fantasy baseball year in review
Now that Jesus has ended the Rockies' amazing run with the Red Sox sweep to win the World Series (does this mean Jesus loves the Sox' Jewish general manager more than He loves the Rox' Christian fundamentalist GM?), it's time to mull over my 2007 fantasy baseball teams.
But first, in the great tradition of ESPN, I need to talk incessantly about the Yankees. Except I won't, not much anyway. I don't blame A-Rod for opting out of his contract and getting the hell away from an organization whose owner thinks it's a "privilege" to play for him. The guy has shown he's money motivated, and if he thinks he can get more money elsewhere, why not go for it? Somebody's going to pay him $30 million a year; he'd be an idiot to turn it down. As long as it isn't the Braves, more power to him.
The Yankees, by the way, will finish third in their division next year. You read it here first, folks. No A-Rod. No Pettitte. No Rivera. No Torre. And saddled with Giambi, probably forced to pay Abreu $18 because they won't have another right fielder ready, plus a spent Mussina (who helped kill my money league team) and a whole bunch of youngsters who will crack under the pressure of not being able to win in New York. Either Toronto or Tampa Bay will pass them next year, with the BoSox repeating as division champs. It will be fun to watch; it will be hilarious if it's the D-Rays who pass them.
If A-Rod really does opt out, look for the Texas Rangers to buy themselves a couple of decent starting pitchers, if any are to be found. They're paying $8 or $9 million a year of A-Rod's current contract under the terms of the trade that sent him to New York. A-Rod's agent, Scott "The Greatest Evil in Baseball" Boras, is only the second-Happiest Man on Earth. Rangers owner Tom Hicks is first.
And now, on to my Fantasy Baseball Year in Review!
First, First, Second, and Dead Last. Guess which one had money riding on it?
Auction league: Dying Quails: 11th (of 11)
Yeah, I saw this coming. Doesn't make me any happier.
Not having a shortstop did in fact kill me. So did all of the injuries and inexplicably bad seasons (Rolen, Piazza, Manny, Baldelli, Schmidt, Ray, Mussina, Bonderman). The season could have been so much worse if not for guys like Eric Byrnes (.286-21-83-103-50 for $1) and Brandon Webb (18-3.01-194-1.189 for $21). It would have been so much better had guys like Berkman and Abreu not sucked so hard for the first half of the season.
I somehow managed to win one week out of 26, but I'm not sure how. I made a couple of trades late in the year, and they actually did help; but it was too little, far too late.
Next year, I need to go back to being more aggressive in the draft. Avoid injury-prone guys like Rocco Baldelli. And avoid ending up with Rich Aurilia and Scott Rolen as two of my starters.
ESPN keeper league: Jews for Jebus: 2nd (of 10)
This whole league was a disaster waiting to happen thanks to ESPN's totally screwing things up even before the draft. They completely changed the format from 2006, and we weren't able to do the live draft the way we were supposed to be able to do. At least I got some of my money back; and a free "premium" fantasy football team ("Shut up Boomer" is currently in dead last, thankyouverymuch).
Still, I clawed my way to second in the last couple of days and managed to hold on till the end. Not much to say here, really. Pitching did me in as I finished dead last in ERA and 8th in WHIP; had I finished just in the middle of the pack in those two categories, I would have won the whole thing. The auto-draft shafted me - once again - with a bunch of mediocre-to-bad starters and no closers at all. It was a nightmare.
The league will now be disbanded, so I won't be able to go from third to second to first.
ESPN public league: Kosher for Baseball: 1st! (of 10)
This was a live draft with six or seven of the ten teams actually participating. Only four or five teams really bothered during the season, though. I won handily by pulling away down the stretch: the two teams that were ahead of me on September 1st reached their maximum games started within a couple of weeks, and I blew right past them in Wins, Strikeouts, ERA, and WHIP by streaming in quality starters with good matchups for the last month of the season.
It was sweet. By the time I went away to Europe for a week, the team was already in first and coasting on autopilot, loaded up with pitching from Smoltz, Oswalt, Schilling, and a couple of stud closers.
Yahoo! public league: Local Yokels: 1st! (of 12)
Another live draft with most teams showing up and lots of smack talk. One guy gave me all kinds of shit for passing up on 2B Chase Utley (I call him "Chutley") not once, but twice in favor of Vlad and Berkman. Chutley had a good season, but went down on the DL for a month; Vlad was Vlad Lite and Berkman ended up mostly okay.
And I won.
I only made 16 roster moves, while the team that got Chutley tied for 3rd with a guy who made 116 moves. Yikes. I came in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th in two categories each, so no one really had a shot at me the whole season. I pretty much cruised through this league with a balanced roster that really only had one hole: second base. So maybe I should have grabbed Utley instead of Berkman.
