{"id":6017,"date":"2012-02-25T00:50:52","date_gmt":"2012-02-25T06:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/?p=6017"},"modified":"2012-02-26T22:18:45","modified_gmt":"2012-02-27T04:18:45","slug":"liveblogging-my-1st-mock-draft-of-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/archives\/6017","title":{"rendered":"Liveblogging My 1st Mock Draft of 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

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All fantasy baseball players begin jonesing for a fix after the New Year kicks off.\u00a0 I cannot be excluded from this group.\u00a0I always try to wait and indulge in my first mock draft once all the big names and major moves off the off-season have finished panning out.\u00a0 With the announcement of Ryan Braun<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s victorious appeal coming yesterday, Friday night seems like the perfect time to kick things off. I thought this year it might be fun to live blog my first draft of the 2012 mock draft season.\u00a0 The Denslow Cup, my only fantasy baseball league, is a 12 team, 7×7 roto league that includes OBP and K\/BB.<\/p>\n

RD 1 (3) I took Jose Bautista<\/a><\/strong> here.\u00a0 Pujols and Cabrera were first off the board, so you may wonder why not take Tulo here.\u00a0 Well, I am 99% sure that in my league, the Denslow Cup, Tulo is going to be the 2nd<\/sup> overall pick.\u00a0 I have the 3rd<\/sup> pick so I am pretty sure this will be my first pick in my real draft this spring.\u00a0 Not like there is anything to complain about here either.<\/p>\n

RD 2 (22) Here I took Mike Stanton<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 I was hoping to have a shot at a middle of the infield guy such as HanRam, Reyes, Kinsler, or Pedroia\u2026but that didn\u2019t work out.\u00a0 So, I went with a big ass bopper.\u00a0 New stadium with a new shiny home run thingy<\/a>.\u00a0 Great guys in front of him.\u00a0 HUGE power.\u00a0 No reason to believe in a sophomore slump.\u00a0 I am happy with this pick.<\/p>\n

RD 3 (27) I decided on my main man, Tim Lincecum<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 Last year I took him in round 2.\u00a0 That was also the 1st<\/sup> year I ever drafted a starter before round 6.\u00a0 I like having an ace.\u00a0 As a pitching coach I love Lincecum\u2019s mechanics and what it does for him in terms of IP and K\u2019s.\u00a0 I see his increased walk rate as no big deal, and returning closer to what it was his first 2 years in the league.\u00a0 Now I can focus on hitting for a while.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

RD 4 (46) Brandon Phillips<\/a><\/strong> here.\u00a0 I was really hoping for Ben Zobrist<\/a><\/strong> as he is a guy I plant my flag in every season.\u00a0 He went 3 picks before me so I felt that getting @DatDudeBP<\/a> was what I needed to at least have something up the middle.\u00a0 After him I just feel like the dropoff is either not enough for what I want, or too risky (Utley).\u00a0 Not like Brandon Phillips is really going to hurt me.<\/p>\n

RD 5 (51)\u00a0 Starlin Castro<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 I am not totally happy with this pick.\u00a0 I felt like I went maybe a bit too early with picking an unproven SS.\u00a0 Just went to check up on his stats and feel much better.\u00a0 I love the tools Castro brings, and he will help me protect my average.\u00a0 I like this pick more now that I have written these sentences.<\/p>\n

RD 6 (70) Michael Morse<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 Won\u2019t lie, I did not plan on Drafting him as my 1B.\u00a0 But I watched this video on ESPN<\/a> and loved his swing.\u00a0 I really believe he will provide this year in much the same way he did last year.\u00a0 After missing out on other 1B guys, this is fine by me.<\/p>\n

RD 7 (75) Michael Young<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 Now I can move Morse to an OF spot and put Young at my 1B, or move him to 3B and Bautista to my OF.\u00a0 He will help protect my AVG and still be very productive across the board in the Texas lineup.<\/p>\n

RD8 (94) Jonathan Papelbon<\/a><\/strong>. Elite Closer\u2026check.\u00a0 I like his move to the NL, even if it is the NL East.\u00a0 Getting a 40 save closer is never a bad thing.<\/p>\n

RD 9 (99) Had to go with Brett Gardner<\/a><\/strong> here.\u00a0 Chose him over Hellickson because, now I can not worry too much about steals and runs.\u00a0 I can still build pitching later on.\u00a0 Sure you can get steals late in the draft but with a guy who can easily (that\u2019s right, easily) bring in 50 stolen bags, why not grab it when you can.\u00a0 As I typed that last sentence the fire alarm went off in my apartment- not sure what kind of sign that is, but is has me thinking.<\/p>\n

RD 10 (118) Took Joel Hanrahan<\/a><\/strong> here.\u00a0 I like trying to have two 40 SV closers in my bullpen and add a 3rd<\/sup> closer later.\u00a0 Whats not too love about a guy who chucks it 100 MPH?<\/p>\n

RD 11 (123) Picked up Tommy Hanson<\/a><\/strong> and his 200 K\u2019s.\u00a0 With that I now have two SP that will rack up over 400 strikeouts this season.\u00a0 With two scoring categories including strikeouts in our league (K\u2019s and K\/BB) I really like this pick here, all health issues and worries aside.<\/p>\n

RD 12 (142)\u00a0 JJ Putz is a great 3rd<\/sup> closer for me.\u00a0 A guy with 35-40 saves potential is sweet.\u00a0 I now have a chance to grab a 4th<\/sup> closer, which can really help me out as far as dominating the saves category early and then swaping one of my top closers for another need I may have later.<\/p>\n

RD 13 (147) Nick Markakis<\/a><\/strong> is a truly undervalued fantasy player.\u00a0 Filling him as my 4th<\/sup> OF is no problem for me.<\/p>\n

