| TEAM FELCH pre-draft: captain bryan frankovich finished last season as the second best player, statistically, in the sbl. he has a very good all-around game: high average, able to hit from anywhere, capable of double plays, meaning he can pick up any type of player without fear of leaving a glaring weakness in his team. matt mcclelland is the reigning sbl player of the year for his work as coach of the 2004 world champions. last year, the two of them were bitter rivals, but this season, they'll be suiting up for the same team and could create one of the best duos ever. perhaps the only knock on frankovich is the fact that he's pussy when it comes to scrumming. that's where mcclelland fits in. the only knock on big mac? he's not known for his ability to drill the long ball. enter b.frank. these two really balance one another out. pick 6: patrick o'mahoney had better be one hell of a player. i was shocked to see frankovich pull the trigger on his boy here, mostly because he had to expect him to be left at least one round later. i was even more surprised that mcclelland allowed him to go through with it, especially with big nuggets like pat lackey, jason betts and teddy ballgame on the board. pick 9: luckily, pat lackey was still around when the draft swung back to team mcclelland...err...frankovich 3 picks later. i would have liked to see frank take these two pats in reverse order, simply because i shows more intelligence, but i suppose the end result is all that matters. anyway, pat is a very solid all-around guy, which frank seems to be adding to his roster with every pick, who is likely to show up for 15+. a good choice, as he surely would have gone in the next couple picks. pick 20: mike franovich, brother of bryan, seems like a smart pick here. he probably won't come all that often, but any team boasting pat lackey, mcclelland and b.frank has the option of fooling around with picks a bit. i don't know much about the junior mailman's abilities on the sbl court, but he's a pretty good guy. he should fit in well. pick 23: you take one lanky older brother of an sbl superstar, you might as well take another. jeff knight, lanky older brother of rando and recent daddy, brings his sbl ass to team frankovich at pick 23. while some have jeff quoted as saying "sigh, i know i'm gonna end up on frankovich's team", an indicator that he may not be happy with where he's landed, others have him saying "i know i'm sexier than rando", indicating that rando is in no way sexy. pick 34: i thought for a second that mcclelland was gonna forget about erin hayden, allowing my squad to ink the fiesty brunette, but lee's selection of anne at 33 and a last second look-over of the board by big mac sealed erin's fate as a member fo team felch. at least for the time being. pick 37: dean catania. who is this kid again? pick 48: paul radkowski. i've got this great picture of me wearing paul's notre dame marching band hat and striking a "fighting irish" pose with him. it's sweet, and so is paul. unfortunately, he's not real big on the baseketball, but he's one of those guys that just makes a team better by being on it's roster. pick 51: derek lockovich, who has somehow avoided being swept into the sbl world even though he's got more connections to this league than one can count, finally went off the board in the final round. i don't know much about him, but his brother's got some big time basketball game, and he goes to kennedy. which means he either has to be sweet at basketball or giving handjobs to teachers, and either way, welcome to the league, kid! grade: B- while this team is talented in all aspects and has 3 solid players, i think they should have gone after one more reliable veteran. 4 of their first 7 selections were rookies, and yes, some of them may be good and show up every week, but wouldn't you feel more secure with an elysa farrell or betts or teddy ballgame, purely so you never have to play with two? they're not in the same category as team bidd, who have totally backed themselves into a corner, but i could definately see this team scrounging for players a couple of times, and that's not a good feeling. aside from that, i think frank and mac had an excellent draft. the back to back pat's followed by the back to back brother's was clever, if not unintentional, and should give this team a solid chance at 14 wins. they screwed a team while drafting, too, with their selection of erin, so that counts for something. even if it was me. |
| 2005 TEAM BY TEAM DRAFT RECAP AND GRADES |
| TEAM SUBSTANCE ABUSE pre-draft: i have to admit i was shocked when shelley goodpastor, my long time partner in crime, said that she would captain a team in 2005. i wasn't surprised when she asked me my opinion on who she sheould take first, and knowing she needed both defense, a longball shooter and one sexy beast for scrums, i told her to pursue dank elly. shelley did just that, got her man (who wouldn't want to bat behind the best leadoff hitter the game has ever seen) and now has a very formidable hitting duo which may, by season's end, rival what the goodpastor-tomko connection once was. pick 5: unfortunately, neither shelley or dank were able to make it to the draft. both were sick, shelley from the flu and dank from the booze or, most likely, both from the grass. i, as sbl president tomko, took the liberty of making this squd's first selection, meaning whoever he chose would be responsible for picking the rest of his or her team. i had it narrowed down to 3 finalists; kip corbett, pat lackey and lee nespor. while i think either pat or kip would have been a better fit for the team, who needed a body to put down low with dank, neither were at the draft, either, leaving me little choice but to go with lee. the middle nespor gives dank and shelley some serious psyche-out potential and a decent homerun hitter, but the need for another big guy would need to be addressed with their next pick. pick 10: lee, at the urging of most of the people in the draft room, decided on kip corbett at the 10 spot. a very wise decision. his high average and ability to knock down the homer and triple are a nice bonus, but the major selling point for kip at 10 will be his willingness to mix it up with the jon biddle and nate tomko's of the league under the glass. i suppose in a roundabout way lee is the reason that i gave team biddle a D for their drafting prowess, as had kip not been taken off the board here, biddle would most likely have gobbled him up one pick later and gone from D to B. pick 19: before anyone could react, lee grabbed the marker and had written down jen gavala. sure, jen's a sweet girl with a good shot and a plethora of sexiness, but it's almost certain she'd have been on the board 3 rounds later. or 4. or 5. i think lee's got a little crush. pick 24: with the starting 4 looking solid- shelley, dank, kip and lee- the pick of kurt rodemoyer looks to be worth the risk. k-unit bulks up the mediocre scrumming of dank and kip, but more importantly gives this team some real muscle down low to hang their hat on. even better, kurt is money from the single line, probably the one spot that even shelley has trouble hitting from. i'm a huge fan of this pick-up. pick 33: anne carine. lee really seems to have this drafting thing down... alternate between good, reliable players and fine ass chicks. word on the street is that lee has made his team's official uniform color powder blue. pick 38: brendan radcliffe. lee seemed to struggle a bit near the end of the draft, starting right here. while i'm a big fan of brendan the person, his baseketball skills leave a lot to be desired. i think brendan realizes this, which is why he didn't play for the last half of 2004 and won't play much, if at all, in 05. i think brother patrick nespor would have been anice fit here, as would jeremy battyani, joel lepak, cassie pyle or addam stainbrook. all are either as or more reliable, but with way better games. pick 47: chris mclaughlin. no big problem with chris going at this point. sure, ted had all but guaranteed chris would be living in nyc for the summer, but plans sometimes change. ask anyone who let jon o. slip to the fifth round last season. if chris were to come even once, this team would be nearly unbeatable for that week. pick 53: b.doc. no clue who this character is. i don't think lee knew, either. grade: B+ surprisingly, lee put together a nice little draft here, though their final score suffers for the captain not showing up. he seems to have covered all the bases, though he's not completely secure in all of them. i'm sure shelley and dank are happy with lee's work. i'd have to say that this teams main weakeness remains their defense. dank, kip and k-unit are all effective down low, but they could really use someone to take a game over underneath. they won't get a ton of assists or double plays, but they're not gonna give up a lot, either. i think a lot of this teams winning is going to depend on k-unit. he'll give them swagger that they normally won't have, and will prevent one of their better hitters from draining themselves in the scrum. i could see this team with 11 wins minus k-unit, 15 with him in the lineup half the time. |