Then my Big Nut Hogs started playing well and in a moment of "weakness" I emailed Graham saying that if he came back for SL 2014, I would too. There was no response so I took that as a sign that I was out.
Then Graham replied to my email about staying in the SL after the Spit Cup and asked if I would co-manage a franchise with him. I said the only thing I wanted him to promise me is that he would play 80 of the games. So we were in together.
And I knew what Dave felt in regards to when he was done to not even caring about the data disk. For years the data disk arrival was my Christmas morning. I still haven't downloaded it and don't really care too. The draft spreadsheet that Greg, Keith and Gregg put together is a wonderful tool. Maybe I gave more guys credit then deserve but I think I know those three have something to do with it. But for not caring about the data disk I have definitely cared about who we select and trying to create a strong roster with Graham. But if you asked me my attitude about the draft before the draft I would have answered whoever Graham wants is fine with me. And in hindsight I wished that would have remained my stance because Graham would of had a stronger roster if he selected who he wanted to select at times.
Graham wanted Cliff Lee in the fourth round. I wanted Evan Longoria and felt Chris would select him during the 4th round 5th round swing. I was prepared to select Lee in the 5th if there or accept one of the 16 starters in order to secure Longoria. As it turned out, we could have selected Lee and then selected Longoria in the 5th round as Graham asked Chris if he would have selected Longoria and Chris replied no. So we could of had Lee-Longoria instead of Longoria-Greinke. Maybe Longoria-Greinke will prove to be better then Lee-Longoria but if Graham was drafting by himself, he would have secured what he wanted.
I'll back up in the draft a bit and mention in the third round I wanted Andrew McCutchen. Wanted McCutchen may be too strong of a description but I thought McCutchen best at that point. Especially considering it came down to McCutchen or Shin-Soo Choo in the second round before Graham ended my indecisiveness and announcing Choo. Graham mentioned David Ortiz for our third round selection and I just did not see Ortiz as a good number two hitter behind Choo or a good number four hitter behind Chris Davis with Ortiz's three twenty fours. Graham and I entered the draft foreseeing us selecting Davis and then having our second and third round picks be high on base percentage batters to be on base in front of Davis. I thought and felt a chance Chris would select Davis over Mike Trout due to winning a Spit Cup with Trout last year and trying to win another one with a different type of number one draft pick that was raw power versus five tool. I'm thinking Choo should have an on base percentage of around .370 and McCutchen an on base percentage of around .340.
There's more.
Here we come to the first fork in the road. Steve was high on Longoria and his 160 games and his 1-5-5-6 card and had convinced himself Chris wanted him, I wanted C Lee SP zz. I consented here and we ended up with Longoria-Greinke vs Lee-Longoria and I will be watching the Greinke vs Lee pitching performances all year.
Fork #2 came quickly, I was really high on Y Gomes and wanted him as a half time catcher, good D and good stick. Steve was pushing for Raburn. The came one of my favorite convos of the draft.
Me - It was really nice to have Yadier last year and his C9+6. I have dealt with much worse catchers in the past and really liked having Molina.
Steve - Weren't you Miss SL last year with Molina and didn't you win 3 Spit Cups with those lesser catchers? ZING!
But Steve is in fact correct, my Spit Cup winning starting catchers were, 2004 J Kendall guessing here as its not on the draft board 2005 J Posada C8-1 and 2009 R Martin C8-3. I also played B McCann C7-2 quite a bit in 2010 and made it to the finals. So we pass on Gomes for Raburn who's job will be to protect Mr Davis. Of course Greg takes Gomes so we grab the C8+0 Castro who will hit with his 1-5-6-6 card, but does not throw so well he does offer up more games than Gomes though.
Now we really got going and on the same page. Kimbrel gave us a high grade reliever that I was hoping for. Brucey has some pop and as a 3-37 will discourage people from answering yes to the age old question, "Try to score?". We had made the decision at this point to eschew starting pitching so grabbed some quality bullpen guys with innings in Jansen (was really hoping Avilan made it back to us, but we just missed) and Scheppers.
One thing that all those teams I had that went to the SC Finals was a late inning D catcher so we got ours and he can go out there nearly everyday to protect late inning leads with Wieters, who will also start 42 games for Castro.
With Zs still around we grabbed 12zs Teheran and Sale and were happy to have them.
Lowrie was the first pick since Raburn that we had some serious discussions about. I was not very high on his 2B-7 ratings for our everyday 2B, but we had an OF of 2-3-3 a 5 at 3B a 4 at 1B and an 8 at C and had identified 3-4 SS options that were either 9 or 10 so we went with the 2B-7 who can at least hit and is was our first platoon 0 player. LOVED the Baker pick as he gave us IF flexibility and will fill in at DH.
Perkins, Watson and Rosenthal really beefed up the pen and we were still able to grab 11Z Minor in the 20th round. Hardy was the more preferred SS for us and with Greg needing one and Matt needing someone behind Reyes we took him.
Last unhappy drafting moment came in round 22 with Greg on the clock. We had discussed a 3rd DH guy for a few rounds, but could not come to an agreement over Sierra vs Murphy. With Steve wanting Sierra and me Murphy. With Greg on the clock in the 22nd here is a text message transcript
Steve, "...if you prefer Murphy over Sierra and think we should take our third DH here, let's announce Murphy. Murphy does have the two ones."
Me, "He gives us flexibility. I want to check on PA numbers for those guys when I get home."
Steve, "You're not crying? Areyou?"
Me, "Just a small tear."
Steve, "Be funny if Nims took Murphy. Well maybe funny isn't the correct word."
Me, "Funny ha-ha or funny queer?"
Steve, "You know. Draft funny. It's a joke. C'mon."
Me, "Houston, we have a problem. You have got to be KIDDING ME! Nims drafted Murphy."
Steve, "Have you ever heard of Sierra?"
Me, "Who the fu#$@^& is that guy? Guess we should take him now."
The rest of the draft was gravy. PR-OF Stubbs, wanted a high grade 6th so traded with Matt to grab Roark believeing that we could still get our guys with the later picks. 5th starter Wood and 7th reliever Lopez were high on our lists and we targeted PR-IF Nix about 10 rounds earlier and were able to grab him in the 27th.
Here we go for SL 2014 with the first intentionally co-managed team ever.
GO SL!!!