At the end of every season I revisit my draft to see if there are learnings and/or takeaways from the season. You can find the initial recap of this draft here.
In this league I came in 5th; 7th in hitting and 5th in pitching.
This team had some bad luck and me being wrong on players. I was also happy with some of my picks. I was very happy with the performance from Christian Walker, Tanner Houck, Nick Lodolo, Framber Valdez, Francisco Lindor, Shota Imanaga and Cal Raleigh.
Bad Luck
Willson Contreras only playing 84 games. I projected he would bat high in the lineup and DH a lot. He was on pace to achieve that but injuries unfortunately got in the way. I think next year he splits half the time at DH and the other half catcher.
I thought I would get 15 homers from Andrés Giménez but I only got 9. I think next year I’ll only project 9-12 homers. Also, I think he will only bat 6th or 7th which reduces baseball card stats.
I thought Julio Rodríguez’s floor was 30/30 which was why he was 4th rated hitter. He finished 39th overall on FanGraph’s Player Rater, which isn’t that bad but you always a want a floor of a top 20 player if you’re drafting in the top 3.
Camilo Doval lost his control; it was never great but this year he took a step backwards and was demoted to the minor leagues in the second half of the season. As of right now he’s the Giants closer next year and he will likely be a deal in drafts next year.
In the first half of the year Cedric Mullins had a .214 batting average, a 78 wRC+ and .246 BABIP. It got so bad he was almost relegated to the bench. In the second half he had a 143 wRC+ with a .831 OPS. He’s the best center fielder on the Orioles but he may be relegated to a platoon player.
Me Being Wrong
I’ve been a Daulton Varsho fan for the past three seasons. I keep projecting 25/15 with a .230 batting average. His defense is good he’s going to play every day but since he hits so many fly balls his performance will vary greatly month-to-month.
Overall Takeaway
At the end of draft season I thought this team was my best team but it didn’t turn out that way. The bottom line was most of my hitters underperformed their ADP.
