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We held our annual KP Industry League Draft this week with several top industry writers and will play this out during the season. The league consists of 12 teams, 23 rounds, 5x5, serpentine. Here's a quick look at the first few rounds and we'll add rounds each week, with the entire draft to be published in our first Fantasy Sports Magazine that all NFBC early-bird signees will get in the mail in late January:



FIRST ROUND:

1. Hanley Ramirez (Jeff Erickson, Rotowire.com)

2. Jose Reyes (Todd Zola, Mastersball.com)

3. Albert Pujols (Mike Sheets, RotoTimes.com)

4. Alex Rodriguez (Brian Walton, CreativeSports.com)

5. David Wright (Tom Kessenich, NFBC)

6. Miguel Cabrera (Jeff Boggis, FantasySportsEmpire.com)

7. Ryan Braun (Matthew Pouliot, Rotoworld.com)

8. Grady Sizemore (Eric Mack, CBSSports.com)

9. Chase Utley (Eric Karabell, ESPN.com)

10. Jimmy Rollins (Walter Lis, STATS)

11. Josh Hamilton (Greg Ambrosius, NFBC)

12. Ryan Howard (Geoff Stein, MockDraftCentral.com)



SECOND ROUND:

13. Mark Teixeira

14. Matt Holliday

15. Johan Santana

16. Evan Longoria

17. Tim Lincecum

18. Ian Kinsler

19. Justin Morneau

20. Carlos Beltran

21. Lance Berkman

22. Alfonso Soriano

23. Carlos Lee

24. Dustin Pedroia



THIRD ROUND:

25. Brian McCann

26. Brandon Phillips

27. Carl Crawford

28. Manny Ramirez

29. Prince Fielder

30. Aramis Ramirez

31. B.J. Upton

32. Carlos Quentin

33. CC Sabathia

34. Ichiro Suzuki

35. Jacoby Ellsbury

36. Jason Bay



FOURTH ROUND:

37. Brian Roberts

38. David Ortiz

39. Kevin Youkilis

40. Brandon Webb

41. Jake Peavy

42. Alexei Ramirez

43. Adrian Gonzalez

44. Alex Rios

45. Nick Markakis

46. Matt Kemp

47. Russell Martin

48. Cole Hamels



FIFTH ROUND:

49. Joe Mauer

50. Jonathon Papelbon

51. Geovanny Soto

52. Dan Haren

53. Roy Halladay

54. Curtis Granderson

55. Josh Beckett

56. Vladimir Guerrero

57. Shane Victorino

58. Magglio Ordonez

59. Francisco Rodriguez

60. Corey Hart



SIXTH ROUND:

61. Francisco Liriano

62. Cliff Lee

63. Dan Uggla

64. Derek Jeter

65. Stephen Drew

66. Bobby Abreu

67. Joe Nathan

68. Troy Tulowitzki

69. Rafael Furcal

70. Chris Davis

71. Victor Martinez

72. Chipper Jones



SEVENTH ROUND:

73. Ryan Ludwick

74. Roy Oswalt

75. Jhonny Peralta

76. Nate McLouth

77. Edinson Volquez

78. Brad Lidge

79. Adam Dunn

80. Mariano Rivera

81. John Lackey

82. Aubrey Huff

83. Derrek Lee

84. Garret Atkins



EIGHTH ROUND:

85. Vernon Wells

86. Scott Kazmir

87. Jay Bruce

88. Carlos Delgado

89. A.J. Burnett

90. Carlos Marmol

91. Torii Hunter

92. Hunter Pence

93. Bobby Jenks

94. Ervin Santana

95. Felix Hernandez

96. Robinson Cano



Thoughts?

Picking from the 11th spot, I went with power early and took some gambles later. I was going to start out Tex-Howard, but when Hamilton was still there I decided to grab him first and then take either 1B on the way back. Low and behold, Mr. Geoff Stein took both first basemen from me and I was left with either Ian Kinsler or Holliday. I know going to McAfee Coliseum from Coors Field is going to hurt Holliday's numbers, but he's still a solid hitter on the road and he is entering his free agent season, so I grabbed him.



