So who's gonna win this thing? ;-)

...the best undrafted pitcher was Mike Remlinger...

And I'm the brainiac who drafted him in the 16th round in Barfield :

While he may not have retired as was suggested mere moments after the brilliance of this pick, he does start the season on the DL and will quickly become part of the waiver wire, once I can sign someone new.

I apologize to everyone in the Barfield division on my level of quietness last night (TMG Eh's) but I didn't have time to read any of the comments let alone type my own given the pace of the draft. It was all I could do to cross players off my list and get ready for the next pick.

Overall I'm quite happy with my squad, deciding to go heavy early on pitching as it was a little neglected. According to my spreadsheet projections, I have my hitters as 6% above the average level for their respective positions across the 6 categories, while my pitchers are 12.5%. If the projections hold, I'll be a very happy man. I can't help but think that we will be hurt by our strong 1B platoon of Scott Spiezio and JT Snow though. Oh well, some position has to give if you want to grab the scarcity ones.

Good luck all!

We're having a Barfield division problem with picks disappearing from the draft results. This appears to be a problem for players not on major league rosters; I'm not sure of the true extent of the problem.

I'm trying to figure it out, please be patient and all apologies.

http://economics.about.com
We're having a Barfield division problem with picks disappearing from the draft results. This appears to be a problem for players not on major league rosters; I'm not sure of the true extent of the problem.

We're having the same thing in Alomar. It appears to be a service wide problem. Hopefully Yahoo will get it fixed ASAP.

We're having a Barfield division problem with picks disappearing from the draft results.

Same deal in Alomar, I'm assuming it's a bug which Yahoo! will correct. I'd be interested in seeing the Barfield draft results, if someone cares to post them when the missing ones re-appear.

The Barfield draft moved along crisply, finishing in approximately 2 hours & 45 minutes. Not bad for having to draft 500 players. The left side of the draft was especially quick. I picked 5th and after I made my pick in even rounds my next pick (9 spots later) was up again in about 30 seconds.

What I learned - in a 20 team league don't pass on a player you like if there's a couple others at the same position you like about the same. By the time your pick comes up all 3 are gone. I got caught a bit shorthanded in my middle infield because of that.

I got caught a bit shorthanded in my middle infield because of that.

A bit? I got shorthanded to the tune of Aaron Miles/Tony Graffinino.

The draft was great, guys. My browser froze twice, but only once did I miss a pick and it didn't exactly kill me. Cordero in Montreal is a decent enough prospect and Biddle is a decent enough flop (no offence, R Billie), so who knows?

My mock 6th round was not even close. A total of eight players were taken that I thought would fall to a later round. It allowed me to pick up Micheal Young, which was a bit of a surprise considering the shallow pool at MI. I took Cliff Floyd earlier than I should have, I think, but I had a strong feeling that he wouldn't last another 40 picks. I was pleased that Baldelli fell; I had considered drafting him with my first pick, until Young fell.

Dontrelle Willis and a core of young ace middle relievers will hopefully anchor my staff. Smoltz has said he wants to pitch regularly and will avoid save situations if they are not on his schedule, so picking up the guy who will close those games, Reitsma, was a must for me.

I think everybody has one guy that they hope will be the next "comeback player of the year." Mine is Konerko. He helped my fantasy team a couple of years ago, so here's to hoping his homecoming brings success.

Good luck, everybody.

With 20 veteran owners the Alomar league finished it's draft in under 2 hours and 15 minutes. Though it has to be conceded that the first 100 picks were preset and went by fast. At least once I remembered I was picking second. I stood staring at the screen for a good ten seconds wondering if I should put the draft on autopilot for the first five rounds when I realized it was my turn.

As for my team I loaded up on blue chip offence to the extent that I could with the first several picks though about half carry a significant history of injuries. That meant pounding away at outfielders and corner men (David Ortiz and JD Drew selected with my first two picks).

Around the tenth round I chose my first pitcher outside of my keeper (Mussina) taking two closers, Kolb and Julio, with back to back picks. Then in the 12 I picked what I felt might have been the best middle of the order hitter with a track record left on the board in Jermaine Dye. If Kotsay and Kielty do what they're capable of at the top of the order then 100 rbi should be in the offing if Dye is finally over his broken leg. His spring stats look promising.

