Sometimes headstrong fantasy players want to make all the decisions--good or bad--and take all the credit for their brilliance (or lack thereof).

Other times it is preferable to pool knowledge and have a partner who can help not only with draft decisions but with team management throughout the long baseball season.

And of course, there are sometimes financial considerations to having to only pay half an entry fee and thus both save some money but be able to play for higher prizes.

Our esteemed Rotisserie Duck card collector, seller, and columnist Don Drooker and I have known each other for many years and live in the same city, formerly in the same 55+ community. Don is a bashful duck about his many accomplishments including being the only four time winner of the XFL (Xperts Fantasy League) started in 2003 by Ron Shandler.

But the old duck also plays in 4X4 AL and NL keeper formats that are almost as old as the first roto league that was formed at La Rotisserie restaurant. And, he has won both those leagues many times. Both are auction leagues and Drook has a particular disdain for serpentine draft leagues, wanting to get the player he wants and not having every single target he brings to mind disappear by a drafter in front of him.

Well, Don and I decided to partner up for a $250 NFBC Satellite league that drafted on Monday night. The NFBC satellites have several price points and are individual leagues, so the strategies that go into competing for multi-league overall rankings as in the Main Event or the Draft & Hold leagues don’t apply. That doesn’t mean I would approach the draft much differently but I would adjust and do some things that couldn’t possibly allow a team to be high in the overall ranks. The object is just to finish in the money in this one league.

I can’t tell you that getting two grizzled fantasy players to agree on a draft is a piece of cake, but I can tell you we had a good time deciding on our plan and then zeroing in on which players to get, and of course when.

The bad news was drawing the #12 pick in a fifteen team draft. But, the notion that you can win from any draft spot with any roster construction is more important than the player you got to pick in the first round. Not surprisingly, the usual suspects were taken with the first eleven picks, not one rat in the league allowing someone better to fall so we agreed to start this ride with Giancarlo Stanton.  Good to get power early in these drafts regardless of league format.

Don agreed with my suggestion that if either Justin Verlander or Clayton Kershaw were available with our second round pick we could anchor our (mostly) NL staff with either and given the choice we chose Mr. Kate Upton.

Now the long wait…and the reason of course that Senor Dux doesn’t like drafts. Still, we were pretty fortunate that one of our first base targets was still available at 3.12 and we welcomed Billy Butler to the “Captain Dux” squad.

The fourth round pick wasn’t as clear, but the chance to start our middle infield with a solid contributor across the boards meant Ben Zobrist was the choice we made. Depending on later choices we could move him to either 2B or SS or even OF if needed.

Obviously we were a little slow at this point and while there is always speed available later most of it us in outfield eligible players, so having a leadoff hitting second baseman who should get 30+ bags led us to Jose Altuve.

With the injuries to Brett Lawrie and Pablo Sandoval, Martin Prado was the last third baseman available without going to a lower tier and while we don’t mind doing that it should be for a CI. Plus if we did find a third baseman we liked in addition to another corner, Prado could easily be moved to the outfield (prophetic reasoning, but good roster flexibility is a huge help over a long season when you can do it without sacrificing any stats.

Somehow the impending catcher run hadn’t yet started and we hoped with Posey, Mauer, Molina, Wieters and then Carlos Santana by 6.02, it might be delayed until the seventh or eighth round. Neither Drook nor I are true scarcity drafters but a solid base in the first ten rounds would include one catcher with 1B, 3B, 2B, and SS if all were quality hitters. And, in fifteen team leagues playing two catchers, there is a big plus to not having to give away stats at the position. I didn’t mind Victor Martinez, Willin Rosario and Miguel Montero going late in the sixth but we were close to the end of a tier (okay players we could agree on in that tier) when Salvador Perez who we had hoped would slide and Jonathan Lucroy went in the three picks before us. That still left us with Jesus Montero and we decided not to press fate and add him at 7.12.

Finally in the eighth round we took our second pitcher – Giant’s closer Sergio Romo who was the fifth closer off the board. Romo is, as Todd suggested in his TOUT team review, somewhat mistakenly discounted because he might have less saves than some other closers. But Romo's ratios will be much better than his compatriot closer and though we knew we were stretching the tiers on starters, we felt we could get what we needed later.

