You can see the full results of the draft here.
Just for context, here are my league settings:
- 12 teams
- 6×6 (R, HR, RBI, SB, AVG, TB+BB+HBP – QS, K, ERA, WHIP, SV, HD)
- C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, IF, LF, CF, RF, OF, 9P
- 13 bench, 22 minors
- Keep forever, no contracts.
- $525 auction budget (big budget, but I like big rosters and I cannot lie)
Obviously, heading into this draft, I did not know what other owner strategies would be. Would a bunch of owners be looking to compete this year, driving up the prices of aging stars? Or would there be bidding wars on the young guys and even prospects while age fell through the cracks?
My strategy was to aim for a couple seasons out. Plan to lose this season, hopefully finish in the money next season, and really compete starting 2026. Obviously, this was going to be flexible because…well, if that was everyone else’s strategy, I’d be happy to take the discounted championships now. That means that I don’t really want anyone over 28 on my team, and I was aiming for young 20s as much as possible. I also was willing to pass up on the expensive guys, even the young ones, because my hope is to nab 10 high upside prospects I like with the cost of one of those players, and hopefully hit on a few.
I really liked the way my draft went. I would have loved to get one of the young superstars – either Witt, Carroll, or Julio Rodriguez, but their prices got above $80 and I was out. I was willing to take Julio below that and was in on the bidding, but let him go in the end when it got over $75. I felt that with my vision of a longer term build, I couldn’t afford that cost. There would be value later on.
I got Elly De La Cruz for $47 right off the bat. I know he has some risk, but considering the prices that the “less-riskier” guys were going for, I thought it was a pretty good discount for having one of the highest young upside in baseball. For comparison, here is what other top guys went for:
- Ronald Acuña $105
- Corbin Carroll $83
- Julio Rodriguez $79
- Bobby Witt Jr. $87
- Spencer Strider $70
- Shohei Ohtani – $81
- Juan Soto – $75
- Kyle Tucker $78
- Mookie Betts – $62
- Fernando Tatis Jr. – $50
- Luis Robert Jr. $54
- Yordan Álvarez – $61
- Ozzie Albies – $52
So…Elly for $47 feels like a pretty good get. I also really like Tatis at $50 and regret a bit passing on him there.
Next, I spent $44 on Eury Pérez. I might have overpaid for him, but Strider went for $70 and Cole went for $49 and the only way I was spending anything on a pitcher with my timeframe was if the guy was 20 years old and might be one of the greatest pitchers I’ve seen. I was willing to take the injury risk on him too.
One guy was really reckless and, as I said, went hard after the top prospects. He threw up Chourio for $100 off the bat, so it’s hard to know how much he would have actually gone for if the guy hadn’t done that. He did the same with Dominguez at $75. Not sure what he was thinking. The guy I regretted not challenging him on was Langford at $45. In the moment, that felt way too high, but looking back, I think I would have pulled the trigger. He paid $29 for Kyle Manzardo and $35 for Coby Mayo which I was not going to touch. I ended up taking Colt Keith from him at $37 which was expensive, but damn, that was what I had to do.
For the most part, I found myself letting the vets pass, even when there was some good value there. I took the young guys when I felt like there value to be had. The place I really went to town was the younger prospects outside the top 10. I didn’t really touch any of the top ten guys since their price was so high. So I basically got my pick of the rest. With the most auction money on the board late into the draft, I went out and got the guys I wanted. I figured that, even if 70% of those picks don’t pan out, I’ve got about 30 minor leaguers – almost all in my top 50 list – and even if a few of them become studs, my teams will be very, very good. I went very light on pitching prospects for obvious reasons.
Without further ado…here is my team:
My Team:
- C: Fransisco Alvarez ($12)
- 1B: Josh Naylor ($16)
- 2B: Colt Kieth ($37)
- SS: O’Neil Cruz ($28)
- 3B: Elly De La Cruz ($47)
- IF: Anthony Volpe ($17)
- LF: Masataka Yoshida ($8)
- CF: Jazz Chisholm Jr. ($24)
- RF: Jack Suwinski ($2)
- OF: Parker Meadows ($3)
- UT: Royce Lewis ($25)
- UT: Josh Jung ($15)
BN
- Cal Raleigh ($5)
- Jonathan India ($2)
- Maikel Garcia ($3)
- Vaughn Grissom ($2)
- Masyn Winn ($7)
- The other 9 bench spots I have minor leaguers.
