Domingo Santana Might Not Find a Starting Job, But We Found His Biggest Fan

I don’t like commenting on other teams’ picks, but I’ll make this one exception. Saturday night it was raining in Southern California (don’t tell Albert Hammond), so I decided to enter an NFBC $350  mixed league, 12-team draft. I much prefer these money drafts to mocks, as they are more likely to have players who actually care (after all, it is a $350.00 investment). You would think that the owners would try to compete.

Well, in this instance, perhaps Team 3 didn’t get the memo. Drafting third is a tough position in a mixed league, whether it is a 12-teamer or 15-teamer. It’s tough because you have to choose from among the likes of Trea Turner, Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt, Mookie Betts, Giancarlo Stanton and Clayton Kershaw. Depending upon how you wish to start your team, a solid argument can be made for each of those options. Wait, did I mention “others?”

Team 3 went off the board for his/her first pick, snagging Domingo Santana with the third pick in the first round of our draft. No, that’s not a misprint. It’s important to get the players that you want, and Santana might be this year’s MVP. He might break Barry Bonds’ single season home run record, Rickey Henderson’s stolen base record, and/or Hack Wilson’s RBI record. It’s not likely, but perhaps Team 3 knows more than you, me, and everyone else. However, and as much as I detest ADP, it’s clear that in a 12-team league, Santana could have been left safely to the 6^th round without breaking a sweat wondering if he would be taken.

I kept waiting for the draft to be paused so Team 3 could make a “real” pick, but that never happened. Proving that he/she didn’t mistakenly pick Santana, Team 3 backed that pick up by taking Ian Happ with the 22^nd pick. Yes, that’s the same Ian Happ who is presently going, on average, 136^th in the NFBC. Don’t get me wrong, I like Happ. Given a reasonable amount of playing time, Happ might outperform his ADP by a few rounds. Nonetheless, taking Happ almost ten rounds before his ADP is borderline criminal.

Team 3 was back at it in the third and fourth rounds, grabbing Jose Peraza and Ryon Healy, respectively. Peraza went 117 picks earlier than his ADP and Healy was 135 picks too early if you give any credence to ADP. Team 3 selected Byron Buxton in the fifth round, exactly where he had been going in previous drafts, and James Paxton in the 6^th, pretty much where others were taking Paxton. Selecting 3^rd in the 7^th round, Team 3 took Miguel Cabrera, just one round early, which is quite definitely  well within reason.. It certainly appeared like Team 3 was at the draft, engaged, and ready to try to compete. Well, appearances can be deceiving.

While not to the level of Santana, Happ, Peraza or Healy, Team 3 took Alex Wood (8^th), Evan Gattis (9^th) and Garrett Richards (10^th), all reaches at their respective selection rounds.   After taking Sean Doolittle in the 11^th, Team 3 went back it its mysterious ways, choosing Aaron Hicks in the 12^th (six rounds early), Mitch Haniger in the 13th (five rounds early),  Scott Kingery in the 15^th (nine rounds early), Felix Hernandez in the 16th (six rounds early),  Ryan McMahon in the 17^th (nine rounds early) and Nate Jones in the 20^th (ten rounds early).

Granted, this is all compared to the ADP, but you can compare it to any draft projection site or cheat list, (except for Team 3’s), and you’ll find that all these picks were huge reaches.  In fact, Team 3 had eight of the ten biggest reaches, with the other two being Team 11’s 28^th round pick of Jose Urena, and my 29^th round shot in the dark on Dominic Leone. Reaching after round 20 is expected and perhaps encouraged. Past statistics demonstrate that over 80% of the players drafted in the last six rounds are cut prior to the all-star break. So, why not reach?

But reaching with the first four picks in a draft? Fantasy suicide.

My first thought when Team 3 selected Domingo Santana was of course, that it was a mistake.

When that proved to be incorrect, I thought, “Cool, I’m playing in a fantasy league with Domingo Santana’s mother.” However, when Team 3 chose Ian Happ, and after I failed to find any familial relationship between Santana and Happ (yes, I looked), I knew I wasn’t drafting with Ms. Santana or Ms. Happ.

My next thought was the C-Word, collusion. Perhaps Team 3 had a friend in the league and was trying to dump to allow said mate to have a better team and a shot at the overall prize money. Had two other teams adopted the same (lack of) strategy as Team 3, that theory might have held water. Fortunately, the other 11 teams all seemed to enjoy the benefit of having Team 3 in our league, with no other owner making such outlandish picks. Indeed, by about the 10^th round, we were all getting a shot at players about a round later than expected, as Team 3 had literally passed on many of his early round picks. So, collusion was out as well.   I guess I’ll never know, but if nothing else, we now know that the President of the Domingo Santana Fan Club plays in the NFBC.

Obviously, while there were numerous benefits to being with Team 3, there was one very small drawback. Like playing poker with someone who had never played before, you just never knew where Team 3’s proverbial dart might land. Once, it landed rounds earlier than I had anticipated on a player I was planning on taking in the reserve rounds. Even with that minor inconvenience, drafting with Team 3 was certainly a pleasure.

Now, if only can find a way to invite him/her into my Main Event League…

Here’s the team that I drafted from the 12-hole, with a big assist to Team 3:

C          Welington Castillo (16^th round)

C          Tyler Flowers (22^nd round)

1b       Rhys Hoskins (4^th round)

2b       Ian Kinsler (17^th round)

3b       Rafael Devers (10^th round)

SS        Jean Segura (8^th round)

CI        Justin Turner (7^th round)

MI       Eduardo Nunez (11^th round)

Of        Bryce Harper (1^st round

Of        Tommy Pham (5^th round)

Of        Khris Davis (6^th round)

Of        Nomar Mazara (12^th round)

Of        Brett Gardner (15^th round)

UT       Carlos Gomez (23^rd round)

P          Chris Sale (2^nd round)

P          Carlos Carrasco (3^rd round)

P          Jon Lester (9^th round)

P          Gio Gonzalez (13^th round)

P          Alex Colome (14^th round)

P          Kelvin Herrera (18^th round)

P          Lance Lynn (20^th round)

P          Cole Hamels (24^th round)

P          Joakim Soria (19^th round)

Res      Ervin Santana (21^st round)

Res      Josh Harrison (25^th round)

Res      Zach Britton (26^th round)

Res      Jackie Bradley (27^th round

Res      Miles Mikolas (28^th round)

Res      Dominic Leone (29^th round)

Res      Tim Beckham (30^th round)

Best of luck,

Buster