Dobber Challenger League - (Draft Edition)

[Ogie O]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The 1st ever official draft of the 1st ever Dobber Challenger League is complete.

For those interested in following along, these are the settings for the league:

12 teams.
H2H - daily changes.
80 max moves (3 max acquisitions per week)
Roster positions: c, 1b, 2b, ss, 3b, lf, cf, rf, util, SP (x5), RP (x2), P (x2), bench (x7), DL (x5)

Stat Categories: R, HR, RBI, SB, AVG, OBP, W, SV, K, HLD, ERA, WHIP

It was a live draft, and the draft order was randomly decided (via Yahoo) 30 minutes before the draft.

The following are the managers for the league and their draft order:

1. Mr. Coffee
2. Chief Noc-a-Homa
3. samstars
4. The Badone
5. Get Along Gang
6. Silverbacks
7. CobraTron
8. Pain Express
9. Team Glace
10. Jager Bombs
11. 2Legit2Quit
12. 4-6-3

I will be posting my draft results soon after and invite the rest of the managers to share their results and thoughts with the rest of the Dobber Community as well.

Good luck to one and all,
CobraTron

[bobjr488]

Thanks for setting this up Cobra. Just a quick note to say thanks to Dobber Baseball for allowing a scallywag like yours truly to participate in the Challenger League.

I\'ll get into more depth later on but I will tell you that selecting 11th out of 12th is no fantasy picnic. Some might say \"I like selecting last because..... blah blah blah..\".. 2legit is not one of those people. Believe it or not, there is a vast difference when selecting late between a 10 team and a 12 team. But this makes for better competition! Bring it ye picaroons!

I went against all the ancient knowledge the fantasy ninja masters have bestowed upon me and selected, yes, a pitcher for my first overall pick! ugggggh. I even passed on Johan. He\'s got those shifty eyes..... can\'t trust him...

I guess I was feeling crazy. Whatever the case may be I made a few good picks. Overall, 2legit wasn\'t feelin\' the 11th selection. My pitching I can live with but the team definitely needs to get another set of wheels to make me feel better.

The draft was quick and everyone was on their best behavior (I knew this was a woman\'s league!.... haha you got me dobber!!)

Good luck to all!

More details to follow..............

Round Pick Player Position
1. (11) Tim Lincecum SP
2. (14) Chase Utley 2B
3. (35) Cole Hamels SP
4. (38) Carl Crawford LF
5. (59) Rafael Furcal SS
6. (62) Magglio Ordóñez RF
7. (83) Aubrey Huff 1B,3B
8. (86) Vernon Wells CF
9. (107) Bobby Jenks RP
10. (110) Carlos Zambrano SP
11. (131) Mark DeRosa 2B,3B,LF,RF
12. (134) Justin VerlanderSP
13. (155) Jermaine Dye RF
14. (158) Aaron Harang SP
15. (179) Conor Jackson 1B,LF
16. (182) Brad Ziegler RP
17. (203) Kevin Gregg RP
18. (206) Chris Volstad SP
19. (227) Kelly Shoppach C
20. (230) Adam Lind LF
21. (251) Orlando Cabrera SS
22. (254) Mike Lowell 3B
23. (275) Rafael BetancourtRP
24. (278) Ryan Franklin RP
25. (299) Ryan Church RF

I have since made many revisions to the roster. My late round picks were suspect at best but when you are planning a wedding (getting married next Friday!) and the fiance is barking about drafting on a Sunday night whilst America\'s Funniest Videos is on....Updates to follow..........

[GoldenSeals]

Team Get Along\'s strategy going into this draft was to draft as many power/speed combination guys as I could to help keep me in the SB category. Pitching would wait until round 6-7. I would draft 3 SP, and then draft high K, low WHIP middle relievers in the end rounds.

This draft certainly didn\'t go the way I thought it would go. I was drafting 5th, and was hoping Wright would fall to me, although I completely expected him to go in the top 4 with the A-Rod injury news. I was expecting to take Sizemore with pick 5 had Wright been taken. Low and behold, someone didn\'t show up to the draft, or showed up late! Wright was selected fifth overall.

