Tomorrow night I will be participating in an expert's mock draft over at Mock Draft Central hosted by Chris Mulligan of Behind the Plate Fantasy. While you most likely will not be able to participate in said draft (there remains the possibility that a few readers will sneak in if enough experts cannot make it) you can view the results.

I'm actually not sure if you can view them, so if you can't, I will definitely will post them here Monday and give my feelings on the draft next Saturday. There is a lot to be learned from the preliminary rankings expert's give in early mock drafts, even though our opinions will change significantly from now till the start of the season on a number of players.

Participating will also be MLBFO's own Kevin Orris so I'm excited about that. Check back Monday for results and Saturday for the commentary.

UPDATE: Monday - to see the results of the draft, click here. I'll be giving you my take this Saturday. Stay tuned, folks.

~~~

Commentary

I went into this draft without much of a strategy except my basic avoid pitching early strategy which I consider a given. Here we go:

I was surprised that A-Rod fell to me wit the fourth overall pick; I was expecting either Reyes or Wright to fall to me, but its no big deal. Alex is perfectly fine with me.

I was not sure what to do with my second round pick, and I sort of just took Berkman as a safe choice although I'm not particularly happy with the pick. You cannot be unhappy about Lance Berkman, but he does not get my excited either. Looking at the players drafted after him, though, I think I made the right selection.

Rounds 3 and 4 I was simply looking to add a few more sluggers and I certainly did that with Manny and Adrian. I was not drafting for a specific player per se, more for a type of player. I have not done my projections for next year yet, so it is not that I think Manny will be better than Markakis or Carlos Lee, it's more that he was just higher on the MDC draft window.

In a real draft I would never take Halladay, but I saw him sitting daintily out there in round 5 and decided to snatch him. Pitching is ridiculously deep this year (as it has been the past few years) and I might not take a pitcher in the first 12 rounds of some drafts. Who knows.

My pick of Rafael Furcal in round 6 is one of my favorites---the shortstop position is pretty shallow---and my selection of him kicked off a shortstop run that lasted until round 8. If you don't get your shortstop by the end of that run, you are in serious trouble. The next one selected was Miguel Tejada in round 11! Whether you want to kick off or finish that run is up to you, but I suggest being a part of it (or getting one of the Rollins, Reyes, Hanley). None of the shortstops picked later interest me.

Aubrey Huff was another solid pick in my opinion. If you look at some of the hitters drafted in front of (Ethier, Hardy) and behind him (Young, Atkins) I think he is the best of the bunch.

Chris Iannetta in round 8 was my first "risky" pick of the night, but I have no problem defending it. With two catchers spots to fill they were in short supply, so I was willing to err on the side of aggressiveness, even though it is possible I could have waited another round to select him. In future drafts I will most-likely target that 14-16th round group---Bengie Molina, Kurt Suzuki, and Dioner Navarro---which I think provides good value.

Three of my next four selections were pitchers in Felix, Wainwright, and Myers, and I selected them to fill space with quality arms. Right there in the middle however, is Pat Burrell, who somehow fell to me in round 11. Looking at some outfielders taken before him... Lastings Milledge and Brad Hawpe... I'll take Burrell anyday even with the fat paycheck that might cause a lack of motivation.

I would not look to deep into any picks I made after that because I have not decided exactly who my late round sleepers will be. Make of them what you will.

Okay, that's it! I hope you can take something away from this draft and start getting in on a few of your own. Drafting with such of great group of guys is always fun, even if the draft doesn't count for eggs.