Thereafter it was another closer in Biddle and two high-quality closers in waiting in Valverde and Wagner and a quality prospect in Jose Acevedo as my second starter. My one regret is in the 19th round I passed on Mesa and Koch because I didn't have a middle infielder on my roster yet; Marlon Anderson better be playing regularly and stealing some bases. Thinking one of Mesa/Koch might slip to me again the following round as a cheap source of saves both ended up chosen...in retrospect not a good gamble.

I finished out the final round scraping up starting prospects Vargas (I like him), Haren (sent down...gah!), Heilman (may not start...gah!), and Vogelsong (tremendous spring strikeout numbers). I added one good reliever in Fuentes to fill out a six-man relief corp and Larkin and Mackowiak as hitters who might do minimum damage to my hitting production. I like my hitting, I should do ok in saves, and I like my starters considering where they were chosen though like last year I might have to churn and trade a bit until I end up with a solid staff. My goal is to make the playoffs again with an aging set of keepers but we'll see if luck favours my team as much as it did last year.

I've got an upcoming draft and really looking for players....need some kind of baseball fix tomorrow (saturday)? The draft is with Yahoo - http://fantasysports.yahoo.com

Lookup private league number 299174 and the league password is: amsterdam
It's a 6X6 league and the draft takes place tomorrow (Apr 3)at 11 AM EST. Hope you can join!

We're having a Barfield division problem with picks disappearing from the draft results. This appears to be a problem for players not on major league rosters; I'm not sure of the true extent of the problem.

We're having the same thing in Alomar. It appears to be a service wide problem. Hopefully Yahoo will get it fixed ASAP.

Yeah, it's service wide. And it's not just players not on major league rosters. For instance, both Brian Roberts and Matt Riley have disappeared in an Al-only league I drafted in a few days ago. But even though the spots on team pages say "empty", the link takes you to their player pages so I don't think it's gonna be a real problem in the end.

The Barfield Division draft was a helluva lot of fun. I'm pretty happy with how my team turned out, even though I may be one decent starting pitcher short of ideal.

The missing-players problem appears to have resolved itself -- my two AWOL guys (Kazuo Matsui and Bronson Arroyo) reappeared a little while ago.

Last year, I didn't draft nearly enough starters; this year, I took care of that problem in short order. Your SABR Magicians rotation:

Mark Prior
Wade Miller
Miguel Batista
John Thomson
Tim Redding
Ted Lilly
Horacio Ramirez

In fact, I might be willing to deal a starter for some outfield or corner pop. I'll listen to good offers for pretty much anyone on that list.

My browser froze on the fourth keeper, then I scrambled between two PCs, neither of which would load the draft room, until the eighth round. No problems thereafter. I got Johnny Damon and Torii Hunter from my queued picks, which was about what I expected. My pre-draft strategy, with keepers like Thome and Raffy in "weak" positions like CI and Utility, was to settle for speed in the OF. I also believed that some good catchers would slip, and am quite pleased with Estrada in the 19th round. The only other plans I had were to take solid middle relievers with high K/BB instead of mediocre starters in the late teens, and to punt SS and MI again. Flash Gordon, Kyle Farnsworth and Julio Mateo filled one bill, while (shudder) Royce Clayton and Ronnie Belliard were the best I could do in the 21st and 24th rounds.

I avoided picking guys I really didn't want. Last year, I did much more preparation, and staying strictly with "best available" according to my ratings got me Jeff Weaver, who I detested then, and who subsequently did nothing to change my opinion. This year, I excluded some good players I'd rather not own. Not sure I ended up with a better team, but I'm happier with my draft.

I'll be disappointed not to make the playoffs, but it's mostly in the hands of the injury gods now. Good luck, everyone.

Last year my offense was anemic, put my pitching was very solid, anchored by Hudson, Loaiza and Radke (ratio). I dealt Hudson along with I-Rod (Comerica fears) for Javy Lopez, Renteria and Webb. Picked up Edmonds and Phelps in the first 2 rounds, and though that was probably too high for Phelps, I think he's ready to bust out this year. Took Escobar and Glavine on hunches and a lack of other pitching talent, but overall I did a poor job of grabbing picthers with upside.

My draft this year was basically the opposite of what I did last year- last year I drafted a lot of rookies with upside (Hee Choi and Brandon Phillips being the most disappointing), and this yera I drafted a lot of mediocre vets. Hopefully I'll have better results. Last year's draft scared me away from grabbing Choi earlier (Yahoo suggested him in the 6th round), and similar fears kept me from Mourneau and A. Escobar.

