Hello and Welcome to The Gray Area! Where ever in the world you maybe thanks for making this part of your day.

As some of you may or may not know, I drafted my first fantasy baseball team yesterday afternoon. As promised, I will reveal those picks now to you.  Then I will discuss my expectations and strategy going in to the draft.  I will say this upfront: I am very happy with my team and with any luck will finish with a little trophy on myESPN fantasy login at year’s end. So with no further waiting, here we go! I was drafting 12^th out of twelve teams so I had a lot of waiting time. 

1.)    Joey Votto- 1B

2.)    Tim Lincecum- Starting Pitcher

3.)    Dan Uggla-2B

4.)    Shin-Soo Choo-OF

5.)    Michael Young-3B

6.)    Mat Latos-SP

7.)    Shane Victorino-OF

8.)    Matt Cain-SP

9.)    Brett Gardner-OF

10.) Shaun Marcum-SP

11.)  John Danks-SP

12.)  Brandon Morrow-SP

13.)   Ian Desmond-SS

14.)  Johnny Cueto-SP

15.)  Miguel Montero-C

16.)  Domonic Brown-OF

17.)  Jamie Garcia-SP

18.)  Danny Espinosa-2B/SS

19.)  Ryan Raburn-OF

20.)  Garret Jones-1B/3B

21.)   Coco Crisp-Utility

22.)   Daniel Bard-Relief Pitcher (Bench)

23.)   Pat Burrell-Utility

24.)   Brian Fuentes-RP(Bench)

 As I mentioned before, I am so happy with this team. Near the end, I began using ESPN insider recommendations which lead me to fill some holes it analyzed. For instance, I was a little low on steals so it recommended Coco Crisp late in the draft for a Utility player, so I grabbed him. A Utility player is mainly a veteran who hits on the Designated Hitter spot. To me, it’s like you get to play an extra player if your other starting spots are full. 

So, what was my strategy? The one thing I will always remember from my first ever fantasy draft I will share with you now. I was in the Navy on board the USS Kitty Hawk with a bunch of guys. I assumed I knew more about football than them. I struggled through the entire draft because I did zero research or any planning. I then panicked when it was my turn just sticking to the positional order I thought I should draft, such as RD1- QB , RD2-RB, etc. What happened was that I picked a lot of players to high and did not get the best value for my pick. Long  story short, at the end of it I talked to a friend ,who I considered the only one who was smarter than me, Sebourn, and told him I how poorly I drafted. That’s when he told me the following: “You have to take the best player available.” Planning is the key. You obviously don’t want to draft two players of the same position back to back, but in my baseball draft, you will see what I mean. You make a plan and you follow it closely, it’s like a guideline in case you have a panic moment. You also must mock draft several times before the real thing because it gives you a sense of what most people are thinking. For example, in all the mock drafts I did, Shane Victorino was going much earlier than projected in my research was showing, so I made sure to move him up on draft day behind some pitchers I wanted that would still be there.

  What I did was I used an “experts” mock draft from my position as a guide line. It gave me all of my starters in the order that I preset on ESPN’s draft board. This showed me position and who to draft for my team per round.  Then I simply looked at who was best available and considered drafting my pre-selection or passing for someone more highly projected. Another thing I did was to write down on a piece of paper the positional pre-draft order, which I then updated for real time to know what I needed next. I will show you an example of what I mean, and keep in mind that since I am selecting 12^th, they are selected in pairs. I have the last pick in all odd rounds and the first pick in all even rounds (for example, in round 1, I had twelfth pick, and in round 2, I had first pick).

Pre-Draft                                Actual

In/Out fielder                    IF-Joey Votto

Pitcher                                SP-Lincecum

In Field                               IF-Uggla

**Note I am jumping down to show you where I adjusted**

IF/OF                                 IF-Michael Young

IF/OF                                 Pitcher- Mat Latos

SP (Cain)                          OF- Victorino

SP   (Marcum)                   SP-Matt Cain

*Note again that I did get Marcum*

The end result was I think a very solid team. I was ecstatic when Joey Votto dropped to me at 12^th when all my mock drafts had me selecting David Wright of the Mets, which we all know, if you anchor your team with a New York Mets player, you are doomed from the start.  Just kidding Mets fans! Also, I had decided that because of my draft position, I would draft a top pitcher with my first two picks. Big Time Timmy Jim (Tim Lincecum) was the result. Don’t worry people, I will not bore you with a round by round mention of my selection, but I am going to hit on some nice players I got at the right time. Most of these are late picks which some owners get a little lazy with. I drafted John Danks on my team (ESPN insider pick) who is a solid #3 starter according to research, and I am asking him to be #5.

I want to mention another three good ones. First was hopeful Rookie of the Year Danny Espinosa (2B/SS). On my “experts” mock, he was drafted about round 14. I got him later at 18. The next I was really happy to snag was Ryan Raburn late in the draft as my last outfielder. He has a lot of potential, and I have already received trade talks for him.  I want to last mention Ian Desmond (SS). My pre-select had me drafting Danny Espinosa to that spot luckily for me he fell to a later round 13^th/14^th .Where  I would have drafted Espinosa, but I took a higher player plus I got my guy.

Last thing before I go: I really tried to stay away from injury risk players, which I am happy to report I only drafted at the tail end. Injuries to your top players can kill your team so why draft injury prone players high? I never do it. Playing sports is hard enough on the body for those players who manage to avoid injury; therefore, I stick with them. I will mention a common mistake new fantasy players make. That leads me to my final point for everyone wanting to get into fantasy sports. Never ever draft emotionally. It will kill your team. The long time Cleveland Indians fan who drafts all Indians will finish at the bottom of the league I guarantee it. I really wanted to draft Johnny Damon. I love that guy however I went with ESPN by drafting Coco Crisp because he provided better value. 

As always, if you want to hear more from me, you can follow me on twitter @chrisgrayarea or on youtube at chrisgrayarea. I always appreciate your comments on any media front. Be on the lookout for updates on my team as well as NHL playoff previews.

I want to make a plug in here for a friend’s blog, it’s fantastic. “What’s Stocky Eating” is a great blog mainly because I am a huge food guy. Please check it out! The food reminds me of when I was overseas and his descriptions are terrific. The website is whatstockyeating.blogspot.com that’s it for me.

- Gray out!