The news is that Ozzie wants Juan to bat 2nd this year, right after Podsednik, and right before Thome and Konerko. That should make for much better protection than he had in the lower half of the order last season. I likely reached, yet again, but I had been targetting Uribe for my late SS pickup since the start of the draft. If he can stay high in the CHW batting order, I imagine 70+ rbi's and runs is a great possibility.

Sweeney could dash all my hopes by spending half the year on the DL of course. He's already out for a week or two with a bone bruise. The hope is that DHing will allow him to haul his aged carcass to the plate 525+ times with a 70-85-.350/.510 line. One caution: I have now been stocking up with the aged and infirm for a few rounds so my bench will be playing an important role.

Well, I got bamboozled at 1b. It wasn't my plan to not draft any decent first sackers. there just aren't enough to go around. what's up with that? I suppose Swisher will be decent if he can get his average up. 21 hr and and 74 rbi in 462 AB last season wasn't too shabby.

.327 .507 in 749 career AB's. maybe he'll really break out this year.

This was a mental health pick. In advancement of my own mental health. Last year I kept holding off on picking putative- quasi- and pseudo-closers as not value picks and came away with Braden Looper and a heap of nothing. The saves category all worked out well in the end but for the rest of the draft I had become a nervous wreck and was botching picks at other positions. With Borowski in the bag I can fool my subconscious into believing I have "2 proven closers" so that worrying about it doesn't screw up my thinking for the whole rest of the draft. Borowski could nab 40 saves or be written out of the closer role before this rationale is posted. Hasn't been much since 2003 but I suspect he has enough left to be a positive force in the stats even if he ends up pitching garbage time. Probably not a good value pick.

Another reach, but also another player I had been targetting since the start of the draft as a late pick. 3B has been noted as one of the deeper positions this year, and only one other manager didn't have a 3B up to this point... Which makes me think I could have waited longer for this pick. However, he's seemingly healthy, and both him and his manager are confident he's ready to rebound. I'm hoping for an .800 OPS and 15sb... 60 runs and rbi's are what I'm imagining, which is a bit weak for 3B this year, but the 15sb is what I was really looking for.

Kotchman completes my infield and gives me another 2nd year 1B with considerable potential. Kotchman has always had fantastic strike zone control(149BB/128K in the minors), and posted an 836 OPS in his limited appearances last year. He's impressed the Angels enough to persuade them to start Kotchman at 1B this year. I'm expecting a big year from Kotchman, and hoping that he doesn't disappoint.

Apparently this kid can hit. Rotowire projects 20 HR's, 77 RBI's, 87 runs, .498 SLG %, and a .366 OBP%. I'd gladly take that from my catcher, taken in round 13.

I've been very lucky to have filled out other spots without worrying about my outfield. Mench is a large part of that.

14.01 Milton Bradley, OF, OAK
I may have reached slightly on this pick however I wasn't really impressed with anyone else on the board and I felt like I was running my draft according to plan (for the most part -- see rationale 15.16) so I thought I'd take a gamble on a player with loads of potential. Bradley is a fantastic athlete who has demonstrated a strong ability to get on base, though his SB potential will evaporate in Oakland. He was showing a solid power stroke pre-ASB last season but had his season wiped out by an injury which hurt his totals. A change of scenery should help Bradley espeically moving to a more accomodating hitter's park which should help increase his power numbers. Milton in his "Age 27" season is primed for a breakout campaign. I think if he can keep his head and the knee isn't an issue, he will be a nice lift in production for my OF which is a little lean on power. 20+ HRs are almost guaranteed if he stays healthy and with a solid Oakland lineup 90 RBIs are quite possible.

He apparently has won the starting job in center for Detroit, and has a nice blend of power and speed. I think there is a reasaonable chance he can reach 20 steals and score a decent amount of runs as teh Tigers leadoff hitter. His projected OPS from two different sites is .839

With that said, I immediately bumped Murton from 4th on my queue to 1st and made him my 2nd outfielder. While he's not as good as any of the names mentioned above, he's still a solid outfielder, in a good offense, in a good hitter's park. Anything over 800 OPS will be fine.

I needed both a CI and a C, and from what I understand Jacobs has a chance at getting C eligibility at some point this season. He showed some pretty good power numbers late last season, and is supposedly getting a chance against LHP and RHP this season in Florida. I'd be pleased with 70+ rbi's and runs, and eventual C eligibility... But I could also see Jacobs being one of my first drops if he doesn't start half decently.

I thought it would have been Guru who would have taken Mike Lowell in this round, since he didn't have a 3B. But instead, Toral snatched him up. I took major downgrades with 2 of my future picks in order to acquire Lowell, but I thought it was worth it (especially after Guru took Ryan Zimmerman shortly after the turn). I believe 2005 was a fluke year for him and that he'll bounce back with an .850+ OPS season. He's got the right ballpark and the players around him to do it. Another nice thing about Lowell was that he qualifies at 2B too, so he gives my lineup some flexibility.

not jumping up and down that I have swish and laroche at 1b, but I viewed them as being less risky than guys like c.jackson, d.young, and nevin. I thought I was gonna be sneaky and take lance niekro late in the draft but moses beat me to the punch. probably just as well.

Capuano was one of a lump of 4 pitchers I thought might be available here to fill my next pitching slot. Matt Cain, the top of the group, was already gone (14.05) and that left me with 3 pitchers who I have projected about the same, although they're really different types of pitchers -- Capuano, Matt Clement and Mike Mussina (16.07). In all honesty I consider Capuano more likely to regress than to get better this year, but so must everyone else or he'd be long gone by now. The 7.2 K/9 number indicates he isn't doing it with smoke and mirrors, and he was a highly regarded prospect back when. He should pick up 14 or so wins and have an era not much above 4, and the potential for a year as good as 04 or better is there. Walk totals and gopher ball propensity need improvement.

This was a value pick, as I didn't really think I needed to jump on another SP yet. I won't be counting on another 18 win season, but a 26 year old that won 18 games in the previous season seemed like great value in round 15. Assuming he's moved down in the pitching rotation, he should be pitching against even weaker opposing SP's this year.

While Oakland is not nearly the pitcher's haven that Washington is, I think Loaiza will help me in 2 categories(wins and k's), and not hurt me too badly in the others. Nothing sexy about this pick at all, but my aim in this draft was to take as many Oaklanders as possible(I believe the 2006 A's are the most impressive team assembled in my lifetime), and this gives me 5(Street, Haren, Crosby, Johnson and Loaiza). Victory is assured!

Had a few thoughts here. Kinsler, Eckstein, some other MIs, Mussina, Sanders, Danys Baez, and David Bush were on my mind. Mussina was the most tempting because my starting pitchers are all injury risks. But as Michael Young has shown, it's pretty special to be a middle infielder for the Rangers. Worst case, Kinsler gets off to a slow start and drop him. It happened to Jhonny Peralta on a few teams. Best case, 20 steals, 15 homers, OBP around .370 and a ton of runs. I think it's realistic.

Same as with Francoeur and Gibbons, i'm trying to catch up on the RBI and SLG. Wilson seem to have an awesome year every 3 season and guess what? Last awesome season was in 2003.... 2003+3= ... ... ... 2006!!! :) Ok ok, that is not that much of a reasoning, i'd like to fall back on the awesome spring training he is having, but he is not having one... he SO 15 times in 32 AB. So i'll rely on projection... The average call seem to be around 70R,85RBI, 0.800OPS... I'll take it since i need it... I considered Burgos (freshly labeled closer) and really hoped Aaron Harang would make it back to me.

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