I'm getting a little worried that the best 4-5 players on the board at the end of round 2 will be pitchers (Hamels, Grienke, JJ, Lester, CC, etc)

yeah, i think 44 is right. that's the painful part about taking Felix #5. i almost have to go hitter-hitter in rounds 2 and 3, and if Grienke and Hamels are by far the best on the board, I have to either hope for a trade, get really lucky on offense, draft Coors as my park, or hope for a lot of 2-1 games.

if nothing else, there will be a lot more Colby Lewis, Jamie Garcia type guys who emerge from nowhere on the pitching side than the hitting side, so i almost want to leave room for that at the end of my rotation.

Sounds like a plan.  In a deep draft, you might even want to consider a good hitting, strong armed young catcher like Posey or Santana for your 2nd or 3rd round pick if they're still available (Posey probably won't be, Santana probably will).  I think they were A/A- arms last year.  You should be able to get a good 2B as well -- you'll be in Kinsler/Uggla/Brandon Phillips territory.  Maybe you'll get lucky and Utley will have fallen so far from grace that he'll be available, but I doubt it.  Bet you can get McCutchen, and you should consider it even though OF'ers are a dime a dozen.  But I think hitter/hitter is the way to go -- probably 2B/C considering the depth of the league if the right guys are available.

"1. Tulo - can't argue too much with that"


Damn right you can't.  

It's pretty clear these guys don't do fantasy drafts, btw.

15. Mauer - great position value
16. Lincecum - stud pitcher. 200 IP, low HR
17. Utley - great position value if healthy (probably fell a bit due to hip concerns)
18. Hamilton - love him here
19. Posey - seems like a reach, but could be huge
20. Josh Johnson - would have picked a few other SPs ahead of him, but glad pitchers are going
21. CC - Like him! Mostly just for durability.
22. Uggla - too high for bad glove 2B
23. Wright - probably good value here, solid bat, good position...but
24. Zimmerman - no way I take Wright over Zim

====

25. Holliday - good bat to pair with Zim, Depends how scarce corner OFs get
26. Howard - good bat at 1B, would rather have stud 1B than stud OF here
27. A-Rod - like Zim with a little less glove
28. Kershaw - maybe a reach given IP concerns? But could be studly, good HR9
29. Pedroia - love the upside, but a risk
30. McCutchen - hard to argue with him here
31. Nelson Cruz - very good if he ends up with A- range again, otherwise another corner OF bat, though he can run
32. Teixeira - see Howard
33. Lester - tough to say if I like him more than Kershaw
34. Verlander - on par with Lester
35. Ubaldo - see Verlander
36. Prince - see Teixeira
37. Kemp - damn, was hoping he'd slide. Could be a monster CF. Or could be atrocious again, but still.
38. Greinke - see Ubaldo. Think these 4 went in the right order (maybe Ubaldo over Verlander)
39. Youk - counting on him being a good 3B, if he is, good value
40. Latos - hope arm stays attached, park a big help, youthful upside
41. Reyes - good upside at tough position

Still two guys left in your original Green Room

If you've got the 44th and 53rd picks, I think your pool is Brandon Phillips, Choo, Kinsler, Rollins, Jayson Werth, Justin Upton (despite the bad glove) and Carlos Santana for the 2nd and 3rd rounds.  Hard to argue against something like Phillips/Rollins.  But that's just me.

Here we go...

42. Beltre - like this pick a lot, if he's anything like last year he'll be better than A-Rod
43. Kinsler - brittle but could be a huge return
44. Jose Bautista - my pick. If he can be something like an A/D defender with a 260/360/500 line and 35-40 HR I'm ecstatic
45. Jered Weaver - another solid SP
46. V-Mart - hope he gets enough games in at C to have a decent defensive rating there. Could be risky?
47. Oswalt - another solid SP
48. Haren - and another. Maybe better than Weaver/Oswalt?

====

49. Hanson - great pair with Haren on the turn
50. Gallardo - could be another ace. Pitchers are flying off the board.
51. Weeks - see Kinsler (think I might like him more than Kinsler actually)
52. Matt Cain - probably better than any of the last 5 pitchers taken
53. Carlos Santana - my 3rd ... I couldn't resist the possibility of an elite catcher

Love the Santana pick.  The Bautista pick is irreproachable on anything remotely close to last year's numbers, but visions of Brady Anderson, Roger Maris et al. dance in my head.  Thinking middle infielder/SP#2 for your 4th and 5th picks, maybe not in that order. 

The pitching run that continued on after the Santana pick today was crazy.  After 60 total picks, 24 pitchers are off the board.  This isn't like a historical league draft, where the first two dozen pitchers have some certainty attached to them.  Odds are that a good number of them will underperform in real-life and be less than useful SP1s when we start simming in November.

Pitching is going to be really interesting. The #2s are flying off the board now. There will be a decent failure rate out of those guys. But how many Jaime Garcia, Ricky Romero types will there be this year? Do you draft 5 SPs and hope 4 of them pan out? At this point there are a lot of similar pitchers, so it's just picking the one you like.

Anyway, it's been a while since I updated so here goes.

