fantasysportsguru

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend.  Traditionally, my friends and I have held our fantasy football drafts during that weekend, since we prefer to do our drafts live in-person and most people are able to travel from out-of-town during the long weekend.  There aren’t too many better combinations than fantasy football drafts and Labor Day weekend BBQs.  Today’s post will be the first of a 2-part post, as I will be recapping both my auction keeper league draft (today) and my 14-team standard league draft (tomorrow).

Captain’s Dynasty League 2008 Draft

Keepers (Salary Cap = $100): Ladanian Tomlinson ($41), Plaxico Burress ($9), Earnest Graham ($7), Tony Romo ($6), Jake Delhomme ($2), Selvin Young ($2), Owen Daniels ($2)  [TOTAL: $69 for 7 keepers, $31 to spend on 9 players]

I came into this draft with 2 goals in mind: 1) picking up 2 starter-quality WRs, and hopefully one elite one, and 2) trying to pick up a few cheap keeper prospects for next year.  I knew I probably wouldn’t have a shot at the higher-end rookie RBs, such as Matt Forte, Kevin Smith, and Jonathan Stewart, but I figured I could steal a couple of cheap rookie receivers while getting a WR1 and WR3 to surround Burress.

I started off the draft early by landing Lee Evans at $6. who I felt could be more than a serviceable WR3.  After a lot of high end studs who weren’t kept this year came off the board, the rosters began to fill out, and I felt confident I could land a WR1.  I picked up Phil Dawson and the Colts D for $1 each, which put me in an even better position (6 open spots left with $23 remaining) to land a stud receiver.

Here’s where things got tricky: other teams started bidding up on the top available WRs, with some notables being Anquan Boldin ($12), Torry Holt ($13), Chad Johnson ($12), Marvin Harrison ($8), and Steve Smith ($17).  I was scared off by nearly all of these WRs because of their health issues, and felt they were a bit overpriced.  However, not landing any of them was a big mistake because I ended up having a lot of remaining cap room (as you’ll soon see).

I decided to fill 2 more roster spots by handcuffing the backups for LT and Graham, as I took on Darren Sproles ($1) and Warrick Dunn ($1).  This left me with $21 for 4 players.  It was at this point where I probably took my biggest chance of the draft, taking Javon Walker at $7.  I probably overpaid for him, but he was probably the last proven receiver remaining in the free agent pool and I needed someone I could plug in the starting lineup week in and week out.  Had I known I was going to have to pay $7 for Walker, I would have easily outbid other people for guys like Boldin and Holt.

Next, I took Kenny Watson ($4), who I believe has a great chance to be a starting RB eventually this year for the Bengals and has tremendous upside.  He was by far my best pick of this year’s draft.  To fill out the roster, I took fliers on two rookie receivers, Josh Morgan ($2) and Limas Sweed ($1), who I hope will be keeper prospects for the future.

So here’s the tips I think you can get out of my mistakes: 1) Spend all your money!  I finished at $93, or $7 below the salary cap maximum. Not that you don’t want to be fiscally responsible while constructing your team, but make sure you can get the best team possible for your money.  2) If you are entering a year where you think your team can contend to win the title, try to get the best starting lineup possible instead of drafting for the future.  I royally screwed up by not getting a bona fide top-flight WR this year, and although you could certainly do a lot worse than Plax/Evans/Walker, it’s not by any means a positive difference-maker, and will be at a disadvantage against strong teams.

Now my only hope is that some of my cheap keeper prospects flourish early this year, and that my team will remain in contention long enough for me to deal off some prospects for proven receivers from rebuilding teams.  If my team falls into an early hole, it might be time to hold a fire sale to rebuild early for 2009.

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