Do You Want To Face Jeff Erickson & Derek VanRiper?

[Jeff Erickson]

I blogged my team's results here:

http://rotosynthesis.rotowire.com/NFBC- ... BD3688.htm

Fun time last night - thanks guys!

[Tom Kessenich]

Here's the draft order for next week's VanRiper league.


March 28 VanRiper $150 League
1. Alan Greenberg
2. Rob Nolter
3. Mike McElroy
4. Khang Do
5. Jason Perkins
6. Jeff Rubenstein
7. Craig Bernes
8. Rich McCormick
9. Derek VanRiper
10. John Taylor
11. Joe Berg
12. Jonathan Kent

[JRubenstein]

My team from the 11 Hole:
C: Y Molina, Salty
1B: Fielder, Teixeira
2B: Hill, Barney
SS: Peralta, A. Casilla
3B: Young, Betemit
OF: Bourn, Francoeur, Joyce, Hart, Reimold, Viciedo, Scott
SP: Greinke, Wilson, Garza, Porcello, Nicasio, Niemann, Volstad
RP: Bailey, Marmol, Myers, Benoit, Perkins, Salas

I never felt comfortable with this draft and my team feels thin in many places. This was the toughest one I've done this year. Nice job everyone.

[Outlaw]

My Team from the 3 spot - I too never felt comfortable with this draft. It seemed there were a lot of reaches.

Posey, Buster C SF
Santana, Carlos C,1B CLE
Pujols, Albert 1B LAA
Murphy, Daniel 1B,2B,3B NYM
Moustakas, Mike 3B KC
Escobar, Yunel SS TOR
Boesch, Brennan OF DET
Bonifacio, Emilio 3B,SS,OF MIA
Cabrera, Melky OF SF
Carp, Mike 1B,OF SEA
Crisp, Coco OF OAK
Beckham, Gordon 2B CHW
Morse, Michael 1B,OF WAS
Montero, Jesus UTL SEA
Chacin, Jhoulys P COL
Harrison, Matt P TEX
Leake, Mike P CIN
Nova, Ivan P NYY
Rivera, Mariano P NYY
Storen, Drew P WAS
Tomlin, Josh P CLE
Verlander, Justin P DET
Zambrano, Carlos P MIA

BENCH
Aceves, Alfredo P BOS
Collmenter, Josh P ARI
Giavotella, Johnny 2B KC
Harang, Aaron P LAD
Jay, Jon OF STL
Quentin, Carlos OF SD
Tejada, Ruben 2B,SS NYM

[Rog]

I don't like or dislike my team,really like the 15 spot. Missed out on a few late picks but getting 1 closer and 1 decent bat off the waiver wire will be a must.decided to punt 3rd base.even with 1 closer my pitching points should be near the top?
C ramos
C ruiz
1 davis
2 kinsler
3 valencia
Ss hanley
Ci pena
Mi espinosa
Of pence,cruz,rios,bay,soriano,reddick
Lester
Gallardo
Bucholz
Worley
G gonzalez
Jurjens
Dickey
Nolasco,wolf,cecil
Axford

[RobG]

The whole draft was frustrating. I took guys that I felt I needed to take as a solid base and then could get the guy I really wanted in the next round. Well, that next round never seemed to happen.

Great primer for the main, the owners in this league were really good and the teams all seem to be well constructed.

[Motorboat Jones]

TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT!!! The Jeff Erickson draft is scheduled to start in 10 minutes. Let's see who can beat our SiriusXM Expert!!! Good luck everyone and have fun.

We do have one more Rotowire.com Expert who would be interested in competing against the NFBC regulars if anyone is interested. Anyone up for a $125 NFBC 15-team Pay Top 3 satellite league against Chris Liss? He's up for the challenge. Does Tuesday, March 27th at 7 pm ET work for anyone? Post your name here if you're interested and I'll see if the new daddy Chris can make it that night. Let me know. Thanks all.

I might be up for this, but would have to start later on either Monday 3/26 or Tuesday 3/27 --- 9:00 PM ET would work much better for me. Would this be a possibility ?

[billybill]

Glad I wasn't the only one who felt frustrated. Each time my draft spot was approaching and looking at a group of 2-3 players only to see each of them go right before I wanted to take them. I drafted from the 13 spot.

