So at the All Star Break, the Flying Cave Donkies (no it's not Cave Donkeys) find themselves in second place in the LBBL (LushBucket Baseball League) behind Benny and his Bama Slammas. This is the first time we've ever done a Keeper League so the rules are a bit different which has certainly complicated things. Basically we have it set up where you could keep 3 players, but only if you drafted them and kept them on your roster all year. Now I thought I was being all smart drafting Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg in the 18th and 19th rounds because the other deal is whatever round you draft the player in initially is the round you get to keep him in. So in theory, I'd get the two guys as my last two picks for the next however long they're in the big leagues. Unfortunately, because neither one is a major leaguer, they're also eating up two roster spots which caused issues for me once my team started getting bit by the injury bug. I lost Joe Mauer for the better part of the first half, and now David Wright is on the DL. Shin-Soo Choo went down too and I had to cut him loose because I couldn't afford to start a player on the DL all week. Anyhow, overall I'm pretty happy with the way things have come together. So let's go back and grade my draft at the midway point:
1. Carlos Gonzalez - While the Colorado outfielder certainly hasn't had a bad half - .292 13 HR 51 RBI 14 SB - he isn't quite living up to the standard he set for himself last year when he hit .336 with 34 homers and 117 runs batted in. He's doing a lot of good things and his well-roundedness makes him ideal for 5x5 leagues such as this one. Unfortunately, from a value standpoint, he isn't putting up first round pick numbers for me. Grade: C.
2. David Wright - Currently on the disabled list with a stress fracture in his lower back, David Wright is having the worst season of his career. In the 39 games he played in before going on the DL, he hit just .226 with 6 home runs and 18 runs batted in. This pick has not worked out well for me at all as I'm unable to play him, but he's also on the Don't Drop List. Grade: D.
3. Ian Kinsler - Kinsler was a 30/30 guy back in 2009. He's already got more homers and steals than he did in 2010 with 13 and 19 respectively, but he's hitting just .251. Fortunately he's getting on base a lot needing just 5 walks to tie his career high and as a result, he's scored 63 runs this season. But still, he wasn't an All Star for the American League at second base which means I probably could have found somebody better at this point in the draft. Grade: C.
4. Shin-Soo Choo - Choo hit .300 with 20+ homers and 20+ steals in each of the last two seasons. This year has 5 home runs and is hitting .244. And he got a DUI AND he wound up on the DL. As a result, I had to cut my losses and I dropped Choo for David Ortiz. We'll see what Big Papi does in the second half, but it's becoming pretty clear I did not set my self up for success with my early draft picks. Grade: D-.
5. Joe Mauer - Mauer becomes the third player in my top 5 picks to miss extensive time due to injury. In 31 games Mauer has just 5 doubles and 0 home runs while hitting .243. This is the same guy who posted the following averages between 2005 and 2010: .294, .347, .293, .328, .365, .327. I think being on the cover of MLB 2011 has cursed him. Not well played Mauer. I picked up Russell Martin to be my catcher for two months when Mauer went down and he actually made the All Star Team. Grade: F.
6. Ubaldo Jimenez - Jimenez won 15 games before the All Star Break last year. This year he won 4. Granted, I did get to see him shut down the Nationals in person on Saturday before the break, but otherwise, not impressive. AND he spent over half the first half on the Can't Drop list. Ubaldo is 4-8 with a 4.14 ERA but he does have 95 strikeouts in 104 1/3 innings. Grade: D.
7. Justin Verlander - Finally a pick that produced some value. Verlander is 12-4 with a 2.15 ERA and 147 strikeouts. He's 8-1 in his last 10 starts with only a 1-0 loss against the Angels. He's far and away having the best year of his career already tying his career high in complete games and setting one in shutouts. His previous best ERA was 3.37. Grade: A+.
8. Jered Weaver - Another great value pick here. Weaver leads the majors in ERA at 1.86 and started the All Star Game for the American League. He's 11-4 tying career highs in shutouts and complete games and he has 120 strike outs. He needs just 6 second half wins to set a career high there as well. Grade: A+.
9. Yovani Gallardo - Another pitcher I grabbed who has double digit wins at the break. Gallardo sits at 10-5 despite a 3.76 ERA as he's helped out a lot by the powerful Brewers offense. His career high in wins is 14 so he's on track to break that although his strikeouts are done a bit. He fanned 200+ in 185 innings the past two years but this year has just 104 in 117 1/3. Grade: B+.
