Fantasy Baseball

Here we go!!!!!!!! Baseball season starts today!!!

Football will always be my favorite sport, but if I could go back in time and be good at a sport I would chose baseball. I always thought I was an okay football player but one of the things I hated about football was practice.

Not with baseball.

I felt like I could have been out practicing baseball all day long. And to play the games was that much more fun.

Baseball starting today with two games at 1:05pm (eastern time) Atlanta Braves at the Washington Nationals and the Detroit Tigers at New York Yankees (Orioles play Friday at 7:10pm). But with the regular season baseball starting that means so does the Fantasy baseball season.

The first year I ever played fantasy baseball was 1992. Back then it was called rotisserie baseball. The rules were simple; you had 5 hitting categories and 5 pitching categories. If you came in first place in a category you received the most points, if you came in last place in a category you received the least amount of points. The amount of points you had would be added up and that was your score. Highest score was the winner. Now I don’t remember a whole lot of details about that season, but we only had 4 teams in the league, my best friend Matt, my dad, my dads coworker and friend Scott, and of course myself. We each selected three teams we could draft players from plus the Baltimore Orioles. I had the first pick of the draft and I took my favorite baseball player (mistake #1 in drafting fantasy sports) from the home town team (mistake #2 in drafting fantasy sports) Cal Ripken Jr. It was not a bad 1st round pick considering this was the season after his MVP season of 1991. But knowing now how his season turned out .251 avg, 14 HR’s, and 72 RBIs it was not the best decision for a first round pick. To be fair this was not one of my better executed drafts. I did proudly take Jeff Tackett because in my mind he beat out Rick Dempsey for the catcher roll… did I mention it was the backup catcher role. I still hold on to this day the fact that Jeff Tackett hit a Home Run in his first MLB at bat that season…. He only hit 4 more after that.

In 1993 we expanded the league to either 8 or 10 teams. That season I executed the trade of the century when I received Carlos Baerga, Jack Morris, and another nice player for Rich Monteleone and a couple of scrubs. That may be the best I have made out in a trade….ever. It also ruined any chance I had with making a trade for a few years after that.

So we fast forward to today. I am in two separate fantasy baseball leagues. The first one I joined the league the year before. It is a twelve team keeper league. At the time I thought I had some great keepers… I was wrong. By mid way through the season I figured that my team really had no shot of making the playoffs. So I did what I could to get myself better keepers for next season. I didn’t tank the season but the trades I made basically assured me I was going to lose every week.

So this season comes around and we get 6 keeper players and I have the first pick of the draft. My keeper players were Hanley Ramirez, Jason Heyward, Josh Johnson, Cole Hammils, Aaron Hill, and Mike Stanton. I had the first, twenty-fourth, and Twenty-fifth pick of the draft. With the 1st pick I drafted Justin Upton, followed by Billy Butler, and Matt Wieters. I like my team in this league and I like the potential I have for future keepers/trade bait. My team official looks like. When looking at my team I have the round I drafted them in K= Keeper and the round number is the actually round of the live draft, officially pick #1 = round #7.

C. Matt Wieters (3rd round)
1B. Billy Butler (2nd round)
1B. Adam Lind (9th round)
1B. Gabby Sanchez (18th round)
2B. Aaron Hill (K)
3B. Casey McGeee (4th round)
SS. Hanley Ramirez (K)
SS. J.J. Hardy (20th round)
OF. Jason Heyward (K)
OF. Mike Stanton (K)
OF. Justin Upton (1st round)
OF. Denard Span (11th round)
OF. Manny Ramirez (16th round)
OF. Jason Kubel (17th round)
P. Josh Johnson (K)
P. Cole Hammils (K)
P. Phil Hughes (5th round)
P. John Denks (6th round)
P. Jonathon Broxton (7th round)
P. Ted Lilly (8th round)
P. Matt Thorton (10th round)
P. John Lackey (12th round)
P. Kevin Gregg (13th round)
P. Bronson Arroyo (14th round)
P. Wade Davis (15th round)
P. A.J. Burnett (19th round)
P. Stephen Strasburg (21st round)

I really like the team but I expect this team to fall in the middle of the pack somewhere. I think it is really well balanced but not the Homerun I was looking for. Plus there are a few guys who I am concerned about with injuries. Stephen Strasburg is on the disabled list until at least the All-Star game if not the whole season.

This past Monday, is the other league I am in. The funny thing about this other league is I am the commissioner and really I run the league just for a few friends. It’s always tough to fill out the league, and people lose interest if they aren’t winning. This season I decided to do something a bit different. I went back to the old school of thinking and I am doing a rotisserie league. I figured this way I didn’t have to worry about having an even number of teams. This draft was also different because it was an auction draft.

C. Matt Wieters $9 (101)
1B. Adrian Gonzalez $41 (22)
2B. Kelly Johnson $3 (110)
2B. Aaron Hill $3 (120)
2B. Neil Walker $2 (146)
3B. Alex Rodriguez $40 (13)
3B. Pablo Sandoval $2 (128)
SS. Hanley Ramirez $51 (2)
SS. Stephen Drew $3 (108)
OF. Carlos Gonzalez $41 (18)
OF. Justin Upton $29 (40)
OF. Ben Zobrist $4 (116)
OF. Adam Jones $3 (121)
OF. Curtis Granderson $3 (122)
P. Wade Davis $1 (21)
P. Roy Oswalt $5 (109)
P. Max Scherzer $4 (118)
P. Brett Anderson $2 (129)
P. Matt Thorton $1 (131)
P. Chad Billingsley $2 (132)
P. Craig Kimbrel $1 (141)
P. Josh Beckett $2 (147)
P. Jonathan Broxton $2 (150)
P. Brian Matusz $1 (151)
P. Jeremy Hellickson $2 (157)
P. Ricky Nolasco $1 (161)

Overall I am really happy with this team. My pitching is a bit weak but I spent really big early and then waited patiently and at pick 101 I could not be out bid for anyone anymore. Sorry Josh I know I took a bunch of guys away from you.

Here hoping to have two fantasy baseball teams in the playoff race.