| 2005 TEAM BY TEAM DRAFT RECAP AND GRADES |
| TEAM ANALISA GOODTHING pre-draft: ben elliott held out for nate tomko for nearly a week until tomko opted to go with weisberg. with his first choice no longer available, ben turned his attentions elsewhere, and landed perhaps the only player that can be compared with tomko in terms of total basekeball package. the hall of famer he got will surely be put off that he didn't here from any other captain, and from experience i've learned jon olsavsky is not one who needs any motivation to win games. with the desire to punish those who disrespected him he's sure to have, expect the other captains to pay in a big way, both on the court and in the scrum arena beforehand. olsavsky brings a game with no holes in it, and he brings it every single week. this is the best pickup that ben, who many would have tabbed as the weakest captain, could have hoped for. pick 3: billy picciotto was the best player in the draft, and ben was lucky to have gotten him as late as 3. he played nearly all of 2004 injured and/or as nothing more than an extra hitter , but still managed to finish third in the rookie of the year voting. a healthy picciotto has all of the skills to be a player of the year finalist, and is way more reliable than anyone could have expected him to be. it would be safe to assume that jon biddle would have snagged up picc on the very next pick, which makes ben's selection of him even more satisfying. pick 12: with his defense tight and an offense missing only a leadoff hitter, ben got exactly what he needed in elysa farrell. farrell is a lifetime .620 hitter, and should provide picc or olsavsky ample oppurtunities to drive in runs. in addition, she's likely to come more often than not now that she's on a team that would be, how do you say... way nicer to her? elysa should have gone sooner, marking the third consecutive player that the sbl allowed ben to get way too late. pick 17: teddy ballgame had said he would play for no captain but billy weisberg, but seemed more than happy to end up on analisa goodthing, an odd occurance considering than ben elliott could be vendictive and make ted watch every game from the bench as ted made him do 2 seasons ago. if ben allows ted to play, he'll likely improve on his all-star and near all-star seasons of the past two campaigns as he'll not be allowed to rain homers like he did when he was a captain. look for ted to make the jump, though most likely never leave the ground, to an honest to goodness good player in 2005. pick 26: ali szabo straight up said "i'm not gonna play", yet nobody seems to have any problem with ben snagging her at 26... you know, just in case. pick 31: fred shaffer had said he wouldn't be around this summer. ben seems to think he will in fact be here for a handful of games in 2005. if he is, and if he can in any way continue to play at the torrid pace he set for himself in his lone appearance last season, ben's team may have 3 of the top 10 talents in the league on it. pick 40: tim meyers. anytime someone gets a random meyers in a late round, it has to be a good thing. tim has less experience than brother jeff, but is probably the better overall player. both are unlikely to come more than once, but are game-changers if they do. pick 45: fat tony merolillo is one of the greatest scrummers, if not the greatest, that the sbl has ever seen. he's played one game. he'll be lucky to top that mark this year. pick 54: steve condo was at one time on the short list of midseason player of the year candidates, but that was during a leave from the army. at this point condo is out, and i quote, "killing towelheads in iraq". if the army finds out he's gay and ships him home, he'll be around. if not, oh well, no loss at pick 55. grade: A+ ben did exactly what he needed to do in the 2005 draft. he was the least talented captain, at least going by what we've seen thus far, and he had to get two elite players in his first 2 picks. olsavsky and picciotto are just that. however, what olsavsky and picciotto are not is leadoff hitters, and ben got one of the best in elysa farrell in the third round. the addition of teddy ballgame gives ben both talent off the bench and the oppurtunity to get back and someone who had wronged him in the past. ali gives him the much needed hot girl factor, tim the big man that will never come, fat tony the scrummer, and condo the dickhead. honestly, ben went from looking at a 3-win to a 3-loss season in only one day. congrats to ben for schooling the rest of the league in how to manage a baseketball draft. |
| THE LOCHNESSOVICH MONSTER pre-draft: jon biddle was the first captain to make his predaft slection, opting to go for homer-shooting sophomore brandon mckendry. the pick seemd like a good fit for bidd; brandon has yet to prove he can make anything but a homer and jon certainly wouldn't qualify as a long-ball specialist. their defense should be one of the best in the league, but the mckendry won't play much part in that beyond boxing out. what i fear jon biddle has done in taking brandon without so much as courteous show of interest in any other available predraftee is make enemies with a bunch of really good players, a move that may end up biting him in the ass. when a trio of sbl hall of famers and the reigning player of the year feel snubbed, they may take it upon themselves to give biddle a refresher course on who really are the game's best players. pick 4: the selection of andy esenwein with team biddle's first pick had to come as a shock to more than one in attendance. with mckendry all but creating a monopoly on the homer shot, it seems a bit peculiar that biddle would look into a homerun hitter like esenwein, especially given the former rookie of the year finalists inability to ever show up and play. however, if biddle can somehow get the mohawked-one to show up and play, this team will certainly be able to put some runs on the board. pick 11: if you're gonna take an andy esenwein, you might as well take a mark tarkanick. the team-stacking strategy obviously being employed by biddle with this selection may seem good in theory, (after all, the yankess have won how many world series titles in the last 5 years?) but taking two nearly identical players who will almost certainly play for less than half of their teams games just doesn't seem like the wisest strategy. sure, tark adds yet another game-changing player, but biddle already had three of them on his team when this selection was made. i'd have preferred to see him get an elysa farrell or aryn christman with this pick... anyone with a little less icing and a little more cake. pick 18: alright, now it's just getting sick. rookie mike devito is another good basketball player with a shitty attendance record. pick 25: greg lackey. thank god. finally, biddle decided to take a player that may actually show up for half the games. greg lackey played in 8 games in 2004, and that's 6 more than esenwein or tark have played in the past season combined. while biddle, mckendry and glack would form a 3-some capable of winning from time to time, i'm not fond of the idea of picking the most regular third man in your rotation at 25. pick 32: the selection of big ando at pick 32 would have been a great one for any other squad in the draft. he's a beast of a man that can certainly win most of the scrums he enters and box out for biddle while he dunks home rebounds, but he lives in bethel park, pa. once again, a big-time player who will most likely never show up. pick 39: jason biddle lands at pick 39, and he's one hell of a guy. good hitter, former all-star, but guess what? he'll be around maybe once this summer. seems like a recurring theme. pick 46: blaze knight. alright, this was a nice pick. besides being the only team in the sbl that can boast having the lockovich-knight newborn on it's roster, it's apparantly given team bidd and name. unfortunately, blaze probably won't age 16 years by may, so biddle may still end up forfeiting a tons of games this season. pick 54: phil jones went off the board with pick #54. while he really has nothing in common with any other player on the roster in terms of on-court ability (he's a leadoff hitter with no interest in the longball), you'll never guess what the one thing he does have in common is... grade: D i have a ton of problems with this draft, enough that i was tempted to give him an F. the only reason i didn't was because, if the planets line up and his big 4 do actually show up at the same time, they could make me eat my words. i am, however, confident enough to go with a D. first off, biddle drafted too many players that aren't gonna come. second, biddle drafted too many players who do the same thing. third, biddle didn't really draft anyone in that "loveable player" category- a betts or a nespor or a salcedo or a burger- that will actually show, meaning most people are gonna hate his team. last but not least, biddle bent over backwards to stack his team. this isn't like the bluffs or studs who were comprised of talented rookies or players who he rest of the league let slip to pick 34. this was a blatant attempt to stack a team, and i can't help but disrespect a player that did that after the board removed the value system which kept things like this from happening. for shame! |