Inaugural Draft Steals - Part I

In sim leagues, there are few things more acutely gut-wrenching than watching your player fall in a draft. You've spent your time coming up with a creative player name, figuring out your dream position, and building your player (with that sweet 100 TPE) to perfection. But when the time for the draft comes, you see picks come and go. The usual suspects leave in the first dozen picks - but in a brand-new league, that's barely scratching the surface of "elite" users because of the number of teams. So you look through the fourth round, and the fifth - and you're desperate to hear your name but apparently people aren't aware of the hype.

You're not sure if you're angry or upset. But you're clinging desperately to hopes and dreams that some team will let you prove your worth in a meaningful way. And when your name does get called, it's your chance to help prove every other team in the league wrong for passing on you.


Formerly named Buster, Flynn Fungo was taken in the late seventh round – the third center fielder taken. He was preceded by Mekajiki (1.3) and Dale Cooper (3.1), two top-tier prospects that had a lengthy track record of dedication to the site. But with just two starting positions remaining and some uncertainty surrounding the remainder of the candidates, GMs opted to skip on center fielder for another four and a half rounds (18 picks). It’s true that Hymin wasn’t an immediate create and, perhaps most relevantly, hadn’t completed the rookie task until his second update. But some ties to members integral to the league like 2ndBaseBabe made Pittsburgh GM Spartan willing to pull the trigger.

And didn’t that pay off handsomely? Uphill threw down a monster update at the start of the draft process, claiming a total of 44 TPE that allowed him to fly under the radar to every GM – perhaps even including his own! As of today’s update (3 AM), the seemingly-nocturnal Flynn Fungo sits pretty at 192 TPE, which puts him solidly in the top three center fielders. Fungo certainly doesn’t have the hype of the two center fielders taken before him, as McWolf and Jets relatively well-known names in our closest-associated sim leagues, but it looks like Spartan’s late-draft gamble was well-worth the wait.

One interesting challenge the Pioneers have brought upon themselves is the lack of a starting spot. Dale Cooper was taken by the Pioneers four rounds prior to Fungo, which means one of these two needs to make the swap to left field (as Caleb Marko’s alright over in RF). But with Fungo’s already-excellent defensive ratings (range 50, error 30, arm 40), this SBL Network writer is quite comfortable saying this was a smart choice. Plus, it’ll give valuable positional experience that makes Fungo an even more desirable candidate come next season, whether he’s in the SBL or SBLM.


Another season, another touch of disrespect for Caboose. As controversial as he may sometimes appear to others in the LR, there are few that would deny how impressive Caboose's level of activity is.

In reality, Bobby Boucher’s monumental drop to the eighth round is multifactorial. Part of it has to do with the positional overload at an extremely high-priority position in second base: there are currently five players with a listed primary position and second base, and one of our teams (Pittsburgh) didn’t draft one – instead opting to slide a third baseman in Ocean Man to the spot. But at the time of the draft there was a different picture: Delvin Rooks and Golden Goliath were taken in the first and fourth rounds, respectively. The likes of Pingu Flipperson and Ajax Mohran weren’t available yet, meaning Boucher was the last available true second baseman (and indeed, the last of the created and drafted) 2Bs to projected to actually play said position).

So why did he drop? In a time where alternatives for the position were slim and there weren’t enough second basemen available at the time, Boucher should theoretically have been a hot commodity. Instead, he dropped four rounds beyond Goliath, a baseman balanced between offense and defense who was also drafted to the Mohawks. At the time, neither Pittsburgh nor Las Vegas possessed a second baseman (though the latter would pick up two after the draft). But part of it may have to do with Boucher’s defensive prowess – or, perhaps better yet, a lack thereof. Up until this update, Boucher had just 2 TPE invested in fielding (Infield Range 27) at a position that some would argue is among the tougher non-P, non-C infield positions to play. And with Opening Day just an update or two away, having a weak link at a high-priority position like 2B could have spelled an early-season disaster for his drafting team.

What’s more likely, however, is at the time of the draft, many GMs knew what the player pool was – and likely heard about some incoming new creates with the expectation that they’d likely create at important fielding positions. With pitchers and other infielders flying off the board – possibly with greater step-off over replacement or more prominent sim league community names – priorities shifted. Some will argue ‘til they’re blue in the face that reputation is a massive determinant in sim leagues – and that’s certainly true to an extent. But remember that this is a league with just four teams (so the rounds go quickly), and users like a_Ferk, fonzigg, and Nykonax went within six picks of Caboose. That’s not bad company.

Regardless, I suspect Boucher’s late selection will serve as a prominent chip on his shoulder as he goes forward – and there’s little in sim leagues more fearsome than a player with something to prove.

Awesome read, and it will definitely be a chip on my shoulder for my entire time down in the minors. Y'all better watch out because I mean business when Im at the plate