Fantasy baseball draft #3 -- the RoyalBoard league

A scant hour after my Boston Red Sox listserv league drafted, I reentered a Yahoo fantasy draft room for the RoyalBoard league draft. RoyalBoard is a pretty good and well-used message board and poster MTRoyals put the "Reversible Nines" league together. Like the BoSox league, it's a 20-teamer, with two more roster spots. The draft didn't run as fast as the Red Sox league did, and again the last few picks were kinda dicey, but here is my haul:

Pipeline Power

Round	Pick	Player	Position
1.	(16)	Vladimir Guerrero	OF
2.	(25)	Brandon Webb	SP
3.	(56)	Joe Mauer	C
4.	(65)	Scott Kazmir	SP
5.	(96)	Kosuke Fukudome	OF
6.	(105)	Trevor Hoffman	RP
7.	(136)	Josh Hamilton	CF
8.	(145)	Joakim Soria	RP
9.	(176)	Kevin Youkilis	1B,3B
10.	(185)	Ryan Theriot	2B,SS
11.	(216)	Matt Garza	SP
12.	(225)	Jon Lester	SP
13.	(256)	George Sherrill	RP
14.	(265)	Pedro Feliz	3B
15.	(296)	Alberto Callaspo	2B,3B,SS,OF
16.	(305)	Dmitri Young	1B
17.	(336)	Kurt Suzuki	C
18.	(345)	Andy Sonnanstine	SP
19.	(376)	Aubrey Huff	1B,3B
20.	(385)	Kevin Slowey	SP
21.	(416)	Ervin Santana	SP
22.	(425)	Félix Pié	CF
23.	(456)	Daniel Cabrera	SP
24.	(465)	Jonny Gomes	OF
25.	(496)	Brad Wilkerson	1B,OF

Once again I endured the fun of a late-order draft pick after picking 15th in the Sox league. This time I was 16th and, with pitching studs Johan Santana and Jake Peavy already off the board, I took Vlad Guerrero with my first pick because I like Vlad and he always seems to get the job done. If the Angels can get good pitching they oughta be solid again, too, so he'll have his chances to produce, hopefully. On the bounceback in round 2 I took Brandon Webb over Sabathia and Beckett to fill my first pitcher slot. He's been consistently good the last three seasons plus has been durable, which gave him the edge over C.C. and Beckett. After my long wait to the round 3 pick, I stuck by my guns to take a catcher early and grabbed Joe Mauer with the hopes his knees hold up. With that out of the way, I took a less-durable but potentially high reward pitcher in Scott Kazmir in round 4. The way I've drafted I'm banking on a good year from the Rays, which is dangerous and probably ill-conceived. I had hopes Ryan Zimmerman or Alex Gordon would fall to me in round 5 but, with no such luck (Gordon went a pick ahead of mine), I gambled once more on Cubs OF Kosuke Fukudome (making it 2 out of 3 leagues I've got him in). A couple small runs on closers had started but fizzled out, so I was happy to take Pads' closer Trevor Hoffman in rd 6. Unfortunately the pick cost me a shot at Jacoby Ellsbury or Evan Longoria but I filled my CF slot with Josh Hamilton of the Rangers. I grabbed my first Royal -- closer Joakim Soria -- ahead of the competition in round 8 then picked up the OBP-fueled goodness of Red Sox 1B/3B Kevin Youkilis in round 9 rather than new Cards' 3B Troy Glaus. I felt Youk was a safer bet, playing on a better team as well. By this point I had once again waited too long on infield picks so ended up with Cubs 2B/SS Ryan Theriot in round 10. At least he'll play.

I took my second Rays starter (gulp) in the next round as I felt Matt Garza was a steal at this point. Then I probably should have taken Brian Bannister in the next round but went with Sox starter Jon Lester instead. His rough start today versus the A's wasn't too confidence-building but we'll see how he pans out. With more closers being pared away I grabbed O's closer George Sherrill in round 13 despite the fact he probably won't see a lot of save chances on that team. Feliz and Callaspo filled out my infield although I'm not so confident in Feliz's ability to get on base or Callaspo's ability to get playing time. I need Alberto to prove his worth to KC every time he gets a chance. Gotta love "Da Meathook" in round 16, that is as long as he stays healthy, and I grabbed Suzuki as my sleeper backup catcher guy (hey, 2 doubles this morning!) once more. By round 18, everybody was getting draft punch-drunk, so I for some reason grabbed a third Rays' starter in Andy Sonnanstine, which I wouldn't feel so bad about if it wasn't my THIRD RAYS' STARTING PITCHER. There's too much potential in Garza and Sonnanstine, tho, to drop them yet. I've gotta hope the Rays do what some are predicting they might -- win more games. I took Huff for some pop as a backup 1B/3B, then took Slowey as a sleeper pitcher for the Twins.

Round 21 is when I really started rolling some dice with Angels' first overrated, now hardly rated at all SP Ervin Santana followed by what could be a late steal in Cubs CF Felix Pie (he of the testicular torsion injury, yeesh) in round 22, the O's Ervin Santana aka Daniel Cabrera in round 23 and another Ray in OF Jonny Gomes, who I appreciate for rightfully going after Yankees punkass Shelley Duncan during the fight recently between the two teams. (Side note: Don't go in with the spikes high like that, Shelley, then say after the game you had no idea why anyone went after you. That's bullshit. If you're gonna retaliate, at least stand up and admit it. Don't hide behind some lame excuse.) Anyway, I went with Mariners 1B/OF Brad Wilkerson to round out the team, knowing he or Gomes will probably be the first ones to go if I find someone better. I already had a shot at Longoria on the waiver wire with third highest waiver priority but the #1 guy took him so I missed out. Damn. The only move I've made so far is DL'ing Kazmir for the start of the season and picking up Reds (and former Royals) IF Jeff Keppinger to shore up the infield a little bit. He oughta help with the OBP and double plays turned categories as well.