[USML Announce] Winick Begins Reign of Terror

Sun Mar 17 11:50:10 EDT 2024

 Draft Day was great, as always.  Thanks to Jeff for hosting, and to Mark for doing all the heavy lifting.
I've taken the liberty of changing the re line in this email to reflect the real story of this year's draft.  Winick came out of the room needing to add only few points. That will be light work, which he can accomplish by moving just one or two of his wealth of trading chips. In short, I'm toast, and so are the rest of you.
That said, Winick's analysis of my pitching staff is pretty much what he said last year, so at least I've got that going for me--which is nice.  (Apologies to Carl Spackler.) Caddyshack - Bill Murray's story about the Dalai Lama (youtube.com)

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Caddyshack - Bill Murray's story about the Dalai Lama

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Looking forward to an entertaining (if not ultimately successful) season!
Mark
    On Sunday, March 17, 2024 at 09:33:57 AM CDT, Jeffrey Winick <jwinick at hwhlegal.com> wrote:  

Great draft!!  Thank you Mark B for setting things up.

Congrats to Kerber on what should be the first of back to back championships.  Then again, it is Kerber we’re talking about. 😉

Here’s the quick assessment of the draft:

   - One of the best drafts ever.  Most of us stuck to form, but there were a few unexpected changes:  (i) Mark Kerber was shockingly the quietest one in the room; (ii) Mark Blocker actually spoke up when he wanted players, albeit usually the wrong ones; (iii) Andy Klein bought expensive pitchers (just kidding, but he did place a bid of more than $10 on Bieber); (iv) Jeff Winick bid up Mark Kerber rather than vice-versa for a long overdue change.
   - Inflation at the top end of the talent pool was higher than ever, running at a rate of north of 40%.  That made for some bargains in the middle to end of the draft, but not as many as expected.
   - The market for closers was dead!  Other than Hader, almost every purchased closer went for single digits.  Perhaps we’ve learned our lesson.
   - John Fruit only bought 1 Minnesota starter and his name wasn’t Ryan, Ober or Lopez!

Pippen’s Nothing But A Dog projections are coming, but the early returns suggest the following:

   - As expected, Kerber came out of the draft the team to beat, but…..Bieber, Kikuchi, Canning, Barlow and Kimbrel were the not the pitchers that he needed to lock things down.  Kudos to the Calamari who stepped up to buy Corbin Burnes and to the rest of the soon to be members of LOOPED who stepped up to ensure that Kerber has lots of question marks in his pitching ranks.  And $37 on Trout and Buxton means that there’s opportunity to knock off the champ.
   - Blake Snell’s landing place is going to be very important.  If, as rumored, he goes to Houston, then the other Mark enters the conversation.  Of course, if he doesn’t, it’s hard not to notice that both Mark’s struggled when putting their pitching staffs together.  $40 on the combination of Gerrit Cole (already injured) and Nick Pivetta (soon to be injured and not very good to boot) is not a recommended path to contention.  It’s Snell or bust for this team (or should I say Snell or another successful Drive for Five).
   - The Berliners could be interesting if Montgomery lands in the AL.  In fact, they might even be persuaded to segue from rebuilding to making a run at the Damon.  If not, this team is looking to dominate from 2025 on.
   - Lubeasts look to me like the most balanced team and one that will be in the hunt for the whole season.  If Kerber stumbles and presuming that Blocker continues to struggle with contemplating the notion of a trade that helps both him AND the party with whom he’s trying to trade, Lubeasts may well be hoisting another Damon at the end of the year.
   - The Angry Young Men were on their way to a great draft until his brother in law manipulated him into spending $36 on the perennially disappointing George Springer.  This is still a really good team, but it’s hard not to imagine what might have been.
   - As per usual, the Brats have an excellent pitching staff.  But that offense?!  Arozarena, Devers and….you tell me.
   - The Hoosiers look like a Midwest nice team.  Nothing particularly flashy, but goodness all around.  This team will need some of the young guys to step up in a big way (Miller, Woo, Crawford, Brown, Neto, Meadows), but could surprise.
   - The Calamari appear to have gone with a Stars and Scrubs strategy.  Nice stars (Perez, Guerrero, Yoshida and Burnes for $127) and then…well…lots of scrubs.  If the scrubs aren’t really scrubs, this team will surprise.
   - The K9 bitched and moaned about all of the injuries that their team had already suffered and then doubled down (or is that tripled down).  Cal Raleigh (bruised heel), Nate Lowe (oblique), Anthony Santander (first truly healthy season was last year), Tyler Oneil (horrendous injury history), Anthony Rendon (need I say more), Kyle Bradish (Tommy John candidate), Jose Urquidy (Tommy John candidate), and narrowly avoided George Springer.  You can’t make this up – OOPS gets off to a strong start.
   - Buddha’s Toes look like a team building for the future.  Langaliers, Pasquantino, Mountcastle, Julien, Grissom, Rooker, Duran, Wallner, Ragans are all guys that could lead a team to victory…in 2025.  But watch to see where JD Martinez lands.  This team gets better in a hurry if he’s a member of the Senior League.

That is all…for now.

Jeff

From: Announce <announce-bounces at usml.net>On Behalf Of Frank Luby via Announce
Sent: Saturday, March 16, 2024 6:30 PM
To: USML Announcements <announce at usml.net>
Cc: Frank Luby <zachfehsvater at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [USML Announce] USML - rosters update

Thanks, Mark!

Great seeing everyone again and thanks to Jeff for hosting.

A few corrections to the Lubeasts: Huff and Colas are Y1 (they’ve lost rookie status) and Blaze Jordan’s salary should be $2.

Thanks,

Frank

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 16, 2024, at 5:19 PM, Mark Blocker <blockermark at gmail.com> wrote:

League:  I have received 6 of the 10 rosters, so those teams are now reflected on the website.  Note that, as in past year, we will need to request that certain players be added to the database for some of those rosters.  As for the other 4 rosters, those will be entered late tonight, assuming that I receive them today.

Great seeing everyone today.  Doing the draft in person is great fun.

Mark B.

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