Conquering the Autodraft: A Real Experiment in Fantasy..

March 17, 2009

The reader will bear witness to a live, ongoing Fantasy Baseball experiment.  As a seasoned Fantasy GM of over 20 years, we will embark on this journey together. I will keep you updated on the progress of our team.  The goal – to autodraft an entire team (in this case, mixed league 5×5 format, 12 teams) and make it a winner through carefully considered transactions and trades (if needed).  Our competitors are of self-proclaimed “competitive” skill level in a major public league.

Here’s our team:

C. Matt Wieters

1B. Prince Fielder

2B. Kelly Johnson

SS. Troy Tulowitzki

3B. David Wright

OF. Corey Hart

OF. Curtis Granderson

OF. Shane Victorino

UT. Lance Berkman

 

SP. John Lackey

SP. Cliff Lee

SP. Brett Myers

SP. Clay Kershaw

SP. Matt Cain

SP. John Maine

RP. Brian Wilson

RP. Fernando Rodney

Bench – Adam LaRoche, Justin Upton, Ryan Theriot

  Assessment - Here goes. Phhhhew.  I would have shied away from plenty of those players.  Having said that, I think I have a nice offensive nucleus, albeit randomly chosen.  I expect a bounce-back season from Tulowitzki, improvement from Granderson and maybe even Hart, and more from Lackey, Cain, Myers, and Kershaw.  I expect a lot less from my staff ace Cliff Lee, though, and I think I have a hole at catcher if Wieters begins the season in the minors. 

I will probably do some housecleaning with my bench first. I am targeting Ramon Hernandez in Cinci as a starting catcher and will shift Wieters to my bench.  I will probably need more in the way of closers than just Brian Wilson, and I might just try to turn a trade involving Lee before he comes back down to earth after posting a Cy Young season in ‘08. 

I think our odds are pretty good here, though.  It is akin to looking at the ingredients needed to make chocolate chip cookies and envisioning the final product when everything is powder and liquid..but we’ll get there. Stay tuned…

Written by Russell Sandman · Filed Under Draft Strategy | 3 Comments