It’s Tuesday night, and with my work schedule, it feels like a full week has gone by since we officially put Monkey on the clock.
And here we are, 72 hours after the draft started with Round 10 underway.
Not a bad pace at all.
It’s certainly much faster than I expected it to go.
Everyone in the JLB knows my opinion on the slow draft. I love it from a commish standpoint. I love it from a deep dynasty drafting standpoint.
And now, after three days, I love it from a JLB community standpoint because it has been so much fun to comment and react to every pick in the draft.
Too often in the live two-hour draft, you’re too busy tending to your roster and surfing the player pool, you don’t have time to commend someone’s pick or talk about how and why it’s a good pick — or a bad one.
So, with that, let’s play some best-pick, worst-pick with Rounds 1 through 8. (I got up to 8 and it was midnight so I’m ready for bed).
ROUND 1
BEST PICK: Max Kepler, Pick 2, by Topton — This was a quality pick that filled a much-needed hole for Topton who entered the draft with four extra minor leaguers. Kepler provides the best average, power and run potential of the first round.
WORST PICK: Joe Musgrove, Pick 7, Choo — I can’t imagine Musgrove was on anyone’s radar at this point, but somehow he was on Choo’s. With a 4-plus ERA and a 1.2-plus WHIP, Musgrove hasn’t been that trustworthy starter you’d want to get in Round 1. Especially consider a guy like Mike Minor was still on the board. Dude once again watches a player like that drop to him late in the first.
ROUND 2
BEST PICK: Jose Urquidy, Pick 2, Topton — Yes, giving some love to Topton again. I really thought Urquidy would go first round. If I wasn’t so high on Nick Gonzales, I definitely would have made that pick at 1-5.
WORST PICK: Tie between Hector Neris at Pick 5 by Monkey and Luis Severino at Pick 9 by Choo. Neris is a closer and taking one that high is always dicey, especially with the talent on the board, and I’ve checked around. It seems that nobody was even remotely thinking of drafting Severino in the first 10 rounds of the JLB draft. “Maybe Round 17,” one said anonymously while giggling over the second-round waste.
ROUND 3
BEST PICK: Nick Solak, Pick 11, Quad Eh. I select this not for my bias of wanting to pick Solak, but rather because others quickly chimed in to call it the steal of the draft at that point. Solak could really be a home run there for Quad Eh, and being the 35th player taken, that’s not bad at all.
WORST PICK: Well, Choo didn’t pick this round, so let’s go with Nate Eovaldi and that junk 5.99 ERA he posted last year. Crox took him here with Pick 12 when there were plenty of other options at pitcher. Yes, he’s hoping for a bounceback, and he may get it, but at this point, this goes on paper as the worst of the third.
ROUND 4
BEST PICK: I think there is some big upside to the Quad Eh Austin Hays pick, and even the Ian Happ pick, as much as we busted Choo for it, but I’m going to be biased here and go with my pick of Didi Gregorius. He has 30/80 potential with the Phillies hitting in the heart of that lineup at the No. 5 spot behind Hoskins (say the projections). He could have the most productive season of the 12 players taken in the fourth round.
WORST PICK: I’m going to skip this here because honestly, I don’t think there was one pick that I can call worst. Garrett Richards has promise for 2020, and the relievers taken aren’t the worst idea for that spot. So yeah, great job JLB!
ROUND 5
BEST PICK: Four rookies and two prospects took up half of this round, so the best pick could end up being Andrew McCutchen if he can return to what he was at the start of 2019. Choo took him at Pick 9 (57th overall). But I’m going to actually go with Mallex Smith. His average has struggled, but he still gets on base and steals 40 bags. That’s a game-changer and he was the only player with that stolen base potential in the draft. Monkey took him with Pick 1 in the fifth.
WORST PICK: Another round where this is tough. I’m going to go Shogo Akiyama, and this isn’t fair to Butter, but I’m saying he’s the worst of the good fifth round, and that’s only because he’s got a lot to prove to earn more than a platoon share in that OF.
ROUND 6
BEST PICK: More rookies and green guys. (And how the hell was I made fun of for my one?) Don’t hate on my boy Shoemaker who was a Cy Young pitcher for 5 weeks before the worst luck on a rundown ended his season, but the best pick of this round goes to Sam who grabbed the other player returning from an ACL tear. Salvador Perez is back. He’s only 29 years old and I cannot see how his projections have him at .245 average. He’ll provide power and run production for Breakfast in a spot that is tough to get that outside the top-tier catchers. Perez was in that top tier. I don’t see why he cannot get back there for 2020.
WORST PICK: The Cheese Steaks’ pick of Michael Pineda gets the worst pick of Round 6 for me. It could be a good one at the end of the season, but for right now, a guy who is suspended for nearly 40 more games to start the season. So for about six fantasy matchups, Cheese will have to roster a pitcher who can only sit on the bench and take up space. That’s tough when you look back and say, “Yeah, I got that space hog in the sixth round.”
ROUND 7
BEST PICK: Butter did some decent damage here grabbing two quality catchers I like for 2020, including Omar Narvaez, who has that DH label to go with his C listing. But, the top pick in this round goes to the Gamblers with Zach Davies. Moving to San Diego will only help that 3.55 ERA he put up in Milwaukee.
WORST PICK: Gosh, is it really Jesse Winker? Topton got him back — well, yes, he never personally had him, but the franchise did. Winker has that promise to be something more than he has shown since being dealt to the Slammers, but it will be tough to find consistent time in that OF.
ROUND 8
BEST PICK/WORST PICK: This is a rather boring round. A bunch of question marks, RPs and injury concerns. So, maybe the best pick is Griffin Canning by Sam because he got him back, but that will only mean so much if the diagnosis is what most people believe it will be. Selfishly, I like Jake Arietta in this round because I thought he’d go earlier. That said, Justin Dunn, Danny Duffy and Pablo Lopez all look like good picks. Worst pick, I suppose, would have to be Tyler Chatwood, but that’s because he walks the world. Maybe he did the cool thing and went to Driveline to fix that.
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