Time for the rest of the draft recap.
Man, that went fast. We did twenty rounds (plus 1 pick) in six days.
Not bad at all, and boy was that fun. The strategy of making a pick or holding off a round; the chatter about every single pick made; the nervousness waiting a few hours to see if your next pick would survive; it was all great.
So great I am half tempted to click the scary button on the back-end of Fantrax that reads: UNDO DRAFT.
I don’t know if it pops up a screen that reads: “ARE YOU SURE?” but I hope to never find out.
That’s seriously the kind of button that needs a second prompt that reads: “ARE YOU FREAKING SURE THAT YOU’RE SURE?”
But enough about scary buttons.
Let’s talk about Rounds 9 through 20.
Round 9 was all about the pitchers. Nine of 12 picks were arms, one was a prospect whose arm failed him in the OF in the worst time (Trent Grisham) and two were teenagers, including Luisangel Acuna to Choo.
The Slammers picked up a pair of arms in Rick Porcello and Daniel Ponce de Leon — and, of course, I love those picks there. Crox got back his golden boy, Jon Lester, the man who sadly lost him a World Series. OK, to be fair, it was his now-manager David Ross who lost it for him. Can you be sure that Ross won’t make a silly decision in September that will spoil a Lester start and lose Crox a World Series?
Crox wants to kill me right now.
Topton’s pick of Steven Matz is interesting here because he could cross town to the Yankees very soon here.
Eight more pitchers went in Round 10, including three to Breakfast who was finally getting the chance to experience the draft. He got Corbin Burnes, Miles Mikolas and Josh Lindblom. There’s definitely some upside there for him, especially last year’s sleeper favorite Burnes, who just fell flat. Maybe 2020 is his year.
The Dude is hoping to catch magic with Johnny Cueto who came back a month too late for me last season, and the Gamblers grabbed his second college arm in Asa Lacy. Unlike Kumar Rocker, Lacy will be drafted this year and will be pitching in the minors by July/August depending on when he signs.
The Sex Panthers grabbed a nice prospect in Round 11 with Sam Huff, who could be her catcher of the future, while Philly went the AARP route with Anibal Sanchez and Daniel Murphy. I joke about the age, as those two are very good picks. Sanchez continues to pitch well into his 30s, while Murphy could be a nice bounce-back candidate.
Quad Eh also snagged a nice prospect pitcher in Braxton Garrett, who was highly touted out of high school and has slowly climbed the ranks of the Marlins system over the years. Now 22, it’s not out of the question to maybe see the lefty pitching in the majors later this season.
Another Miami prospect headlined a 12th round that saw seven relief pitchers go — maybe eight, depending on where Michael King lands in the Yankees rotation battle. Butter got Jesus Sanchez, a player who he did not keep heading into the draft, and wound up getting him in the 12th.
Round 13 gets us to the point where I’m running out of stuff to talk about, so I’ll point out the interesting moves from here on out for each team.
Big Ol’ Country Breakfast
His 18th-round selection of Danny Jansen highlights the final seven rounds for me. Jansen has worked on his swing in the offseason to get rid of the issues that plagued him at the majors. Jansen was a great hitter before he arrived in Toronto, and he did show brief flashes of brilliance, but it wasn’t enough as his average hovered around .200 most of the season. He’s hitting in camp and with that lineup, he’ll be in a good position to hit better this year. He also has a good eye and he’ll have OBP for Breakfast. As I told Sam, there’s a good chance Jansen is his everyday starter by June, not Salvador Perez.
Crox Sox
I know Crox loves his 17th-round pick in Andres Gimenez, but I’m going to go with his very last pick, Kyle Seager. Crox needed a third baseman with Bobby Dalbec likely heading back to the minors, so he grabbed Seager with the final pick. He’s only 32 — I say only because it feels like he should be older; I opened the player card expecting to see 35 or 36 — and there are some decent bats in that Seattle lineup. Maybe, just maybe, there’s a return to the player he once was, or someone close?
Choopacabras
Rounds 13 through 20 had to provide Choo with something good considering what he did in the first 11 rounds.
I somewhat kid here, but he had a few noteworthy picks here. Yasiel Puig will be a good one value-wise if he actually signs. He should, but it is shocking that we aren’t even hearing solid rumors on him.
