Anatomy of a Live Draft

Rburgh seems distressed --as per his scurrilous insinuation that Gibson got taken out of our series with the first pitch -- on purpose. Never mind that his fat ass was crowding the plate. The real reason Gibson got injured is because he is well below the Mendoza line for the season to date and he was trying desperately to get on base - the only way he could - by getting hit. He just didn't think he would take it in the ear. More whine please.

Of course we should look at the WAR factor with Josh Gibson for rburgh's team. Gibson's hefty .174 batting average is undoubtedly impressive, as his replacement, Haller is hitting .000, in 11 A.B.'s. Could be a long season in Pittsburgh folks.

Thanks guys. Having two managers like this share their draft thoughts is like taking a live draft college course.
And the price was FREE. A bargain in my book.

Would be interesting to get 12 of the top managers in a relatively slow paced draft where they all commented after their picks why they just made the pick they did. That could be the foundation for a book on live drafting strategy.

I have never done live strat drafts for personal reasons but used to do them all the time with friends when the game was played with cards and dice. Yeah, I am old. So I enjoy the strategy discussions.

We do accept donations of free credits!

We do accept donations of free credits!

also donations of free other stuff

and yeah, most of the time the only way to do stuff is to just do it.
fear is the mind killer, it is the little death that brings total oblivion. -- extra credit if you know who said it- I'm talkin to you Valen because its in your genre.

That dude with two first names?

David Lynch?

All this talk has made me want to try a live draft again. There is a $250 Mil tonight (which is basically unlimited). I haven't done one in a long time (mainly because I like for my starting pitchers to post good numbers, so normally stick to $80 and below). I can't find my list, plus there have been a lot of cards added since I did this last, but I'll try to throw something together. Should be fun.

That dude with two first names?

I believe you have nailed it.

Okay. So we had another one last night. This time I focused almost exclusively on my division which included Salty, SteveF, and DGF102052. No gimmes in this division! I had 8th pick, Salty 11th and my other two division mates had 6th and 7th picks. Craig who I also paid some attention to, made several highly annoying picks but I will leave it to him to offer any comments he is inspired to make.

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/league/draftresults/434529

8th pick flat out sucks, I think 7-10 are the worst spots to have to pick in a live draft, but I got extremely lucky and Jimmy Foxx was available. Grabbed him with alacrity. Craig had 2nd pick and took Bonds. Ugh. Steve took Charleston where Foxx usually goes and DGF (I really don't like when people use handles comprised of letters and numbers that may mean something to them but appear totally random to the rest of the world but WTF), no doubt paying close attention to Mark Pelletier's recent posts on WAR, took Morgan. I was quite happy to see these picks because they kind of discomfort SAlTY who has been picking Charleston lately and I figured he would either probably grab two of Brett, Vaughan, Charleston and Morgan for picks 11 and 14. Indeed he took Brett with pick 11 but Dodgers 42 grabbed Vaughan with the 13th pick!! Salty then took Barnes, a significant drop off from the other choices. So up until now, the draft could have hardly gone better for me, given my picking 8th.

I almost timed out on my next pick, was going to take Pedro but he was taken right before me. Ended up with Duffy, almost by elimination, because any one else seemed too early. Hard to go wrong with Duffy, especially with the flexibility he brings two play both CF and LF reasonably well. DG then takes Jeter!! Never ever saw him go this early. Clearly he was paying close attention to Pelletier's work and probably this thread from last week but this is a serious mistake in Round 2. Steve takes the Kershaw card I nominated for the last add, and Craig takes DiMaggio. I think this is a tad early for him but it's not a bad pick, he just doesn't do that well for me.

Craig grabs Gehrig in Round 3, a steal. I would have taken him with Craig's last pick, he isn't usually available with pick 23. Steve takes Mauer, an excellent pick, and DG takes Leonard, not a bad pick but not on my wish list. So I was happy to take Bryce Harper. Not looking like I will head to a Minute Maid or League '34 given these picks. Still not sure what park I will choose, even after the draft. Salty takes Piazza, a great pick, but then astounds me with Honus three picks later. Wagner used to go in the 1st three rounds, even the first two rounds, but as people have gotten more sophisticated and they see the numbers he doesn't put up at high caps, he usually goes later than this. I thought for sure Salty would take Josh Hamilton. When he doesn't, I do. Thus far I'm not unhappy with my draft, but still 8th pick sucks, and Craig has Bonds and Gehrig...DG takes Thome, extremely early for him. He usually drafts well and fields competent teams but I am thrilled he is in my division with his picks so far. Steve takes Walker, another very good pick. I wouldn't have minded him on my team but already took Harper so Hamilton in LF was a better choice this round for me. Craig takes Dihigo, a huge steal but then takes Koufax. Clearly Craig likes Koufax as do I, I also nominated his newest card when it got added a year or two ago. Been a lot of top pitchers taken now, and I am beginning to be a bit concerned about my, up to now, nonexistent pitching. But not that concerned that I would have taken Koufax just yet. Steve takes Collins and DG takes Greinke. Both guys were annoying picks for me, probably would have taken Greinke myself. So I start the probable run on relievers with Billy Wagner.

to be continued...