Fantasy team #1: drafted!

Despite the confusion of Daylight Savings, I still managed to drag myself out of bed this morning in time for my fantasy baseball draft. Hooray! My team's name is PronktablyUnbeatable, named for Travis Hafner's winning fantasy football team last year (yes, I read too much Sports Illustrated). Here are the picks:

1. Prince Fielder. Dude. Even with the 11th pick out of 13 teams I still got the Prince. Hawkins taking Miggy before Fielder? Pshhh thanks for the free RBIs, suckah.
2. Josh Beckett. Santana was the only starter off the board at this point, and I did get some accusations of being a homer for this pick, but we'll see who's laughing when I'm leading the league in wins.
3. Derrek Lee. I'm planning on playing Fielder at utility, so the opportunity to grab Lee at 1B was too good to pass up.
4. Jonathan Papelbon. I decided I was going to beat the closer rush this year. I feel no need to justify this pick.
5. Jason Bay. Good outfielders go fast in the first rounds. I had to make a move.
6. Joe Mauer. I couldn't BELIEVE he was still available in the 6th round, especially with a Twins homer like Boyle drafting before me. Plus, he ups the hottie factor of my team significantly -- an important factor frequently overlooked by my male counterparts.
7. Fausto Carmona. I struggled on this one -- did I want Roy Halladay instead? Ultimately, I opted for Carmona on the grounds that his team is significantly more likely to give him the run support for a win. Plus, he's looked great so far this spring.
8. Jacoby Ellsbury. I was trying hard not to overload my team with Red Sox... but come ON. Ellsbury still on the board in the 8th round? It would have been foolish not to take him. He's going to be a huge boost in the more elusive offensive categories.
9. Josh Fields. I LOVE this pick.
   
10. Trevor Hoffman. Koller put it best: "40 saves is 40 saves."
11. Jhonny Peralta. Thank god we're not in a defense league. Honestly, Jeter was still available at this point, but I just couldn't do it.
12. Jered Weaver. Weaver is going to win 14 games this year. You heard it here first. Do the sabermetrics.
13. Orlando Hudson. Damn, I am loving my infield at this point.
14. Jeremy Hermida. Here's hoping he can do for an entire season what he did for the second half of last year. I love the combination of Bay, Hermida, and Ellsbury in the outfield.
15. Andy Pettitte. No, I didn't want to draft a Yankee, but Pettitte is money. Honestly, I think he was a steal at this point in the draft.
16. Rick Ankiel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
17. Ryan Theriot. Wow. Another great pick. He can back up at both 2B and SS, and he likes to steal bases. I like that.
18. Adam LaRoche. I've said before that LaRoche is always drastically undervalued in fantasy drafts. This draft was no exception. He's already off to a hot start this spring, too. The obvious issue here is that I've got nowhere to play him, since 1B is the position I have the most depth at. He's great to have, though, if only for trading purposes.
19. Greg Maddux. Oh god he's like 100 years old. I still think he'll be an asset.
20. Mark Buehrle. Eh, I'm not thrilled with myself for freaking out and drafting 2 pitchers in a row this late in the draft, but I had so many extra innings left at the end of the last year that I felt the need to overcompensate this year. I should have taken another 3B. Ah well -- Buehrle is a workhorse, and he rebounded surprisingly well last year after that less-than-spectacular 2006 season.
21. Paul LoDuca. Considering I'll only play him when Mauer is out, and Mauer generally bats every day since he DH's when he's not catching, this was more insurance than anything else. There's nothing worse than scrambling to make a trade for a decent catcher when no one wants to trade theirs... and then you get stuck scooping up John Buck from the free agency pool and hating yourself for a month. Nooo thanks.

Yeah, I fizzled a bit in the later rounds (I was drafting for Tim, too, so I was switching back and forth between my rankings and his, and it got tough). The only real bummer was that I didn't get Evan Longoria. I made the mistake of mentioning that I was interested in him, and Boyle had to go rain on my parade. I LOVE this team, though, and overall I think I drafted well. I've got another draft in a couple of weeks, but for now these are my boys. Let's go Pronks!


Update: I changed my team name back to Bobby Kielty's Homer, which was the name I originally signed up with, and which is a nice double entendre given that I just pulled off a ridiculous trade for Mike Lowell and now have 4 members of my home team on my fantasy team. Now THAT is a homer.