KingKat

I thought it would advance the runner to 3rd and I was reasonably satisfied with that. Was pleasantly surprised when the ball just kept going.

This is excellent. Really need this one with Kershaw going tomorrow.

Well damn!!!

Yeah IWs are about who hits behind you. Donaldson did not get a single IW last year despite being the MVP.

It's the right decision given his speed but you do worry about him doing something boneheaded.

Eddie!

Yeah he does. Still a good pure hitter though even without the power.

O.K. Seemed kind of out of nowhere. I'm notoriously bad at joke recognition.

WTF dude?

Well I'll admit to not seeing that coming at all. Was just about to post about how impressed with Maeda I am.

All the same maybe don't test Puig's arm going forward.

There's a green tint in the white rum here that's not present in Upper Canada. Took me a long time to figure that out.

Agreed. I wish this had made more of a dent in his farm but it really didn't.

Pentecost might not have been BPA but he was definitely a solid looking pick. He was the best defensive catcher in the draft which gave him a pretty solid floor. That floor has been completely shattered by injuries but I don't think you can blame anyone for not seeing that coming. Harris was a bit more suspect. This is easy to say with the benefit of hindsight of course but the fact that he was from a small school and didn't face quality competition should have caused pause.

I heard something to the effect that they're doing work on the stadium that requires it to be closed.

O.K. Looks like the Jays will keep trying players with some positional value before they resort to Montero.

I've never approached every draft with exactly the same system for reasons that I won't get into it but I've rarely had less of a system than I did at the last DDL one. I leaned pretty heavily on outside advice. Not doing that again. I'll probably make a judgement call on the very first pick and than defer to a system. The systems that work best for me are the ones that radically reduce the draft pool and then you take what's left, get a rough idea of how the league is likely to value them and rank accordingly. My problem at the last LOD draft is that I didn't reduce the player pool quickly enough or radically enough so I found myself with too many names and not enough differentiation (if that makes any sense) and I spent the whole draft feeling like I was one step behind everyone else in identifying the proper picks so I have already identified some steps to take to eliminate a lot of players. Whether it works out or not, there's tremendous satisfaction in approaching a draft with a capital P Plan and there's way more satisfaction when you can tie your success (and even your failures) to some sort of approach as opposed to just luck.

I know what this means even if you don't.

It's solid dad humour.

Let's see... Kolby Allard (ugh, seriously depressed asset but with real upside, have to keep) Walker Buehler (Who is this guy? What the f*** was I doing taking two consecutive pitchers from the draft class? Ugh. Keep, whatever. FML.) Ben Lively (Close to the majors, activate and see what happens) Ketel Marte (ditto) Manuel Margot (a guy) Daniel Norris (man what a headache he's become. Activate?) Nick Plummer (What the hell is wrong with me? Since when do I acquire guys like this?) Kevin Newman (I'm a believer.) Ruddy Giron (Another pick I hate.) D.J. Stewart (Really glad I at least had the sense to wait on him at the draft.) Renato Nunez (Solid B prospect.) So I can clear 3 spots by activating Marte/Lively/Norris. Margot, Allard and Buehler have to be kept. Nunez and Newman, I'll keep out of postive bias. That leaves me in a spot where if I want to make more than 3 picks I have to make uncomfortable decisions on Stewart, Giron and Plummer. Yuck.

That's generous towards Harris.

Good point. I haven't looked at my farm too closely in this league but I might have more garbage than I realize. I didn't come in to the last draft as well informed as I like to be. What I fear is that I have too many Kolby Allard types, picks that are bad enough to be very regrettable but not so bad that you can afford to cut bait.

I guess but in terms of roster management, I'd gladly clear a couple of spots than I need to clear for the draft anyways and stash a DL guy.

Why not just DL him instead of cluttering up your farm ahead of the draft?

He was conservative in the sense that was considered a fairly safe bet to sign but the height thing made him a potentially undervalued asset with real potential to outperform his draft position. A perfect pick if there ever was one. Deck on the other hand was kind of the anti-Stroman. He certainly has a great pitcher's body (6'6", 220 lbs) but it turns out he's not actually a great pitcher.