First Yahoo Draft

I mentioned a while back that I'd be drafting a team last night. This is the league where I'm up against some pro and aspiring poker players. It's not quite standard Yahoo rules. Some of the modifications are that the roster configuration includes an extra first baseman, batting average has been replaced by on base percentage, and there's a 900 minimimum for innings pitched.

My basic strategy was to go for hitting early, unless any pitchers I liked dropped a lot further than expected. Usually when I use this strategy, I still end up picking two or three pitchers in the first ten rounds. Not yesterday. There was a pretty wide range of experience levels among the players in the league, and pitching was generally going a lot earlier than usual. I have a very, very, very offense heavy team. That may seem like a problem, but I'm generally able to compensate for weak pitching in Yahoo's format by rotating middle relievers with favorable matchups into the lineup slots of any starting pitchers who aren't pitching each day.

Throughout the season, I'll be providing some updates on how this team is doing. Here are my draft results from yesterday:

1. (12) Mark Teixeira
2. (13) Ian Kinsler
3. (36) Nick Markakis
4. (37) Manny Ramírez
5. (60) Brian Roberts
6. (61) Nate McLouth
7. (84) Chris Davis
8. (85) Nelson Cruz
9. (108) Mike Napoli
10. (109) Jason Giambi
11. (132) Ryan Dempster
12. (133) Chad Qualls
13. (156) Brian Wilson
14. (157) Heath Bell
15. (180) Kevin Slowey
16. (181) Brett Myers
17. (204) Pablo Sandoval
18. (205) Yunel Escobar
19. (228) Randy Winn
20. (229) Clayton Kershaw
21. (252) Kendry Morales
22. (253) Chris Dickerson
23. (276) Josh Willingham
24. (277) Hiroki Kuroda
25. (300) Rafael Pérez
26. (301) Phil Hughes
27. (324) Paul Maholm
28. (325) Ubaldo Jiménez