My first 2015 draft

My 10-team AL/NL head-to-head league had its draft last week, and I was picking fifth. The 6x6 league has BBs and QSs as the final two categories, and you play nine pitchers (it could be nine SPs and zero RPs, four SPs and five RPs, etc.). The first four picks went as expected with Mike Trout going first, followed by Giancarlo Stanton, Andrew McCutchen and Clayton Kershaw.

The only two players I considered at that point were Paul Goldschmidt and Carlos Gomez. In my own personal projections, I have the former’s 2015 line looking like this: .300/33/101/107/13 compared to the latter’s: .285/95/25/75/38.

It is much harder to find elite average hitters later in the draft than top stolen base contributors, so that made Goldy the eventual choice. He also projects to be a league leader in runs and RBIs, while Gomez is not a top-tier RBI guy.

Over the next four rounds, I saw several of my targets getting drafted a few picks before me (Adrian Beltre, Corey Dickerson and Starling Marte), so I settled for first-tier SPs (Chris Sale, David Price and Jordan Zimmermann).

Interesting sidenote: One member of the league drafted Craig Kimbrel and Aroldis Chapman in rounds six and seven. This is a strategy that I tend to avoid, because you are wasting an early pick on a player that will have excellent ratios and 100 Ks for a reliever, but 185 K SPs with great ratios are still on the board, as were elite middle infielders and third basemen.

I drafted my four closers from rounds 19 to 26 (Joaquin Benoit,Brett Cecil, Santiago Casilla and Luke Gregerson), and they should easily surpass 110 saves, while Kimbrel and Chapman will not.

While it was not my strategy entering the draft, I wound up collecting numerous top prospects with limitless potential. I drafted Kris Bryant, Jorge Soler, Gregory Polanco and Joc Pederson during rounds 10 through 18.

Bryant is actually a great sell-high candidate given his legendary performance during Spring Training, and I already received an offer of Alex Gordon and Matt Kemp for the Cubs wunderkind.

Next, my team appeared to be light on stolen bases, so I snagged Leonys Martin and Ben Revere in hopes that they can combine for 90 steals. I also looked to add Jean Segura or Alcides Escobar later in the draft, but they were taken right before me. With Martin, Revere and the 20-30 SB potential of Polanco and Pederson, however, I still project to be in the top three or four in the league in steals.

Catchers were not a priority for me because I felt that outside of the top five or six, many project to have similar numbers. I grabbed the underrated Miguel Montero (fifth in BBs among Cs in 2014) and the up-and-coming Derek Norris (seventh).

Toward the end of the draft, I took Marcus Semien and Arismendy Alcantara. Both players have 20 HR potential, reasonable speed and dual-position eligibility.

Finally, I ended my draft with three SPs who are not elite K guys, but won’t hurt you in ERA and WHIP like many late round pitchers will. Kyle Lohse and Kyle Hendricks were safe, effective picks, but my favorite of my final picks was Kendall Graveman.

He had elite ERA and solid WHIP totals throughout his minor league career and is a groundballer pitching in a great pitcher’s park. His only knock is his high LOB percentages throughout his minor league career.

The rest of my team: Adrian Gonzalez, Christian Yelich, Matt Holliday, Todd Frazier, Alex Wood, Mat Latos, Neil Walker, J.J. Hardy, Mike Fiers.