With Lincecum going in the first round, Santana would soon follow, right? There I was with pick #20, and Santana was still available. I decided to take Santana with pick #20, after seeing that this league rostered 5 SP. I figured other managers would go on a SP run with that many SP slots needed to be filled. As the draft wore on, I regret picking Santana and passing on guys like Berkman, Beltran and Fielder. Guys like Chad Billingsley, Francisco Liriano, John Lackey, Felix Hernandez, ended up being drafted in round 7 & round 8, and I would have been completely fine with any 2 of the 5 as my anchors of my pitching staff. I decided not to pick another pitcher until round 9 or round 10.

Matt Holliday was drafted with confidence in round 3. With an ADP of 13th overall, I think he was a bargain at 29 - a round and a half later. Too much stock has been put into Holliday\'s stats on the road, and the fact that Oakland doesn\'t run, but Oakland ranked 2nd in SB made.

I was quite surprised to see core offensive guys going undrafted really late. Torii Hunter was drafted in round 14. Chris B Young was drafted in round 16. Abreu was drated 4 rounds later than his ADP.

Round 10 was used to select Adam Wainwright, and started drafting my pitching at this point. I decided to draft 1 more SP in Scott Baker in round 16. Normally I would\'ve felt this was a bit of a reach, but in hinsight looking at the available pitchers left, I got a consistent pitcher who could end up looking like an ace by the end of the year. My strategy is to use 3 SP, and roster elite MR to help bring my ratios down. Using 5 SP would mean that I would have had to draft 2 other SP I do not entirely trust, who can easily ruin my week with a bad start.

Overall, I\'m still undecided if my draft was a success or not. Time will tell.

Round Pick Player Position
1. (5) David Wright 3B
2. (20) Johan Santana SP
3. (29) Matt Holliday LF
4. (44) Brian Roberts 2B
5. (53) Adrián González 1B
6. (68) Nate McLouth CF
7. (77) Chipper Jones 3B
8. (92) J.J. Hardy SS
9. (101) Bobby Abreu RF
10. (116) Adam Wainwright SP
11. (125) Matt Cain SP
12. (140) Matt Capps RP
13. (149) Mike González RP
14. (164) Scott Baker SP
15. (173) Mike Napoli C
16. (188) Chris Young CF
17. (197) Edwin Encarnación 3B
18. (212) Hong-Chih Kuo SP,RP
19. (221) Elijah Dukes LF,RF
20. (236) Shin-Soo Choo LF,RF
21. (245) Ian Stewart 2B,3B
22. (260) Jason Motte RP
23. (269) Paul Maholm SP
24. (284) Carlos Villanueva SP,RP
25. (293) Ramón Hernández C

[dre857]

Shout out to all Dobberites (I come from Hockey but love Fantasy Baseball as well)...First a little complaining to do, 3rd draft out of 4 that I picked 10th overall, booo...and to top it off I was drafting another Yahoo Custom Keeper league (that I\'ve been in for 8 years) at the same time. It was really tough keeping the 2 teams seperate and picks seemed to get to me at the same time in both league. BUT how do you pass up the chance for a Dobber endorsed league? You don\'t, you make the best of it!