10. Jonathan Papelbon - I had been hoping that last year's 3.90 ERA was a fluke but he's up to 3.93 this year and while he does have 20 saves and 51 strike outs in 36 2/3 innings, he's also letting opposing hitters hit for the highest average since his rookie season. With guys in his bullpen like Daniel Bard and Bobby Jenks, I would say Papelbon is on the hot seat in the second half. We'll see. Grade: B-.
11. B.J. Upron - It would appear I took the wrong Upton as brother Justin was an All Star for Arizona this year. But while B.J. hasn't hit for average (just .239) he does have 15 home runs and 21 steals to go along with decent run and rbi numbers. Then again, B.J. didn't hit for average in 2009 (.241) or 2010 (.237) either, so I guess that should've been expected. The increased power is a nice surprised though. Grade: B.
12. Starlin Castro - I'm very happy with how picking the 2nd year shortstop has worked out so far. Castro is hitting .307 at the break with 49 runs, 24 doubles, 8 triples and 10 steals. He isn't hitting for power, but considering what some other shortstops are doing, I'm more than happy to take his average and speed. Grade: A-.
13. Jose Valverde - The former back-to-back NL saves leader had just 25 saves in 2009 and 26 in 2010, but already has 24 this year for the Tigers. Additionally he's posted a 2.70 ERA and strikes out nearly a batter an inning. Grade: A.
14. Corey Hart - Hart was the casualty when Mauer got hurt and I needed a catcher. He was injured to start the year and didn't play his first game until 2 weeks after I dropped him. And nobody has since picked him up. Hart turned into Russell Martin for two months and then became Jhonny Peralta to offset the loss of David Wright. So while I've gotten good value for Hart's replacements, Hart himself did nothing while on my roster. Grade: F.
15. Ryan Franklin - Between the 2009 and 2010 seasons Franklin saved 65 games. This year he saved 1 in 5 tries, has allowed 44 hits in 27 2/3 innings, has an ERA of 8.46. The Cardinals released him on June 29th. I was however able to turn Franklin into former Cardinal Chris Perez, the current Indians closer. Grade: F-.
16. Aroldis Chapman - I thought the flamethrowing Cuban would be a nice sleeper at the time because I thought he could compete for the closer job in Cincinnati. He put up big strikeout numbers, but after a month and a half I got tired of waiting and picked up Ryan Madson. Madson would last a little over a month and then go on the DL so I acquired Seattle closer Brandon League. Grade: D.
17. Freddie Freeman - Freeman has been a nice little sleeper for me and has 4 of his 13 home runs this month. He was hitting just .217 back on May 6th, but since then has hit .303 to raise his average up to a respectable .274. His power numbers aren't great for a first baseman, but I was toying with this as another potential sleeper, and if turns into something special, he'd be a nice fit at number 17. Grade: B.
18. Stephen Strasburg - There's rumors he may return in September. We'll see. The bright side is that with him on the DL I was able to add an extra player so I turned Strasburg into Adam Jones who has hit .285 with 13 home runs. Grade: Incomplete.
19. Bryce Harper - He's up to AA now, and can flat out rake. Question is will he keep doing it at the higher levels. Grade: Incomplete.
20. Tim Stauffer - I kept Stauffer for 2 starts. Then I dropped him for Jeff Francis. Francis became Travis Wood who finally became Justin Masterson in late April. Masterson has been terrific posting a 7-6 record with a 2.64 ERA. Stauffer meanwhile has watched his ERA drop down to 2.97 but only has 5 wins to show for it. May have pulled the plug too early on this one, but I'm happy with Masterson. Grade: F.
21. Trevor Cahill - Cahill is 8-7 with a 3.12 ERA for the A's this year. He was 6-1 with a 1.79 ERA on May 20th so he's been slipping a bit lately. Still, pretty good value for the last pick in the draft. Grade: A-.
So there you have it. A somewhat mediocre draft when you break it down, but we're still in second place. Hopefully some of my slumping stars (talking about you, Joe Mauer) can get it together in the second half and we can bring in our second straight Fantasy Baseball Championship.