Got no one good in the last rounds- there were some guys I forgot about, some guys I ranked too high out of personal bias (Scutaro, though he may be OK's starting 2B for a month).

Seemsl ike there's more guys with nagging injuries this year than there were last- every time I went to draft a pitcher I'd find out he's missing a month. Totally subjective...

So favorite sleepers? Mine is Jorge DePaula in the last round, but that means I have to cheer for a Yankee...did see hime take a no-hitter into the 9th at Yankee stadium the last week of the season...it was against the O's, but still...

A lot of catchers slipped very late in this draft- if I didn't have Javy, I would've grabbed Castro, Mauer earlier.

One more thing- I drafted Soriano too high- way too high when I see the talent that went after him. Seattle better do something useful with him this year. Total waste picthing in middle relief.

Fot the 2nd year in a row I ended up with a lot of pitching (not intentionally):
Randy, C. Zambrano and Rivera were keepers and I added Moyer, Harden, Armas, Lieber, and Bondermann as starters. I guess I should have known about Armas' injury problem, but he stil might work out really well. I ended up drafting 3 players who were on my final roster last year (Moyer - 6th round, Patterson - 8th, Bonderman - 14th) so I guess they count as first year players. Did anyone else stick with their vets like another Dusty? My sleeper pick was M. Tucker (22nd) who might have a decent season, kind of like Grissom last year whom I drafted and subsequently purged the day before he turned into a hitting monster.

Also I am interested in deaing for a RBI man, and I can deal SP, speed or even Rivera in the right deal.

I have the Barfield draft in a spreadsheet. If anyone can find a home for it and link it e-mail me (COMN) and I'll send the file along.

I was pretty pleased with my draft. I ended up taking more pitching than I expected as the top starters were moving fast. So I got Pettitte, Morris, and Milwood in 4, 5 and 7. I was actually debating between Morris and Milwood in round 5, so it was nice that Milwood dropped (at least in my mind) to the 7th round.

My first pick I took Helton over Bonds. I may regret that, but if Bonds is in and out of the lineup like he was last year I won't. Abreu and Pierre followed, with Sweeney in the 6th and Veritek inthe 9th.

I got caught waiting on closers and settled for Mantei and Baez in 8 & 10.

I thought my middle rounds were strong. I picked up (in order) Hillenbrand, Thomson, Mondesi and Griffey in rounds 12-15. Griffey in the 15th could work out great and if it doesn't it's no great loss.

Pistol:

I'll put it on the BBFL site. Email it to me.

Once again, I've drafted a team that's anything but safe.

Having kept most of my infield - DLee, Garciaparra, Ensberg - my strategy, which I composed 5 minutes before the draft, was to pick up the best players available for the first 10-12 non-keeper rounds and then round out my pitching staff with relievers that would boost my rate stats. Here's how I made out:

- I'd already kept Guardado and normally abhor the idea of wasting a high pick on a second closer but when Arthur Rhodes fell in my lap at 7, I couldn't resist. Oakland's anemic offense combined with their Big 3 (4?) starters should make for plenty of save opps.
- Faced with a tough decision at 8 of Carl Crawford or Scott Podsednik, I went with Podsednik. He's damn risky, but I just couldn't bear the thought of having to carry that crappy Crawford OBP.
- Juan Gone and Griffey came in at 9 and 10 respectively. The two could easily miss 150 games or more between them but you don't win roto picking the tried and true...you finish 10th.
- I am really happy with the starting staff I managed to assemble despite picking all but one of them after Round 12. Livan, Pavano, Cliff Lee, Eric Milton and Darrell May aren't superstars but each should win 10 or more games with reasonable rate stats.

Did I take Brian Roberts too high at 12?

Great draft, guys. I had a super time.

I'm not really sure what to think of my draft - I was feeling pretty irritated for most of it - mostly for arriving 30 minutes late (I have no idea why I thought it started at 8:30, but that time was in my head for weeks) and having yahoo autopick Roger Clemens and Russ Ortiz for me. My plan originally was to take the top hitters I could with my 2nd and 3rd picks - I had been targetting Foulke as my 1st pick all along.

It looks like my team will be pitching strong and hitting weak - Schmidt, Mulder, Clemens and Ortiz anchor my rotation, while V. Zambrano and Casey Fossum give me 5th and 6th starters with some upside. Foulke anchors the bullpen, and Leskanic, MacDougal, and Felix Rodriguez all are capable relief pitchers who have the potential to get a few saves to augment those provided by Foulke.

