I drafted in the Mixed LABR draft online on Tuesday night, selecting from the 8-spot in a 15-team league. Steve Gardner and the USA Today folks added the online Mixed league as a companion to the AL and NL auctions in Phoenix awhile ago, and after going back to Phoenix to do the NL one last year, I’m back in the Mixed this year because of my daughter’s soccer schedule (she’s in All-Stars and I help coach her team). I miss seeing everyone in the industry, but it’s a trade-off worth making, and I won’t have too many more years left to make that trade.
Anyhow, I drew the eighth spot – there was no selecting spots here, just a randomly generated draft order. One cool aspect of this league is that I was between two of my closest friends in the business, Yahoo’s Scott Pianowski and Joe Sheehan (of his own Newsletter, but also flying the Sports Illustrated flag for this draft). Cool, but also annoying in the sense that we kept poaching each other’s picks. I enjoy drafting in the middle of the draft – as first articulated to me by Scott Jenstad in an NFBC context, it’s a nice place to be because it’s easier to avoid missing out as a result of a run on a category or position, and you stay engaged better in the draft. The downside to that aspect is that when you’re doing an online draft, there are no breaks, and if your next pick is always 15 or fewer picks away, it’s harder to get away to eat (the draft started at 5:15 pm local time) or even go to the bathroom. That means sitting in the same place for four hours – not exactly a courageous feat, but one that always leaves me with a sore neck and back. Fodder for an epilogue to Profiles In Courage, I know, but bear with me anyhow.
Continue reading →