2011 Draft Results: Middle Infielders Targeted

Second base and shortstop continue to be shallow positions in fantasy baseball, with the upper tiers separating themselves from the middle and (God forbid) lower tiers pretty drastically. Only 16 positionally eligible players (9 2B; 7 SS) rank in the top 100, according to MockDraftCentral.com. So if you miss out on some of the upper-to-middle tier players, you could find yourself in a whole mess of trouble filling those roster slots all season long with whatever player is available on waivers and providing some level of fantasy value in return.

All five leagues I participated in this offseason utilized an extra roster spot for either middle infielders (MI) or infielder (IF), forcing team owners to go even deeper into this pool of players and hoping the ones they picked do more good than damage to their teams.

First, here are the results of my SLOW, online auction at the 2B, SS and MI positions over at CouchManagers.com:

• Troy Tulowitzki ($39)
• Neil Walker ($5)
• Freddy Sanchez ($1)

I was aggressively involved in the bidding for both Hanley Ramirez and Tulowitzki until Ramirez went over the $40 mark and Tulo's other suitors seemed reluctant to take him into the $40 stratosphere. Honestly, if I was willing to go to $41 on a player it wouldn't have been Tulo. I was ready to jump back in on HanRam or change my focus towards Pujols and take it all the way up to $50. With Tulo on my roster to start the season, I'm a very happy camper.

Neil Walker was a definite target of mine and I was happily surprised he flew under the radar for just $5. But more on him in a bit. Freddy Sanchez was simply filler at the MI position that will hopefully hit near his .298 career average and give me 7-10 home runs.

Line of the Day: 04/03/2011

OF/DH Bobby Abreu of the Los Angeles Angels was 5-for-5 with a home run, two RBI, one run and two walks in a 12-9 loss to the Kansas City Royals in 13 innings. Abreu was on base all seven times in a wild game against the Royals that produced several LotD (Line of the Day) worthy performances.

Line: 5 AB, 1 R, 5 H, 2 RBI; HR, 2 BB

Abreu's ADP of 136.5 (on ESPN) puts him in the company of such "has-beens" as Houston's Carlos Lee (139.5) and "under-performers" such as Baltimore's Adam Jones. Fantasy managers shouldn't forget that Abreu has NINE 20/20 seasons and has a current streak of 12 seasons with 20-plus steals to go along with a career OBP of .400. He's 100% owned in ESPN leagues but only 84% in Yahoo! leagues and could be a valuable fourth or fifth outfielder to own.

Agree? Disagree? Check out ESPN's formula for the best daily performance and nominate your own Line of the Day player using the comments section or hitting me up on Twitter.

COSFBA League Member Blogs About His Draft Experience

While recruiting members for the three COSFBA-sponsored fantasy baseball leagues I decided to run this year, I looked to Twitter and baseball blogs (large and small) for participants. Once someone agreed to join, I offered them the opportunity to blog about their experiences within the leagues. John Venrick joined the COSFBA Blog/Twitter League III and decided to write an article about his draft. John is on Twitter and has his own personal blog. Enjoy!

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I was recently invited to a league by the author of this website, and I jumped at the opportunity, thinking that regardless of how the league went, it would be nice to make tangible connections in the community. I have in the past made comments about preferring roto leagues to head to head leagues, but I do like the head to head leagues like this where categories are scored, and it allows for playoffs if you are into that. It would be nice to say that I looked for consistency given the weekly matchups, but I think that tends to be something of a crapshoot.

It's a 10x10 league with OPS, XBH, RC, BB, and TB as extra batting categories and on the pitching side we lose K's but gain K/9, K/BB, BAA, QS, OBA, and HD. On the batting side of things, I thought that there was greater value in power (though I did still try to compete in steals), and as the pitching goes I tried to get high K guys and focus more on Holds than Saves as I think people tend to forget they have equal value in a league that scores both (plus your hold guys might get you the occasional save here or there). Before I dive in to the nuts and bolts of the draft itself, one last thing I would say is that I was impressed about the turnout given that it is an online draft. I don't remember what teams were on autodraft, so that won't make it into my analysis.

Round: 1
(1) BEONDECK Tweets - Albert Pujols 1B
(2) MLB Dirt - Hanley Ramirez SS
(3) Team E - Evan Longoria 3B
(4) Generic generics - Robinson Cano 2B
(5) Fantasy Farm System - Carl Crawford LF
(6) The Outfield Grass - Adrian Gonzalez 1B
(7) COSFBA NitTwits - Ryan Braun LF
(8) Jim Joyce's Eyes - Joey Votto 1B
(9) Team Kranepool Socie - Troy Tulowitzki SS
(10) Fire Eric Bruntlett - Miguel Cabrera 1B
(11) NY VENOM - Jose Reyes SS
(12) Double G Sports - Carlos Gonzalez LF
(13) Juuuust A Bit Outside - Roy Halladay SP
(14) Team DeSando - Josh Hamilton CF
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My thinking here was that there would be plenty of opportunities to grab an outfielder, but second base is not very deep, and really my thinking was that I was hoping to grab Evan Longoria. I was surprised to see Votto go ahead of Cabrera, though I might have made that call as well. I hate the Reyes pick. He won't be on any of my teams, and he certainly wouldn't be my first pick. I don't know if I would have taken Cano in a 10 team league, as Pedroia would likely be available in round 3 of a league that size, but I was not confident of such here.

Line of the Day: 04/02/2011

SP Kyle Drabek of the Toronto Blue Jays pitched seven innings of one-hit ball, allowing one earned run, walking three while striking out seven to earn his first major league win. The Blue Jays beat the Twins 6-1. Drabek took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before allowing a single to Minnesota's Denard Span.

Line: 7 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K

Drabek is a young, quality right-hander that is only owned in 20.5% of ESPN leagues and 32% of Yahoo! leagues. This start proves he's worth keeping an eye on as an option to stream or pick up if your team is already been bitten by the injury bug.

Agree? Disagree? Nominate your own Line of the Day player using the comments section or hitting me up on Twitter.

Line of the Day: 04/01/2011

C J. P. Arencibia of the Toronto Blue Jays was 3-for-4 with a triple, two home runs, five RBI, two runs and 11 total bases in a 13-3 Opening Day rout of the Minnesota Twins. Amazingly, he also hit two home runs in his major league debut last August.

Line: 4 AB, 2 R, 3 H, 5 RBI, 2 HR

Arencibia is only owned in 21.3% of ESPN leagues and 29% of Yahoo! leagues. Before overspending for his services, be aware that it's being reported that Jose Molina will be catching Kyle Drabek in Saturday's game and it was reported during Spring Training that Arencibia will be splitting the catching duties 60/40 with Molina this season. Who knows how long that will hold true if Arencibia keeps having days like these.

Agree? Disagree? Nominate your own Line of the Day player using the comments section or hitting me up on Twitter.