My offense, I fear will be weak - I'm hoping for big seasons from Jacque Jones and Jody Gerut, as well as a RoY performance from Mauer. Here's also hoping that Bonds doesn't decline and that Lowell can play a full season. My middle infield isn't bad, with O. Cabrera and Mark Loretta, but I'm hurting with Tino Martinez as my starting 1B. Catcher looks pretty good - besides Mauer, Pierzynski and Hammock could provide decent production from that position. Dave Roberts rounds out my outfield and will hopefully give me enough steals to offset the drag on my slugging.

I'm open to dealing - no player is untouchable, though to get a top talent like Bonds or Foulke, I will want top talent in return. I'm mainly interested in a slugging 1B or OF, but will entertain all offers.

Geoff-
I thought you made out with Roberts that late. I owned him last year though and it got tough b/c of his leg problems. If he's not hitting and not stealing he'll really kill you offense because he isn't scoring or driving in runs either with that lineup.

My biggest problem in Barfield was that I 1) Didn't always remember the statistical categories (no HR, for example); 2) Forgot we were doing a keeper league; 3) Was jabbering so much that I didn't have any players queued up and had to scramble too often; 4) Drafted Alexis Rios instead of a player who I can actually use. I like Rios quite a bit, but I will part with him to get some help in July, as I surge ahead and prepare for my entry into the Alomar Division. Tee-hee.

Live drafting is the best part of fantasy baseball, and even though auction leagues are what I prefer, it's a very slight preference. Let's do another one next week!

Gitz, that draft was a riot. And my team suffered because of it. ;)

Well, no, but I have to have a scapegoat for my putrid pitching staff, which is actually relying on decent performances from Izzy Valdes, Kurt Ainsworth, and Jeff Suppan. *shudder*

Barfield owners, take note: I have ridiculous depth in the middle infield. Extra speed coming out the wazoo. Etc. Need pitching.

Yeah - my offense is much more speed oriented than it was last year (of course, last year my offense was pretty much just suck oriented). One of my goals this draft was to not overlook the stats that I overlooked last year - steals and saves - and while I feel pretty good in that regard now, I'm a little worried about my RBI situation. Runs should be ok though.

I think Spicol's pick of Podsednick was was probably the wisest move for grabbing speed while helping impact other categories (excepting the big names). Last year he looked like an early Shannon Stewart- I considered grabbing him instead of Phelps.

I avoided Roberts thinking I could pick up cheap SB from a middle infielder, only to find them all gone when I went looking. E-Rent is really the only guy who'll help me out there. Last year I tried to find guys who would contribute 10-20 SB an addition to decent hitting, and passed on better players because of it. Overall, I don't have anyone who will kill my OB/SLG (unless Beltre is as bad as he was last year) but have no one who can run.

The Edmonton Decepticons (most feared team nickname going) started off with a bang and selected a ton of offence (Beltran, Sexson, Teixeira, Megatron).

However the pitching will be weak; and befitting such an evil nickname will depend upon such evil on the mound that their manager (me) already hates them. Barfield leaguers get ready to tee off on despicable pitchers like CH Park, K.Ishii, C.Lidle, and Billy Koch. These four, like the Constructicons, join forces to create an even more despicable pitching machine I like to call Pitchcrapacon.

Pistol:

I'll put it on the BBFL site. Email it to me.


You should have it. If not let me know.

The dynamics of a 20-team draft are still hard to understand. Six picks into the eighth round, I was "sure" of getting my third straight OF. There were eight more picks before mine, but I had four guys I liked equally at the top of my queue. All were snatched up, so I made a last-second switch to Polanco. Besides, there were five more OF I liked nearly as well, so I knew I'd get one of them ten picks later in the ninth round. No such luck. It seemed like Spicol and Snellville (among others) stole guys off the top of my queue most of the night.

By then, I felt out of sync, like the position runs were happening one round earlier than I had anticipated, so I grabbed a pitcher, which I had planned to do no sooner than the tenth or eleventh. After that adjustment, my list matched up better with what was happening. I liked where I got Chacon and Alvarez, and I'm satisfied with some of my later picks, including REM sleeper Carlos Silva, the overlooked Matt Lawton and shot in the dark Jason Marquis. There wasn't much left in Round 25, or in the FA pool. I just took Chad Fox as a placeholder until Yahoo adds Simon Pond.