Shallow Drafts: Waiting on Pitching
So a buddy of mine calls me the other day in need of a 10th team for his home league. Apparently someone dropped out at the last minute due to work obligations and he needed to find someone competitive to fill the slot. Shallow league, very basic. 10 teams, mixed, 5×5 roto, standard snake draft. Happily, I obliged and decided that this would be a great opportunity to see just how long I could wait on drafting a starting pitcher while still maintaining a competitive staff in the league.
Usually in shallow leagues, I’ll wait until atleast the fifth or sixth round before grabbing my first starter. It’s a standard practice by most, so I knew I would push that back by atleast a few rounds. Obviously I could have waited until my last nine picks given that it’s just 10 teams, but again, I wanted to make sure I still drafted a strong enough staff that wouldn’t require me to constantly waste my waiver priority while rummaging through the bargain bin of pitchers.
So here’s what happened…
Round 1
I had the 4th pick and went with Ryan Braun. No pitchers were taken in this round.
Round 2
Surprisingly, Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander and Roy Halladay all came off the board before my pick. I went with Hanley Ramirez and no pitchers were taken after me. (SP drafted: 3)
Round 3
Cliff Lee went with the first pick of the round. I opted to grab Mark Teixeira with my pick. Tim Lincecum, Jered Weaver and Felix Hernandez all went with the last three picks of the round. This league is pitcher crazy! (SP drafted: 7)
Round 4
The guy with the pick right before me took Dan Haren and I followed with a selection of Michael Bourn. A little too high for my taste, but ESPN has him so high up in the rankings and I figured it wouldn’t kill me to lock in some steals here. CC Sabathia went two picks later. (SP drafted: 9)
Round 5
The top third basemen went fairly quickly so I grabbed Brett Lawrie here with my pick. Two picks later Cole Hamels was off the board and Zack Grienke quickly followed. I was the only one without a pitching slot filled. (SP drafted: 11)
Round 6
So usually this is where I would normally grab a starter if I liked what was left on the board. Jon Lester went the pick just before mine and I landed Carlos Santana. Nice, right? In a one catcher league, no less. Matt Cain and David Price went with the next two picks. Meanwhile, I was loaded up at catcher, first base, third base, shortstop and had two of my five required outfield spots filled. (SP drafted: 14)
Round 7
James Shields and Yovani Gallardo came off the board while I grabbed Alex Rodriguez to cover my corner infield spot. I’m loving my offense and watching Stephen Strasburg and C.J. Wilson come off the board towards the end of the round. (SP drafted: 18)
Round 8
Saw some closers come off the board and then saw Matt Moore get scooped up. The guy right before me took Adam Jones (damn him!) so I settled on Shin-Soo Choo. Better than a poke in the eye, right? Still no starters and not a concern in the world as Madison Bumgarner came off the board next. (SP drafted: 20)
Round 9
When it came to my pick, I can’t say there was anyone that I really coveted. With 20 starters off the board, I thought about making my first pick here in the 9th. Instead, I noticed Matt Wieters still there, so I grabbed him instead and chucked him into the utility spot. Figured someone would want to trade for him, right? Ian Kennedy, Adam Wainwright and Ricky Romero were taken to close the round. (SP drafted: 23)
Round 10
Would this be the round? Daniel Hudson went a few picks before me and as I looked down the list of pitchers still available, I decided to grab Michael Cuddyer and his multi-position eligibility. Jeremy Hellickson went two picks later. (SP taken: 25)
Round 11
OK, so 25 starting pitchers are now gone in a 10-team league. I figured this was probably a good place to cut it off. Probably a round or two too early actually, but as I said before, I wanted to maintain a strong enough staff to compete and there weren’t any hitters out there that were blowing me away.
Positions covered — C, 1B, SS, 3B, CI, 4 OF and UT
I was looking at Dee Gordon and Danny Espinosa but figured I could grab them both later on based on what everyone else had filled and the way they were drafting.
I went with Mat Latos as my first pitcher drafted. A tough first half last year skewed his overall numbers but the guy was rock solid in the second half. His ERA will spike a little with the park change, but as a ground-ball pitcher, I’m confident it won’t kill him. He’s also having a nice spring which can’t hurt. Josh Beckett, Josh Johnson and Matt Garza all went after me, so I figured it was now time to build that support staff. (SP drafted: 29)
While everyone then spent the next several rounds trying to build up their offense, I rummaged through the remaining starters and made some choice picks. Joining Latos are Brandon Beachy, Cory Luebke, Gio Gonzalez, Brandon Morrow, Mike Minor, and Bud Norris. There’s definitely a lot of youth, but the upside, in my opinion, is fantastic. This staff should do more than just fine.