C Montero/Doumit
1B Loney
2B Cano
SS Castro
3B Youkilis
MI Drew
CI I Stewart
OF Mccutcheon/Belt/Cuddyer/Hunter/Prado
UT Ethier
P Hamels/E Jackson/K Jansen/Lilly/Norris/Oswalt/J Garcia/Pestano/Santos

B J Guzman/Huff/S Rodriguez/E Young/A Cashner/S Miller/B Peacock

[Jeff Erickson]

I concur with the consensus. I drafted in the 12-hole, and thrice in the odd-numbered rounds I had Alternative A vs. Alternative B, with approximately 3-4 players fitting in each group, thinking that if I went one way, I'd get one of those 3-to-4 on the way back in the even-numbered round, only to get those subsets wiped out.

But that's what I've come to expect with this crowd - it's not that they're in lockstep with my way of thinking, but rather that they rarely miss out on anything. Good tight draft - I suspect there will be more of the same in the Main.

[BK METS]

Challenging draft tonight vs Derek VanRiper. No crazy draft choices or strategies... Derek definitely has a good team. I won't go into his team.... I am sure he will blog it on Rotowire...

As far as my team, I like it.. low on BA as usual for my teams.. but strong otherwise, IMO. Banking on a big bounce back for the M & M boys... A LOT of pitching left in FAAB

Here is my team:

12 Team draft from the 1st draft spot

C- Avila, Mauer, Olivo
1B - Freeman, Morneau, Moreland
2B - R Roberts, A Hill
3B - D Wright, Valencia
SS - A Cabrera
OF - Kemp, Jennings, Stubbs, Werth, Bay, Alonso, Torres
SP - Kershaw, Romero, A Sanchez, Marcum, E Santana, Masterson, Bedard, C Carpenter
RP - Santos, Bentacourt, Guerra, Cashner

[Outlaw]

[quote="BK METS"]Challenging draft tonight vs Derek VanRiper. No crazy draft choices or strategies... Derek definitely has a good team. I won't go into his team.... I am sure he will blog it on Rotowire...

As far as my team, I like it.. low on BA as usual for my teams.. but strong otherwise, IMO. Banking on a big bounce back for the M & M boys... A LOT of pitching left in FAAB



I Agree there is a lot of pitching still left. I messed up my pitching tonight, Especially missing round 21 and getting Samardzija becaue i was away from computer... but he did throw 6 good innings tonight... so we'll See. Was fun draft and interesting see how DVR picked.

Here is my team:

12 Team draft from the 3rd draft spot


Cabrera, Miguel 1B DET
Hosmer, Eric 1B KC
Lawrie, Brett 3B TOR
Zobrist, Ben 2B TB
Wieters, Matt C BAL
Montero, Miguel C ARI
Bonifacio, Emilio SS MIA
Hardy, J.J. SS BAL
Cabrera, Melky LF SF
Ackley, Dustin 2B SEA
Crisp, Coco CF OAK
Prado, Martin LF ATL
Duda, Lucas LF NYM
Tabata, Jose LF PIT
Aviles, Mike 3B BOS
Lucroy, Jonathan C MIL
Davis, Chris 1B BAL
Quentin, Carlos LF SD
Jay, Jon LF STL


Bumgarner, Madison SP SF
Rivera, Mariano RP NYY
Valverde, Jose RP DET
Holland, Derek SP TEX
Worley, Vance SP PHI
Johnson, Jim RP BAL
Samardzija, Jeff RP CHC
Buchholz, Clay SP BOS
Harrison, Matt SP TEX
Nova, Ivan SP NYY
Zambrano, Carlos SP MIA

[mlbbug]

I was also in the Derek Van Riper league draft tonight. A lot of guys that I was able to get in later rounds in the First Weekend Main Event were gone before they got to me. Sometimes by just a few picks,other times by more than a round or two. I never would have expected that in a shallower 12 team draft vs. a 15 team Main Event draft. Anyway,here's the team:

Drafting from the #8 slot ( had the slot in front of DVR who was #9)

C Doumit(19)
C Iannetta(25)
1B Cuddyer (7)
2B Kinsler (2)
SS Desmond(17)
3B Young (6)
CI C.Lee(14)
MI Casilla(26)
OF Cargo(1)
OF Holliday(3)
OF Victorino(5)
OF Bourjos(13)
OF Francoeur(15)
UT Mayberry (21)

SP Greinke (4)
SP C.J.Wilson (8)
SP Garza (10)
SP J. Garcia (16)
SP Danks (18)
SP Lilly (20)
RP Axford (9)
RP Storen (11)
RP Farnsworth(12)

Bench Presley(22);V.Wells(23); T.Hudson(24);Loney (27); Reimold(28); J. McDonald/SP (29); Volstad (30)

Not enough depth at MI so will address that in FAAB. 3 OF on the bench is more than I would usually carry but couldn't pass up Presley,V.Wells and Reimold.