After taking a solid outfielder with speed in Norichika Aoki in the ninth round, later came at 10.04 in Ian Kennedy who had kindly slipped past some less worthy pitchers and made a fine SP2 with Verlander. We added another veteran hurler on a good team at 12.04 in Tim Hudson after taking Todd Frazier – a true CI with 1B and 3B eligibility in the eleventh round.

The secondary closer run almost swallowed us but we drafted Bobby Parnell at 13.12 so we didn’t have to try for the Angel’s save crew or hope Jose Veras would be viable in Houston. We would try and add some setup pitchers with good skills late in the draft with the hope of giving us two plus closers to start the year. In fact the ending distribution of closers was two teams with three; seven teams with two; and six teams with one closer. Of course many had relievers they hope add to their total. We should lose to the teams with three and beat the teams with one but try to be the best amongst those with two closers as of now.

Don and I both like the upside of young Oriole third sacker Manny Machado so we added him at 14.04 which meant as alluded to, we shifted Prado to the outfield. We added David Murphy with the next pick a nice double digit producer in both HR and SB and a player who should get a few more at bats this year in a great ballpark. Our fourth starting pitcher, in the 16th round was another Diamondback, sinkerballer Trevor Cahill.

We had left our last middle infield slot slide but the opportunities were drying up and before things went way off target, drafted Jhonny Peralta at shortstop, moving Zobrist to MI and allowing another lineup variation in weeks where we might want to play someone else there and shift Zobrist to the outfield. On the 18th round side of those picks we finally got our second catcher in the Angels’ Chris Iannetta who has been swinging very well this spring. Iannetta has good power and we can afford his projected average although I think there is a decent chance he improves on that this year in Anaheim.

Denard Span in the 19th round and Michael Brantley in the 21st finished our OF/UT slots and we would add some pitchers in Patrick Corbin, Wily Peralta, and Ricky Nolasco as we rounded out the first 23 rounds with our starting lineup (you can draft players in any order in NFBC drafts but as old school auction players where reserves are reserves we tend not to stray from that approach).

We were able to add a good CI in Adam Lind and a decent stolen base threat in the MI as long as Chris Getz holds the second base job for the Royals. We also speculated on the Rangers Jurickson Profar later in the draft and added Seth Smith as a possible platoon matchup at OF/UT. On the pitching side we selected Chris Narveson who I have thought for years has good stuff but hasn’t quite been able to put it together and added two relievers who might get save opportunities in Vinnie Pestano and Mark Melancon.

The full roster for the “CAPTAIN DUX” team is listed below by position with the draft slot used. It looks to have good, not great power but plenty of speed and adequate BAvg. Frankly I think the projections for several of our hitters is on the low side – as an example I expect both Billy Butler and Jesus Montero to be closer to thirty HR than to twenty. I also think that Prado will hit twenty home runs in the NL West while both Frazier and Machado could challenge 20/20 levels.

But ultimately the team may go as far as Verlander with Kennedy and two good closers and a hopeful supporting cast can take them. The good news is that there is plenty of pitching available via FAAB. I am always glad to answer questions about the players or draft here or on the message boards and perhaps the Old Duck will chime in as well. Good Luck in your drafts over the next week.

CAPTAIN DUX – NFBC Satellite entry

C – Jesus Montero (7.12) & Chris Iannetta (18.04)

CI – Billy Butler (3.12), Manny Machado (14.04), & Todd Frazier (11.12)

MI – Jose Altuve (5.12), Jhonny Peralta (17.12), & Ben Zobrist (4.04)

OF – Giancarlo Stanton (1.12), Norichika Aoki (9.12), Martin Prado (6.04), David Murphy (15.12), & Denard Span (19.12)

UT – Michael Brantley (21.12)

Reserves – Adam Lind (24.04), Chris Getz (25.12), Jurickson Profar (28.04), & Seth Smith (29.12)

SP – Verlander (2.04), Kennedy (10.04), T. Hudson (12.04), Cahill (16.04), Corbin (20.04), Peralta (22.04), & Nolasco (23.12)

CL – Romo (8.04) & Parnell (13.12)

Reserves – Narveson (26.04), Pestano (27.12), & Melancon (30.04)