I did something I said I wouldn't do: I took Elly De La Cruz with the fourth pick of a draft, making him the first player selected after the obvious top three of Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge and Bobby Witt.
Part of it owes to the encouraging reports of his shorter, quicker stroke this spring, but a bigger part of it owes to the scoring format -- a Yahoo-style Head-to-Head categories league with only 10 lineup spots (the usual eight plus two DH) to balance the five hitting categories.
With so few lineup spots and so many hitting categories, there isn't room to dilly-dally. You need players who can really put a dent in a category -- without fear of overdoing it since any excess only improves your chances of winning that category every week -- and there is no clearer dominator of any one category than De La Cruz. If he takes the step forward many hope he will, he may dominate more than one.
So that was my thinking behind the De La Cruz pick, and it was also the thinking behind taking Tarik Skubal in Round 2, something I also said I wouldn't do. Partly I never imagined he'd make it to Pick 21, and then when he did, I decided that the surefire advantage he offers in ERA and WHIP was too good to pass up in a format where every week is a struggle to win as many categories as possible.
This manner of thinking informed my third-round selection of Ronald Acuna, my fourth- and fifth-round selections of Marcell Ozuna and Kyle Schwarber (thank goodness for two DH spots), and my sixth-round selection of Lawrence Butler. It was basically top of mind for the entire draft. Simply put, I wanted players who could dominate at something, giving me numbers I could bank on every week instead of just here and there and maximizing the impact of the few spots I had. (Bigger risks were also justified given the caliber of hitters that go undrafted in this format).
And it seemed like most everyone subscribed to this thinking to some degree. You can see it in the higher-volume pitchers like Luis Castillo, Aaron Nola and Logan Webb slipping behind ratio darlings like Tyler Glasnow, Bryce Miller and Spencer Schwellenbach. You can see it in a less-proven player like Dylan Crews, who figures to provide gobs of steals, if nothing else, going ahead of more-proven players who don't excel at any one particular thing, like Bryan Reynolds and Riley Greene. You can see it from this special group of drafters who made the entire thing possible:
1) Michael Waterloo, The Athletic (@MichaelWaterloo)
2) Kayla Walz, former Podcast League participant
3) Nick Francis, Nick's Picks (@nicksMLBpicks)
4) Scott White, CBS Sports (@CBSScottWhite)
5) B_Don, Razzball (@RazzBDon)
6) Doc Eisenhauer, Scout the Statline (@DocHollidayDyna)
7) Chris Mitchell, FantasyData (@CJMitch73)
8) Sean Millerick, Marlins Maniac (@miasportsminute)
9) Frank Stampfl, CBS Sports (@Roto_Frank)
10) Zac Morain, Driveline Baseball (@makeitmorain)
11) Phil Ponebshek, Patton & Company
12) Nick Fox, NBC Sports (@CT_FOX)
Some quick thoughts before we get to the results:
- One hallmark of this format is daily lineup changes, which made Shohei Ohtani the obvious choice at No. 1 since you could switch him to pitcher on the days he's starting and not sacrifice too much of his hitting production. Michael Waterloo, who made the pick, did offer that he would have gone with Bobby Witt instead if the hitter version of Ohtani and the pitcher version of Ohtani were two separate players, which I understand to be the norm in Yahoo leagues.
- The daily aspect of this format also makes relief pitchers -- even those not in line for saves -- more attractive since they can be inserted for starting pitchers who happen not to be starting that day. It's a big reason why I drafted four myself, including Lucas Erceg, who wouldn't appear to be in line for saves (though I think he actually may be). Other relievers who moved up in the draft because of this were Kirby Yates (Pick 180), Porter Hodge (188), Ben Joyce (197), A.J. Puk (201), Edwin Uceta (217), Griffin Jax (233), Luke Weaver (239), Bryan Abreu (248), Joel Payamps (252), Cade Smith (260) and Jason Adam (273).
- This was our first draft since word broke of Spencer Steer likely beginning the year on the IL due to a shoulder issue that doesn't have a clear diagnosis or timetable, and he fell all the way to 257th, about 130 spots below ADP. I think part of the reason he slid so far is because everyone wanted to stockpile their benches with pitchers to take advantage of the daily lineups, but the thought occurred to me during the draft that I don't know why we'd take Steer ahead of Zachary Neto at this point. From a 5x5 perspective, Neto projects for better numbers than Steer, and there's at least a trajectory to his injury -- one that even put him coming back sooner than Steer. I ended up taking Neto four picks after Steer went.
- Among the players who climbed in this draft based on spring happenings were Clay Holmes (208), who has so far taken well to his move to the rotation, flashing an expanded arsenal that should help him counteract left-handed hitters, Kristian Campbell (218), who appears to be in line for the Red Sox's second base job if he can begin to string some hits together, and Max Meyer (229), who has flashed improved velocity early on.
