Last night my 15-team NFBC draft was by far the longest draft I’ve ever been in; it literally took a little more than five hours to finish. I was so tired afterward I had to go on a 20 minute run to rejuvenate myself.

Anyway, onto the draft. If you read my post about NFBC strategy you would have saw I was planning on getting Bryce Harper with my first pick. Well that flew out the window with the 11^th pick as the owner took Harper three picks ahead of my pick. Overall I was happy with my team. The biggest hole on my team was my lack of speed on offense. According to my projections I’m expected to finish 11^th in stolen bases, which is lower than I want (duh). My thinking during the draft was it would be harder to find power than speed via the free agent wire. My 5^th outfielder is Carlos Quentin and if he gets hurt his replacement will be speed first player. Most projections I’ve seen show him only playing 50-65% of the year so if he gets hurt and I sign a steals only player I’ll basically have a 20/25 player.

Catchers: I didn’t have a plan on when to fill my two catcher slots, but in most of the mock drafts I’ve done I’ve always waited for catcher because three of my favorites (John Jaso, Welington Castillo and Jason Castro) are always available at the end of drafts. I have Castillo hitting 18+ home runs and Jaso has an opportunity to score 70+ runs if he hits atop the Athletics batting order. If Jed Lowrie gets hurt, Athletics Manager, Bob Melvin is smart enough to see Jaso’s .359 career OBP and put him atop the order.

Infield: Troy Tulowitzki was too good to pass up at 14 overall. Injuries are a concern, which is why I drafted Ben Zobrist as a backup in the event Tulowitzki does miss time. Zobrist may be considered a reach, but I couldn’t pass up his position flexibility and the production he provides. In a league this deep, position flexibility throughout my infield is extremely valuable. I got Jhonny Peralta in the 22^nd round which was a steal. With the addition of Victor Martinez to the Tigers lineup, Peralta is in-line to have more RBI opportunities. However, since I got Peralta so late in the draft he’s extremely expendable if I need a middle infielder with speed.

If you read my fantasy guide you’ll know I love Eric Hosmer and Ike Davis. I’ll admit I reached a little early for Hosmer, but I wanted him and I didn’t expect him to come back around to me. Billy Butler is one of the safest players in game and I wanted to have some security to minimize the injury risk of Tulowitzki. Chris Parmelee was a flier with my last pick; he has first base eligibility but is projected to be the everyday right fielder and is slotted to bat 6^th in the lineup. I believe Kyle Seager was a steal with the 164^th pick. He went after Mike Moustakas, Todd Frazier and Will Middlebrooks, all guys I have rated behind Seager. I wanted to draft an outfielder at that spot, but the value of Seager was too good to pass up.

Outfield: I’m not a Angel Pagan guy, but I had no choice but to take him 224^th overall. Hopefully Pagan and Norichika Aoki can exceed their 2012 stolen base totals. The biggest regret from the draft was taking Alfonso Soriano over Lorenzo Cain. If I did, I would be looking better in the steals department, but Soriano is batting cleanup and he’ll have a lot of RBI opportunities. Also, he could be playing for a contender after the trade deadline. Franklin Gutierrez is someone who unfairly has the injury prone label, but his injuries have been fluky in nature.

Pitchers: I’m extremely ecstatic that Brandon Maurer will begin the year in the Mariners starting rotation. Maurer can legitimately miss bats and will pitch in the AL West; that’s a great combination. When I drafted Ricky Romero I didn’t know he was optioned to the minor leagues, so you can only imagine my shock after the draft to see what happened. After sleeping on it, I’m seeing this as good thing; when he fixes his delivery he’ll be closer to the pitcher he was in 2011, which makes him valuable. I like Jeremy Hellickson and Lance Lynn; Lynn has lost a lot of weight and looks ready to handle a 200 inning workload. I was extremely cautious about making Jake Peavy my number two starter, but he’s been healthy for the past year and half and I believe it will continue. I picked up Chris Tillman and Ivan Nova for their strikeouts because at that point I didn’t have enough. Honestly, I still don’t think I have enough. My favorite pickup was Chris Archer because even though he’s beginning the year in the minors, he’s the 4^th best starting pitcher the Tampa Rays have. If Archer began the year in the Majors he would be a top 40 starting pitcher because can miss a ton of bats, pitches in Tampa Bay’s ballpark and the Rays defense. If Archer makes it up to the big leagues by April, he can make up a lot of ground in strikeouts.

Bullpen: I waited until the 18^th closer went off the board before grabbing Ernesto Frieri and Brandon League. I never liked grabbing closers early because the position is so volatile. With Jim Henderson and Aaron Crow, I wanted to grab the pitchers next in-line behind closers who could lose their quicker and/or have the greatest chance of imploding. Royals’ closer, Greg Holland, has had a 2 mph decrease in fastball velocity compared to last year. Also, Holland isn’t the healthiest pitcher around. John Axford isn’t very good; last year was not an aberration folks. Henderson has “closer stuff” with a fastball that sits in the mid-90s and with a knockout slider.