My squad (Jager Bombs-drafted 10th)
C- C.Doumit 12th (good value, if he stays healthy)
1B-M.Teixeira 2nd (not a Yankee fan, but...)
2B-M.Aviles 11th (didn\'t have a 2B or SS at this point)
SS-M.Tejada 15th (hoping for better than last year stats)
3B-C.Davis 6th (maybe my \'Reach\' but I have high hopes)
LF-R.Braun 1st (like where I got him 10th overall)
CF-T.Hunter 14th (good value at 14th rd)
RF-I.Suzuki 3rd (happy with a .AVG/SB Stud)
UT-J.Votto 9th (Running out of good bats in the 9th rd?)
Ben-D.Span 18th (needed another .AVG/SB guy)
Ben-K.Matsui 19th (boo...but oh well)
Ben-T.Glaus 21st (maybe some \'pop\' when he gets healthy)
Ben-C.Crisp 24th (maybe a turn-around candidate)
SP-B.Webb 4th (happy where I got him)
SP-E.Santana 7th (brutal pick, didn\'t know he\'s injured)
SP-J.Lester 8th (Red Sox fan, nice to see him on my team)
SP-E.Bedard 11th (my turn-around candidate)
SP-A.Galarraga 20th (needed a 5th SP)
RP-J.Papelbon 5th (love him and happy where I got him)
RP-T.Hoffman 13th (wanted a 2nd RP, oldie but a goodie)
P-T.Percival 16th (thought I better get another RP)
P-D.Wheeler 17th (Percival back-up, and great for holds)
Ben-A.Pettitte 22nd (filling out my roster, not bad)
Ben-T.Walker 23rd (already dropped for M.Corpas)
Ben-J.Lewis 25th (Holds and possibly Wood \'hand-cuff\')

There it is...not highly excited, but not overly upset. I\'m hoping some trades will help me feel better about my squad. Hope to see lots of offers!

[amn5hol]

Hey guys was a lot of fun....keep the trades coming!
All in all I\'m fairly happy with my draft. My goal of drafting players soley based upon the qulaity of their nicknames was somewhat achieved.
Great having the fourth pick and securing a large chunk of SB in one shot....although my neglect of the category after the first round has left me with some work to do.

Sleepers - Cano (100), Ibanez (141), Nolasco (124)
Reaches - Peavy (52), Soto (69)
1. (4) José Reyes
2. (21) Lance Berkman (Th Big Puma/Fat Elvis....nough said)
3. (28) Carlos Lee (El Caballo....et El Studo!)
4. (45) Curtis Granderson (had pegged this spot for elite SP or OF and watched 6 guys!!! out of my cue go off the board in the 4th rd!)
5. (52) Jake Peavy (reeling a bit after the 4th rd...The Miracle of Mobile may disappoint...banking on a trade)
6. (69) Geovany Soto (Top 4 Catcher although in my upcoming drafts I\'m waiting I had Molina high as well and got him much later)
7. (76) Chad Billingsley (wanted Liriano here but the Buzzsaw will not disappoint!)
8. (93) Mariano Rivera (one more time Mo)
9. (100) Robinson Canó (My two sleepers were Cano and Ibanez....too happy I got them both)
10. (117) Brian Wilson (Little wild but like that staff in front of him)
11. (124) Ricky Nolasco (might be my ace)
12. (141) Raúl Ibañez
13. (148) Adrián Béltre (at this point i got a little punch drunk)
14. (165) Brad Hawpe (need to start training for these deep drafts)
15. (172) Chris Pérez
16. (189) Randy Johnson (wishing I had a red bull)
17. (196) James Loney (help me Manny...help me, help you)
18. (213) Rafael Pérez
19. (220) Juan Cruz
20. (237) Bengie Molina
21. (244) John Smoltz
22. (261) Kelvim Escobar
23. (268) Phil Hughes
24. (285) Randy Winn (run Randy run!)
25. (292) Melvin Mora (just read in a baseball almanac...Melvin was 27 when he broke in the majors in 1999...yikes!)

[bobjr488]

It would also be nice to hear some opinions from either someone at Dobber Baseball or within the League itself to critique each team prior to the season starting. Just a quick run down including maybe a prediction of the League Winner.

Or does everyone already know that 2L2Q is going to win it all?

Cheers!

[btmfone]

Hey guys 4-6-3 here with a draft run down for my team.
Overall I was fairly pleased with the way things went had hoped to get Rollins and Kinsler with my first two picks when I saw that I was drafting last but to little suprise Jimmy went off the before that so I settled on Hamilton (not a bad thing). Made an effort to wait on pitching for as long as I could and stock up on good bats and I still think that my hurlers look pretty good with some under the radar guys (Gallardo, Morrow, Meche).