I may sit behind the guy who has Verlander, Haren, Lester, Beckett and Yu Darvish on one team, but there’s not another staff out there that looks incredibly dominant. At least not as dominant as my offense looks in comparison to the rest of the league. No question, the more shallow the league, the longer you can wait.
And as for my full roster…
| C | Carlos Santana |
| 1B | Mark Teixeira |
| 2B | Jason Kipnis |
| 3B | Brett Lawrie |
| SS | Hanley Ramirez |
| MI | Jemile Weeks |
| CI | Alex Rodriguez |
| LF | Ryan Braun |
| CF | Michael Bourn |
| RF | Shin-Soo Choo |
| OF | Michael Cuddyer |
| OF | Lorenzo Cain |
| UT | Matt Wieters |
| P | Mat Latos |
| P | Brandon Beachy |
| P | Gio Gonzalez |
| P | Cory Luebke |
| P | Brandon Morrow |
| P | Mike Minor |
| P | Bud Norris |
| P | Rafael Betancourt |
| P | Javy Guerra |
| BN | Paul Goldschmidt |
| BN | Bryan LaHair |
| BN | Kenley Jansen |
Howard Bender has been covering fantasy sports for over 10 years on a variety of websites. In addition to his work here, you can also find him at his site, RotobuzzGuy.com, Fantasy Alarm, RotoWire and Mock Draft Central. Follow him on Twitter at @rotobuzzguy or for more direct questions or comments, email him at rotobuzzguy@gmail.com
I think you have a good shot at winning that league with no transactions. That’s a truly sick offense.
Offense aside that is a good pitching staff for waiting that long…Latos, Beachy, Morrow, Minor…those are good enough pitchers before your even mention the upside.
I agree, I love that offense. Interesting that no one else noticed the same trend you saw and held back. What are you trying to get for Weiters? SP2 and put Goldschmidt at UT? I don’t think you’d lose a lot of production.
Pitching seems like the most likely option, but obviously I need to wait and see where my team lags….if at all.
love the waiting on pitching strategy you can wait fairly loing and still end up with a good staff as you did but also was curious about Weiters at UT I think Goldsmidth with his power he possesses think i like him better at UT but overal nice team man
Why would you rather have Adam Jones than Choo?
An unhealthy obsession according to most…
http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/index.php/you-want-adam-jones/
http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/index.php/howard-benders-10-bold-predictions-for-2012/
I avoid paying for pitchers as well. I am in a 11 team NL only auction league and spent a whopping $41 for pitchers last year. I won the league by finding saves via the wire and a trade. My rule is 80% of the budget on offense and 20% pitching. I also love throwing out the big name pitchers that I know others will blow money on early, which makes for easy pickings later in the auction.
I hope I don’t come across rude or crass but I don’t believe that you drafted that team as stated. How can you prove it to the readers.
Well, short of giving you all access to this league, how do you propose I prove it to you…?
More than happy to if you have a good suggestion.
In a Y! public autodraft league, it drafted me an eerily similar team.
I ended up with Suzuki as my only C and Sandoval, ARod & Wright at 3B. I ended up flipping ARod for Santana.
So in your opinion, what’s the latest you’d wait to draft your SP1 in a 12-team mixed? 25 pitchers as well?
In a 12-team league with competitive owners, I could see waiting until the 8th round for your first SP, depending on what the rest of the league is doing. If they are drafting starters heavy and early like they did here, then maybe even the 10th. The beautiful thing about it was that by waiting and building my offense, the other owners stopped looking for pitching altogether between rounds 12 and 16 and it was easy to pluck a number of those starters off the board.
In a 12-Team NL league last year (very competitive, been around 20 years) I drafted Wilson in the 4th and my first SP (Marcum) in the 8th…and led the league for most of the season until the last week when a dump trade allowed another owner to pass me. I was at the top in my ratios (my WHIP actually set a league record) since I ran out elite RPs like Romo, mid range in wins and saves, but low in Ks because I just had so many fewer innings than everyone else.
