seapilots wanted me to take a look at his teams and give him my two cents, so here we go.
1) Randy Johnson - Randy Johnson was a great baseball pitcher, but real baseball and WIS baseball are two different animals. I would prefer to be in the top half of the draft, 17th isn't the greatest starting position. I don't like the idea of taking a left handed starting pitcher in a draft where it's easy for teams to load their lineup with right handed power hitters. I haven't looked to see how Johnson is doing, but I'm afraid he will give up too many homers. If I was here I would have picked either Addie Joss if I went with a pitcher, or grabbed Ted Williams if I was in the market for a tall, skinny left handed hitter from San Diego.
2) Tom Seaver - Once again, Tom Seaver was a great pitcher, but this is WIS. Back when I played on a regular basis, I don't remember anyone using Tom Seaver. Red flag. Seaver is probably a good pick later in the draft, but this was too early. Babe Adams, Joe DiMaggio and Wade Boggs all went right after this pick and I like all of those picks better than Seaver. I would have gone Adams or DiMaggio here.
3) Charlie Gehringer - I like this pick. Good hitter, good defense up the middle, lots of good years. My third round pick was Johnny Bench and so far he has been awful.
4) Chuck Klein - A great hitter, but from a big hitting era. You have to be careful with guys from 1930 or thereabouts. I think it's more likely that I would have taken Larry Walker or Todd Helton with this pick.
5) Keith Foulke - Personally, I would not want to take a reliever this early in the draft, but that's just me. It seems to me guys were still grabbing good relievers late in the draft. Felix Hernandez was still available here, or a number of good hitters if you want to keep grabbing your starting lineup.
6) Nomar Garciaparra - A couple of (green) monster hitting years if you're going for the best two teams strategy. I'm not thrilled with his defense, if I ever take Garciaparra I would want to get a good defensive sub for late innings.
7) Curt Schilling - Another great pitcher, especially in the post season, but I'm afraid (without looking at his actual stats) that he might feed his pet gopher to often. If I was going to go with a pitcher here I would have looked for a starter who gives up fewer home runs.
8) Earl Averill - A good hitter from the thirties, where everyone hit. If I was going to go hitter here, I would have jumped all over Manny Ramirez.
9) Gary Carter - One of the best catchers from his era. I think I would rather have Yogi Berra in the 10th round than Gary Carter in the 9th round, but if you're going to take a catcher, Gary Carter is a catcher. This is what is fun about a baseball draft league, do I take a pitcher or a player, should I grab a starter or a reliever, should I grab the best hitter available or that middle infielder with a good glove?
10) Pie Traynor - Not a big fan of this pick. I like more power from third base. Al Rosen, who has one great season, went in the 12th round. Ken Caminiti, who has one great season, went in the 14th round. If you can't get one of the real good third basemen early in the draft, I would wait and piece something together later. Then again, maybe he was your mom's uncle and you wanted to have Uncle Pie on your team.
11) Arthur Rhodes - Huston Street - Penny Lane - Maxwell Boulevard - The very next pick was Edgar Martinez, a great designated hitter (FROM SEATTLE!). At this point in the draft I would rather take an every day player or a starting pitcher.
12) Vladimir Guerreo - This is more like it. I like .345 with 44 homers more than I like a relief pitcher. If this was basketball, would you rather have a good shooter who can play 36 minutes per game or a good defender who plays 6 minutes per game? If you want relievers, don't let me stop you. I could be totally wrong on the relievers thing, but when we're drafting I like it when someone else takes a relief pitcher. That just leaves one more starter or position player for me.
13) Mike Mussina - I like this pick. Five usable seasons this late in the draft is nice. I decided I was going to draft Mussina and literally one minute later you took him. I had to settle for Mort Cooper, who at best has maybe three decent season.
14) Felipe Rivero/Vadsquez - Relief pitcher. Phooey. Is he still in jail?
15) Jim Bottomly - Was he the best first baseman available? Wasn't he the guy who had 12 RBI's in one game? I think I would have taken McCovey or Mattingly before Bottomly. I say this without looking at his stats. I would have taken a first baseman before the 15th round.
16) Moises Alou & Mike Jackson - Here we are in the 16th round and there are still good hitters available. If you want a good bullpen, is it possible to pick your nine starting players and four or five good starting pitchers and then start building a bullpen?
17) Chris Hoiles & Octavio Dotel - Hoiles seems like a good partner for Carter and Dotel adds to your bullpen.
18) Joe Sambito & Ben Sheets - Sambito had a lot of good years pitching in that giant TV studio better known as the Astrodome. I remember the name Ben Sheets. I don't remember how good he was. I am not going to look him up. I'm sure that Ben was a fine young man and will greatly improve the overall quality of your ball clubs. Not as much as Orville Overall would have, but hey, it's the 18th round.
19) Melvin Mora & Pete Runnels - If I remember, they both had some decent seasons with the bat. At this point I assume you're picking backups who might have a season where they could start.
20) Charlie Hollocher & Derek Lee - Charlie Hollocher..........Derrek Lee is a pretty nice bat for your last pick. I remember thinking in the last round that there were still guys that I wanted to add to my teams available, but we were out of picks. As tired as I was of updating by round twenty, I might want to add a couple of rounds next time so we can add a player or two to get rid of the $200,000 guys and/or some other dead weight.
My opinion is only my opinion, but I am always glad to hear what other people think of how I did. I think we're all always looking for ways to improve.
3/24/2024 8:03 PM (edited)