C. Willson Contreras, Knizner
1B, Goldschmidt
2B. Gorman, Donavon, Palacios
SS. Winn, DeJong
3B. Arenado
OF, Walker, Edman, Nootbar, Thomas
SP. Gray, Flaherty, Montgomery, Hicks, Matz, Lynn, Mikolas,
RP. Helsley, Cabrera, Romero, Kelly, Kittridge, Gallegos,
Totally different draft experience for me this year. In years past I have had an insane amount of exclusives starting pitchers. I had 9 last year alone. Due to Alcantara and Johan Oviedo missing all of 2024 and the trades last year of a lot of pitchers off the Cardinals roster, I had 1 quality starter (Sonny Gray) going into the season. Fortunately I was able to field a team of non pitchers out of exclusives that included Goldschmidt, Arenado, Contreres, and several players with a lot of positional eligibility. This allowed me to focus on Pitching. Out of my 12 picks, 9 were pitchers.
after I saw the draft order, I knew I didn’t have a shot at Arozarena or Adolis Garcia so I turned to young pitchers with the most upside. I took Flaherty number 1 knowing that he would have to get through 4 picks before I had another shot at him in round 2. I gambled that Montgomery wouldn’t sign before I could make my 2nd round pick and that paid off. Jordan Hicks and Steven Matz gives me some upside and the remaining pitchers gives me depth. (Lynn and Mikolas).
the 3 position players (DeJong, Knizner, Palacios) add some depth but not much upside.
players I missed out on: I forgot about Quintana. I didn’t have him in my list. I would have liked to snag Wacha as well. Garcia and Arozarena I knew would be gone. I lost Kyle Gibson but I am ok with that. I put him in the Lynn, Mikolas category.
I feel good about my lineup. I have a few places where I can upgrade but I feel I can hang middle of the pack of things go well.
