Draft Status

Today was a wonderful day: I caught a matinee of Reno 911!: Miami (funny, if you like the show, you should like the movie. It's like an hour and a half long episode, with the swearing and nudity.), had some delicious sushi at Oyama, talked to a few people that I really enjoy talking with, and had my first fantasy baseball draft of the season!! Things went pretty well, considering I wasn't there for the first five rounds or so, and the computer that I eventually used kept crapping the bed. Luckily, it was never at a moment that really hurt me, so things turned out just fine. I had the first 100 or so players I wanted pre-arranged so if I were to miss some of the draft, I'd at least have some sort of list made up of who I wanted. I lucked out with the 2nd overall pick, and had to take one of my favorite non-(current) Royals player, Carlos Beltran. I may be a homer, but I think Beltran is one of the best all-around players in the league. My other auto-drafted players turned out ok. The only iffy player selections it made were Matt Holiday in the 3rd round and Felipe Lopez in the 5th. But I have confidence in them, they will get the job done.

I was rather proud of my patience in not selecting a Royals player until the 16th round with Ryan Shealy (who I'm thinking is going to be a steal that late), but then I took 3 Royals in rounds 16-20. Each of them could be a solid contributor, the only real risk I feel I'm taking is with Zach Greinke, but I'm predicting stud status for him. Of course, I'm predicting that for all of the Royals players, I should probably take off my blue-tinted glasses.

I had two disappointments during the draft. The first was not getting Alex Gordon, but he ended up going in the 13th round, I was going to grab him in the 15th if he was still there. The other frustrating moment was in the 20th round, I was primed to take Anibal Sanchez, the kid who threw the only no-hitter last year, and I was pumped that he had slipped through the cracks for so long. But of course, the guy with the pick immediately before mine took him, much to my chagrin. I panicked, and ended up getting Greinke the round before I was planning. No worries, though. I like my team very much, I just need to look for some more pitchers, I'm kind of thin there.

My Official Steal of the Draft: Kevin "Greek God of Walks" Youkilis in the 19th round.
My Official Stretch of the Draft: Joel Zumaya in the 11th round... he's good, but he's a set-up man, which usually means no W's or Saves.

Here's the complete draft for my team, The Red Scare Royals

Round (overall) Name Position

1.	(2)	Carlos Beltran	OF
2.	(27)	Justin Morneau	1B
3.	(30)	Matt Holliday	OF
4.	(55)	Dan Uggla	2B
5.	(58)	Felipe Lopez	SS
6.	(83)	Jered Weaver	SP
7.	(86)	Justin Verlander	SP
8.	(111)	Eric Chavez	3B
9.	(114)	Stephen Drew	SS
10.	(139)	Rich Harden	SP
11.	(142)	Joel Zumaya	RP
12.	(167)	Paul Lo Duca	C
13.	(170)	Johnny Estrada	C
14.	(195)	Jorge Cantu	2B
15.	(198)	Akinori Otsuka	RP
16.	(223)	Ryan Shealy	1B
17.	(226)	Mark Teahen	3B
18.	(251)	Zach Duke	SP
19.	(254)	Kevin Youkilis	1B,3B,OF
20.	(279)	Zack Greinke	RP
21.	(282)	Jeremy Hermida	OF