Pitching:
- Logan Gilbert ($16)
- Hunter Brown ($15)
- Bryce Miller ($7)
- Eury Perez ($47)
- Emmet Sheehan ($3)
- Bryan Woo ($12)
- Griffin Canning ($2)
- Braxton Garrett ($4)
- Alek Manoah ($2)
BN:
- Garrett Crochet ($1)
- James Karinchak ($1)
Minor Leaguers:
- Neolvi Marte ($17) – I knew about the suspension and probably got a good discount on him
- Ethan Salas ($13)
- Roman Anthony ($12)
- Pete-Crow Armstrong ($8)
- Walker Jenkins ($17)
- Marcelo Mayer ($5)
- Colt Emerson ($8)
- Emmanuel Rodriguez ($5)
- Jackson Jobe ($14)
- Chase DeLauter ($10)
- Harry Ford ($3)
- Tyler Black ($5)
- Roderick Arias ($2)
- Felnin Celesten ($1)
- Jacob Melton ($2)
- John Cruz ($2)
- Samuel Zavala ($1)
- Jace Jung ($4)
- Lawrence Butler ($2)
- Sebastian Walcott ($3)
- Jett Williams ($7)
- Druw Jones ($7)
- Kevin Alcantara ($3)
- Drew Thorpe ($5)
- Hoping these guys can be closers or elite hold guys:
- Orion Kerkering ($4)
- Lyon Richardson ($1)
- Prelander Berroa ($2)
Your team looks like the ice cream as it comes out of their soft-serve machine….smoooooooth
Well thanks. Weird analogy but I appreciate it. I am super stoked about it. I really picked players who I wanted to actually watch, because fuck it. As Halp over at the ImaginaryBrickWall says, “if you can’t take risks in fantasy baseball, where can you take risks?”
You paid $37 for Colt Kieth?!?!? Are you insane?
Well our happy-go-lucky friend who tossed up Chourio for $100 kept doing that with all the developed top prospects. He threw up Kieth at $36 and I understood at that moment that if I wanted any of the super developed, close-to-the-majors prospects, that was the price.
Um, Cruz, Jazz, Volpe? Yum!
Yeah baby. I found that there was a pretty good discount for players deemed injury risks and for guys who didn’t kill it their rookie years. Given that my time frame is beyond this year, I gladly took those guys, snapping up Jazz Chisholm Jr., Royce Lewis, Anthony Volpe, Francisco Alvarez, and O’Neil Cruz for great value.
I wanted Jordan Walker so bad, but he wasn’t going for a discount and once he got over $40, I was out on him.
But Bryce Miller for $7! I’m not sure what my league mates were smoking.
Why did you take Yoshida? The guys is ooooollllldddd?
Yeah, I know. But I took so many high power/speed combo guys who might kill me on BA, that I was willing to take Yoshida. He should also be a supply of nice counting stats in the Boston lineup. Did I need him? Probably not. But he’s not too old and might still be useful for me when I’m in the running. Plus I only paid $8.
Are you going to win it all this year?
I mean, other than the fact that half of my players are in the minor leagues….maybe? I mean, I’d need to balance out my team a bit with some trading. I have 3 third-basemen and I don’t have someone for an OF spot and I have zero closers and my pitching staff is really questionable. So, no, I probably won’t win. But I know what you mean, because if this team does what I think it can, it’s going to be so dominant.
Realistically, I’ll probably be ready to compete next year and I can make my trades to get the pitching and hitting upgrades I need.
Your farm system!?!?
I know. I don’t know how I got away with that. I mean, my only concern is that the league quits on me because I am literally running an elite baseball development program over here while they’re all aging out. Please join me in a prayer for league longevity. I mean, I have like 6 shortstops coming up.
But about your pitching…
Yeah, it’s not super pretty, but with my timeline beyond this year and the huge turnover in pitching every year, I didn’t want to pay for pitching. Taking Eury Pérez was my big grab and only because he’s so young and developed. Then Jackson Jobe because I felt like his price was very good (Skenes went for $23). After that, I tried to take flyers on pitchers who might take a step forward. Overall, my staff feels very risky. But I don’t care, because I will put together a better staff when my time to win has arrived. Overall though, I’m happy with the young, high upside guys I took. I also took a couple guys who are injured.
But you basically drafted the Mariners’ starting five!
Oh did I? I see value and I draft value and the Mariners’ starting five is gorgeous.
You took Alek Manoah?
I know…I know…I mean, I only paid $2 for him and I’ll see what he can do this year. Or I’ll drop him.
Didn’t take any closers?
Closers are like the trade deadline trades of the bigs. Don’t do it unless you’re going to win, because next year, it’s going to be worthless. And I’m not winning this year. And I sure as hell am not drafting a closer who will probably lose their spot next year – a lot of those guys sold for $20+. So instead, I went for high-upside relievers with Berroa, Richardson, Kerkering, Crochet, and Karinchak.
Have any regrats?
Yeah…I have a couple. I do regret not going harder after Holliday and Langford. I think I would have paid $50 for them looking back. I also regret not bidding up Gunner Henderson at $41. Those guys are so young and so controllable. There’s is obviously some risk still. My strategy was to get the future Langford or Holliday, and I think I set myself up to have most of the top 10 prospect list next year. But I would have liked to grab one of those guys to cement my team.
I regret taking Cal Raleigh at $5. I think it’s a fair value for him, but I wanted Alvarez who hadn’t been put on the board yet, and I do not need to be carrying two catchers. I’ll try to trade him but might need to drop him.
Other than that….not really.
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So, will my team be a league winner? Stick around and find out.
You can read a recap of the whole draft with strategy takeaways here.