Fantasy Baseball is for Dorks

I guess that is why I play. Tonight we had our draft for our fantasy baseball league. We did it on ESPN even though we had some problems with it last year. The draft took forever to complete because the server was so bogged down. I even had a couple picks auto picked for me because the server thought I was away. Overall I think I did alright, but time will tell. Here is my 25 man team:
C Jason Varitek
C A.J. Pierzynski
1b Todd Helton
1b Justin Morneau
2b Aaron Hill
2b Alexei Ramirez
SS Troy Tulowitzki
SS Michael Young
3b Troy Glaus
3b Casey Blake
OF Magglio Ordonez
OF Grady Sizemore
OF Alex Rios
OF Jacob Ellsbury
OF Mike Cuddyer
OF Justin Upton
SP Johan Santana
SP Roy Halladay
SP DiceK
SP Tim Hudson
SP Francisco Liriano
SP Chien Ming Wang
RP Eric Gagne
RP Kerry Wood
RP Bobby Jenks

I liked my bullpen until I saw what happened today. Maybe they will settle down so that I can get some saves out of them. I really put off picking relievers too long. I did the same with third base that is why I have Blake and Glaus. They may work out though. If everyone plays to the potential that I think that they can I will be happy with my team. My starting pitching is very good. I think that may be the strength of the team. I took Alexei Ramirez and Justin Upton late in case they pan out to be the superstars they could be. They are good bench players until I see what they can do. I saw Alexei play today, and he did not look like the same guy that was in Arizona. It could be first game jitters though. He is in center it sounds like until Jerry Owens comes back. Depending on how he plays he could move to second, or stay in the outfield. I guess the bench is another possibility. I have two matchups that I am really looking forward to. I have Tires the owner of the blog Living Vicariously, and one of my bosses. They are both battling this week so tomorrow at basketball should be lively.

Fantasy Baseball

I couldn’t get the private league filled for ESPN Fantasy baseball so I created an open league. If you go to ESPN.com and search for Pinola Possums under the public league you should be able to find it. If you are reading this blog than you are eligible to join. The draft is tomorrow night at 5:45. Lets get this thing filled. Even though we are drafting after a few games have started the stats from the games already played will retroactively be added in. That way we all have the same 162 game season no matter what players we pick.

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My Second Fantasy Baseball Draft

Tonight I entered into my second fantasy baseball league. I had a friend that wanted to play so I thought I would enter a rotisserie league. My other league is head to head where you square up against one team each week. This new league will pit me against the entire league every day for the season. Instead of trying to win weekly matchups I will have to accrue points everyday. This one will be more time consuming I think. Here is how the draft went:

Round 1 – Johan Santana – P
Round 2 – Manny Ramirez – OF
Round 3 – Paul Konerko – 1B
Round 4 – Aramis Ramirez – 3B
Round 5 – Bill Hall – SS
Round 6 – Robinson Cano – 2B
Round 7 – Gary Sheffield – OF
Round 8 – Barry Bonds – OF
Round 9 – Barry Zito – P
Round 10 – Jeff Francoer – OF
Round 11 – C.C. Sabathia – P
Round 12 – Frank Thomas – DH
Round 13 – Willie Tavaras – OF
Round 14 – Josh Barfield – 2B
Round 15 – Mike Piazza – C
Round 16 – B.J. Upton – 3B
Round 17 – Curt Schilling – P
Round 18 – Chris Capuano – P
Round 19 – John Garland – P
Round 20 – Sammy Sosa – OF

This draft felt a little better than the last one because I had a plan. The other draft was just me winging it the whole time. Today I had a list of good guys that were lower down on the list that I could get. Most people were picking the people at the top, and besides the first couple picks I went after who I wanted. We will see which strategy works out. With about 200 players picked I used my final pick to grab Sammy Sosa who was ranked 720 in the pool. I thought it might be worth a shot if he works out. I will probably end up dropping him soon. My backup 2B and 3B are young guys that could be genius picks, or a waste of time. We will see what happens when the scoring starts.

First Fantasy Draft

This afternoon I participated in my first ever fantasy draft. The order was random and I was selected to pick 9th. The good news was that I was able to get the 12th pick of the draft when the order switched over. I am more of a fan than a numbers guy, so this should be an interesting process. Here is how my draft went:

1st Pick (9th overall): Carl Crawford – LF
2nd Pick (12th overall): Vladmir Guerrero – RF
3rd Pick (29th overall): Joe Mauer – C
4th Pick (32nd overall): Aramis Ramirez – 3B
5th Pick ( 49th overall): Chone Figgins – CF
6th Pick ( 52nd overall): Brandon Webb – SP
7th Pick ( 69th overall): Bill Hall – SS
8th Pick ( 72nd overall): Huston Street – RP
9th Pick (89th overall): Joe Crede – 3B
10th Pick (92nd overall): Matsuzaka – SP
11th Pick (109 overall): Tadahito Iguchi – 2B
12th Pick (112 overall): C.C. Sabathia – SP
13th Pick (129th overall): Lyle Overbay – 1B
14th Pick (132nd overall): Curt Schililng – SP
15th Pick (149th overall): Curtis Granderson – CF
16th Pick (152nd overall): Chris Capuano – SP
17th Pick (169th overall): Scott Podsednik – LF
18th Pick (172nd overall): Kevin Youkilis – 1B
19th Pick (189th overall): A.J. Pierzynski – C
20th Pick (192nd overall): Jason Bartlett – SS

Here is how the team looks
1B Lyle Overbay
2B Tadahito Iguchi
3B Aramis Ramirez
SS Bill Hall
LF Carl Crawford
CF Chone Figgins
RF Vladmir Guerrero
C Joe Mauer
Util Joe Crede
P Brandon Webb
P Huston Street
P Daiskuke Matsuzaka
P C.C. Sabathia
P Curt Schilling
P Chris Capuano
Bench Curtis Granderson
Bench Scott Podsednik
Bench Kevin Youkilis
Bench A.J. Pierzynski
Bench Jason Bartlett

I thought I was doing badly, but I got some good players late. Now all I need to do is figure out what to do with them. As the season goes on I will get more into how I am doing. Remember to go to the Baseball Challenge and sign up. Only four members of the White Sox on the team. Not too bad for a homer. Crede was just too good to pass up where I got him. He may take over for Aramis in no time.

Fantasy Baseball

In my opinion fantasy baseball would be a field filled with supermodels, but apparently it is a buch of number crunchers that apply that to baseball. Today I had my first ever fantasy baseball draft. Perhaps I have been watching too much TV, but I have seen the commercials for the ESPN free league for too long now. I joined up last night, and will have my first draft this afternoon. My team is called the Pinola Sluggers, and is in a group filled with mostly Sox fans. I really don’t have the knowledge or time to play, but I thought I would give it a try. I will post again when my team is completed. Hopefully I have a great lineup, but I have a feeling I will have a current/former White Sox team.

I have also created a room for the Baseball Challenge game on ESPN.com. The group is Pinola Possums, and the password is Yo. If you want to join there it is.

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