FWIW.....Rotolab rates this team pretty high. Tops in Runs,BA,Saves, ERA: 2nd in SB and WHIP and tied for 2nd in W's.Frankly I was suprpised to see it that high. But projections are barely 70% correct so we'll see how this team plays out.

[JRubenstein]

Here is another team (from the 6 hole). I, too, found that many players went in earlier rounds than in my 15 team leagues. My gut tells me this is just an OK team that does depend on some bounce-back years, with weaknesses in SB, Wins. (I think I covered the batting average hit from Reynolds /Dunn / Tex fairly well.)

C--R. Hernandez, Y. Molina
1B--Teixeira, Dunn
2B--Phillips, Raburn
SS--Tulowitzki, Scutaro
3B--Reynolds, Alvarez, Figgins
OF--Bourn, Hamilton, Kubel, Rasmus, D. Young, Morgan, Byrd
SP--Cain, Floyd, F. Hernandez, Luebke, Niemann, Zimmerman, Hochevar, Porcello
RP--Bailey, Hanrahan, Thornton, Salas

Thoughts?

[mlbbug]

I think that Alvarez and Rasmus are bigger BA liabilites than Tex.His low BA last year was due to a ridiculously low hit rate(24%). MLB average is around 30% so he should bounce back into the 270-ish BA range just on regression to the mean alone.Could be a make or break year for Rasmus up north but he needs to exhibit some patience. He became a total hacker after the trade from St. Louis. He's got loads of talent and has shown it at the MLB level.Hopefully getting out of LaRussa's shadow will let him realize that potential.Dunn could be a real steal this year. His most important stat this spring(last time that I checked) was 9 BB/1K and a HR off a LHP(even if it was only Bruce Chen). If he cuts down on K's and can even show some slight ability to hit LHP then you've got a great bargain.
Good luck to you.

Rich McCormick
Astoria,NY.

[jrt3177]

NFBC rookie, jumped right in with the big boys.

Here's my team from last nights draft (10 spot). Draft was definitely challenging. I had to reach a couple times for guys I would normally have drafted 8-12 spots later as I knew they wouldn't be availabe on the way back. I think my Hitting is pretty balanced (outside of my geriatric 3B) could maybe use some more HR's and RBI's. My pitching at the top is solid, but I missed out on a lot of high K guys later on and definitely lack in that area, along with possibly W's. Will definitely be spending some of those FAAB $'s trying to iron out my staff. Here's my roster:

C- C. Santana, C. Ruiz
1B - L. Berkman, A. Lind, A. Rizzo
2B - J. Weeks, J. Altuve
SS - H. Ramirez, E. Aybar
3B - ARod, Chipper
OF - J. Upton, A. Jones, C. Maybin, N. Markakis, M. Joyce, A. Soriano
SP - C. Lee, Y. Gallardo, C. Lewis, J. Hellickson, J. Santana, N. Feliz, R. Nolasco, M. Leake, J. Jurrjens, J. Collmenter
RP - J. Putz, F. Francisco, C. Perez

Let me know what you think. Feedback is most welcome.

[Money]

I put on a clinic on how not to draft a team in this league last night. First off I was called out of town at the last minute and my flight was landing as this draft started. I had enough players in the q to get me through 4 rounds, I got to my computer in the 7th, although I did recieve 6 players from my q. I would have done things very differant upfront. Here goes, I salvaged the best I could but couldn't catch up on the paperwork until it was to late. Here's how it went from the 11 hole.

1.Ellsbury
2.Granderson
3.Pence (three OF, really?)
4.Uggla
5.Weaver
6.A. Ramirez
7.Morse
8.I. Kennedy
9.Bell
10.A. Ramirez (the other one)
11.G. Gonzalez
12.D. Hudson
13.Hanson
14.Goldschmidt
15.Peralta
16.Howard
17.Freese
18.Fister
19.Soto
20.Suzuki
21.Chacin
22.Revere
23.Baker
24Lowrie
25.Peavy

Only one closer and half this team will start on the DL, other than that it's a perfect team. I'm embarrassed to even post it. Hopefully I'm better prepared in Vegas!!