12 Josh Hamilton CF,RF (Pure Mash!)
13 Ian Kinsler 2B (thinking Texas is going to be a run machine)
36 Jason Bay LF (Good old Canadian boy! pretty good #\'s too)
37 Matt Kemp RF,CF (may have been a reach but I like the power and steals)
60 Joe Mauer C (normally dont take catchers early but I couldn\'t pass on this especially with him DHing when he doesn\'t catch)
61 Corey Hart RF,Util (really like 20/20 guys who are turning 27)
84 Brad Lidge RP (very happy to get him here and figured it was time to go on a pitching run)
85 John Lackey SP (once again very happy)
108 Yovani Gallardo SP (could surprise alot of people)
109 Jose Valverde RP (91 saves last two years)
132 Matt Garza SP (power pitcher with big upside)
133 Carlos Pena 1B (needed some more pop)
156 Brandon Morrow SP,RP (big sleeper)
157 Jorge Cantu 1B,3B (cant believe I got him so late)
180 Frank Francisco RP (could end up in 9th inning role)
181 Gil Meche SP (solid if unspectacular)
204 Wandy Rodriguez SP (possible breakout)
205 Scott Downs RP (Good for holds)
228 Jonathan Sanchez SP
229 Jon Rauch RP (another possible closer)
252 Adam Jones CF (breakout year?)
253 Bronson Arroyo SP
276 Dustin McGowan SP (gonna be on the DL for a while)
277 Jose Guillen LF,RF (time bomb that should put up decent #\'s)
300 Cristian Guzman SS (since I didnt get Jimmy decided to wait till the end for a SS)

I think my team might be a little weak in the steals department but thats something I can keep an eye on and adjust for.

Hope all you guys are disgusted with the look of my team for the simple fact that your team cant beat it!

[Ogie O]

At CobraTron, we have a policy that involves utter and complete world (and fantasy baseball) domination. While we may take over and drive your fantasy squad to sheer destruction, we at least try to add some padded and comfortable seats with drinkholders for your enjoyment on the way down...

That being said - Let us take a look at CobraTron\'s a.u.* draft...

* = awfully unorthodox

1.7 Miguel Cabrera
2.5 Alfonso Soriano
3.7 Youk\'
4.5 Dan Haren
5.7 Victorino
6.5 J.Bruce
7.7 Jeter
8.5 J.Shields
9.7 J.Broxton
10.5 B.Fuentes
11.7 J.VazQuez
12.5 MadMax.Scherzer
13.7 Wang. Chien-Ming Wang.
14.5 Putz. (JJ)
15.7 Pat the Bat Burrell
16.5 J.Arredondo
17.7 G.Balfour
18.5 Rickie Weeks
19.7 D.Navarro
20.5 Felipe Lopez
21.7 Nicky Swish\'
22.5 Octavio Dotel
23.7 Cory Wade
24.5 Ian Smells
25.7 Damaso Quickie Marte

- - - - -

Comments like \"Cobratron likes wang lol\" rang hollow on the forum as we drafted CMW - as it is a little known fact that CobraTron LOVES wang. Loves wang so much that we draft him scratching our cobratron helmets how a 19-win almost-ace fell to us and is ready to serve our squad so quickly and easily. There\'s a team called the New York Yankee\'s - and one pitcher that has nearly 0 pressure on his shoulders that isn\'t named Burnett, CC, or Petite or Joba this year to carry the squad is CMW... and just like BMW\'s, - he\'s all about performance.

CobraTron believes in pulverizing your squad with holds, and middle/late relief. CobraTron does not apologize for the high K rates and nasty stuff those pitchers throw instead of drafting limpwristed 5th starters that go 5 painful innings per start with 4 runs and 4 k\'s if you\'re lucky...

