round 13?? Woah. And before guys like John Danks, Harang, Slowey, RJ, Lowe, and Garza! Floyd will have negative value in mixed leagues.

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4. Sayid says:

   January 15, 2009 at 4:54 pm

   Haha, Wieters was me. I have no reasoning really aside from the fact it was a two catcher league. And I make at least one big reach every year in a draft. Iannetta was a much better pick in the 12th.

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5. Q! says:

   January 15, 2009 at 6:24 pm

   I like Bruce well enough, but I’ll take Cruz first every time. More power, more rbi potential (batting 4th, maybe 5th, in a potent lineup), and honestly better steals potential too (or at the very least even). Batting average is probably a wash, as Bruce will improve and Cruz will regress, both ending up around .280-.290 in my opinion. I’ll give Bruce the runs advantage, but that’s about it.

   Whether or not Cruz is worth a 10th rd pick to begin with, that I don’t know. Doesn’t seem excessive to me.

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6. admin says:

   January 15, 2009 at 8:17 pm

   I hope no one took my quick thoughts personally! Your reasoning makes sense, obviously there is always a reason when you make a pick.

   I agree with Mike that some people just seem to be taken earlier and earlier, like Wieters and Davis. These players are huge gambles and I’m not sure I would take them quite as early. I’ll have a lot more on Wieters in a column tomorrow.

   The same could be said for Cruz. I know he had a successful run last season, but I can’t ignore his unsuccessful stints in ’06 & ’07. Some have classified him as a AAAA player and it is certainly possible. That’s not to say that I’m not high on him for ’09, but my expectations are tempered a bit.

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7. johnwhorfin says:

   January 15, 2009 at 8:53 pm

   Planet 10 here. With regard to my Upton pick, I like his speed/power mix better than Lee’s consistency. That, of course, depends on whether or not he continues his power display from the postseason.
   My thoughts in a mock draft is to try and draft a team I would want to go forth with in a regular fantasy league, and not try out new techniques or strategies, at least where I am drafting against all or mostly all human participants. Thus, I may reach for a player or two, but it is usually based on prior experience in other drafts. In my first mock drafts, I drafted pretty much by the book, just to see who was getting snatched up early. For example, Drew in the fifth round was probably a reach, but I’d lost him in two prior drafts by waiting until the 7th round. I wanted a power hitting SS, and it was him or Peralta. As things played out, I could have waited, but chose to solidify my SS as I was already feeling pretty good about my OF. A reach, but one I am willing to take this year.
   With Davis, I like his power potential, and I wanted to solidify my corner infielders (I took him as my 3B). I certainly like him better than either Figgins or Atkins who went in the next round. Again, a definite reach but one I am willing to gamble on this year.
   It’s always fun to draft against fantasy players who know their stuff. I learned a lot that will be translated into my primary draft cheat sheet. Thanks.

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8. Q! says:

   January 15, 2009 at 10:50 pm

   Hah, I think we all understand that you’re not attacking our picks… no offense taken, I was just trying to explain my thought process.

   And you may very well be right about Cruz. Sure, he had a monster year at AAA that continued into his 100+ ML ABs, but a cold start in April might derail his season before it really even gets a chance. Obviously I’m not expecting that, but it’s a real possibility.

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9. big o says:

   January 15, 2009 at 11:16 pm

   with the delayed wrap-around pick afforded me by the 3rd position , i felt i was doing ok up until round 6 , when i committed a critical error.
   regardless of your opinion of john’s choice of chris davis , he upset my pre-determined choice of a davis/billingsley wrap-around.
   if there’s one thing that i THINK that i’ve learned from participating in numerous mock drafts thus far , it’s this : the minute someone selects chris davis , the prudent decision is to choose joey votto , immediately …(and vice versa , btw). it doesn’t matter what round . it doesn’t matter what your team looks like at that moment in time. take votto.
   anyhow , i choked.

   choices i did not like were rounds: 9, 14, 15, and 17.
   dispite my unfamiliarity with the site, i enjoyed participating and wish i could have contributed to the chat , other than just asking dumb questions.

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10. Sayid says:

    January 16, 2009 at 11:35 am

    Yeah, no offense taken at all. My favorite part (maybe the only good part, haha) of the Sportingnews Fantasy mag is when they do the mock and then each critique a pick per round.

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