Meat League Draft, 2006

Last night we finally got around to holding the annual “Meat League” draft for the 2006 season. This is a lower budget league that the Doc and I participate in which is built around the neighborhood butcher shop that we patronize.

It’s made up of a bunch of local guys who have known each other for years, and the draft has been going on for quite a while. We joined it 5 years ago as we got friendly with the guys in the meatery. What will amaze our BABI friends is that we have been fairly dominant, winning twice, finishing second last year, third once and out of the money only once.

It’s informal enough that they always have a hard time agreeing on a date, which has caused the league to get smaller the last few years. Last night there were only 8 teams. The rules are quite different from standard fantasy baseball. Each team has a roster as follows:

Catcher, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF1, OF2, OF3, DH (any hitter), SP1, SP2, SP3 and Closer.

Each player is compared and ranked against only the other players at his position. So finding a player that dominates his position, even if his statistics aren’t incredible, is where the value is. The league includes AL and NL (ugh), so with only 8 teams, every team is a veritable all-star team. Matt Lacroy was not drafted last night. Hell, Carlos Beltran wasn't drafted!

The Doc is our AL guy, but he had tickets to see the Giants-Cards last night, so I was on my own. He didn’t even turn on his cell phone. He was kind enough to give me about 30 pages of player printouts which I used. Believe it or not, I actually did pick some AL guys.

We had the #3 draft slot. Big Al went #1, of course. Tejada, the dominant player at SS went #2. Believe it or not, I chose Chase Utley in the #3 spot. We believe he’s not the cream of the fantasy crop, but he is, by far, the cream of the 2nd baseman crop. I can’t say I’m in love with the pick, but no one there who understands the rules seemed to argue with the strategy. That may be, of course, because they were happy to have me waste the pick.

The rest of my draft:

Round 2 – M. Cabrera 3B
Round 3 – Lance Berkman 1B
Round 4 – Felipe Lopez SS (shortstops were getting thin)
Round 5 – Carlos Lee (OF1 - good value)
Round 6 – Nick Swisher (OF2 - this may have been a reach)
Round 7 – Jorge Posada (I thought Capuano would last longer than the next pick)
Round 8 – Carlos Delgado DH
Round 9 – Jason Schmidt (SP1 - because I believe)
Round 10 – Jermaine Dye OF3
Round 11 – Carlos Zambrano (SP2 – late pick because of slow start)
Round 12 – F. Rodriguez – Closer (couldn’t take Valverde)
Round 13 – C.C. Sabathia (SP3 – last pitcher taken)

The holes are in pitching and outfield, but I think my guys will be pretty good. And there are 6 AL players. We’ll see if I can go both ways. I’m predicting another win in the Meat League, and that’s no bull.

Thanks to the the Iowa Beef Industry Council and the Beef Checkoff Program for the photo. They require a credit for the use of their art. By the way, for those interested, their website has a link to the "Beef Blog." I'm sure I'll be a regular on the site.