Buyers Remorse
May 26th, 2008 by winabango
I was reading an article with a well respected group of Fantasy Baseball Experts participating in a round table discussion. The topic was relating to the top 3 most regrettable drafted players on their teams. so that got me thinking… What would my most regrettable draft picks this year?
Andruw Jones - You know it is a bad pick when you drop him in a 12 team expert league, and no one claims him off the waiver wire. I knew that he would not be all that good, especially in the batting average department. However, I could not pass him up in the 10th round of a 12-team league. I figured the reward would outweigh the risk. I guess not, and now the knee injury has surfaced. Where was this information during the draft?
Nick Swisher - Yet another great pick for the expert league. I truly thought that he would breakout in the power department since my backyard is bigger then his home park. I was so convinced of this that I also proceeded to select him in both of my H2H leagues. I have since dropped him.
Erik Bedard - It is not just the injuries and the bad performances that make him a regrettable selection. It is the fact that I selected him over Brandon Webb in my work league. This was after sitting there and debating it for about five minutes. I really wanted both pitchers, but I knew that was going to be impossible.
Somehow two of my regrettable selections were in the Fantasy Writers Expert League. That is not the place to make big mistakes. Add on the fact that my team had no players drafted that would steal over 20 bases this year, and you have a well designed recipe for disaster. However, I have moved into 5th place over this past week despite my best efforts to screw up my team from the start of the draft.
So who are you most regrettable selections from the draft?
Taking Brad Hawpe in the ninth instead of Josh Hamilton and Pronk in the third.
So far Rich Hill and Edwin Encarnacion have been my biggest disappointments across many leagues.
Wow, sounds like my teams this year. I took Bedard 1 pick b/f Webb went in a $$ league. Also took Swisher on as many teams as i could and he’s sucked(probably still am liking him due to Moneyball), and I took Jones in the 10th in a keeper league b/c of the exact same reasoning you give. Bedard was the highest pick I took, but I took Swisher in the 7th in one league(same keeper league) - man those guys are sucking.
Phil,
Now that is ironic. I was targeting all Swisher and Bedard in the particular leagues that I drafted them in. The Jones pick was an ultra value, or so I thought, at the time.
Liriano. Took him everywhere hoping that he’d bounce right back. Singlehandedly killed my WHIP in every league and now I’m holding him to save face.
Also, a cautionary tale, don’t ever look at Team Log in Yahoo! I have a bit of an obsessive personality and seeing Liriano’s 11.25 ERA, 2.71 WHIP pains me. The thought of this will prevent a 2009 reach - solely because of team log.
Guys, I have 21 leagues in a variety of formats. (I know, I know)… But unfortunately, I drafted certain players in far too many (the irony being that some I considered steals where they were going, LOL). Several, granted, have been injured. Others have flat out stunk. And I own/ed them in 4-9 leagues.
Pronk has to lead off (ironic that I picked him up in FGD, but if it really has been his shoulder since last year…). Swish. Encarnacion. Blalock. Aaron Hill (classic late-round, but expected him to build on his success last year). Myers. Rafael Soriano. Liriano. Rich Hill. BJ Upton (knew his BA would fall off, as well as his power — but thought he’d still have more XBHs, and still do).
Upton hasn’t been terrible. So thankfully the only early-round horror show has been Pronk, barring injuries or sudden mysterious slumps from June on. I do have Tulo in 4 leagues (but picked him up off waivers in 2); he could be a goldmine when he returns… All the others went 7th round at the very earliest. Fortunately, I usually compensated with late-round picks and WW pickups. Still…