The drafts for my four main leagues have all concluded now and it’s time to reflect. I’m in a variety of league types because variety is the spice of something-or-other. Some are keeper leagues while some are redraft leagues. Some are roto leagues while some are point leagues. Some have small rosters while others have big rosters. And, so on and so on. But, regardless, there are certain players that end up on multiple teams of mine for whatever reason. If I like a guy, I’m not scared to own him in every league if I can. I’ve recommended lots of strategies and players on this site but there were only 18 players that I ended up owning in multiple leagues (with 2 players being owned in all of my leagues). Taking out Ryan Braun, Adrian Gonzalez and Brian McCann because they were on some of my keeper teams, here are the 15 guys that I actually drafted in multiple leagues this year…
Hitters
Matt Kemp – In CBS leagues, Kemp is hidden deep within the outfielders on their rankings. So, when other drafters are looking at the top players, Kemp usually isn’t in that mix of guys they see. This creates a nice situation where I was able to get Kemp pretty late in a couple of leagues. I see him having a nice rebound year as a post-hype sleeper.
Adrian Beltre – There’s a drop-off after the first four 3B in drafts then there’s Adrian Beltre in a tier by himself before another big drop. When I did miss out on the the big four, I grabbed Beltre so I wasn’t stuck with the rest of the weaker 3B that were out there. While I don’t expect a repeat of last year from him, he’s a safer bet for good numbers than the players drafted after him at the position.
Mike Stanton – I wish this was a player I had in all of my leagues as I do expect big things from him. I wrote about my man-crush for him back in January here.
Ryan Raburn – This is a player I’ve had a two year obsession over. Last year, he didn’t get the starting job until the end of the year and the made the best of it. Now, he’s got full playing time right out of the gates and could have huge production as I already wrote about here.
Chone Figgins – I was a bit surprised to see that I drafted Chone in two leagues. I got him fairly late in both as a MI who can get me 40 SB. I expect a slight bump in his batting average and runs from last year but mainly I needed the SB’s in these leagues and he hung around later than I expected so I nabbed him.
Carlos Pena – He’s on my bench in both leagues and not someone I’m relying on fully. He’s going to get 30+ HR with an ugly batting average, which is fine considering how ridiculously low his ADP is. At the point that he’s going in leagues, he does offer some nice value.
Michael Morse – Ever since I wrote my little write-up about Morse, he’s continued to go on a tear and is near the top of the leaderboard in most stats this spring. I’m going to start him early on and hope the hot streak continues. Cheap power is hard to find late in drafts and that’s what Morse brings to the table.
Jorge Posada – Maybe it’s the fact the people forget he’s even still playing but he was being largely ignored in most of my leagues and I grabbed Posada as a catcher in the last rounds. Playing DH most of the time this year may give him a better shot at hitting over 20 HR with a decent batting average. But, either way, he can give you far better numbers than some of the other late-round catchers out there.
Pitchers
John Danks – Considering that I start targeting starting pitching a bit later in my drafts than most people, I end up with a lot of SP’s from the same tier of players. Danks is one of those mid-round guys that I’m comfortable taking. He’s reliable but not flashy which is something that people hold against him because they’d rather have a pitcher with a high ceiling. But, when I’m starting to build my rotation in the mid-rounds, I need someone who doesn’t have a ton of risk.
Wandy Rodriguez – Wandy has similarities to Danks in that he is reliable. But, being in the NL, his numbers are slightly better with a nicer ERA and more K’s. He won’t suddenly become a top tier pitcher but he’s a safe bet to produce solid numbers across the board.
Gavin Floyd – Here’s one of the two players that I own in all four leagues of mine. He’s been a decent starter over the past three years with an ERA hovering around 4.00 and a WHIP around 1.25 with 150 strikeouts or so each year. If anything, he’s consistent as well. However, I think he can deliver a bit more than he’s shown due to last year’s inflated BABIP against him. His FIP indicates that he should have had an ERA closer to 3.50 last year. Despite his consistency and slight bit of bad luck last year, he seems to be someone that people avoid and he ends up falling into my lap in each league.
Ricky Nolasco – Nolasco is the other player that I own in all four of my leagues. Maybe I’m foolish to keep coming back to him but he’s got all of the tools to turn into a great pitcher and is being valued fairly low in all leagues because of two years of poor ERA. His FIP and xFIP indicate that he should be a pitcher with a below 4.00 ERA if you take out some bad luck. So, I’m banking on him being able to return to something closer to his 2008 form where he had a 3.52 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP with 186 strikeouts.
Jordan Zimmermann – While I have the consistent and reliable starters like Wandy and Danks, there’s got to be someone with a high ceiling mixed in there too. That’s where Jordan comes in as a starter who has the potential to end up as one of the higher tier pitchers by year’s end if he can put together all his talent without his arm falling off.
David Aardsma – Saves are a tricky commodity to come by and Aardsma dropped fast down everyone’s draft board when he was said to be out for the start of the year. So, he ended up falling into my lap in the later rounds as I’m comfortable drafting him as a backup RP who should only miss a few weeks. As a 3rd or 4th RP, there’s little risk with him. Anything more than that and I’d feel uncomfortable.
Tim Stauffer – Now that he’s been named the Opening Day starter with Latos out, Stauffer has caught the attention of fantasy owners. Luckily, I grabbed him before that and was able to get him fairly late. I had written about his very nice tERA from last season. That combined with a nice spring make Stauffer a nice sleeper candidate for 2011 in my book.
