http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/heltoto01.shtml
The top of the draft went pretty much as expected. All the good pitchers (Pedro, Maddux, Unit, Mussina) and the big sluggers (ARod, Bonds, Sosa, ManRam) were taken. I struggled over this pick quite a bit. It's hard when you're drafting players and you know their future careers in advance. So many good players were available at this spot. Jeter went two picks ahead of me so that eliminated one player off my board. My strategy coming in was to grab guys at the scarce positions (C, 2B, SS, 3B). Jeff Kent and Chipper Jones were still available and I almost pulled the trigger on both of them.
In the end I couldn't overlook the absolute monstrous numbers Helton put up, not only in the year 2000, but for the next several years. In 2000 he was an absolute beast. Not sure how he finished a distant 5th in the MVP voting that year. He led all of MLB with a .372 batting average, led in slugging at .698, and led with a 1.162 OPS. His lowest OPS for the next five years was 1.006. Lowest batting average during that span was .329. Lowest OBP .429. Although there are quite a few very good 1B in this draft, Helton just stood out, not only for his awesome 2000 but for his continued excellence. I'll try to lockup a #1 starter in the next round, or target one of the scarce positions.
No comments:
Post a Comment