The Z Files: Hi, Can I Talk to Derek Please?

At some point on Sunday, former RotoWire staffer, my ex-podcast and radio partner and all-around good guy Derek VanRiper and I will be on the clock in an actual NFBC draft. It's become a tradition, the Premature Edraftulation League commences on the final Sunday of the season. DVR and I have the second pick.

We didn't fare so well this season, finishing at best fifth. At one point, we had over 70 pitching points (out of 75 maximum) but only 17 hitting points. We've skyrocketed all the way to 26 hitting points though we've lost about 10 pitching points in the process. Our first pick was Max Scherzer; DVR and I haven't talked about the pick this year yet, but I can promise it won't be Scherzer – or any pitcher for that matter.

What follows is a hypothetical conversation I'll have with Derek, albeit pretty one-sided. It will be weird for him, considering he makes his living, or a good deal of it, talking.

Hey DVR, what do you think, we'll be up soon. Obviously, we'll be choosing between Mike Trout, Ronald Acuna and Christian Yelich. I haven't run my numbers yet but it's pretty obvious these are the top three. I really don't have a preference; if you feel strongly about one, I'm happy to go that way. That said, here are my thoughts.

The party line is going to be Acuna and Yelich are better for fantasy because Trout only stole 11 bases this season. The thing is, he stole the same number in 2015. Guess how many he stole the next year? That's right, 30. Obviously he's older – all of 27 years old. I'm not as concerned as others about the lack of bags; Trout's floor is silly.

If you want to go Yelich, that's fine. You may not get another chance to grab a share of the Brew Crew's stud and this league is as much about fun as anything. I'll lobby for the token Red Sox in reserve. Actually, the fun pick could be Acuna; Vogel will be pissed.

(Note: Bryan Vogel, another all-around good guy is a subscriber to the site and an NFBC stalwart. He's also a Braves fan and picked Acuna third overall this past season.)

I guess I still favor Trout and honestly don't have a preference between Acuna and Yelich so again, happy to go with whoever you prefer.

One thing I am more passionate about is playing it smart with pitching. I think we're both pretty good at finding late arms and you have the magic touch with FAAB. The great thing about this league is it's pure, no ADP. My guess is there are some guys we each like as breakouts that we'll be able to get. This is dangerous, but as we found out, it's hard to get behind in the hitting categories. I don't have a round (or pitcher) in mind, but I'm more convinced than ever that forcing a pitcher isn't smart. I know this will mean another year of "Zola says not to draft pitching early," even though that's not what I'm saying, but whatever.

Man, the closer pool sucks even more than last year. Taking Craig Kimbrel in the fourth figuring he'd sign didn't work out so well for us. How many guys are "safe"? Kirby Yates? Aroldis Chapman? Josh Hader? There are a couple of guys in this league that like to jump closers early; I'm curious what they do this season. Something to keep in mind is fewer saves are needed to compete in the current landscape. There are the same number of saves in MLB, but fewer are accrued in fantasy with so many teams not using just one guy. I don't see this changing. Most look to get two full-time closers and troll for a third. I think we can get one and troll for two.

Yeah, sure, you can call me back after you take Daisy for a walk.

Hey DVR, how was the walk?

No, we're not up yet.

Another thing we need to do better this year is target multiple eligibility players. This is on me; I should have figured out how important it would be last year. Though, I can't recall too many times we had a better hitter on the bench, but still.

Yeah, you're right, having Brandon Dixon as the only first base eligible guy did suck for a few weeks.

I did some thinking while you were out. We've been pretty tame with respect to drafting prospects; maybe we should take a shot or two? I mean, we've made some risky picks, but they're always guys like Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton.

Eh, there's no reason to apologize. If I didn't like the picks, I wouldn't have agreed to them.

I don't have anyone in mind, and off-hand I don't think the prospects will match the past couple of seasons which have been loaded, just saying it could be good to shake things up a bit. Look who we picked up in FAAB this year: Michael Chavis, Keston Hiura, Bryan Reynolds, Tommy Edman and of course Aristides Aquino. Imagine if we did a better job with hitters in the draft? Anyway, the point is I think we can afford to take a chance on a kid; we should be able to mine the free agent field again next season.

Anyway, those are a few of my thoughts. I'm psyched for another season of "Industry Scum" trying to take this thing down. Hopefully we'll be up soon.

OK, take care, looking forward to seeing you at First Pitch Arizona soon.