By Dustin Hockensmith
Fantasy Sports 101 Baseball

March 19, 2008 - Since many of us don't participate in expert drafts, public leagues are sometimes the only option for quickly assembling teams and knocking out live drafts. The whole experience is different when dealing with a grab bag of owners, some of whom don't show up for the scheduled draft time. This is a recap of one of those drafts as it happened.

And away we go ...

Draft order is revealed, and The Goon Squad 7 gets the sixth pick. Assistant editor of this site, Brant Nelson, picks eighth. I have a feeling we'll step on each other's toes at least five times in the draft.

Team No. 1 is not present, so here goes 90 long seconds. The worst part of these drafts, when owners lose track of their draft times and don't show up.

And there's the first outrageous pick of the night, Chase Utley at No. 2 from the owner who didn't know how to locate the draft order.

Jose Reyes slips again, I nab him with the seventh pick for at least the second time this preseason. Since opinions are so varied on him, he can often be found slipping beyond the No. 5 pick of drafts.

**NBA side note: The Celtics are thumping the Rockets, bringing that epic 22-game win streak to an abrupt end. Good while it lasted, but how is Boston feeling after beating San Antonio and Houston on the road on back-to-back nights?

Ryan Howard or Ryan Braun with the 15th overall pick? I'll take the biggest number that either of them has to offer -- Howard's 50-home run potential.

Couldn't resist David Ortiz with the 26th overall pick. Probably didn't make sense, but the power of Ortiz and Howard and the speed of Jose Reyes felt like a great start.

Having Ortiz planted at the utility spot leaves a hole in the outfield for a solid, five-category contributor to fill. Eric Byrnes goes off the board at No. 34, which leaves Nick Markakis as the most logical choice. All about balance and filling that offense out at the beginning of the draft.

Pitching can still wait, especially with a good bargain on the draft board in Russell Martin with the 55th overall pick. Martin is a nice way to cut corners in the steals category, so long as the price (anytime after the 4th round) is right. His 21 steals tripled the next closest player at the position last year, Minnesota's Joe Mauer.

Not wanting to pay too close attention to the message board, but the conversation, as usual, is one for the ages. The lesson for today apparently is that the NHL, NBA, UFC and even MLB all suck. The racial slur afterwards was pretty cute, too.

Ryan Zimmerman (No. 66) and Matt Kemp (No. 75) are the next two choices. Building a dominating lineup can provide a nice margin for error when I finally get around to assembling the pitching staff.

John Smoltz is the first pitcher to land on Goon Squad 7's roster. Smoltz is no fantasy ace, but couple him with another very solid bet (I'm eyeing Felix Hernandez at No. 95) and your staff has almost caught up to the rest of the pack. It will have taken two whole picks to accomplish.

No such luck on Hernandez, but getting on the board in saves with Jose Valverde is an acceptable fallback in the 10th round.

Pitching again goes on the back burner with Rickie Weeks available at a good price in the 11th round. Weeks is a high upside pick for steals and can offer rare five-category potential at this stage of the draft.

It's all about pitching for the next few rounds, and filling some vacated outfield slots helps round out the roster. Versatile outfielders was a priority, and Shane Victorino, Johnny Damon and Jacoby Ellsbury worked well in the final 3 of 5 starting positions.

"Staggering" picks with pitchers always ends up being the plan for drafts. Alternating selections between reliable starters who work deep into games and closers with explosive strikeout potetnial is a good way to strike some balance.

Not enough fantasy pundits put the proper amount of stake in the closer position. Grouping some dominant arms together is a cheap, easy way to mimick production from the likes of Johan Santana or Jake Peavy. High strikeout ratios and low opponent batting averages are keys to finding closers who fit this mold.

Ended the draft with a high-risk, high-reward pick in Kerry Wood in the 21st round, followed by Brandon Lyon, Brian Wilson, Stephen Drew and Matt Garza.

Here's a summary of the final roster, with pick numbers in parentheses next to each player.

C - Russell Martin, LAD (55)
1B - Ryan Howard, PHI (15)
2B - Robinson Cano, NYY (46)
3B - Ryan Zimmerman, WAS (66)
SS - Jose Reyes, NYM (7)
2B/SS - Rickie Weeks, MIL (106)
1B/3B - Joey Votto, CIN (195)
OF - Nick Markakis, BAL (35)
OF - Matt Kemp, LAD (75)
OF - Shane Victorino, PHI (135)
OF - Johnny Damon, NYY (155)
OF - Jacoby Ellsbury, BOS (175)
Util - David Ortiz, BOS (26)
Bench - Stephen Drew, ARI (235)

SP - John Smoltz, ATL (86)
SP - James Shields, TB (115)
SP - John Lackey, LAA (146)
SP - Phil Hughes, NYY (186)
SP - Matt Garza, TB (246)
RP - Jose Valverde, HOU (95)
RP - Manny Corpas, COL (126)
RP - Joakim Soria, KC (166)
RP - Kerry Wood, CHC (206)
RP - Brandon Lyon, ARI (215)
RP - Brian Wilson, SF (226)