Backyard Baseball 2001 Draft: 8th Round Recap and Analysis

If you are reading this for the first time and you don't know what this is, please refer to my previous article entitled "The Backyard Baseball Project". We then held the Backyard Baseball 2001 Draft Lottery. On Tuesday April 23, we began the draft. Slowly we are getting it done. Our owners have busy schedules with school wrapping up, which is why you might think this is all coming to you slow. Nevertheless, our GMs love  Backyard Baseball and are dedicated to building their franchises. If you aren't all caught up on the draft, here are the links to rounds 1-7:

First Round
Second Round
Third Round
Fourth Round
Fifth Round
Sixth Round
Seventh Round

Here are the current rosters.

Little 500 All-Stars (managed by Connor Boehm)
Home field: Tin Can Alley
1) Pablo Sanchez
2) Mark McGwire
3) Chipper Jones
4) Stephanie Morgan
5) Juan Gonzalez
6) Ashley Webber
7) Sidney Webber

Kingston Bunt Smokers (managed by Will Fitzgerald)
Home field: Dirt Yards
1) Curt Schilling
2) Derek Jeter
3) Carlos Beltran
4) Alex Rodriguez
5) Jeff Bagwell
6) Tony Gwynn
7) Ivan Rodriguez

Grand Salamis (managed by Tommy Mantice)
Home field: Steele Stadium
1) Sammy Sosa
2) Frank Thomas
3) Jose Canseco
4) Mike Piazza
5) Barry Larkin
6) Shawn Green
7) Kenny Kawaguchi

Vinnie the Gooch's All-Stars (managed by Eric Benjamin)
Home field: Cement Gardens
1) Ken Griffey Jr.
2) Achmed Khan
3) Randy Johnson
4) Cal Ripken Jr.
5) Jocinda Smith
6) Jason Giambi
7) Jason Kendall

Crazy Fishes (managed by CJ Revis)
Home field: Sandy Flats
1) Pete Wheeler
2) Kiesha Phillips
3) Luanne Lui
4) Angela Delvecchio
5) Mikey Thomas
6) Dante Robinson
7) Dmitri Petrovic

Orange Wombats (managed by Grant Smith)
Home field: Playground Commons
1) Barry Bonds
2) Kenny Lofton
3) Vladimir Guerrero
4) Nomar Garciaparra
5) Annie Frazier
6) Sally Dobbs
7) Larry Walker

And now let's get back to the draft.

1) (43 Overall) Orange Wombats (Grant Smith)- Raul Mondesi
Raul Mondesi is another great value pick. I always looked at him as another underrated player. He's another guy I thought would fall, but I didn't think he would fall this far. A guy with great power and speed in the eighth round? Are you kidding me?! He's a no-brainer here. Adding him and Larry Walker with Grant's last two picks will make this already good lineup, better. Raul's kind of like a poor man's Sosa. I would always draft him when I would be playing a pick-up game and he would nearly always deliver. I love this pick and he's a great fit for this team.

2) (44 Overall) Crazy Fishes (CJ Revis)- Amir Khan
I was expecting that Vinnie the Gooch's All-Stars' GM Eric Benjamin was hoping to grab Amir in the later rounds after already picking up his big brother Achmed. Much like the Webber twins, when paired together the two play great. Benjamin commented on the pick saying, "the carpool situation for those parents is going to be heinous." Moments later him and CJ broke in to trade talks, with CJ hoping to acquire Achmed. Benjamin proposed a deal of Achmed for Pete Wheeler, which CJ laughed off and declined without any hesitation. We'll see if they are able to get a deal done but as of right now, they seem to be very far from it. As for the pick itself, I think Amir is another late round gem. CJ plans to use him in the closer role which will be perfect for him. He's got a lot of pitching. Amir also has some pop on that bat. Amir's a good pick also considering his age. He's one of the younger kids out there and given time and experience he could develop into one of the better hitters in this league. 

3) (45 Overall) Vinnie the Gooch's All-Stars (Eric Benjamin)- Mo Vaughn
Mo Vaughn is a big kid. He's another pro I expected to slide. But he's not a bad pick, especially in the eighth round. He can hit, he can field, and he can even pitch. He has average speed. Mo Vaughn's another good late round pickup. However, I think this lineup could use a little more speed. Good player, but maybe not the best fit. But if you're drafting in terms of best talent available, he's right up there.

4) (46 Overall) Grand Salamis (Tommy Mantice)- Tony Delvecchio
Tony Delvecchio is the stud. Basically he's just the coolest kid ever. Is he the absolute best player? No, but he's not bad. Tony is definitely my favorite of the backyard kids and I am happy that he got drafted. I wonder how he feels about being picked four rounds after his little sister. Ouch. But in all honesty, Angela is one heck of a player. Tony's not bad and he did fall a little further than I thought he would. This is a good pick. He's a good hitter and he's got a great arm. Also glad to see Tommy going with another backyard kid here. Tony will help this team win, and inspire his teammates with his swagger.

5) (47 Overall) Kingston Bunt Smokers (Will Fitzgerald)- Alex Gonzalez
Well, Fitz is sticking to his formula of only drafting pros. With only three pros left before making his pick, this could be the last round for him to do that. Keep in mind that this isn't the same Alex Gonzalez that screwed up a potential inning-ending double play in the Bartman Game for the Cubs, a play that would have likely put them in the World Series (*sigh*). This Alex Gonzalez is better. He's a good fielder and he's got good speed. As I've been saying, speed is very important and I think any time you can pick someone up that's fast and has some other skills this late in the draft, it's not a bad pick.

6) (48 Overall) Little 500 All-Stars (Connor Boehm)- Marty Cordova
Marty Cordova isn't the first pro you're going to pick. He's one you'll often forget. But he's sneaky good. He's a better hitter than you expect. He's got solid speed and he's a good pitcher too. This is a great pickup at this point in the draft and he will help your team win.





So with that, the eighth round of the draft is complete. I apologize for how long it took getting this article up, everyone has been busy but hopefully we'll get the ninth round up for you soon along with our Backyard Baseball wrap-up. The power is going to be in your hands to decide who the champion of this league is/will be. So thank you to everyone for reading and let me hear your thoughts on the draft in the comments, on Twitter @vellvita7, or on the blog Facebook fan page. Hope you are having a good day and a good week!