It’s been an exciting first half of baseball with great pitching performances and surprise players stepping up in many areas.And I think it’s a great time to pick the gems of our draft back in March.
In the first round, there were a few winners, but it’s tough to name winners in this round because some owners get chances before others, so I’m going to name a winner for each round after the first. As far as first-round gems, the Bombers made out with Jose Reyes at No. 6 — a risky pick then, but with a .354 average, it’s not so risky anymore. The Slammers also made out big with Michael Young at No. 3.
Second Round
Big League Choo gets the win here, although he didn’t draft this player because he took over this team a couple weeks into the season. So, for what it’s worth, Jair Jurrjens is the gem of the second round. At 12-3 with a 1.87 ERA, he’ll likely start the All-Star Game for the NL. Also noteworthy in this round is Vandelay’s pickup of Dustin Ackley who has been stellar at second base since his call-up to Seattle.
Third Round
Max Scherzer gets the nod here despite a 4.69 ERA. At 10-4 with 96 Ks, he’s been fairly consistent for the Stankinator. Unfortunately for the Stank, that’s one of the only consistencies for him.
Fourth Round
The Gamblers found his replacement for David Price and the Rays found a player who can complement — and in fact outplay — David Price. The gem of the fourth goes to James Shields, who is 8-6 with a 2.47 ERA and 132 strikeouts. He’s got six complete games and three complete-game shutouts by himself. That’s as many complete games or more than seven teams in the JBL. The same stat applies for complete-game shutouts.
Fifth Round
The fifth round was a big round where several key figures were drafted, including Ian Kennedy (Duncan), Freddie Freeman (Outs), Craig Kimbrel (Bombers), Josh Beckett (Suck) and Michael Pineda (Gamblers). Picking a winner is tough here, but I’m going to go with Kennedy because his value has been big for the NL West first-place Duncan.
Sixth Round
The Gamblers win this round, too, following up his Pineda pick with Adam Jones (.282, 38 runs, 13 homers, 48 RBIs).
Seventh Round
The best player taken in this round has turned out to be Ryan Theriot, who the Backward Ks drafted, however, Theriot was dropped and quickly picked up by his 2009 owner, Slammers. Batting .289 with 35 runs and 32 RBIs, Theriot has been a great player for the injury-plagued Cards.
Eighth Round
This round has turned into a “So what?” round. Only Ivan Nova, the Bad News Bears’ pick, has been worth talking about.
Ninth Round
For as bad as the eighth was, the ninth made everyone’s picks in the ninth look even worse. Four quality fantasy players were selected in the ninth, including A.J. Pierzynski (Panthers), Joel Hanrahan (Suck) and Aaron Harang (Slammers); but none of those players have equaled Asdrubal Cabrera’s big year, as he has led the Outs with a .293 average, 55 runs, 14 homers, 51 RBIs and 12 stolen bases.
10th Round
Again, the best player drafted in the 10th was drafted by Backward Ks and dropped. The Outs now have benefited from Chase Headley’s .299 average, 34 runs and 31 RBIs. The Sex Panthers get the honorable mention here for drafting Johnny Damon in this round.
11th Round
Again, the Big League Choo gets credit for a pick that wasn’t his with Adam Lind, who is batting .306 with 52 RBIs, 37 runs and 16 homers. Some love also goes out to the Duncan for picking David Freese (.328, 16 runs, 15 RBIs).
12th Round
There’s a tie here between Ronald Duncan’s Alex Avila (.288, 30 runs, 10 homers, 46 RBIs) and Sex Panthers’ Yunel Escobar (.292, 46 runs, 9 homers, 31 RBIs). And the honorable mention has to go to the Slammers for nabbing then-prospect Eric Hosmer (.268, 25 runs, 8 homers, 34 RBIs).
13th Round
The 13th round was full of duds, but the Stank did a great job getting David Ortiz (.304, 52 runs, 19 homers and 53 RBIs), which is not a bad pick considering all that went ahead of him. Vandelay’s pick of Brandon League also wasn’t a bad draft selection with his 23 saves at the midway mark.
14th Round
Ronald Duncan’s Brett Wallace was the gem of the 14th, as he is hitting .282 with 34 runs, 4 homers and 23 RBIs. Also noteworthy in this round was the Gamblers’ selection of Anibal Sanchez to start off the round.
15th Round
There’s a tie for the top player in the 15th, and its’ between Matt Joyce (.290, 45 runs, 12 homers, 41 RBIs) and Michael Cuddyer (.295, 41 runs, 13 homers, 42 RBIs). Both players were drafted and dropped, too. Duncan drafted Joyce and let him go, but fortunately for him, he picked up Cuddyer after the Gamblers let him go. The Bombers now own Joyce.
16th Round
The Stankinator, Sex Panthers and Bad News Bears all made excellent second-to-last-round picks. However, only one of them can get credit for the pick — the Sex Panthers, so by default, she wins with her selection of Marlon Byrd (.307, 27 runs, 3 homers, 13 RBIs). The Stank selected Carlos Beltran, but since he left the draft room long before this pick, this was just the auto draft picking the next highest ranked player by ESPN. Beltran is batting .289 with 52 runs, 13 homers and 58 RBIs. The Bad News Bears weren’t drafting either, so he can’t take credit for picking Melky Cabrera (.294, 55 runs, 11 homers, 51 RBIs).
17th Round
The best player here is another dropped start who wound up on the Slammers roster. The Gamblers selected All-Star reliever Tyler Clippard with the final pick in the draft, yet Clippard (1-0, 62 Ks, 1.79 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, 22 holds) didn’t make the cut when it came to the everyday Gambler roster. Also noteworthy is the other All-Star selected in the final round, the Sex Panthers’ Chipper Jones.
So as you can see, the later rounds of the draft are definitely worth sticking around for. Several top stars were picked late and many have helped teams remain in contention for the 2011 playoffs.
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