But it didn't matter. Now I have a championship to add to my Yahoo! trophy case.
But first, in the great tradition of ESPN, I need to talk incessantly about the Yankees. Except I won't, not much anyway. I don't blame A-Rod for opting out of his contract and getting the hell away from an organization whose owner thinks it's a "privilege" to play for him. The guy has shown he's money motivated, and if he thinks he can get more money elsewhere, why not go for it? Somebody's going to pay him $30 million a year; he'd be an idiot to turn it down. As long as it isn't the Braves, more power to him.
The Yankees, by the way, will finish third in their division next year. You read it here first, folks. No A-Rod. No Pettitte. No Rivera. No Torre. And saddled with Giambi, probably forced to pay Abreu $18 because they won't have another right fielder ready, plus a spent Mussina (who helped kill my money league team) and a whole bunch of youngsters who will crack under the pressure of not being able to win in New York. Either Toronto or Tampa Bay will pass them next year, with the BoSox repeating as division champs. It will be fun to watch; it will be hilarious if it's the D-Rays who pass them.
If A-Rod really does opt out, look for the Texas Rangers to buy themselves a couple of decent starting pitchers, if any are to be found. They're paying $8 or $9 million a year of A-Rod's current contract under the terms of the trade that sent him to New York. A-Rod's agent, Scott "The Greatest Evil in Baseball" Boras, is only the second-Happiest Man on Earth. Rangers owner Tom Hicks is first.
And now, on to my Fantasy Baseball Year in Review!
First, First, Second, and Dead Last. Guess which one had money riding on it?
Auction league: Dying Quails: 11th (of 11)
Yeah, I saw this coming. Doesn't make me any happier.
Not having a shortstop did in fact kill me. So did all of the injuries and inexplicably bad seasons (Rolen, Piazza, Manny, Baldelli, Schmidt, Ray, Mussina, Bonderman). The season could have been so much worse if not for guys like Eric Byrnes (.286-21-83-103-50 for $1) and Brandon Webb (18-3.01-194-1.189 for $21). It would have been so much better had guys like Berkman and Abreu not sucked so hard for the first half of the season.
I somehow managed to win one week out of 26, but I'm not sure how. I made a couple of trades late in the year, and they actually did help; but it was too little, far too late.
Next year, I need to go back to being more aggressive in the draft. Avoid injury-prone guys like Rocco Baldelli. And avoid ending up with Rich Aurilia and Scott Rolen as two of my starters.
ESPN keeper league: Jews for Jebus: 2nd (of 10)
This whole league was a disaster waiting to happen thanks to ESPN's totally screwing things up even before the draft. They completely changed the format from 2006, and we weren't able to do the live draft the way we were supposed to be able to do. At least I got some of my money back; and a free "premium" fantasy football team ("Shut up Boomer" is currently in dead last, thankyouverymuch).
Still, I clawed my way to second in the last couple of days and managed to hold on till the end. Not much to say here, really. Pitching did me in as I finished dead last in ERA and 8th in WHIP; had I finished just in the middle of the pack in those two categories, I would have won the whole thing. The auto-draft shafted me - once again - with a bunch of mediocre-to-bad starters and no closers at all. It was a nightmare.
The league will now be disbanded, so I won't be able to go from third to second to first.
ESPN public league: Kosher for Baseball: 1st! (of 10)
This was a live draft with six or seven of the ten teams actually participating. Only four or five teams really bothered during the season, though. I won handily by pulling away down the stretch: the two teams that were ahead of me on September 1st reached their maximum games started within a couple of weeks, and I blew right past them in Wins, Strikeouts, ERA, and WHIP by streaming in quality starters with good matchups for the last month of the season.
It was sweet. By the time I went away to Europe for a week, the team was already in first and coasting on autopilot, loaded up with pitching from Smoltz, Oswalt, Schilling, and a couple of stud closers.
Yahoo! public league: Local Yokels: 1st! (of 12)
Another live draft with most teams showing up and lots of smack talk. One guy gave me all kinds of shit for passing up on 2B Chase Utley (I call him "Chutley") not once, but twice in favor of Vlad and Berkman. Chutley had a good season, but went down on the DL for a month; Vlad was Vlad Lite and Berkman ended up mostly okay.
And I won.
I only made 16 roster moves, while the team that got Chutley tied for 3rd with a guy who made 116 moves. Yikes. I came in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th in two categories each, so no one really had a shot at me the whole season. I pretty much cruised through this league with a balanced roster that really only had one hole: second base. So maybe I should have grabbed Utley instead of Berkman.
But it didn't matter. Now I have a championship to add to my Yahoo! trophy case.