2023 Draft Diary

January 15

The draft is designed to break your heart. Each draft begins by targeting specific players who are identified as "must-haves." Each draft begins with targeting some players who you believe are flying under the radar, and would make excellent fliers for next year. Each draft proceeds by watching each and every one of those players disappear from your "short list," snatched up by some other person who will never love those players the same way that you would have. It is heart-breaking.

The 2023 draft has been no different. I identified several players as "must-haves" and did not get any of them. I also identified several who would make excellent fliers for next year. As I write here in the middle of the 17th round, I have seen several of those players snatched up by other teams -- two by the evilist of evil villains, Jeff Paulson. Unfortunately, I cannot take any of those fliers until I fill my starting lineup -- and I am roughly three picks away from doing so.

We desperately needed Will Myers. He filled a void at first base that no other player could possibly fill. He hits lefties, he has full-time usage, and he is excellent defensively. With only eight picks remaining before our pick, the fucking Darien Blue Wave (of all teams) snatched him away. That left us with David Villar as our platoon first baseman. Villar is fine. He hits lefties better than Myers. He plays shitty defense, though. And he doesn't have enough usage for full-time play. Which means we now have to draft yet another player to fill that usage.

I actually believed that would be the final disappointment in this draft. However, it then happened again in the very next round when Skiz Potrafka sniped Donovan Solano with the pick right before ours. Solano was going to be our first baseman, moving Villar to second base, where he's less of a liability. Not anymore.

That leaves us with a first base platoon of Villar and someone named Alfonso Rivas, which has to be the weakest first base platoon in the history of first base platoons.

What an epic disaster this entire winter has been.