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Ron Shandler's Arizona Fall League Symposium was another great event with great tips on the top prospects from scouts and industry insiders. We also got to see most of the top prospects up close and personal at the Rising Stars Game and other AFL games.

And for the second straight year, we ran NFBC Draft Champions Leagues live in Phoenix. This year we ran 2 leagues that were free to the participants and they will play out the leagues for prizes to next year's AFL. We drafted 23 rounds live in Phoenix and will finish up the last 27 rounds next month online. It should be fun.

I thought it would be fun for discussion now to provide the first six rounds of each draft. They may be different from future drafts, but what the heck, it's data worth discussing now. Enjoy.

NFBC Draft Champions AFL League 1:
Round 1
1. Mike Trout
2. Ryan Braun
3. Miguel Cabrera
4. Robinson Cano
5. Andrew McCutchen
6. Matt Kemp
7. Albert Pujols
8. Carlos Gonzalez
9. Joey Votto
10. Troy Tulowitzki
11. Juston Upton
12. Buster Posey
13. Giancarlos Stanton
14. Justin Verlander
15. Josh Hamilton

Round 2
16. Prince Fielder
17. Craig Kimbrel
18. Evan Longoria
19. Dustin Pedroia
20. Clayton Kershaw
21. Adrian Beltre
22. David Wright
23. Matt Holliday
24. Jason Heyward
25. Ian Kinsler
26. Curtis Granderson
27. Jose Reyes
28. Stephen Strasburg
29. Hanley Ramirez
30. Jose Bautista

Round 3
31. David Price
32. Felix Hernandez
33. Adrian Gonzalez
34. Ryan Zimmerman
35. Ian Desmond
36. Cole Hamels
37. Matt Cain
38. Starlin Castro
39. Bryce Harper
40. Mark Teixeira
41. Chase Headley
42. Edwin Encarnacion
43. Elvis Andrus
44. Yoenis Cespedes
45. Adam Jones

Round 4
46. R.A. Dickey
47. Aramis Ramirez
48. Jacoby Ellsbury
49. Jered Weaver
50. Billy Butler
51. Gio Gonzalez
52. Aaron Hill
53. Alex Rios
54. Jay Bruce
55. Joe Mauer
56. Cliff Lee
57. B.J. Upton
58. Aroldis Chapman
59. Pablo Sandoval
60. Yu Darvish

Round 5
61. Jason Kipnis
62. Madison Bumgarner
63. Michael Bourn
64. Jordan Zimmerrman
65. Ben Zobrist
66. Allen Craig
67. Brandon Phillips
68. Paul Goldschmidt
69. Jimmy Rollins
70. Wilin Rosario
71. Miguel Montero
72. C.C. Sabathia
73. Brett Lawrie
74. Jose Altuve
75. Corey Hart

Round 6
76. Yadier Molina
77. Carlos Beltran
78. Freddie Freeman
79. Roy Halladay
80. Howie Kendrick
81. Mike Morse
82. Matt Wieters
83. Martin Prado
84. Zach Greinke
85. Eric Hosmer
86. Victor Martinez
87. Adam Wainwright
88. Mark Trumbo
89. Shin-Soo Choo
90. Kris Medlen


NFBC Draft Champions AFL League 2:
Round 1
1. Ryan Braun
2. Miguel Cabrera
3. Mike Trout
4. Robinson Cano
5. Andrew McCutchen
6. Matt Kemp
7. Carlos Gonzalez
8. Joey Votto
9. Josh Hamilton
10. Giancarlo Stanton
11. Albert Pujols
12. Jason Heyward
13. Troy Tulowitzki
14. Jose Bautista
15. Prince Fielder

Round 2
16. Dustin Pedroia
17. Justin Upton
18. David Wright
19. Buster Posey
20. Justin Verlander
21. Allen Craig
22. Hanley Ramirez
23. Clayton Kershaw
24. Adrian Beltre
25. Stephen Strasburg
26. Felix Hernandez
27. Adrian Gonzalez
28. Evan Longoria
29. Jose Reyes
30. Ian Kinsler

