I've Got The 4th Pick; Who Should I Take?

[Greg Ambrosius]

Okay, this was the best I could do from the 4th spot in a 15-team draft. We filled all 23 starting spots and then stopped the mock draft there. It was a LOT of fun and very interesting.

I started with Matt Kemp in the 1st, then Josh Hamilton fell to me at 27 and then I took Ryan Zimmerman at 34. I could have taken Jason Heyward there, but I didn't want to start out with 3 OFs. I also liked David Price there, but got Matt Cain in the 4th and Zach Greinke in the 6th. My BA is going to be bad, but I like my pitching staff and my counting offensive stats. Take a look:

Greg Ambrosius
Player Team Acquired
1B Freddie Freeman ATL R7 P4
2B Chase Utley PHI R8 P12
2B Gordon Beckham CHW R19 P4
3B Ryan Zimmerman WAS R3 P4
3B David Freese STL R11 P4
SS Marco Scutaro SF R13 P4
C Alex Avila DET R15 P4
C J.P. Arencibia TOR R20 P12
OF Matt Kemp LA R1 P4
OF Josh Hamilton FA R2 P12
OF B.J. Upton ATL R5 P4
OF Ben Revere MIN R10 P12
OF Michael Saunders SEA R17 P4
OF Delmon Young FA R23 P4
SP Matt Cain SF R4 P12
SP Zack Greinke FA R6 P12
SP Chris Carpenter STL R16 P12
SP Tim Hudson ATL R18 P12
SP Shelby Miller STL R21 P4
SP Tevor Bauer ARI R22 P12
RP Kris Medlen ATL R9 P4
RP Jim Johnson BAL R12 P12
RP J.J. Putz ARI R14 P12

[Greg Ambrosius]

Here's the first six rounds from the Mastersball.com Industry Draft. Buy the magazine for the full results:

R1 P1 Nick Minnix Braun, Ryan OF MIL 11m 53s
R1 P2 Brian Walton Cabrera, Miguel 3B DET 16s
R1 P3 Rick Wolf Trout, Mike OF ANA 8s
R1 P4 Greg Ambrosius Kemp, Matt OF LA 6s
R1 P5 Todd Zola Cano, Robinson 2B NYY 9s
R1 P6 Lawr Michaels McCutchen, Andrew OF PIT 48s
R1 P7 Tim McLeod Gonzalez, Carlos OF COL 11s
R1 P8 Doug Anderson Votto, Joey 1B CIN 16s
R1 P9 Scott Pianowski Kershaw, Clayton SP LA 30s
R1 P10 Doug Dennis Pujols, Albert 1B ANA 4s
R1 P11 Gene Mccaffrey Fielder, Prince 1B DET 11s
R1 P12 Steve Moyer Stanton, Mike OF MIA
31s
R1 P13 Jeff Erickson Beltre, Adrian 3B TEX 7m 10s
R1 P14 Peter Kreutzer Tulowitzki, Troy SS COL 14s
R1 P15 Zach Steinhorn Upton, Justin OF ARI 24s

R2 P1 Zach Steinhorn Ramirez, Hanley SS LA 59s
R2 P2 Peter Kreutzer Longoria, Evan 3B TB 30s
R2 P3 Jeff Erickson Kinsler, Ian 2B TEX 25s
R2 P4 Steve Moyer Zobrist, Ben 2B TB 33s
R2 P5 Gene Mccaffrey Granderson, Curtis OF NYY 7s
R2 P6 Doug Dennis Posey, Buster C SF 10s
R2 P7 Scott Pianowski Ellsbury, Jacoby OF BOS 5s
R2 P8 Doug Anderson Verlander, Justin SP DET 9s
R2 P9 Tim McLeod Bruce, Jay OF CIN 41s
R2 P10 Lawr Michaels Bautista, Jose 3B TOR 11s
R2 P11 Todd Zola Reyes, Jose SS TOR 30s
R2 P12 Greg Ambrosius Hamilton, Josh OF FA 27s
R2 P13 Rick Wolf Wright, David 3B NYM 8s
R2 P14 Brian Walton Pedroia, Dustin 2B BOS 26s
R2 P15 Nick Minnix Holliday, Matt OF STL 43s

