2007 Free Agent Re-Draft

     Following in the footsteps of Keith law of ESPN, I plan to take a look back at some of the Free Agent Drafts held in the TBBL.  As we all know, drafting players from year to year is probably the most important way to build your ball club.  Some teams have adopted the policy of trading away most of their early picks and loading up on off disk players later in the draft while others have acquired as many Rd 1 picks as possible.  Time will tell which method if either works.

     Below is the First Round of the 2007 TBBL Draft with the actual player picked in 2007 and who I would have selected had the draft been done today.  Please keep in mind I only went through the actual players drafted in 2007, both carded and non carded.  Below is my list:

2007 Re-Draft
# Team Player Picked in 2007 Re-Pick Player Orig Rd/Pick Comments
1 PHS Daisuke aaaMatsuzaka Clayton aaaKershaw Rd 2 Pick 4 (OCS) The best SP in MLB in 2013 not named Justin Verlander would be the # 1 overall pick today.
2 FLA Takashi Saito Joey aaaVotto Rd 6 Pick 5 (KEN) Rocky sure likes his Reds and he hit the jackpot with this stud at 1B
3 CAL Ronny Paulino David aaaPrice Rd 9 Pick 13 (CHE) Price has been one of the top SP in baseball the past 2 seasons and has a WS ring from SAS
4 OCS Adam Lind Evan aaaLongoria Rd 1 Pick 8 (PAD) It's hard to argue the fact Longoria has been one of the best 3B but injuries have slowed him some
5 MIC Luke aaaHochevar Josh aaaHamilton Rd 11 Pick 6 (BEA) Despite his rocky start in 2013, Hamitlon was the most feared LH bat in the AL the past few years
6 BEA Yovanni aaaGallardo Yadier Molina Rd 1 Pick 17 (FWK) Molina has proven to be a top line C and battles Posey year to year for the Silver Slugger
7 SAL Chris Duncan Tim aaaLincecum Rd 1 Pick 13 (CHE) With his flowing locks freshly cut Lincecum's better days appear to be behind him.   He was dominate for a few years however.
8 MAD Evan aaaLongoria James Shields Rd 2 Pick 1 (FWK) Big Game James was a steal in Rd 2 back then and would be an anchor to the Paddler rotation had he been picked here
9 NEW Luke Scott Yovanni aaaGallardo Rd 1 Pick 6 (BEA) Gallardo wound up on Newark through a trade so i guess this pick of Luke Scott worked out
10 LOG Jaret Wright Matt aaaWeiters Rd 12 Pick 2 (KEN) Weiters was a great pick in Rd 12 but was also in one of the worst trades in the TBBLs history
11 SMM Boof Bonser Ben Zobrist Rd 5 Pick 21 (LVD) Zobrist continues to provide great seasons and going in Rd 5 shows how little he was thought of back then.
12 MID Juan Cruz Clay aaaBucholz Rd 4 Pick 9 (NEW) Bucholz seems back to form despite that slippery looking stuff on his arm -- Cheater!!!!  He is a Red Sox so i had to say that
13 CHE Tim aaaLincecum Michael Bourn Rd 11 Pick 17 (PHS) Michael Bourn is one of the MLBs top base stealers in the game and PHS relies on his speed to set the table
14 MOO Esteban German Dexter Fowler Rd 10 Pick 24 (KEN) Picking Fowler over German here is a no brainer and i bet Tom could do it all over again (just like most of these picks)
15 LTR Dennys Reyes Jeff aaaSamardzija Rd 8 Pick 8 (MIC) The Notre Dame WR took a couple of years to develop but has been worth the wait for his TBBL club
16 NEW Oliver Perez Chase aaaHeadley Rd 13 Pick 18 (JER) So i snuck in and stole Headley late in 2007 and am sure he was in one of my ugly deals trying to hold on and win at some point in 2008
17 FWK Yadier Molina Carlos aaaGomez Rd 4 Pick 21 (LVD) Stan made out with his pick of Molina so its hard to argue picking Gomez here.  Gomez has blossomed though in 2013
18 FLA Ricky Nolasco Martin Prado Rd 12 Pick 20 (SMC) SMC knows his Braves and Prado has been a steady bat at multiple positions for years.
19 SFS Kei aaaIgawa Cody Ross Rd 5 Pick 6 (BEA) What can you say about Igawa?  Hopefully he made his Scranton time worthwhile as he will never be back in MLB; what was Cashman thinking
20 SMC Endy Chavez Mike Napoli Rd 2 Pick 16 (CAR) Napoli has been a solid bat at C/1B and nearly shattered all TBBL records last year
21 CAL Chris Denorfia Colby aaaRasmus Rd 5 Pick 22 (LAH) Rasmus has been up and down ever since Tony LaRussa put him in the dog house
22 FLA Josh Bard Matt aaaHarrison Rd 9 Pick 20 (SMC) Harrison has developed into a pretty good SP despite having some injury issues
23 LTR Chris Britton Miguel Montero Rd 3 Pick 2 (LAH) Montero continues to provide a steady backstop in Arizona and has just became friends with Trevor Bauer on facebook
24 CHE Sean Marshall Brandon Morrow Rd 6 Pick 15 (LTR) Morrow is a hard thrower with great stuff but hasnt been able to get it all together.  He is still fairly young though

     There are a total of 14 aaa players on my list above which emphasizes the importance of having a farm team.  Of these 14 players, all remain in MLB in 2013 and some are playing significant roles for their clubs.  Chemung, Fort Wayne and Kentucky appear to have done their homework back in 2007 while Osama added his second Ace in Kershaw.

I will try to look at the 2008 Draft in the next few weeks,