Round 3
31. Billy Butler
32. Victor Martinez
33. Starlin Castro
34. Ian Desmond
35. Edwin Encarnacion
36. Joe Mauer
37. Craig Kimbrel
38. Adam Jones
39. Paul Goldschmidt
40. Ben Zobrist
41. Aramis Ramirez
42. Bryce Harper
43. David Price
44. Chase Headley
45. Ryan Zimmerman

Round 4
46. B.J. Upton
47. Jimmy Rollins
48. Cole Hamels
49. Jay Bruce
50. Mark Teixeira
51. Yoenis Cespedes
52. Matt Holliday
53. Aaron Hill
54. Curtis Granderson
55. Brandon Phillips
56. Freddie Freeman
57. Michael Bourn
58. Jason Kipnis
59. Jered Weaver
60. Pablo Sandoval

Round 5
61. Roy Halladay
62. Paul Konerko
63. Gio Gonzalez
64. Mark Trumbo
65. Elvis Andrus
66. Matt Cain
67. Aroldis Chapman
68. Jacoby Ellsbury
69. Brett Lawrie
70. Yadier Molina
71. Desmond Jennings
72. Jose Altuve
73. Chase Utley
74. Cliff Lee
75. Madison Bumgarner

Round 6
76. Max Scherzer
77. Adam Wainwright
78. Hunter Pence
79. Jonathan Papelbon
80. Kris Medlen
81. Carlos Beltran
82. CC Sabathia
83. Wilin Rosario
84. Johnny Cueto
85. Carlos Santana
86. Josh Willingham
87. R.A. Dickey
88. Miguel Montero
89. Zack Greinke
90. Matt Wieters

Thoughts?

where is chris sale??? not in the top 6 rounds in either draft? wow. come march i can see him moving into the 3rd, but certainly 4th round

Gekko wrote:where is chris sale??? not in the top 6 rounds in either draft? wow. come march i can see him moving into the 3rd, but certainly 4th round

He was at the start of the 7th round in both drafts.

Here are the results of a unique 5-Year draft that Ron held on Sunday at the AFL Symposium.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/fa ... s/1699393/

Here's another link for that draft: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/fa ... r/1699297/

The premise of this draft was that owners had to pick players who would be on their team for 5 years. This was like a Dynasty league, where you are trying to win this year but also every year through the 5 years. You obviously don't want to draft a player who may be out of baseball in 3 years and yet by picking top prospects now you obviously need enough veteran depth to get through Years 1 and 2. So it's a fun exercise and as you can see Todd took Braun over Trout. That brought an interesting discussion in a Dynasty League format.

All in all, I thought this was a great panel and a great topic. Seeing live drafts -- and many of them now with the live NFBC drafts -- is a great addition to the AFL Symposium because there's nothing better than draft results. This was a unique format, but it did give you an indication of what the industry writers thought of young players and their future value in fantasy baseball. Enjoy.

The Kimbrel conundrum is amusing.
At this stage of the drafting season, he is the only 100% knockout Closer on the board.
Chapman's use is in flux next year, and guys like Papelbon, Rivera, Storen, and Jansen, etc are not the knockout guy that Kimbrel is, or have problems of their own.
Kimbrel is in a league by himself right now.
The problem is that he is more valuable at this time of year than he will be next March.
In March, most teams will have named their Closer.
And even though Kimbrel's peripherals are better than most Closers, his and other Closer's worth are still only tied to one category.
Third round material in November, fourth or fifth round in March.

By the way, Mark. In our two early NFBC drafts, Sale went in the fifth and sixth rounds.
Consider the source

Eric Hosmer was drafted in the 6th Round in One and When in the 2nd Draft?
Anthony Rizzo?
Very Cool to see these drafts, thanks for sharing!

Winston's Empire wrote:Eric Hosmer was drafted in the 6th Round in One and When in the 2nd Draft?
Anthony Rizzo?
Very Cool to see these drafts, thanks for sharing!

Late 8th round for Hosmer in the other AFL league.
17th round for Rizzo in one league, 10th round in the other league.

It's early in the drafting season. There are still LOTS of disparities in the early drafts.

Remember, the A in ADP stands for average, not absolute.

Greg Ambrosius wrote: It's early in the drafting season. There are still LOTS of disparities in the early drafts.

Looks like Allen Craig went 66th in the first draft and 21st in the second draft. Now that is a disparity!

