Fantasy Draft

Below is the result of yesterday's fantasy draft for Patrick's league. There are 10 teams in the league, and I had the 9th position in the draft order. Sigh. Here's what I wound up with:

Hitters:
C Brian McCann
1B Ryan Howard
2B Mark DeRosa
3B Troy Glaus
SS Stephen Drew
IF JJ Hardy
OF Carlos Lee
OF Vladimir Guerrero
OF Xavier Nady
Util Pat Burrell

Bench:
BN (OF) Rick Ankiel
BN (2B) Kelly Johnson
BN (2B) Rickie Weeks
BN (C) Kelly Shoppach
BN (OF) Daniel Murphy

Starting Pitchers:
SP Johan Santana
SP Roy Oswalt
SP Edinson Volquez
SP Gavin Floyd
SP Mike Pelfrey

Relief Pitchers:
RP Joakim Soria
RP Carlos Marmol
RP Francisco Cordero

I think I can go into the season with a reasonable measure of optimism for this team. The one glaring void is that I have no speed on this team. If ever win the SB category, it'll be by sheer luck. Now, because I'm obsessive about baseball and fantasy, and it's a quiet lazy Sunday, I'm going to analyze my team. Yes, I'm that kind of uber-dork.

Starting Pitching:

Obviously, the strength of this team is the pitching. Johan should win 18-20 games this year with the Mets' improved bullpen and Citi Field likely more of a pitcher's park than Shea was. Oswalt could win 20 games if his team wasn't the Astros. Volquez is something of a question mark given his lack of experience; was this past season a fluke for him or is he going to be a consistently dominant starter? Pelfrey turned a corner last year and pitched great the second half, while also looking really good in spring training. I think he'll have a really good year. Gavin Floyd is looking good, but is mostly in there for depth if one of the other question marks fails or gets injured. The really nice thing is that this pitching staff really has no fear-inducing injury history.
Grade: A

Relief Pitching:

The relief corps of Soria, Cordero and Marmol should give me a ton of saves with a good ERA and WHIP and a fair amount of strikeouts. I just hope Marmol can keep up his high level of play for a full season in the closer role. The Cubs should win enough games to give him lots of chances. The problem with Soria and Cordero is that they're on lousy teams.
Grade: B+

Catcher:

For once my catcher position isn't a black hole of hitting. Brian McCann is one of the best hitting players in that position these days. Unless he gets hurt, this position will only change hands when he gets a day off. Kelly Shoppach is on the team as a reliable backup in the case that I want to take a slumping McCann out of the lineup for a week.
Grade: A

First Base:

Ryan Howard, despite his lousy batting average, will hit a ton of homers, score a lot of runs, and drive in a ton of runs. He's a perpetual home run champ in the NL, and a constant MVP threat. I don't have a backup for him, but any backup I could get now would be useless in comparison. First base is a strength for me this year. That being said, I really wanted Pujols. After finally getting surgery on his elbow this offseason, he'll be playing pain-free this year. I believe he will have a disgustingly monster year which is scary considering his typical season. Oh, well.
Grade: A-

Second Base:

Second base is one of those positions where there are a couple of great players, but the rest of pack is mediocre at best. Mark DeRosa has eligibility at 2B, 3B and OF, and is a fairly reliable hitter. He gets lots of RBI opportunities in the Cubs' lineup. I think this was a really good mid-round pickup. The need for depth at this position, though, forced my hand. I grabbed Kelly Johnson, who should be a decent backup for DeRosa, but may also come out and have a good season in his own right. Worth a shot, in my opinion. In addition I made something of a dark horse/sleeper pick in Rickie Weeks. He's always had real potential: decent power and lots of speed. The problem has been injury and a propensity to strikeout (425 Ks in 445 games). I feel it's a chance worth taking, and I can always drop him if I see someone else coming up big.
Grade: B-

Third Base:

Third base is usually a strength for my teams, but not this year. DeRosa can slot in here, but I've got Troy Glaus as the regular starter. I'm honestly not a fan of Glaus, but the draft order kept me from my boy, David Wright, and I want nothing to do with A-Rod's fragile psyche and the relentless verbal attacks he'll get this year on the road. Now, there's nothing really wrong with Glaus, he'll still get me 25-30 homers and drive in around 100 runs, especially in a lineup with Rick Ankiel and Alber Pujols, but I still wanted someone better there. We'll see.
Grade: B

Shortstop:

I grabbed two shortstops for a specific reason. I missed out on the elite shortstops (Reyes, Rollins, Ramirez), so I decided to take the route of drafting a SS with lots of potential that I think is likely to have a breakout year. Stephen Drew is that man. He's been in the league since getting called up by Arizona in 2006, and has shown a lot of improvement over the time period. I firmly believe this is the year he establishes himself. In case he falters I have JJ Hardy as a backup. Hardy is not the best SS out there, he has put up respectable numbers consistently.
Grade: B

Outfield:

The outfield is hit or miss with me most of the time. Either I have one that's stacked or I have one that's mostly average. I'm carrying 6 outfielders currently, 3 filling the OF slots, 1 filling the utility slot, and the others on the bench. I think Carlos Lee and Xavier Nady will be provide good, consistent production, while Vlad is a question mark. That Angels lineup is never overly potent, so he never really has the opportunity to drive in a ton of runs. He'll still put up good numbers if his knees don't completely give out on him this year. He's the one I'm worried about most, but he does have a really good chance of helping me quite a bit. It pained me, as a Mets fan, to pick Pat Burrell, but he's around for depth. I think he'll have a good year in Tampa Bay, but there's a lot of really good pitching in the AL East. He'll probably bounce back and forth between my lineup and bench unless he's cruising. Rick Ankiel will probably be in the lineup more than Burrell, as he's in a situation where he'll face weaker pitching and just looks really good right now. Either way, Ankiel is great depth that I couldn't pass up. Dan Murphy is totally a homer/sleeper pick. He is the young man that the Mets are slotting into left field to replace Grandpa Alou. He has shown great plate discipline at the ML level, and is looking really good this spring. Either way, this position is above average for me, with solid depth.
Grade: B

All in all, this is not a bad team to go into the season with. It's not the best I've had, but it's solid. The positions that don't have elite players have enough solid depth to hopefully compensate for any under-performance. If the pitching staff doesn't have any injuries, it's going to be filthy. So close to the season, but still so far away....