For a sports fan like myself, this time of the year is a dead season.
There's NBA basketball, but I don't watch that.
There are NHL games on, but I don't watch them either.
The only basketball games I watch until SEC tournament games and bits of March Madness are Alabama's nationally televised contests, which aren't all that plentiful.
National Signing Day for football programs was just over a week ago, and spring practice isn't even close to starting. The Tide signed another fine class, btw.
And pitchers and catchers haven't even reported to Arizona and Florida yet.
But this leaves plenty of time for research for my fantasy baseball team, The Schlitzophrenics.
So I troll the websites I trust about fantasy baseball, I scour stat projections, I plot draft strategy, I consider which injury-prone players I should take a chance on, I think about players I can draft in later rounds and get solid returns on investment.
This rotoseason marks ten years since I started playing fantasy baseball. A scan of my fantasy profile for the past nine years does not inspire confidence in my ability as a GM. Besides winning our private league in 2001 (my rookie season as a GM) and finishing 3rd in 2007, I've had monumentally mediocre seasons other years. In fact, many years I've finished 7th. With the league usually comprised of 13-17 teams, seventh is blandly middle of the road.
I'm tired of this. I'm really tired of not winning it all.
But sometimes I think I just overthink all this stuff. Maybe I should practice non-attachment and not hate past players who have screwed me in the past when I drafted them (Alex Rios, Hunter Pence, Carlos Lee, and others I'll not list, you're all bastards). Maybe I should not overpay for The Dreaded Pirate since I like him as a player.
So I'm considering some substantial tweaks to my basic draft strategy as the dead season engulfs me.
But I'm keeping Halladay (pictured above) for my first pick, which goes against conventional wisdom of fantasy baseball and reflects my passion for strong starting pitching.
8 comments:
Q. my husband is in the same place, and we are both counting the days until pitchers & catchers report.
I'm patiently waiting too, Sandy.
Impressive list of keepers, Foz. By my current draft guide, you have the number 8 (Longoria), 10 (Crawford), and 11 (Gonzalez) players in the draft. It's surprising you didn't win it last year with that trio.
Halladay is only ranked no. 12.
I'm always sort of adrift once football season ends. That's the moment I look up and think, "Damn, it's winter. And cold. And the semester has a long way to go."
I'm just holding on until March Madness. I love it even when my team sucks. Which is always.
Yeh, I don't see the Cyclones going far (if that is the team you're referring to) though I'd like to see them do well.
The Tide, on the other hand, could have held onto the lead in the SEC with a win versus Vandy last night, but poor outside shooting did them in.
I'm struggling with a team name this year. Maybe back to South Park Cows?
Albert Pujols
Hanley Ramirez
Ryan Zimmerman (maybe, still waffling on that one)
Travolta, my favorite team name of yours is the Springfield Isotopes.
Zimmerman is a solid player at a very shallow position, but I wonder if you can wait until the 4th round on him? Or maybe I'm just saying that so I can draft him in the third.
You gotta like having Pujols in a walk year (hee hee).
Halladay and the rest of that Phillies' staff is "Nasty". Although I usually enjoy keeping nobody, I can't pass up this trio to build around....
Troy Tulowitzki
Carlos Gonzalez
Robinson Cano
Nasty they are indeed.
You have elite middle infielders there along with a top five outfielder. It'll be interesting to see who's left for my picks in rounds 2 and 3. I'll be looking for offense obviously.
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