I tried to get a lot of power and I probably fell short on speed. I also gambled later on two potential closers, so we'll see how that works out. Oh well, drafting in December with no reserves is always fun and in a 12-team league there's plenty of opportunity to fill in your holes before Opening Day. Here's my team, drafted in this order:



1. Josh Hamilton

2. Matt Holliday

3. Jacoby Ellsbury

4. David Ortiz

5. Francisco Rodriguez

6. Cliff Lee

7. Derrek Lee

8. Scott Kazmir

9. Chone Figgins

10. Rich Harden

11. Howie Kendrick

12. Matt Wieters

13. Orlando Cabrera

14. Jose Arrendondo

15. Erik Bedard

16. Johnny Cueto

17. Xavier Nady

18. Carlos Guillen

19. Jeff Clement

20. Frank Francisco

21. Adam Jones

22. Adrubal Cabrera

23. Kyle Lohse

Here's Tom's team from the No. 5 hole:



1. David Wright

2. Carlos Beltran

3. Prince Fielder

4. Alex Rios

5. Roy Halladay

6. Troy Tulowitzki

7. Edinson Volquez

8. Hunter Pence

9. Yovanni Gallardo

10. Jonathan Broxton

11. Ryan Doumit

12. Jose Lopez

13. David Price

14. Chris Perez

15. Jayson Werth

16. Gavin Floyd

17. Adam LaRoche

18. John Maine

19. A.J. Pierzynski

20. Fernando Rodney

21. Kaz Matsui

22. J.D. Drew

23. Michael Bourn

i guess that trip to the afl started your mancrush on weiters??

Greg - if Figgins is back to form, I don't think you will be that short on speed.



Looks like a pretty decent draft - at least the manlove/overdrafting on Pedroia was held in check a little

Originally posted by RoundTrippers:

i guess that trip to the afl started your mancrush on weiters?? Hah, why not, right? The Orioles opened a spot for him and he was the seventh catcher off the board. With the 134th pick, I think he will come through for me. I see he went 111th in the NFBC Champions League draft, so I got a bargain.



Drafting when there's a foot of snow outside your window in December is awesome. Not the snow, just thinking about baseball, I mean!!!

Originally posted by Captain Hook:

Greg - if Figgins is back to form, I don't think you will be that short on speed.



Looks like a pretty decent draft - at least the manlove/overdrafting on Pedroia was held in check a little That's what I was thinking Perry. I targeted power early and so did a lot of other owners and there seemed to be adequate speed out there at the 3-4 turn and even later. I've always liked Figgins and if healthy he could fill a great need for me. I probably shouldn't have taken Ortiz that high, but again I'm hoping for a bounceback season. We'll see how it all plays out.

Any thoughts on Utley going 9th overall? Eric Karabell lives in Philly and must think that Utley will be back around Opening Day. That's the word from Utley, but coming back from hip surgery in time for the opener seems aggressive. But we'll see.



Pedroia went 24th in this draft and Kinsler 18th. Do you see those two going at the start of the second round in the 15th round or will power-hitters go before them? Second base is an interesting position because there's a huge gap between those three and Brian Roberts and those picked after them. Should be interesting.



Thoughts?

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

Any thoughts on Utley going 9th overall? Eric Karabell lives in Philly and must think that Utley will be back around Opening Day. That's the word from Utley, but coming back from hip surgery in time for the opener seems aggressive. But we'll see.



Pedroia went 24th in this draft and Kinsler 18th. Do you see those two going at the start of the second round in the 15th round or will power-hitters go before them? Second base is an interesting position because there's a huge gap between those three and Brian Roberts and those picked after them. Should be interesting.



Thoughts? It is fine to think he will be healthy and productive, but why take him in the first when you can definitely have him in the second and even have a shot at him third or fourth? If he is correct, he blew a great chance to have two first rounders.

Funny pick for Karabell. He is one one of the most conservative writers around, and yet he reaches with Utley in December.

It'll be interesting to see his pre-season rankings if Utley's hip timetable is still in doubt.

But, as said, he is from Philly.

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

Any thoughts on Utley going 9th overall? Eric Karabell lives in Philly and must think that Utley will be back around Opening Day. I see Rollins went 10th. Guess Karabell was one of the many booing Rollins when Rollins spouted off...

Utley is a horrible pick at 9 ,thats where he would go if he was healthy.What kind of value is that, now if he took Utley in the 2nd round on the swing i could live with it and probably would have made it.