A Look Back

I watched the scroll at the bottom of my television screen the other day and it informed me that Max Scherzer was optioned to Triple-A Toledo. So, in addition to the excitement that the Mud Hens (I think that's what they're called) are getting a great new top-of-the-rotation starter, the fantasy baseball ramifications also leapt to the front of my mind. Now, I knew that in my Baseball Stars fantasy league (named after the customizably awesome NES game) Scherzer was taken by worthy foe Islamabad Beard. This tickled me, because the Beard's owner has fleeced me on several occasions in trades. All of this got me thinking about how the other first-rounders have looked so far this year.

The Baseball Stars league has ten keepers, so our draft began in the eleventh round and went a little something like this:

1st - Javier Vazquez (Chin Music; Dan A.)

2nd - Jose Valverde (Kenny Powers All-Stars; Michael Y.)

3rd - Rich Harden (Momaw Navaughn; JMR)

4th - Jered Weaver (the eightpounders; Emily W.)

5th - Scott Sizemore (Hulk Hogan's Heroes; Andy M.)

6th - Juan Pierre (the Trumpet of Conscience; Luke K.)

7th - J.J. Hardy (Momaw Navaughn; JMR)

8th - J.D. Drew (Momaw Navuaghn; JMR)

9th - Max Scherzer (Islamabad Beard; Nick S.)

10th - Carlos Santana (O'Boizez with Two Z's; Joe R.)

11th - Rafael Soriano (Shut Up And Love It; Mike G.)

12th - Brian Fuentes (Balti's Boomsticks; Jon B.)

So, let's start from the top here. Javier Vazquez goes number one overall to Chin Music. It was hard to argue with this choice on draft day, although I wouldn't have made it. Did it work out? Well, Javier Vazquez has a WHIP of 1.78, a 2-4 record (and one of those wins was a relief appearance where he retired one batter) and an ERA north of eight! So, Chin Music struck out with this selection for certain. Perhaps Vazquez will right the ship, but I doubt it at this point. The guy has to be thinking that he'll never be able to pitch in the AL East.

Next taken was Valverde, who has ten saves, a 0.51 ERA and a 0.79 WHIP. So, this ends up being a great pick. I would have made Jose the newest closer for Momaw Navaughn if he had slipped a spot, but he didn't and, clearly, he shouldn't have. I'm going to lump into this paragraph the other two closers who were taken in the first round: Soriano and Fuentes. Soriano has been very solid with ten saves of his own and a 1.59 ERA and 0.94 WHIP. Fuentes is a bit iffier of a selection. His ERA is terrible, but he has notched 5 saves despite a stay on the DL. Not what you want out of your first selection, but it could be worse and Fuentes should end up with decent numbers.

Rich Harden. Sigh. I literally could NOT prevent myself from taking Harden in this slot. Was it the best move? Well, I knew that I had two other selections in the first round, so I felt that I had a bit of wiggle room. And so far Harden has posted a 2-1 record with a 4.74 ERA, making it through the sixth inning in only three of his nine starts. The way my team is designed, though, the ERA and WHIP categories are punted about every week anyway. So, since Harden continues to make bats miss at a good clip he is helping my team a lot more than he's helping the Rangers. Still, maybe not the best value I could have gotten here.

For some reason, Jered Weaver never seems to be a valued commodity. He wasn't kept and thus entered the draft pool along with the newcomers to the AL. Probably, the only reason Jered was drafted here as it is was because the eightpounders were on auto-pick. Weaver's line is pretty spiffy so far this year (despite a disastrous most recent outing). His ERA sits at 3.40, his WHIP is 1.19 and he's on pace for 231 strikeouts (his 60 currently leads the league). Jered may be the pick of the litter.

Scott Sizemore was hitting .206 with a single homer when he was sent back down to play for the Mud Hens (they must be killing those other AAA teams) on Saturday after going 0 for his last 14. As far as first round selections go, Sizemore may go down as the biggest clunker of them all.

The Trumpet of Conscience chose Juan Pierre and added him to a lineup that already featured Ichiro, Elvis Andrus, Julio Borbon and Chone Figgins. Pierre has done exactly what you'd expect him to do. He's swiped eighteen bases and little else. If a different team, one who had needed speed, had taken Pierre here then I would've said "great pick". Instead, I'm just going to shrug and marvel at the fact that Luke owns four of the top ten base-stealers in the AL.

