Draft Recap
Round 1.1 - 1B Norm Cash
I think Verlander is the "right" choice here as not only the better option (Tigers don't have much pitching) but also slightly lower salary so pick one spot ahead of Cash in the 2nd Round. The interesting thing for the Tigers is you're either playing in HR-happy Tiger Stadium or pitcher paradise Comerica. Once I took Cash, I knew I was going Tiger Stadium. Anyway, offense is more fun and I've never played with Cash.
Round 2.3 - SP Hang Aguirre
That one spot cost me Scherzer. Was deciding between Aguirre and the big-IP relief year from Willie Hernandez (as well as Al Kaline). Aguirre still got me under cholatse and was by are the best SP left with a decent HR total. He must have actually been a part-time reliever with just 5.1 IP/G but I like to go short rotations so not a problem for me.
Round 3.3 - RP John Hiller
Hiller isn't as good as Hernandez but he's got 126 really good innings with a decent HR/9. Welcome aboard. The position players at this point are very tough to distinguish so I'll just let the crowd thin out. This pick also jumps me to the top of round 4.
Round 4.1 - OF JD Martinez
I had targeted Rocky Colavito as a HR-hitting CF option but he went right before me. I looked at a lot of IF options here including Tony Phillips (went with the next pick), Carlos Guillen (went 3 picks later), and Placido Polanco, but I wanted HRs. 2B is deep for the Tigers and I had targeted Dick McAuliffe as my power-hitting SS so passed on Guillen. That left JD Martinez as the best power option.
Round 5.1 - C Mickey Tettleton
I know I should have waited on catchers, there are plenty of good options, but Mickey is an old favorite of mine and I had to have him so I blew a pick on him. Really backfired when Lance Parrish, my #2 option, went undrafted!
Round 6.1 - SP Anibal Sanchez
Debated Travis Fryman here but figured I'd try to get Anibal Sanchez and Doug Fister so I had to take one now. Fister went two picks later, oh well.
Round 7.1 - 3B/SS Travis Fryman
3B is super weak for the Tigers. Like Miguel Cabrera has a usable 3B year and we still have teams starting Don Wert and Dmitri Young at 3B. Fryman can play 3B or SS, as can McAuliffe who I definitely want to get so they can hold down the left-side of the IF in some form.
Round 8.1 - 3B/SS Dick McAuliffe
Damn, Fidrych went two spots ahead. Again, could probably wait on McAuliffe but there's very little separation at most positions at this point in the draft and I don't have good fallback options if some other Tiger Stadium team wants his power.
Round 9.1 - 2B Damion Easley
Another reach. 2B is really deep for the Tigers but it only goes 5 deep, then falls off a cliff. When phillyboy107 took Whitaker, that meant Phillips was moving to the OF and now 2B was only 4 deep. Would somebody have grabbed Easley? Highly doubt it. But decided not to risk it, again with no other option jumping out to me. Also, phillyboy took his first pitcher this round, his offense is gonna be awesome.
Round 10.1 - OF Chet Lemon
I could have gone full offense and stuck Rob Deer or someone in CF, but Lemon has pretty good pop and A+ range so he was an easy choice for me here once Northrup and others were off the board.
Round 11.1 - SP Jim Bunning
Ugh, the pitching is just abysmal for the Tigers. Bunning has a ton of decent innings and doesn't get killed by the long ball.
Round 12.2 - Kyle Farnsworth
Round 13.1 - Don McMahon
Round 14.1 - Al Alburquerque
Bunning drops me to 2nd for the first time in a while but we're heading into no-man's land of the draft so not a big deal. I guess I'll go best RPs with more than 40 innings and again, not a terrible HR rate. Get three in consecutive rounds here.
Round 15.1 - OF Champ Summers
It was quite a run on pitchers--16 out of 19 picks before this. Summers is a masher I had my eye on all along and with two righty OFs locked in, I needed some lefty pop. I took his more expensive 367 PA season in case I needed it (only $40k more) but fully expected to use his more potent 292 PA season, which I did.
Round 16.1 - OF Gates Brown
Ditto the Summers comment, even including the part where I took his more expensive season as insurance but used the cheaper but higher-quality season ultimately. Two people bemoaned this pick so I took him at just the right time.
Round 17.1 - SP Joe Coleman
One of the last decent starters without a major gopher problem. I don't see how we're not in the bottom 5 in runs allowed, gonna need to outscore teams all season!
Round 18.1 - OF Willie Horton
I need a third semi-full time OF and Horton is easily the best one left of the major power hitters.
Round 19.1 - C Duke Sims
The last of my major components, Sims has a very nice 126-PA partial that will be a great PH and spell Tettleton when neded.
Round 20.1 - RP Octavio Dotel
Round 21.1 - RP Bill Monbouquette
Round 22.2 - UT Omar Infante
Round 23.1 - 1B Darrell Evans
Round 24.1 - OF Rob Deer
Round 25.1 - P Walt Terrell
Filled out the roster with a couple decent relievers and an innings eater. Needed some backup IF help and Infante has decent punch in his bat (16 HR) and plays a respectable 2B, 3B, SS, and even OF. Nice! Evans (lefty, can "play" 3B) and Deer (best HR/AB# numbers) win the final two spots for bench bats that I probably won't need too often.
Strategy:
With such terrible starting pitching and so many position players close to each other, I'm going to try and get as few pitcher at-bats as possible. (Really Norm Cash is my only cut-above player who I won't double switch.) That starts with a 3-man rotation (Aguirre, Bunning, Coleman) with Sanchez in long relief. I wonder if I can even go with a 2-man rotation and put Aguirre into long relief and pull Bunning/Coleman ASAP, but I'm guessing I'd run into appearance fatigue? Anyway, should be fun to try and bomb away. I think we'll actually have 3 Tiger Stadium teams, with only kentol playing in Comerica. Good thing I loaded up on innings!