R3 P1 Nick Minnix Castro, Starlin SS CHC 6s
R3 P2 Brian Walton Strasburg, Stephen SP WAS 40s
R3 P3 Rick Wolf Desmond, Ian SS WAS 8s
R3 P4 Greg Ambrosius Zimmerman, Ryan 3B WAS 58s
R3 P5 Todd Zola Headley, Chase 3B SD 12s
R3 P6 Lawr Michaels Phillips, Brandon 2B CIN 23s
R3 P7 Tim McLeod Heyward, Jason OF ATL 36s
R3 P8 Doug Anderson Gonzalez, Adrian 1B LA 14s
R3 P9 Scott Pianowski Encarnacion, Edwin 3B TOR 27s
R3 P10 Doug Dennis Hill, Aaron 2B ARI 5s
R3 P11 Gene Mccaffrey Sandoval, Pablo 3B SF 7s
R3 P12 Steve Moyer Napoli, Mike C BOS 25s
R3 P13 Jeff Erickson Harper, Bryce OF WAS 3s
R3 P14 Peter Kreutzer Andrus, Elvis SS TEX 26s
R3 P15 Zach Steinhorn Jones, Adam OF BAL 59s

R4 P1 Zach Steinhorn Lawrie, Brett 3B TOR 30s
R4 P2 Peter Kreutzer Mauer, Joe C MIN 31s
R4 P3 Jeff Erickson Goldschmidt, Paul 1B ARI 20s
R4 P4 Steve Moyer Santana, Carlos C CLE 31s
R4 P5 Gene Mccaffrey Price, David SP TB 8s
R4 P6 Doug Dennis Rollins, Jimmy SS PHI 6s
R4 P7 Scott Pianowski Craig, Allen OF STL 6s
R4 P8 Doug Anderson Hamels, Cole SP PHI 49s
R4 P9 Tim McLeod Hernandez, Felix SP SEA 14s
R4 P10 Lawr Michaels Wieters, Matt C BAL 21s
R4 P11 Todd Zola Butler, Billy DH KC 57s
R4 P12 Greg Ambrosius Cain, Matt SP SF 10s
R4 P13 Rick Wolf Lee, Cliff SP PHI 1m 21s
R4 P14 Brian Walton Kipnis, Jason 2B CLE 21s
R4 P15 Nick Minnix Molina, Yadier C STL 9s

R5 P1 Nick Minnix Ramirez, Aramis 3B MIL 5s
R5 P2 Brian Walton Martinez, Victor C DET 33s
R5 P3 Rick Wolf LaRoche, Adam 1B FA 56s
R5 P4 Greg Ambrosius Upton, B.J. OF ATL 22s
R5 P5 Todd Zola Cespedes, Yoenis OF OAK 4s
R5 P6 Lawr Michaels Sabathia, CC SP NYY 26s
R5 P7 Tim McLeod Kimbrel, Craig RP ATL 7s
R5 P8 Doug Anderson Cabrera, Asdrubal SS CLE 25s
R5 P9 Scott Pianowski Jackson, Austin OF DET 18s
R5 P10 Doug Dennis Choo, Shin-Soo OF CLE 4s
R5 P11 Gene Mccaffrey Weaver, Jered SP ANA 9s
R5 P12 Steve Moyer Jeter, Derek SS NYY 33s
R5 P13 Jeff Erickson Bourn, Michael OF FA 19s
R5 P14 Peter Kreutzer Dickey, R.A. SP NYM 13s
R5 P15 Zach Steinhorn Jennings, Desmond OF TB 23s