Choo did add a high-value guy in Nate Lowe who has a team but doesn’t appear to have a spot to play. If he can get Lowe and Puig into daily lineups, we’ll look back at this part of the draft and regret our personal decisions to avoid these two players.
Gameday Gamblers
Parker spent a good amount of time in the Caribbean for this part of the draft. His two picks of Erick Pena and Robert Puason are the best picks here as their upside is there and it’s worth having them in green for the “who knows” factor.
JimmyJam Slammers
I was very similar in Parker’s strategy nabbing Yoelkis Cespedes and Pedro Leon, but my best pick in these rounds may have been Cole Tucker. He’s on fire right now and the Pirates plan to keep him with the big league club no matter what, evening pondering a move to second base for him. With a swing described as “Yelich-like,” it’s not a bad flier to take on a guy in the 13th round.
Little Lebowski Urban Achievers
Edward Cabrera could be a dude, and the Dude got him in the 14th round. I kind of thought Cabrera would go sooner and I was a round away from snagging him if he was still there. Dude took care of that for me. The 6-4 righty struck out 116 in Single-A and Double-A last year, boasting a 2.23 ERA and a 9-4 record in 19 starts. With only 31 walks and a sub-1.00 WHIP, Cabrera is an interesting arm who has looked good in camp this year.
Monkeys Never Slack
What? So? I changed his name. He can Slack me if he doesn’t like it.
He didn’t have a 13th- or 14th-round pick, so Monkeys’ best pick is his 19th-rounder Jonathan Schoop. His post-Oriole days have been bad, but maybe, just maybe, a return to a team that has nothing to play for — the Tigers — will bring him back to his 2017 form where he hit .293 with 32 homers and 105 RBIs.
Philly Cheese Steaks
Joe Ryan is a sly pick in Round 17 and his strikeout-to-walk ratio in the minors is ridiculous. That said, I’m going to go with a weird pick here. Homer Bailey. I know it sounds crazy, but this may be JV’s best pick of the later rounds.
I know what you’re thinking. Homer Bailey? The best? Jesus, Jimmy. Can you write a blog post where you don’t make fun of JV?
But I’m being serious. I had Homer Bailey targeted — not queued, though — for this draft. I got a lot of my targets early that I didn’t expect to get so Homer was going to be a pick in the 11 to 13 range for me, too. Last season, he pitched really well down the stretch with a 3.86 ERA in 35 innings in August and a 2.28 ERA in 23.2 innings in September. He’s now in Minnesota where the offense will be there even if his ERA ticks up a bit closer to his career total of 4.57. He was 13-9 last season with Oakland and Kansas City, and I would be willing to be crazy enough to say he could get 15 wins with a full, healthy season in Minnesota.
Quad Eh All-Stars
The man up North went after a few pitchers who were once highly touted, but have fallen back to Earth in Kendall Graveman, Eric Lauer and Taijuan Walker. The latter being picked in the 20th round is a nice flier to have through camp, but Eric Lauer is the most intriguing to me. I think Milwaukee could be the right fit for him to get back on track and achieve the lofty expectations he had in San Diego.
Sex Panthers
For the Panthers, I like the Domingos in the late rounds. Domingo Santana is in line to get some playing time in Cleveland, and he’ll be platooned to maximize his strengths which will bode well numbers-wise for Gina. She’ll just have to be vigilant to make sure he’s playing that day — a tough thing to do when your bedtime is 3 p.m., 4 p.m. or 5 p.m., depending on the day.
The other Domingo, Mr. German, will wait on the bench for 63 games and join the Yankees in June. He went 18-4 last season, so the waiting game will hopefully pay off for the Panthers.
Oh, and she got her very first fantasy baseball player back, Albert Pujols, in Round 19.
Steroid.ERA
Butter’s best pick of the latter rounds is likely Brandon Marsh. There have been so many good things coming out of camp about him, and that creates a scenario where we could soon see an outfield in LA that has Trout-Adell-Marsh.
Not to be confused with Simeon Woods-Richardson, the law firm Butter took in Round 19.
Topton Tornadoes
The newest JLB drafter did rather well for himself. He really rocked the first half of the draft, and did a nice job filling in pieces in the latter part of the draft. The pick I like the most is Wil Myers at 18. Low-risk, high-reward here, and there’s always a chance that San Diego moves him and he goes to a place where he can be a DH.
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