Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft: Jacoby Ellsbury Goes No. 20

You know Fantasy Baseball is the root of all evil (and pleasure) when Jacoby Ellsbury goes No. 20 overall and is the first Red Sox to be selected.

Let hell freeze over in 3 ... 2 ... 1...

(In all honesty, he hits for average and steals. THAT'S why he's selected so high. Pedroia, Youkilis, Lester, V-Mart, Beckett, Papelbon, Lackey, Buchholz and Beltre follow up, with more Sox after.)

about 2 years ago Randy Booth 16 comments 0 recs |

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Depends on what you're playing.

5 × 5, maybe. But if I ever play fantasy baseball, I’m going 20 × 20!

Gimme wOBA or give me death!

No, seriously though, I don’t like fantasy…

USG

by Ben Buchanan on Feb 3, 2010 12:20 PM EST reply actions

I'm commishing a big league this year

wOBA is my homeboy.

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by Randy Booth on Feb 3, 2010 12:28 PM EST up reply actions

I know there are fantasy baseball haters out there, but I will defend:

I doubt anyone is claiming that Ells is the 20th best player in baseball. He obviously is not. Most of the time, players that are good in real life are also good in fantasy (Pujols, A-Rod etc are generally the top picks). However, stolen bases are one of the categories counted and there so few stolen bases in the league, that a player like Ellsbury will basically allow you to win one of the 5 offensive cateegories.

"Ninety percent [of my salary] I'll spend on good times, women, and Irish whiskey. The other ten percent I'll probably waste."
-Tug McGraw

by BTLove on Feb 3, 2010 12:23 PM EST reply actions

The result is that there are wierdly valued players in fantasy (like Ells) who are not at all valuable in real life.

"Ninety percent [of my salary] I'll spend on good times, women, and Irish whiskey. The other ten percent I'll probably waste."
-Tug McGraw

by BTLove on Feb 3, 2010 12:24 PM EST up reply actions

Didn’t mean to say that Ells is not valuable at all in real life. Just not as much as in fantasy.

"Ninety percent [of my salary] I'll spend on good times, women, and Irish whiskey. The other ten percent I'll probably waste."
-Tug McGraw

by BTLove on Feb 3, 2010 12:24 PM EST up reply actions

Ellsbury stole roughly 1 in every 42.5 bases in all of MLB last year.

by lone1c on Feb 3, 2010 5:37 PM EST up reply actions

Value

Fantasy Value: .300 BA, 100 Runs, 70 Steals……that’s top notch in 3 of the 5 categories

Stealing 70 bases is akin to hitting 70 homers in 5×5 Fantasy Baseball although the homerun hitters usually have high RBI totals as well.

by BobZupcic on Feb 3, 2010 12:44 PM EST reply actions

And run totals...

So it’s not really as akin.

USG

by Ben Buchanan on Feb 3, 2010 1:42 PM EST up reply actions

I guess

The better argument would be

Drafting Ellsbury grants you a pretty good shot at a top ranking in one category in the 5×5 while also helping you in two other (BA, RUNS) allowing you to temper the rest of your draft toward power which is much more easy to get and fill with multiple players. Ellsbury’s 70 steals were more than double every player in the majors with the exception of 5 other players.

53 Players hit 25+ hopmers in 2009
21 Players stole 25+ bases in 2009

by BobZupcic on Feb 3, 2010 3:27 PM EST up reply actions

thats just wrong

Youk should be the first player taken on the red sox no matter what the format is.

by Jason A on Feb 3, 2010 1:35 PM EST reply actions

Also Martinez

After Mauer, Martinez, McCann the offense @ Catcher is pretty thin

by Pl1166 on Feb 3, 2010 1:53 PM EST up reply actions

Rankings

Cockroft’s 5×5 Rankings

Ellsbury – 18
Pedroia – 33
Lester – 39
VMart – 45
Youk – 51

by BobZupcic on Feb 3, 2010 3:21 PM EST reply actions

In the points leagues I play in...

… Ellsbury was in the top ten in scoring. He should go higher than 20 in our leagues and he’s only getting better. If he can increase his BB’s and continue to hit like he does, He’ll be a top 5 pick in our leagues by 2011 and I wouldn’t be surprised if he does.

by AlohaHalofan on Feb 3, 2010 8:40 PM EST reply actions

I play a points league too

and Ellsbury was the number 11 overall scorer last year. I originally drafted him as my number three OF behind Braun (3) and Abreu (26). Lucky me :)

I like CBSsports format if anybody is interested. For offense, they award:
1B 1 pt, 2B 2 pt, 3B 3 pt, HR 4 pt, R 1 pt, RBI 1 pt, SB 2 pt(!), BB 1 pt, K -0.5 pt, GIDP -1 pt, CS -1 pt.

by Schulz on Feb 4, 2010 1:26 AM EST up reply actions

We've been with CBS for years...

… For baseball and football. Our scoring system is exactly that except we give a full -1 for K’s, makes you think twice about drafting Mark Reynolds or Ryan Howards types really early. CBS better catch up with the competition as far leagues fees though. Many sites are providing free services while CBS continues to charge 150-180 bucks to use their software. While I admit their software is the best out there,tough to pass on free…

by AlohaHalofan on Feb 4, 2010 10:56 AM EST via mobile up reply actions