Should the situation present itself, I could go for a top-5 SP in the fourth or fifth round, then sit on the others until the mid-teens. Need to be able to react if your league takes the same hitter-centric approach as I do…
In a 12 team Head to Head points league, I waited until the 9th Round and took Brandon Beachy as my first SP. Ended up with Hanrahan, Marmol, Liriano, Jansen, Derek Holland, Niese, and Nicasio for a staff.
I have yet to draft a league this year where Kershaw, Halladay, Lincecum, King Felix, and Verlander weren’t all drafted before the end of the third. I’m not sure how those guys being picked where they always get picked makes the league pitching crazy. If anything it goes to show that ‘expert’ leagues and ‘expert’ expectations are so skewed from regular drafts as to make their application to regular leagues pointless.
Yes, expert leagues are definitely skewed. But this is just a basic home league. None of the other participants are in the business. What I’m trying to show here is that you can go into a regular home league, wait on pitching, and still come out with a killer team.
I see. Sorry for the assy tone. I guess i was responding more to the implication that the pitchers being taken were going surprisingly or unexpectedly early when they were just going where they always do.
Also, isn’t waiting on anything going to be easier the shallower the league is?
I am in an NL Only Keeper League
Wainwright -$6
Strasburg – $3
Hamels – $17
Grienke -$25
Daniel Hudson – $10
Axford – $15
My batting keepers are terrible……I lost Pujols and Howard….I dont know what to do now to improve my hitting…..I have Sandoval, J.D Martinez, Altuve, Heisey, Holliday. The draft is Sunday…….What should i focus on?
If that’s your pitching staff, then I wouldn’t spend more than $1 on any pitchers in your draft unless there’s a decent closer you can get for single digit dollars.
Hopefully there’s a first baseman out there with big power. Build up that infield as best you can, but your remaining budget should probably all go to offense. Without knowing who is available, it’s hard to say who you should focus on, but I’d be looking for atleast one speed guy and a whole lot of power.
Great experiement. A rookie owner in my ten team keeper league ended up with Kershaw, Lincecum, Hernandez, Greinke, Bumgarner, Darwish and a couple of top flight closers. His lineup is a mix of light power / mostly speed guys with a few upisde picks mixed in. I think that he’s going to find out in a hurry that this strategy is a recipe for disaster.
I’ve been surprised by the number of people in my leagues who take pitching so early in drafts. Just looking at their offenses, you can tell they’re really going to suffer the consequences. I (usually) don’t take a SP until at least the 8th round, and prefer going even longer if I can, especially if you don’t mind gambling on some injury-risk guys coming off of down years. In one league I took Matt Moore in the 9th, Josh Johnson in the 10th and Mat Latos in the 11th. Pretty nice staff if they hold up.
I pursued a similar strategy for an auction draft in a 12 team roto league with 3 keepers. I kept Ackley, Lawrie, & Zobrist, and STILL spent 80% of budget on offense – only $52 out of $264 went to Pitchers. I love my SPs, but I got burned a little when it comes to relievers. I only spent $1 on each reliever. I guess I can still get Saves & Holds off waivers, but a little worried now – should i have budgeted a little more? Final Team looks like this:
C – C.Santana
1B – Paul Goldschmidt (risky move,but I’m a believer)
2B – Brandon Phillips
3B – Evan Longoria
SS – Alexei Ramirez
MI – Dustin Ackley
CI – Brett Lawrie
5 OF – Ben Zobrist, Andrew McCutcheon, Jay Bruce, Brett Gardner, Chris Young
UTIL/Bench – DeAza, K. Suzuki, Z.Cozart, Sean Rodriguez; Normally I don’t take a second catcher, but Suzuki was there for $1, and he allows me to move Santana to 1B if Goldschmidt doesn’t work out…
SP – Ian Kennedy ($16), Brandon Morrow ($9), Anibal Sanchez ($8), Max Scherzer ($5), Jaime Garcia ($4 – I think that’s a steal!), Jonathan Niese ($3)
RP – Pestano, Salas, Crow, Fuentes, Bastardo, Peralta ($1 each)
Last year we had 4 teams spend $95+ on pitching, 4 teams spent between $60 & $95, and 2 spent less than $60 on pitching. Those two finished #1 (ahem) and #2. A lot of guys want to save $3 for each remaining roster spot, but to me, in a shallow league, there’s no difference between $3 (or $5) and $1 pitchers.
