Tim Schuler and I were in the Sunday morning session of the WCOFB main event. Once again, Dustin and Jill from WCOFS hosted an excellent event and have put together another competitive field for the $200,000 top prize.
The format is a 14-team mixed league, with 32 rounds (10 pitchers -- 6 SP, 2 RP, 2 P -- instead of 9, eight bench spots) and we had the 11th selection overall.
Here's the roster we assembled (round selected):
C - Brian McCann (6)
C - Geovany Soto (9)
1B - Billy Butler (7)
2B - Howie Kendrick (12)
SS - Elvis Andrus (8)
3B - Scott Rolen (19)
MI - Marco Scutaro (20)
CI - Carlos Lee (11)
OF - Ryan Braun (1)
OF - Jason Heyward (4)
OF - Ichiro Suzuki (5)
OF - Logan Morrison (17)
OF - Ryan Ludwick (21)
UT - Juan Rivera (27)
SP - Tim Lincecum (2)
SP - Jon Lester (3)
SP - John Danks (13)
SP - Trevor Cahill (14)
SP - Tim Stauffer (15)
SP - Clayton Richard (22)
RP - J.J. Putz (10)
RP - Fernando Rodney (18)
P - Kenley Jansen (31)
P - Alexi Ogando (26)
RP - Frank Francisco (16) DL
MI - Ryan Theriot (23)
1B - Daric Barton (24)
3B - David Freese (25)
C - Alex Avila (28)
SP - Randy Wells (29)
RP - Mike Adams (30)
1B - Juan Miranda (32)
It wasn't a pre-meditated strategy to grab two starting pitchers in the first three rounds, but we couldn't pass up Lester at 39 overall with plenty of our other early-round targets still on the board. McCann was actually tempting in Round 3, but catchers weren't as coveted in our draft as you would expect in a typical league with 28 backstops in the active lineup. Needless to say, we were very surprised to see both Ichiro and McCann available in Round 5 and 6 after going with one of our high upside targets in Heyward during Round 4.
With Lincecum and Lester in the bank, getting a good balanced group of hitters was crucial and as you can see from the round numbers above, we took a long break from pitching after establishing that foundation.
Overall, I think this roster is going to be fine in four of the five hitting categories. We need a few rebounds and breakouts to pass muster in the homers department, but Carlos Lee, Ryan Ludwick and Juan Rivera could be much better this time around, and Heyward, Logan Morrison and David Freese struck us as three younger players capable of significantly outperforming their power projections.
On the pitching side, we were burned by a half round or so on the top-tier closers (Papelbon and Broxton) we were looking for, but Putz should be fine as long as his spring back woes don't linger. The Francisco/Rodney duo must yield 40 saves between the two of them, but we'll still need to get more from the wire as soon as an unexpected setup man ends up with a job. Fortunately, WCOFB rules allow two lineup changes per week, so staff fillers can be a nice play when your lineup doesn't have enough starters to fill the flex spots in a three- or four-day period.
That's what made Adams and Jansen particularly attractive, as both should deliver strikeouts and good ratios, and it's not difficult to envision them getting at least a short-term run in the ninth inning for their respective clubs this season for a variety of factors.
What do you think? Is this more balanced roster with a much stronger pitching staff poised to crush Liss in the overall standings?