Auction day was here; I was ready. Making sure everybody was going to be in attendance was important; don’t need the auto drafter ruining any/all deals early in the draft. Everybody was there; let’s do this!
The top guys were thrown out there; the top guys were bid on. The bids went up, up, and up… there were no deals to be had for the best of the best. If I listened to the lesson I gave just the other day, I should know this; I’m going to have to pay up to get one of these guys… I held pat. I was waiting for the top starting pitcher to be thrown out there; I had to wait until the 17th guy selected. Tarik Skubal would be mine. I penciled in $40 for him; I ended up paying $42… not bad at all. I wanted to go heavy with the starting pitching; this is no secret. It’s pretty much the way I normally go; this year would be no different. 5 picks later someone threw out Cole Ragans; I wanted him too. I felt like $22 for him was a steal. OK, I have my 1-2 guys at the top of my rotation. What about the offense?
Pretty much all the big guys were gone. As I looked back after the draft was over, and I had $19 left to spend, I knew I could have gone after one of them; I would have been just fine. At the time, I didn’t feel the need; I had plenty of guys I wanted… maybe not top guys, but certainly very good players. $29 for Seager, $22 for Bregman, and $19 for Rooker rounded out my top 3 batters. The thing I didn’t account for, was how quick bids would fall off a cliff this year. Everybody went so strong early, that the middle of the draft was wide open; bidding was very tame. Furthermore, for some reason, nobody wanted to pay for closers this year, so… they all went dirt cheap; if I would have known that trend would continue, I would have paid a few extra bucks to get the top guys still on the cheap. Always lessons learned…
Back to the rotation next with Pablo Lopez at $9! See what I mean? I got Jordan Westburg for $11, another value pick IMO. I did have to pay up for Schwellenbach at $16, but I had the cash; it wasn’t a problem. $12 for Arraez was just fine for a guy I really wanted. After that, all single digits!!! Amazing! Steele $5, Riley Greene $4, Duran $3, Joe Ryan $5, Xavier Edwards $4, Ryan Pepiot $5, Pasquantino $6, Cowser $3, and Chapman $3 until the $1 players came into play. Lane Thomas, Keibert Ruiz, Kris Bryant, Joey Bart, Jordan Romano, Max Meyer, and Jesus Luzardo all dollar players. The only others ones I had to pay more than that for were Senga $6, Cam Smith $2, Byron (I can’t quit you) Buxton $3, and Mackenzie Gore $2. Pretty crazy to see it play out this way.
I don’t like leaving money on the table, but I didn’t feel like I did terrible either. Knowing how the draft ended up going, I would have went in for a big dude; I still had guys on my list to draft when my roster was filled. No matter how long I’ve been doing this, every year goes a bit different. With many additions and subtractions to go throughout the year, the playoff roster is surely not set; yeah, I said playoffs… haha. Not making the playoffs? Somebody will get fired…
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