The 3U3D Spring Training Hat Draft
With Mapes and Jeremy recently finishing their second annual Jersey Draft on our blog, we decided another part of the uniform needed a little love. This year, the 30 MLB teams all received new Spring Training hats, and we got everyone in on the action.
The five of us all partook in six rounds of hat drafting this week. To complete hypothetical collections, we tried to abide by the same rules as the jersey draft: Awesomeness of the hat, as well as general popularity. Some teams made massive changes to their caps, while some stayed almost exactly the same.
For context, we drew random numbers to determine a draft order and snaked through six rounds (which made sticking Jeremy with his least favorite cap at the very end, easy for the rest of the guys). Some teams had a home and away version, but we decided only one hat from any given team could be used to make sure all 30 were represented.
See how it went down below, with the draft results and brief explanations on each squad. After that, vote for the hat collection YOU would want!
Round 1:
Round 2:
Round 3:
Round 4:
Round 5:
Round 6:
Jeremy’s Team (@Jamblinman): I would like to start by sincerely apologizing to my Dodgers family for being forced into choosing the Giants hat with the last overall pick in the draft. These guys are sneaky, and knew they could stick me with it. Hopefully having the awesome Royals, Padres, and Pirates in my collection takes some sting out of it. My first overall pick, the Reds road hat is the best of the bunch, anyway!
Brian’s Team (@GingaBeard_Man): Knowing that the Rangers was not real popular with everyone else I knew I could scoop it up in the later rounds. With that being said I wanted to go for style with my first few picks and I really liked the Mets hat, it was my second favorite hat only behind the Reds road hat. The Rays hat shows all the teams colors while featuring the new logo and further distancing themselves from the old Devil Rays name. Hopefully my first two picks make up for the Nationals hat which I still think is a solid pick, it just doesn’t vary much from the hat they’ll use this season. I figured with my fourth pick it was time to take the Rangers hat. The Cubs like the Braves were always a team I watched growing up, they were always on when I came home from school so I couldn’t pass it up with my fifth pick. I felt I would have done a disservice to everyone else had I not left Jeremy with the Giants hat so I took the White Sox. It should be fun seeing him explain that other Dodgers fans.
Angelo’s Team (@GODF_TH_R): With my first pick, I went with the Mariners. This was also my number one choice of all the hats anyway, so it worked out well for me. I love the fact that they brought back the baseball with compass rose on it. I have been a Seattle fan since the days of Junior (I think we all were), so this hat brought back some memories for me. The Blue Jays hat is very simple but makes a huge statement. The maple leaf on the front shows MLB that Toronto IS Canada’s team. The first thing I tried to stay away from was any hat with a white front. Personally, I don’t think this looks good on a hat for game play. I do not like the Tigers home hat one bit, so I took the retro looking away as my 3rd pick. The color I have liked the most since I have seen it on any MLB jersey ever is the the brick red that Arizona uses. The D-Backs become my 4th pick. I like the Marlins color scheme now that its worn on me for a year. Again, went with the road because of the white front on the home. I was down to the Angels, ChiSox, and Giants for my final pick. Knowing that we could stick Jeremy with the Giants made my decision between two, and I wasn’t going to take a division rival…so Angels it is!
KP’s Team (@FalconKP): I tried to stay away from being a homer, but I liked the Brewers hat so much I had to take it first. That was quickly followed up with a steal of the Rockies’ hat in the 2nd round. I love the use of the mountain logo and think it’s definitely a unique look not a lot of teams get to have. The contrast of the red/white/blue on the Twins hat also had me quite pleased. Getting stuck with one color or pattern can be boring. Having not picked a ‘classic’ look yet, I went with the old-school looking Indians hat. The ‘C’ definitely makes a statement and I’m sure the Indians are trying to make a statement of their own this year. Yes, I dislike the Cardinals, but of the hats remaining at that point, it was one of the few that actually looked different to me. I’ll take it. That and the Phillies hat I ended up with was too similar to the Twins, but I’ll round it out nicely and hope they can bounce back this year as well.
Mapes’ Team (@IAmMapes): I thought I was going to get screwed with the last pick, but getting to take my picks together worked out. The Reds also would’ve been my #1 overall pick. The Astros new logo is fantastic and this was a nice alternative to their regular cap. I like the use of mascots in some of the hats, which is why I made sure I locked up the Athletics and Orioles next. The Orioles new logo is too nice. I made to sure grab the Braves next, just so I don’t miss out like I did in the jersey draft with Jeremy. I loved rounding out my draft with both hats from one of the greatest rivalries in baseball in the Red Sox and Yankees though I would buy their regular hats over the batting practice ones. Genius move by us sticking Jeremy with the Giants. He really strongly dislikes them.
Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to vote for your favorite group of hats below! You can follow @3u3d on Twitter and like Three Up, Three Down on Facebook!
Three Up, Three Down 