Last night our league (Southern Baseball Association) had our annual draft. This is an 8-team NL-only league. It is rotisserie with scoring based on: R, HR, RBI, SB, AVG, OBP, W, SV, K, HLD, ERA, WHIP. Each team must have one (1) player for each defensive position (C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, LF, CF, RF) and one "utility" player. The pitching staffs must consist of five (5) SP, five (5) RP, and one (1) P (either a SP or RP). The pitching stats are limited to 1450.0 IP, if your staff goes over that number, the scoring stops. I got burned last year because the "innings limit" was 1200.0 IP, and I had too many starters on my team, which led to a horrible 7th-out-of-8th place finish for the Cuban Sugar Kings.

 

This season, the 2007 CUBAN SUGAR KINGS have been reincarnated as the 2008 FLAXSEED OILERS and my draft strategy was simple: do not repeat the same mistakes as last season (i.e., such as being the last team to realize that I hadn't drafted a CP and having to settle for Jorge Julio and realizing that I forgot to take into account SB so my only source of "speed" was Wily Tavares-- OUCH!)

 

So, with the third (3rd) pick in the draft, the FLAXSEED OILERS set out to bring the crown to South Florida (I'm the only owner in South Florida, the others are spread out over the Southeast - Jacksonville, Atlanta, and Tampa Bay). So crack open that tube of "clear gel balm" and apply it liberally to your biceps, triceps, and quads because the season is about to begin!

 

Below is my line-up with the round and pick (Round#, Pick#) they were selected with in parenthesis:

 

FLAXSEED OILERS

 

C - Bengie Molina (13, 99)

1B - Conor Jackson (12, 94)

2B - Rickie Weeks (8, 62)

SS - Troy Tulowitski (3, 19)

3B - David Wright (1, 3)

LF - Carlos Lee (2, 14)

CF - Michael Bourn (15, 115)

RF - Matt Kemp (6, 67)

UT - Yunel Escobar (17, 131)

 

BN - Mike Jacobs (20, 158)

BN - Christian Guzman (22, 164)

BN - Juan Pierre (6, 46)

BN - Skip Schumaker (23, 179)

BN - Jose Bautista (25, 195)

 

SP - Aaron Harang (4, 30)

SP - Roy Oswalt (5, 35)

SP - Tim Hudson (10, 78)

SP - Derek Lowe (14, 110)

SP - Scott Olsen (18, 142)

RP - Jose Valverde (7, 51)

RP - Matt Capps (11, 83)

RP - Brandon Lyon (16, 126)

RP - Justin Miller (19, 147)

RP - Juan Cruz (21, 163)

P - Jair Jurrjens (24, 190)

 

The first overall pick of the draft was a surprise! The Starving Frogs selected Matt Holliday with their first pick, prompting cries of amazement and one note simply stating, "Someone send a txt.msg to Matt telling him he actually went first overall in a fantasy draft!"

 

Florida Marlins (for those that are curious) in the Southern Baseball Association Entry Draft:

 

SS Hanley Ramirez, Nerd Buckets (5th pick overall); 2B Dan Uggla, The Dickfers (55th pick overall); LF Josh Willingham, Nerd Buckets (85th pick overall); RP Kevin Gregg, Nerd Buckets (92nd pick overall); SP Andrew Miller, The Dickfers (119th pick overall); RF Jeremy Hermida, Dangling Modifiers (141st pick overall); RP Henry Owens, Jacksonville Cats (155th pick overall); and RP Matt Lindstrom, Dangling Modifiers (173rd pick overall).

NL only.. thats not fun

NL only.. thats not fun

 

Oh, it's wicked fun! I've been doing rotisserie/fantasy baseball for a long time now and I've always done NL-only leagues. My first league was in 1989 - my first round pick that season was Von Hayes and I acquired Mark Langston in mid-season as a free agent when he became NL-eligible (that would have been the famous Randy Johnson trade!); my 1989 team also had a flamethrowing reliever that had as many Ks as my starters: a young Rob Dibble!

 

With only 8 teams in the league, you want to keep the pool of players limited. Plus, it opens the door for creativity since middle relievers come into play with "holds" as a category. Where else but in an NL-only league can Heath Bell be such a hot commodity? I had him last year and people were offering me the world for him. As a matter of fact, our 1990 league (same guys as in 1989) was capped even more. We only had 6 owners back then, so we limited the pool of eligible players to the NL-only, and then made players from our favorite teams ineligible meaning that players from the Cubs, Mets, Braves, Dodgers, Giants, and Phillies were ineligible. That was fun!

 

Secondly, I don't follow the AL at all, so I don't feel comfortable drafting players I have no idea about. Since 1989, I've only played in one league that was AL-NL, and that team (1994) came in 9th out of 10 teams! That team, however, would have been a monster in a keeper league because we had some amazing young talent (Javi Lopez, Aaron Sele, Jason Bere, Brian Anderson, Roberto Hernandez) sprinkled with some veterans (Ben MacDonald and Matt Williams).

Pretty good team, I would try to get another bat for one of your starting pitchers. Roy Oswalt maybe?