The More Teams, The Better

I've always been of the opinion that 14+ team leagues are the best.  Personally, I prefer 16 team leagues, but as it's generally hard to find 15 friends willing to drop the cash and follow the league, I always end up in 12 or 14 team leagues.  Of course I could just join a random league, but I always find it much more enjoyable playing amongst friends.

As of now, I'm currently a member of 4 leagues.  Three are in Yahoo! and one is ESPN.  I prefer these leagues, because they are category based as opposed to points based.  Despite my strong dislike of minimum team leagues, I just drafted my first team of the year, a 10 team league.  As soon as the draft began, I immediately regretted having joined.  I think it's going to be fun regardless, but even if you just look at my team alone, you have to figure that everyones team is just stacked.  I like 14-16 team leagues because it requires managers to actively be involved in free agency and trading.  This 10 team league is going to involve little effort, as almost every player is an all-star.

Just to see if I'm completely full of it or not, I will provide consistent updates of my personal team's peformances.  As of last night, my ESPN league team looks as follows, with round drafted in parenthesis:

C - Victor Martinez (5)
1B- Ryan Howard (2)
2B- Chase Utley (1)
SS- Troy Tulowitzki (3)
3B- Pablo Sandoval (4)
OF- Andre Ethier (6)
OF- Jason Bay (7)
OF- Hunter Pence (12)
Util- Chone Figgins (8)
Util- Billy Butler (11)
P- Scott Baker (16)
P- Andy Pettitte (17)
P- Ted Lilly (18)
P- Jonathan Sanchez (19)
P- Francisco Cordero (9)
P- Billy Wagner (10)
P- Carlos Marmol (13)
P- Rafael Soriano (15)
BN- Manny Ramirez (14)
BN- John Maine (20)
BN- Erik Bedard (21)
BN - Scott Feldman (22)

At first glace, you must be thinking exactly what everyone in my draft was thinking.  What?!  Yes, I drafted 4 closers.  Yes, I drafted all of my closers before any starters.  Yes, I didn't draft a pitcher until the 9th round, a starter until the 16th round!  Let me begin that this league was created a bit differently than most I'm used to.  Everyone sets up their leagues differently, so this may be familiar to you.  First, as stated in my previous post, I do not draft pitchers early.  Especially in a 10 team league, it's completely foolish to draft pitchers in the first five rounds.

Let's look at the lineup.  Categories that are missing in this league are 2B and 3B.  First let me state that I am a New York Mets fan.  I drafted Phillies players with my first two picks.  Chase Utley is one of the most unhateable players in the game and easily the best 2B and a limited depth position.  Easy choice at 6th overall.  Second, I was deciding between Ryan Howard and David Wright.  I'm not a Howard fan, but with no doubles involved, I had to go with the guy who's guaranteed 40+ homeruns.  I don't feel the need to explain 3 and 4, but if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.  I love Victor Martinez in the 5th round.  Arguably the 2nd best catcher in the game, I assumed he'd be gone and had planned on waiting for Wieters a few rounds later.  As he slipped to me, I couldn't pass him up at yet another limited depth position.

Here's my pitching logic.  Most leagues I've been in were set up with 5 SP spots and 2 RP spots.  This league has 8 P spots, which can be used for starters or relievers.  It occurs maybe twice a year where you have 5 SP pitching the same day on your team.  I drafted 4 RP, which will be in my "rotation" every day of the year.  I should undoubtely have more closers than anyone else in the league, virtually guaranteeing me to win the saves category.  Now, of course closers are going to blow saves here and there, but having the closers in my rotation every day should keep my ERA and WHIP pretty low every week.  Now, I obviously don't have a steller rotation, but what I do have is solid pitchers who will get exactly what I need out of them.  You want Lincecum in round 3? I'm very happy with Troy Tulowitski and Ted Lilly leading my staff, who's just consistently solid year in and year out.

Tulowitski and Figgins allow me to compete every week in SB.  I think Billy Butler is an absolute steal in round 11.  The fact that I have Manny Ramirez on my bench, whom I acquired in the 14th round also confuses me.  I have no idea why everyone was afraid to draft him.  This may prove to be a huge pickup for me, and worst case scenario is he sits on my bench.  I can't argue with that.

I would love feedback on this.  You'll see huge differences in my draft style in my other leagues, but based on my explanations here, comment away.