Draft Recap Part 1 - By Position

To more closely examine the fallout from the draft, I decided to first look at how each position was drafted.  I began by looking at the percentage of total draft picks for each bundle of rounds that went to each position.

Conclusions:  The first 4 rounds were dominated by corner infielders and outfielders, positions where there is pop to be had and high averages abound.  The 5th-8th rounds were dominated by starters with people loading up on their aces and number 2 arms.  By the 13th round, relievers were finally going off the board in significant number, and at the end of the draft, people were taking fliers on starters and outfielders.

I also looked at what percentage of each position when in each round, a similar stat to that graph you see up there above.

Three things stand out in this view: first, catchers were feast or famine.  If you didnt get one of the really good catchers (Posey, McCann, Mauer) in the first few rounds, you waited until the end of the draft to pick up anyone left.  Second, no matter how good a reliever was, they werent going anywhere near the top of the draft, and once they started to come off the board, they all came off at the same time.  With reliever, who knows what is what.  Is Brandon Lyon really significantly better or worse than Chris Perez?  Or Jose Valverde?  Or any of these other losers who will most blow up your weekly ERA and WHIP by giving up 94 runs without recording an out at some point in the season, but will otherwise be reliably boring.  For the most part, at the draft, one reliever is as good as the next.  Finally, I was interested in the fall off of the middle and corner infield spots.  For the corner, after people got their big hitting first baseman in the first few round, they werent so much interested in the corner with the percentage of those positions dropping precipitously for the rest of the draft.  Similarly, once people got their middle infielder in the 5th-8th rounds, they stayed well away from those positions.  It would seem that people are getting their utility by and large from the outfield spot which rose and fell, but was pretty even throughout the draft.  

What was your draft strategy?  Did you want to strategically take positions or just take the best player available and then fill in the rest of the roster as the draft went on making the best of the situation?  Share it in the comments!

To follow shortly...............Draft Recap by Age!  Also, Draft Recap by Salary with some subtle antisemistism!  Graphs!  Yeah!

Also, does anyone else want to write a post or two?  Seek the acclaim of your league-mates, but receive only an empty comments zone!  If you don't have ideas of your own, I can even furnish you with beautiful data!  Email me!