As an aside, our home league hosted an “expert” for a couple of years and he never finished better than 5th (he definitely knew more about MLB players, but underestimated how our tortured, eccentric rules (and customs) differ from standard leagues). There’s a famous experiment where political experts have been shown to be no more accurate in predictions than monkeys.
Re: Pops: so winning W, Ks, ERA and WHIP is a disaster? Spot that guy 45+ points for the five pitching categories. Maybe his hitters are really that bad but being league average in hitter cat’s means a 70-75 point team. If he actually does well in AVG, SB and R then he could win. Good management could lead to a top 3 finish for the guy. My only question is what is the IP limit. If he’s projected to be over then clearly he’s clueless.
If you are savvy with your hitter picks you can do a similar thing as the author describes above but pitcher heavy. It also depends on how good you are at cherry picking the breakout/emerging stars which is where I make up any lost ground on the hitting side.
To each his own way to win. Can’t say my way would work for anyone else.
In a head – to – head league its not the best strategy. We’ve had guys in the recent past try to load up on elite starters… each time falling short in critical offensive categories.
The problem is that pitchers are more injury-prone. That’s just the way it is. Throwing a baseball ~90mph is a difficult and unnatural thing for the human body to do. Swinging a bat is much more in line with our actual physical design.
Also, in my experience, it’s easier to pick up young, quality pitching as the season rolls on than it is young, solid hitting. This is likely because pitchers *do* suffer more injuries, so young pitchers are constantly being called up from the Minors to replace them.
I’m trying it in a 10 team mixed snake draft H2H league this year. My strategy was to load up on pitching and speed guys, and try to own the pitching stats and steals (and maybe runs, potentially). Risky? Yes, but I thought it’d be a nice exercise. I wound up with:
SP (8) – Kershaw, Felix, Price, Shields, Strasburg, Cain, Latos, Beachy
RP (4) – Hanrahan, Farnsworth, Marmol, Santos
My hitters are:
C – R. Martin
1B – P. Goldschmidt
2B – J. Kipnis
3B – C. Headley
SS – E. Aybar
MI – D. Espinosa
CI – K. Morales
OF (5) – J. Ellsbury, M. Bourn, B. Gardner, D. Jennings, P. Bourjos
UT – A. Jackson
I understsand injuries happen, but I feel if I stay reliably healthy, I’m virtually guaranteed to never lose steals and be a strong bet to win every pitching category every week, though saves could be dicey depending on the composition of my opponent’s bullpen and luck. Risky, yes. Anyone else have an opinion on how this may or may not work out for me? It’s basically an experiment that I’ve never tested before.
And I don’t mean to potentially “own” runs as is my intention with stolen bases, I just meant to potentially snag a win here and there throughout the season, as clearly steals were my primary motivation on offense.
Yeah, I use this strategy, too. It pisses people off something silly during the draft. I’m not sure who originated it (Rotographs authors have cited articles about the strategy before), but it is quite fun. You probably could use another reliever. Average is also a stat you’ll steal from time to time.
Nice. I looked around to see if there was anything written up on it or to find out if anyone would preemptively say “Hey, this shit doesn’t work,” but I didn’t find anything so I went with it. Though the logic in my head says it has to give you a puncher’s chance, so I’m definitely not surprised others smarter than I have used it before. That’s my critique too, Beasy Bee. My only fear is if I drop a starter for a reliever, a streamer would have a shot at the counting stats against me. Unless I could drop Russell Martin for a reliever, though I assume that wouldn’t be allowed.
Just a personal thing, but I like having 5 top closers. It cinches up saves better. Some other teams in the league might have 4 closers, but rarely 5. And those little edges are what this team is all about.
Espinosa and Goldschmidt (along with Martin) will probably hurt your average, but your team has much more power than I usually draft, so maybe you’re trying to steal some weeks there. Not a bad idea.
And yeah, I wouldn’t drop any of your starters for a reliever, especially since it would probably be a crappy one. Pay attention to the waiver wire, always a good pickup or two a year there. And good luck…
I think it’s a losing strategy to punt two categories (HR/RBI). And really, you’re sort of punting BA as well. Who do you have that hits .300? Ellsbury and that’s about it. So before each week starts, you’ll pretty much always be starting out down 3-0. I don’t see that as a winning recipe.
I think, at best, you’ll be in the middle of the pack by the end of the season. However, it is an interesting experiment (and I’m glad you’re doing it with *your* team!) and I hope you share the results when the season’s over.
