KKB might not have meant to start an RP run by taking Mariano... But that was exactly what I intended to do by following his pick with Lidge. I was hoping Rollins would fall to me at this pick, to make up for the lack of speed in Teixeira/Jones. The combination of Rollins being taken, and Mariano being taken right before me, made it clear what path I'd take. I was hoping if I followed one closer with another, that plenty more closers would be taken before my next pick. I tried to make it so I got a top-notch closer, and that some stronger (non-closer) players would make it back to me in round four. Wagner and Gagne tempted me, but Gagne might not be at 100%, and I wanted Lidge's extra K's over Wagner.

Francisco Rodriguez rationale: When KKB took Rivera (3.03) i kinda panicked that the closer run was on... (earlier than expected!) I saw Chris offer to trade his 3.05 pick and traded up to get eithr Lidge or K-Rod(hoping i would get at least 1 of the 5 other closer meantioned before with my 3.15 pick). Lidge was 3.04... Now i was sure glad i had traded up... Getting 100 K's from a RP is just too good, combined with good ratios it's impossible to pass. I have K-Rod and Lidge ranked #1-2 (real close) as closer so i'm quite satisfied with that pick, there is no way he would have make it back to me if i wouldn't have traded up. So according to my startegy its a good move for now. I prjoect K-Rod with nothing less than 40 Saves, 100 K's, <2.50 ERA, < 1.10 WHIP.

I think you can pencil Nathan in for 40+ saves this year.

So who would have been picked had the closer run not happened so early? Only Halladay and Zambrano interested me. I went with Halladay's ERA and WHIP advantage over Zambrano's K advantage. Wins should be about equal.

I'm still shaking my head in disbeleif that neither Ryan, Nathan, Wagner or Gagne made it back to me. Anyway, my strat of getting 2 of top 7 closer down the drain, i turned back to the drawing board and pick the best offensive player avalaible. Juan Pierre should score a whole lot of runs and had at least 45 sb in last 5 season... Of course its annoying to have a < 0.400 slg on your team, but i think its easier to compensate than SB's and runs. I hope 110R, 50RBI, 55 SB, >0.750 OPS

4.01 Dontrelle Willis, SP, Florida Marlins
I took Dontrelle early -- however I don't think he would have made it back to me. I'm a big Dontrelle Willis fan, despite the fact that the Marlins roster is nothing to write home about I do not think this will hurt his numbers too serverly. I think that 15 W is very attainable and his rate stats will continue to improve as he has not yet hit his peak. Will his motion reek havoc on his arm? Perhaps, but he hasn't seemed to be bothered to date so I'm gonna go w/ my gut and put the ball in Dontrelle's hands as my SP1 as there were no other players that jumped out at me that I thought could make a larger impact on my team at this point in the draft.

I have Street ranked as a top 3 closer(based on stats, and number of saves he's likely to accumulate this year), so I was happy to trade down and get the guy I would've taken anyway at 3.05, the 7th closer taken in the draft. Anything else I have to say is obvious: plays for a good team, with good pitching, in a pitcher's park. I make the same argument every year for every closer I take.

By the way, today I heard that Prior may miss the start of the season.

I had it narrowed down to Carlos Delgado and Richie Sexson here. While both players have put up strong numbers on a consistent basis, Delgado's are just a tad better. I think the move to Shea Stadium will affect his production somewhat, but Delgado is just too good of a player. If Sexson can have success at Safeco, there's no reason why Delgado can't do well at Shea too. The Mets lineup is also strong enough for him to keep up his high counting stats. I'm expecting a .400/.550, 100 R, 120 RBI, 1 SB(!!!) season.

Felix is quite a talent, and with good reason the Mariners will likely go easy with him, supposedly limiting him to 190 innings. Even at that I expect him to be a solid anchor to my staff. In his brief stint last year he K'd 77 and walked only 23 in 84.3 innings and a sub 3.00 ERA. I'd be thrilled with anything close to those numbers over the course of 190 innings.