54. Billingsley
55. Choo - finally off the board. One of the 3 stud OF's picked this round that I really wanted.
56. Carpenter
57. Hamels - like him more than Bills, Carpenter
58. Bruce - killed me not to take him. In my initial 30 he probably should have been above Choo. #2 from the Choo list.
59. Price - due some regression, but HR suppressing park
60. Liriano - monster if healthy - groundballer in Target Field

61. Heyward - see Choo/Bruce
62. J Upton
63. Phillips - earlier than I expected, if he has great D ratings again he's worth it
64. Werth
65. McCann
66. Ichiro - my favorite player in MLB
67. T Hunter - seems early unless he plays CF
68. Scherzer
69. Dunn - we don't have a DH in this league. Hope he plays the field a little.
70. Stanton

71. Ethier
72. G Soto
73. S Drew - hoped he would slide all the way to me. Pipe dream. Underrated.
74. CJ Wilson - seems like a reach, BUT, huge groundball pitcher
75. Pence
76. Kelly Johnson - see Drew
77. Morneau - huge gamble but could pay off if he plays
78. Ellsbury
79. Andrus - like this pick a lot
80. Jeter

81. Rollins - ouch. Was hoping one of the 4 SS's picked this round would slide to me.
82. Aramis - seems a bit high
83. Brett Myers - as good as any of the other SP2s out there, but maybe nothing special
84. Victorino
85. M Prado - questionable if he stays at 3B all year
86. BJ Upton - power CF
87. Gardner - was a 5+ WAR player last year, can he do it again?
88. Marcum - move to the NL should help
89. Lilly - see Myers

Oh man, it's been a while since I updated. Here goes!

90. Alexei Ramirez - great pick, could be better than Jeter or Rollins or Andrus
91. Rasmus - up and coming CF, one of many
92. Zobrist - my pick. Hoping for good glove at 2B, .370 OBP and 15-18 HR. May have overestimated how thin 2B was though.
93. Sandoval - love it if he bounces back, good gamble
94. Furcal - see Sandoval
95. Granderson - another solid CF
96. Wandy - love his upside here
97. Chris Young (AZ) - 96 and 97 to the same person, a killer good turn
98. Buchholz - due some regression, how far does he fall?
99. Billy Butler - counting on monster OBP
100. Stubbs - another great CF, I almost took him but the K rate scared me

101. Brett Anderson - my pick. Love the GB% and park. Injuries worry me.
102. Nolasco - can he keep the HRs in check?
103. Alex Rios - great if he has CF range
104. Brian Wilson - really, a closer? ouch
105. Konerko - love this pick, not many boppers left
106. Brian Roberts - ouch, such a gimp
107. Markakis - see Butler
108. Kendry Morales - see Konerko. Passing these 2 means I probably don't get 30 HR at 1B
109. Pedro Alvarez - love the upside, fell too far
110. Swisher - love the OBP/30HRs

111. Colby Lewis - solid innings guy
112. Corey hart - low OBP but lots of power and upside
113. V Wells - not a CF any more, how much does he hit?
114. Michael Young - needs to play the field enough to have value at 2B or 3B, otherwise ouch
115. Rolen - good veteran pick
116. Adam Jones - another solid CF goes off the board
117. Wieters - hope the bat rebounds a bit, good glove and PAs
118. Tim Hudson - love this pick, great GB%
119. Cahill - low K rate could spell a ton of regression but love the park
120. Beltran - can he walk? Not a CF any more

121. Kuroda - love this pick too, so underrated
122. Austin Jackson - yet another CF
123. Garza - guess we're in SP3 territory now? Step down from Kuroda
124. Beckett - bounce-back candidate, I guess
125. Bumgarner - love the park, good upside, a lot like Anderson
126. Starlin Castro - hope he keeps the errors in check
127. Aaron Hill - first 2B since B-Rob and Zorilla, I think I was too early on Zobrist
128. Morrow - love the Ks, hope everything else comes together
129. Hughes - hate the HR/9, could be a killer (but maybe a nice WHIP, if you put him in the right park...)
130. J Sanchez - hard to believe Bumgarner went first, but maybe justified

131. Miguel Montero - nice value at C
132. Gio Gonzalez - love the park and the potential low OAV
133. John Danks - solid veteran innings
134. McGehee - seems like he fell a bit
135. James Shields - see Hughes
136. Yunel Escobar - seems like a drop-off, but so did Starlin. SS getting ugly
137. Figgins - don't love him here
138. Ricky Romero - solid innings
139. Volquez - feel like there should be better pitchers here, but maybe not.

So this is what I'm looking at now:

Lineup
1	Fowler CF, bats S
2	Zobrist 2b, bats S
3	Bautista 3b, bats R
4
5	Santana c, Bats S
6
7
8

Pitchers
Sp1	King Felix, RHP
Sp2	Brett Anderson, LHP
Sp3
Sp4
Sp5

Looking good, jfranco...here's mine:

Lineup
1 Pagan LF, bats S
2
3 Tulowitzki SS, bats R
4
5 Reynolds 3B, Bats R
6 Chris Young CF, Bats R
7
8

Pitchers
Sp1 Dan Haren, RHP
Sp2 Tommy Hanson, RHP
Sp3 Wandy Rodriguez, LHP
Sp4
Sp5