You’re right, it’s very rare to win HRs and RBIs (though the weeks you do, you feel pretty great), but you almost always win SB. Even the best offense cannot rely on winning any one category every week. This offense can.
Personally, I like to draft with an eye for average, but it’s a hard stat to predict. Top of the lineup and steals guys score runs often, so you’re not punting there. In my four years experience, I’m roughly around even in runs and average, but above 80percent in steals (the worst I’ve done is 16-4-2).
But the key is the pitching. Having 5-6 top closers locks up saves pretty well. And having 7-8 front line starters does the same for K’s. Wins are, of course, a toss up, but the idea is that having more starts per week with better pitchers starting them will win you that category. And if all 12ish of your pitchers are good, you have a solid chance to win the ratios.
But you’re right, your team will be middle of the pack. The idea is to do this in a head to head league, so it doesn’t matter that you are, you just need to make the playoffs (something I’ve accomplished all but once using this strategy). Then, you’re only three match-ups away from a league championship.
Last year, I had two such teams. One was the aforementioned non-playoff team and the other made the championship game: tying the number one team in the league 5-5 (losing WHIP after I couldn’t come back from a nightmare Saturday where Lincecum, Felix and Lester got shelled). The tiebreaker went to regular season record, so I took second place.
Obviously this strategy is not an every time winner, but it’s a refreshing way to mix it up and draft, play fantasy much differently.
I waited (along with another guy in my league) and I ended up with a team really similar to this.. I got C. Santana, Tex, Kipnis, Lawrie, Latos, Beachy, Morrow and M. Minor on my team as well. I also got A. Gonzalez for my Util, McCutchen, Bumgarner, A. Wainwright, A. Sanchez as well. It is a VERY solid strategy in shallow league.. mine here was a 10 teamer. I dont have a top 10 stud but I think I have the best SP in the league. top 2 or 3 offense too.. should be enough to finish in the top 2.
I think this kind of strategy is very viable in H2H leagues that allow lots of transactions, if you are comfortable streaming pitchers based on matchups. In a shallow league, I treat most of my starters as disposable.
My team in a 8-team league:
C- Wieters
1B- Cabrera
2B- Cano
3B- Longoria
SS- Reyes
OF- Braun
OF- C. Gonzalez
OF- Hamilton
UTL- Lawrie
UTL- J. Montero
SP- Kershaw
SP- Greinke
SP- Strasburg
SP- Bumgarner
SP- Darvish
SP- Moore
RP- Santos
RP- Marshall
RP- Jansen
RP- Reed
RP- Romo
RP- Clippard
I am a big fan of this strategy in 12 team leagues even. I do vary slightly however. I normally grab one or two rocks of my rotation and then build the rest of it from the backhalf of the draft. We were allowed to keep one position player and one pitcher. I kept Greinke for my starter. I than took Hamels in the 4th and waited for Beachy until the 11th. In rounds 15-23 I went with pitchers such as Derek Holland, Justin Masterson Mike Minor, Erik Bedard (I am always a sucker for that guy. Just once, stay healthy my man) and grabbed liriano in the 3rd to last round.
My theory is get 2 sure things and then I am confident in Liiriano Minor or Beachy becoming my 3rd “ace” of the staff.
I employed a similar strategy in my 10-team league and ended up with following (admittedly risk-reward) offense. Took hitters with my first 8 picks and then Wainwright/Johnson back to back in 9/10.
Mauer
Votto
R. Weeks
Youkilis
Andrus
Espinosa (MI)
Prado (CI)
CarGo
Holliday
Hamilton
Victorino
Pagan
Butler (UTIL) (Bench: Dunn, Boesch)
Pitchers: Wainwright, Josh Johnson, Scherzer, Beachy, Luebke, Danks, Myers, Farnsworth, Greg Holland
Ended up loving my team provided everyone doesn’t get injured at once… heh.
My team in a 1 team league…I used my commish powers to modify eligibility a bit:
C – C. Santana
1B – Pujols
2B – M. Cabrera
3B – Longoria
SS – Votto
OF1 – Bautista
OF2 – Braun
OF3 – Ellsbury
…
…
…
you get the idea.
There is a seriously valuable alternative that can work now. The truly elite pitchers – the ones who are comparable to the elite relievers on ERA and WHIP and who can thus reliably win those league categories on their own – are being undervalued and underdrafted. That means that at least in autopick leagues (where the draft is really one owners projection systems v others with no ability to adjust during the draft and which thus creates imbalance and trading opps), those SP’s have serious trade value.