[JRubenstein]

Thanks Rich. Good luck to you too. Alvarez probably never sees my lineup unless he reverses this spring's performance. For the record, Young, Wilson, Garza, Danks, Volstad were all top of my Q two picks away when you took them.

[Outlaw]

I put on a clinic on how not to draft a team in this league last night. First off I was called out of town at the last minute and my flight was landing as this draft started. I had enough players in the q to get me through 4 rounds, I got to my computer in the 7th, although I did recieve 6 players from my q. I would have done things very differant upfront. Here goes, I salvaged the best I could but couldn't catch up on the paperwork until it was to late. Here's how it went from the 11 hole.

1.Ellsbury
2.Granderson
3.Pence (three OF, really?)
4.Uggla
5.Weaver
6.A. Ramirez
7.Morse
8.I. Kennedy
9.Bell
10.A. Ramirez (the other one)
11.G. Gonzalez
12.D. Hudson
13.Hanson
14.Goldschmidt
15.Peralta
16.Howard
17.Freese
18.Fister
19.Soto
20.Suzuki
21.Chacin
22.Revere
23.Baker
24Lowrie
25.Peavy

Only one closer and half this team will start on the DL, other than that it's a perfect team. I'm embarrassed to even post it. Hopefully I'm better prepared in Vegas!!

Its Definatley fixable and you will be able to do it. Get the healthy guys going and you will be fine. I actually asked Tom to call you, which he did, because i noticed you were missing. I almost asked for Tom to stop the draft and check your status, but, I was sure most wouldve not agreed. I think that is one thing they (Greg/Tom) should look at when all players are not there. An option to hold or delay, for just the type of circumstance that happened to you. I for one would never have a problem with that, as i think its is the spirit of fair competition.

Good luck... Are you going to Vegas?

Mike

[Money]

I put on a clinic on how not to draft a team in this league last night. First off I was called out of town at the last minute and my flight was landing as this draft started. I had enough players in the q to get me through 4 rounds, I got to my computer in the 7th, although I did recieve 6 players from my q. I would have done things very differant upfront. Here goes, I salvaged the best I could but couldn't catch up on the paperwork until it was to late. Here's how it went from the 11 hole.

1.Ellsbury
2.Granderson
3.Pence (three OF, really?)
4.Uggla
5.Weaver
6.A. Ramirez
7.Morse
8.I. Kennedy
9.Bell
10.A. Ramirez (the other one)
11.G. Gonzalez
12.D. Hudson
13.Hanson
14.Goldschmidt
15.Peralta
16.Howard
17.Freese
18.Fister
19.Soto
20.Suzuki
21.Chacin
22.Revere
23.Baker
24Lowrie
25.Peavy

Only one closer and half this team will start on the DL, other than that it's a perfect team. I'm embarrassed to even post it. Hopefully I'm better prepared in Vegas!!

Its Definatley fixable and you will be able to do it. Get the healthy guys going and you will be fine. I actually asked Tom to call you, which he did, because i noticed you were missing. I almost asked for Tom to stop the draft and check your status, but, I was sure most wouldve not agreed. I think that is one thing they (Greg/Tom) should look at when all players are not there. An option to hold or delay, for just the type of circumstance that happened to you. I for one would never have a problem with that, as i think its is the spirit of fair competition.

Good luck... Are you going to Vegas?

Mike

Thanks Mike. I agree it can be fixed and I am going to Vegas. I'm do the NFBC XII on Friday. Thanks for the thought on holding the draft, although I wouldn't be comfortable asking them to do that. I hope to see you in Vegas this weekend.

[Outlaw]

Joe- I'm in the 4pm nfbc 12 tommorrow. Hope to see you there.

Mike

[Greg Ambrosius]

Read all about Jeff's draft here on his blog:

http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/2 ... sybaseball#

[mlbbug]

This is for Jrubinstein. Don't blame me for taking your picks. All the blame and/or credit goes to my Rotolab draft software. I don't follow it blindly but it is very helpful providing various data points that make it easier to make last minute draft decisions!

Rich McCormick
Astoria,NY

[mlbbug]

Apologies to Jrubenstein for spelling his username incorrectly.
Rich McCormick

[Motorboat Jones]

Did I miss Derek's blog about this draft ? Love to see his take on things...