The next two picks represented a change in my drafting philosophy over previous seasons. Typically, I'd spend an early pick to take a Desmond Jennings-esque prospect here. Instead, after an excruciating season of failed expectations last year, I focused on winning this season. I took J.J. Hardy and J.D. Drew to fill positional needs. Hardy's been hurt for the last two weeks and was pretty unremarkable before that, but he might chip in with fifteen home runs if he heals up. He'd already hit three before hitting the DL. J.D. looked like a terrible first round pick through the first month of the season. His batting average in April was .197. Since the calendar page turned to May, though, J.D. has hit .375 with an OPS of 1.016! That's more than worthy of an exclamation point.

Max Scherzer, of course, is the Mud Hens' latest addition. Why is that? It could be his 7.29 ERA and 1.29 WHIP that got him sent down. It could also be that his K/9 was down from last year's 9.19 to 5.57. Or maybe it's that opponents have a .951 OPS against him. These are seriously troubling numbers for the Beard.

Finally, Carlos Santana. It's too early to tell, obviously, whether or not this is a solid pick. Santana does have 37 RBIs in 39 games in AAA this season. His OPS down at Columbus is a smashing 1.050. Next year at this time we may be declaring this the best pick of the draft.

I'll wrap things up by crosschecking my assessments using ESPN Player Rater data:

1 - Vazquez (345th best in AL)

2 - Valverde (60th best in AL)

3 - Harden (196th best in AL)

4 - Weaver (45th best in AL)

5 - Sizemore (350th best in AL)

6 - Pierre (80th best in AL)

7 - Hardy (205th best in AL)

8 - Drew (30th best in AL)

9 - Scherzer (387th best in AL)

10 - Santana (n/a)

11 - Soriano (65th best in AL)

12 - Fuentes (190th best in AL)

So, what should the first round have looked like in the Baseball Stars league?

1 - Ty Wigginton (11th best in AL) should have been Chin Music's first pick. He would have filled the 1B slot currently occupied by Casey Kotchman. Ty went in round 20 to the Trumpet of Conscience.

2 - Jose Bautista (13th best in AL) should have gone second. Instead, Momaw Navaughn snagged him in round 21.

3 - Alex Gonzalez (19th best in AL) should have been taken here by Momaw Navaughn. His output has been excellent and he would have filled the SS position JMR needed to fill. Alex went in the 22nd round to Islamabad Beard.

4 - Andruw Jones (25th best in AL) should have gone here, although, as mentioned above, hard to argue with the Jered Weaver selection. Andruw went in round 17 to Islamabad Beard.

5 - Austin Jackson (27th best in AL) would have been the perfect selection for Hulk Hogan's Heroes who clearly wanted to go young, but clearly would benefit more from a young player who isn't currently on the Mud Hens. Jackson went in the next round anyway, to Kenny Powers All-Stars.

6 - Scott Podsednik (29th best in AL) would have given the Trumpet of Conscience the speed he so desperately craves as well as some other solid numbers (including a .301 average to Pierre's .253). Kenny Powers All-Stars snagged this character in the 19th round.

7 - J.D. Drew (30th best in AL) should have gone to Momaw Navaughn in this spot. Instead, Momaw Navaughn took him in the next spot.

8 - Alberto Callaspo (31st best in AL) should have been Momaw Navaughn's third first-round selection. It wouldn't have filled much of a need, but depth is nice too. Alberto ended up falling to Chin Music in the 15th round.

9 - Ricky Romero (37th best in AL) probably would have been a better pick for Islamabad Beard than Scherzer. Compton FistFullOfBees ended up taking Ricky in the 21st round.

10 - Shaun Marcum (38th best in AL), for some reason the Jays pitchers are high on the ol' Player Rater. If O'Boizez with Two Z's had taken Marcum here like he apparently should have, then the O'Boizez pitching staff would probably be the tops in the league. Compton FistFullOfBees took Marcum in round 16.

11 - John Buck (41st best in AL)? Really? Yep. Blue Jays battery members only for picks 9 through 11. Still, Shut Up And Love It's Soriano selection probably made more sense, since Joe Mauer would have been tough for Buck to unseat. Still, O'Boizez with Two Z's ended up getting John in the 19th. Good value.

12 - Doug Fister (44th best in AL) would have been the perfect player for Balti's Boomsticks to take here. Instead, Doug went undrafted and Hulk Hogan's Heroes was prescient enough to scoop him off the waiver wire five days after the draft.

Can you believe it that twelve of the Player Rater's top 44 players were available on draft day? Anybody who gets discouraged or takes over a crummy team should take note of this. A great draft can remedy even the lousiest of inherited rosters.