R6 P1 Zach Steinhorn Teixeira, Mark 1B NYY 10s
R6 P2 Peter Kreutzer Gordon, Alex OF KC 35s
R6 P3 Jeff Erickson Sale, Chris SP CHW 18s
R6 P4 Steve Moyer Cabrera, Melky OF TOR 22s
R6 P5 Gene Mccaffrey Beltran, Carlos OF STL 13s
R6 P6 Doug Dennis Pence, Hunter OF SF 8s
R6 P7 Scott Pianowski Weeks, Rickie 2B MIL 28s
R6 P8 Doug Anderson Crawford, Carl OF LA 16s
R6 P9 Tim McLeod Darvish, Yu SP TEX 5s
R6 P10 Lawr Michaels Moore, Matt SP TB 11s
R6 P11 Todd Zola Gonzalez, Gio SP WAS 18s
R6 P12 Greg Ambrosius Greinke, Zack SP FA 50s
R6 P13 Rick Wolf Trumbo, Mark 1B ANA 18s
R6 P14 Brian Walton Hart, Corey OF MIL 26s
R6 P15 Nick Minnix Uggla, Dan 2B ATL 1m 12s

[Edwards Kings]

I like your team Greg, especially if Miller and Bauer produce with 25+ starts. Nice balance. You even got my boy Beckham!

The first six rounds were kind of interesting. Pretty much in line with the six rounds from the other drafts you posted, except no love for Bumgarner, who went late 4th round in the other three drafts, but was not in the first six rounds here. Also, where Napoli settled must have sparked some interest as he went in late in the 6th round in two of the previously reported drafts and went late 3rd here.

Zobrist 19th?

[Greg Ambrosius]

A few things to note about this Industry Draft and my team:

** We drafted on MockDraftCentral.com, which was fine. But admittedly, the MDC.com player default list wasn't up to speed and you really had to spend some time searching for players because they were buried within the position listings. With owners drafting pretty fast, it wasn't uncommon to miss a player you wanted. That being said, I think it also helped in some cases as I found guys buried so low that I felt I could wait and still get them. Shelby Miller and Trevor Bauer were two examples of that.

** Since we filled our starting 23-man roster, catchers went earlier than they are going in Draft Champions Leagues now. I should have anticipated that, but I was really surprised how much earlier they went than expected. I waited too long for my first C and my batting average will suffer as a result.

** As for my team, I was surprised that Josh Hamilton fell to 27th overall when he was going in the first round of all NFBC drafts. I was going to target a SP in the third round (David Price or Felix Hernandez), but I thought this group might hold back on SPs. Yup, that's what happened. I got Matt Cain in the 4th round and Zack Greinke in the 6th. I had Kris Medlen targeted for the sixth round, waited on him and got him in the 9th round. He's been going in the 6th round in NFBC drafts.

I wanted to stay young and grabbed Miller and Bauer later, but added two veteran SPs in Chris Carpenter and Tim Hudson. Injury risks, I know, but they should help in ERA, WHIP and Wins. I wasn't sure about B.J. Upton as again his BA could really hurt me, but the power and speed combination was too good to ignore. I grabbed Ben Revere as well to get me closer to my SB goal. My power numbers and Runs were on target, but again the BA looks poor.

All good fun in December. We'll see if the bargains I thought I got were really bargains or not!!

[Greg Ambrosius]

Bob Nightengale wrote a very good story in USA Today yesterday about one of my pitchers from this draft: Trevor Bauer. Here is is online:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ml ... o/1765351/

For one thing, I didn't realize his fastball went down that swiftly. Losing 4-5 mph off your fastball is nothing to sneeze at. I also didn't realize he was such a prima donna. His attitude last year is hard to believe. I knew about his long tosses and workout intensity and was never worried, but it certainly makes you wonder why he would do all of that before his first start.

Let's hope that the Indians can ground this young star and pull back the reigns a bit on his workouts. There's a lot of talent here and a future ace if he can get his head screwed on straight.