Draft discussion

[Kevin]

Since I don't have the new blog set up yet, I'll post some of my DTBL Draft thoughts in this thread. Feel free to chime in.

First, I'm guessing most of you didn't have Tommy Hanson pegged as the #1 overall pick. To be honest, originally I didn't either, but he was the guy I really wanted and I didn't think he would make it past the second or third pick. What pushed him over the top for me is that I thought there was a huge gap between him and all other available starting pitchers. Plus, I really need help at that position with Webb and Dice-K still being major health concerns.

For the most part, the first round consisted of most of the players I expected. Perhaps there were a few guys I had going a little earlier or later, but the first nine picks were the top nine on my list. The only player taken in the first round who I didn't think was first round material was Geovany Soto to the Darkhorses with the tenth pick. However, I completely understand Dave's thinking with that pick. His team basically has no weaknesses, so he didn't really have to stick to the "best player available" strategy that most people use in the first round. Instead, he went with the only catcher available, besides Wieters, who could be a huge boost to an offense. It was a bit of a stretch, but a three time defending champion can take chances like that.

The main stories of the first round were the trades made by the Mavericks to acquire the second and sixth overall picks. They traded Javy Vazquez to the Choppers for the second overall pick, which became Matt Wieters. Then they dealt Cole Hamels to the Demigods to take Gordon Beckham with the fifth overall pick. Plus, they selected Billy Butler with their own pick at #9. So it would be easy to call the Mavericks the big winner of the first round acquiring three of the top players available, but I think this remains to be seen. In doing so, they traded away two quality starting pitchers and have just two left on their roster. We'll see how they are able to fill in those slots in the upcoming rounds.

The Naturals are also short on starting pitchers, but they just did something about that in the early second round. They traded Shane Victorino to the Cougars for the 13th overall pick. Then, they reacquired Scott Baker, a pitcher released by the Naturals a few months ago. I suspect Nick must have regretted that decision since he was willing to trade away one of his keepers to get that pick.