Posted by Rob McQuown on Saturday, February 7, 2009 at 11:40 am

Greetings -

Inspired by a similar endeavor undertaken 3 years ago by Baseball America, the contributors to Baseball Daily Digest are picking their dream teams. The draft kicked off this morning, and will take place via email throughout February. We’ve even invited in some serious expert talent for your enjoyment. We will keep you informed on how things are going, and include a summary at the end. Feel free to comment, as we are always glad to hear from you.

What is a “Dream Draft”?

12 participants will draft 10 players apiece in serpentine fashion. Regardless of salary, these are the 10 players they will choose to be the “core” of a “dream team” over the next 6 years (MLB seasons 2009-2014). Certainly, some participants will choose up-and-comers who may arrive late to the party, while others will take the older superstars and hope they can hold on through the 2014 season! Positional overlap won’t be considered, with the thought that if a GM really had one of these superstars, he or she would be able to trade him for reasonably equal talent at another position as need be.

Who are the participants?

Draft Order (serpentine):

1. Rob McQuown – Baseball Daily Digest (http://www.baseballdailydigest.com)
2. John Burnson – Heater Magazine (http://www.heatermagazine.com)
3. Cory Schwartz – MLB.com (http://www.mlb.com)
4. Michael Street – Baseball Daily Digest (http://www.baseballdailydigest.com)
5. Bill Baer – Baseball Daily Digest (http://www.baseballdailydigest.com)
6. Johanna Wagner – Lovemyteam.com (http://lovemyteam.com)
7. Eric Seidman – Fangraphs.com (http://www.fangraphs.com)
8. Melissa Lockard – Scout.com (http://athletics.scout.com)
9. Joe Hamrahi – Baseball Daily Digest (http://www.baseballdailydigest.com)
10. Brian Joseph – Baseball Daily Digest (http://www.baseballdailydigest.com)
11. Eric San Inocencio – Baseball Daily Digest (http://www.baseballdailydigest.com)
12. Kevin Goldstein – Baseball Prospectus (http://www.baseballprospectus.com)

How was draft order determined?

Each participant was given their choice of draft slot, with the stipulation that slots chosen multiple times would be decided by lot (rolling a die or flipping a coin, actually). There was surprisingly little contention, with all but one participant getting their first choice.

What’s the schedule?

All 120 players will be drafted by the end of February, and commentary on the drafts will follow in early March. But we will keep you updated on a round-by-round basis in the meantime. To give you a flavor, here were the first two picks today:

1. Rob McQuown: Albert Pujols (1b, STL, age 29). While it’s easy to find offense at first base, and difficult to achieve lineup balance with a righty bat there, Albert’s bat transcends these considerations. Career line entering 2009: .334/.425/.624. And the slick defense is icing on the cake.

2. John Burnson: Hanley Ramirez (ss, FLA, age 25). I’m aiming to spend my higher picks on positions with scarcer offense – that means SS, CA, and CF. For the most appealing combo of youth and talent at those spots, I couldn’t top Ramirez. There are some attractive young catchers on the market, but I figure that I’ll get more production over six years from SS than from CA.

So, think over who you’d take for *your* “dream team”, and feel free to give our authors and experts feedback.

Enjoy!

P.S. The BA draft summary (and inspiration) is at http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/majors/features/26872.html. It makes for interesting reading to review it 3 years in to the theoretical 6-year timeframe.