In one league I ended up drafting top SP’s because the only position players available to me in those early rounds were positions that are being seriously overdrafted this year (3B, OF, SS, 2B).
My post-draft pre-trade team looked wild
C: Napoli
1B: AGonz
2B: M Young (with triple eligibility)
3B: R Roberts (ugh – but double eligibility)
SS: Y Escobar (meh but I’m OK with that here)
OF: A Jones, M Cabrera, T Hunter, A Pagan, (double ugh – my rankings messed up big time here)
Util: B Butler, J Mauer
SP: J Verlander, CC Sabathia, S Strasburg, J Shields, B Beachy, C Luebke, C Lewis, E Jackson, R Nolasco
Put my top pitchers on the trading block and chose from among the best incoming offers – Verlander for Cano straight up and Sabathia for McCutchen straight up. A couple years ago this would never have happened – the top SP’s had little trade value. So an owner was basically stuck into whatever players their draft slot produced.
The meme is “never draft a pitcher in the first X rounds”. The result is that 2nd tier position players are being way overdrafted in early/mid rounds because owners aren’t even bothering to value the top SP’s.
The meme is “starting pitching is really deep”. It’s not. The bar for ERA and WHIP has gotten more difficult – and the number of reliable elite pitchers who can meet that is the same as it has always been – a dozen maybe which is one slot per team on average. There are definitely draft/value mismatches lower down – but that’s always been the case at every position.
I think the pendulum has now swung too far. SP is undervalued at the elite levels. Non-closer relievers are the new position mismatch.
Completely disagree. You can still wait on pitching. The reason is that the gap between the first tier pitchers and the third tier pitchers is not as great as the gap between the first tier of hitters and the third tier of hitters.
As well, the increased injury risk of pitchers means you should try to avoid spending higher draft picks on them. That doesn’t mean “don’t draft an SP1 or an SP2”, it just means don’t overdraft tier 1/2 SPs.
Your hitting is horribly weak, especially regarding speed and your power is middling. The back-end of your rotation is crizzap.
This doesn’t look like a winning team to me. YMMV.
10 team mixed, H2H pts league. 5 pitcher spots daily changes
Took Kimbrel in the 7th round. didnt take another pitcher until the 12th
wound up with.
Matt Garza SP
Michael Pineda SP
Joel Hanrahan RP
Cory Luebke SP
Jaime Garcia SP
Andrew Bailey RP
Brandon McCarthy SP
Sean Marshall RP
In a H2H setting it makes no sense to take multiple top tier pitchers. Think about this – draft one low-ratio starter (Haren, Lee, Greinke, etc) to meet your necessary weekly innings threshold, then grab as many closers as you can (again, preferably the lower-ratio type), then polish off your roster with low-ratio relievers. Each week a person has an excellent chance at winning Saves, ERA and WHIP. Sure, you won’t compete in Wins and Ks, but so what? It doesn’t matter which categories you win, all that matters is that you win them.
What advantage is gained from drafting multiple top-tier starters? Sure, you’ll win Ks handily, and probably get Wins, too. But if you are up against a person employing the above strategy, you’ll need every single one of your starters to put up a ~3 ERA and ~1 WHIP to win those cats, and that’s a tall order for all but perhaps eight pitchers in the league. And you’ll lose Saves, easily.
I took the exact same approach in a similar draft last week. Here’s the result:
C-Alex Avila
1B-Prince Fielder
2B-Jason Kipnis
SS-Asdrubal Cabrera
3B-Miguel Cabrera
OF-Curtis Granderson
OF-Hunter Pence
OF-Lance Berkman
OF-Drew Stubbs
Util-Pablo Sandoval
P-Matt Moore
P-Stephen Strasburg
P-Michael Pineda
P-Brandon Beachy
P-Gio Gonzalez
P-Cory Luebke
P-Brandon League
P-Chris Perez
P-Frank Francisco
P-Kenley Jansen
There is so much value in starting pitching between 90 and 150.
I’ve always loved the idea of drafting strong offense, and waiting on pitchers with high upside, supplemented with streaming throughout the season. I like your team, but the only gripe I have is Bourn in the 4th (as you mentioned). Steals can be had in abundance, late. I would have taken another solid power guy in the 4th, and waited to get someone like a Dee Gordon later.