RD 14 (166) Every year I really try hard to draft one player from my beloved Houston Astros.\u00a0 Not that there are many options this year, but that is a different story I would prefer not to reiterate.\u00a0 This year I decided to take a chance with Wandy Rodriguez<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 He actually wasn\u2019t my first choice from the Astros rotation- Bud Norris<\/a><\/strong> was- but as my 3rd<\/sup> starter I feel quite comfortable with getting him here.\u00a0 I actually believe he has a high chance of outperforming 14th<\/sup> round value.<\/p>\n

RD 15 (171) Colby Lewis<\/a><\/strong>\u2026I hate this pick.\u00a0 As soon as I made it I saw that Ryan Howard<\/a><\/strong> was still available.\u00a0 Not that I have anything against Lewis, I just didn\u2019t really need another SP yet.\u00a0 Oh well.\u00a0 I will attribute this one to the fact that dinner was served to me on the couch and I became quite distracted.<\/p>\n

RD 16 (190) Carlos Marmol<\/a><\/strong>\u2026is anyone else noticing a trend here?\u00a0 I was hoping to grab Josh Willingham<\/a><\/strong> and his OBP skills for my OBP league, but he was pried from my grasp two picks prior.\u00a0 No problem, just grab another closer.<\/p>\n

RD 17 (195) Bud Norris- F#@K YEA!!!\u00a0 Bud Norris is one of my sleepers this year.\u00a0 I have my own reasons for thinking that he might actually turn out to be one of the biggest SP surprises this season.\u00a0 He misses a lot of bats, pitches in the NL Central, and throws a heavy ball.\u00a0 He is young enough to handle an extended workload for a 3rd consecutive year.\u00a0 Did I mention I\u2019m an Astros fan?\u00a0 I love this pick!\u00a0 Great value here.<\/p>\n

RD 18 (214) Chris Perez<\/a><\/strong>\u2026another closer.\u00a0 Enough said.\u00a0 (But, seriously, what\u2019s my deal?)<\/p>\n

RD 19 (219) Mark Trumbo<\/a><\/strong>– This is mostly a \u201cWhy Not?\u201d pick.\u00a0 I have plenty of depth on the mound, in the pen, and pretty much everywhere.\u00a0 Dude can crush, and I like the upside this late in the draft.<\/p>\n

RD 20 (238) Yoenis Cespedes- He was one of the first guys I threw on my watch list when I entered the draft.\u00a0 I seriously considered waiting one more round to take him, but figured WTF?\u00a0 This late in the draft it is just fun to take a flier on a guy\u2026and no other guy in the draft has this kind of hype.\u00a0 Even if he flops, I can at least take off on the Yoenis-train from day one.\u00a0 Plus, if Billy likes him, I like him.<\/p>\n

RD 21 (243) Jose Altuve<\/a><\/strong>\u2026never did I imagine in my wildest dream drafting 3 Houston Astros on my team.\u00a0 At least Altuve will be able to hit .285 off my bench.\u00a0 2 birds, one stone kind of pick here.<\/p>\n

RD 22 (262) Alfonso Soriano<\/a><\/strong>\u2026blegh.\u00a0 25 homers off the bench, but not much else for me to like here.<\/p>\n

RD 23 (267) J.P. Arencibia<\/a><\/strong>– I normally pick my catcher with my last pick, but seriously, what\u2019s not to like about 25 homers from behind the dish?\u00a0 Sure, his average will do a team no good, but with my high average guys I took earlier, I don\u2019t have much worry there.<\/p>\n

RD 24 (286) Sergio Romo<\/a><\/strong>– Now this is a guy I love.\u00a0 Lots of K\u2019s and very few baserunners.\u00a0 He will also help out enormously with ratios.\u00a0 A great kind of RP to snag late and plug in on days when you don\u2019t have any starters going, or to replace that closer who threw back-to-back nights.<\/p>\n

RD 25 (291) Michael Brantley<\/a><\/strong>– Last pick of my draft, and a chance at a 20-20 season is worth\u2026why not?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All in all, my team looks as follows:<\/p>\n

C- J.P. Arencibia<\/p>\n

1B- Michael Morse<\/p>\n

2B- Brandon Phillips<\/p>\n

SS- Starlin Castro<\/p>\n

3B- Michael Young<\/p>\n

OF- Jose Bautista<\/p>\n

OF- Mike Stanton<\/p>\n

OF- Brett Gardner<\/p>\n

UTIL- Nick Markakis<\/p>\n

SP- Tim Lincecum, Tommy Hanson, Wandy Rodriguez, Colby Lewis, Bud Norris,<\/p>\n

RP- Jonathon Papelbon, Joel Hanrahan, J.J. Putz<\/a><\/strong>, Carlos Marmol, Chris Perez, Sergio Romo<\/p>\n

Bench- Mark Trumbo, Yoenis Cespedes, Jose Altuve, Alfonso Soriano, Michael Brantley<\/p>\n

I really dig this team at first glance.\u00a0 I will have to take the time to dig deeper and see how it projects and find mistakes that I most likely made.\u00a0 But, off the top, I can dig this team.\u00a0 What do you think?\u00a0 Leave your comments below.\u00a0 Follow me on twitter @sp_flips<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All fantasy baseball players begin jonesing for a fix after the New Year kicks off.\u00a0 I cannot be excluded from this group.\u00a0I always try to wait and indulge in my first mock draft once all the big names and major moves off the off-season have finished panning out.\u00a0 With the announcement of Ryan Braun\u2019s victorious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[76,1300,17,2152,6,13],"tags":[3202,3457,3201,3200],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6017"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6017"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6023,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6017\/revisions\/6023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}