Just a heads up for the 30 guys who competed in these AFL NFBC Draft Champions Leagues: I need to add this league to the Registration page with a $0 entry fee and we'll do that early next week. Then I'll try to register all 30 owners on the site and set up the leagues. It will take a bit for Tom and I to enter the first 23 rounds, but with any luck we'll be drafting by Dec. 17th or so. That gives us plenty of time to finish these last 27 rounds. Thanks for your patience all and good luck with the second half of these drafts.

Just a heads up everyone that we got the Arizona Fall League added to Registration for $0 and I entered everyone who was in our system already for these 2 leagues. I'm still missing contact info for 10 owners and once I get that I'll get those folks signed up and ready to go. Then we'll create the leagues in the system and enter the first 23 rounds.

Hopefully we can get all of this done early next week and get everyone on the same page with a starting time. I'll post that once we get the manual labor done first. Thanks for your patience and in no time we'll be finishing the second half of these drafts online. Stay tuned.

I also entered everyone in the Dan Kenyon Premature E-Draftulation League that was a $125 league. Let me enter the draft results for the AFL Leagues first and then I'll get to this one and the 50-round DC that was set up earlier today. All of those draft results must be entered by hand, so we'll get to them during the next couple of weeks when we can. Thanks.

Greg what is going on with these leagues - I did go ahead and find them in the listing and sign up and saw the league yesterday (or maybe Thursday) - today nothing is there


PVH

Captain Hook wrote:Greg what is going on with these leagues - I did go ahead and find them in the listing and sign up and saw the league yesterday (or maybe Thursday) - today nothing is there


PVH

Perry, you didn't need to sign up. I already signed you up for this league. We deleted your signup from yesterday.

All 15 teams in Arizona Fall League 1 have signed up. I started to enter these results yesterday and got through 2 rounds before the weekend arrived. I will finish entering all 23 rounds in by Monday or Tuesday and then I will see when we can start the online portion for the last 27 rounds. AFL League 1 is headed in the right direction.

We still need 3 owners from AFL League 2 to sign up. I've contacted them twice via email and will do it again tomorrow if I don't hear from them. I just need their contact info and I'll do the rest. Once I have them registered, I'll get their league results entered next week and get that league started, too.

Okay, Arizona Fall League 1's first 23 rounds are entered and once we switch this to an online draft you'll have access to the results and the remaining player list. We'll get this draft started this week and I'll email everyone with more details once we have the draft room ready for this. Good job everyone on getting Registered and ready for the last 27 rounds.

AFL League 2 is missing just one more owner to sign up. I'm doing all I can to get him registered. With any luck, I'll get this league set up tomorrow and get the draft results entered. Hopefully you folks will be drafting before the weekend as well.

Look for email updates to all 30 owners and be ready to draft. We're almost there.

Okay, if you go to your Arizona Fall League links now you'll see that the first 23 rounds are visible and you are able to Head to the Draft Room. There you'll see all available free agents. The Draft Board is listed under Roster and there is also a Draft Results link under Roster. Look it all over.

I will email all of the participants for both leagues today with a start time. I don't want to rush this out and have someone not be available during Christmas, so stay tuned for the starting time. It might be best to start these on Dec. 26th, but look for the email with exact details shortly. Thanks all.

Emails have gone out to all 30 owners and we will officially start both leagues on Wednesday, Dec. 26th at 6 pm ET. Team 15 can easily put one player in your Que and click on 1 Round Auto. It will make your Round 24 pick as soon as we turn on the draft room.

We could have started these tomorrow, but it would be foolish to start these over the holidays and before the weekend when everyone is so busy. Plus the 6 extra days allows everyone to familiarize themselves with the draft room, with the available players list and with their own teams. This will work out beautifully. Thanks and good luck all.

And if we have anyone missing next week and they are close to timing out on their first pick, please contact me at [email protected] and I'll call them up. That first round after a long delay is always a little tricky. Thanks.

GREAT pre Christmas present we can enjoy throughout the weekend while looking forward to what's in our "draft stockings" on the morning after

Just a heads up to everyone in these two leagues that we are starting Round 24 today. If you have any owner who times out in this round, please contact me at [email protected]. I've emailed everyone once and will do so again today if needed, but we want to make sure everyone is on board with the starting date/time. Please contact me if anyone isn't.

Thanks all and continued good luck in this league.