Season "Preview": Vottomatica

Before the season, if I had told you that two of your keepers would miss significant time through the first month and you will be 6th place, 9 points out of 4th- what would you have said?

I would be very surprised, because I tend to get off to slow starts in this league as it is. I had to keep Zack Greinke even though he was injured, but I had hoped he would be back sooner. The Longoria injury, and to a lesser extent the Holliday appendectomy, was obviously a blow, but my offense has been relatively strong with three guys having .500+ OPS.

With two starters, including Greinke, yet to pitch an inning this year- your pitching has really struggled. How patient can you be with your staff?

I will probably be more patient than I should. I feel like I have a lot of high upside guys. Wandy Rodriguez tends to have strong second halves. Shawn Marcum and Matt Garza should improve over their first months. I will get Greinke and Brian Matusz back soon. The sad thing is that I was actually pretty happy with the pitching I drafted. I felt pitching was really deep this year, but the early returns have been disappointing.

Do you feel you can turn any part of your stellar offense into balancing your team?

I fall in love with players. I always have (see Carson Palmer). That usually prevents me from trading them. This year, for maybe the first time, I have a lot of solid offensive pieces I could turn into some pitching without hurting my core of keepers. I don’t think I have ever had this strong a group of keepers. That really opened up my drafting options, which means I have good players I won’t necessarily be able to keep. That means they are trade bait.

Excepting injury, who has been your biggest disappointment? and your biggest surprise?

My entire pitching staff outside of Gavin Floyd has pissed me off, but my biggest disappointment is Geovany Soto. I hate drafting Cubs. I really do. But I was very high on Soto going into the draft, and he has done nothing to this point. I still think he will turn it around, but his lack of production thus far has made me far less enamored with him.

I know I drafted them high, but Curtis Granderson and Michael Bourn has been the biggest surprises for me. Granderson had a rough first year in New York last year, but I thought he’d be better this year. I wasn’t expecting this much pop early in the season – I was not expecting seven home runs through the first month. As for Bourn, I drafted him mainly for steals and runs, but to have the fifth highest OPS on my team absolutely blows me away. I don’t think either player will keep up their paces, but I have been very happy with what I’ve gotten from them.

If you had to do one thing differently in your draft, armed with the knowledge you have about the season's first month, what would it be?

I’m honestly not sure. I already had one of the best infields in the league with my keepers, so my top priority was shoring up my outfield. I did that with Granderson, Bourn and B.J. Upton. When it came to pitching, I knew I’d be able to get somewhat risky guys with high upsides in the later rounds. I was able to do that, but it hasn’t panned out quite yet. I was happy with my draft, and I think I still am. If I had focused on a couple more pitchers, my offense would be in shambles.