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Zack Greinke was a guy I looked to target on draft day due to his oustanding peripherals. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Last night I participated in the first draft for my new dynasty keeper league. The league is filled with some smart baseball minds (including one not-so-smart) so I was excited to see how it would go. Based on the scoring categories and layout, I had devised my strategy before the draft and stuck with it. With a unique 8×8 scoring format, it seemed pretty clear on what direction to go with.

As you can see it’s a relatively unique format. Our positional format is 6 SP’s, 5 RP’s and on offense we have C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, CF, RF, OF, DH (any), Util. Only one player at each position which makes it 11 vs. 11. Using this we can determine that both pitching and offense are of equal value. Based on this analysis, I took a look at the categories and tried to determine the best way to nail as many categories at once with a certain type of player. Sine the offensive categories are so varied, it would be pretty hard to find a strong offense worthy of consistently beating opponents since you’re heavily rewarded for power hitters but not directly punished for K’s.

When you take a look at pitching, you can see that ERA, K’s, OBA, QS’, W’s and WHIP can all be strong categories for you if you draft elite pitching where as offense is a bit more tricky. With that being said, I also made an assumption that offense tends to go earlier in fantasy because of the risk of pitching. In a 12-team league, it would be really difficult to create a team that was significantly better than my opponent that week if I followed the same strategy. So instead of hoping to edge out on offense, I went against conventional wisdom and took Aces for the first 6 rounds. Once I had a solid starting staff I concentrated on guys who would help with some undervalued categories like Steals & Runs. I concentrated on getting players who may be overlooked and who could potentially, although risky, blow away their draft position. It’s a high risk move, but could pay off huge if only a couple pay off. If my team doesn’t work out or I get a lot of injuries this year, I could look to move these players and recoup some of the value I gained by taking them. I also tried to remember the guys we all were extremely excited about as soon as last season. Players like Colby Rasmus, Carl Crawford, Justin Smoak, Jason Heyward, Brandon Belt who all still have All-Star potential and could either continue sub-par performance or severely outperform their draft spots.

Below you’ll see my picks in order. We have a minimum of 10 minors players, and once I saw a lot of the prospects starting to move, I adjusted and added them based on personal preference and who was left at the time. Leave some comments and let me know what you think!

(Snake Draft, I pick at #3)
Round     Player

1. Clayton Kershaw
2. Felix Hernandez
3. Zack Greinke
4. Mat Latos
5. Matt Moore
6. Matt Cain
7. Elvis Andrus
8. Carl Crawford
9. BJ Upton
10. Cameron Maybin
11. Dustin Ackley
12. Jason Heyward
13. Mike Trout
14. Ervin Santana
15. Brandon Belt
16. Kendrys Morales
17. Kenley Jansen
18. John Danks
19. Derek Holland
20. Addison Reed
21. David Freese
22. Joaquin Benoit
23. Devin Mesoraco
24. Colby Rasmus
25. Justin Smoak
26. Alexi Ogando
27. Anthony Rendon
28. Archie Bradley
29. Carlos Martinez
30. Ryan Doumit
31. James Paxton
32. David Hernandez
33. Yasmani Grandal
34. Sonny Gray
35.  John Lamb
36. Danny Duffy
37. Jake Odorizzi
38. Jed Lowrie

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