Draft Strategy: What do you look for early? Hitters or Pitchers?

Today I was preparing myself for my first draft of this 2007 season and I had a specific strategy in mind. I felt that it was absolutely necessary to take pitching as early as you can. Naturally in the first round or two the majority of the picks are the top hitters in the game today. But what about those people who are taking Johan Santana, Chris Carpenter, Roy Oswalt, and all the other top notch starters in the first or second round? Those managers are the ones who know that there is a lot of depth in a lot of positions this season. It is safe to say that there are six top notch pitchers: Santana, Carpenter, Halladay, Oswalt, Webb, and Zambrano. In whatever order you would like to put them in, those are your top starting pitchers in the league. The same can be said about the closer’s position, there are really only seven top closers in the game; Rivera, Nathan, Rodriguez, Ryan, Jenks, Hoffman, and Wagner.
Other than these thirteen pitchers, the other pitchers around the leagues are all in the same bucket. We all didn’t see Justin Verlander as a legitimate threat until mid season. The same can be said about the entire rotation that the Florida Marlins had by July, as well as a guy like Cole Hamels for the Phillies. The bottom line is there are plenty of starters that come around through the year, but for the past few seasons the six guys I mentioned always seem to be at the top of the list in all the major categories at season’s end. Santana is head and shoulders above every other pitcher around, but the other five are always close together at season’s end as far as the stats are concerned. It would be wise to get your hands on one of these guys because you never know who will show up and who won’t throughout the year. It’s nice to know that you have one of these guys, because they will always help your pitching staff and give you a chance to be leading the pitching categories throughout the year.
As far as the closers are concerned, the seven closers I mentioned are the anchors to your relief pitching. These seven closers, with the exception of Rivera (but we all know he’s a leader on this list), had 36 or more saves, and only blew 5 or less saves. As far as the other 23 teams’ closers are concerned, their jobs are either bullpen by committee, or guys that can be replaced with one bad week or two. However, we all know that these seven closers top the list when you’re looking at fantasy closers to draft. That’s why you would want to have one of these guys, because you know that they are more than likely to keep their jobs all year round. The others at this position may or may not be a gamble, but their numbers aren’t going to look like these guys’ at season’s end. You can say, Huston Street, but he blew 11 saves, Jason Isringhausen was pretty good too, but he blew 10 saves. As for Mike Gonzalez, he went 24 for 24, a great start to a young career but we will have to see if he keeps it up. There are a few guys like Gonzalez around the league, but they got their jobs mid-season and this year we will have to see if they can handle the grind of a 162 game season. Maybe next year they will make the top of the list.
Like I was saying, it is a great strategy to have one or two of these pitchers to help anchor your staff. This season, there is a lot of depth in positions that didn’t have depth like this before. Shortstop has a lot of depth this season. Second base is also a competitive position, outside of Chase Utley obviously. First base has some of the top hitters in the game as well as some of the top young hitters in the game. The outfield has endless talent that you can draft from first round to last. With all of that hitting around this league there isn’t enough talent like that at the pitcher’s position to match it. That’s why I feel that it is a good idea to draft some top notch pitching early this year. You don’t need to look that far to find hitting to match up with you opponents. However, you need to look a lot harder to find pitching to match up with the teams that have the elite pitching. Especially if they have two start weeks. So if you ask me who would I take early, pitchers or hitters? I would tell you to try and get your hands on the top pitchers in the game. After last year you should know that there is plenty of hitting to go around. However, there is not enough pitching to match up to it.