EFB DRAFT RANKINGS

Friday, August 1st, 2008

Breakfast of Champions: Daily MLB Commentary

by Tarrell Graham

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Overall Top 25 Drafts

Top 10 rankings by Scoring Category

League by League Breakdown

ROUND 3

30th pick – Lance Berkman

I was really happy with this pick until he strained his oblique today…oh well. If he is healthy for the start of the season he will put up good power numbers and his position flexibility is a nice bonus. It’s easy to forget that BB is a category in this league and Berkman will be good for at least 90.

Best Pick: Brandon Webb at 35 - Forsch55

Worst Pick: Magglio Ordonez at 32 – Villacampo

Sorry Villa, Mags is not even going to come close to last years numbers. A BABIP of over .370 says he is going to have a significant drop off in production. I don’t take pitching early, but Webb is good value here.

I still hate Mags. Look, a .317 average with 14 bombs isn’t horrible, but it surely isn’t 3rd round value and there were much better picks available. The worst pick of the round was Eric Bedard at 29th overall, it’s a little unfair to lay that on Dalia but it is the truth. No one could have seen the Bedard breakdown coming but he has to be the biggest bust of the season hands down. I have to say that the best pick in retrospect has to be mine – Berkman at 30 is just tremendous value.

ROUND 4

43rd pick – Travis Hafner

I love this pick. I would like it more in the 5th, but he was the next guy on TSN’s rankings and with a team on auto draft I knew he wasn’t coming back. Since he qualifies at first in this league he has flexibility. I don’t think that last year was the end of Pronk, he finished strong, and I believe he will bounce back to a 3rd round value.

Best Pick: John Lackey at 46 – P3RCUL8TOR

Worst Pick: NOT A BAD PICK IN THIS ROUND

Everyone made really good picks in round four and I can honestly say I didn’t dislike any of them. I love Lackey at the end of the round. He was one of the last real sure-thing pitchers on the board and the picking him here is good value.

I love this pick!?!?! Was I high? Hafner was a huge mistake here and I follow up a brilliant Berkman pick with this garbage. Oh well, at least I moved him in the first week or two of the season and avoided a truly awful fate. The Lackey pick is still strong even if he did spend a good amount of time on the shelf. The round was filled with so-so picks like Rios, Martin and Putz, but no one made a real mistake.

ROUND 5

54th pick - Hunter Pence

 

I love the Astros and I took Pence way early, I guess I am a homer now. This is the worst pick of the round and I really should have waited or chosen a more established option. I regretted the selection as soon as I hit ‘Draft’. Don’t get me wrong I think he will be a good 3rd OFer but he was not a good value in the 5th. I am hoping he can put up a .280 23 90 15 season, that would elevate this pick from horrible to just bad.

Best Pick: Torii Hunter at 58 – Ipwitch

Worst Pick: I don’t want to talk about it.

Everyone is crazy over Markakis, Pence, etc. and it is easy to forget that Torii Hunter’s numbers are what they are aspiring to produce. Hunter in LA should easily put up a 30-20 season and playing on grass is only going to help his health.

Ok, that does it. I was definitely high on something. Pence was the worst pick then and just rehashing this makes me feel sick to the stomach. I do take solace in the fact Jeter was picked 6 spots before Pence, so I didn’t actually make the worst pick in hindsight. Hunter hasn’t put up a 30/20 level numbers, but he has definitely turned it on as of late and a real run at 25/20 isn’t out of the question. Even in retrospect he was still the best value taken in this round.

Over the weekend I will rehash the remainder of the draft. It gets really interesting in the middle rounds when guys like Hamilton, Longoria, and Volquez start coming off the board. Look for the next two parts to be up this Saturday and Sunday.

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