The Arizona Desert Rats make their debut in the Williams Division of the Premier Conference. Will they be Nibblers or Chompers?
The Ball Park:
In the ballpark draft, management was looking for a singles, low homeruns park. Arizona (SI-16, HR-2) was the target. When it came our turn to pick, Arizona was taken.
Management’s second choice was low singles and low homeruns. Oakland (SI-5, HR-4) was available. However, the A’s are moving to Las Vegas and the rules require us to keep our chosen ball park for 5 years. Without knowing what the new numbers would be, the choice of Oakland was abandoned.
Toronto (Rogers Centre) was the eventual choice. The Rats would be playing up north, across the border and indoors. With singles = 1 and homeruns 3/9, management prepared to draft accordingly.
The Draft:
Having the 12th pick in the odd number rounds (13th in the even number rounds) allowed plenty of time for preparation. The strategy was to use the first 4 picks to get the best players available up the middle (catcher, SS, CF, 2B) and then get a good starting pitcher.
This netted us Will Smith (C), Francisco Lindor (SS), Cody Bellinger (CF), Gleybar Torres (2B) and Jose Berrios (SP).
We would then alternate getting a hitter on even numbered rounds and a starting pitcher on odd rounds until we had 3 SP and 7 position players.
This added Marcel Ozuna (DH), Justin Verlander (SP), Braxton Garrett (SP), Matt Chapman (3B) and Luke Raley (1B).
Pick number 11 was to be a RH closer. We would then return to the strategy of a hitter on even numbered rounds and a starting pitcher on odd number rounds.
And thus, David Bednar (RHP), Will Castro (INF/OF), Mike Clevinger (SP), Mike Tauchman (OF) and Domingo German (SP) were added.
This gave us 9 position players, 4 starting pitchers and a closer.
The rest of the draft was used to fill in relief pitching, backup position players and of course, the 4 minor leaguers. I was able to do all of this, using the Auto-draft feature. In my mind, the only screw up was my last minor leaguer, as I forgot to place a “1” in the number of players I wanted from my list. This resulted in a time violation and having the system assign me a player.
The Roster:
C – W. Smith, Y. Gomes
1B – L. Raley, G. Cooper
2B – G. Torres/S. Espinal
3B – M. Chapman/S. Espinal
SS – F. Lindsor/S. Espinal
LF – M. Tauchman/R. Grichuk
CF – C. Bellinger, J. Davis
RF – W. Castro, R. Refsnyder
DH – M. Ozuna, E. Valdez
SP – J. Berrios, J. Verlander, B. Garrett, M. Clevinger, D. German, C. Silseth
Closer – D. Bednar, J.Romero
RP – J. Brebbia, T. Kahnle, B. Shaw, G. Soriano, R. Stephenson, W. Vest, A. Wantz, S. Manaea, T. Sauceda, J. Speier
The Expectation:
Management expects this team to win between 81 and 90 games. With 6 teams in the Premier Conference making the playoffs, a spot in the playoffs should be achievable.
Whether the Rats nibble or chomp remains to be seen.