Another inspiring draft guru.

Here are the second half of the draft grades from the NQTC league draft last week.  If you’re unable to find the first half by scrolling down for about five seconds, it’s right here.  To the second half we go.  Now that we’re done, feel free to rip on our teams, rip on the grades, or most importantly rip on these guys when they complain about their grades.

Don’t F With DeJesus- It’s not the easiest thing to grade your own team.  I chose my own players, so if I don’t like it, that would really suck.  I started off with Ryan Braun and Johan Santana in the first two rounds, and I think I was able to keep a good balance between batting and pitching throughout the draft.  Morneau, Crawford, and Abreu should help Braun pile up the batting stats, while I’ll need good bounce back years from Erik Bedard and Fausto Carmona to help Johan.  I also managed to steal some closers from Dan with K-Rod, Valverde, and Gregg.  Yeah, on second thought, no grade here.

Mo Vaughn Mo Problems- Speaking of closers…MVMP was able to scoop up at least four guys who will have the job on opening day.  The starting pitching leaves something to be desired (strikeouts), but closers are good for a lot of categories.  Home runs and RBIs shouldn’t be a problem for the hitters. Ryan Howard, Carlos Lee, Matt Holliday, Carlos Pena, and Garrett Atkins should take care of that.  Combining closers with power hitters is a good strategy to get some guaranteed category wins and it looks like this team pulled it off.  Pitching- B, Batting-B+

The Bad Guy- Well, here I am commenting on our fantasy expert’s draft, I think this is what the name of our blog is all about.  I remember thinking a few times that he got some great value during the draft.  Rollins and Dunn are the stars, but batters like Mark Reynolds, Matt Kemp, Mike Jacobs, and Carlos Delgado will put up good power numbers and came way late in the draft.  This allowed the Bad Guy to stockpile some pitching.  Tim Lincecum and Haren are two of the best there are and Broxton is poised for an outstanding year.  Another player of note is Giants catcher Pablo Sandoval.  Look for a great year from this guy.  Pitching- B+, Batting- B

Sharapova’s Thigh- This is probably a good thing for the Thigh’s chances, but I’m not really wild about this team.  It’s not that it’s bad, it’s more that there just aren’t guys on it I like.  Guys like Teixeira, Kinsler, Jewkilis, and Markakis will undoubtedly produce.  I like Billingsley on the pitching staff and obviously am a fan of Verlander and Marmol, but the rest of the guys just seem like solid pitchers I don’t care about.  What great analysis huh?  So there’s your bulletin board material Thigh guy, can’t wait for the inevitable beating they put on me in our first match-up.  Pitching- C+, Batting- B

AFine Has No Friends- I really couldn’t like the first three rounds of this draft much more.  Utley, Berkman, and Webb is a fantastic start to a team.  Stephen Drew and Joey Votto were also solid picks later in the draft to round out a solid batting lineup.  After Webb, the starting pitching gets very average and the closers have some serious questions including Hoffman’s health and Sherrill’s rocky spring.  Look out for Zack Greinke’s depression to bring down clubhouse morale.  Pitching- B-, Batting- B+

Rod Beck’s Mullet- Beck’s Mullet has some amazing hitters including Josh Hamilton and Magglio Ordonez, while Roy Halladay leads the pitching staff.  The outfield is downright sick with the above mentioned guys and Raul Ibanez.  Keeping in mind that those guys will be sufficient for a solid season, the supporting cast isn’t that great.  Wood and Fuentes are the primary relievers, but Chris Ray could have the job in Baltimore before too long.  John Lackey should be a solid second starter, but the elbow problems have to be a concern.  Kershaw and Kuroda don’t have me rushing to praise the staff as a whole though.  Pitching- B-, Batting- A-

If he liked your draft, you shouldn't.

The NQTC fantasy baseball league held its draft last week, and it got done sometime around Sunday night.  Anyway, I’ve looked over the rosters and here come the draft grades.  I’ll go over them in order of where they picked in the first round, with the first six now and the last six a little later.

Chi Blackouts- The Blackouts had the first overall pick and went with Albert Pujols, then didn’t stop with the offense, picking hitters until the 10th round when he chose Matt Cain as his ace.  Interesting.  Well not really, as I’m pretty sure this was an auto-draft based on Russell Martin and Joe Mauer being taken early, along with Brandon Phillips and Pedroia.  In a word, the pitching staff is injured: Smoltz and Sheets are in trouble and David Price will be in the minors if I’m not mistaken.  Hard to imagine this auto-draft going worse, but at least there are some good hitters in there.  Pitching- D+, Batting- B

The Great Bambinos- Not tough to spot Bino’s team, as there are five Sox on it.  He also went the route of grabbing hitters early, taking Francisco Liriano as his first pitcher in the seventh round.  He still managed to get some good pitching with Dice-K and Joba, but nothing fantastic.  Bino also benefitted from no one wanting David Ortiz, because he sat around forever because of his very misleading position of “utility”.   A-Rod is another highlight of this roster, and with guys like Hanley, Dye, and McCann this team can really mash.  Pitching- C, Batting- A-

Team Christianity- It’s hard to gather how Josh Hamilton is not on this team, but Elijah Dukes is.  Even though real stadiums have roofs didn’t like his spot with the third pick, he got a great player in David Wright to start it off.  I think I moved the draft far enough back for this owner to do his research, because he got some less than prominent names and has predictably been all over the waiver wire already.  Nathan, Beckett, Harden, and Lester were his top pitchers taken and form the start of a solid staff.  It’s hard to talk about this draft when half the players will change before opening day.  Pitching- B, Batting- B+

Tootblan Theriots- Here’s Stormin’ Norman’s team and he certainly drafted some speed.  It started with Reyes, and continued with guys like Ichiro, Granderson, Victornino, and Bengie Molina…err, wait.  The pitching is headlined by King Felix, Oswalt, Dempster, and Jenks, but then gets old and ugly fast with Randy Johnson, Aaron Harang, and Troy Percival.  Have fun battling Team Christianity on the pitching waiver wire, should be quite the rivalry.  The batters should do well in runs and steals, but I don’t know how the pitching can make up for the lack of power numbers.  Pitching- C+, Batting- B

Peavyitis- This was one of only four teams to take a pitcher in the first two rounds, and he got Peavy and Hamels early.  Those are great pitchers, but not without some concerns as Peavy was shaky in the WBC and Hamels is missing his first start already.  Still, with Zambrano, Wang, and Lowe, the pitching is in great shape.  Best so far, but lacking in the saves department.  I can’t say the same for the hitting, but there is hope with guys like Soto, Sizemore, and Derrek Lee.  Peavyitis also provided the most chatter in the draft by trying to trade Carlos Quentin for cash considerations and a minor league catcher.  Pitching- A-, Batting- C

Bronx Obamers- Danimal started off his draft by stealing Miguel Cabrera just before I could get him (F).  If you have noticed a lack of top notch closers thus far, it’s probably the fault of this team.  Papelbon and Lidge are the best of the bunch, but Dan got some great starters too in CC, Cliff Lee, Ervin Santana, and Brett Myers.  The Obamers got some good value with batting too.  They grabbed Jeter and Soriano later than I would have expected, along with Uggla, Rios, and Pat Burrell at relatively late picks.  The offense should perform well enough to let the pitching get a lot of wins.  Pitching- A-, Batting- B