I assume people are a little leary of Ensberg because of his "every other year" tendencies. Personally, I think he's a fantastic hitter who was fighting through injury in 2004. I would be surprised if he didn't OPS at least 925, and of all the comparable 3B taken around here(Chipper, Rolen, Glaus, Chavez to a lesser extent), I think only Chipper could reasonably be better, and I have health concerns about him.

After assisting in the Closer run in round 3, I was still wanting some speed with my 4th round pick. I wanted Rollins in round 3, so I was hoping for one of Furcal, Pierre, or Podsednik to get back to me. I am hoping that he is done getting caught stealing at such a high rate, after fully healing from hernia surgery in the off-season. Anything above 50sb and .340obp is what I'm hoping for. Had Delgado or Kent made it to my pick, I might have swayed from my need for speed.

Closer time. Turnbow and Cordero were the alternatives here. Turnbow was better in 04, but closers being what they are I wanted the demonstrated consistency here. Cordero is good for 35-40 saves, and 1+Ks per inning. Pitching in Texas, his ERA may be around 3 and Turnbow may well be able to repeat 04 again, but I didn't want to be doing any guesswork here. Cordero's got to be better than the one closer I came out of the draft with last year, Braden Looper.

This pick is my first real risk in the draft. The usual Barry questions: Was he using? How healthy is he? Can he get me another 45 hr's? I don't know the answer to any of those questions. Can Bonds be a factor if he's on his game? Yes. I couldn't let him slip any further, just in case he shows up for his usual huge %'s and a decent amount of rbi's. Even 1.071 OPS to match last season would be fine, if he will play enough AB's. The only other player I considered at this spot was Jhonny Peralta, as Bonds is already my 3rd OF.

There isn't any question to me that he will improve. The real question is...how much?

I logged on early in the morning and saw that TB had this pick on the table and was intrigued. I was hoping Richie Sexson would fall in the 5th round but Guru took him earlier than I expected. I needed to add some slugging and run production and Konerko provides this in spades. Konerko is a professional hitter and gives consistant power number w/o sacrificing OBP. I'll let other players steal bags for me -- I needed a thumper. I felt I had to move on Konerko now while still allowing myself an opportunity to draft one of a slew of solid 3B that I felt would last past my next pick into the middle of the 6th round where I eventually landed the exact player I was targeting to further pump up my run production: Melvin Mora.

I felt fortunate that Felipe was available at this point. He won't steal as many bases as Furcal or Rollins, but should offset that with superior power numbers. I would expect Felipe to post more Jeter-like stats than those two , 20-25 HR's, 20+ SB's, score over 100 runs with 85-90 RBI"S. Solid production for a MI in this round.

It was a little surprising to see Ryan Howard available here. He has a good chance of having a .380/.550+ year after what he showed last season. If he hits that well over a full season, he'll have no problem hitting 40 homers and reaching 120 RBIs. He's got a great group of hitters around him, as well as a hitter-friendly home ballpark. It's very possible he may end up leading my team in RBIs Rs and SLG. So far in Spring training, Howard's the league leader with 8 HRs in only 38 ABs. I just hope he doesn't wear himself out for when the numbers actually count!

"Woah" was what AthleticsGuy said when he saw this pick. Actually, right before that, he said "I know who you're going to take" referring to Jason Giambi, my 2nd round pick in the 2004 RIBC and who carried me at the end of the 2005 season. He's right - I love Giambi. But I had four players on my list at this point: Mauer, Giambi, Chavez, and Brian Giles. Obviously, any of the four would give me some really solid stats. Chavez was really sliding, perhaps because he's had a decreasing walk rate lately. Giles has a great OBP, but his power is getting sapped by Petco. All great picks, obviously, but I rated Mauer as my number 2 catcher, and considering that the number 1 guy went 3 rounds earlier, getting Mauer here seems fine. If he does have his breakout season, with a .400 OBP and 20 homers and 20 steals in a revitalized Minnesota offense, I'll come out looking pretty good.

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