NFBC – Team Three – Machado Mania

Phil Gurnee ♦ February 25, 2017 ♦ Leave a comment

In my third draft, I had the ninth pick. This league is different from my first two. It is still NFBC but only twelve teams, and only thirty rounds. We will use FAAB to add/remove from the roster after the season starts. That changes the drafting strategy as you can’t simply load up on all the backup closer options, you need to make sure you draft some bonafide closers.

Machado is one of my favorite players so I wanted one league where he was on my team. Having the ninth pick I felt fairly confident he would to me. Especially when the first pick was Trea Turner instead of Mike Trout. There is almost no way that is going to work out for that team but hats off for trying something different.

This draft is done on-line with all league owners present with only 30 seconds between picks so you have to work fast.

Machado did fall to me so I had my pick. Coming back around I wanted a shortstop but I believe in Carlos Correa a little more than Cory Seager so I snagged Correa. With Machado, I now had either the two best shortstops or a 3rd/SS combo. I was shocked to see Encarnacion available to me with my 3rd pick so I scooped him up. With that kind of start to my offense, I could concentrate on pitching.

Picked up Archer with the 5th pick to anchor the rotation and Seung Hwan Oh as my main closer.

I wouldn’t have taken a 2nd baseman but Kinsler fell to me in the 6th so now I had a full infield. Coming back around for the 7th pick I got Jose Abreu. I finished up my top ten with Kyle Seager, Tanaka, and Cain.

Damn, this was shaping up to be a great draft. Now all I had to do was not screw it up.

Players who I coveted late and got were Carlos Gomez (12th round), Gausman (15th round), Puig (20th round), Hunter Renfroe (22nd round). Neil Walker fell to me in the 25th round. That is just crazy.

Same players on all my teams

Cameron Rupp (23rd round)
Brandon Finnegan (28th round)

The only Dodgers I have on this team are Puig and Alex Wood who I took with the 30th pick. Urias went later in the draft (15th round) than the others and I could have taken him instead of taking my first catcher Martin the 14th.

Dodger Draft notes: Three Dodgers went in the 9th round Hill, Grandal, and Maeda

Rotation:

Kershaw was the 6th pick
Kenta in the 9th
Hill in the 9th
Urias in the 15th
McCarthy 28th
Wood in the 30th (Me)
Ryu in the 27th
Kazmir – not drafted
Brock Stewart – not drafted
Ross Stripling – not drafted

Bullpen:
Jansen in the 4th
Dayton – not drafted
Pedro Baez – not drafted
Romo 34th – not drafted

Infield:
Seager in the 2nd (24th overall)
Turner in the 12
Grandal in the 9th
Gonzalez went in the 18th (latest I’ve seen for him)
Forsythe in the 22nd

Outfield:
Joc in the 18th
Puig in the 20th
Toles – not drafted
Andre – not drafted
Gutierrez – not drafted

Among my three drafts so far I like this team the most. We shall see.
The ranking comes via the Rotowire projection simulator for 5×5.

Rnd	Rank	First Name	Last Name	Team	Position	S/B
1	8	Manny	Machado	BAL	SS	S
2	18	Carlos	Correa	HOU	MI	S
3	17	Edwin	Encarnacion	CLE	1B	S
4	74	Chris	Archer	TB	SP	S
5	58	Seung Hwan	Oh	STL	Closer	S
6	32	Ian	Kinsler	DET	2B	S
7	69	Jose	Abreu	CWS	Cor	S
8	43	Kyle	Seager	SEA	3rd	S
9	64	Masahiro	Tanaka	NYY	SP	S
10	85	Lorenzo	Cain	KC	OF	S
11	63	Stephen	Piscotty	STL	OF	S
12	249	Carlos	Gomez	TEX	Util	S
13	133	A.J.	Ramos	MIA	Closer	S
14	241	Russell	Martin	TOR	C	S
15	151	Kevin	Gausman	BAL	SP	S
16	148	Manuel	Margot	SD	OF	S
17	226	Rajai	Davis	OAK	OF	S
18	171	Jerad	Eickhoff	PHI	SP	S
19	203	Anthony	DeSclafani	CIN	SP	S
20	267	Yasiel	Puig	LAD	OF	S
21	254	Neftali	Feliz	MIL	Closer	S
22	80	Hunter	Renfroe	SD	Bench-OF	B
23	496	Cameron	Rupp	PHI	C	S
24	189	Zach	Davies	MIL	SP	S
25	181	Neil	Walker	NYM	Bench-2b	B
26	208	Jeremy	Hellickson	PHI	Bench-SP	B
27	434	Travis	Jankowski	SD	Bench-OF	B
28	276	Brandon	Finnegan	CIN	Bench-SP	B
29	230	Matt	Duffy	TB	Bench-SS	B
30	487	Alex	Wood	LAD	Bench-SP	B