CobraTron believes that Soriano will be healthy this season, and CobraTron believes that guaranteed 30/30 from that spot or higher is not the worst thing on the planet. (John Basedow from \"Fitness Made Simple\" is the worst thing on the planet.)

CobraTron believes that you will be seeing Cory Wade in a writeup by the all-star break.

CobraTron believes that Jay Bruce was a reach based on last years numbers, but not on those in 6 years.

CobraTron is currently attempting to go forward ala Biff in Back to the Future to make sure Jay Bruce performs for us as he will then... except now.

CobraTron feels that trades are on the horizon, and so are burning cities and little-league ballparks after our surprisingly dominant stats in h2h week in, week out.

CobraTron is excited for the season ahead - we picked a different strategy of drafting and will report to you (oh loyal reader) as the days, weeks, and months go on...

[gui]

Before I start, let me just stress that you should ALWAYS pre-rank before the draft. I didn\'t and because of a power outage i didn\'t get to participate in the draft. Also as a result of not pre-ranking I ended up with 3 (yes THREE) catchers, 3 shortstops, and 1 relief pitcher, yes if you\'re looking for a good laugh take a look at the draft sumary of my team :lol::lol: . While I am not too happy with my team, I think it is salvageable with a few trades and some pick ups.

I picked 2nd overall, which I was happy with... I would\'ve preferred Hanley but I have no complaints with Pujols.

Here\'s my draft summary:

Chief Noc-A-Homa

1(2) Albert Pujols - No brainer here, love the high OBP

2(23) Prince Fielder - I probably wouldn\'t have drafted another 1B in the 2nd round but what can you do

3(26) Brandon Phillips - With 2B being so shallow I could\'ve done worse

4(47) Russell Martin - I love him but I wouldn\'t have drafted a C this high

5(50) Brian McCann - Haha yeah you can go ahead and laugh

6(71) Hunter Pence - Also too high for him

7(74) Stephen Drew - Actually like this pick, right about where I would\'ve drafted him

8(95) Roy Oswalt - I probably would\'ve solidified my OF before drafting him but he\'s as consistent as they get

9(98) Joba Chamberlain - meh, no feelings good or bad about this pick

10(119) Lastings Milledge - considering what was left at CF im ok with this pick, going to need him to break out though haha

11(122) Johnny Damon - Will contribute in all 6 categories so im happy with him

12(143) Chris Young - Love this pick, i was high on this guy before the draft so I am extremely pleased I got him.

13(146) Brett Myers - Like this pick

14(167) Ben Sheets - Brutal

15(170) Derek Lowe - Consistent

16(191) Johnny Cueto - Not a fan of this guys at all but what can you do

17(194) Jered Weaver - Meh

18(215) Fernando Rodney - Ladies and Gents my one and only RP haha

19(218) Alex Gordon - I am actually feeling good about this pick, he COULD be a solid contributor in all 6 categories so I am fine taking the risk.

20(239) Carlos Guillén - Good insurance for Gordon and also a 6 cat producer

21(242) Hideki Matsui - Not a fan but he was drafted late so its ok

22(263) Khalil Greene - Shortstop #2

23(266) Ryan Theriot - Shortstop #3. Actually don\'t mind him, good source of OBP, steals and runs

24(287) A.J. Pierzynski - Catcher #3

25(290) Orlando Hudson - Meh

So my pitching has alot of holes especially the RP\'s. I was actually alright with my hitting except with the OF. I have a lot of young guys needing to break out or old guys that are injury risks. I would\'ve liked to have atleast one stud in the OF. the Gordon/Guillen combo at 3B may not impress people but I am actually really happy with it.

Since the draft, through a trade and wavier wire I have brought in the following:

Andre Ethier, Fred Lewis, Joel Zumaya, Ryan Madson, Brad Penny, and John Maine.

I\'ve shipped out:

Ryan Theriot, Brian McCann, Orlando Hudson, A.J. Pierzynski, Khalil Greene, and Ben Sheets.

I am pretty happy with my hitting now but still would like to work on my pitching staff.